Head-to-head fantasy ball plays much differently than roto leagues and, in my opinion, is much more entertaining. Many roto leagues are essentially decided soon after the All-Star break, compelling owners to waste their free time on fantasy football or even their spouses. In the BBFL, with only two weeks remaining in the regular season, most owners have tenuous grips on their current ranks. 0-12 or 1-11 thrashings are rare, but they do happen and can upend the standings in seven short days. Disaster, or salvation, is always just around the corner.

We've had a few recent POTDs of John McDonald out in the field making plays; it's about time to showcase the Minister of Defence with his bat again:

Maybe it was just a slow week for the A's, but this seems like a really boring team. Sweeping the Mariners is like the bus being on time -- yeah, it's cool and all that, but it's what you expected and five minutes later, you forget all about it. Not to mention that with Huston Street on the DL, I have very little reason to watch this series.

Nonetheless, you must read the Advance Scout if you wish to learn more than you'll ever need to know about Dan Haren; find out who the Mystery Tuesday Starter will be; and read about Kiko, Scutaro, the Big Hurt, and Swishahouse.

On to the Advance Scout!

So we worked up the All-John squad recently (and did so without making a single bathroom joke -- yay Batter's Box!) only to be reminded that there is an alternate way to spell that name, depending on your country of origin.

In fact, it's quite likely that more countries on this planet spell the name "J-U-A-N" than "J-O-H-N" anyway, so let's see about all the Juan Gones and the many Juanderful pitchers we've had in major league history as we meet ...

Two weeks left in the minor league season, other than in Auburn.  Dunedin and Lansing are in the playoffs based on their first halves; Auburn and Pulaski are trying to join them but both need to finish strongly to make it.  Yesterday Syracuse split a doubleheader as the new kids, Adam Lind and Curtis Thigpen, led them to victory in game 1.  Elsewhere New Hampshire and Lansing were winners. 

The Good Doctor teased the fans a little yesterday, but just as we were starting to consider the possibilities... there weren't any.

The Dude's up and down ride with the Toronto Blue Jays has come to an end, so today's photo is in his honor.  Good luck with the Red Sox, Eric Hinske:

You...you're kidding, right?

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 latter group has been put together rather haphazardly (see First Things ... Uh, Second? for an earlier trek along this path); in fact only nine of the 25 Most Common Male Names in the U.S. (would like to know of a Canadian equivalent free online somewhere?) have been covered with a Hall of Names squad, indeed just six of the top 10. So our next targets, in order are John, Richard, Charles and Joseph ... as first/given names, of course -- Tommy John, J.R. Richard, Ed Charles and Rick Joseph, among others, thanks for stopping by the booth, but your last/family name does not qualify.

All that said, let's start with the second most-common male name (we've already covered #1 with a long-ago look at The James Gang) as we compile a team that can only be called ...

I wanted to see some good baseball on Saturday.

Obviously, this ruled out Yankees-Red Sox. As it turned out, Orioles-Blue Jays was something of a stinker as well. But none of this was my concern, for I was at Smythe Park.

A shutout in Lansing, lost Appy opportunities, familiar disappointments for Syracuse and New Hampshire and rain led to a 1-3 Saturday night.

Syracuse and Pulaski won right at the end, Lansing tried their best, Auburn piled on, New Hampshire didn't look back and Dunedin went to extras. All this and more, come rain, rain or shine.

Kris Benson did it again, but alas, Scott Downs didn't. At the intersection of these two unfortunate events was an uninspiring, writer's block-inducing 7-2 loss that puts the Jays squarely between Daniel Cabrera and a hard place.

Keith Law reported on his ESPN.com blog that Vernon Wells has informed the Jays that he has 'no intention of signing a contract extension to stay in Toronto'.