In my last edition of the Fantasy Baseball Final, I said not to sleep on August deals and sure enough a couple went down today. Sure, neither are earth-shattering deals that will affect the fantasy baseball landscape, but one of them could affect the playoff race down the stretch. Both will have long-term effects on the franchises involved. Stay tuned as both trades will be addressed on the front page tomorrow.

If you read only one thing…..

A few years ago, the internet baseball community derided Dayton Moore for trading uber prospect Wil Myers to the Tampa Bay Rays in a package that netted the Royals James Shields and Wade Davis. Myers was going to go on to win the Rookie of the Year award a super stardom. Why did the Royals give up on the best prospect of baseball just to rent a very good starting pitcher for two seasons? He was the laughingstock of baseball.

Fast forward three seasons and the Royals had one winning season, one pennant winning season, and now have the best record in the American League. They have a seemingly insurmountable lead in the AL Central and Wade Davis is still one of the key members of the best bullpen in baseball. Maybe we all owe Dayton Moore an apology. After all, what happened to Wil Myers? Well, he isn’t even in Tampa anymore.

Just as we expected….

In the senior circuit, the St. Louis Cardinals appear to be a lock to win the NL Central. Of course, nothing is a lock in early August. They’ve won 70 games with a lineup and roster that has been riddled with injuries. Matt Holliday and Adam Wainright have missed most of the season and Matt Adams is out for the year as well. Still, they seem to have more than enough pitching to make it through a deep playoff run.

The Toronto Blue Jays responded like they got a huge shot in the arm at the trading deadline. They won an uncharacteristic pitcher’s duel to improve their record to 59-52 against their rival the Yankees. They now trail the Yankees by 3.5 games with more than six weeks to go. The usual suspects led them to another victory as Josh Donaldson hit his 30th home run and Jose Bautista hit his 25th home run.

But we didn’t see this coming….

The New York Mets are leading the NL East. Yup, you read that right, they’ve expanded their lead to 2.5 games after a win and a Washington Nationals loss. Jacob DeGrom pitched another gem, but did not get the win as the Mets needed a rally against Rays closer Brad Boxberger. They did add considerably at the deadline, but the turn of events is still a surprise considering the Nationals own strong pitching efforts so far this season.

You have to feel sorry for the Pittsburgh Pirates. They have the third best record in baseball and just beat Clayton Kershaw, but they happen to play in the same division as the St. Louis Cardinals. Still, no one should sleep on the Pirates. They have their own ace in Gerrit Cole and a pretty good bullpen to go with it.

The Rest of the Details

Save Chances

• Brad Boxberger (not converted)
• Aroyds Vizcaino (converted)
• Greg Holland (converted)
• Carlos Villanueva (converted)
• Jeurys Familia (converted)
• Roberto Osuna (converted)
• Glen Perkins (converted)
• Koji Uehara (converted)
• Hector Rondon (converted)
• Tommy Kahnle (converted)

Transactions

• Boston Red Sox trade Mike Napoli to Texas Rangers for PTBNL
• Atlanta Braves trade Chris Johnson to Cleveland Indians for Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher