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11x All Star, Rookie of the Year, 2x Cy Young Award, 1 World Series ring
Julian Castillo was one of the founding players of the SPL. He started his career with what is now the Scottsdale Camels franchise. Back in the early days, that organization (like much of the league) was unstable. First he was with the San Jose Squeegies, then the Los Angeles Avengers for two seasons, followed by the Seattle Grunge and the Colorado Crooks for one and a half seasons. During five and a half seasons with those teams, Castillo was named to three All Star teams. Half way through Season 6, he was traded to the class of the AL: the St. Louis Redbirds. He played with the Redbirds for five and half seasons. During his time in St. Louis, he was a key piece in the Redbirds dynasty. He was paired up with another future HoFer, Damaso Solano, for four and a half seasons forming the most potent tandem in the AL. His career with the Redbirds was dominant. He went to six All Star teams (every season in St. Louis), won 2 Cy Young awards and 1 World Series ring. His record with the Redbirds was 120-24 (winning at least 20 games in every full season) with an ERA of 2.85. He is still 2nd in Redbirds' career record books for most wins and lowest career ERA. He would leave St. Louis and sign with the Jackson Runnin' Rebels, where he had two more All Star seasons. In Season 12, he was named the Satchel Paige News 4th best pitcher in SPL history. He finished his career with the Richmond Rebellion and the Baltimore Revolution. Castillo had an 18-season ML career. He is the SP all time leader in games started (pitching), 2nd in innings pitched, 3 in total quality starts. He is 3rd in career wins (277), the all time leader in strikeouts (3,620) and walks (1,419). He is also 2nd in highest K/9 ratio at 8.82.
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3x All Star, 1x Gold Glove (CF)
Barry Garcia was a rangy center fielder with a huge swing. In his time he probably had more power than any other center fielder in the league. He has now retired with 513 career home runs. Five times in his career he hit 50+ home runs, including a career high of 63. He still holds the 1st and 2nd highest single season records for HR and RBI in Philly franchise history. While he wasn't a great hitter for average (.263 for his career) he was a consistent run producer, driving in 100+ runs 9 times during his career and twice driving in 150+ runs. For a player who plays a defensive position, even winning a Gold Glove, having the offensive potential that he did was quite a luxury for whatever team he happened to be playing on. The biggest knock of Garcia would have to be his postseason hitting. Five times Garcia's teams made it into the playoffs. In his 17 career postseason games, Garcia hit an anemic .160 with an OBP of .208.
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6x All Star, 1x Silver Slugger (RF), 1x Gold Glove (RF)
Amp Guerrero had a 14 season ML career. In 12 of those seasons, he was playing for the now Cincinnati franchise. Now the Red Bolts are a stable, well run organization, but (like many SP teams) in the early days the teams bounced to a new city nearly every season. Amp played in Seattle, Madison, Hartford, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Syracuse and Montreal before the team finally settled back into Cincinnati permanently as the Red Bolts. He would be named to five All Star teams and win a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger. He finished his career playing two seasons with the Rebellion, where he had one more All Star season. Guerrero was a very consistent player. He never had fewer than 20 home runs in any season. Twice he hit 50 or more, and 5 times he hit 40 or more. He finished one dinger shy of the magic number, with 499 home runs for his career. He had 8 seasons with 100+ RBI (including 7 straight) and his career low in RBI was 60, his rookie season. He always generated runs. He is, in fact, still the Red Bolts franchise record holder in both home runs and RBI. People tend to forget though, that Guerrero was a unique combination of speed and power. He had 276 steal during his career. He had 6 straight 20/20 seasons, 1 30/30 season and 1 40/40 season. Twice he finished with 29 steals, barely missing yet another 30/30 milestone. His career numbers are pretty impressive too. As mentioned above, 499 home runs, 2041 hits, 1525 RBI, 353 doubles and 276 steals. Guerrero's combination of accumulated stats, consistency and a respectable number of individual accolades give him a very compelling HoF resume.
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3x All Star, 1x Gold Glove (RF), 2x World Series Champion
Derrick Hernandez was a very good power hitter. He has finished his career up with 552 home runs. His accumulated career totals are pretty impressive. He has 2,000 hits, 332 doubles, 1,510 RBI to go with a career line of .287/.359/.586. His Gold Glove award will attest to the fact that he was a pretty good defensive RF too. He hit at least 40 home runs 5 times during his career, including 2 seasons with at least 50. He also had 7 seasons with at least 100 RBI including 150 RBI in SPL's inaugural season. While you could certainly say more about Hernandez's regular season accolades, he really made a name for himself during the playoffs. During the two seasons in which he won the WS, Hernandez had two of the best offensive postseason hitting performances ever. In 13 playoff games in Season 2, he hit .436 with 9 HR and 17 RBI. His OPS was 1.423. He either scored a run, or drove in a run in 39% of his team's runs that postseason. In Season 5, he played in 19 playoff games. In those games he had an OPS of 1.230 with an AVG of .388 with 8 HR and 23 RBI. For his entire playoff career, he had an AVG of .342 and an OPS of 1.120. In Season 5, he either scored or drove in 36% of his team's runs.
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5x All Star, 2x Fireman of the Year, 2x World Series Champion
Time Kaye was one of the best relievers in the SPL for nearly all of his stellar 14 season career. When you look at the franchises that he played for (St. Louis, Baltimore, Milwaukee), and their track record of success, you can see that winning followed Kaye wherever he went. His accolades are solid: 5 All Stars, 2 FIR Awards and a couple of Championship rings; but you really have to look at his numbers to appreciate just how good Kaye really was. As a relief pitcher, Kaye had a winning record of 90-60 also picking up nearly 200 career saves. Most managers didn't want to waste Kaye in a closer's role due to his ability to pitch over 100 innings in a season; which he did 8 times in his 14 season career. He certainly would've picked up alot more saves if given the chance. His career ERA of 3.17 is excellent. Just to give some reference, Kaye's career ERA is better than All Time Great, and future HoFer Julian Castillo; better than perennial All Star and future HoFerVictor Delgado; and comparable to the greatest reliever to ever play in SP Shin-Soo Nakamura. He was one of the hardest throwing pitchers in the league, period. He combined a cutter that moved in the high 90's with near pinpoint control; and a hard sinker that was very difficult to hit out of the park. He has over 1,300 career strikeouts. For his career, he averaged 8.46 strikouts per nine (good for just out of the top 5 in SP history). That's better than last season's NL strikeout king Pepe Sosa(7.74 on his career) and the exact same as strikeout artist Hipolito Matos for his career (also 8.46). With only 397 walks, he has a masterful K/BB ratio of 3.29. His K/BB ratio is better than Matos, Sosa,Damaso Solano and Jimmie Brownson; all future HoFers. The only real knock on Kaye's career is his performance in the postseason. For all of his regular season dominance, he was not very good in his 103 postseason innings. He had a 1.48 WHIP and 5.12 ERA in his 69 playoff appearances. Despite his postseason struggles, its plain to see that Kaye was one of the absolute best relievers in the game. If you look past his position and compare his success to some of the greats in the league, it certainly makes a compelling argument to put Mr. Tim Kaye into the HoF. Tim is now doing color commentary on the Milwaukee Titans radio network.
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1x MVP, 4x All Star, 3x Silver Slugger
Ronald Lemon spent the first seven seasons of his fourteen year big league career, playing in the city of Salem for what is now the Vancouver Tragedy Twins organization. Lemon was one of the most feared left handed sluggers of his generation. In six of his first eight seasons, he crushed at least 40 home runs. In his MVP Season 6, Lemon had one of the best single seasons any player has ever had. Hit he .323 with 33 doubles, 60 home runs, 156 RBI, a .711 SLG and threw in 15 steals for good measure. He had 6 consecutive seasons of at least 120 RBI. The Vancouver franchise record book should actually be called the 'Ronald Lemon Book of Career Achievements' because his name is on pretty much every offensive record. He is the all time Vancouver leader in games played, doubles, hits, home runs, runs scored and RBI. He is 2nd in AVG and SLG. Lemon wasn't just a slugger though. He was a complete offensive player. He wasn't blinding fast, but he was a good base runner and accumulated 132 steals in his career. He hit for average, with a career line of .303, but was also a disciplined hitter. He drew 665 walks in his career and had a career OBP of .368 and a career OPS of .938. Lemon has now returned to Salem, where is he is beloved and spent so much of his career. He now does radio color commentary for the returned Salem Blues franchise.
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7x All Star, 3x Silver Slugger
Newman was a professional, line drive hitter, who is capable of driving the ball to all fields. He has a well deserved reputation for being especially tough on left handed pitching. He was named to 7 All Star games, more than any other 2B, and won 3 Silver Slugger Awards. He was also named #8 on the Satchel Paige League News Top Ten Position Players list. At the time of his retirement, his 426 doubles ranks 5th all time. He has very similar offensive numbers to his positional counter part Chin-Hui Martin (who was the 1st player ever elected into the HoF), although he wasn't quite as fast and was a weaker defensive player. His offensive numbers are impressive. He had 7 seasons with 190+ hits, 7 seasons with 30+ home runs, 8 seasons with 100+ RBI and 9 seasons with 30+ doubles. His Season 1 total of 65 doubles is still tied for the 3rd highest single season mark in SPL history. During his career, Newman totaled a batting average of .324, with an OBP .395, 340 home runs, 1292 RBI, 2036 hits and the aforementioned 426 doubles. Newman has been one of the best 2B in the history of the SPL. Three seasons ago, Newman had his heart broken by finishing just one vote shy of being inducted into the HoF. He's hoping this year will be the year that he finally gets his due.
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4x Fireman of the Year, 4x All Star
Buster Timmons is an interesting study. Some seasons he was as dominant a relief pitcher as there has been (as his 4 Fireman of the Year awards would provide evidence for). Some seasons, he was mediocre. Some seasons, he was downright terrible. In Season 8 for example, he had an ERA of 5.19. In Season 9, he had an ERA of 13.00! The very next season, Season 10, he saved 39 of 42 chances with an ERA of 2.65. Despite his ups-and-downs, he still racked up an incredible 433 saves in 488 chances (a success rate of 88%) and a career ERA of 3.96. He saved at least 30 games in 10 out of his 12 full seasons. His playoff resume is sterling too. In 22 postseason games, he saved 17 of 19 chances with an ERA of 2.42. In remains to be seen whether the voters will overlook his rocky seasons and focus on his really, really good ones. His good seasons are definitely HoF worthy.
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1x All Star
Jerome Valentine may be the most interesting candidate in this season's HoF ballot. One could very easily ask, "How in the world does SP's all time hit leader only have one All Star appearance?" Its a valid question. The only real knock on Valentine's HoF credentials is indeed his lack of personal accolades. But they are somewhat excusable. First of all, during most of Valentine's career, he played the same position as Pedro Pascual. Needless to say, Pascual (the 9x All Star, 7x MVP and 8x Silver Slugger) didn't leave much hardware for other NL 1B. In addition to Pascual, there was: Hugh Scott (4x All Star, MVP, borderline future HoFer), Jim Guerrero (3rd on SP career HR list), Tarrik Garcia (3x All Star), Bruce Donovan (NL All Star and MVP) and Benito Gil (3x All Star) all playing 1B in the NL. It was very tough competition. He is the SP all time leader in games played (2656), hits (2937), 5th in career RBI (1761) and 4th in career walks (1193). He has a career AVG of .302 with a career SLG of .528. He has racked up 560 career home runs and 448 doubles. His career started with 10 consecutive seasons of at least 34 home runs and 100 RBI. He had an incredible 64 home runs and 190 RBI in Season 1. In his first 14 ML seasons, he had at least 20 home runs.
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7x All Star, 4x Silver Slugger (LF), 2 World Series rings
Although Wagner broke into the league initially with the Kansas City Bison, he was traded to St. Louis in Season 3, the second season of his 17 season career. He would play the next 8 seasons with the Rebirds, and was the man-in-the-middle of the Redbirds team that founded a dynasty. He would be named to 6 All Star teams and win 4 Silver Slugger awards while with the Redbirds. He is still the St. Louis all time leader in both home runs and RBI. He would then play five seasons with the Los Angeles Sharks (including one All Star season) before having one solid season as a part-time player with the Gray Stockings, before returning to St. Louis for one final season. His last season with the Redbirds (Season 18) was the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal season for that team, and reminded fans of better days. His 600th career home run, in St. Louis red, was the highlight of the season. Wagner's career just screams HoF. He is 4th on the all time home runs list with 601 and 3rd on the RBI list with 1785. His career batting average was .307 and his career slugging was .603! He has 2361 hits. He wasn't only powerful, but in his younger days was pretty fast too. He has 220 steals, including 2 20/20 seasons. His playoff numbers are impressive too. A career .300 hitter in the playoffs, he also had 121 hits, 34 home runs and 82 RBI in 111 career playoff games. He hit at least 30 home runs for 12 straight seasons (including 40+ seven times, 50+ three times and a career high of 60) and had at least 100 RBI for ten straight seasons.
