Everyone's favorite former Jay, Brad Wilkerson, turns 35 (funny it seemed like he was a lot older than that when he played with us).
Brad took a fair bit of punishment, around here, during his season with the Jays. He wasn't very good (understatement) and our managers John Gibbons and, after Gibby was fired, Cito Gaston, used him way too much, for our liking. Brad hit .216/.297/.332 with 4 home runs and 23 RBI. He and Kevin Mench were the punch line for a 2008 season that started with such high hopes and ended with us in 4th place. We weren't thrilled that the two headed Mencherson got a lot of at bats that we felt would have been better off given to a (then) prospect, named Adam Lind.
It was really too bad, Wilkerson was a player that I had fond memories of from his Expo days. He was a pretty good player with them, he hit .256/.365/.452 in 5 seasons as an Expo (well, 1 of them was as a National) with 83 home runs and 265 RBI. He had power, took walks, played good defense and had a bit of speed.
His best season was 2004, he hit 32 home runs, took 106 walks and had a .255/.374/.498 line. But the Wilkerson we had didn't resemble that one in the least. He seems to be old at 31 when he played for us.
Anyway, Happy Birthday Brad. Hope it is a good one.