Today was the non-waiver deadline for trades. The deadline comes at 4 PM EST, but there are always trades that get announced after the deadline. This season’s trade deadline was unique for a number of reasons. First, there were more significant trades made this year than there have been in quite some time. Teams were much more willing to part with players that will become free agents following the season and teams were more willing to part with prospects for those players.

What was more interesting is that the vast majority of deals were made before today. With apologies to Dan Haren and J.A. Happ, Yoenis Cespedes was the only significant domino to fall before the 4 PM deadline today. Numerous trades were made before today. Usually, it is the other way around, but teams wanted to get as much bang for their buck and making deals before they had to so they could get more time with their guy on the squad.

If you read one thing

There are buyers and there are sellers. If you’ve been a fan of baseball long enough then you’ve seen your team on both sides of that equation. To be perfectly honest, those of us that are hardcore fans get all geeked out on both occasions. When our team is a seller, we get excited to see what prospects we can get from the other team. Obviously, it’s a blast when your team becomes a buyer. Then, you get the wretched existence that comes with being a Marlins fan.

To be perfectly honest, I feel for them. It’s one thing to be a seller more often than being a buyer. I get that. As a Houston Astros fan, I’ve seen more than my fair share of selling over the last seven or eight years. Yet, for most teams, that selling had some kind of a long-term purpose. Our team was building towards something. Watching the Marlins is like watch an Etch a sketch that seems to erase itself before something gets fully drawn. Yet, it never fully gets erased either. You seem to have those never ending stairs to nowhere. They have Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Fernandez, and a few more promising young guys, but when they sell its more like a garage sale than a boutique. Out of all of their deals this past week, they got one top thirty prospect (according to MLB.com). That’s right. One. The Mariners beat that for Mark Lowe and Dustin Ackley. Jeffrey Loria did save a lot of money though. At least he has his priorities straight.

Just as we expected….

The Pittsburgh Pirates continue to march on towards the wild card in the National League. It’s too bad that they happen to be in the same division as the Cardinals or they would be in first place in every other division. Jung Ho Kang continues to be one of the unheralded pick ups from this past offseason. He is hitting a robust .299 with an OPS north of .800. Andrew McCutchen hit his 15th home run of the season as well to lead the Pirates to a one run victory. New addition Joakim Soria pitched his first inning of relief for the Pirates. It was a scoreless frame.

Speaking of the Cardinals, they continue to roll as well. Yes, they added Brandon Moss, Steve Cishek, and Jonathan Broxton, but they had the best team in baseball before the deadline and that likely hasn’t changed. Matt Carpenter has the hot hand as he hit his 13th home run (and third in two nights) of the season and added a couple more hits. Jhnonny Peralta also added his 15th home run of the season.

But we didn’t see this coming….

Break up the Phillies. They may have dealt their best pitcher, their closer, and their leadoff hitter, but who really cares right? They won again in convincing fashion. Embattled first base Ryan Howard didn’t get dealt, but he is making his case for relevance as he had two hits and four RBI on the night. That gives him 59 RBI on the season. He should surpass 90 RBI again this season despite all of his struggles.

Like the Phillies, the Boston Red Sox have been the biggest disappointment in the American League. Unlike the Phillies, they were expected to be very competitive. They did virtually nothing at or near the deadline, but somehow have started winning games. The key to their comeback has been the resurgence of David Ortiz. Don’t let his .245 average fool you. He’s snuck up to 20 home runs on the season and like Ryan Howard, should surpass 90 RBIs again. Don’t look now, but he has 486 career home runs. He would have to hustle, but 500 home runs could be in range this season.

The Rest of the Details

Save Chances

• Koji Uehara (converted)
• Mark Melancon (converted)
• Zach Britton (converted)

Injuries

• Matt Holliday was placed on the disabled list with a quad injury

Transactions

• Milwaukee Brewers trade Jonathan Broxton to the St. Louis Cardinals for Malik Collymore
• Milwaukee Brewers trade Gerardo Parra to the Baltimore Orioles for Zach Davies
• Seattle Mariners trade Mark Lowe to the Toronto Blue Jays for Jake Brentz, Nick Wells, and Rob Rasmussen
• Tampa Bay Rays trade Kevin Jepsen to the Minnesota Twins for Chih-Wei Hu and Alexis Tapia
• The Philadelphia Phillies traded Ben Revere to the Toronto Blue Jays for Jimmy Cordero and Alberto Tirado
• The Miami Marlins traded Dan Haren to the Chicago Cubs for Ivan Pineyro and Elliot Soto
• The Seattle Mariners traded J.A. Happ to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Adrian Sampson
• The Baltimore Orioles traded Tommy Hunter to the Chicago Cubs for Junior Lake
• The Detroit Tigers traded Yoenis Cespedes to the New York Mets for Michael Fulmer and Luis Cessa
• The Cleveland Indians traded Marc Rzepczynski to the San Diego Padres for Abraham Almonte
• The Miami Marlins traded Sam Dyson to the Texas Rangers for Tomas Telis
• The Oakland Athletics traded Ryan Cook to the Boston Red Sox for a PTBNL
• The Pittsburgh Pirates traded Jose Tabata to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Michael Morse