Regular readers noticed the Weekend Links were pre-empted this Saturday. But we do not — repeat: DO NOT — want you thinking it was because of some sort of slacker behavior on the part of link guru Jon Marthaler. Rather, we wanted to give that Erin Andrews post a little room to breathe. So: a couple days late, but certainly not a couple of dollars short, here are the fine directions Mr. Marthaler would have you fan out around the Tubes (we’ve removed his token reference to the weather because it no longer applies).

Before we get started with the weekend links, a commentary: so, the Twins dropped Livan Hernandez and Craig Monroe. Still resolutely remaining on the roster, however, is Mike Lamb. For a look at how absurd that is, we turn to the payroll numbers.

Let’s say for a moment that we split each baseball player’s salary over the six months of the season. Using this method, Joe Mauer made $1.04 million in July — or about $45,000 for every hit he picked up last month. Mike Lamb, on the other hand, made about $97,200 for every hit he got in July. I know that hitting a baseball is an extremely tough thing to do — but surely the Twins have another player in the system who could pick up six hits a month, for less than 100 grand per hit. (Proprietor note of dissent: But if the Twins release Lamb — a bad idea to us because we think he can still be a viable bat off the bench — they will no hits per month for their $100K).

*Charles Pierce at Slate thinks that the Sox made a mistake in trading Manny. I’ll say this; without Manny and Pedro, the Fenway home clubhouse is about 97 percent less crazy these days.

*Video links of the week: first, if you missed Braves reliever Will Ohman channeling the spirit of Harry Caray, by all means check it out now. (Seriously: that impression makes Will Ferrell look bad, because Ohman’s Caray is dead-on.) If that’s not your thing, then Jeremy Kreisberg at SaintsBlog has video of a man dressed as a 70s-style hockey goalie zip-lining into Midway Stadium, then attempting to protect a net as Bill Murray wings tennis balls at him. And if all of that doesn’t do it for you: here’s the Swedish Chef cooking fish. Something for everyone in the video section this week!

*As the Olympics near, one thing is clear: China is taking its style of governance straight out of George Steinbrenner’s mid-80s Yankees playbook. All we need now is for Hu Jintao to call Dave Winfield “Mr. May,” and the transformation will be complete. (Side note: I partially mention this in hopes of getting RandBall blocked by the dictatorial Chinese censors, which should be a badge of honor in the sports blog world.)

*Somebody, anybody, hide Baron Davis’ caps lock key.

*Timberwolves coach JB Bickerstaff is an expert on quickness in the NBA, and has some great examples: Jason Kidd. Allen Iverson. Mark Madsen.

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