It's a big fat fluke

Voros McCracken of Baseball Digest has a nice piece about the 20 most flukey HR seasons of all time in terms of departures from career norms. He ranks Brady Anderson's 50 homer season in 1996 at the top of the list, followed by Campy Campaneris hitting 22 HRs (!!!), Davey Johnson hitting 43 (when he, Darrell Evans and Aaron became the only three teammates to top 40 in a single year), Luis Gonzalez, Greg Gross, Wade Boggs and Barry Bonds (in 2001, obviously).

Roger Maris is only the 15th most flukey. Some of the other names on the list -- Jay Bell, Barry Larkin, Terry Steinbach, Bob Bailey, Wally Moses, Eddie Stanky, Jeff Reed and Joe Kuehl.

I'm a little surprised that Adrian Beltre's 48-HR season with the Dodgers in 2004 did not make the list. I still think the Dodgers were stupid not to sign him. He hit 26 HRs with 99 RBIs last year, playing half his games in a park that favors pitchers -- which would have made him the best player by far on the Dodgers last year. His deal with the Mariners -- 5 years for $65 million -- looks like money well-spent.