If Your Birthday is May 27th...



...you share it with one of the White Sox rising stars, Yoan Moncada. The Cuban expat, signed to a pricey contract by the Red Sox, enjoyed a breakout 2019, belting 25 homers, hitting .315 and most crucially, cut his strikeout total by more 60 compared to '18.

Garrett Richards posted two strong seasons for the Angels, going 13-4 in 2016 and winning 15 the next year, before being tripped up by arm injuries. Working his way back, he appeared in three games with the Padres late last season.

Jose Berrios has quietly developed into one of the American League's better starting pitchers, winning a dozen or more in each of the last three seasons. He posted a 14-8 mark and made the All Star team in 2019 as Minnesota won the AL Central.

Isan Diaz, the Springfield, Massachusetts product who made his major league debut last season with the Marlins. Drafted out of high school by the Diamondbacks, he moved through their
organization and then the Brewers before coming to Miami as part of the Christian Yelich trade. He broke in with a bang last August 5th, getting his first big league homer off Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom.

Todd Hundley, like his father Randy, enjoyed a long career as a big league catcher. Todd's star shined most brightly in the mid 1990s, when he smacked 41 and 30 homers in consecutive seasons for the Mets. Uncomfortable playing another position, he eventually moved on to the Dodgers and his dad's old team, the Cubs,

We've got a pair of Hall of Famers with May 27th, 1968 birthdays. Both played over 2000 games, hit well over 400 homers and compiled lifetime averages around .300: Jeff Bagwell, who played his entire career with the Astros, and Frank Thomas, whose road to Cooperstown passed through both Comiskey Parks, as well the Oakland Coliseum and Rogers Centre.

Ray Daviault answers the question: "Who was the first New York Met ever to wear number 35?" The Montreal-born righthander pitched in 36 games in the club's inaugural season, 1962, posting a 1-5 record. His only victory came on July 7th, when he worked the final two innings of a 5-4 Polo Grounds win over the Cardinals -- where Marv Throneberry delivered a walk off homer in the bottom of the 9th. (And before you ask, reliever Jacob Rahme is the most recent Met to don 35.)

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