For every Buster Posey or Neftali Feliz, there is a Joe Charboneau or an Angel Berroa, a Rookie of the Year whose best days quickly left them whether it was due to injuries, bad work habits, or off the field issues.
While Posey and Feliz are both expected to have strong, long careers, FCP now takes you on a journey of the not-so-fortunate ones. And who better to start with than the legendary Joe Charboneau? The 6’2″ left fielder was acquired by the Cleveland Indians in 1978 in a minor league transaction with the Philadelphia Phillies. When he hit .352 with 21 home runs at Double-A ball in 1979, it convinced the Indians, desperate for improvement after back-to-back sixth place finishes (in the then-seven team AL East), to promote him to the Major Leagues to start the 1980 season.
Things didn’t change much for the Tribe in general, they finished sixth again with a worse record then the year before, but Charboneau caught lightning in a bottle. The native of Belvidere, IL hit 23 home runs, drove in 78 runs, hit .289 and posted an .846 OPS. (His numbers might have been even better had he not missed the last six weeks of the season with a pelvis injury.) He easily outdistanced the Red Sox’ Dave Stapleton for the AL Rookie of the Year Award.
“Super Joe” /”Bazooka Joe” was the toast of the town. He became almost Paul Bunyan-esque in stature with tales of removing his own tattoo with a razor blade and pulling his own tooth with a pair of pliers. A song, “Go Joe Charboneau” climbed the charts in the Cleveland area. But when it came to baseball, Joe Charboneau would be a one hit wonder.
Everything appeared fine at first; Charboneau was hitting well over .400 late into spring training the following season. But he injured his back on a head-first slide, and things were never the same. Once the season started Charboneau couldn’t find his groove. He hit .194 in April and didn’t hit first home run until May 11. When the players went on strike in June, Charboneau was hitting just .208 with four home runs and 16 RBI in 34 games. He was slugging at just a .397 mark. Talk was that he had been distracted by too much publicity and promotional work as a result of his super freshman season.
When play resumed in August, Charboneau was sent down to the minors after one game in order to re-find his swing. He never did; Charboneau hit .217 in a two week stint before being recalled for the final portion of the Major League season. He struggled for the remainder of the season and missed time with back pain that led to him being hospitalized after the season.
Charboneau played in only 70 more Major League games and endured two back surgeries. He retired after being released by the Indians in 1983. He was just 28 years old. But injuries aren’t the only thing that can derail a career; such was the case of Angel Berroa.
While not having the star appeal of Joe Charboneau, Berroa looked to be following in the footsteps of Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra as the next in a line of hard-hitting shortstops. The Royals had their first competitive team in quite a while in 2003, and part of the reason was Berroa. He hit 17 HR, drove in 73 runs, and stole 21 bases to beat out Hideki Matsui by a mere four points for AL ROY. (Matsui would have captured the award had some writers not felt it inappropriate after Hideo Nomo, another former Japanese Major League, won the NL award in 1995.)
The only ***** in Berroa’s armor appeared to be his defensive play. Such a blemish can be overcome by a solid offensive year, but when one’s hitting goes south, all the other shortcomings become exposed. The shortstop signed a four-year deal in in May, 2004, but was sent to the minors in August when he was hitting just .249 and had committed 22 errors. Upon his recall, Berroa hit over .300 for the remainder of the season and finished at .262. A somewhat solid .270-11-55 season followed in 2005, but Berroa’s OPS was below .700 for the second consecutive season and things were only going to get worse.
2006 would be the final season in which Berroa played in over 100 games. He posted just a .592 OPS and hit a career low .234. Berroa had begun swinging at anything thrown at him and his fielding worsened. The team designated him for assignment in August, 2007, and sent him to the minor leagues. He never wore a Royals’ Major League uniform again. The team finally shipped him to the LA Dodgers in June, 2008 for a non-prospect. Oh how the mighty had fallen.
Berroa’s mediocre batting and fielding continued in LA, and with the Yankees and Mets for short stints in 2009. He hooked back up with the Dodgers for spring training last year, but was released in the third week in March. The Giants gave Berroa one last shot with a minor league assignment, but released him in July. At 30 years of age, Berroa’s career in the majors is likely over.
Berroa came to KC as part of a deal in 2001 that sent former AL Rookie of the Year Ben Grieve from Oakland to Tampa Bay. Grieve appeared to be on his way to stardom when he hit .288-18-89 to easily beat out Cuban native Rolando Arrojo for the 1998 top rookie honors. Over the next two years, he averaged 27 home runs and 95 RBI. He was just 24 years old, but with a big pay day looming, Oakland swung the aforementioned three player deal.
Grieve was set to keep his star on the rise in Florida, but his production dropped drastically. He hit just 11 home runs and had the lowest batting average and slugging percentage of his short career. In the next season, though he hit 19 home runs, Grieve batted just .251 and drove in a mere 64 runs. The star was starting to fall from the sky. There were signs that perhaps Grieve was an overachiever who’s real ability had finally caught up with him. Then health issues began to affect his career.
An infection in Grieve’s hand in April, 2003 led to a month-long stay on the DL and his season was shut down in July after he developed blood clots in his armpit, and underwent surgery to remove a rib that caused an impingement. Unfortunately, Grieve’s most memorable time in Tampa was when manager Lou Piniella did his imitation of Linda Blair in the Exorcist after Grieve took a called third strike against the Yankees and showed no emotion. Sweet Lou wasn’t so sweet when he went into a very public tirade at his outfielder whom he deemed too non-chalant at the call.
A free agent after the season, Grieve signed a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers for the 2004 season, but with just 7 HR and 29 RBI in 108 games, the Brewers shuttled him to the Chicago Cubs for a non-prospect and cash. He signed a minor league deal following the season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but didn’t make the team in spring training and was released. The Cubs picked him back up again, but he spent 86 games in the minors (producing respectable numbers), and just 23 games with the big club. A one-time second selection in the amateur draft, Grieve was done with baseball at the ripe old age of 29.
Finally, we bring you the case of Big Bob Hamelin, a 6’1″, 240 lb. (or more) left-handed baseball bruiser that the Royals selected out of UCLA in the 2nd round of the 1988 draft. Hamelin showed power in the minors, but not much else. He flopped in two-plus stints in Triple-A until everything clicked in 1993.
Hamelin bashed 29 HR, drove in 84 runs, and drew 82 walks for Omaha to convince the Royals he was ready for “The Show”. Hamelin’s lack of mobility and defensive skills limited his time at 1st base, but thanks to playing in the AL, he got plenty of at-bats at DH. His time in the minors paid off when he put together a .288/.388/.599 split, clubbed 24 HR and drove in 65 runs in 374 plate appearances (his season was cut short by the players’ strike), to easily capture the 1994 Rookie of the Year Award ahead of some guy named Manny Ramirez.
The Royals looked at his .987 OPS and thought they had a 500 home run slugger in the making. American League pitchers thought otherwise ,and collectively thought “maybe we shouldn’t throw him so many fastballs”. Apparently, Hamelin sat around a little too much during the strike and winter; he showed up at the delayed spring training in 1995 completely out of shape. The result was a forgettable sophomore season. Hamelin didn’t hit his first home run until May 23- for that matter, he wasn’t hitting anything, period. He struck out four times in one game, five times in another.
Hamelin was hitting just .175 and slugging .268 when the team sent him down to Triple-A for three weeks. With some of the pressure off, he seemed to regain his stroke; he belted 10 HR and drove in 32 runs in just 36 games. With confidence renewed, Hamelin returned to the Majors in late June, but nothing about his Major League game changed. He finished the season with a .168/.278.313 split and only 7 HR.
In his rookie season, Hamelin had fared decently against left-handed pitching. There was a significant drop off in year two, but remarkably it was right-handed pitching that did him in- he batted just .157 against them. Like Berroa, he stopped taking walks and began swinging at pitches out of the zone.
To avoid a repeat of ’95, the Royals worked with Hamelin over the winter to lose fat and add some muscle. The result was a trimmer, stronger Hamelin, who was rewarded by getting more playing time at 1st base. Unfortunately, his power stroke was still missing in action. He finished the season with just nine dingers, though his overall offense improved (.826 OPS).
Hamelin underwent corrective eye surgery in the off-season, but the Royals released him in March. The newly-minted free agent signed with the Detroit Tigers for the ’97 season after a deal to play in Japan fell through. He had a semi-revival in Motown, slugging 18 home runs and producing 52 RBI in just 318 at-bats. The Tigers had young slugger Tony Clark ready to play every day, so Hamelin was on the move again, this time to Milwaukee. But he was relegated to part-time duty and didn’t produce, and the Brewers released him in November. 1999 proved to be Hamelin’s last shot. He first tried to make the Red Sox in spring training, but was released. He then signed a minor league deal with the Tigers, but never made it out of the minors. In fact, after grounding out in a game on June 6, Hamelin walked off the field and retired. The former ROY’s career was over in less than 500 games.
So, as you look at the crop of this year’s AL and NL Rookie of the Year contenders, keep in mind that early success does not necessarily lead to a Hall of Fame career. Guys like Joe Charboneau and Bob Hamelin know that.
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- Indians name Joe Kessler Major League Strength and Conditioning Coach
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- Joe Mauer named American League Most Valuable Player
- Angels agree to terms on 2010 contract with Joe Saunders
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Original Story:
http://fullcountpitch.com/2011/03/14/...
