Happy Birthday Alex Gonzalez and Pete Walker

Alex Gonzalez turns 51 today.

We’ve had two shortstops named Alex Gonzalez; this is the first.

This Alex was a member of the Blue Jays from 1994 to 2001.

The Jays drafted Gonzalez in the 14th round of the 1991 amateur draft. He had the best career of any player in that draft round. He rose quickly thru the Jays’ minor league system and started the 1994 season as the Jay’s starting SS at the age of 21, but after 15 games, he had a .151 batting average, and the Jays gave the job to Dick Schofield. It would have been good if the team had more patience with him; Schofield was nearing the end of an ok career, but he wasn’t a guy you’d want to play short for you by then.

Alex was on Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list for four straight years, moving to as high as 4th in 1994. Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez were 6th and 7th on the list that year. I doubt that Baseball America brags about that. He did have power and speed potential with a terrific glove. The bat just didn’t come around. He just never learned to avoid chasing bad pitches. He struck out too much. To show they weren’t alone in overestimating him, in the 1995 Bill James Player Rating book, Bill said, ‘My guess is he’ll be an All-Star.’

He held the SS role for seven seasons in the strike-shortened 1995 season. He could have been better with the bat, but he should have had a gold glove or two in his career. In 1995, he played in 111 of the 144 games the Jays got in, hitting .243/.322/.398 with 10 homers. But 114 strikeouts in 367 at-bats were a bit much. He would have fit in well with today’s Jays.

In 1996, Alex played 147 games and hit 14 home runs, but he hit just .235/.300/.391 with 16 steals. His defense made him a valuable player. Alex made 21 errors, but he led AL shortstops in total chances with 765 and double plays with 122 double plays.

In 1997, he missed some games with a fractured finger but still led AL shortstops in fielding average at .986. He hit .239/.302,387 in 126 games and 12 home runs. In 1998, he set career highs in games with 158 and stolen bases with 21 but hit even worse than usual with an OPS+ of just 66.

In the 1999 season, he started great, hitting .292/.379/.416 in 38 games before he suffered a torn labrum in his right shoulder and missed the rest of the season. In 2000, he played in 141 games and hit .252 with 15 homers and 69 RBI. He also led the AL with 16 sacrifice bunts. Leading the AL in sac bunts isn’t exactly a sign that your manager likes your bat. Alex is number 2 on our all-time line in sac bunts (Alfredo Griffin is number 1 with 74, Alex had 64), and I don’t think anyone will catch him.

In 2001, Alex got into 154 games and hit 17 home runs, setting career highs in runs (79) and RBI (76). He hit a big .253/.313/.404, his highest batting average for the Jays in a full season. He also stole 18 bases but was caught 11 times. He also led the AL in chances, assists, and double plays at short. For some reason, he mainly hit the 2nd spot in the order. Boy, that Buck Martinez was a heck of a manager.

After the 2001 season, JP Ricciardi became the Blue Jays’ GM and wanted to cut salary. He traded Gonzalez to the Cubs for Felix Heredia and James Deschaine. He spent 2.5 seasons with the Cubs, getting into the playoffs in 2003, but lost out in the NLCS to the Florida Marlins. Gonzalez had a great NLCS, hitting 3 home runs and driving in 7 in their seven-game loss. But he also made a significant error in the 8th inning of game six that allowed the Marlins to score 8 runs.

In 2004, the Jays traded Alex to the Expos as part of an eight-player, four-team trade that also sent Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs and Orlando Cabrera to Boston. Alex also played for San Diego, Tampa Bay, and Philadelphia before retiring in 2006.

With the Blue Jays, he played 890 games (putting him 20th all-time among Blue Jays position players and number 3 among shortstops behind Tony Fernandez and Alfredo Griffin), hit .245/.304/.386 with 83 home runs and 85 steals. Career, he played in 1396 games, hitting .243/.302/.391 with 137 home runs and 07 steals.

Omar Vizquel won the Gold Glove 9 years in a row from 1993 to 2001, but in some seasons, Alex was the best defensive shortstop in the AL. However, getting Gold Glove voters to look at statistics is challenging, and they would only understand them if they did. Alex had a long career in the majors for a player that didn’t hit well, playing 13 seasons. Gonzalez was a favourite of female fans, and “Marry Me Alex’ signs often appeared at Skydome.

Alex is married—I’m guessing it wasn’t to someone who held up a sign—and he has two children. He also does charity work for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Happy Birthday, Alex. I hope it is a good one.

It’s also pitching coach Pete Walker’s birthday. Pete turns 55 today. In parts of 4 seasons, from 2002 to 2006, with a season with the Yokohama Bay Stars mixed in (10 starts in 2004, putting up a 6.80 ERA). With the Jays, he pitched in 124 games, making 31 starts. He was 19-14 with a 4.32 ERA and 4 saves.

He also pitched for the Mets, Padres, and Rockies. He pitched in 144 games, 31 starts, 4.48 ERA. In 339.1 innings, he allowed 362 hits, 48 home runs, and 133 walks with 191 k. The batters hit .275/.342/.453 against him.

The Jays hired him as the New Hampshire Fisher Cats pitching coach in 2011, then promoted him to the major league team's bullpen coach job in 2012. In 2013, he took over as pitching coach.

He’s helped many pitchers become strong major leaguers.

Happy Birthday, Pete.

Not a Jay, but a favourite of mine, Gary Carter, would have turned 70 today if he hadn’t died of cancer in 2012. He was a Hall of Fame catcher for the Expos, Mets, Giants and Dodgers.

He hit .262/.335/.439 in 2296 games, with 324 home runs. He had a great arm and was several times a Gold Glove winner.