As the all-star game is comfortably in the rearview mirror, the next major hurdle in the timeline comes with the non-waiver trade deadline. This year the deadline will occur on August 1^st because the 31^st is a Sunday. That means there is a little more than a week left until that deadline. For baseball junkies, this is probably the second most exciting time behind the Winter Meetings. Of course, we will have all of the analysis you need for the deals and your fantasy team.

Outside of the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, none of the sellers have made any significant moves yet. It seems as if the Boston Red Sox have been the primary buyers to this point. Naturally, this opens up a ton for the next week. The National League has as many as a half dozen prominent sellers going into the deadline.

If you read one thing

The Boston Red Sox continue to hit even some of their pitching hasn’t lived up to expectations. The star of the night for the Sox was arguably Dustin Pedroia after collecting five hits and scoring three runs. You could just as easily peg Mookie Betts or David Ortiz as well. Betts has more multi-hit games than any player in baseball while Ortiz hit another home run and four more runs driven in. The Red Sox may not be the best team in the American League or even in the AL East, but they certainly have the most dynamic offense in the league.

We kind of expected

Chris Tillman has the most low key 14-2 record in all of baseball. The numbers point to a pitcher having a good season (3.18 ERA) but not someone that should be on pace to win 20 games or more. Still, every once in a while pitchers have magical seasons where everything just comes together. It looks like one of those seasons for Tillman and it’s helping them stay in a dog fight in the AL East with the Red Sox.

We didn’t expect

All good things must come to an end and Thursday night was the end for Stephen Strasburg. He finally lost his first game of the year to go to 13-1. His ERA is still 2.83 on the year as 2016 seems to be the season where he finally put it all together. If only they could get him and Bryce Harper to have monster seasons in the same year. Harper has been good, but not nearly as good as last season.

Save Opportunities 

• Mark Melancon (28)
• Zach Britton (30)
• Kenley Jansen (28)

Injury News

The Texas Rangers have been ravished by the injury bug and it hit them again this week when they lost Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo to the disabled list. Fielder has another herniated disc in his neck and might be done for the season. The Rangers hope Choo will miss the minimum, but the injuries have taken their toll. The Rangers are in free fall and have lost three in a row and eight out of their last ten. Their once double digit lead has become a meager 3.5 game lead.