10 MLB players from the 90s and 10s of the 2000s who were just wonders of a season

In the Major League Baseball, players seem to come out of nowhere. Each team hopes that one or two players will have a career year that will help them propel themselves to a playoff spot. In 2018 alone, Christian Yelich had by far his best season to date and really shone as an elite baseball player. Ronald Acuna Jr., Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres are all examples of young players who have had record seasons this year. Each of these players and their respective teams hope to continue to be productive for years. Unfortunately, there are countless players in the history of baseball who have never been able to continue their success for more than one season.

In music, artists who experience major success with a single song are often referred to as "unique marvels". The same kind of thing exists in baseball. Players who have a very good standout season, but are unable to reproduce anything close to that success are also called "one-shot marvels". Fans and teams often wonder what happened to these players and why they have been unable to continue this success for more than one season.

For this article, we will look at ten notable players who were a magic hit in the 1990s as well as ten players who were a magic hit in the 2000s.

20 1990s: Justin Thompson

In 1997, Justin Thompson was one of the brilliant young pitchers of the Detroit Tigers. It was a left-hander who was throwing strong and quickly crossed the agricultural system of the Tigris.

At age 24, Thompson was named to the 1997 All-Star Game for the first (and only) time of his career.

Thompson finished the season with a solid test point average of 3.02 on 32 starts and 223 innings. Unfortunately, his career has deteriorated from this season. Although he had thrown more than 200 innings in each of the next two seasons, Thompson had completely left baseball in 2000.

19 2000s: Dontrelle Willis

Dontrelle Willis started her career in the big leagues very well. He even won the NL Rookie Trophy in 2003. However, his 2005 season seemed to come out of nowhere and Marlins fans and front-office were convinced that Willis could play a significant role . their future.

In 2005, Willis was one of the best pitchers and was named to the All-Star Game (though he did not launch). He posted an impressive 2.63 points in 223.1 innings and even had 170 strikeouts. These are all career highs for Willis. It would have been unreasonable to expect him to repeat this success year after year, but it was shocking to see Willis suddenly have significant difficulties finding the attack zone and fighting the injury virus.

18 1990s: Tuffy Rhodes

Tuffy Rhodes actually managed to forge a pretty successful career playing baseball in Japan, but he unfortunately did not get much success at MLB. He spent a few seasons with the Chicago Cubs primarily as a utility player, but he was able to prepare for a memorable year during the reduced 1994 season.

He played in a career high of 95 games that year and completed 8 homers with a 70ps OPS. Unfortunately for Rhodes, he recorded only eight more hits in the following seasons in a limited game time. He had left the majors at the age of 26 before going abroad to play in Japan.

17 2000s: Marcus Giles

In the early 2000s, the Atlanta Braves were hoping they had the ingredients of another great dynasty. The arrival of Marcus Giles, Rafael Furcal and Andruw Jones in the major leagues is a lot of optimism and complements veteran strikers Chipper Jones and Gary Sheffield. In 2003, Giles certainly looked like a perpetual star player.

He posted a batting line of .316 / .390 / .526, to go with 21 home runs and 14 stolen goals.

Unfortunately for Giles and the Braves, his injuries forced him to miss most of the 2004 season. From there, Giles seemed to have lost his strike ability and his power was exhausted.

16 1990s: Brady Anderson

Brady Anderson was three-time all-star as a team player for the Baltimore Orioles in the 1990s. He was generally considered a pretty good type of bat, able to provide decent power to the Orioles and To get a decent average. However, Anderson completely exploded for a remarkable season of 1996.

During this year, Anderson scored 50 home wins, 110 RBIs and a .297 batting average! The following season, Anderson returned to the average stats of his league. At least Anderson will be able to say that he was a member of the 50 circuits club at home!

15 2000s: Mark Prior

Mark Prior was ranked 2nd overall by the Chicago Cubs in 2001 and has made rapid progress in the farming system. He made his debut in May 2002 and had a pretty respectable rookie year. However, 2003 was the season when Prior really seemed to take a turn and burst. This season, Prior finishes on a record of 18-6, a record of 2.43 and a record of 245 batting!

His impressive stats earned him an appearance in the star game and a serious consideration for Cy Young (he finished 3rd). Unfortunately, Prior's career has finally deteriorated. A series of injuries – a broken ankle, a broken elbow, a torn rotator cuff and a ripped labrum – eventually forced him to retire at the age of 25.

14 1990s: Bob Hamelin

Bob Hamelin had the unenviable job of having to replace George Brett after retiring after the 1993 season. Much to the surprise of the Kansas City Royals and their fans, Hamelin was close to replicating Brett's numbers. In the 1994 season, Hamelin had a solid average of 0.292 and 24 homers in 101 games.

These high figures led him to win the A.L. Rookie of the Year award against Manny Ramirez.

However, Hamelin is nothing more than a miracle. He spent the next seasons playing between Triple-A and the major leagues. Hamelin was out of baseball in 1998.

13 2000s: Carlos Quentin

Carlos Quentin had several solid years playing as a player for the Chicago White Sox in the 2000s. However, he was often prone to injury, compromising his ability to remain on the field and to have seasons. productive. Injuries and a lack of consistency in production have characterized Quentin's nine-year career at MLB, with the exception of his magical season of 2008.

That season, he averaged 288 in beats, his best career average, 36 shots on goal and 100 RBIs. For this season, Quentin was one of the best league players in the league and he has played an important role in the success of this season's White Sox. Unfortunately, Quentin has never been able to stay healthy to be successful for more than one season.

12 1990s: Shawn Estes

Shawn Estes was a starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in his low season. In the 1997 season, Estes finished with an impressive 19-5 record and a solid 3.18 ERA with 181 strikeouts in 201. Estes finally respected the hype associated with the editorial 11^th overall in the 1991 project. Although Estes has had good seasons, it has never really replicated the success it has experienced in the 1997 season. Estes served as an organizational depth for pitching or as a long relay to get out of the paddock.

11 2000s: Lew Ford

Lew Ford was selected in the 12th round by the Boston Red Sox and getting to the MLB is a feat that very few players have managed to get so far. However, he went through the farming system fairly quickly. His skills visibly impressed the Twins' office by exchanging a quality veteran (Hector Carrasco) for the Red Sox for him in 2000.

After a strong career in the minor leagues, Ford was finally promoted and had a strong rookie season.

In 2004, Ford hit .299 with 15 homers and 20 stolen bases. The Twins were hoping Ford could become a 20/20 player, but, alas, it never happened. Ford spent most of his days in the independent leagues, but never achieved the success of 2004.

ten 1990s: Hideki Irabu

The New York Yankees have not been afraid to spend money to improve the quality of their team. It has always worked well for the Yankees, but one of their failures was the signing by Hideki Irabu of Japan. He joined the Yankees in 1998 and had a pretty good first season at the MLB, scoring an average of 4.06 earned runs in 173 innings. He did not play in the playoffs, but received a World Series ring.

Although the first season of Irabu is quite respectable, his career has unfortunately deteriorated from this year. His ERA continued to increase and he finally spent only five-year games at the MLB.

9 2000s: Darin Erstad

Darin Erstad had a magical season for the Anaheim Angels in 2000. The first base player, first overall in 1995, sailed in the minor leagues and made his major league debut in 2000.

During his magical rookie season in 2000, Erstad recorded 355 points, 25 points and a MLB record with 100 RBIs as first batter.

For his efforts, he was named in this year 's team of stars and won the Silver Slugger award at first base. However, Erstad's numbers have dropped quite rapidly since 2001. Erstad was not able to get the same power as he did at the beginning of the year, and his batting average was dropped to around .250.

8 1990s: Kevin Maas

Kevin Maas is another rookie who arrived in the major leagues and set the MLB on fire. It appeared that he was still threatened with serious injury almost every time he appeared on the plate in his 1990 rookie season. The second baseman became the fastest player to hit 10 home runs. his career, barely needing 72 bats. His power disappeared quickly enough, even though he still finished the season with 21 homers. The next season, it became clear that Maas was struggling to adapt to the way pitchers adapted to him. He spent the following seasons in minor leagues for the Yankees and Twins, before calling it a career in 1995.

7 2000s: Luis Gonzalez

Luis Gonzalez had established it in 1999 as a fairly reliable hitter type, and Arizona could count on him for at least 150 hits. However, his 2001 season was one for the history books. That season, Gonzalez scored 57 homers and 142 RBIs! These figures were quite shocking since the previous career summit of Gonzalez was only 31 circuits.

The Diamondbacks took full advantage of Gonzalez's 2001 season to help them win the World Series against the New York Yankees. Gonzalez has never been about to replicate the power he had shown in 2001, suggesting to Gonzalez that he was one of many to have seen his statistics increase through steroids.

6 1990s: Shane Spencer

Shane Spencer had a six-year career in the major leagues, where he was generally considered a low-level hitter or a person capable of providing some power on the bench. However, Spencer certainly did his best to change this perception of him in 1998.

He hit 10 homers in September, including three Grand Slam tournaments.

Spencer was without a doubt one of the Yankees' best hitters in the 1998 playoffs, winning the World Series. Unfortunately, Spencer never managed to pass the stage of utility field player. He retired in 2006 and served as a minor league coach and manager for various organizations.

5 2000s: Daisuke Matsuzaka

Daisuke Matsuzaka signed an important contract (at the time) allowing him to leave Japan and to play the role of rotation leader for the Boston Red Sox in 2007. While Matsuzaka had a good starting year in 2007 he broke out dramatically. in 2008. That year, "Dice-K" achieved a score of 18-3 and posted a return of 2.90. He would almost certainly have won the Cy Young Award if there had not been a better season in 2008 for Cliff Lee.

Since then, Matsuzaka has been just an average pitcher and had to undergo surgery from Tommy John. Her career at MLB has never been closer to the success she had experienced earlier in Japan.

4 1990s: Dave Fleming

After being drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 1990s, Dave Fleming spent only a few days in the minor leagues before being promoted to the major leagues in the summer of 1991. The Mariners did not They did not want to wait to see Fleming, and took a huge risk in promoting it so quickly. Fleming was very successful in his first full season in 1992, posting a 3.39 ERA and finishing third in the rookie vote of the year.

Unfortunately, Fleming proved that he could have used the further development in the minor leagues because he was unable to have sustained success in the major leagues. He struggled in the coming seasons and ended up retiring from baseball in 1995.

3 2000s: Ryan Ludwick

Ryan Ludwick had some success with the Detroit Tigers organization early in his career, but they did not think he deserved a spot among the novice players. This led Ludwick to sign with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2007. In his first full season with the Cardinals in 2008, Ludwick was named to his first (and only) all-star game.

During the season, Ludwick had 37 impressive home wins, 40 doubles, 113 RBIs and a solid batting average of .299.

The Cardinals surely had the feeling of winning the lottery by winning a stick of average quality for practically nothing. Although Ludwick got off to a good start in 2009, his productivity dropped from nowhere. Ludwick struggled with sporadic injuries and struggled to climb his bases regularly. Ludwick has never been closer to the numbers he published in 2008.

2 1990s: Phil Plantier

In 1993, Phil Plantier seemed poised to become another great hitter for the San Diego Padres. The hard-hitting striker hit 34 homers and 100 RBIs, which was good for second place behind Barry Bonds. This ended up being as close as Plantier would have come to the challenge of the bonds for the greatest number of races.

A series of injuries and a rapid increase in the number of crossed out limited his effectiveness in 1994 and 1995. Plantier was never the same player as in 1993. Plantier finally qualified his career as "career" in 1998, although he served as a striking coach in the minor. leagues for Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres since retirement.

1 2000s: Rick Ankiel

Many baseball fans will most likely remember the time of Rick Ankiel as a full-fledged player for the St. Louis Cardinals in the mid-2000s. However, it is common knowledge that Ankiel s & rsquo; He was first introduced to the major leagues as a pitcher starting towards the end of the 1999 season. His 2000 season was particularly promising since he posted a respectable average of 3.50 and an average of 194. total goals in 175 innings during this period. Unfortunately, a lack of pitch control becomes his loss. After spending several seasons fighting with his control of the field, Ankiel decided to become a hitter to extend his career at MLB. This turned out to be a wise decision on his part, as he had several strong years as a left field player.