John McDonald turns 51 today.
John McDonald had a terrific career for a guy with a lifetime .233/.273/.323 slash line. How do you play 16 years with a bat like that? Well, you have to be amazing defensively. Several years ago, I asked Brian Butterfield about Mac.
Last year in Seattle, we watched fielding practice before the game, and John McDonald was out there to the very end. That’s why he’s so good at it.
That’s exactly right, he’s the best I’ve ever been around. I’ve told several people in the game
that he has the best work ethic and gets himself into the right position, which is better than any infielder that I’ve ever had. I’ve been blessed to be around some great ones. And it’s not a mistake for me when he makes a play in the hole that brings the house down. I don’t get as excited because it’s something I expect from him, and it’s something he’s rehearsed so many times. He’s rehearsed going into the hole and getting the ball in the air as quickly as he can. He rehearses it. He rehearses it at game speed. When you look at him after he takes ground balls,, he’s got a lather, he’s tired, and practices defense quickly at game speed the way you should. He’s the best.
I watched McDonald’s take infield practice several times. I always enjoyed watching him practice. He goes so hard at it, and he makes sure he throws every ball straight over the top, not sidearm, not 3/4. He was a great defensive player, not because he was gifted with great talent (though John has that), but because he also worked hard.
That was part of why we liked him so much. We could be McDonald if we did all that work. Of course, none of us will do that much work, but still.
Anyway, he played seven seasons for us and was a big fan favourite, despite never being a regular. We like the backups. It is harder to blame them for losing.
Another reason he has had such a long career, despite his batting struggles, is that he is a good person. Everyone seems to like him. When you see a player with a career that lasts longer than you would expect from his numbers, he is generally a guy. It is a valuable life lesson: you want to stay in a career for a long time and be a good person. Skills are good, too, but being someone that everyone likes? That can never hurt. He could get a coaching or manager job if he wanted one.
When Cito was here, he worked on Mac’s batting and had him go all out to pull. And it worked for a bit. He hit six home runs in 152 at-bats. I watched him repeatedly pull balls down the right-field line in batting practice. He had a great month, hitting .382/.417/.765 with three home runs in 34 at-bats in August 2010. After a bit, pitchers saw what he was doing and began giving him pitches that were harder to pull. In September, he hit .200/.222/.300. I still think it wasn’t a bad idea for Mac; the six home runs he hit were the most he hit in his career. In time, I believe that Cito would have helped him figure out how to handle the outside pitches.
I was less thrilled with Cito using McDonald in the outfield. That didn’t work so well.
John works as a roving coach for the Guardians.
His ‘Father’s Day’ home run is one of my all-time favourite Blue Jays memories.
Happy Birthday, John.
Jim Acker turns 67 today.
Acker was a reliever for the Blue Jays from 1983 to July 1986 and from 1989 to 1991. If he could have played there one more year, he would have had a World Series ring.
Acker was the Braves’ first-round draft pick (#21 overall) in 1980. We selected him in the Rule 5 draft before the 1983 season.
As a Rule 5 pick, he stayed on the Blue Jays roster for the 1983 season, but he was one of our better pitchers as a 24-year-old rookie. He had a 5-1 record and a 4.33 ERA in 38 games, 5 starts. In 1984, he battled injuries and appeared in 32 games, starting 3, with a 4.38 ERA.
In 1985, we had a closer-by-committee approach, and Acker had a solid season, with a 7-2 record (our relievers contributed significantly to the wins that year, with Dennis Lamp going 11-0), a 3.23 ERA, and ten saves in 61 games.
We made it to the playoffs for the first time that year. Jim pitched in 2 games and 6 innings, allowing two hits, no walks, and five strikeouts. In July of 1986, we traded him back to Atlanta for right-handed starter Joe Johnson. Johnson would make 29 starts for us over the next two seasons, going 10-7 with a 4.42 ERA.
He played for the Braves until August 24, 1989, when they traded him back to us for Francisco Cabrera and Tony Castillo. Cabrera would play the hero in the 1992 NLCS, getting the series-winning hit in the 9th inning of the 7th game. The Braves would lose to the Jays in the World Series.
Acker did an excellent job for us down the 1989 season stretch, with a 1.59 ERA in 14 games and 28.1 innings, helping us make it to the playoffs again. We lost to the A’s in the ALCS, but Acker had an excellent series pitching in all five games, with a 1.42 ERA in 6.1 innings, allowing four hits, one walk, and striking out four.
Jim had a strong 1990 season, with a 3.82 ERA in 59 games and 91.2 innings pitched. 1991 wasn’t as good, with a 5.20 ERA in 54 games and 88.1 innings. We made the playoffs again, losing out to the Twins in the ALCS. Jim pitched in one game.
After the season, he signed with the Mariners and pitched in 17 games, marking the end of his MLB career.
He played ten seasons in the majors. 467 games, 32 starts. He had a 4.45 ERA, 33-49 record, and 30 saves. Seven of those seasons were with the Blue Jays. He wasn’t a strikeout pitcher, averaging just 4.8 per 9 innings, but then it was a different time, and he wasn’t a one-inning reliever like we see these days. Pitchers looked for contact to keep their pitch counts down.
Happy Birthday, Jim. I hope it is a good one.
Paul Spoljaric turns 55 today.
Paul was a left-handed reliever for the Blue Jays. He was born in Kelowna, BC (a beautiful town). He was an amateur free agent signing. Back in the day, Canadians weren’t part of the draft in 1989.
Paul made the team out of spring training in 1994, got rocked in two appearances, and wasn’t seen again until 1996. Things went better. He had a 3.08 ERA in 28 games.
He had a strong 1997 season, posting a 3.19 ERA in 37 games, when the Jays traded Paul and Mike Timlin to the Mariners for Jose Cruz Jr. The Mariners were in a pennant race, and their bullpen needed help. They had taken Cruz in the first round of the 1992 draft, number 3 overall. Timlin and Spoljaric helped them to the playoffs, but they lost out in the LDS. Cruz would hit 122 homers for the Blue Jays over six seasons. I’m sure it was Ash’s best trade for the Blue Jays, but that’s without checking.
Paul had a terrible 1998 season, with a 6.48 ERA for the Mariners. They traded him to the Phillies before the 1999 season. In May that year, the Jays traded to get him back, sending Robert Person to the Phillies. Person’s biggest claim to fame was that he came from the Mets in trade for John Olerud in a one-for-one deal in which we sent cash to the Mets.
Paul would pitch in 37 games, making two starts, for us in 1999 with a 4.65 ERA.
After the season, the Jays traded Paul and Pat Hentgen to the Cardinals for Alberto Castillo, Matt DeWitt, and Lance Painter. This deal did not move the needle for us. Paul was released by the Cards before the 2000 season and signed with the Royals. He pitched in 13 games for them, which was the end of his major league career.
Ke played six seasons in the majors, four with the Jays, in which he started 104 games with a 4.31 ERA and 4 saves. In total, he played 195 games, 12 starts, and had a 5.52 ERA.
Happy Birthday, Paul.
Moises Sierra turns 37 today.
Moises was an outfield prospect for us. At the end of July 2012, he was called up, played in 49 games, and had a .224/.274/.374 line.
He received another call-up in August 2013 and performed much better, hitting .290/.369/.458 in 35 games.
That bought him a job out of spring training in 2014. He didn’t hit much at all in 13 games in April. He was DFAed and taken by the White Sox off waivers. He played in 83 games, hitting .276/.311/.417.
After that, he bounced from team to team. He played 27 games for the Nationals in 2018, hitting .167/.217/.204.
He played in Mexico this past season and had a terrific year, hitting .355/.464/.572 and scoring 18 home runs in 114 games.
He played parts of four seasons in the majors and hit .235/.287/.362 with nine home runs in 207 games.
Unfortunately, most of my memories of Moises involve misadventures in the outfield. If his defense were better, someone would have given him enough at-bats to show whether or not he could become a major league regular.
He played in Japan for a couple of years until 2024 and has played in the Atlantic League.
Happy Birthday, Moises.
Kevin Millar turns 54 today.
Millar played his last season in the majors for the Jays. J.P. Ricciardi brought him in for veteran presence. But when you are a first baseman/DH, and you hit like that, it doesn’t matter how great a guy you are in the clubhouse, but after he left the team, we found out that most of his veteran presence was telling everyone how great it was when he was with the Red Sox.
He wasn’t a favourite of mine.
Kevin played 12 seasons in the majors with the Marlins (5 seasons), Red Sox (3 seasons), Orioles (3 seasons), and Blue Jays. In 1427 games, he hit .274/.358/.452 with 170 home runs and a 14.2 bWAR (-0.7 of that with the Jays.
He has a World Series ring from the 2004 season with the Red Sox, and he was a big part of their comeback from down 3-0 in the ALCS that year. In the ninth inning of Game 4, down a run, Kevin worked a walk-off against Mariano Rivera. Dave Robert pinch-ran, stole second, and the rest is history.
Happy Birthday, Kevin.
