35th season Blue Jay all-time team

35th season Blue Jay all-time team

With pitchers and catch reporting on the weekend so I thought it would be a good idea to come up with an all-time Blue Jays

Manager - Cito Gaston is the most well known Blue Jays manager of all time and is the guy that lead the Blue Jays to back to back World Series Champions and most wins in Blue Jays history (894)

Designated Hitter - George Bell who is the only MVP in the Blue Jays history and had 202 home runs and 740 runs batted in and had the most memorable moment before the World Series years.

First Baseman - Carlos Delgado was the best home run hitter in Blue Jays history with 336 homers in his blue jays career.

Second Baseman - Roberto Alomar is the first Blue Jays player in the Hall of Fame and is one of the best if not the best fielder in Blue Jays history who hit and got on base a lot and time to time stole a base or smacked a dinger over the fence but no matter what he did with the bat it was all about the glove and those 10 golden ones.

Shortstop - Tony Fernández was the best shortstop in Blue Jays and it was about his defense because just like most of the shortstops of his era it was more about the defense than the power and pop of the bat and his record fielding % of .992 in 1989 and his injury @ the EX with a week left in the 1987 regular season and began a tail spin all the way out of the playoffs and brought Alomar and Carter to T.O. when trade away.

Third Base - Rance Mulliniks was a solid defensive player and holds the record for fielding % in a season with .975 and pinch hits with 59 and hit over 300 4 times in his Blue Jays career and the mustache and played 11 years as a Blue Jays.

Catcher - Pat Borders had a World Series to remember in 1992 and picked up the MVP of the World Series other than that really no catcher really stands out and Borders was a sub-par hitter so I think that Erin Witt stood out for me and I will remember him as the Blue Jay catch. So this may be JP's spot for the taken in 5 to 10 years down the road but we will see what his Jays career is made of.

Center Fielder - Devon White and his fielding and jumping the walls and his speed on the bases was just exciting to watch and was just amazing petrolling center field.

Left Fielder - Joe Carter hit over 25 homers each of his first 5 seasons as a Blue Jay until his last season with them and his big moment of course was Game 6 of the 1993 World Series when he just enough a Mitch Williams pitch in the bottom of the 9Th and hit a 3 run homer into the bullpen. The only thing that brought his status down and not take him to the hall was his hitting because if he hit better he would have driven many more runs than he did.

Right Fielder - Jessie Barfield had some solid numbers with the home run ball hitting over 25 homers in 4 of his 9 seasons with the Blue Jays and it was a lesser home run driving league in the early to mid 80's and was the Jays Player to hit 40 in a season in 1986 and had 3 consecutive seasons around 285 batting average in the mid 80's along with a gun of an arm.

Starting Pitcher # 1 - Roy Halladay was a work horse with 6 seasons of at least 220 innings pitched and at least 16 wins which includes 2 seasons of 20 or more wins in a season.

Starting Pitcher # 2 - Dave Stieb was known as the pitcher you did not want to make a mistake behind because he would stare right through you and he will also be known as the pitcher who could not finish the no-hitter until he finally did on September 2Nd, 1990. He is the winiest pitcher in Blue Jays history with 176 wins and had a lot of no decisions in his career as the batting and run production lack during his starts.

Starting Pitcher # 3 - Pat Hentgen who was the first 20 game winner in Blue Jays history twice once with 19 wins in the regular season and 1 post season win in 1993 and then got 20 regular season wins in 1996 along with the CY young award which was a first too.

Starting Pitcher # 4 - Jimmy Key was a solid left hander until his wife pleaded for him to go to New York and than she left him but he did have a solid career as a Blue Jay and was go for between 12-17 wins in his 8 seasons as a starting pitcher and lost more games than he won once as a Jays pitcher and pitched more than 200 innings in a season 6 times.

Starting Pitcher # 5 - Todd Stottlemyre and his bloody chin after sliding into third base against the Atlanta Braves in the 1992 World Series game that had like a 15-14 final score.

Setup Pitcher - Duane Ward was the guy the Jays went to when they need a guy before the closer came out of the bullpen to set fire and then put it out and he was good at the gap game setting up for Tom Henke for a few season before becoming the closer himself and had 1 outstanding season with 45 saves.

Closer - Tom Henke came in and made the game interesting but more times than not he got the job done but it was never easy and in the end he had 214 saves and his trademark glasses were something.

Lets hope to end some new names soon and if any commits leave them in the comment box please

Tom Mehegan