Former lefty reliever Gary Lavelle turns 63 today.

Gary played for the San Francisco Giants for 11 years, bouncing between closer and lefty setup guy. He had 127 saves for them in 647 games. He and Greg Minton gave the Giants a great lefty-righty duo at the back of the pen.

In the off-season before the 1987 season the Jays traded Jim Got and 2 minor leaguers who never made it to the majors to get Lavelle. Gott was young and went on to have an up and down major league career. He had 34 saves in 1988, with the Pirates, and 25 in 1993, with the Dodgers.

Lavelle was 36, when we got him, but he had a terrific 1985 seasons. He had a 3.10 ERA in 69 games, with 8 saves. He gave up just 54 hits in 72.2 innings. He didn't have much for splits, he held LHB to a .660 OPS but did even better against RHB, .584 OPS. He was a important part of our bullpen and a player I liked a lot.

The Jays made it to the playoffs that year, but Gary only pitched to one batter. He came into the top of the 8th of a tied game 2 against the Royals and walked George Brett, then was replaced with Tom Henke, who got out of the inning without allowing a run. The Jays won the game in the 10th on a walk off Al Oliver single. Henke pitched 3 innings for the win. That was Lavelle's only playoff appearance in a 13 year career.

Unfortunately, Gary missed the entire 1986 season with an elbow injury. When he came back in 1987 he was the same pitcher. He had a 5.91 ERA, after 23 appearances, when the Jays released him. Oakland picked him up and he got into 6 more games but retired at the end of the year.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Gary. Hope it is a good one.

Former Blue Jay closer Tom Henke turns 54 today.

Henke was picked up by Jays GM Pat Gillick from the Texas Rangers, before the 1985 season, as compensation for the Rangers signing free agent Cliff Johnson. Johnson only played 82 games for the Rangers before they traded him back to the Jays. It really didn't work out for the Rangers. For the Jays it was great.

Henke didn't look like much with the Rangers, he pitched in 25 games, with a 6.35 ERA, in 1984. Somehow Gillick saw something in him and made him our closer. Over the next 8 seasons, Henke saved 217 regular season games for the Jays and had 5 more saves during our 1992 playoff run that led to our first World Series win.

After the 1992 season he left the Jays to sign as a free agent with the Rangers. The Jays let him go to make room for Duane Ward to take over the closer job.

Henke is our franchise leader in saves (Ward is number two on the list). He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame this year.

Happy Birthday, Tom, hope you have a great one.

Everyone's favorite play-by-play man, Buck Martinez, turns 63 today. 

Buck had a 17 season career as a catcher in the major leagues. 6 of those seasons were with the Blue Jays. He worked as the right-handed half of a very successful platoon pairing with Ernie Whitt. Buck was a good glove/bad bat, back up catcher for most of his career but he did learn to turn on a pitch, at least occasionally, with the Jays. He hit 10 home runs in two consecutive seasons for the Jays, both in less than 300 PA. 

Buck's playing career pretty much ended on a collision at home plate July 9, 1985 at Kingdome in Seattle. Phil Bradley ran over him on this play. If you look at the video, that was one amazing throw from Jesse Barfield to get Bradley at the plate and then another good throw from George Bell in left, after Buck's overthrow to third, to get Gorman Thomas, the second out at home on the play. A 9-2-7-2 double play. Buck broke a leg and dislocated an ankle on the play. He did try a comeback in 1986 but only hit .181/.271/.269.

Buck went straight into broadcasting after he retired as a player, working as a radio color analyst then moving to TV with TSN. He also worked some ESPN games. 

After the 2000, Toronto GM Gord Ash decided that, since Buck could talk about baseball, he could manage as well. Buck led the Jays to a 80-82 record in 2001 and then started 2002 20-33 before he was fired. Not one of Gord Ash's better moves. 

Buck went straight back the broadcast booth, doing color for the Orioles. He also worked weekend games for TBS. In 2010 he took over from Jaime Campbell, doing play-by-play for the Jays games on RSN. As much as I liked him as an analyst with Jim Hughson and Dan Shulman, I'm not as thrilled with his play-by-play. 

Anyway, Happy Birthday Buck. Have a good one. 

Jon Rauch turns 33 today. 

It hasn't been the best of seasons for Jon, he has a 4.85 ERA, has given up 11 home runs, not far off a team record for relievers. He's minus an appendix and is out now with torn cartilage in his right knee. He's had 11 saves and 5 blown saves.

He's sitting as a Type-B free agent. The Jays have an option on him at $3.75 million. I really can't see them picking up the option but, if offered arbitration, I really can't see him turning it down. I don't know how much value he would have on the open market, after the season he has had. But, if you are a believer in intimidation factors for relievers, he is easily the scariest looking reliever we have ever had. I'm sure Alphonzo Marquez agrees.

Happy birthday Jon, hope it is a good one.

Today is Brandon Morrow's 26 27th birthday. He gets the start today too. Years ago Bill James did a little study on how players did on their birthdays, I don't remember too much about it, other than one line: 'if you are a gambler, keep an eye on pitcher's birthdays'. I think I'd put $5 on the Jays tonight.

Brandon is my favorite Jay starter to watch. I've always liked the strikeout pitchers. I know the strikeout may not be democratic, but I always figure if you strikeout a guy, nothing bad can happen, it isn't going to bounce through the infield somehow. Anyway, Brandon goes into his birthday start on a bit of a roll. In his last 5 starts he has limited batters to a .189/.270/.262 slash line, with 9.6 k/9, averaging just less than 7 innings a start. The Jays have won his last 7 starts. He is 4-0 with a 2.85 ERA in that time 

Up to age 26 27, he is 25-23, with 16 saves, in 58 starts and 116 relief appearances. Not to shabby and I'm sure there is better to come. On Baseball Reference's list of 'similar pitchers through age 25', Carlos Villanueva is number 3. I really don't consider them similar at all.

Happy Birthday Brandon! How about a no-hitter for a present?

Former Jay pitcher Jeff Musselman turns 48 today.

Jeff was a 6th round pick from the 1985 draft out of Harvard. I don't think there has been a player out of Harvard that has made the majors since.  A lefty, he got into a couple of games in for the Jays 1986, he made the team out of spring training in 1987. We had a pretty good team that year, finishing 96-66, good for 2nd place. Jeff was 12-5 (the best winning percentage in the AL), with 3 saves and a 4.15 ERA out of our pen.  

Surgery for a muscle tear suffered at the end of the 1987 season, kept him out of the lineup until the middle of the 1988 season. The Jays used him as a starter for the rest of that year. In 15 starts, he was 8-5 with a 3.18 ERA.

At the start of the 1989 season Musselman was traded to the Mets for Mookie Wilson. He played with the Mets for a couple of seasons, not all that successfully. 

After he was finished as a player, he became a player's agent and he works at Scott Boras agency now. 

I remember, when he came up, I really liked him. After the 1988 season, I thought we had a star starter for years to come, but it didn't work out. 

Happy Birthday Jeff. Hope it is a good one. 

Mike Sirotka turns 40 today.

If we ever do a list of 'worst trades in Jay history', the David Wells for Mike Sirotka deal will be on the list,  not that the White Sox got much out of it either. You likely know the story, Mike Sirotka was a left-handed starter for the White Sox. From 1998 to 2000 he won 40 games for them. He had his best season in 2000 with a 15-10 record, 3.79 ERA. He didn't strikeout a lot of guys, 5.8 per 9 but only walked 1.86. 

So that off-season the Jays traded David Wells (and Mike DeWitt, who was quickly traded back to the Jays) for Sirotka and 3 guys that didn't do much in the majors (outfielder Brian Simmons did play 60 games for us, batting a big .178). Wells won 37 games the two pervious seasons for the Jays, but he was turning 38, was rather large and was a pain in the butt. So trading him for a younger lefty seemed like a good idea at the time. 

Sirotka, it turned out, had a damaged shoulder and never pitched again in the majors. The Jays tried to get Bud Selig to undo the trade or make the White Sox give them another player, but Bud ruled for the White Sox. It wasn't like Wells was great for the Sox, he only made 16 starts the next year, going 5-7 with a 4.47 ERA. After that season he signed with the Yankees as a free agent. 

So it wasn't a great trade for either team but the Jays had to pay Sirotka $6.8 million dollars over the next years, which was $2.45 million less than what Wells got in 2001 from the White Sox. So even thought it isn't exactly something that would be highlighted at the top of Gord Ash's resume, it saved us some money.  

Anyway, none of this was Sirotka's fault so Happy Birthday Mike. I hope it is a good one. 

Jesse Litsch turns 26 today. 

Must be pretty nice to be 26 and have 2 seasons of sub-4.00 ERAs in your past. Course the two years since haven't been as much fun. After Tommy John surgery in 2009 and surgery to repair a 'labral tear' in his hip last year, he looks fit and healthy again. 

So far this spring he has pitch 5 scoreless innings, allowing just 2 hits and picking up 5 strikeouts. 

It is great to see him back and throwing well again. At very least it looks like he will make it tough for the Jays not to put him in the rotation. 

I've mentioned before how great he was playing children at the Y here in Calgary. I like people that are good with kids, so he made a fan out of me.

Happy Birthday, Jesse. Hope it is a good one.