If Your Birthday is February 16th

...you share with Washington Nationals backup outfielder-1st baseman Clint Robinson. His roster spot for 2017 might be in jeopardy after the club signed veteran power hitter Adam Lind. But a lot can happen over the next six weeks in Florida.

Also on today's cake-and-candles list:


  • Eric Byrnes, the hard-charging outfielder best known for his days with the A's and Diamondbacks -- who has become one of the more entertaining baseball analysts with MLB Network.
  • Bill Pecota, the longtime Royals backup infielder -- and the namesake of the sabremetrics-driven system for predicting outcomes in baseball. Offically, it's Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm.
  • Jerry Hairston (Sr.), the switch-hitting bench player best remembered for his time during the '70s and '80s with the White Sox. He's also the middle man in a three-generation baseball family: his father Sam was a Negro League catcher who appeared in four games with the 1951 White Sox (and spent the rest of the '50s in the minors); while his sons Jerry and Scott enjoyed lengthy big league careers.
  • And a pair of 1970s catchers: Bob Didier of the Braves -- whose speciality was catching knuckleballer Phil Neikro -- and Barry Foote of the Expos.

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