• Hey, I know which game I'm watching tonight, as Charlie Haeger makes just his second start in the majors (and his first since 2006). Will you join me, fellow Knuckleheads?

• You have to love it, when a convicted felon visits your blog to defend himself. Does blogging get any better, really?

• Is Ichiro overrated in some quarters? Absolutely. But this overstates the case, at least a little. While it's true that his batting average is relatively empty -- because it's mostly singles, and many of them "short" singles -- when you toss in Ichiro's baserunning and his defense, he's been an excellent player since he got here.

• As David Pinto notes, Ryan Raburn's time at third base this season hasn't gone particularly well. Sunday afternoon he made three errors, two of them leading to the Royals' decisive run in the 10th inning. Not that any of this should have been terribly surprising. Raburn was a third baseman in the minors for a while, but an .867 fielding percentage pushed him to second base and eventually the outfield. Even before yesterday's debacle, his fielding percentage as a major league third baseman was .879 (in 25 games). The man simply cannot play third base. No matter how hard he tries.

And yet, in a game that might wind up having playoff implications, Brandon Inge never got off the bench. Way to go, Jimmy Leyland.

(On the other hand, due credit to Trey Hillman, who's loosened up a bit lately when it comes to the deployment of Joakim Soria. Maybe Hillman really can learn from his mistakes.)

• Rob Dibble really, really, really thinks Stephen Strasburg should sign with the Nationals today. Not that Dibble's got a vested interest or anything. (Hey, I want Strasburg to sign, too.)

• I was reading something the other day about Jeff Frye hitting for the cycle. It happened in this game, right near the end of his career. Frye got the easiest part last, singling in the seventh inning. But he could have had a double, easily. With his Blue Jays blowing out the Rangers (his old team), Frye stopped halfway to second base and trotted back to first, to seal his cycle.

Well, this reminds me of Adam Dunn, who has hit exactly 40 home runs in each of the last four seasons. This season, his best ever, he's on pace for 43. And I can't help hoping that once he reaches 40, he spends the rest of the season going for singles and doubles. And walks. He's good at walks. Nobody would suspect a thing.

• Sabermetrician Phil Birnbaum looks at a study that found evidence of clutch-hitting ability, and concludes that there's evidence (maybe) for only a clutch-walking ability.

• Care to guess whether Teixeira or Mauer is the better RBI man this season? You don't have to guess; Pinto's already done the work. The results? Shocking (not).

• From Kansas City comes your non-baseball Video of the Week.