1. St. Louis Cardinals (67-38, Last Week-1): The addition of Brandon Moss can be a great one if he reverts to his first-half form from 2014. If not, it’s ok because he is an upgrade of what they were putting out at first base before.
2. Kansas City Royals (62-42, Last Week-2): Got beat up by the Blue Jays losing three of four in what looks like a great potential playoff series.
3. Los Angeles Dodgers (61-43, Last Week-4): Did great in their 13 player trade with the Braves and Marlins by acquiring Mat Latos, Alex Wood and others to help the pitching staff.
4. Houston Astros (60-46, Last Week-7): The additions of Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers came at a steep price, but they are under team control through 2016 and 2019 respectively. Gomez will make the lineup more dynamic and Fiers will help the Astros manage the innings of young pitchers Lance McCullers and Vincent Velasquez.
5. Pittsburgh Pirates (61-43, Last Week-3): Possibly losing A.J. Burnett for the season really damages their chances at winning the division, so they should expect a third straight wild card game.
6. New York Yankees (59-45, Last Week-5): Did not do anything substantial at the Trade Deadline and decided to keep their prospects. Not something you’d expect from the Yankees.
7. Toronto Blue Jays (54-52, Last Week-13): Acquiring both David Price and Troy Tulowitzki brings an ace that was desperately needed and gives the best left side of the infield in baseball.
8. San Francisco Giants (57-47, Last Week-9): Trading for Mike Leake helps stabilize the rotation and taking him away from Great American Ballpark can’t hurt either.
9. Chicago Cubs (57-47, Last Week-11): Five-game winning streak has them tied for the second wild card spot with the Giants and are heading to Pittsburgh for a huge series followed by a four-game series at home against the Giants.
10. New York Mets (55-50, Last Week-12): Huge sweep of the Nationals at home has them tied for first place and they acquired Cespedes, who is a much needed bat.
11. Washington Nationals (54-49, Last Week-8): A big reason for their underperformance all season has been the large decline of productivity from their infield, as Ian Desmond has an OPS slightly above .600 and Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon have struggled to stay healthy and play well when healthy.
12. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (55-49, Last Week-6): Bad week for the Angels as they lost all six getting swept from the Astros and Dodgers. Now four games out in the AL West after being one ahead coming into the week.
13. Baltimore Orioles (53-51, Last Week-15): Adding Gerardo Parra is not the biggest trade, but he has been very productive for the Brewers this year with an .878 OPS.
14. Minnesota Twins (54-50, Last Week-10): Could lose their hold on the second wild card spot as they head to Toronto for a four game series with a one game lead.
15. Tampa Bay Rays (52-54, Last Week-14): Still in striking distance of a wild card spot as they are only three games out, but they are likely to miss the playoffs as the teams ahead of them made upgrades.
16. Texas Rangers (51-53, Last Week-17): Adding Cole Hamels is mainly for the next few years as they should have Darvish and Holland back which gives them a pretty strong 1-2-3.
17. Chicago White Sox (50-53, Last Week-18): They decided not to sell because they believe they can make the playoffs, but their upcoming stretch is not easy with the Rays, Royals and Angels next.
18. Arizona Diamondbacks (50-53, Last Week-20): Made a bid to get Aroldis Chapman, but it fell short as they did not do much at all at the Trade Deadline.
19. Detroit Tigers (51-54, Last Week-16): Picked up some good prospects in their trades of David Price and Yoenis Cespedes, including LHP Daniel Norris from Toronto who pitched 7.1 innings winning 6-1 against the Orioles.
20. San Diego Padres (51-54, Last Week-19): Surprisingly did not sell at the deadline, but they think they can still make the playoffs being 6.5 games out of the wild card.
21. Cleveland Indians (48-56, Last Week-21): Francisco Lindor has not been that good so far with an OPS of .665, but he is only 21 and has plenty of time to develop.
22. Seattle Mariners (48-58, Last Week-23): I do not understand why they did not trade Iwakuma because he is a free agent at the end of the season and they won’t be playing in October.
23. Oakland A’s (47-59, Last Week-24): Stephen Vogt is stuck in a major slump as he is 0 for his last 20 and 8 for his last 53. Yikes.
24. Atlanta Braves (47-58, Last Week-22): They are slowly falling back to where they were expected to be as they are losers of eight of their last ten.
25. Boston Red Sox (47-59, Last Week-25): Joe Kelly and Rick Porcello have been such disappointments and they have ERAs of 6.11 and 5.81 respectively.
26. Cincinnati Reds (47-56, Last Week-27): Traded Cueto and Leake, but could have done more and probably should have because they still have Jay Bruce and Aroldis Chapman.
27. Milwaukee Brewers (44-62, Last Week-26): Did well at the deadline, but could have done more as Lind, Garza, and Lohse are still on the roster.
28. Colorado Rockies (44-59, Last Week-28): Trading Tulo was a big first step towards rebuilding, but they still have more assets to trade as they try to bring an eventual winner to Denver.
29. Miami Marlins (43-62, Last Week-29): Christian Yelich still has not been as productive as he was last year, but he has improved over the last month with an OPS over .800 over that timespan.
30. Philadelphia Phillies (41-65, Last Week-30): They have been one of the hottest teams since the All-Star Break and acquired some young talent at the Trade Deadline.
Sources:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/schedule/index.jsp
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/index.jsp
http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/sortable.jsp
http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2015/8/1/9084157/starting-nine-astros-trade-for-carlos-gomez