One Year Wonders

Posted by Raphy on December 11, 2009

One the new things that can be done with the new PI Arithmetic filter is to search for players who only played 1 season in the major leagues. This can be done by setting Year of Debut = 1 * Final Year.

Here are the pitchers whose only major league season featured an ERA+ of at least 100 in 50 or more innings. (2009 is not included).

Rk	Player	ERA+	IP	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	GS	CG	SHO	W	L	W-L%	SV	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1	Steve Shifflett	157	52.0	1992	26	KCR	AL	34	0	0	0	1	4	.200	0	55	15	15	17	25	2.60
2	Erv Lange	132	190.0	1914	26	CHI	FL	36	22	10	2	12	11	.522	2	162	69	47	55	87	2.23
3	Jim St.Vrain	129	95.0	1902	19	CHC	NL	12	11	10	1	4	6	.400	0	88	36	22	25	51	2.08
4	Tex Neuer	129	54.0	1907	30	NYY	AL	7	6	6	3	4	2	.667	0	40	21	13	19	22	2.17
5	Lloyd Merritt	120	65.1	1957	24	STL	NL	44	0	0	0	1	2	.333	7	60	29	24	28	35	3.31
6	Fred Howard	120	68.0	1979	22	CHW	AL	28	6	0	0	1	5	.167	0	73	34	27	32	36	3.57
7	Carl Zamloch	118	69.2	1913	23	DET	AL	17	5	3	0	1	6	.143	1	66	31	19	23	28	2.45
8	Allan Ramirez	115	57.0	1983	26	BAL	AL	11	10	1	0	4	4	.500	0	46	22	22	30	20	3.47
9	Frank Eufemia	115	61.2	1985	25	MIN	AL	39	0	0	0	4	2	.667	2	56	27	26	21	30	3.79
10	Glenn Gardner	114	54.2	1945	29	STL	NL	17	4	2	1	3	1	.750	1	50	21	20	27	20	3.29
11	Cy Buker	114	87.1	1945	26	BRO	NL	42	4	0	0	7	2	.778	5	90	41	32	45	48	3.30
12	Bob Botz	112	63.0	1962	27	LAA	AL	35	0	0	0	2	1	.667	2	71	30	24	11	24	3.43
13	Jim Neidlinger	112	74.0	1990	25	LAD	NL	12	12	0	0	5	3	.625	0	67	30	27	15	46	3.28
14	Otey Clark	111	82.0	1945	30	BOS	AL	12	9	4	1	4	4	.500	0	86	33	28	19	20	3.07
15	Ralph Beard	110	58.0	1954	25	STL	NL	13	10	0	0	0	4	.000	0	62	32	24	28	17	3.72
16	Chico Escarrega	110	73.2	1982	32	CHW	AL	38	2	0	0	1	3	.250	1	73	33	30	16	33	3.67
17	Tommy de la Cruz	108	191.1	1944	32	CIN	NL	34	20	9	0	9	9	.500	1	170	73	69	45	65	3.25
18	Curt Raydon	107	134.1	1958	24	PIT	NL	31	20	2	1	8	4	.667	1	118	64	54	61	85	3.62
19	Joe Bonikowski	105	99.2	1962	21	MIN	AL	30	13	3	0	5	7	.417	2	95	47	43	38	45	3.88
20	Reggie Richter	105	54.2	1911	22	CHC	NL	22	5	0	0	1	3	.250	2	62	30	19	20	34	3.13
21	Izzy Goldstein	105	56.1	1932	24	DET	AL	16	6	2	0	3	2	.600	0	63	42	28	41	14	4.47
22	Paul Edmondson	105	87.2	1969	26	CHW	AL	14	13	1	0	1	6	.143	0	72	36	36	39	46	3.70
23	Ken Hunt	103	136.1	1961	22	CIN	NL	29	22	4	0	9	10	.474	0	130	70	60	66	75	3.96
24	Bill Hepler	102	69.0	1966	20	NYM	NL	37	3	0	0	3	3	.500	0	71	30	27	51	25	3.52
25	Roger Weaver	101	63.2	1980	25	DET	AL	19	6	0	0	3	4	.429	0	56	32	29	34	42	4.10
26	Harry Eells	100	86.1	1906	25	CLE	AL	14	8	6	1	4	5	.444	0	77	39	25	48	35	2.61

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/11/2009.

We can also do the same thing for hitters. Here are the batters since 1901who played only 1 year and had an OPS+ of at least 100 in 200 or more PA (2009 is not included).

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Buzz Arlett	138	469	1931	32	PHI	NL	121	418	65	131	26	7	18	72	45	.313	.387	.538	.925	*93
2	Roy Massey	118	230	1918	27	BSN	NL	66	203	20	59	6	2	0	18	23	.291	.363	.340	.703	87/563
3	Walt McCredie	115	242	1903	26	BRO	NL	56	213	40	69	5	0	0	20	24	.324	.397	.347	.745	*9
4	Tex Vache	114	283	1925	36	BOS	AL	110	252	41	79	15	7	3	48	21	.313	.382	.464	.846	*7/9
5	Jim Baxes	113	308	1959	30	TOT	ML	88	280	39	69	12	0	17	39	25	.246	.310	.471	.782	*45
6	Burt Hart	107	233	1901	31	BLA	AL	58	206	33	64	3	5	0	23	20	.311	.383	.374	.756	*3
7	Irv Waldron	107	651	1901	29	TOT	AL	141	598	102	186	22	9	0	52	38	.311	.356	.378	.734	*98
8	Harry Armbruster	104	330	1906	24	PHA	AL	91	265	40	63	6	3	2	24	43	.238	.353	.306	.658	89
9	Buddy Blair	103	523	1942	31	PHA	AL	137	484	48	135	26	8	5	66	30	.279	.325	.397	.722	*5
10	Otis Johnson	102	262	1911	27	NYY	AL	71	209	21	49	9	6	3	36	39	.234	.363	.378	.741	*64/5
11	Newt Hunter	101	248	1911	31	PIT	NL	65	209	35	53	10	6	2	24	25	.254	.345	.388	.732	*3

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/11/2009.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

7 Responses to “One Year Wonders”

dave Says:
December 11th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
How about players that played only 2 or 3 or 4 years?
Tom Clancy Says:
December 11th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
This is almost worse than Moonlight Graham. I demand back stories.
JohnnyTwisto Says:
December 11th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I don't know much about him, but I believe Buzz Arlett had a long, productive career in the PCL, at a time when MLB went no further west than St. Louis and the PCL _was_ major league baseball, to an extent, on the west coast. I think he has received some support at the Hall of Merit (http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/hall_of_merit/newsblog/), though he has not come that close to induction.
DavidRF Says:
December 11th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Yes, you can check out Buzz Arlett's minor league record right here at bb-reference. I don't know when Sean added all that archival minor league data, but its pretty nice.
gerry Says:
December 11th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Henry Schmidt was 23-13 in his one and only major league season, but he misses the cut since his ERA+ was only 83. Irv Waldron, on the hitters list, achieved the amusing distinction of playing 141 games in a season in which no team played more than 139. There were two one-year wonders named Ken Hunt in 1961; one is on the pitchers list, the other was a hitter with 25 homers in 1961 who hurt himself in the on-deck circle in April 1962 and never played a full schedule again.
DoubleDiamond Says:
December 11th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Paul Edmondson was killed in an accident in the 1969-1970 offseason. It was either the day before or day after his 27th birthday.
BRaisch Says:
December 11th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
It was the day after.
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:pzfEO4ia3sgJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Edmondson+white+sox+Paul+Edmondson&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

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