It is former Blue Jay Dave Berg’s 55th birthday today.
The Angels drafted Dave in the 38th round of the 1993 amateur draft. How many players make the majors after being drafted in the 38th round? In 1998, he joined the Marlins and played 81 games, batting a terrific .313/.393/.407 playing 2B, 3B, and SS. He played three more seasons with the Marlins as a utility player. He kept a decent OBP, though his numbers dropped each of those seasons. In his last season with the Marlins, he hit .242/.292/.363.In
the off-season before the 2002 season, Berg signed with the Jays as a free agent. He played three seasons as a utility player, but his glove wasn’t good enough to be a middle infielder, and his bat wasn’t good enough to play in the corner infield or outfield spots.
In his three seasons with the Jays, his OPS+ dropped each year, starting at 84 in 2002, then 76 in 2003, and 57 in 2004. After the 2004 season, he signed with the Red Sox as a free agent, then went to the Cardinals and Angels without ever making it to the majors. Finally, in May of 2006, he retired.
Berg finished his career with 582 games played, 228 with the Blue Jays, 21 home runs, and 163 RBI. His batting line was .269/.328/.373. Not bad for a 38th-round draft pick.
Happy Birthday, Dave.
It is also Rene Gonzales’ 65th birthday.
Rene had a 13-year MLB career, mainly as a utility infielder. One of those 13 seasons was with the Blue Jays. Before the 1991 season, we traded Rob Blumberg to the Orioles for him. He played in 71 games, hitting .195/.289/.246 in 141 at-bats. We had Manny Lee at short that year, so the Jays picked Gonzales to give him some competition at the position.
Drafted by the Expos in the 5th round of the 1982 draft, he made it to the Expos in 1984 as a good glove, weak bat infielder. After the 1986 season, he was part of the trade that brought the Expos Dannis Martinez (a winning trade for the Expos).
He became one of 34 third basemen to play with Cal Ripken (as well as one of 34 second basemen to play with Ripken). He played four seasons with the Orioles.
Rene would play with seven different MLB teams, playing 704 bases. In his career, he hit .239/.315/.320 with 19 home runs. He played in the Mexican League after his MLB career was over.
I don’t remember much about him as a Blue Jay.
Happy Birthday, Rene.
Lefty reliever Juan Perez turns 47 today.
He pitched in 19 games for the Jays in 2013, with a 3.69 ERA, with 15 walks and 33 strikeouts in 31.2 innings.
Perez set a team record by going 22.1 consecutive scoreless innings to start his Jays’ career. If you watched the Jays back then, you likely remember him leaving a game with a rather apparent arm injury (it was one of those injuries that, if you saw it, you remember it). It turned out to be a torn UCL. I see a note that Juan elected to rehab instead of taking Tommy John surgery. However it worked out, he didn’t pitch in the majors again.
He pitched parts of five seasons in the majors, 61 games in total with a 4.25 ERA. In 59.1 innings, he allowed 37 walks, striking out 64, while playing for four different teams.
My memory of Juan is that he had a very different delivery. Rather than try to explain (I don’t think I could do it justice, other than to say he lands very ‘open’, he doesn’t really stride straight towards the plate, he stepped further to the right than any pitcher I can remember seeing. I can’t imagine a pitching coach suggesting he do it that way. Here is some video:’
Happy Birthday, Juan.
