Trade Deadline Passes

One of the busiest times of the MLB calendar (if not the busiest) has come and gone, the non-waiver trade deadline. We will most likely see a few more moves made over the next month, but here's what contending teams did.

American League
East
New York Yankees

Let's go the the AL East. We know the New York Yankees are almost always finding a way to improve and this year was no different. Most experts lean toward the Yankees as having made the best moves. Most of the positives center around the cash aspect. While GM Brain Cashman did do an excellent job of adding only $4.8 million to the Yankees payroll, I'm not so convinced about the talent.

Acquiring Lance Berkman, Kerry Wood and Austin Kearns may look good, consider this. Berkman has been dealing with a bum knee all season. He also is not even close to sporting typical Lance Berkman numbers (.245, 13 HR, 49 RBI). What makes this a potentially good move is that Berkman will DH so wear and tear on the knee is minimized. Berkman can concentrate on what he does best, hit. If the knee comes around, look out.

Wood was just activated off the DL for a finger blister, his second stint on the DL this season. That should be concern #1. By this acquisition, you do have to wonder about the status of Joba Chamberlain as the setup man for Mariano Rivera. But you also have to be concerned about Wood's effectiveness. That's concern #2. There still aren't too many that doubt Wood's ability, they doubt his durability and stability.

Kearns, to me, may be the best of the pickups. He can play all three outfield positions and he possesses a bat with pop (He's primarily a left fielder after breaking in with the Cincinnati Reds as a right fielder). Kearns can spell Brett Gardner or Curtis Granderson against lefties. He could even DH if the situation warrants.

Tampa Bay Rays

The only move the Rays made was trading for former Diamondbacks reliever Chad Qualls and that was out of necessity due to Grant Balfour hitting the DL. Chad Qualls? You couldn't find a better reliever than Qualls? The Dodgers got Octavio Dotel. Wood went to divisional foe New York. Kyle Farnsworth went to Atlanta. Seattle had David Aardsma available.

Isn't this the last gasp of what could be in Tampa? Carlos Pena and Carl Crawford are sure to walk after this season. The Rays were dangling B.J. Upton to attract something, anything.

Boston Red Sox

Odd that the Sawx were quiet. GM Theo Epstein may be exploring other options like waiver wire pickups. But did Boston really need to make a move? They recently activated Victor Martinez, Clay Buchholz and Josh Beckett off the DL. You could consider those "pickups", can't you?

The only trade Boston made was sending Ramon Ramirez to the San Francisco Giants.

Just strange not seeing any smoke coming from Epstein's office...

Central
Chicago White Sox

Pale Hose fans might be screaming "Where the hell is Adam Dunn?" Where is he? Still in the nation's capital. Another question should be "Why did we trade for Edwin Jackson?" Why did GM Kenny Williams make this deal. He was hoping to flip Jackson in a deal for Dunn, so the theory goes. Williams started out looking for a big bat and got, at best, a #4 starter.

And Kenny Williams did put out a feeler about Manny Ramirez. Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess.

Minnesota Twins

I like getting Matt Capps, but I loathed giving up catching prospect Wilson Ramos in the deal. The Nats made out very well and Ramos can learn from Pudge in D.C. Capps and Jon Rausch form an excellent 8th-9th inning duo and we all know the Twins and their late season runs. Just ask the Detroit Tigers.

Detroit Tigers

Being six games back and being 3-7 in their last ten games were signals that maybe, just maybe, the Tigers weren't going to really be buyers. Sure, they traded with the Cleveland Indians for Jhonny Peralta, but that was all. They were bidding for Ted Lilly, who went to the Dodgers. They inquired about Dan Haren. No deal. I was surprised we didn't hear of the Tigers wanting to add outfield depth with the recent injury to Magglio Ordonez. Imagine Adam Dunn in the same lineup with Miguel Cabrera. Scary, I know.

West
Texas Rangers

The Rangers didn't go into this looking to just win their division (They currently have an 8.5 game lead on second place Oakland). They looked at winning the whole deal. They wanted a right-handed hitting first baseman. Poof! Jorge Cantu. They wanted a reliable "stand-in" for Ian Kinsler. Poof! There's Christian Guzman. They wanted an ace. Poof! Cliff Lee. They needed stability at the catching position. Poof! It's Bengie Molina.

Rich Harden was just activated off the DL, too. Offensively, this team is pretty scary. Rangers fans might still be worried about the starting rotation.