Hitting The Cutoff Man

Hello, and welcome to more fine VH1 programming!

Just kidding, of course. This feature admittedly sounds like something you would channel surf past while batting insomnia, but bear with me.

As fun as it is to watch Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer or debate the greatness of Pete Rose and Ty Cobb, I've always been kind of fascinated by the guys on the margins on baseball history. For every player who makes his mark on the big leagues, there are probably hundreds who pop in briefly and vanish.

These are the guys who enjoy the proverbial "cup of coffee," and nothing more.

In this feature, which I hope to bring in every so often, I will look at the players who have managed one hit -- and only one hit -- in the major leagues (not counting pitchers). Hopefully we can find out a little about some of their stories and shed a ray of light on their most fleeting success.

Today: the 2000s, which so far have seen 33 players collect one hit. Players organized by year of debut, with much thanks to the invaluable Baseball-Reference.com.

2010: Allen Craig, Justin Smoak -- It's unlikely either of these two rookies will stay on one hit for long, although Craig was recently optioned back to St. Louis' Triple-A affiliate. (EDIT: Smoak homered today for hit No. 2).

2009: Dusty Brown -- Homered for the Red Sox on Oct. 3 of last season; still at Triple-A Pawtucket.

2008: Conor Gillaspie, Brad Harman, Gil Velazquez -- Gillaspie was drafted in the supplemental first round by the Giants in 2008 out of Wichita State and brought up to the majors later that season, making him the first player from that draft to appear in the big leagues. He got seven plate appearances, collecting one hit -- off Dan Haren. But he spent all of last season playing in High Class-A and this year is at Double-A Richmond.

Harman, from Melbourne, Australia, played for his country in the 2009 Baseball World Cup after he was released by the Phillies earlier in the season. ... Velazquez' lone hit to date came for the Red Sox against the Yankees at Fenway Park.

2007: Colt Morton, Matthew Brown -- Brown, now in the Rangers organization, managed to get 27 plate appearances over two seasons for the Angels despite just the one hit, a double. He struck out 11 times. His career OPS+ is -37. ... Morton played 10 games for the Padres and finally picked up a single in his last one, on May 8, 2008.

2006: Jose Reyes, Drew Anderson -- No, not THAT Jose Reyes. This version, a catcher, got five at-bats for the Cubs at the end of '06 and notched a two-run pinch-hit single. ... According to Wikipedia, Anderson earned All-Nebraska honors in football, track and baseball in high school, then went to the University of Nebraska. Yes, even guys like Drew Anderson have fairly in-depth Wikipedia pages.

2005: Kevin Hooper, Napoleon Calzado, Alejandro Machado, Doug Clark, Keith Reed -- Hooper has since turned to managing, taking the helm of the great Wichita Wingnuts of the independent American Association. ... Calzado got a hit in his first big league at-bat but received only four more, making his reign slightly less illustrious than that of his namesake (and it should be noted that this Napoleon stands 6-foot-3).

Although Machado had just one hit and one walk in six plate appearances, he actually scored four runs due to his role as a pinch runner for the Red Sox in 2005. He even made one postseason appearance in that role for Boston in the '05 ALDS. ... Clark's career fizzled out, but he revived it in Korea, making the 2008 Korean Professional League all-star team with the Hanwha Eagles. ... Reed, a former first-round pick, got a brief call-up in '05 for the Orioles when Sammy Sosa got hurt.

2004: Matt Erickson, Mickey Lopez -- Playing for the Brewers against the Cubs on July 17, Erickson got his only big league knock against none other than Greg Maddux, one of just six hits Milwaukee managed in Mad Dog's complete game shutout. ... In his final big league game on Oct. 3 for the Mariners, Lopez replaced Bret Boone at second base in the fifth inning, got hit by a pitch from Chan Ho Park, then led off the bottom of the ninth against Francisco Cordero with a single.

2003: Dave Matranga, Mike Glavine, Graham Koonce, Rontrez Johnson, Carlos Valderrama -- Matranga became the second Astros player to homer in his first MLB plate appearance, when he connected as a pinch hitter on June 27. ... Glavine was called up to the Mets late in the '03 season, joining his brother Tom (perhaps you've heard of him?). ... For Koonce, it's amazing he made it to The Show at all, considering he was a 60th-round draft pick in 1993. That's only two rounds ahead of where Mike Piazza was famously selected by the Dodgers in 1988. ... Besides being the only player in MLB history named Rontrez, Johnson was also on the field for one of the more bizarre incidents in recent memory, when a fan ran onto the field in Chicago on April 15 and tackled umpire Laz Diaz. Valderrama got his lone hit off Tim Hudson.

2002: Jose Flores, Drew Henson, Luke Allen, Luis Garcia -- Henson is of course the most famous of this group, having played quarterback at the University of Michigan. He gave that up after his junior year to focus on baseball and was selected by the Yankees in the third round of the 1998 draft. Henson went back to football after his baseball career faltered and played QB for the Vikings, Lions and Cowboys, although that didn't go much better than his pro baseball career (11-for-20 for 98 yards in two seasons).

Allen was signed by the Dodgers as an amateur free agent out of Covington, Georgia, which is where films such as My Cousin Vinny were filmed (yeah, that's all I've got). ... Flores got his only hit at age 31, at the very end of the 2004 season, two years after his first call-up. It came off Jason Schmidt. ... Garcia is one of 10 "Luis Garcias" in pro baseball history, and one of two to make the big leagues.

2001: Bill Ortega, Jalal Leach -- In Ortega's five pinch-hitting appearances for the '01 Cardinals, he came in once each for J.D. Drew, Jim Edmonds and Bud Smith, who threw a no-hitter that season. ... Leach and his bother Jarman now operate the Baseball Mentoring Program.

2000: Talmadge Nunnari, Rod Lindsey, Nate Rolison, Luis Saturria, Juan Melo -- Besides having an awesome name, Nunnari was the final one-hit wonder for the Expos and got his one knock off a young A.J. Burnett in 2000. Nunnari also walked six times in 12 plate appearances, giving him a career OBP of .583. He now manages the Pensacola Pelicans of the American Association. ... Lindsey stole two bases in the majors but 391 in 10 minor league seasons, including 70 with the 1997 Clinton Lumber Kings (although he was caught 23 times that year and also recorded 161 strikeouts).

The Marlins chose Rolison in the second round of the 1995 draft, the same round that produced Carlos Beltran, Sean Casey, Jarrod Washburn, Marlon Anderson, Brett Tomko, Mark Bellhorn and Craig Wilson. ... Saturria played for the World Team in the 2000 Futures Game, along with Carlos Pena, Carlos Silva and Felipe Lopez. ... Melo got his lone hit for the Giants on Sept. 7, 2000, after taking over at second base for Jeff Kent in a 13-0 blowout against the Padres. He went on to collect more than 5,700 plate appearances in the minor leagues.

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