TWJ Birth Years: Jay Bruce

For some time now, White Sox Cards has been running a feature of custom cards with the theme of birth years, displaying a photo of a ChiSox player on the design of an old baseball card from their (you guessed it) birth year. Steve has created cards for Jim Thome, Ozzie Guillen, John Danks, and many others. You can see all of Steve’s creations by clicking here.

I love the concept, and I asked Steve if he would mind if I stole it. With Steve’s blessing, here is my first entry:

Jay Bruce

Born: April 3, 1987

Bruce was all smiles when he came to the big leagues last year, and got off to a hot start. It didn’t take pitchers long to figure out that this guy was dangerous, and they learned how to pitch to him and his bat started to cool off. He finished his rookie campaign with a .254 average, slugging 21 homers and driving in 52 runs in 108 games for the fifth-place Reds.

In 2009, Bruce’s bat has yet to awaken (along with most of his Reds’ teammates). He has gone yard 18 times and driven in 40 runs through 77 contests, but his batting average is an abysmal .216 – just 11 points over his weight.

As the sixth-youngest player in the NL, there is still plenty of time for Bruce to develop into a big league superstar and live up to the hype that surrounded him early last season.

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