It's A Big Day For Mariner Birthdays

Nothing's more interesting than reading whose birthday it is!

• Happy 28th birthday to the newly-signed Chris Gimenez. There was some concern - albeit limited - that the Mariners were a bit hasty in designating Rob Johnson for assignment. I'll grant that Johnson could still be a perfectly acceptable Major League player, but is there any available evidence that he's better than Gimenez? I know a lot of us* are still kind of bitter about the whole Gimenez/Michael Saunders thing, but it's not like Johnson was much of a fan favorite, so that's about even. In an instance like this, better the devil you don't know, I think.


• Happy 29th birthday to still-current closer David Aardsma.
  
  Friend: Hey buddy, happy birthday!
  Aardsma: Aw thanks man, you shouldn't have!
  Aardsma: :opens:
  Aardsma: Why does everybody keep getting me luggage


• And a happy 36th birthday to Nate Bland. If the name 'Nate Bland' doesn't sound familiar, there's a reason for that, but Bland was indeed Mariner property between 12/20/04 and 3/29/05. He was brought into camp to compete with George Sherrill and Matt Thornton for the lefty reliever job before getting released towards the end, and as such he joins guys like Pokey Reese and Aaron Heilman (and many others) as one-time members of the organization who never appeared in a game.

* some of us**

** me