The non-waiver trade deadline on Friday 31 July 2009 will be remembered for many reasons.  It wasn’t just the deals and non-deals that made it memorable, but also the way the news was circulated and commented on.  Twitter came to the fore as baseball fans around the world became fully absorbed in the rumoured and confirmed trades, with MLB.com recognising the trend and incorporating fans’ ‘tweets’ into their online coverage.

There was certainly lots to tweet about. 

The 4pm Eastern deadline worked well for Brits as it made for a 21.00 event on Friday evening over here.  Many fans in the UK got home in the early evening to the first major news of the day: Jarrod Washburn’s move from the Seattle Mariners to the Detroit Tigers.  The deal was something of a surprise considering the Yankees had been so heavily linked with the left-handed starter and it set up the evening perfectly.  What would the Yankees do instead?  Would the Red Sox or the Rays take advantage and ‘win’ the AL East deadline day battle? Would the prospect of a Verlander-Jackson-Washburn front three in Detroit push fellow AL Central contenders the White Sox and Twins to press ahead with a deal or two?

The answers would reveal themselves over the course of the evening as we tweeted and waited, then waited and tweeted.

The AL East trade deadline battle was undoubtedly won by the Red Sox.  While the Rays stuck with what they had and the Yankees added a bench player in Jerry Hairston Jr, Boston took a big step forward in solving their offensive indifference by signing Victor Martinez from the Indians.  News spread quickly that Saturday was scheduled to be Martinez bobble head day in Cleveland and, while it raised a smile to begin with, only the most hard-hearted of fans could fail to feel a measure of sympathy for the Tribe followers.  So near and yet so far from glory when 3-1 up in the 2007 ALCS, the Indians’ descent has come painfully quickly.  Trading a much-loved player who was sad to leave his adopted home is about as bad as it gets for any fan.

The V-Mart deal looked like being the headline grabber of the day as the clock struck 21.00 BST.  However, the rumours had been so enjoyable up to that point that no one wanted to stop the fun just yet.  Fifteen minutes or so later, the twittering masses were busily spreading news of two potential trades that had allegedly snuck in just before the bell and would be announced in due course.  Had Halladay really joined the Halos?  Was the Padres’ Peavy now with the Pale Hose?

We soon learned that only one of those was true.

Halladay was the most talked about player leading up to the deadline and appeared to be the most likely player in baseball to be with a new club come August.  It wasn’t to be, although the Angels did make a very strong late run to try and add the former Cy Young winner to their roster.  The Blue Jays’ general manager J.P. Ricciardi turned the Halladay affair into a circus and didn’t come out of the non-trade with much credit, although he was partially saved by Reds GM Walt Jocketty throwing Edwin Encarnacion and two pitching prospects at him for Scott Rolen. 

Ricciardi didn’t fool anyone with his claim that the Phillies signing of Cliff Lee on Wednesday didn’t affect him.  The Phillies were the perfect trade partner on paper, but they were able to make an excellent deal for another top line starter.  Lee gives them a real shot at retaining their World Series crown this year and next, while costing them a considerable amount less than Halladay in both his salary for 2010 and in prospects for the future. 

If the non-trade of Halladay was a surprise, the late announcement that Jake Peavy had joined the White Sox was a genuine shock.  In all of the rumoured deals over the last month on blogs and websites, and in tweets and e-mails, Peavy’s name barely came up at all.  His current hobbled condition alongside his rich contract and no-trade clause made him an unlikely mover.  White Sox GM Kenny Williams decided to revisit a trade that had been vetoed by the pitcher earlier in the season and this time, with barely seconds to spare, his persistence paid off. 

It’s a trade with considerable risk attached to it.  Peavy likely won’t be ready to pitch again until late August at the earliest and when he does get back on the mound it will not be in a pitcher-friendly ballpark against National League teams, but in a hitter-friendly park with DH’s replacing pitchers in the batting lineup.  Just as importantly in these tough economic times, he is owed an industrial-sized shed load of money over the next few years: $48m between 2010 and 2012, with a $4m buyout or a $22m club option in 2013.  That’s a big commitment to make in one pitcher.

However, if he’s healthy and pitching at his best during the length of that contract, Peavy undoubtedly could help bring another World Series to Chicago.  And that’s what this time of year is all about.  Teams have broken into groups of contenders and rebuilders.  While some used the deadline to build for the future, others used it as an opportunity to make a move or two that could turn 2009 into a historic year for their organization. 

The contenders will try to pick up a useful player or two during the next month via the trade waiver route, just as the Phillies did last year to good effect with Matt Stairs, but by and large each ballclub has now pieced together its roster for the remainder of the season.

The next three months promise great excitement as we find out which of those rosters ends up celebrating a World Series championship.