Happy Birthday J.P. Arencibia

Former Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia turns 32 today.

I wonder if Sportsnet is considering him for Zaun’s job. I haven’t heard any rumors about what they plan to do. J.P. would be camera friendly. I don’t know that I’ve seen him talking on TV much so, I can’t say if I’d like him in the job or not.

When he came up, to the Jays, he seemed to have all the potential in the world. He hit 2 home runs in his first game. And he hit 2 homers in his first game of the next season, his first full season in the majors He would finish that season with 23 home runs and his .219/.282/.438 batting line gave us hope that he would improve a little and be a good major league catcher.

It didn’t happen. His rookie season would turn out to be his best. I kept holding out hope he would become a useful player. A catcher with power is a handy thing to have, all he needed to do was learn to control the strike zone a little bit better. Of course, that’s not as easy as it sounds. Unfortunately his defense wasn’t good enough to keep him in the game without the bat doing much.

JP had 64 home runs for the Jays, putting him at 30th on the franchise leader board. 3 more than Darren Fletcher, second to Ernie Whitt among Blue Jays catchers. Russell Marin will pass him with his 9th homer this season. JP’s 193 RBI has him at 48th in team history. I won’t mention where he is in strikeouts. He did throw out 73 base stealers, 26% of those that tried to steal against him.

Happy birthday JP, I hope you are enjoying your retirement from baseball.