Baseball Birthdays This Weekend

If your birthday is July 19th, you share it with Patrick Corbin.  The upstate New York native jumped from the D'backs to the Nationals as a big money free agent in 2019.  Things couldn't have gone better the first season: after 14 regular season victories, he was the starting and winning pitcher in game seven as Washington won its first World Series in 95 years.  But since then, things couldn't have gone worse, with losing records and bloated ERAs.

(Below:) Sharing the day: Rick Ankiel, a two-way player -- just not at the same time.  After a promising start as a Cardinals pitcher (going 11-7 in 2000 with 194 k's in 175 innings), he lost control of the strike zone  and, following time in the minors, returned as a power hitting outfielder.  He's the first player since Babe Ruth to win at least 10 games as a pitcher and hit at least 70 home runs.  Ankiel is also the only player other than Ruth to both start a postseason game as a pitcher and hit a home run in the postseason as a position player. I caught him with the 2013 Mets, the last of the six teams he played for.

Keibert Ruiz -- who turns 26 on Saturday -- was the big piece in the trade that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from the Nats to the Dodgers at the 2021 deadline.  After popping 18 homers a year ago, his 2024 production has been down, but Washington still expects the native of Venezuela to be an important part of its future after reloading through several recent deals.

(Below:) Taylor Kohlwey is also in our July 20th birthday circle.  After seven years in the Padres farm system, he appeared in five games for San Diego last July.  Non-tendered after the season, he signed a minor league deal with the Mets, but lasted just 11 games with AAA Syracuse before being released.  The Wisconsin product then moved on to the indy ball Long Island Ducks but, at last check, he's on that Atlantic League club's injured list.

Sunday's spotlight shines on CC Sabathia.  With 251 career wins and over 3000 strikeouts, he's close to a lock for induction into Cooperstown next year, when he's eligible for the first time.  Signing with the Yankees in 2009, he was the ace of the last Bronx staff to win a World Series.

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