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The MLB trade deadline came and went Sunday and on the final day of July, several teams made notable moves.

After their attempt to get Oakland A's pitcher Rich Harden fell through Saturday, the Boston Red Sox acquired Erik Bedard from the Seattle Mariners in a three-team trade involving the Los Angeles Dodgers. Boston also received minor league pitcher Josh Fields from Seattle in exchange for outfielders Trayvon Robinson and Chih-Hsien Chiang. This after the Dodgers traded Robinson to the Red Sox for three minor leaguers.

Bedard returns to the AL East where he pitched for Baltimore from 2002 to 2007. He was just 15-14 with a 3.31 ERA with Seattle and missed the entire 2010 season after undergoing shoulder surgery.

Now he'll be pitching at Fenway Park where he has struggled in the past posting a 6.99 career ERA there. That's the second-worst ERA of any stadium that Bedard has thrown at least 20 innings.

The St. Louis Cardinals also picked up veteran shortstop Rafael Furcal from the Dodgers on Sunday. Like Bedard, Furcal has also been hampered by injuries playing in just 283 out of a possible 486 games from 2008 to 2010. He played in 37 of 106 games this season with the Dodgers. Furcal went 0-1 as a pinch hitter in his Cardinals' debut Sunday.

Also it wasn't Heath Bell, but another Padres reliever Mike Adams who switched teams on Sunday. Adams went to the Texas Rangers in exchange for minor-league pitchers Robbie Erlin and Joe Wieland. Adams was just 11-9 with a 2.11 ERA in his career, but 3-1 with a 1.13 ERA this season. He struck out 49 batters while walking just nine.

Meanwhile, Michael Bourn who leads the league with 39 stolen bases was traded from the Houston Astros to the Atlanta Braves for Jordan Schafer and three minor leaguers. Bourn's speed helps the Braves who rank 27th in the league in steals with just 42. The two-time Gold Glove winner hit .303 this season with Houston.

Despite these deals, trading on the final day of the deadline was light compared to the last two years. Also, this was the first season since 1998, Brian Cashman's first year as General Manager, that the Yankees did not make any trades in July.

Among the notable players expected to be traded that were not: Heath Bell, B.J. Upton, Wandy Rodriguez, Hiroki Kuroda (invoked no-trade clause), Josh Willingham, Carlos Pena, Jason Kubel, Denard Span and Drew Storen.

Jim Riggleman’s departure from the Washington Nationals this week was a huge story, especially considering how well Washington has been playing lately, bullpen included. The relief corps has a 2.89 ERA this season, third-best in baseball.

The franchise hasn't had a season with a bullpen ERA below 3.00 since 1984 when they were the Montreal Expos. Who’s behind the success this season? Namely Tyler Clippard, Todd Coffey and Drew Storen.

Storen’s .541 opponents' OPS leads the team and his 0.97 WHIP is third-lowest in the majors among first-and second-year pitchers (minimum 30 IP according to Baseball Reference). The Nationals closer has used a fastball and slider to great effect this season.

Storen throws his fastball more than 63 percent of the time, but with two strikes he goes a different route -- his slider becomes his putaway pitch.

With two strikes, he has a 52 percent strikeout rate with his slider, compared to just 30 percent with his heater.

Coffey has also been successful with offspeed pitches, throwing 67 percent strikes (league average is 61 percent). Clippard, meanwhile, has been making batters miss all year -- his miss rate of 37 percent is fifth-best among all relievers this season.

Easy Street
Huston Street, baseball’s saves leader this season, has looked very comfortable in Colorado. Since joining the Rockies in 2009 Street’s 77 saves are fifth-most in the National League, and he’s on pace to record over 45 this season.

That would easily set a career-high, surpassing his 37 saves from 2006.

Street has been especially clutch in big spots. Opposing hitters are batting .263 against him this season, but just .214 with RISP. In those situations he’s thrown 37 sliders and allowed just a .167 on-base percentage.

On a Roll
Sergio Santos of the Chicago White Sox was dominant this past week. In three appearances he collected two saves, struck out seven, walked none and allowed no hits. In that stretch he never even reached a three-ball count. It’s quite the turnaround from his previous three games, where he allowed eight earned runs in 2 ⅔ innings.

For prospect hounds, today is the real Opening Day, as 10 full-season minor leagues begin play. Although fans and fantasy players alike are reviewing the 30 big league rosters, those mining for gold in the minors have 120 to review. With that in mind, here are four surprisingly high and low assignments for some of the top prospects in the game.

TOO AGGRESSIVE

Simon Castro, RHP, Padres, Double-A San Antonio: The top pitching prospect in the San Diego system dominated at Low-A last year, but a two-level jump was unexpected. The good news is that he has the fastball velocity (up to 95 mph) and command to succeed here, but one wonders whether this is designed merely to keep him out of the high-octane environment of the California League.

Aaron Crow, RHP, Royals, Double-A Northwest Arkansas: This one is defendable but certainly open to debate. On one hand, he's 23 years old, and it's time to get his career going. On the other hand, after not signing with the Nationals out of the 2008 draft and signing late last year, the only pitching experience he has in the past 20 months is three indy league starts and a handful of appearances in last year's Arizona Fall League. Expect some bumps in the road.

Dee Gordon, SS, Dodgers, Double-A Chattanooga: Although Gordon earned co-MVP honors in the Low Class A Midwest League last year (.301 batting average/.362 on-base percentage/.394 slugging percentage, 73 steals), the one thing that stood out about his game was how he was athletic enough to put up big numbers despite being considerably raw. That combination could catch up to him against this level of competition.

Brett Lawrie, 2B, Brewers, Double-A Huntsville -- Lawrie got a taste of Southern League pitching last year in preparation for the World Cup, in which he played for Team Canada. In 13 games for Huntsville at the end of last year, the 20-year-old hit .269 with one extra-base hit in 13 games. Because he's Canadian, he has less playing experience than most his age, and with a .274/.348/.454 line at Low-A Wisconsin last year, he was good but hardly out of his league.

TOO CONSERVATIVE

Aaron Hicks, OF, Twins, Low-A Beloit: The Twins top prospect and 2008 first-round pick spent the majority of 2009 with the Snappers, and was arguably the top prospect on the circuit, despite an unimpressive line of .251/.353/.382. Still, rarely do players of this magnitude repeat a level, although the Twins are notoriously conservative in their development.

Ryan Kalish, OF, Red Sox, Double-A Portland: Kalish struggled upon his initial exposure to Eastern League pitching but was among the league's top bats during the second half of last year, slugging .571 after Aug. 1. It's hard to say what he has left to prove here.

Buster Posey, C, Giants, Triple-A Fresno: The signing of Bengie Molina was a curious one, as Posey hit .321/.391/.511 last year at Triple-A, so it's not as if there's work to be done offensively. Yes, his defense is a bit unrefined, but his bat is the kind of thing the Giants need at the big leagues now.

Drew Storen, RHP, Nationals, Double-A Harrisburg: Maybe the Nationals just wanted him to get used to saving wins for uber-righty Stephen Strasburg, but after 12 1/3 scoreless innings for the Senators last year as part of a dominant pro debut, is there any other point to putting him back in the Eastern League?

Kevin Goldstein is an author of Baseball Prospectus.