Trade Deadline Approaching, bevy of deals completed

We’ll update things through tomorrow’s afternoon trade deadline, but we’ve already seen a flurry of activity thus far. As fans, we can thank the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros for this year’s donations. Here’s a recap of the deals we’ve seen thus far:

Detroit Tigers acquire SS/3B Johnny Peralta and $ from Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians acquire P Giovanni Soto from Detroit Tigers

Los Angeles Dodgers acquire LF Scott Posednik from Kansas City Royals
Kansas City Royals acquire C Lucas May and P Elisaul Pimentel from Los Angeles Dodgers

Philadelphia Phillies acquire P Roy Oswalt and $11M from Houston Astros
Houston Astros acquire P JA Happ, OF Anthony Gose, and SS Jonathan Villar from Philadelphia Phillies

San Diego Padres acquire 3B Miguel Tejada from Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles acquire P Wynn Pelzer from San Diego Padres

Texas Rangers acquire 1B/3B Jorge Cantu and $6MM from Florida Marlins
Florida Marlins acquire P Evan Reed and P Omar Poveda from Texas Rangers

Minnesota Twins acquire P Matt Capps and $500K from Washington Nationals
Washington Nationals acquire C Wilson Ramos and P Joe Testa from Minnesota Twins

Chicago White Sox acquire P Edwin Jackson from Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona Diamonbacks acquire P Dan Hudson and P David Holmberg

Toronto Blue Jays acquire 1B Mike Jacobs from New York Mets
New York Mets acquire PTBNL from Toronto Blue Jays

Texas Rangers acquire 2B/SS Cristian Guzman from Washington Nationals
Washington Nationals acquire P Ryan Tatusko and possibly 1 more prospect (currently unknown) from Texas Rangers

New York Yankees acquire 1B Lance Berkman and $4MM from Houston Astros
Houston Astros acquire P Mark Melancon and IF Jimmy Paredes from New York Yankees

I had a hell of a week at work. I wasn’t able to do any blogging in the office and won’t be in the forseeable future, but I definitely wanted to react to all this and the lack of deals that were made by some teams.

While I agree with Craig Calcaterra’s list of 5 teams that need to make a deal, I’ll add two teams of my own. The Cincinnati Reds and the Tampa Bay Rays needed to make a deal, and I fear that both of those organizations are going to stand pat. If that happens, I think that these two teams will fall short of where they could potentially end up.

Both of these teams are in a position of ‘challenger’ rather than ‘champion’. They’re chasing franchises who are battle tested, who exhaust every avenue to make the move I’m talking about, and who consistently win in the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees.

Of course, there’s the official waiver deadline August 31st, but most guys worth a shit are gone by then for obvious reasons. Every team in MLB has to pass on them before they can be dealt.