Kevin Mitchell

David Murphy

Jason Lane

Kevin Elster in 96

Mike Greenwell seems like an odd choice. Dude slashed .303/.368/.831 over parts of 12 seasons with the Sox. Finished 2nd to canseco in the MVP voting one year.

[This message has been edited by Dropkicked Murphy (edited 1/11/2014 9:17a).]

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I don't think some of you understand "flash in the pan"

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Some of these choices are comical. Babe Ruth was my favorite flash in the pan.

Murph, Greenwell was rookie of the year and then had trouble staying on the field or providing consistency. A lot was expected of him and he only periodically delivered.

my definition of flash in the pan isn't someone who is able to hang around the league for 12 years

Chris Truby 2001

Mark "The Bird" Fidrych.

I agree -- some on here weren't really flashes in the pan. Jim Abbott was around for about a decade, though he didn't pitch very well for the last 4 years or so.

I guess I define it as someone who exploded on the scene and then severely and suddenly tailed off. Usually those guys are good enough to hang around for awhile, but in a severely diminished role. That seems especially true in baseball. Heck, Rick Ankiel was able to re-enter the majors as an outfielder after flaming as a pitcher.

good point Sapper

Chris Burke, Brandon Backe

What about Marlon Byrd?

Charlie Kerfeld

Gary Matthews Jr.

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What about Marlon Byrd?

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Very similar to the above suggestion of Gary Matthew's Jr., Byrd was a pretty regular starting center fielder for about a decade- and Marlon Byrd was a pretty good one at that.

Matthews Jr. certainly has a clear "career" year, its still hard to call a guy with over 1000 starts a flash in the proverbial pan.

He was pretty much just an average/slightly below average guy before he got here though (Matthews). That 2006 career year bought him a huge contract and many more starts. I'd say 2006 was his flash in the pan.

Then how about Jose Lima?

Brady Anderson

I think Brady Anderson falls into the above mentioned category. Steady all around player for over a decade and one career defining year. However, he did have multiple all star game appearances.

Juan Dominguez? He was the next Pedro Martinez for the Rangers after one electric start.

Compared to the prior two left fielders for Boston, name Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski, I suppose you could call Greenwell a flash in the pan. Otherwise, he had a solid and productive career.

My nominee is Dave Hostetler.

Greenwell had a 7 year run where he played 125 (his rookie year) to 159 games in 6 of them, hitting at least .297 with a .769 or higher OPS (he was at .801 in 5 of the 6 years) in those 6 years. He added a 120 game season hitting .297 with a .808 OPS later in his career.

He didn't turn out to be one of the best players of his era, but he wasn't a flash in the pan if you ask me.

Of course I forgot Jim Rice. That's 50 years of 3 left fielders, all of them in the HOF. So accrding to some posters, no HOF = flash in the pan.

dammit I hated Hostetler

I'm still sticking with Joe Charboneau and that's my final answer.

Jim Leyritz.

Favorite thing about Mike Greenwell is that when Canseco wrote in his book about using steroids during the 1988 season, Greenwell immediately come out and said, "OK, that means I was MVP, where's my trophy?"

From my hometown Houston Astros:
Eric "Cool Breeze" Yelding
James Mouton

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From my hometown Houston Astros:
Eric "Cool Breeze" Yelding
James Mouton

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I really rooted hard for Yelding to succeed. Remember the time him and reds reliever Rob Dribble got in a mini fight? I think that was about 1991, it's been a long time so I'm not sure.

I remember that fight like it was yesterday! Dibble threw behind Yelding's head, Yelding charged the mound, except he stopped halfway and threw his batting helmet at Dibble, probably about the time he realized Dibble was about 6-5, 240 and Cool Breeze was more like 5-10, 170.

Dibble got PO'ed because he had given up a hit to CURT SCHILLING in his first major league at-bat, back when Schilling was the Astros' closer as a rookie. Stros went 65-97 that year.

Ed Ott, the Astros' old coach, apparently choked Dibble out in the pile. Ott had this insane quote in the paper the next day saying something like "I grabbed him by the neck until he turned red, then blue, then purple, then I decided to let him go."

God, I miss baseball when it didn't suck.

I thought I was the only person who remembered that.

MuckRaker, why does baseball suck now? I don't disagree, just wondering...

Reasons I think baseball sucks presently

1) Nobody plays small ball
2) The stolen base is dead
3) everybody's a specialist
4) nobody throws complete games
5) every game takes 4 hours
6) as terrible as the Astros are, I can't watch them on TV because I dont have Comcast
7) like 8 guys a year strike out 180+ times and their teams are totally fine with it.
8) the marlins have a payroll of $32 million, the yankees $192 million, and the league sees no problem with that.
9) they're taking down all the old ballparks.
10) the umpires dont let teams settle brawls and brushbacks like they used to.

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Reasons I think baseball sucks presently

1) Nobody plays small ball
2) The stolen base is dead
3) everybody's a specialist
4) nobody throws complete games
5) every game takes 4 hours
6) as terrible as the Astros are, I can't watch them on TV because I dont have Comcast
7) like 8 guys a year strike out 180+ times and their teams are totally fine with it.
8) the marlins have a payroll of $32 million, the yankees $192 million, and the league sees no problem with that.
9) they're taking down all the old ballparks.
10) the umpires dont let teams settle brawls and brushbacks like they used to.

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One of our resident nerds is going to give you hell about your list so prepare your anus.

I actually agree with a few of your points, fwiw.