The smoke from one of baseball's best trade deadlines ever cleared this past weekend, and the news has shifted back from hugs and trades to the more typical wars on the field -- and off the field if you saw the Kansas City Royals-Toronto Blue Jays or the Cincinnati Reds-Pittsburgh Pirates brouhahas.
Teams can still make trades in August, but the big-impact moves are likely already in the history books. This is a perfect time to recalibrate our outlook for the pennant races, so let's get down to it.