Biggest Flukes in Baseball History

[dodgerdave]

1. Rick Wilkins (1993 Cubs)
2. Pete Schourek (1995 Reds)
3. Bill Swift (1993 Giants)
4. Brady Anderson (1996 Orioles)
5. Jose Lima (1999 Astros)
6. Larry Sheets (1987 Orioles)
7. John Burkett (1993 Giants)

Can you guys think of others?

[Baseball Guru]

Bob Emslie--won 32 games in 1884 and only won 44 in his career

Jesse Duryea--won 32 games in 1889 and only won 59 while losing 67 in his career

Billy Taylor--won 43 games in 1884 (25 for the St. Louis Maroons and 18 for the Philadelphia Athletics) and only won 50 games in his career, never having a season where he had more than 4 wins.

Lady Baldwin--won 42 games in 1886 and never won more than 13 games in any single season.

Bill Sweeney--Pitched for only 2 seasons. In 1882 he won 9 games and then in 1884 he won 40.



I'll try and come up with some more recent ones. Just didnt want to forget the flukes of pre-1900:D

[Panzram]

More recent flukes... Rick Helling had a 20 win season?

[imgreat95]

2004--Red Sox win the WS..;):D

[dodgerdave]

The only Billy Taylor I know is the one who pitched from 1994-2001. He was the closer for the A's after Dennis Eckersley left to St. Louis.

[dodgerdave]

8. Shawn Estes (1997 Giants)

[Timberwolf]

Bill Krueger (1993 Expos)
Allan Anderson (1998 Twins)
Roger Cedeno (1999 Mets)
Dave McCarthy (1996 Twins)
Joe Mays (2001 Twins)
Dave Fleming (1993 Mariners)
Scott Leius (1991 Twins)

[dodgerdave]

Dave Fleming is a good one. I expected him to be a great pitcher, but turned out to be a bitter disappointment.

[Timberwolf]

Cal Eldred (1993 Brewers)

He is another guy that was a fluke. He had like 20 wins that year and he never became the same after that.

[Chisox73]

Ron Bryant (baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=bryanro01) won 24 games for the 1973 San Francisco Giants.He was out of baseball 2 years later.

[Chisox73]

Another one would be Brady Anderson's (baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=anderbr01) 50 home run season for Baltimore in 1996.

[Baseball Guru]

The only Billy Taylor I know is the one who pitched from 1994-2001. He was the closer for the A's after Dennis Eckersley left to St. Louis.


1884 may have been before your time:D

[robmik]

You folks including "one game" flukes ?

If so, I nominate Don Larsen's 1956 perfect game in the World Series. :eek:

And Bobby Thomson's 1951 playoff homer. :eviltongu

regards;

Mike...( as a Dodger fan, I can assure you all Dodger fans consider the above two one-game events were total flukes...there were of course, others.) :wink:

[dodgerdave]

Davey Johnson (1973 Braves) He hit 43 homers that season, and his second highest total is only 18.

[yagsy]

Mark (the Bird) Fidrych (http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/det/stats_historical/det_individual_stats_player.jsp?playerID=114102) where he was brilliant in his rookie year and then not so good. Only lasted 4 seasons. He was quite a character on the mound!

[cxlx]

What about....
Mike Hampton (1999-2000)
John Rocker (1999-2000)

[PopTop]

Hampton's and Lima's win totals might look flukey right now, but there was nothing flukey about the way they pitched that season. Without looking it up exactly, I bet I saw both of them make 7-10 starts that season in the Astrodome, and they were both very consistent that season. As much as Hampton apparently didn't get along with or like then-Mgr Larry Dierker, he was a more focused pitcher with the Astros. And he was both brilliant and, in my opinion, brilliantly used/motivated by Dierk that season. Lima was very fun to watch that year, though I concede that was mostly due to the fact Houston was winning regularly. Lima pitched some of the fastest games seen in the Astrodome that final season of the stadium's existence, and it wasn't because he threw fewer pitches. next time any of y'all are in the neighborhood, stop by and I'll show you my journal/scrap book from that season. I went to 50+ Astros game that year and I constantly remarked how quick Lima's games were. He relied on the fly ball out as opposed to Hampton getting outs via ground balls, so in that regard maybe Lima was flukier (:freak: is that a word?) If just 1 of those fly balls goes an extra 5 feet each game, well, you would have what happened to him a year or so later in the new downtown stadium.

If you want recent flukes, start with Kevin Tapani in 1998 when he won 19 despite an ERA that almost reached five (4.85 to be exact).

[yagsy]

If you want recent flukes, start with Kevin Tapani in 1998 when he won 19 despite an ERA that almost reached five (4.85 to be exact).

:Wow: That's just wrong!

[bA'sball]

2002 Anaheim Angels.