Happy Birthday - 6/30

Happy Birthday to ~

RHP Jonas Dufek (26)
A ninth round pick by the Astros in 2011 out of Creighton, Dufek had a simply fantastic end to his 2013 season. After his promotion to Corpus Christi in late July, he was 7-0 with four saves, a 0.47 ERA and a 0.776 WHIP in 14 appearances. He walked one and struck out 20 in 19+ innings. For the season, including his 36 appearances with Lancaster, he had a 3.19 ERA and a 1.241 WHIP. That's the good news. The bad news is that Dufek is currently on Team Rehab in Kissimmee after undergoing Tommy John surgery earlier this year.

A couple of former Astros celebrate the day as well ~

OF/1B Dave Roberts (81)
Roberts came to the Colt .45's after having retired from baseball and played in 77 games for Houston in 1962 and 1964.  This excellent article from Baseball-Reference outlines some of the problems that faced the Panamanian born Roberts during his 22 seasons of playing professional baseball in the minor leagues, major league and in Japan.

C Otis Thornton (69)
Thornton was drafted by Houston in the 68th round in 1965. In two major league games (three at-bats), he wasn't able to get that one major league hit but he did get an RBI. An interesting side note, the two games he played in were both ends of a double-header in Montreal. He was the first player in major league history to play his entire major league career outside of the United States.