Again, it's the Indians, and again, one of us is MIA - Rob is settling in to Waterloo and deprived of internet access.

What can I tell you that he hasn't already? Not much. But you'll see Wednesday starter Jake Westbrook, Travis Hafner's freak but non-severe hand injury, and the guy who hit a grand slam on his first major-league pitch if you proceed...

On to the Advance Scout!

Auburn won both ends of a doubleheader to give them a three game lead with four days left in the season.  Dunedin won their final regular season game as they gear up for the playoffs.  Syracuse, New Hampshire and Lansing finish their regular seasons today.  Both Auburn and New Hampshire are riding seven game win streaks.

What difference does September really make? How often does a team get to play in the post-season who would not have had the opportunity if the season had ended on August 31? Does it happen regularly?

Often enough.

So, remember that photo from last week of Gregg Zaun sliding through Jason Kendall?  Here's what happened a fraction of a second before that:

As noted here previously, in building the historical Baseball Hall of Names, we've done a peculiarly inconsistent job building teams for North America's most common shared first/given names. We took steps to address that recently with teams dedicated to the names John, Richard and Charles and now we move on to the number four name on that list, which we summarily refuse to nickname the "Camels" and instead proudly introduce ...

Only three teams played, and they all won.  Kyle Yates was outstanding for the Fisher Cats but the bullpen had to pitch six more innings before New Hampshire could win.  Cory Patton's home run, and Kurt Isenberg's pitching, led Dunedin to victory.  Lansing won easy as lead-off hitter went 5-5.

Rob isn't giving you a TDIB Sunday beause he's incommunicado or something. So let's hand out some hardware. They don't let me vote, but...

The best start of Kyle Snyder's still-promising career runs the Jays' losing streak to five.

Everyone won except for the Chiefs.  Auburn's win kept them 2.5 games ahead in the race for the playoffs with five days left.  Hurricane Ernesto could help Auburn over the weekend if many games are lost to the weather.  Josh Banks, Orlando Trias, Adrian Martin and Barndon Magee pitched well.  Aaron Mathews and Ryan Patterson were the offensive standouts.

A thriller in Syracuse, Romero and Cannon star for New Hampshire, Dunedin hits but loses, an almost-familiar face is at the center of things in West Michigan and the Doubledays show they can pitch.

My holidays are winding down, but I'm still on them.  And yet I am still delivering Photo of the Day!

Here's Troy Glaus' magnificent swing:

As noted here previously, in building the historical Baseball Hall of Names, we've cobbled together more than 200 teams, including rosters for every initial and many combinations of initials, days and months of birth, popular culture "themes," and one each for the 25 Most Common North American Surnames (family names), as well as 30+ for shared first/given names.

But that last group of teams has been somewhat less than organized until recently, as the vast majority of the 25 most common male names in the birthplace of baseball (the U.S., that is) had not been covered. We have recently covered the #1 and #2 names (John and Richard) and now move on to the third most-common given first name in America, which is "Charles." So right off, you know we have to name this team ...

It must suck to be a Red Sox fan, having been deprived of a World Series title for almost 35 months now. On a more serious note, the season is clearly over in Boston -- they are eight games behind New York after a month that Ben Affleck would like to forget, and they're slowly losing their mind. That is, their outfield.

Injuries have played a large part in this decline, as they've lost their three and four hitters, their shortstop, a corner outfielder, a couple of starters, and their No. 1 catcher. Sorry, I'm supposed to be talking about the Red Sox here. Okay, fine. But it's not going to be pretty.

On to the Advance Scout!

So near, yet so far. Jays lose in the tenth.

Dunedin was rained out, Lansing was (almost) blown out and Pulaski is done for the year. The non-Auburn teams went 1-3; the D-Days swept a doubleheader.