Cubs “One Hit” Wonders (but not really) – #7 – Mark Prior

Taking a look back at the 10 players who had one really good or great year in their career while they were with the Cubs.

Year: 2003
WAR: 7.4
+3.8 WAR = 51.4% Improvement

Mark Prior deserves more than a brief retrospective of his career in a “one-hit wonder” post, so I’ll keep this brief. And this is a bit of a cheat, as Prior would never really be considered a one-hit wonder. But the difference between his peak season in 2003 and his second highest season (2005) in in terms of WAR was double. He was good in his other 2 major league season, and then had his last season in 2006 with a -0.9 WAR.

So I’ll limit this post to a celebration of just how great he was in 2003.

He was coming off a very solid rookie season, where his war was 2nd among NL rookies – although he finished 7th in the ROY voting.

In his 2nd season, his numbers were excellent: 211 IP, 2.43 ERA, 10.4 K/9 and 4.90 SO/BB. And he led the league in pitcher WAR at 7.4 and in FIP at 2.47. He finished 3rd in the Cy Young voting. Winner Eric Gagne was a rare reliever to win, with 55 saves and a 1.10 ERA. But his WAR was 3.7, which was exactly half of Prior’s. 2nd place was Jason Schmidt, who was in the best two year run of his career, leading the league in ERA and WHIP. In an era where WAR has been given more weight, Prior might have won.

Most remember what happened to Prior in Game 6 of the NLCS, but he also pitched a complete game in the NLDS that season:

Remembering that season is so bittersweet, not only because of the disappointing way it ended. But there was a sense that it was the beginning of a great run with 4 awesome starting pitchers: Prior, Kerry Wood, Matt Clement and Carlos Zambrono. But in a way, it turned out to be a one-hit wonder for the combination of those four.

Year	Combined WAR	AVG WAR
2002 (No Zambrano)	11.8	3.93
2003	21.7	5.43
2004	15.7	3.93
2005 (No Clement)	10.2	3.40
2006 (No Wood or Clement)	4.4	2.20

The negative 6 WAR turned out to be the difference between a wild card spot and not making the playoffs. And then injuries ended Prior’s career and forced Wood to become a reliever.

Sigh.