Quick hits: All-Star fixes, Ballpark Village, Lohse, and the Padres.

A wild week indeed. Josh Hamilton hits 28 homers. The AL wins on a play at the plate. Nobody cares, or at least Erin Andrews, about Justin Morneau... Or is that Jason Morneau? Doesn't matter.

Ken Rosenthal has some good suggestions for bettering the All-Star game and avoiding the near-debacle we had this past week:

Alternate pitchers, four per team. That's the solution for the nightmare scenario (read: tie game) that baseball barely avoided Tuesday night. Pick the alternates, rank 'em in order, then use them to replace any starting pitchers who are extended in outings close to the All-Star Game.

Another suggestion? Give teams an extra day off or have the game be played on Wednesday. It allows pitchers to have extra time for rest, which they certainly need. Something will be done before next year, and St. Louis will be the first place it's implemented.

Speaking of St. Louis and the All-Star game, there might actually be progress on the Ballpark Village front, finally:

Under the new arrangement, the developers — the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore-based Cordish Co. — would not be tied to specific development targets and could take market conditions into account in deciding the scope of the project, Rainford said. Public subsidies would change with the size of the development.

The plan doesn't have a specific development size, which means no one would know how big or small it might be. That's a far cry from the near $400 million project that was proposed. I'd like to see what blogger/economist J.C. Bradbury of Sabernomics.com has to say about this.

The Cardinals should look into dealing Kyle Lohse while his value is at an all-time high.

All's quiet on the Western Metal Supply front. According to Corey Brock:

But, according to a team source, talks involving Wolf are "moving along slowly" even though the market has been busy with the handful of trades involving pitchers -- such as CC Sabathia to Milwaukee, Rich Harden to the Chicago Cubs and, on Thursday, Joe Blanton to Philadelphia.

After seeing Greg Maddux last night, the Cardinals should be looking elsewhere. Starting pitcher shouldn't even be on the Cards' priority list - lefthanded relief and an impact bat should, however.

The Rockies are back in the pennant race, which could mean Brian Fuentes and Matt Holliday aren't even available. Their asking price was said to be pretty exorbitant anyways. Time to look at some lower-cost options, such as Toronto's Brian Tallet and Kansas City's Ron Mahay.