Happy Birthday Mike Huff

Former Jay fourth outfield Mike Huff turns 45 today. Mike was with the Jays for 3 seasons but his first one was his good one he played in 80 games, batted .304/.392/.449, with 3 home runs, 31 runs and 25 RBIs. We could use a fourth outfielder or for that matter any outfielder that could hit like that now.

Huff was drafted by the Dodgers in 1985, he played 12 games for them in '89. In '90 he was picked up by the Indains in the rule 5 draft, he played half a season for them and then was taken off waivers by the White Sox. He played parts of three seasons with the White Sox then the Jays traded Domingo Martinez for him. Domingo never played a major league game after that so we got the better of that trade.

Mike had that one good season in '94 and then the Jays resigned him as a free agent after the season for a whopping $360,000. But he couldn't match his '94 season batting .232/.337/.333 in '95. After 11 games and a .172 average in '96 he was released.

He holds a small place in my heart because I played an 'All Decade Team' for the 1990's in Diamond Mind Baseball and he was the fourth outfielder for my Jays team, but he really didn't do anything well enough in real life to have long career as an outfield. He had no power and very little speed.  He's one of just a handful of players born in Hawaii to make the Majors.