I read 246 baseball blogs and websites this morning, and all I got was this lousy collection of links.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

So apparently, for seven innings last night, the game wasn't big enough for the Cardinals. A home win and moving up in the Wild Card standings. Then Carlos Villanueva wiggled off the hook and got excited. Does anyone really believe that's what "woke up" the Cardinals? Tom H., Jim Powell and Big League Stew seem to think so. Defensive Indifference says the Brewers went 10-5 against the Cards this season because they waited until the final game to wake Pujols up.

Maybe before next season, we can all purchase t-shirts designed specifically for untucking so we can further perpetuate this inconceivable slight to all great things in the history of baseball and mankind. Or the people who complain about such things will get a life.

Moving on. Jon Heyman weighs in on how teams will handle players with options for next season. He predicts the Brewers will exercise their option on Mike Cameron. The fact that he's hitting .431/.491/.824 over his last 14 games has moved that option from a question mark to a lock.

Mat Gamel hit his first AAA home run yesterday, but amazingly enough, it wasn't the game's biggest story: Tony Gwynn Jr. hit a walk-off home run to win it.

The Brewers held steady at 7th in the most recent Bugs and Cranks power rankings.

Finally, Viva Cerveceros wrote a touching coming-of-age tale about friendship, sacrifice...and bobbleheads.

On injuries:

Mets IF Ramon Castro has been placed on the DL with a quad injury.
Josh Hamilton was scratched from Wednesday's lineup with an abscessed tooth that will require a root canal.

Today, once again, we have reason to rejoice in the fact that the Brewers didn't draft a Scott Boras client in the first round. Hyzdu Headquarters has a pretty good summary of the situation involving the Pirates and their first round pick, Pedro Alvarez, and his agent, (who else?) Scott Boras. Alvarez has yet to report to the Pirates, and Boras is claiming his contract was approved too late to be valid. Under baseball's rules, this should mean Alvarez didn't sign and sits out a year...but Boras is trying to wiggle into getting the Pirates to offer more money. Baseball Digest Daily has a message for Pedro Alvarez, but I think the broader message needs to be sent out to every prospective draftee for 2009: If you want to play baseball, find a different agent.

Four former Brewers are on the move, all covered within this link:

• The Braves signed Elmer Dessens.
• The Orioles activated Greg Aquino off the DL yesterday and designated him for assignment.
• The Mets recalled Robinson Cancel and Nelson Figueroa.

Oh, and the Rays won their 80th game last night, in front of a home crowd of 12,678.

Drink up.

Yesterday, all 30 teams in baseball were in action.  Only three NL teams won a game, and one of those, the Dodgers, beat the Reds.  The Brewers and Rockies were the only NL teams to win an interleague matchup.

• BR Box Score
• FanGraphs Win Probability Chart

With all those home runs last night, the Brewers didn't have to run very fast during the game.  This guy needed to run faster, though.

All you girls--except for Kirbir, who obviously wouldn't know a warm-up partner if one fell out of the sky into her bed--should be sure to watch the game tonight.  Hardy is healthy, and Yost plans to put him back in the lineup.

Speaking of coming back: David Riske dominated in Triple-A last night, and more importantly, he felt good.  He may not need another rehab, in which case the brass will have to figure out who goes.

I suppose there are four choices to get the axe: Mike Mark Mike Mark Mike Mark DiFelice, Tim Dillard, Julian Tavarez, and Hernan Iribarren.  Given how well DiFelice and Dillard have pitched, and that Taverez is a crusty veteran, I wouldn't be surprised to see Ned go for 13 pitchers.  Rambling Al notes that DiFelice has continued his amazing K/BB ways in the big leagues.

Whether you like it or not, I'm going to keep monitoring the available starting pitching.  (Sorry Seth, I'm sipping the kool-aid, but I'm not chugging it yet.)  Freddy Garcia has been throwing for scouts, and he could be back before September.

TheJay, apparently, is freelancing at Baseball Prospectus under the nom de recondite of "Jim Baker."  Baker takes the case of Robinson Cancel (nine years between major league appearances) and finds the players with even longer gaps between spells in the bigs.  Unsurprisingly, World War II shows up quite a bit.

If you thought the article about Kendall needing your All-Star support was a little silly, you should see what Gaslamp Ball has to say about a similar piece concerning Adrian Gonzalez.  Gonzalez has been one of the best players in baseball this year, and has stayed firmly under the radar in San Diego.  But no matter how good, I suspect he's not going to overtake Berkman, Pujols, D-Lee, and Fielder.

Here's part two of Geoff Young's interview with Sandy Alderson.

Two managers were fined by Major League Baseball for "failing to comply with pace of game regulations."  Word on the street (well, ok, word from my cat) is that Ryan Braun is next--if he doesn't start making outs more often, MLB will have to crack down on the extra time he adds to Brewers games.

You mean...American League teams lose, too?  Cool.

• BR Box Score
• FanGraphs Win Probability Chart

Eric Gagne isn't going to make it back as soon as David Riske will, but he did just throw his first bullpen session.  He should hurry back--the Nashville bullpen is really scuffling right now.

Fire Ned Yost sees the future and doesn't like it.

Peter Gammons's blog is Insider-Only (I'm not an insider), but it looks like he's writing about Rich Harden possibly turning out to be a bigger trade acquisition than CC Sabathia.  I'm sure we'll be talking about this for a while, being the presumptive contender with the glaring need for a starter.  Harden won't come cheap, but he's worth more than Sabathia in the longer term, as he's got a $7MM club option for 2009.  If we're going to trade a couple of blue-chippers for one of these guys, Harden is the more tempting option, though of course the front office will have to spend most of July checking over his medical records.

Remember Robinson Cancel?  He had a cup of coffee with the Brewers in 1999, and now he's back in the bigs, with the Mets.  He drove in a deciding run yesterday, and it was his first hit this century.  Faith and Fear in Flushing has more.

Danny Herrera, a reliever in the Reds system who recently made his MLB debut, is a great story.  What I didn't know until recently is that he throws a screwball (among many other things).  At The Hardball Times, Mike Fast breaks it down.

That's all I found this morning, and I'm off to work early, so I'm not looking any harder.  If you haven't yet read all of battlekow's prospect interviews, what are you waiting for?  Click here (or the "interviews" link on the left-hand sidebar) to get them all at once.