Happy birthday to Chris Magruder, who turns 34 today.
Magruder was a switching hitting outfielder who was a second round pick of the San Francisco Giants in the 1998 draft. Magruder was sent to Texas in 2001, along with Todd Ozias and Erasmo Ramirez, in the deal that sent Andres Galarraga from the Rangers to San Francisco.
After playing sparingly in the second half of the 2001 season and not hitting, Magruder was dealt by new g.m. John Hart to Hart's old club, the Cleveland Indians, in exchange for minor league outfielder Rashad Eldridge. Eldridge at one point looked like he might be able to develop into a Matt Murton-type COF, but stalled in the upper levels of the minors.
Doug Melvin was the g.m. of the Rangers in 2001, when Magruder was acquired, and thus, not surprisingly, after the Indians released Magruder after the 2003 season, Melvin ended up signing Magruder to a contract with the Brewers, and he spent a couple of seasons as a reserve in Milwaukee.