Happy Birthday Edwin Encarnacion

Edwin Encarnacion turns 33 today.

When we traded Scott Rolen to the Reds for Josh Roenicke, Zach Stewart and Edwin, no one would have guessed that Edwin would be the last one standing. Course, Edwin did spend 3 weeks as a Oakland A, in the winter of 2010.

Edwin wasn't exactly loved for his first couple of years as a Jay. Fans tend to be impatient. We weren't all fans of Jose Bautista's right away either. You would think we'd learn a little patience by now, especially with players with tons of power. Being fair to those that didn't like him, his defense was pretty awful at third base. Latin players don't tend to get a lot of slack when they don't play great.

He has had his moments, including burning himself with fireworks on New Years. But, lately there have been more fun moments:

via cdn.fangraphs.com

Edwin's been terrific for the past 4 seasons, putting up bWAR values of over 4 each year. He's a fun guy to watch, he seems to have grown to enjoy playing in Toronto. Watching his reaction to the hats being thrown out on the field, when he hit the 3 home runs, was great.

Edwin is moving up the franchise leader boards. He's:

• 11th among position players in bWAR at 20.7
• 4th in slugging average, at .521
• 6th in home runs at 197, his 7th this year will put him 4th.
• 22nd in games player at 839.

Edwin, Happy Birthday, pour yourself a Mamajuana and have a great day.

It is also Kevin Mench birthday, he turns 38 today. Kevin was half of the two headed Mencherson monster that delighted (very subtle sarcasm there, for those of you that weren't following the team at the time) Jays fans in 2008.

And Frank Menechino turns 45 today. Frank was a utility infielder for the Jays in 2004 and 2005. He had a very good season, hitting .301/.400/.504 in 2004 and then a lesser season, hitting .216/.352/.345 in 2005, playing about 70 games each season. Frank was one of many that have come to us in trade from the A's over the years.

So Happy Birthday Kevin and Frank. Hope it is a good one.