Happy Birthday Ryan Goins

Ryan Goins turns 32 today.

Ryan with the Blue Jays for 5 seasons. He played 448 games for us, hitting .228/.275/.335. But, he wasn’t a Jay for his bat. It was his glove that got him to, and kept him on the team. And he had that great batting line with RISP in 2017, hitting .333/.368/.540. While with no one on he hit .190/.255/.286. If hitting with RISP was a skill, he should have tried the skill at other times, he’d have a better career.

Let’s share some of his highlight plays.

The hidden ball trick:

And:

And here is a bunch of Ryan’s plays:

Ryan was a free agent after the 2017 start and signed with the Royals. He played 41 games for them and was released, then signed with the Phillies, but he didn’t play for the major league team. Last year he played for the White Sox and had a pretty decent time with the bat: .250/.333/.347 playing all over the field. He is a non-roster invite to the A’s camp this year.

Happy birthday Ryan. I hope it is a good one. I always enjoyed watching you play defense.

Howie Clark turns 46 today.

Howie was a utility infielder for the Jays in 2003-2004 and then again in 2007.

He was drafted by the Orioles in the 27th round of the 1992. He spent a long time in the minors, finally making it to the Orioles in 2002, for a handful of games. He hit .302/.362/.396 in 53 at bats.

The Jays signed him as a free agent before the 2003 season. He hit .357/.400/.429 in 70 at bats. He played more in 2004, getting into 40 games, but didn’t hit as well, .217/.292/.348 in 115 at bats.

Over the next couple of seasons Howie bounced around from the Pirates, to the Orioles and the Padres, but only got into a few MLB games with the Orioles. Then he came back to the Jays in the middle of the 2007 season, playing in 31 games, hitting .204/.298/.245.

In all he played 134 games (109 with the Jays), spread over 6 seasons. He hit .262/.329/.358.

The moment everyone remembers is the pop fly that dropped because Alex Rodriguez said something behind him that made Howie think that he was being called off. It was a jerk move by Rodriguez (and illegal by MLB rules).

I always had a fondness for Clark, he made it to the majors on hard work and just kept playing and working in the minors.

Happy birthday Howie. I hope it is a good one.

Joe Lawrence turns 43 today.

Joe was our first round draft pick in 1996, number 16 overall (R.A. Dickey was chosen 2 picks after him). He played in 55 games for us in 2002, hitting .180/.262/.247 playing second base for us. That was his MLB career.

Mike Nickeas turns 37 today.

He came to us in the R.A. Dickey trade but only made it into 1 game for us, in 2013. He played 73 games, spread over 3 seasons for the Mets.