Random Topps Card of the Day: 2000 Topps Traded and Rookies #T19 Marcos Castillo

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Thursday, July 1, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 2000 Topps Traded and Rookies #T19
• Player Name, position, team: Marcos Castillo, pitcher, Los Angeles Dodgers.
• Major League Debut: n/a.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1999 stats (San Bernardino-A): 27 G, 167 IP, 14-9, 90 R, 76 ER, 130 SO, 48 BB, 27 GS, 1 CG, 0 SHO, 0 SV, 4.10 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Signed by the Dodgers as a Free Agent 08/26/1995. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Castillo's first (and only) regular Topps card (as you can see, Topps even labeled it his Rookie Card). On the front page of the Baseball-Reference.com website, they calculate that 17,387 baseball players made their debut in what is considered to be Major League Baseball since it's inception in the late 1800's (as of 06/30/2010). And in the last 60 years, Topps has featured many players who they believed were destined for great things in the Major Leagues, but unfortunately, never get there. Here is an example of one of those players. Marcos Castillo was a player with a lot of potential, and had the numbers to back it up. In 1999, he went 14-9 and struck out 130 batters in 167 innings pitched (that's roughly 7 K's/9 innings of work). He even pitched a perfect game in the High-A California League on June 14. But for one reason or another, Castillo never made it above AA in the Dodgers' minor league system and was subsequently released after the 2004 season. He spent the rest of the decade pitching in the independent leagues. He finally called it quits after the 2008 season.
• Beckett value: $0.10-$0.30.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 1 card.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1992 Topps Traded #65T. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Until tomorrow everybody.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama