Monday Morning Mock Drafts: One Hit Wonders

No, we’re not doing musical one-hit numbers.  That’s Request Line territory, and has probably already done.  Nope, today you’re drafting athletic one-hit wonders.  Guys, or gals, who had that one (or no more than a couple) of really good seasons before fading into, as Mike Tyson would say, Bolivia.

The reason for the fade, (injuries, Bolivian marching powder, not taking steroids more than that one year, taking too many steroids that one year, just getting figured out by everyone else) aren’t as important, only that there was a fading into that dark good night.

The player in question does not have to have retired after their one(ish) good seasons, he or she just can’t have maintained a level of outstanding achievement in the field of excellence in their chosen sport.

With the first pick I will take our featured image guy, Mark ‘The Bird’ Fidrych.  Fidrych burst onto this scene in 1976, with the Tigers of Old Detroit, (Clarence Meeks never missed a game), going 19-9 with a 2.34 ERA, winning Rookie of the Year, and finishing 2nd in the Cy Young voting.  He also threw 24 complete games and 250+ innings, which may be why he won a total of 10 more games in the next four years and was out of baseball after 1980.

Fidrych died in 2009 when, while working on a truck, his clothes became entangled in the power take-off shaft and he suffocated.

On the list of ways I would like to go out that is way, way, way, way down there.

The rest of you are on the clock.

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BrettFavresColonoscopy

I’ll take Derek “Horseballs” Anderson. Only one season in his whole career where he even started more than 9 games and he threw 29 fucking touchdowns that year. Only Pro Bowl appearance, too, and rightfully so.

scotchnaut

Mike James of the Raptors was a roster-filler when he got there for the 2005-06 season- he was a 30 year-old 6’2″ point guy that was on his 6th team.. Injuries forced the team to rely on him more and more and he wound up averaging 20 that year. Of course the Timberwolves handed him a big bag with a dollar sign on it. He never averaged more than 10 points after that.

/including the NBA, development leagues and overseas he ended up playing for 11 more teams after his Raptors adventure