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It's Monday, which means our regularly scheduled programming of This Week in (Dumb) Baseball is ready for consumption and, boy, was the timing right this week.

As regular readers already know, this feature has the title, sure, but it's mostly for fun-- a fact that eludes the masses but remains the case. For example, if you tell me to "quit whining," you are missing the point. I'm mostly chuckling to myself as I write these things (with some exceptions, of course).

For all This Week in (Dumb) Baseball columns, click here.

1a. Let's talk about Mr. Papelbon

Jonathan Papelbon was already going to be one of the subjects this week due to throwing at Manny Machado's head. I've had people point out that the ball hit Machado's shoulder and not his head, but if you can watch the trajectory of the ball and not think it's going at Machado's head before he stands up and turns, you are being... well... dumb.

I don't know how much more I can say on throwing at hitters on purpose. Some people think it's policing the game, but pitchers doing this -- based upon hurt feelings over a home run, no less -- is totally reckless. And I'll again say it's cowardly, just as I did last week. One final time for effect: If you throw at someone due to hurt feelings, you are a cry-baby, not a tough guy.

As we all know, Harper after the game said this is "tired" and many of us agree with him. You know who probably doesn't? Mr. Papelbon, who initially appealed his three-game suspension in which MLB blatantly said he intentionally threw at Machado's head.

So forgive me for believing that Papelbon was just trying to be a veteran leader when he said something to Harper on Sunday. No, the smart money is that he was looking for any opening to call Harper out. He got the opening and ran with it.

Even if we are to naively believe that Papelbon would have said that to anyone else on the team, who is he to be acting like a leader? The team fell apart pretty much from the day he arrived, after he insisted that he remain closer (we'll get to that), or else he'd veto the trade. He was putting himself before the team before he was even on the team. That's the very definition of a selfish player. Selfish players aren't leaders.

Not only that, but Papelbon has now logged 23 2/3 innings with the Nationals. Harper's been on the team for four years and has played 1,262 innings this season.

If this was Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth or someone of similar pedigree, there might be a case that Harper was the problem here. When it's this guy ...

... you don't get to act like he's some sort of model veteran who is the voice of the clubhouse. That's not Papelbon. This isn't his place.

1b. Bryce Harper isn't blameless

I initially on Twitter said that 100 percent of the blame was on Papelbon and anyone trying to give even one percent of the blame to Harper was biased against Harper. This was before I saw the second angle. In that angle (with the camera from around home plate), Harper can be seen saying "let's go, I'll (effing) go right now." That's a challenge to a fight. He was taken up on his offer. Had he not said that, Papelbon probably doesn't get physical.

This isn't to excuse Papelbon by any stretch. He still shouldn't have gotten physical, in my opinion, but Harper definitely provoked him.

1c. Harper's "hustle" wasn't the issue, though

Harper ran through first base and that's pretty much what every player does on a routine fly out. He wasn't sprinting, but he wasn't walking and he got through the base. If you really want to act like every instance of this happening in the majors should be called out, we'd have multiple dugout fights in every single game. Probably at least one per inning, on average. Robinson Cano, for example, never runs anything out and it's possibly one of the reasons he rarely gets hurt. It's a long season, man. No other sport grinds through 162 regular-season games.

Also, I love the revisionist history people like to apply, regarding players "nowadays" not hustling. Screw that. Players have always jogged on routine flies or grounders. To say otherwise is inventing an alternate history.

Further, this notion about Harper being not established enough to do it in the minds of some players is laughable. Here's an excerpt from C.J. Nitkowski's (former MLB pitcher and great all-around dude) article on FOX. This is from a player:

As much as I hate to say it, Albert, Papi and Miggy have earned the right not to run out every ball. Partly age, respect and risk of injury. Harper is 22, he hasn’t earned it.

This is Harper's fourth year in the majors and he's leading everyone in average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. He should win the MVP. I think this notion of some players being allowed to not hustle and others being required to hustle is idiotic, but an MVP-caliber player in his fourth season should at least be on the "earned it" list. As to the "risk of injury" argument, Harper's had lots of issues staying on the field until this season.

There are more quotes in that Nitkowski piece from players and all of them seem to dislike Harper. I'd simply posit that jealousy is an ugly emotion. Sorry, guys.

In fairness, though, this does seem to be the mindset of most players.

Anyone ever notice how every single generation thinks the one behind it is lazy and/or entitled?

On Hawkins, I've long heard that he's one of the best teammates anyone could ever hope for. I have a friend who played with him in Colorado and literally said he's the best teammate he ever had. So one of the nicest guys in baseball believes this and sides with Papelbon. That's worth something and that's why the Harper-Papelbon dust-up ultimately happened. There's a divide here from how players think.

That doesn't mean this mindset isn't dumb, though. Because it is. Sorry, guys.

1d. LOL Matt Williams

I kind of feel like he's in the George Costanza position of trying to get fired and he just can't, you know? Maybe become Body Suit Man and faux-streak during a game?

Seriously, though, there was a fight between two of the most prominent members of his team. He left Papelbon in the game and afterward said he did so because Papelbon is his "closer."

Fast-forward a few hours.

Holy cow.

So Williams would have us believe that there was a fight that was broken up by several of his coaches and players and he didn't just say "what the hell happened?" You're the boss! Figure it out, man.

The other consideration here is Williams realized later he should have pulled Papelbon and tried to lie to get away with it. But that only made him look worse.

Regardless of whether he's telling the truth or not, he continues to make himself look worse as this clown show limps toward the end of the disaster of a season.

2. Let's talk about "leadership"

It's a bit tiring how people have pre-determined which guys are the leaders and which aren't. Like, since it was a 22-year-old Harper that was called out, he deserved it because he's some young punk and hasn't yet earned the right to ... I don't know ... do what everyone else does?

How about when Papelbon throws at Machado's head like an idiot? Harper called him out and said it's "tired."

Literally some of the same people who said Harper shouldn't be calling out a teammate publicly are now saying Papelbon was in the right to call Harper out.

How do these people not see the hypocrisy?

It's astounding.

It's also pretty obviously a preconceived "I hate Bryce Harper" notion. Which is fine, but at least own it and say so instead of cherry-picking all these reasons as to why one thing was OK and the other wasn't.

3. Let's talk about chemistry

Some of the new-age thought process involves treating the players like robots and acting like something such as "chemistry" doesn't exist. For the most part, winning teams have good chemistry because winning is fun and they are happier. There are things behind closed doors that matter, though.

I'll provide an example. When covering the Cubs-Reds series in Cincinnati, one thing I noticed on the visitor side was that David Ross was like the mayor of the clubhouse. The second he walked in, players were gathering around him, laughing and smiling away. They love him. He was very well liked on that 2013 World Series champion Red Sox team, too.

Even a forward-thinking front office like the Cubs knew Ross would help in the clubhouse, and it wasn't only because Jon Lester likes throwing to him. It was more than that. It's also why Jonny Gomes keeps finding work.

We can apply this to the Nationals situation. Drew Storen has been through some rough times with the Nationals. By several accounts, he's very well liked in the clubhouse. When the Nationals decided to trade for Papelbon, Storen was 29 of 31 in saves with a 1.73 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 36 1/3 innings. Since then he has two losses, three blown saves and five holds with a 6.75 ERA. He also hurt himself in anger and ended his own season.

Meanwhile, the Nationals turned a lead into a big deficit in the division.

We can't know if Papelbon is single-handedly to blame. In fact, I don't think that's possible. There were other issues, but that trade really seems like the turning point, doesn't it?

We know all about Papelbon's history of brash and obnoxious behavior. He had a no-trade clause that he refused to waive unless the Nationals guaranteed that he would take Storen's job. The front office agreed. Did the team, though? Nope.

Then, when things start to go badly, it snowballs and the team can't stop it. Now it's a laughingstock. If Harper was the problem, the Nationals couldn't have won the East in 2012 or 2014 and wouldn't have had the lead in the division in early August. With Papelbon, we've only seen the team fall apart.

The ninth inning wasn't a problem and general manager Mike Rizzo still tried to fix it. In doing so, he created a mess.

Chemistry matters. Let this case serve as an illustration.

And now, let us wash away the dumb with fun!

Photoshop of the week

Fans of Mike Tyson's Punch Out, this will bring a smile to your face:

Photo of the week

This isn't baseball related, but man, what a shot:

Stat of the week

I'm working up something long-ish on Jake Arreita's ridiculous season for next week, but I'll give a quick spoiler here:

In Jake Arrieta's last 15 starts (in which he has a 0.82 ERA), he's allowed only two home runs and one triple. He's hit two homers and one triple in the same span.

Yowza.

On that note, it's time to put a bow on this thing. Have a good week, friends. Don't be strangers (see below)!

Suggestions (dumb stuff, random videos, baseball cards, pop culture rankings topics, etc.) or hate mail? Feel free to hit me up: matt.snyder@cbs.com or you could always go to Twitter (@MattSnyderCBS).