The Wild Card:The "One Season or Less" Team

Some players have had lengthy careers with the Diamondbacks. Others have not. We are focusing on the second group right now. Specifically I am putting together a starting lineup of players who only played for the Diamondbacks in a single season. Some of these players played even less than that due to injury and/or trades. This isn't an actual breakdown of performance, but more selected like an actual All-Star team: Very arbitrarily. Without further ado:

Catcher - Brent Mayne (2004)

Mayne spent part of the last year of his career on the 2004 Diamondbacks, which is rough. He was a serviceable Catcher throughout his 15-year career, peaking offensively with the Giants in 1999 with an OPS of .808. Mercifully, considering the season, he was able to finish out the season with the Dodgers, being involved in the trade that sent Steve Finley over, and played in the postseason for the only time in his career.

First Base - Richie Sexson (2004)

The inspiration for this list, and arguably one of the most famous short-termed Diamondbacks. With Mark Grace retiring, the Diamondbacks had a hole to fill at first base because they didn't like Lyle Overbay for some reason. So, they decided to send Overbay, as well as current Brewers manager Craig Counsell, Junior Spivey, and a yet-to-reach-the-majors Jorge De La Rosa to Milwaukee for Sexson and two minor leaguers who really didn't amount to much (other than one being named "Noochie") You probably remember the rest of the story. Sexson only played 23 games for the Diamondbacks before being lost to injury for the season. He was on the last year of his contract, so he decided to skip town to Seattle and become the model for the Lookout Landing logo.

Counsell and Overbay, it should be noted, returned to Arizona at various points in their career and Spivey was heckled at an Independent League game in front of his wife by a site manager who shall remain nameless.

Second Base - Andy Stankiewicz (1998)

Stankiewicz played the last season of his career with the first Diamondbacks team. He was a bit of a late bloomer, not reaching the majors until his age 27 season in 1992 with the Yankees. He bounced around with Houston and Montreal before landing with the Diamondbacks. He was the backup at second to another Andy, Andy Fox, who got the majority of playing time there. Stankiewicz is now the current Baseball Head Coach at Grand Canyon University.

Third Base - Troy Glaus (2005)

One of those first splashy signings made in the offseason between 2004 and 2005. Glaus was a former All Star and World Series MVP with the Angels. He put up decent  numbers for the Diamondbacks (.258/.363/.522 with 37 Home Runs), but he was shipped to Toronto the next offseason in the trade that brought Orlando Hudson to the desert.

Shortstop - Royce Clayton (2005)

Another 2005 "Hey, this guy was good once, right?" signing. Played decently, went to the Nationals in 2006. Played Miguel Tejada in a movie.

Outfield - Karim Garcia (1998)

Had one pretty bad season for the Diamondbacks in their inagural season. However, was flipped to the Tigers for Luis Gonzalez. This list has highlighted possibly the worst trade in D-Backs history (Sexson) and definitely the best.

Also endured the indignity of being recently photographed looking like this:

Outfield - Devon White (1998)

Has the important trivia question distinction of being the first All Star for the Diamondbacks as their starting Center Fielder. Went to the Dodgers in 1999, paving the way for Steve Finley to occupy Center Field and do good things.

Outfield - Reggie Sanders (2001)

Was the everday Right Fielder for the World Champs. Hit 33 Home Runs, though in 2001 that was way less impressive than it would be today. He was benched in favor of Danny Bautista in Game 7 of the World Series. Bautista hit a double (with subsequent TOOTBLAN going to third) off of Roger Clemens so obviously that decision worked. Sanders signed with the Giants for 2002 and was the starting Right Fielder for the team that lost the World Series in 7 to the Angels. Dusty Baker shoulda benched him for Tsuyoshi Shinjo. They totally would have won then.

Starting Pitcher - Steve Sparks (2004)

There were a lot of interesting candidates for this, but I chose Sparks, by virtue of the fact that he spent the majority of his last two seasons in the Majors playing for the 2003 Tigers and the 2004 Diamondbacks.(Though he had a stint with the Division Winning Athletics in 2003 after being traded.) That is rough. He was also a Knuckleballer, which is always cool.

Closer - Daniel Schlereth (2009)

It's almost as if drafting relievers in the first round and bringing them up quickly is a bad idea. Who knew?