The Miami Marlins have sent first baseman Gaby Sanchez to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Gorkys Hernandez and a competitive balance pick in the 2013 draft.

Sanchez had shown some promise for the Marlins in both 2010 and 2011, but never quite made it over the hump. In 2012, he struggled out of the gate and was optioned back to Triple-A, came back during June, and then was optioned back when Carlos Lee was acquired. Sanchez will immediately compete with Casey McGhee for playing time at first base, and is a solid low-risk move by the Pirates.

Gorkys Hernandez was once a promising prospect for the Pirates, but never developed the power they were hoping for and ultimately fell out of the outfield depth charts with the rise of Starling Marte.

Of course, the interesting piece in this trade is the competitive balance pick acquired by the Marlins. The competitive balance draft choices are the only picks that can be traded in MLB, and can only be traded once by the team originally awarded it. The Marlins obviously thought they could get a nice sandwich round pick that would eventually be an upgrade over Sanchez's sliding stock.

You know things in Pittsburgh are going right when they can promote their top position prospect and have him immediately impact the team in a winning fashion.

Such was the case for outfield prospect Starling Marte, who made his Pirates debut on Thursday night in Houston, and he did so with a bang. The Pirates wasted no time, putting him in the lead-off spot and starting him in left field. Marte responded by banging the first pitch he saw in the major leagues off the train trestle in left field for a solo home run.

In doing so, Marte became the 28th player in MLB history to hit a home run on the very first pitch he saw. Marte is the third Pirate in franchise history to achieve the feat, and the first since Don Leppert in 1961 to hit a home run in his first major league at-bat.

But Marte was not done there. He singled in the 5th inning. He advanced to third base in the inning, but would be caught trying to steal home after the Astros attempted to pick Andrew McCuthen off at first base.

Still, a 2-4 night with a home run in his first game is a good way to make an impression. It is also a good way to get in good with the manager, especially when the Pirates rank dead-last in the majors with a .571 OPS out of their left fielders in 2012. Marte brings with him a .847 OPS and some solid tools to a position that the Pirates would much rather improve on from within.

The Pirates held on to win the game 5-3, moving to 2.5 games ahead of the Cardinals in the Wild Card race and within 2.0 games of the NL Central leading Reds.

Not two days ago, I posed the question on whether the Mariners should trade Ichiro Suzuki. I asked because I thought such a move made sense to Seattle and quite frankly, I figured it would strike a cord or two with Mariners fans. After all, we're talking not just a fixture on the team for the last decade, but also a cultural icon.

In that post, I thought that Ichiro could be moved, and that a large market team would make the most sense, having not just the resources to make such a trade, but also the marketing exposure to reinvigorate the Ichiro craze.

Well, you don't get much larger than the New York Yankees, who acquired the 10-time All-Star from the Mariners in exchange for minor-league pitchers D.J. Mitchell and Danny Faquhar. Suzuki is scheduled to make his Yankee debut in left field when New York starts a series in Seattle on Monday night.

Right off the bat, this looks like another case of the rich getting richer, as the Yankees acquire a solid piece to replace the loss of Brett Gardner. And with Ichiro's contract expiring at the end of the season, they get to wrestle with the decision to sign him for two to three more seasons in hopes of banking on his chase for 3000 hits, which is all that more important as Alex Rodriguez's quest for the home run record does not appear to be as much of a sure thing as it once was.

However, as we're a small market driven site, let's examine what the Mariners got in return.

In D.J. Mitchell, Seattle gets a 25-year-old right-hander who has spent most of his time in 2012 in Triple-A, minus a four-game cup of coffee in New York. Mitchell ranks far outside the Top 20 prospects in the Yankee organization. He throws a four-seam fastball roughly 92-94, but tends to rely on a heavy sinker in the low-90's, which he uses as an out-pitch. He's spent most of his time starting, including a solid 13-9 mark with a 3.18 ERA at Triple-A in 2011, but long-term projects as a reliever without a ton of upside.

In Danny Farquhar, the Mariners get even less. Also 25-years-old, Farquhar is in his third organization of the season, having pitched in both the Oakland and Toronto system this year. He has never started a game, having been utilized primarily as a closer at all levels. His stuff isn't bad, as he averages close to a strike-out per inning. However, his fastball sits in the high-80's to low-90's, relying more on deception that speed. Farquhar uses an almost submarine angle on right-handers, that allows the pitches to ride in on the hands, but moves to an almost 3/4 slot for lefties. Still, there is a reason the Mariners will represent his fourth organization of the season, let alone a short minor-league career.

Overall, it is hard to not make the Yankees the winner here. Still, the Mariners had to get the pressure of resigning Suzuki off their shoulders and a trade was the easiest way to put that to bed. They got a modest package in return, but it is hard to imagine that they couldn't have gotten a little bit more.

The Oakland Athletics, despite their mission to expunge the roster before the season and push their move to San Jose, are doing the one thing many thought they would have a hard time doing.

Winning.

And while pitching has been a driving force for the A's success, that sees that 6 games over .500 and in a three-way (cue Beavis laughter) tie for the second Wild-Card slot, it has been another important offseason coup that has allowed the A's to win despite their youth and inexperience. The signing of Yoenis Cespedes.

Cespedes has dealt with a couple of lingering injuries throughout the season and he was slow out of the gate. However, he's turned it on of late. Since his return to everyday play on June 20th, Cespedes has hit .351 with 5 doubles, 7 home runs, 19 RBI, and a 1.024 OPS. More importantly, the Athletics have gone 18-8 over the course of that run, presenting them with a completely different outlook on what to do at the upcoming trade deadline.

A dicotomy of this streak for Cespedes has been this weekend's series against the Yankees. A big showcase for the A's, Oakland has taken the first three games of the series behind their solid pitching and Cespedes bat, which has gone 7 for 10 with a pair of home runs, 3 RBI, and 3 runs scored.

For the season, the A's sole slugger has lifted his batting line to .306 with a solid 13 home runs, 45 RBI, a .907 OPS, and an OPS+ of 146. If not for having missed 32 of the team's games, Cespedes would be mentioned with vigor in any discussion about the American League Rookie of the year award with Mike Trout and Yu Darvish. Then again, if he continues the hot streak, Cespedes could force himself into the discussion any way.

And how much more fitting could it get than an Angel, an Athletic, and a Ranger battling it out for the Rookie of the Year award while they also battle it out for the division and a spot in the post season?!

Pop quiz hot shot...Your staff ace is a year removed from Tommy John surgery and you've set an innings limit on him. However, he's 10-4 with a 2.66 ERA and leads all of baseball with 135 strike-outs. Oh, and your team leads the division by 3.5 games over the Atlanta Braves.

What do you do?

WHAT DO YOU DO??!!

Well, that is exactly what the Washington Nationals have to ponder with Stephen Strasburg. Before the season began, the Nationals decided they would limit Strasburg to an 160 inning limit on the season. Their 23-year-old golden boy had only pitched in 5 games the year prior after undergoing Tommy John surgery and they weren't taking any chances.

However, the Nationals didn't take into consideration that they would be in first place this late in the season and have a distinct possibility of making the post season for the first time since 1981, when the franchise was still in Montreal. But that is exactly where they find themselves heading into play on July 18th and with Strasburg at the head of baseball's best pitching staff, the Nationals have exceeded many expectations on the season.

Unfortunately, Strasburg will take the mound on Friday against Atlanta having already thrown 105 innings over 18 starts. Now, if he continues on the pace of roughly 6 innings an outing, the Nationals will get about 10 more starts out of him. Now, if he pitches every fifth day, that will put Strasburg's last start of the season on Friday September 7th against the Marlins.

In other words, that leaves Washington without their ace for the final three weeks of the regular season and all of the playoffs if they make it and choose to stick to their guns.

The question is; should they?

The Nationals will get a boost in the coming weeks with the return of Jayson Werth, but regardless of the boon he brings to the club offensively, this is a team built on the arms of its pitching staff. If they choose to rest Strasburg, the Nationals will have to redefine themselves as a team, and at this stage of the season, it is hard to see that as a good idea.

When you are sniffing pay dirt, you cannot purposely handicap yourself, and that will be exactly what the Nationals would be doing.

As a baseball fan, I will never understand the need to limit pitchers to pitch counts and innings limits. Sure, we all want to have a solid investment, but they're players and they need to play to be worth anything.

And they certainly are not worth anything to anyone sitting on the bench.