Quick Hits

I took a week off, so there's lots of stuff to mention. Here's everything I can think of right now.

• Jeff Clement is back in the majors. He says he'll stick this time and I'm going to believe the kid. I would still rather have him for the rest of the season than the likes of Mike Napoli or Ramon Hernandez.
• In more Mariners news (I know you can't get enough), Felix Hernandez went down last night with an ankle injury. We should know more soon as to how long he'll be out, though the initial indication was that it's not serious.
• There is no timetable for Rafael Soriano to return. Hang onto Mike Gonzalez.
• Billy Butler is raking at AAA and should be back up sometime soon. Still, he may only be appropriate for AL-only or desperate teams.
• Our friend, Daisuke Matsuzaka was less than impressive in his return from the DL. The good news is that he said he felt fine. The bad news is that, despite feeling fine, he sucked. I wish I had taken my own advice and sold high on him.
• Eric Byrnes and his 0-for-5, 6 LOB lines are back from the DL. Aren't you excited?
• Some possible spot-starters this week: Aaron Laffey vs. SF (today); Oliver Perez vs. SEA (today); Jason Marquis vs. BAL (Thursday); Randy Wolf vs. SEA (Saturday). Slim pickins, huh?
• How about Jeff Baker? 11-for-28, 4 homers, 8 RBI over the last week. Plus, he has second base eligibility. I'm not optimistic that he'll keep it up and he may even lose playing time to the now-healthy Clint Barmes, but he's worth keeping an eye on.