The Astros finalized a deal Friday night sending all-star outfielder Hunter Pence to the Phillies, along with $1 million in cash, for RHP Jarred Cosart, 1B/OF Jonathan Singleton, and two players to be named later. One of the PTBNLs turned out to be Josh Zeid, a reliever from Double-A Reading, while the other isn’t considered to be a major prospect per Ken Rosenthal, who broke the story.

The Astros didn’t have to deal Pence right now since he is under team control for two more years. However, his value has never been greater, since he can impact three playoff races. Most available players are half-year rentals or are under contract or control for one more season. Pence was also about to get fairly expensive for the Astros, who, as a rebuilding team did not need to carry a $12-15 mm player that didn’t help accomplish their goals. Pence might have been the face of the Astros franchise, but that was more indicative of the status of the organization than anything specific to his set of skills.

Though he isn’t truly a differencemaker, or an offensive savior for any interested team, the perception of his abilities around the league likely exceeds his actual production. Combine these ideas and the Astros should have been able to extract a great return for a good, not great, player. In getting Cosart and Singleton, they took on some risk (Cosart’s durability, Singleton’s lack of position), but there is a very good chance that they acquired a package equally as good as the return on Roy Halladay.

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The Rangers are rolling on all cylinders these days. Their +92 run differential is fourth-best in the Majors, and they are 11 games over .500 since the start of June. As Carson noted the other day, they have received good production out of center field, and really that translates to every other spot in the lineup as well. And while the Rangers’ bullpen has pitched better during the past two months, it still remains the team weakness… perhaps the team’s only weakness. As such the Rangers have been linked to both Heath Bell and Mike Adams as potential bullpen reinforcements, though it is widely thought that Bell is more likely to be dealt, so let’s focus on him. Would acquiring Bell be the proverbial final piece of the puzzle for the Rangers?

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Potential aces don’t grow on trees. So it came as quite a shock that the New York Mets acquired the San Francisco Giants’ top pitching prospect, Zack Wheeler, for free-agent-to-be Carlos Beltran.

Despite an ill-conceived article* on USA Today’s website, which suggests that the organization’s pitching prospects cannot be trusted, this was a shrewd move by the Mets organization and a very questionable decision by the Giants. Even as an amateur, Wheeler was a highly sought after talent and went to San Francisco sixth overall in the 2009 draft. Prior to the 2011 season during the Top 10 prospect lists, I ranked him as the Giants’ second best prospect in the system behind 1B/OF Brandon Belt.

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Rumors are swirling that the Philadelphia Phillies are zeroing in on Houston Astros outfielder Hunter Pence. What I don’t understand, though, is why the Phillies don’t already have him. The rumored offering for the 28-year-old outfielder is top prospects Jarred Cosart and Jonathan Singleton, along with a third unnamed prospect. While Pence is a very nice baseball player, he is not a difference-maker all on his own. Nor is he a star player.

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The biggest chip in the 2011 trading season has officially been moved. After weeks of rumors, the Giants pulled the trigger on a deal to bolster a struggling offense, acquiring Carlos Beltran from the Mets in exchange for prized pitching prospect Zach Wheeler. Beltran will infuse some life into an offense which enters Thursday’s play with an overall batting line of .241/.306/.360, worth an 82 wRC+ that sits dead last in the National League.

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Just a few hours after Chris opined that the Indians needn’t go all-in this season, the Indians made a fairly conservative move. To help shore up their outfield, which is currently short Grady Sizemore and Shin-Shoo Choo, the Indians acquired Kosuke Fukudome from the Cubs for two prospects. Chicago will pick up some of the $4.7 million remaining on Fukudome’s deal. While the specific prospects aren’t clear at the time of writing, we can still examine how this helps Cleveland’s chances.

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Ed. Note: Four people were injured in the copyediting of this article.

One word. Change one word of the trade description, and you might see a world in which the Cardinals got fair value for Colby Rasmus in their trade Wednesday night.

The consensus for the most part is that Alex Anthopoulos pulled a coup when he acquired a young left-handed center fielder with power and speed and a decent glove for his collection of spare parts. A rental starter, a rental backup center fielder, a rental righty reliever, and a young lefty reliever is all that it took to get Rasmus. But then there’s that one word — reliever.

Call Marc Rzepczynski a young lefty starter, and suddenly things might seem a little more even.

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If there was ever a precursor to a trade, this was it, via Matthew Leach and Austin Laymance:

Speaking to KSDK TV-5 in St. Louis, La Russa was largely complimentary of Rasmus until the end of the interview. He spoke of Rasmus’ bright future and said that the club is not shopping Rasmus.

At the end, however, La Russa was asked whether Rasmus is listening and responded tartly.

“Well, he’s listening to somebody,” the manager said.

Asked whether Rasmus is listening to the Cardinals’ coaches, he was more direct.

“No, he doesn’t listen to the Cardinal coaches much now, and that’s why he gets in these funks, in my opinion,” La Russa said. “If he would just stay with [basically] what they teach, he would have … but I actually feel concern for him, because he hears it from so many places, he’s got to be confused.”

Approximately 12 hours after that piece hit MLB.com, the Cardinals sent Colby Rasmus packing to Toronto along with relievers Brian Tallet and Trever Miller and minor league stalwart P.J. Walters for a package centered around Edwin Jackson. The Blue Jays also sent relievers Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski and center fielder Corey Patterson to St. Louis to complete the deal.

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The talks started last winter, but they didn’t seem serious. Why would the Cardinals consider trading Colby Rasmus? He’s young, he’s cost-controlled, and he’s a center fielder who has some pop. But he clashed with manager Tony LaRussa, and we’ve seen other players depart St. Louis after such spats. Those talks have heated up again in the past month, gaining momentum as the trade deadline approaches. Today it all came to a head. Early this morning word broke that the Blue Jays were set to acquire Edwin Jackson, whom they’d then flip to the Cardinals in a Rasmus deal. A few hours, everything came together as planned.

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The rumor mill is spinning with the trade deadline a mere five days away as teams amp up their approach to accomplish their goals. On Monday, we took a look at ten teams who could make moves this week, but who don’t really have a pressing need to act. Some teams, like the Phillies, Red Sox and Yankees, are going to make the playoffs, and any moves they make this week will be to improve a minor deficiency. Others, like the Blue Jays and Rockies, don’t have much to sell and aren’t in the position to buy either. Yesterday, the focus shifted to teams who could benefit from making moves, either to get back into the race like White Sox, or to unload valuable assets like the Padres and Orioles.

Today ends the series by examining the ten teams who really need to make or field offers this week for different reasons. Each member of the group has a pressing need to transact this week in order to accomplish goals for this season, next, or both.

#10 – Tampa Bay Rays
Despite squashing rumors of James Shields potentially being available, the Rays have one of the most attractive deadline pieces in B.J. Upton. Though his offense has suffered quite a bit since 2007-08, the elder Upton brother is still a 3+ WAR player capable of hitting 15-20 homers while stealing 40 bases. Add in decent defense in center field and it becomes easy to see why many teams are coveting him. The Nationals are looking to acquire a long-term solution in center field and could make a strong push, though the Braves have also been linked to him.

Upton reaches free agency after the 2012 season, so with a year and two months left under team control, now is the right time to move him. With Desmond Jennings already promoted to the majors, Upton has been made expendable, and if the end solution involves trading him, it’s better to do so when he could impact two playoff races.

Kyle Farnsworth tends to change teams around this time every season, and his stellar numbers so far — 1.99 ERA, 2.69 SIERA, 4.0 K/BB could have plenty of teams calling. The Rangers could use relief help, as could the Cardinals and Tigers. The Rays could also look to capitalize on the potentially fluky success of Casey Kotchman, who will be a free agent after the season. His .388/.450 OBP/SLG would be mighty attractive to a few teams.

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