One Hit Wonder: Brady Clark

Brady Clark was a proverbial late bloomer who got a ton of ABs for the Brewers in the mid 2000s and managed to compile some solid counting stats: 94 runs, 183 hits plus a strong 0.306 BA. Bold numbers for a fella who was a midling talent in the Reed Johnson mold prior. He managed to parlay his 2005 success in a decent pay day before fading into obscurity in several cities by the end of the decade: Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, not to mention a busload of minor league stops.

They might be counting stats largely but 0.306 over 600+ plate appearances is pretty stellar, so it's a shame Clark never did much else considering his climaxed at 32. Too bad.

Fun fact: Jason Bay and Brady Clark had identical hit totals and batting averages for the season. Bay also hit 32 home runs and drove in 101 that season, with a 0.402 OBP and 0.559 SLG. It warrants mentioning: Clark did not.

One Hit Wonder: Orestes Destrade

First year expansion clubs often trot out some truly oddball choices. And the 1993 Florida Marlins were no exception, best epitomized by their likable, forgettable first baseman, Orestes Destrade.

No doubt taking cues from the Detroit Tigers’ success re-importing fellow fatty Cecil Fielder back into the USA, the baby Marlins looked to Japan in search of power and netted Destrade, a three time home run king for the Seibu Lions of the Japanese Pacific League. Destrade was a middling prospect for the late Eighties' Pirates but nevertheless, it was a sound move on paper but one that panned out relatively poorly in reality. Destrade’s first season for the fledgling Marlins was decent enough, pacing the team with 20 home run and 87 RBIs. But by season two, the “Fish” felt that Destrade was a bit stinky, opting to give at-bats to the likes of Greg Colbrunn and the versatile Jeff Conine in lieu.

It’s a bit of a slap in the face when you’re treated like a maggoty tuna fillet by a second year franchise but with Gary Sheffield brought in to provide some voltage, the friendly first baseman was back off to Japan to close his career after the 1994 strike and was never heard from again on US playing fields.

One Hit Wonder: Rocky Biddle

Rocky Biddle owns the unique honour of having an awesome first name, a brutal surname and a single, solitary season where he delivered (sorta) as the closer for the Montreal Expos.

In the team’s second last year in Montreal, one would think they’d be all but flatlining but somehow, Les Expos pulled out 83 wins under the stinky eye of underrated bench boss, Frank Robinson. Vladimir Guerrero, Orlando Cabrera and Javier Vazquez are some of the talents who starred for the Expos that summer. And finishing 58 games that season was Chicago White Sox retread Rocky Biddle.

A former first round draft pick, Biddle was a key trading chip when the Sox acquired the lumpy Bartolo Colon in January 2003. Biddle became the Expos closer by default and racked up a decent 34 saves in his first season. However, other than the save total, his other stats were pretty pedestrian (4.65 ERA, 1.549 WHIP) and Biddle was quickly usurped in 2004 by college phenom Chad Cordero. A brief, rocky road to say the least!

Remarkably, Biddle's single season performance still slots him as 9th all-time on the Expos/Nationals saves lists, just after the semi-legendary Woodie Fryman.

One Hit Wonders: Larry Sheets

Until the juice started flowing in the mid-Nineties, 1987 was widely viewed as a power-filled anomaly in MLB circles. Balls flew out stadiums at alarming rates that summer. Wade Boggs might’ve been the best example that something was “up”, knocking 24 “big flies” and besting his single season high by 13.

The impeccably coiffed Larry Sheets was another. Boasting a wonderful moustache and a powerful left-handed swing, Sheets put together a huge campaign for the otherwise putrid Baltimore Orioles. His stellar 0.316/31/94 line raised eyebrows across the league and his 0.563 slugging percentage was both considerable and impressive.

Sheets never built upon his 1987 efforts and the only real memory I have of this fella was an unfortunate strikeout against Tom Henke in late 1989 that won the Toronto Blue Jays the AL East crown. Unfortunate but really, Sheets’ look and swagger definitely made most sense circa ’87.

Trivia: 31 is an impressive home run total for any season but again, 1987 was a big time anomaly, especially at the time. Check out this list of also-rans who actually outhomered Larry Sheets that season:
Brook Jacoby (32)
Matt Nokes (32)
Mike Pagliarulo (32)

One Hit Wonder: Marvin Freeman

On paper, Marvin Freeman shoulda been somebody. He was 6'7" of lanky arms and legs plus he had an awesome (if obvious) nickname: "Starvin' Marvin".

He toiled in relative obscurity for 10 seasons, almost evenly split between the Phillies, Braves and Rockies. A typical 10th or 11th man on a pitching staff, Freeman's one notable season amazingly happened within the not-so-friendly confines of Coors Field in Denver. While his fellow Rox pitchers were being violated by bats and balls on a regular basis, Freeman put together a most impressive 1994, going 10-2 with a tidy 2.80 ERA. If you check the secondary stats, it was clearly a bit of a house of cards but at least Freeman got in one solid season and a bit of extra cheddar before fizzling out by the fall of 1996.

Trivia: Freeman was the first Rockies pitcher to receive Cy Young consideration, finishing 4th in 1994 balloting. Here is a summary of other Rockies who netted votes. It's a typically short list:

Jeff Francis (9th place in 2007)

Ubaldo Jimenez (3rd place in 2010)

One Hit Wonder: Pete Schourek

It's amazing how much mileage MLB teams get out of lefthanded pitching. Take somebody like Pete Schourek, for example. He did very little to distinguish himself during his career, ending up a career 11 games under 0.500 with an ERA in the mid-4.00s. And yet he still lasted 11 seasons and made $14,000,000. It's bothersome.

To his credit, Schourek did have a single season of note, in the strike-shortened 1995 campaign for the Cincinatti Reds. Schourek quietly let the Reds to the second best record in the National League and a first round dismantling of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the context of the extremely offensives Nineties, one could argue that Schourek's 1995 campaign was one of the finer seasons for a lefthanded starter of the decade: 18 wins, a 1.067 WHIP, a 3.5:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He was durable, versatile and positively on point the entire season.

Then he fell apart, a combination of injuries and reality. He won a mere 25 games the rest of his careers, with only the Red Sox seeming fit to keep him around for more than a season. Schourek actually started the fourth and deciding game of the 1998 ALDS against Cleveland, pitching a solid 5.1 scoreless inning before the game was blown in the 8th during an ill-fated Tom Gordon/Dave Justice showdown that tipped to the Tribe.

It was a nice swan song for the lanky lefthander, who muddled his way through a few more seasons before getting dumped by the Sox in late summer 2001. On talent alone, Schourek easily could've had a John Smiley-esque career but if nothing else, his breakout 1995 cemented him as a footnote instead of an afterthought.

BTW that 1998 Red Sox squad featured one of the more star-studded pitching staffs of the Nineties and yet it was a pretty pedestrian group overall. These seven pitchers combined for 25 All-Star Games (appearances in brackets) and yet half of these fellas were out of MLB within a year or two...
Bret Saberhagen (3)
Dennis Eckersley (6)
Derek Lowe (2)
Greg Swindell (1)
Pedro Martinez (8)
Steve Avery (1)
Tim Wakefield (1)
Tom Gordon (3)