5 Toronto Blue Jays All-Stars that are easily forgotten

Apr 3, 2014; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays hat and glove lay in the dugout against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Blue Jays have a relatively short history in the grand scheme of things. Founded in 1977, the team has gone through many ups and downs, and seen its share of both good and mediocre players.

The same could be said for the bevy of players that have worn the Blue Jays uniform and had the luxury to don it in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

While the Blue Jays have been blessed with the likes of Dave Steib, Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar, George Bell, Carlos Delgado, and Roy Halladay to name a few, they’ve also had a handful of, well, forgettable faces to represent the club in baseball’s Mid-Summer Classic. Let’s just say that the rule where every team needs a representative  does not necessarily send true “All-Stars” to the game. Every team has sent a pig or two, the Blue Jays are no different.

That all said, with this year’s annual All-Star contest slated for Tuesday night at Minnesota’s Target Field, I thought it would be a good exercise to look at the 38-year history of the Blue Jays and see which players repped Toronto over the years and which All-Stars didn’t quite live up to the title.

For those who are curious, the following represents which Blue Jays were awarded the All-Star honor, courtesy of MLB.com.

That’s an impressive list of players right there, if I do say so myself. However, there are a few that stick out like sore thumbs. Let’s take a look at those one, shall we?

Courtesy of Topps.

Ron Fairly – 1977
Stats – .279/.362/.465, 19 HR, 64 RBI

At 38-years-old, Ron Fairly was the first Blue Jays player to head to the All-Star Game, winning the nod in the team’s inaugural season. To be honest, Fairly was more than qualified for the honor as well, putting up a solid first half that saw the designated hitter produce a slash-line of .307/.396/.502 with 13 home runs and 45 RBI.

However, Fairly saw a huge drop-off in the second half of the season, stumbling to a .234/.302/.404 slash and adding just 6 home runs and 19 RBI after the All-Star break. The key factor in that fall-off was a drop in BABIP, which fell from .313 in the first half to .241.

1977 would be the only season that Fairly spent with the Blue Jays, closing out his career the next season as a member of the California Angels, where his second half slide carried over into a rough 1978 season.

In truth, the Blue Jays would have been better represented by third baseman Roy Howell, who hit .316/.386/.451 for the full season. However, Howell would get his just deserts in 1978, when he received the Blue Jays honor.

Courtesy of Topps.

Roy Howell – 1978
Stats – .270/.325/.376, 8 HR, 61 RBI

As mentioned above, Roy Howell quite honestly deserved the nod in 1977, but had to wait until 1978 to earn the only All-Star selection of his 11-year career. Like Fairly the season before, he wasn’t necessarily the best choice for the honor either.

Howell finished the 1977 season on a tear and he carried that over into the first half of the 1978 season. Never a big power producer for a corner infielder, Howell authored a pre-break slash-line of .293/.346/.396 with 4 home runs and 47 RBI. However, that line suffered a pronounced slide during the stretch run, when he staggered to the finish line by hitting .238/.293/.345 with 4 more home runs but only 14 RBI.

Unfortunately, the game itself was played in San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium, which likely lead to Howell selection over designated hitter Rico Carty. Carty was impressive during the first half of the season and put up a slash of .282/.348/.481 with 20 home runs and 68 RBI in 104 games with the Blue Jays in 1978.  However, he was traded in August to the Oakland Athletics for Willie Horton and Phil Huffman.

Meanwhile, Howell would hold down third base for another two seasons for the Blue Jays, finishing his Blue Jays career with a .272/.335/.407 batting line and just 43 home runs in four seasons.

Courtesy of Topps

Dave Lemanczyk – 1979
Stats – 8-10, .371 ERA, 11 CG, 1.40 K/BB ratio

Needless to say, the early years of the Toronto Blue Jays were incredibly lean in terms of star power. Following the likes of Howell and Fairly, pitcher Dave Lemanczyk was actually a decent upgrade. The 28-year-old was in the midst of the best season of his 8-year career, having posted a pitching line of 7-7 with a 3.33 ERA and 10 complete games in the first half of the season.

Everything looks great so far, right? Well, it goes down hill from there (running theme, yeah I know).

For starters, Lemanczyk was named to the annual All-Star Game, but never appeared in the contest despite the back and forth contest. But there seemed to be a good reason for that.

Perhaps it was the 10 complete games in the first half, but Lemanczyk struggled mightily with his health in the second half. He would make just two more starts after the All-Star break before hitting the disabled list, and made just four overall after the game. He went just 1-3 down the stretch with a 6.79 ERA, pitching just 16 innings during that run.

That all said, the 1979 Blue Jays squad didn’t really present itself with a better alternative for the All-Star nod. Perhaps we could have made a case for Alfredo Griffin, who we could argue would have been a better choice than Boston’s Rick Burleson as a reserve at shortstop.

Of course, 1979 was substantial for another future All-Star, as future Blue Jays ace and 7-time All-Star Dave Steib would make his debut in 1979 and would be just one year away from his first appearance in the Mid-Summer Classic.

Shea Hillenbrand – 2005
Stats – .291/.343/.449

The story of Shea Hillenbrand’s All-Star selection in 2005 was an interesting one. A batting line of .302/.364/.451 with 9 home runs and 42 RBI is fairly solid for the first half of the season. He also didn’t experience any sort of precipitous decline in the second half either.

So why does Shea Hillenbrand make this list?

Well for starters, Shea Hillenbrand was selected to the game as a reserve and listed as a first baseman on the All-Star roster. However, he spent the 200 campaign bouncing between first, third, and designated hitter, with Corey Koskie and Eric Hinske listed as the starters at the respective corners and Aaron Hill getting 31 starts as the team’s DH.

Secondly, Hillenbrand was not the team’s only selection, with Roy Halladay making the roster but not actually appearing in the game. Forcing Hillenbrand onto the team seemed odd, especially considering he was one of 3 first baseman/designated hitters on the bench.

Meanwhile, a reasonably productive Vernon Wells, who had 17 home runs and 50 RBI in the first half, sat at home in place of Scott Podsednik . Don’t even get me started on how Podsednik managed to finish 12th in the MVP voting in 2005.

Back to Hillenbrand, it was also notable because of his future, both with the Blue Jays and in baseball altogether. About a year later, on July 19, 2006, Hillenbrand famously got into a scuffle with then Blue Jays manager John Gibbons after writing “This is a sinking ship” and “Play for yourselves” on the clubhouse message board. He was designated for assignment the next day and traded to the San Francisco Giants days later. In all, Hillenbrand would last two seasons in Major League Baseball after his 2005 All-Star selection, unable to shed the label of clubhouse cancer.