The window of opportunity, essential in big-time baseball as in other pursuits, continues to open for some of the young White Sox starting pitchers. And at Comiskey Park Thursday night, it will be Carlos Castillo’s turn to step up.
The temptation is to say, “Hello, Carlos, welcome to the show.” But that wouldn’t be accurate. A husky 22-year-old right-hander with good heat, Castillo has been with the Sox since the season opened but has been toiling in comparative obscurity. He has been working middle relief, baseball’s most anonymous position.
Castillo has appeared in 33 games, including one on June 25 as an emergency starter. He has been the finisher in 14 games but has had only two save opportunities, one of which he converted. He has been asked to hold leads more than a dozen times, but there is no official statistic for that yet.
Since the trading of starters Wilson Alvarez and Danny Darwin, manager Terry Bevington has been able to insert Scott Eyre and Chris Clemons into the rotation. Clemons is 0-2 and so was Eyre until he won his first game Wednesday night. This is to be expected. Even the best of pitchers, some of them Hall of Famers, are at a huge disadvantage at the start of their big-league careers.
No one knows how Castillo will respond, but the book on him indicates he will be successful. Sox broadcaster Ed Farmer, himself a former big-league pitcher, is particularly enthusiastic.
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“He’s got four pitches and can throw all of them for strikes,” Farmer said. “Very unusual for a 22-year-old pitcher.”
Castillo, in his brief major-league career, already has been labeled as “cocky,” bordering on arrogant.
“Once he’s on the mound, he’s abrasive,” Farmer observed. “He has a big ego. But I’ve never known a player, pitcher or otherwise, who made it to the big leagues without an ego. At this level it’s a necessity.”
Carlos said “cocky” is the wrong adjective. He prefers to be described as “confident” and said it was instilled him by his father, Rolando, who pitched in the Mexican League. “He told me I had to be fearless.”
“A lot of young guys are scared of the hitters,” said outfielder Lyle Mouton. “Especially the big-name players you’ve heard about since you were a kid. Carlos is not afraid of anyone. That’s one of his strengths.”
Castillo, born in Boston and the eighth in a family of nine children, is only in his fourth professional season. The Sox picked him in the third round of the 1993 amateur draft. Before this year, he had been used almost exclusively as a starter.
When Castillo made the club in spring training, Bevington had so many established starters he told Castillo he would be working out of the bullpen. “I didn’t care about that,” Castillo said Wednesday night. “My only goal was to make the club.”
Farm director Kenny Williams and General Manager Ron Schueler approved the promotion but also expressed concern.
“We talked about it all the time,” Williams said. “From the beginning, we projected Carlos as a starter. When he went to the bullpen, we were worried about whether he would get enough innings. It was a major concern.”
As a starter, Castillo had better-than-average control. But once he began working relief, his walks doubled. Castillo offered an explanation:
“When you start a game, you have time to get into your rythym. When you work relief, it’s different. You have to come in throwing strikes.”
Bill Simas, who has been used in middle and late relief, understands this problem. He said there is no question the degree of difficulty in throwing strikes increases when the pressure is greatest.
“It’s a totally different situation,” Simas explained. “You don’t have time to make adjustments. You can’t feel for your pitches. If your slider isn’t working, you junk it. When you’re starting, you can stay with it. It might click in in the fourth inning.”
Castillo has a wide assortment that includes the fastball, slider, splitter, curve and changeup. Relievers need only two pitches, fastball and breaking ball. Too many different pitches can hasten control problems. But as a starter, the wider the repertoire, the better chance for success.