Born to Run (USP)Baseball America considered Starling Marte a Top 75 prospect before the year. Today, he's just another young, talented kid trying to push Pittsburgh back to the playoffs.

The Bucs made the call for the 23-year-old outfielder on Wednesday and he'll make his major-league debut Thursday in Houston. There's no kid gloves on this one: he'll bat leadoff. And he's stepping into what's been the NL's best offense since June 1.

If the Pirates were still a losing ballclub, Marte would probably be in the minors right now. He's still got plenty of skills to work on. He logged a .286/.347/.500 slash line at Triple-A this summer, with 12 homers and 21 steals in 33 attempts. He needs to improve his plate skills (91 strikeouts, 23 unintentional walks). He's only played 228 games above Single-A.

Teams will try anything to stop Bonifacio (USP)The dismantling of the Marlins is well underway, as we all can see. Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante hit Detroit a couple of days ago. Hanley Ramirez jetted west on Wednesday (with a brief layover in the midwest). More moves are certainly in the works.

What's a Marlin to do in the meantime? Rabbit, run.

While Atlanta rolled past Miami on Wednesday afternoon, 7-1, Ozzie Guillen's men made an interesting statement on the basepaths. The Marlins collected seven stolen bases in seven attempts; Jose Reyes and Donovan Solano bagged two each, and Justin Ruggiano, Emilio Bonifacio and Bryan Petersen nabbed one apiece. Braves righty Tommy Hanson isn't the king of holding on runners, mind you, but base stealers were only 13-for-19 entering the day. Not everyone gets it for free.

Solano's off to a nifty start in the majors, posting a .322/.406/.441 slash through 59 at-bats, with eight walks and four steals. He qualifies at shortstop and outfield in Yahoo's game, and he'll soon be adding third base. But the story runs out of steam when you consider his minor-league profile; his career slash in the bush leagues is .260/.314/.319, and he only stole 26 bases over 738 games. He posted a .653 OPS in 36 games with Triple-A New Orleans this year, swiping four bags.

Post-homer hand jive (USP)

It's been a long time since anyone took Carlos Gomez seriously in our pretend baseball world. He's a free-swinging hacker who won't take a walk, right? His batting average stinks, right? He's not even a full-time player, right?

Alas, the game is all about the numbers and not the names, and over the past 25 days Gomez has been doing some nifty roto work. It's okay if you don't want to pick him up after I'm done with this propaganda piece. Just consider the argument first.

You can say almost anything you want with arbitrary endpoints, but that's how we'll start things off. Gomez has four homers and nine steals (on 10 attempts) in his last 18 games (12 starts). He's scored 12 runs, driven in nine. If you rank all the fantasy outfielders over that span, Gomez checks in as the No. 7 guy — and that's despite playing about 60 percent of the time. Perhaps this is a story worth chasing. I've added Go-Go on a couple of my deep-league rosters.

Up, up and away (USP)

I'll check my biases at the door on this one. I haven't been a Hanley Ramirez fan for a long time. He plays when he wants to play, and doesn't regularly respect the game or his teammates. If I were a Marlins fan, this guy would frustrate me on a daily basis.

That all said, I love the Dodgers move to get Ramirez on the cheap. There's no real substitute for elite ability, and perhaps a change of scenery will get Hanley going again — just like it worked for Manny Ramirez back in 2008.

The Hanleywood cost was surprisingly modest, a stone-cold giveaway. The Dodgers picked up Ramirez and lefty specialist Randy Choate in exchange for right-handed pitchers Nathan Eovaldi and Scott McGough. Eovaldi has a chance to be a mid-rotation starter, I suppose. McGough isn't a hot prospect but he's just 22, maybe he'll turn into something. But a motivated Ramirez is capable of being one of the best players in the game.

The Marlins wanted Ramirez gone, and his salary gone. The package coming back apparently wasn't that important.

Let's end this dance (USP)

Get out the scorebook, it's time for a list. I hope you're a fan of crooked numbers.

Six hits, five runs, six walks, four strikeouts, eight outs, 12 men reaching base. Line drives 40 percent of the time. A .462/.600/.615 slash line. That's the Francisco Rodriguez log since he took over the Milwaukee closing gig last week. Even with two conversions in three attempts, it's been a hot mess.

K-Rod was fortunate enough to skate past the Cardinals twice last week, but he wasn't able to Houdini his way past the Phillies on Monday (despite holding a three-run lead). Three hits and three walks led to four runs. Rodriguez was so distraught about the defeat, he Tweeted a two-part apology to Milwaukee fans after the game. (When it comes to closer accountability, I prefer the old school method.)

The Brewers front office was hoping K-Rod would take the job and run with it, ostensibly so it could shop Rodriguez to bullpen-needy contenders. But those other teams are unlikely to be fooled by Rodriguez's numbers. He's currently carrying a 4.47 ERA and 1.60 WHIP for the year, and he's petrified to trust his stuff in the strike zone. What team needs a right-handed arsonist like that?

John Axford is a dog with different fleas (4.91/1.51), but he'll probably be back in the Milwaukee closing chair pretty soon. He hasn't allowed a run since his demotion, recording 10 outs against just three base runners. Manager Ron Roenicke made it clear all along that the club wants to eventually return Axford to the ninth, and the results from the last week might be forcing the flip quicker than anyone expected.

An icon leaves Seattle (USP)

Yep, Fantasy baseball trades are fun. And real-life baseball trades are even more fun.

We grabbed a head start on the trading deadline with a flurry of Monday activity. The Yankees landed a future Hall of Famer for the outfield. The Tigers secured two critical pieces for their AL Central defense. The Braves acquired a big-name arm, or maybe they didn't. Load up the bulletry and let's break it all down.

• The above-the-fold news came with the Yanks and Mariners, as Seattle icon Ichiro Suzuki was dispatched to New York for two ordinary minor-league prospects (RHPs Danny Farquhar and D.J. Mitchell). With Brett Gardner down for the rest of the year, New York picks up a strong outfield defender and someone who can still run. Ichiro is a free agent after the season.

[Tim Brown: Mariners trade franchise legend Ichiro Suzuki to the Yankees]

It hasn't been a banner campaign for Suzuki, obviously (.261-49-4-28-15). He's not even a Top 50 outfielder to this point in the Yahoo! game. But the Safeco Field effect has something to do with it; Suzuki's OPS is 172 points higher in road games. Yankee Stadium should serve him well, not to mention being around all the New York run producers.

No handshakes in the eighth inning, Brett (USP)

Just a couple of days ago, Brett Myers was a man at the front of a bullpen and Francisco Cordero was a reliever no one wanted.

Two days and two swaps later, Myers is out of a gig — and Cordero all of a sudden has value again.

As first reported by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, the Astros shipped Myers (and facial hair) to Chicago on Saturday afternoon. The White Sox also receive cash considerations. Houston picks up two minor-league pitchers (right-hander Matt Heidenreich and left-hander Blair Walters) and a player to be named later.

Post-hype kid (USP)Welcome to the weekend, stat chaser. We're all bullets, all the time.

• To play roto is to be burned by Homer Bailey at one time or another. He gets all of us. But I don't see how we can ignore the four-game winning streak he's on: 30.2 IP, 27 H, 6 R, 3 BB, 27 K. The best start of all came Friday against Milwaukee, a 10-strikeout gem over eight innings. Here's some snappy video to get you started.

Perhaps this run has been mostly fueled by the schedule, given that two of the wins came at San Diego and Los Angeles. I hear you. But if the matchups keep falling right, we need to take advantage. Bailey works at Houston next week, one of the cushiest spots in the majors right now. He awaits your call in 78 percent of Yahoo! leagues. Anyone feeling a post-hype buzz?

• The schedule is doing all it can to assist Tim Lincecum, too. The enigmatic righty dominated the Astros last weekend and he had everything working at Philadelphia on Friday (7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 K). If you've held on this long, you might as well dial up Timmy at home against San Diego next week. But I'd hit the trade market aggressive after that, with the Mets and Rockies (at Coors) lying in wait. He's still nowhere near my Circle of Trust.