players whose best season was their rookie season

probably can add Hellickson and maybe Jose Abreu to the list

looking back i remember ol Rick Wilkins, part-time Cubs catcher pressed into full-time duty in 1993 at age 26 and he responded w/30 HR and a .303/.376./561 slash line. he never even slugged .400 again.

he wasn't quite a rookie though, he just didn't play quite as much in his first two seasons.

One guy who comes to mind for the Jays is Juan Guzman. He was 10-3/2.99 as a 24-year-old rookie (3.2 WAR), 16-5/2.64 as a sophomore (5.5). He had one great season after that where he won an ERA title, but he was finished the next year and out of the league at 33. His IP weren't noticeably high his first few years, so I don't think he was mishandled.

what i remember about Juan Guzman (who was exceptional for those couple seasons) was that his sophomore season coincided w/Greg Maddux's first Cy Young season, after which the Cubs let him walk because...

After Maddux filed for free agency, he fielded offers from the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves. After he received his offer from the Braves, he contacted Himes to see if Himes would match the offer. Himes declined, stating that he spent Maddux's money on Randy Myers, José Guzmán, Dan Plesac and Candy Maldonado.

...uh anyway i was 18, not following eligibility as readily, and i thought initially when they announced the Guzman signing that they signed Juan Guzman.

I will hate Larry Himes forever.

to this day whenever i see a player named maldonado i think of candy

whenever i see an unrelated thread revive during the World Series, i know it's someone who missed the first 2 games

did you watch the 2009 series?

first game, i think

I was figuring that Fred Lynn's best year for WAR might been his rookie season when he won the MVP, but man he had a 8.9 WAR year in '79 according to Baseball Reference. His WAR total for his MVP year was 7.4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrQtYheE0No