Philadelphia, PA – When Bud Norris is the biggest name being thrown around, you know it's going to be a long deadline day.
As the clock struck 4 p.m. on the East Coast, Major League Baseball's Non- Waiver Trade Deadline passed, and although we heard a bunch of names, really to nobody's surprise, there was not a whole lot of action.
It's kind of ridiculous even calling it a deadline at this point, especially this of all years. As I mentioned the other day half the league is within single-digit games of a playoff spot and we still don't know how the Biogenesis suspensions are going to shake out.
With playoff teams likely to lose key personnel in the coming days, we should expect as wild a waiver period as we've ever seen.
Now, with that said there were still a few moves. The aforementioned Norris went to the Baltimore Orioles for outfielder L.J. Hoes. Norris is a nice enough pitcher ... for the Astros. Let's see how he does in the thick of a pennant race in the American League East.
Baltimore, though, may have felt it needed to do something to counter the Boston acquisition of Jake Peavy late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning.
The Red Sox, nor anyone else, were going to give the Philadelphia Phillies three top prospects and pick up the remaining $70 million or so on Cliff Lee's deal.
Peavy was the best pitcher on the market and the Red Sox got him.
Sure it may have cost them the slick-fielding Jose Iglesias, but super prospect Xander Bogaerts is just about major league ready. Plus if anyone thinks Iglesias is going to hit .330 for the long haul you need to have your head examined.
And, if Clay Buchholz ever returns that's as solid a top-3 of the rotation as there is with him, Jon Lester and Peavy.
The Tigers getting Iglesias is also a nice solid pickup, especially since it looks as if Jhonny Peralta is about to take a ride on the PED suspension train. Despite what he's doing now, Iglesias isn't in this league because of his bat, but there's a good chance he wins multiple Gold Gloves at shortstop.
Regardless, if Peralta is suspended or not, he's a free agent after this season anyway and the Tigers now have his replacement.
If you are looking for the big winner on deadline day, look no further than the San Diego Padres. Yes the nearly cellar-dwelling Padres, who acquired one-time 21-game winner Ian Kennedy from the Arizona Diamondbacks for left- handed reliever Joe Thatcher.
In the year and half since he finished fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting, though, Kennedy has struggled and this year he's pitching to a 5.23 ERA. But, the Padres are banking that a change of scenery will get him back to where he was in 2011. Not to mention he's under team control through 2015.
The biggest losers of the day? The Texas Rangers. This was a team that needed to add a bat. Bad. Even if Nelson Cruz appeals any potential suspension they still needed to add some offense.
To their credit, though, the Rangers tried, there just wasn't anything out there that appealed to them. They did attempt to pry Jose Bautista from Toronto, but not surprisingly the Blue Jays wouldn't budge.
Still, watch the Rangers in the next few weeks. They will add a bat. How desperate were they? Apparently they were dangling newly-acquired righty Matt Garza in deals to add some offense.
We mentioned waiver wire deals earlier. Here's how they work. Any player can be put on waivers by his team, and the player does not need to be informed.
Other teams have the chance to make a claim on the player during a 47 hour window.
If the player is claimed, the team that placed him on waivers has the option of pulling him back. If the team pulls him back, though, they can't trade him for 30 days.
If his team decides not to pull him back there are a few options:
Option 1: His team can work out a trade with the team that claimed him. Any player involved in the trade who is on a 40 man roster must go through waivers first.
Option 2: His team can just dump him and his salary on the team that claimed him, getting no player in return.
Option 3: No one claims him, and his team is free to trade him to any team.
If more than one team places a claim on a player, the winning claim is awarded based on worst record or the league the claiming team is in.
In all, it was a ho-hum deadline. Some teams helped themselves. Some didn't. Calling it a deadline is ridiculous, though. The real fun is really just about to begin.
And no I'm not talking about the pending Biogenesis suspensions.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.