Who were the best one-year Orioles?

[Frobby]

I just got to thinking that Nelson Cruz may have been the best one-year Oriole ever. Offhand, the only other player I could think of who had a very good one year here and then was gone, was Reggie Jackson in 1976. Per BB-ref, Reggie was worth 5.3 rWAR in his one year in Baltimore, slightly better than Cruz's 4.7 in 2014.

Is there anyone else who played a single season for us and was outstanding?

[NCRaven]

I just got to thinking that Nelson Cruz may have been the best one-year Oriole ever. Offhand, the only other player I could think of who had a very good one year here and then was gone, was Reggie Jackson in 1976. Per BB-ref, Reggie was worth 5.3 rWAR in his one year in Baltimore, slightly better than Cruz's 4.7 in 2014.

Is there anyone else who played a single season for us and was outstanding?

Reggie is the easy choice for me. He reported in May and still was the teams best hitter. Refused to report because the O's front office wouldn't extend him. Arghh.... But then, if Reggie had stayed we probably wouldn't have acquired one of my favorite Orioles, Ken Singleton. Or, if they had, imagine Singleton, Murray and Jackson hitting 3-4-5 for the O's in the late 70's, early 80's.

Note: Nevermind. Ken actually got here before Reggie. It could have happened. Throw in Lee May at DH and I'm in HR heaven.

[O-Arm36]

Kevin Brown more or less resurrected his career with us in 1995. Didn't sign til early April, still put up a 4.3 rWAR and 133 ERA+ in 171 innings. Then went bonkers in Florida and San Diego the next few years before getting bank with the Dodgers.

[Orioles4Life21]

Sammy Sosa.

I just threw up.

[sportsfan8703]

Andrew Miller

[DrungoHazewood]

Kevin Brown more or less resurrected his career with us in 1995. Didn't sign til early April, still put up a 4.3 rWAR and 133 ERA+ in 171 innings. Then went bonkers in Florida and San Diego the next few years before getting bank with the Dodgers.

For some reason I read this as "Kevin Bass" whose one year in Baltimore was worth a craptacular -1.5 fWAR.

[DrungoHazewood]

David Wells was worth 3.4 fWAR his only year in Baltimore.

[O-Arm36]

David Wells was worth 3.4 fWAR his only year in Baltimore.

Haha, I saw that and almost mentioned it, too. An ERA north of 5 netted 3.4 fWAR. The 90s were an interesting time.

[DrungoHazewood]

Haha, I saw that and almost mentioned it, too. An ERA north of 5 netted 3.4 fWAR. The 90s were an interesting time.

One of the things I like about baseball is that in some eras a 5.00 ERA gets you sent to the indy leagues, and in other times and places it might mean you're a #2 starter on a good team. Even if that terribly confuses folks. Like HOF voters.

[Rene88]

Only 1 person comes to mind...REGGIE! REGGIE!.....

[Frobby]

David Wells was worth 3.4 fWAR his only year in Baltimore.

Kevin Brown was worth 4.3 rWAR, 4.5 fWAR in 1995. (Oops, didn't see O-Arm36's post until I wrote this.)

[Frobby]

Sammy Sosa.

I just threw up.

Not a very good 1-year Oriole (-1.0 rWAR).

[MrOrange82]

Will Clark was pretty good for what amounted to about one season of production.

[Orioles4Life21]

Not a very good 1-year Oriole (-1.0 rWAR).

As an 11 year old at the time I was so excited when we made that trade. Probably putt some more butts in seats until we realized he was terrible.

[Ruzious]

Does Eric Davis qualify? He had a legit great 1998 season for the O's after a very good 42 games the year before. Then he moved back to the NL. Too bad his incidents with Marge Schott's idiocy over-shadowed a sometimes great career.