What Happened to The One-Hit Wonders?

By David Marasco

On June 22, 1999 I saw the Midwest League All-Star Game. What made this amazing was the fact that the West squad used fourteen pitchers - and they combined to give up one hit and no walks, facing one over the minimum. Here is the box score, and some where are they now?

Name	IP	R	ER	H	BB	K
D. Therneau (Rockford)	1	0	0	0	0	0
R. Averette (Rockford)	1	0	0	0	0	0
P. Merrell (Clinton)	1	0	0	0	0	1
J. Rincon (Quad City)	0.2	0	0	1	0	1
K. Griffin (Peoria)	0.1	0	0	0	0	0
R. Duarte (Cedar Rapids)	0.2	0	0	0	0	1
L. Walrond (Peoria)	0.1	0	0	0	0	0
B. Hoard (Quad City)	0.2	0	0	0	0	1
J. Brunette (Peoria)	0.1	0	0	0	0	0
D. Noyce (Kane County)	0.2	0	0	0	0	1
S. Rivera (Quad City)	0.1	0	0	0	0	0
S. Clackum (Kane County)	0.2	0	0	0	0	0
B. Puffer (Clinton)	0.1	0	0	0	0	1
G. Jones (Cedar Rapids)	1	0	0	0	0	1
Totals	9	0	0	1	0	7

Let's start with the two young men who played for Rockford. David Therneau was rushed up the Reds system. By the end of the year he was pitching in Triple-A. This led to trouble, and he lost 2000 to Tommy John surgery. It looks like he is no longer in baseball. Robert Averette was the other up-and-comer at Rockford. He peaked in AAA with Colorado Springs in 2001. Technically on the Rockies' roster at one point, he never played in the bigs. In 2003 he pitched for Shreveport, in the independent Central League. Clinton at the time was also a Cincinnati affiliate. In fact, some players were "promoted" from Clinton to Rockford as the season went on. Like Therneau, Phil Merrell was also pushed into Triple-A by the end of 1999, where he posted an 0-3 record with a 14.73 ERA. 2000 saw his career shift into reverse, and he slid down the ladder of organized baseball, posting a losing record at every stop. Just before spring training in 2001 Merrell quit the game. Finally we have Brandon Puffer, who was a relief ace in the Midwest League. He actually made the show, appearing in 55 games for the Astros in 2002, dropping to 13 games in 2003. He seems to bounce between Triple-A and the bigs, but he can proudly point to his lines in the Baseball Encyclopedia.

Quad City finished second in both halves of the 1999 Midwest League season, and the Twins farm team sent three pitchers to the All Star Game. Juan Rincon was the most famous of the batch. The Venezualan came up for a cup of coffee with the Twins in 2001. In 2002 he was briefly tried as a starter, and this year he came out of the pen 55 times for the Central Division champions. Brent Hoard graduated from the author's high school, but unlike said writer, went to Stanford University. He's slowly been working his way up to the bigs. Five years at various levels of A-ball, a year at Double-A and 2003 in the International League. Next season he will be 27. He's currently on Minnesota's 40-man roster, but he's never played for the parent club. Wrapping things up, Saul Rivera was a flamethrower from the pen. Rivera was waived from the Twins system and picked up by the Mets. He was sent to Montreal as part of the Bruce Chen deal. He was supposed to be at Harrisburg this year, but it doesn't look like he did. He seems to have fallen off the planet.

Peoria also sent three pitchers to the All Star Game. Kirk Griffin was the stopper, but didn't have enough to impress the St. Louis Cardinals. He was out of organized baseball in 2001, joining up with the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League. He's spent three seasons with the team, playing for Sparky Lyle. Les Walrond is a member of the Omaha Royals, but he did spend 8 innings with Kansas City this summer. Coming up with the Cardinals he threw a no-hitter in Double-A, and then bounced back and forth between the Royals and Cardinals. A starter at Peoria, he now does long relief. The last Chief covered is Justin Brunette. He played with the parent Cardinals one year after his stint in the Midwest League, but in 2001 was in the Eastern League. He bounced between the Eastern League and International League for a few years, and is now outside of organized baseball. He had Tommy John surgery early in his career, perhaps he was just tired of the game.

Greg Jones of Cedar Rapids debuted in Anaheim this year. He saw 18 games in relief. His old teammate Renney Duarte vanished from baseball stats after 1999, as did Kane County's Scott Clackum. Kane County's David Noyce bounced between the Florida and Chicago organizations, and seemed to stall at West Tennesee. He was then traded to Arizona for 2003 as part of the Damian Miller trade. Noyce missed all of this season with a torn labrum, so the Cubs sent Mark Freed to the Diamondbacks as a show of good faith.

Out of fourteen minor league all stars, nine did not play in organized baseball in 2003. Two of those played in independent leagues, one was on the DL, and the last faded away after hitting the bigs in 2000. The five players still in baseball are a mixed batch. One hasn't made it to the show, three split time between the minors and majors this year, and only Juan Rincon can really be considered as an established major leaguer. Interestingly enough, it was Rincon who surrendered the single hit in the game. Minor league pitching is always hard to project, especially from low-A. In retrospect, all we can do is look at the results and shrug our shoulders.