Happy Birthday Vladimir Guerrero Jr

Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. turns 24 today.

24-year-old, and he already has 104 MLB home runs (and that’s with a shortened season in there) and a .284/.358/.504 line.

On our all-time lists, Vlad is already:

21st in bWAR

45th in games played

34th in runs scored

34th in hits

21st in home runs

29th in RBI

31st in walks

Happy Birthday, Vlad.

Rowdy Tellez turns 28 today.

Rowdy had parts of three seasons with the Blue Jays, hitting .241/.301/.458 with 37 home runs.

Traded to the Brewers for Trevor Richards and Bowden Francis in early July, Rowdy hit .272/.333/.481 with 7 home runs for them in 56 games, and he hit 2 home runs in their ALDS loss to the Braves.

After 5 MLB seasons, Rowdy has a .236/.307/.462 line with 79 home runs.

What might have been if he hadn’t had the injury running over the bullpen mound in Buffalo when he seemed to be having his breakout season.

Happy Birthday, Rowdy.

Brandon League turns 40 today.

League was our second-round pick in the 2001 draft.

League was one of my favourite relievers for the Jays in the oughts.

He was up and down with the team in 2004 and 2005, he had a bit of a breakout year in 2006, with a 2.53 ERA in 42.2 innings.

Then he had shoulder issues that cost him most of 2007. 2008 went some better, but he did miss time with injuries again. Finally, in 2009, he got into 67 with a 4.58 ERA, working as a setup man.

After the season, the Blue Jays traded League to the Mariners for Brandon Morrow. I was sad to see him go, but you do it when you can trade a reliever for a starter.

League spent two and a half seasons with the Mariners, picking up 52 saves and was traded to the Dodgers. As a Dodger, he pitched in 149 games in 2.5 seasons with a 3.55 ERA, becoming the setup man for Kenley Jansen.

In total, he played 11 MLB seasons, 74 saves and a 3.65 ERA.

Happy Birthday, Brandon.

Curtis Granderson turns 42 today.

Granderson spent most of one season of his 16-year MLB career (2018, his second-last in the majors) with the Blue Jays. He hit .245/.342/.430 before being traded to the Brewers at the end of August.

Career, he hit .249/.337/.465 with 344 home runs in 2057 games.

He is now the president of the Players Alliance, an organization of former and current players working to improve black Americans’ access to baseball.

Happy birthday, Curtis.