Happy Birthday - 3/28

Happy Birthday to ~

SS Marcos Almonte (19)
Almonte played his first professional season in 2014 for the Dominican Summer League Astros. In 67 games, he hit .233/.359/.353 with 13 doubles, one triple and one home run. He is from the Dominican Republic.

No future Astros with birthdays today, but two former Astros celebrate ~

1B Glenn Davis (54)
Davis, a first round draft pick (fifth overall) for Houston in 1981, played for the Astros from 1984 to 1990, hitting .262/.337/.483 with 150 doubles, 10 triples and 166 home runs over 830 games. Davis was a two-time All-Star and also won the Silver Slugger Award before being traded to the Orioles in January of 1991 for Pete Harnisch, Curt Schilling and  Steve Finley. After a disappointing tenure with the Orioles, he ended up back in the minor leagues and eventually played for two seasons in Japan. According to Baseball-Reference:

He returned in 1996 [to Japan] and became the 10th player in Nippon Pro Baseball history to hit a sayonara (walk-off) grand slam home run to win a game; he was the first gaijin to accomplish that.

Ironically, he never hit a grand slam in the MLB.

[Side note: Last year, I was taken to task by one of my readers for my use of the word "ironically" in the above. According to Merriam-Webster, one of the definitions of "irony" is as follows.

incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result

 I stand behind my use of the word.]

RHP Mark Melancon (30)
Drafted by the Yankees in the ninth round in 2006, Melancon came to Houston along with Jimmy Paredes in the Lance Berkman trade in July 2010. Melancon pitched in 91 games for Houston in 2010 and 2011, going 10-4 with a 2.85 ERA, a 1.211 WHIP and 20 saves. Melancon was traded to Boston in December 2011 for Jed Lowrie and Kyle Weiland and was subsequently traded to Pittsburgh in December 2012 where he has played for the last two seasons.