Is San Francisco Giants right-hander Tim Lincecum(notes) on a haircut strike until he's no longer the reigning Cy Young? I hope his mane, which appears to be as long as the line of guys headed back to the dugout after strike three, goes down to his belt by July.

The downside is, there can be consequences for how you wear your hair, or what it's alleged you have in your car. For one, people think it gives them the right to make fun of you. The nerve!

This link, for example — which is not safe for work and contains adult language, my little pretties.

Hat tip: Walkoff Walk.

Welcome to Dave's Dozen (because Kaduk's not here, man), a streamlined selection of 12 morning-fresh links and items to start your baseball day. It welcomes your e-mail submissions or tips via Twitter.

1. Stephen "The Future of the Franchise" Strasburg injures his knee shagging flies, causing momentary panic and sympanthy pains. Nationals Enquirer
2. The Nats don't think the injury is serious, but they canceled Strasburg's upcoming start and are having him fly to Los Angeles to see Dr. Lewis Yocum. Oy. MLBlogs
3. Y! private eye Jeff Passan tracks 131 free-agent baseball players. Yahoo! Sports
4. Paul LoDuca hopes he's remembered this Christmas free-agent season. NY Daily News
5. Why it took until 1959 for the Red Sox to have a black player. Verb Plow (via ESPN's Rob Neyer) 
6. Former Rays owner Vince Naimoli gets his revenge, in book form. TampaBay.com
7. Professional baseball back in Montreal? Eric Gagne(notes) says he could help make it happen. Walkoff Walk
8. Up next after "Paranormal State" on A&E, "Stadium Secrets" with your host, Curtis Granderson(notes). MLive
9. Baltimore wants to boost its economy by starting a Negro League baseball museum. Baltimore Sun
10. Hey. Isn't there already a Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City?  Kansas City Star
11. At least KC will always have the 2012 All-Star Game. MLB.com
12. Ring the bell for commish Selig, who says some MLB teams lost money this past season. Yahoo! News

The world of advanced baseball statistics can be an intimidating place for those of us who slept our way through advanced algebra or haven't been a follower of the Bill James revolution from the beginning. 

But that still doesn't mean that we should feel left out when it comes to another way of understanding and appreciating the game we all love. With that in mind, BLS stat doctor Alex Remington will explore a new advanced statistic each week during the offseason, providing a simple primer for the uninitiated.

Today's statistic: BABIP

What it stands for: Batting Average on Balls In Play

How you calculate BABIP:

What BABIP is good for: You often hear BABIP being brought up by stats-minded folks, but what does it actually mean? Simply put, BABIP tells us how many hits a player is getting — or a pitcher is giving up — when the ball is put in play. (In this case, "put in play" means the ball stays fair and in the ballpark, rather than the play resulting in a strikeout, walk, home run, hit  by pitch or error.)

If the batter's line drive rate remains constant, BABIP can be a good indictator of "luck" or random chance, which tends to even out over the course of a long season. If a lot of hits are falling when put into play, a hitter is usually due for a dry spell or a pitcher is usuall due for a break. If very few hits are falling, a hitter may be nearing a hot streak, while a hot pitcher may be due for an upcoming reality check.

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Anyone who reads Big League Stew knows that the Fashion Ump is generally a fan of any team that decides to go with the old-school powder blue uniform.

That said, he's never been particularly fond of how the Royals choose to remember the days of Dick Howser, Frank White and Willie Wilson. Instead of going all the way with true throwbacks, the kings of Kauffman have gone with modern and inferior jerseys and haven't shown enough courage to match them with powder blue pants.

Now the Royals are going to wear this powder blue hat with the powder blue jerseys during home day games in 2010 and ol' Fashion Ump can't say he's excited as some. 

After all, the whole point to wearing throwbacks is to summon our warm and fuzzy memories of the past. When the Blue Jays go with their historically-accurate getups, it's easy to squint and think we're watching the glory days of Lloyd Moseby and Rance Mulliniks at Exhibition Stadium instead of the somewhat-depressing bunch that currently inhabits the Rogers Centre. It works.

Contrast that to the Royals, a team that will still only remind us of mail carriers while donning caps that never sat upon George Brett's dome. When they adopted the adapted powder blue jersey in 2008, we told the Royals it wasn't so much the color as it was the memory.

They apparently haven't been listening.   

Fashion Ump ruling: Foul ball

Over the past few postseasons, the wait between rounds has been good for a great number of things: Writing the great American novel, growing a gigantic beard and conceiving children before seeing them off to college.

It has not, however, been good for baseball, a sport that values the rhythm of everyday play and the benefits of a deep pitching staff. Last month, the Yankees and Angels finished their division series on a Monday, but didn't face off until the following Friday. That led Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia to publicly gripe the league and television networks were threatening the integrity of the game by dragging their feet.

At any rate, Scioscia's words must carry some weight at MLB HQ because Bud Selig spoke on the issue and admitted a problem at the owner's meetings in Chicago on Wednesday. 

Here's what the commissioner told reporters:

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Welcome to 'Duk's Dozen, a streamlined selection of 12 morning-fresh links and items to start your baseball day. It welcomes your email submissions and tips here or via Twitter. 

1. Jim Tracy, manager of the year? That's news to folks in Pittsburgh and L.A. Bugs & Cranks
2. Tyler Kepner speaks for us all when he says manager of the year is an "odd award." NYT
3. It can also be a valuable one, as evidenced by Tracy's contract extension. Denver Post
4. Bud Selig isn't worried about the fighting between Mommy and Daddy Dodger. LA Times
5. "We signed our free agent already. His name is Jake Peavy(notes)." South Side Sox
6. Sandy Alomar Jr.(notes) is back with the Indians as a first base coach. Waiting For Next Year
7. Have J.J. Hardy(notes) and NKOTB shared parallel careers? MPD thinks so. Miller Park Drunk
8. How much does Zack Greinke(notes) really understand about FIP? Fack Youk
9. Tom Hicks is making a last-ditch effort to keep owning the Rangers. Lone Star Ball
10. Loyal Stewie Brandon Cohen predicts the landing spot of each free agent. Pinstriper
11. Pete Rose's girlfriend talks about wanting to appear in Playboy. Sports Radio Interviews
12. Mickey Mouse had better things to do when A-Rod showed up to Disney World. The Onion

The Bucks (Pa.) Local News is reporting tonight that Phillies fans are eagerly awaiting the arrival of 22-year-old prospect Domonic Brown, who had an .880 OPS over three minor league stops in 2009.

It is also reporting he is "JUST AN IDIOT" for spelling his first name that way.

Wait, whaaa?

In an online version of this story — "Phillies' hot stove is heating up" — the third paragraph suggests Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro could have a plan that entails making prospects Brown, Michael Taylor and Kyle Drabek part of a new core group for the club.

The assumption seems reasonable enough, but the paragraph also contains a note the writer presumably left for copy editors regarding the unusual spelling of Brown's first name — Domonic.

(*NFP: DOMONIC IS SPELLED RIGHT, HE'S JUST AN IDIOT*).

Hoo, boy. 

NFP means "not for publication." Yeah, no kidding this wasn't for publication. As anyone who has worked for a newspaper can tell you, employees are reminded to not make "dummy" headlines or write notes within stories that, if actually published, would prove embarrassing.

But people do it anyway.

The note was removed in another version of what otherwise appeared to be the same post, which was bylined by Matthew Fleishman. The "IDIOT" version linked above remained online concurrently as of 11:30 p.m. EST.  (UPDATE: The story has been updated with an apology from Fleisman. "The only idiot in this case is me," he writes.)

There's no way a paper from Bucks County, outside of Philly, wants to insult one of the Phillies' finest prospects. Or even one it its lesser prospects.

OK, even saying something like that about Eric Bruntlett would have been wrong.

Letting out the insult was unintentional — but it still got out:

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It's one of those strange facts I always seem to forget, then act amazed by when reminded of it again.

Back in Oct. 1994, the BBWAA handed out its annual awards as usual — no matter if ballparks had been empty for over two months, the World Series had been canceled or the league's players were striking and  alienating fans across the country.

Frank Thomas and Jeff Bagwell took home MVP honors.

Bob Hamelin and Raul Mondesi, both future Hall of Famers, were named the top rookies in baseball. 

Greg Maddux and David Cone won the Cy Young, while Buck Showalter and Felipe Alou won manager of the year in their respective leagues.

All for an uncompleted season that effectively ended when the strike began on Aug. 12.

The Sports Illustrated Vault contains an excellent Steve Wulf article from that season and it covers most of the questions we'd ask of the writers 15 years later.

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We would usually be totally steamed if an outlet like MTV News completely ripped off one of our trademark Big League Stew photo illustrations — painstakingly crafted with the precision moves of our own mice! — and then another blog incorrectly credited it to the network. 

But when an outlet like MTV News takes Dave Brown's classic photoshop job of Alex Rodriguez(notes) as a centaur, whips it out in front of a clearly peeved Kate Hudson and then asks if the Yankees slugger has something similar hanging above his bed?

Well, then it's almost enough to make us overlook the fact that the entertainment reporter nimbot tells Goldie Hawn Jr. he found it in a "reputable magazine" like US Weekly and not on a "reputable baseball blog" like Big League Stew.

Almost.