Trade Deadline finally passes; What Happened?

Well, lets go around the majors and discuss all the moves that happened today.

-First off, Roy Halladay, the biggest name on the market this year was NOT traded. It seems no team would ante up what JP Ricchardi was asking for, so no deal was done.

-Jake Peavy, who earlier in the year rejected a trade to the Chicago White Sox, was traded to the Chicago White Sox. If you want to know my thoughts on the trade, look back at my post from earlier in the year, although this time, word is the Padres actually got a better return.

-The Marlins got a favorite of this blogger when they added Nick Johnson. Johnson does not figure to be a Type A or B free agent, so any return on him is good for the Nationals while the Marlins add a guy in front of Hanley Ramirez who gets on base over 40% of the time. Solid trade for both sides.

-The Reds acquired Scott Rolen, a name they have been linked to a lot this year, for Edwin Encarnacion and two minor leaguer's. Although I like Rolen, he is not worth the $11 mil he will be making next year so I like this trade for the Blue Jays considering they got a solid 3B in return and also saved some money.

-The Rockies got Joe Beimel from the Nationals. Who cares?

-The Twins got Orlando Cabrera from the Oakland A's who will be a solid addition to the club. He won't be a huge upgrade over Brendan Harris, but after Twin players complained about the lack of deadline deals in recent years, it was good for them that a move was made and the team has been, if only slightly, upgraded.

-Finally, the Red Sox and the Yankees made some moves. The Red Sox traded Justin Masterson and two minor league pitchers for the slugging Catcher/1B/DH, Victor Martinez. This is a huge offensive upgrade for the Red Sox and although they lost out on some prospects, all of them figure to be middle-of-the-rotation guys, so they can deal with the loss.

With the addition of Victor Martinez, this made Adam LaRoche expendable due to the surplus of 1B/DH types, so in a move that makes complete sense, they traded him to the Atlanta Braves for Casey Kotchman? Huh? I am not sure I understand this trade considering they are pretty much the exact same player. LaRoche has a little bit more power and Kotchman is better defensively, but I just don't understand the point of it.

Finally, the Yankees did not trade for a back-end starter like I had hoped, but they did trade for utility infielder/outfielder Jerry Hairston Jr. After hitting .326 with 6HR's and 36 RBI last year, Hairston has regressed this year, now hitting .254 w/8 HR's and 27 RBI. Although he has not played fantastically, the Yankees gave up almost nothing, just an A-ball catcher who was hitting .260, I like this deal. Not only does it give us an extra outfielder for the time being, but he can play almost anywhere on the field. So far this year he has played 33 games at 3B, 31 at SS, 9 at 2B, 9 in LF, 5 in RF and 3 in CF. When Brett Gardner comes back, we finally have a player who can take over for Cody Ransom and the Yankees can designate him for assignment!

Don't get me wrong, this trade wont determine the season, obviously, but we get more depth for now and in about 3 weeks, Cody Ransom will just be a distant, horrible memory.

So what do you guys thing about the trade deadline? Who were the winners (Red Sox)? Who were the losers (Red's maybe? Blue Jays? Mets?)? And most importantly on this blog, what do you think about the move the Yankees made?

Don't forget people, this is only the non-waiver trade deadline so many move moves can be made up until the end of August. Many people, including Brian Cashman think that this year, because of financial restraints, the August trade market will be very active, so the Yankees can still pick up a starter and other teams can still add their pieces as well. After my recent talk of non-tendering, I am led to believe some people may not be aware of what the significance of waiver trades include, so if you have any questions, just ask.