There was a flurry of activity leading up to Saturday afternoon's trading deadline and each move was ostensibly made to make each involved team a better one — whether it be for this season or future ones. 

But what contending teams made the biggest game-changing swaps? Let's take a look at the past few weeks to figure it out. 

1. Cliff Lee to the Texas Rangers: The July 9 trade with Seattle was the first blockbuster to go down and no one was able to top it in the three weeks that followed. In acquiring Lee and his insane K/BB mark (114 to 7), the Rangers nabbed the best pitching prospect on the market and showed they weren't going to let their financial situation turn them into a "just happy to be here" division winner in the the playoffs. C.J. Wilson is a nice pitcher, but Lee gives them a much better start to any playoff series.   

2. Roy Oswalt to the Philadelphia Phillies: Though his Fightin' debut left a lot to be desired, Oswalt's decision to relent and leave Houston for the northeast potentially gives the Phillies the league's best 1-2-3 pitching rotation. At the very least, it ended the hot potato that was Philly's third starter spot and gives the team the rotation stability it will need to catch Atlanta. 

3. Ted Lilly, Ryan Theriot, Scott Podsednik and Octavio Dotel to the Los Angeles Dodgers: For being handcuffed by the McCourts' tight purse strings, GM Ned Colletti sure was able to add a lot of usable pieces. Lilly will be a reliable starter for Joe Torre's rotation and should pitch well in spacious Dodger Stadium. The other three players aren't going to cause too much excitement, but will give the Dodgers depth when they could have just done nothing. The most incredible part is that ESPN's Buster Olney hears that all four players were only added for about $3 million in extra payroll.

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Tick-tock. It's a beautiful day outside in most of America, but every roster-minded baseball fan is holed up inside as today's trading deadline approaches at 4 p.m. ET.  Just like last season, this is your place to find all the latest Twitter updates from our own Tim Brown and Jeff Passan, as well as the rest of the industry heavyweights. We'll update periodically with our own thoughts, but this will be turn into a full-blown chat/Q&A at 2:30 ET, so make sure to come strong with your questions, your armchair analysis and, most importantly, your funny.    

The Chicago Cubs were just minding their own business, trailing by three runs with two outs in the eighth inning Friday night, when the Colorado Rockies decided to have an impromptu round of batting practice.

But could a batting practice ever be this successful?

The hits came and came and they kept on coming until the Rockies had strung together a major league record 11 in a row, and scored 12 runs, to put a Pike's Peak-sized cap on a 17-2 rout at Coors Field.

The Rockies batted around twice in the eighth — Carlos Gonzalez (pictured), Troy Tulowitzki, Melvin Mora and Clint Barmes had two hits apiece — and Barmes was on deck for his third at-bat when the third out was made.

Watch the Rockies collect 11 straight hits

"I'd never seen an inning like that," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "We had two outs and two strikes on a hitter and they score 12 runs. I'd never seen an inning like that."

When the manager of the Cubs tells you he's never seen anything like it, you know history was made.

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Big Puma has been traded to the Big Apple.

The New York Yankees reportedly acquired Lance Berkman from the Houston Astros for minor leaguers on Friday.

See the story by Yahoo! Sports' Tim Brown. Joel Sherman of the New York Post confirmed it first.

Berkman is 34 and best-suited to DH, though he obviously played first base in the NL. He's batting .245/.372/.436 — all well below his career averages — with 13 homers and 16 doubles in 298 at-bats. Berkman is a switch hitter, but against lefties is batting just .188 with a .559 OPS (ouch!) and one homer in 64 at-bats.

Aside from that, it should be a good deal for the Yankees. Over the past 28 days, Berkman is batting .262/.435/.585 with six homers. He should find the right-field porch at Yankee Stadium as inviting as Texas BBQ. Well, almost.

Berkman (also known as "Fat Elvis") is one of the friendliest players in the league and will fit in respectfully to the New York clubhouse. Being watched under the New York spotlight, harsh for some, won't be a problem with Berkman.

The detail making the deal unofficial at this hour is a clause in the collective bargaining agreement saying 24 hours must pass after a player has waived a no-trade clause, which Berkman has done, before it becomes final.

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This video that was just emailed to me is rather amazing. A young collegiate pitcher fields a comebacker, thinks he can jog over to first to make the out, doesn't get there in time and the runner is ruled safe.

OK, fine, so it probably wasn't his greatest moment on a baseball diamond.

But listen as one of the announcers for the Battle Creek Bombers of the Northwoods League acts as if the slow-footed pitcher had just danced on Joe DiMaggio's grave, taken Willie Mays' name in vain and denied the very hustle-based existence of David Eckstein.

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If you told me a high-profile Cincinnati Reds player drove a custom-colored sportscar, I would guess that his whip was tinted, well, Cincinnati red. That would just make sense.

But if you were to ask me the one Red who's driving around the Queen City in the purple Audi R8 that was featured Friday on Deadspin-sibling Jalopnik? Well, it'd be easy to guess that the owner of the ground-eating Grimace would be the flashy Brandon "Taco" Phillips. He's a guy with an outsized personality and an interesting sense of style. He probably has no reservations with ordering such a non-traditional paint job. (The Gold Gloves on the wheels are also probably a giveaway as I can't see Scott Rolen(notes) tooling around town in this thing.)

As Jalopnik notes, this is the same new car that Phillips was driving when he was stopped for going 72 mph in a 35 mph zone last month. And while I'm a big fan of driving what you want to drive and buying what you want to buy, let's hope Phillips — who's having a fantastic All-Star year — is learning the appropriate places to unleash the power of such a sweet ride.     

Fashion Ump ruling: Standup double

Big League Stew goes through the quad and into the gymnasium to look at some of the hottest players in baseball and their chances of keeping it going.

Delmon Young, Minnesota Twins

The Naked Truth: .334/.366/.548, 14 HR, 79 RBI

Having a nice little Saturday: Delmon Young has been struggling to live up to expectations ever since he was taken with the first pick in the 2003 draft, or traded for Matt Garza in 2007. After three remarkably similar full seasons in the majors, we seemed to know exactly who he was as he entered 2010: A guy who hit for high average and low power, with few walks and many strikeouts. From August 2006 to April 2010, he hit .288/.321/.415, with remarkably little variance from year to year. Then — at the age of 24 and a half — a switch flipped on, and he's been hitting the cover off the ball.

You're my boy, Blue!: Young is having a terrific season, but he isn't a totally different player. He is hitting for a lot more power — his 14 home runs are already a career high, as is his .214 Isolated Power mark — and he has cut his strikeout rate nearly in half. However, he still isn't walking, as his 4.6 percent walk rate is just over half the major league average. Also, his BABIP of .340 is exactly equal to his career rate, and his line drive rate of 17 percent is one point below his career average and two points below the major league average.

Young is actually seeing fewer pitches per plate appearance than usual, but he's taking better swings, making much more contact and experiencing many fewer swings and misses. Basically, because he's putting good wood on pitches he used to wave at those strikeouts have turned into singles.

Think KFC will still be open?: Young's approach at the plate makes him slump-prone. He doesn't walk, so he can't contribute if he can't maintain a high batting average. But his increased power and plate coverage bode well for his future performance, and if he could ever add plate discipline to his game he could be the superstar the then-Devil Rays expected when they drafted him in 2003. As it is, he's a very solid player who also happens to be very affordable, as he won't be a free agent until 2013. And he's still just 24.

What other players are currently streaking?

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Here's what we know at this hour: The Arizona Diamondbacks have agreed to ship Edwin Jackson(notes) to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for pitcher Daniel Hudson(notes) and minor league pitcher David Holmberg.

Here's what we don't know at this hour: Whether Jackson will be landing at O'Hare and taking a cab to U.S. Cellular Field or instead chasing down a connecting flight to Washington once he lands.

As is being speculated in every corner of the Internet, Sox GM Kenny Williams could have ulterior motives and has only acquired Jackson in order to flip him to the Washington Nationals for the services of Adam Dunn(notes).

That imagined chess move has deep roots in logic as it's hard to see why Williams would give up Hudson — a cost-effective hurler considered to be Chicago's most promising pitching prospect — for the enigmatic E-Jax, who is due over $8 million, already headed to the fifth organization of his career and just threw 149 pitches in one of the least impressive no-hitters in history. 

Yes, it's true that the White Sox need another pitcher to fill the void left by Jake Peavy(notes) and Hudson hasn't inspired any confidence in his three tryout starts since Peavy went down. And maybe they're confident that pitching coach Don Cooper can harness the promising power of Jackson's big right arm.  

At the same time, Chicago also needs a big bat to bolster their lineup if they want to contend into October and if you're going to give up a cheap young pitcher, why not surrender him for the guaranteed offense that Dunn would bring to the South Side? 

With the trading deadline just over 24 hours away and his team still needing some other adjustments, there's no way that Williams is going to stand pat. There are still more moves to make.

The only real question is: Will Edwin Jackson acquired to be a pawn in any of them?

Or is he in Chicago to stay?

There has been no confirmation from Camp Boras that this Bryce Harper Facebook page is real, but I will say this: If it's a fake, the mischief maker behind it has kept it rather mundane for the past few months before dropping the two contract posturing status updates above, as well as the "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin,'" missive from July 14.

The No. 1 pick of the Washington Nationals has until Aug. 16 to sign a professional contract and I assume Scott Boras won't even pick up his dedicated line to general manager Mike Rizzo until that day arrives. Until then, explore the predictable social media presence — complete with "your"s instead of "you're"s — that the 17-year-old baseball phenom is apparently keeping these days.

Highly recommended: Harper's funny back-and-forth with Manny Machado, the high school shortstop whom the Baltimore Orioles selected with the third overall pick in June's draft.

The College of Southern Nevada is the new Miami Heat. Pass it on.

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Welcome to "Say What?" where the Stew provides the photo and you, the reader, write a thought or quote bubble for a person in the picture. It's like Create-a-Caption, but different.

In this scene, Seattle Mariners outfielder Michael Saunders(notes) climbs the fence at U.S. Cellular Field in pursuit of an Alexei Ramirez(notes) home run Wednesday night.

Or maybe that's not what's happening at all. You tell us in — the comments!