Catchers out the wazoo on today's Birthday Team:

C: Jerry May
1B: Scott Hatteberg
2B: Craig Biggio
3B: Bobby Adams
SS: Les Bell
LF: Bill Buckner
CF: John Anderson
RF: Dave Nilsson

SP: Ken Hill
SP: Lefty Tyler
SP: Toothpick Sam Jones
SP: Eddie Smith
SP: Shaun Marcum
RP: Billy Koch

Manager: O.P. Caylor
Quarterback: Josh Fields
Fun Name: Rusty Peters

Also, it's Rodrigo Rosario's birthday. You may or may not remember him - I did only vaguely, so I looked at his BBRef page to refresh my memory.

Weird career: He came up to the Astros in June '03 and started two games, both against the Rangers in interleague play. During the second game, he blew out his shoulder on what appears to have been the last pitch of the second inning. They had to pinch hit for Rosario in the top of the third, so Jimy Williams used...Wade Miller. A pitcher who wasn't a particularly good hitter.

When I noticed this, I thought "Well, I guess that makes sense. If Miller was going to pitch anyway, they may as well save their bench for later in the game." But Miller didn't pitch. Kirk Saarloos did.

I'm not sure I have any idea what Jimy was doing. How often do teams completely run out of position players, especially back when 14/11 was a standard roster construction?

.

Not baseball, but of stat-y/sporty interest: The Memphis Grizzlies (NBA) have hired John Hollinger (ESPN.com) as a VP ... Hollinger has played a significant role as a journalist/stat dude in generating and promoting statistical analysis for the masses. (He's drawn Bill James comps, which I think is unfair to both parties in several respects, but it's not totally unreasonable.)

When some players started working out in the offseason, because baseball salaries were finally high enough to allow them to do that instead of working, anyone who wanted to keep up in a competitive sport had to begin working out in tne offseason as well.The idea of taking the offseason "off" died right about then.

I believe that Wagner was actually known for being one of the few players that did work out during the offseason, including serious weight training.

I'm sure someone else has noticed this, but the 2010 Cubs were a Robin Ventura hire away from being the "All How I Met Your Mother" Team.

Ted Lilly
Sean Marshall
Darwin Barney

Maybe shoulda signed Robinson Cancel?

Robinson Chirinos was in there system somewhere at that point.

C: Jerry May
1B: Scott Hatteberg
2B: Craig Biggio
3B: Bobby Adams
SS: Les Bell
LF: Bill Buckner
CF: John Anderson
RF: Dave Nilsson

SP: Ken Hill
SP: Lefty Tyler
SP: Toothpick Sam Jones
SP: Eddie Smith
SP: Shaun Marcum
RP: Billy Koch

Manager: O.P. Caylor
Quarterback: Josh Fields
Fun Name: Rusty Peters

Also:

Geek: Sean Forman