Today's Birthday Team. It's probably not a good thing that pitcher Micah Owings has the highest career slugging percentage on the roster and the third highest career batting average.

C: Al Evans (3.5 WAR)
1B: Jack Fournier (41.4 WAR)
2B: Lou Bierbauer (14.0 WAR)
3B: Ryan Zimmerman (40.0 WAR)
SS: Whitey Witt (13.0 WAR)
LF: Dick Gernert (6.5 WAR)
CF: Manuel Margot (9.8 WAR)
RF: Eddie Rosario (13.1 WAR)

SP: Grant Jackson (14.0 WAR)
SP: Tom Williams (10.8 WAR)
SP: Dick Barrett (4.2 WAR)
SP: Micah Owings (3.2 WAR)
SP: Pete Filson (2.8 WAR)
RP: Todd Worrell (10.9 WAR)
RP: Mike DeJean (6.6 WAR)
RP: Todd Frohwirth (4.9 WAR)

Umpires: Bruce Froemming, Jerry Layne
Play-by-play: Matt Vasgersian
Fun name: Hank Grampp
Folk heroes: Charlie Kerfeld, Jerry Sands

Grant Jackson (14.0 WAR)

Jackson's name is the combination of the surnames of a Union general (and later president) and a Confederate general (as well as an earlier president), and his middle name (Dwight) is the first name of a WWII commander (and later president).

He was mostly known as a workhouse reliever in the '70s---first for Earl Weaver's Orioles, and later for the Pirates, including the "We Are Family" 1979 champs---but made his only All Star team in 1969 while a starting pitcher for the Phillies, for whom he won 14 games with 180 Ks.

For several months in 1976, he was a mainstay of Billy Martin's bullpen after being acquired in the blockbuster 10-player Yankees-Orioles trade in June that included pitchers Doyle Alexander, Ken Holtzman, Rudy May, Scott McGregor, and Tippy Martinez. Jackson was 6-0 in 21 games, including two starts---his first in 5 years---one of which was a complete-game shutout in the last week of the season, and the other, two weeks earlier, a win in which he allowed one run over seven innings.

Two weeks after the Yankees were swept by the Reds in the World Series, Jackson was drafted by the expansion Mariners with their 11th pick, and subsequently traded to the Pirates for shortstop prospect Craig Reynolds, who would make an All Star team with Seattle before being traded to the Astros after the '78 season for the former overall No. 1 draft pick Floyd Bannister.

Jackson was the winning pitcher for the Pirates in Game 7 of the '79 series vs. his old team the Orioles, holding the O's scoreless after entering in the 5th inning with the Pirates down 1-0 and leaving in the 8th with his team up 2-1 after a 2-run Willie Stargell homer.

Never an ace closer, he nonetheless picked up saves in 13 different seasons, and has the distinction of playing in six seasons for three different ballclubs (Phillies, Orioles, Pirates).

Regarding that '76 Orioles-Yankees trade: it seems unusual for two teams within a division, and two teams who are normally contenders, to make such a deal.

At the time of the trade the Yankees enjoyed a decent lead over the second-place Indians while the Orioles were in the midst of what seemed to be their worst season in years, in 4th place at just 25-31 and 8 games behind the Yankees.

After the trade, the Orioles put up the second-best record in the AL (behind the Yankees) at 63-43, and finished in second place in the AL East but a distant 10.5 games back.

SS: Whitey Witt (13.0 WAR)

Unfortunate he didn't play on the current Royals with Whit Merrifield and Bobby Witt, Jr.

Jack Fournier has a big gouge taken out of the middle of his career - he played a grand total of 28 major league games across his age 24, 25 and 26 seasons, despite having led the AL in slugging at age 22. He came back to the majors at age 27 and still put up a near-Hall of Fame career, despite retiring at 35. It's hard to argue with a career OPS+ of 142.

Sounds like Fournier's fielding, which was never good, took a turn for the worse in 1916. Sort of a Knoblauch-eque case of the yips. But he sorted through it with the LA Angels of the PCL and came back to the majors as a passable 1B. Also, 1B was seen as a more important defensive position than it is now, which probably accounts for all the hosannas thrown Hal Chase's way during this era, despite his average bat and reprehensible personal morals.

Jack Fournier has a big gouge taken out of the middle of his career - he played a grand total of 28 major league games across his age 24, 25 and 26 seasons

According to his sabr.org bio, he was such an atrocious fielder---even playing 1b---that he needed to hit a ton to be worth it. He had a relatively poor 1916 season at the plate and was released by the White Sox, spending the bulk of the next three years playing in the PCL until resurfacing as the Cardinals 1b for 1920.