Last weekend in MLB gave us the drama of the trade deadline.  All of the attention this weekend will be directed towards events on the field, but there will be no reduction in the excitement levels.

Two series dominate the weekend’s schedule: the New York Yankees’ visit to Boston and the Philadelphia Phillies visit to San Francisco. 

Both of the Phillies-Giants games are being played in the daytime, making them excellent evening viewing/listening for those of us in the UK. 

ESPN have made the shock choice of broadcasting the Yankees-Red Sox game in their Sunday Night Baseball slot, starting at 1 a.m. UK time in the early hours of Monday morning, but the AL East behemoths will be in action at an earlier time on Saturday.

There are plenty of other interesting games taking place at a convenient time for Brits this weekend.  Here’s a guide to the early contests, with all times are in BST.

Saturday 6 August

18.05. Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs (Cueto – Zambrano) *ESPN America
21.10. NY Yankees at Boston (Sabathia – Lackey) *ESPN America
21.10. Philadelphia at San Francisco (Hamels – Cain)

We start with the Reds and Cubs. Johnny Cueto pitched a shut-out against the Giants in his most recent appearance and he’s been in that sort of form for most of 2011.  This has gone under the radar somewhat due to his injury-delayed start to the season and Cincinnati’s relatively disappointing campaign.

One pitcher who isn’t going under the radar is CC Sabathia. While there have been question marks over the rest of the Yankees’ rotation for much of the year, Sabathia has been Mr Reliable, spinning excellent start after excellent start.  He goes for win number 17 on the season on Saturday, matching up with the inconsistent John Lackey.

Finally, this weekend’s Phillies-Giants series was always likely to be an exciting contest and the tension was ratcheted up a notch on Friday in a bench-clearing confrontation.  Expect more fireworks on Saturday with Hamels and Cain on the mound.

Sunday 7 August

18.10. Atlanta at NY Mets (Jurrjens – Gee)
18.10. St. Louis at Florida (Garcia – Vazquez) *ESPN America
18.35. Toronto at Baltimore (Romero – Simon)
18.35. San Diego at Pittsburgh (Latos – Correia)
18.40. Oakland at Tampa Bay (Cahill – Price)
19.05. Milwaukee at Houston (Greinke – Norris)
19.10. Detroit at Kansas City (Scherzer – Chen)
19.10. Chicago White Sox at Minnesota (Peavy – Duensing)
19.20. Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs (Arroyo – Wells)
20.10. Washington at Colorado (Lannan – Cook)
20.35. Seattle at LA Angels (Hernandez – Santana)
21.05. Philadelphia at San Francisco (Oswalt – Lincecum) *ESPN America and BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
21.10. LA Dodgers at Arizona (Kershaw – Kennedy)

The BBC’s coverage of the Twenty20 quarter-finals this weekend means that the MLB show will start later than usual at 20.30.  That’s no bad thing though as it means that Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd will be covering the Phillies-Giants game, which is set to be an absolute barnstormer. 

You’ve got two of the best teams in the National League, a score to settle on the Phillies’ part after the Giants knocked them out of the postseason last year, some bad blood due to the Friday night kerfuffle, one of the best pitchers in the Majors starting for the Giants in Tim Lincecum and the return of Roy Oswalt after a six-week absence due to injury. What more could you ask for?

Elsewhere, there are two eye-catching pitching match-ups involving the Mariners and Angels and the Dodgers and D-Backs, while Zack Greinke and the Brewers look to keep ahead in the NL Central as they take on the Astros.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above.  You can listen to the 5 Live Sports Extra game via Digital Radio, Digital TV or online on the BBC website (UK residents only). The full schedule for this weekend’s games can be found on MLB.com.

The MLB games this weekend are almost going to seem like just an excuse to talk more about trades, both actual moves and rumoured ones. 

Every game is important when the final standings are considered, but the commentators are likely to spend a fair amount of the time talking about off-the-field activity in place of analysing the on-the-field action this weekend.

Trades and games do go hand-in-hand of course, with players making debuts for their new team and potential trade targets being under closer inspection than normal. 

Friday’s games were a good illustration of this.  The Cardinals got an immediate boost from their recent trade as Edwin Jackson delivered a strong showing in his pitching debut for the Redbirds.  Jeremy Guthrie possibly increased the likelihood of him moving to a contender with an impressive outing against the Yankees, while Erik Bedard’s struggles against the Rays only further increase his standing as a very risky acquisition.

And we had the sight of Hunter Pence coming out of the Astros’ game partway through due to him being traded to the Phillies.  Will we see anyone else make a sharp mid-game exit?  If the games are played in the daytime in the States, us in the UK will be able to find out live at a convenient time.  Here are the early games, with all times in BST.

Saturday 30 July

18.05. Baltimore at NY Yankees (Tillman – Colon)
18.07. Texas at Toronto (Holland – Mills)
21.10. LA Angels at Detroit (Haren – Below)
21.10. Tampa Bay at Seattle (Cobb – Pineda)
21.10. Chicago Cubs at St. Louis (Lopez – Lohse)

A number of teams involved in early games on Saturday could be active at the trade deadline.

The Yankees are always liable to add a player or two, while the Rangers are being strongly linked with making a move for one or more of the San Diego Padres’ relief pitchers.  The Angels and Tigers are both trying to improve their rosters and now that Pence is off the market, maybe someone will complete a long-rumoured trade for the Rays’ B.J. Upton.

None of the games are being shown on ESPN America as they are focusing on the X Games instead.

Sunday 31 July

18.05. Kansas City at Cleveland (Davies – Carmona)
18.05. LA Angels at Detroit (Weaver – Verlander)
18.05. Baltimore at NY Yankees (Arrieta – Garcia)
18.07. Texas at Toronto (Wilson – Morrow)
18.10. San Francisco at Cincinnati (Zito – Cueto)
18.35. Florida at Atlanta (Nolasco – Hanson) * ESPN America
18.35. NY Mets at Washington (Niese – Zimmermann)
18.35. Pittsburgh at Philadelphia (Karstens – Worley)
19.10. Boston at Chicago White Sox (Miller – Buehrle) * BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
19.10. Houston at Milwaukee (Myers – Narveson)
21.05. Minnesota at Oakland (Pavano – McCarthy)
21.05. Colorado at San Diego (Nicasio – Moseley)
21.10. Tampa Bay at Seattle (Hellickson – Vargas)
21.10. Arizona at LA Dodgers (Saunders – De La Rosa)

All but the ESPN Sunday Night Game (Cubs at Cardinals) are being played under daylight on Sunday and there is sure to be a host of trades – mostly minor but possibly a few surprises – as the games are in progress.

The probable pitchers above are subject to any last-minute changes due to them being dealt.  The only two who immediately stand out as names that have been mentioned in trade rumours are the Astros’ Brett Myers and the Mariners’ Jason Vargas.

You can be certain that the Angels and Tigers will not be dealing away their scheduled Sunday starters and the Weaver-Verlander match up is the highlight of the fixtures.  The ESPN America game involving Ricky Nolasco and Tommy Hanson should be a good one too.

Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd are scheduled to go on air on 5 Live Sports Extra at 18.30, although that could be pushed back by a late end to Day Three of the England-India Test match.  They should be on in good time for the start of the White Sox-Red Sox game and will be covering all of the trade news as it happens throughout the evening.

The post-All-Star-Break weekend offers us plenty of early starts, making up for the relative lack of baseball over the past week.

There are two early games being broadcast on ESPN America on Saturday, followed by a game between the Brewers and Rockies at 1 a.m.

Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd will be presenting coverage of game between the Phillies and Mets on Sunday, with ESPN America focusing on White Sox-Tigers and Dodgers-Diamondbacks before the ‘Sunday Night’ game between the Red Sox and Rays at 1 a.m.

All times are in BST

Saturday 16 July

18.05. Florida at Chicago Cubs (Vazquez – Zambrano)
18.07. NY Yankees at Toronto (Sabathia – Romero) * ESPN America
21.05. LA Angels at Oakland (Weaver – Cahill)
21.10. Chicago White Sox at Detroit (Jackson – Scherzer)
21.10. Philadelphia at NY Mets (Hamels – Niese) * ESPN America
21.10. Boston at Tampa Bay (Lackey – Shields)

There’s a rarity in MLB on Saturday as the Angels and A’s play the first scheduled double-header (i.e. one not caused by postponements) since 2003.  The teams agreed to it so that they could extend their All-Star Breaks by an extra day.  The opener should be an excellent pitching match-up, with the AL’s All-Star starter Jered Weaver duelling with Trevor Cahill.

The Cubs will be hoping that Carlos Zambrano can back-up the impressive pitching performance by Ryan Dempster in the lone ‘early’ game on Friday, which the Cubs won 2-1.  Meanwhile the Red Sox’s John Lackey needs to prove that his encouraging last outing against the Orioles was a sign of better things to come after a miserable first half to the season.

Sunday 17 July

18.05. Chicago White Sox at Detroit (Humber – Penny) * ESPN America
18.07. NY Yankees at Toronto (Hughes – Villanueva)
18.10. St. Louis at Cincinnati (Garcia – Bailey)
18.10. Philadelphia at NY Mets (Kendrick – Pelfrey) * BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
18.35. Cleveland at Baltimore (Gomez – Atkins)
18.35. Washington at Atlanta (Gorzelanny – Jurrjens)
19.05. Pittsburgh at Houston (Correia – Rodriguez)
19.10. Kansas City at Minnesota (Paulino – Duensing)
19.20. Florida at Chicago Cubs (Volstad – Wells)
20.10. Milwaukee at Colorado (Marcum – Cook)
21.05. LA Angels at Oakland (Pineiro – Gonzalez)
21.05. San Francisco at San Diego (Cain – Latos)
21.10. Texas at Seattle (Harrison – Beavan)
21.10. LA Dodgers at Arizona (Lilly – Hudson) * ESPN America

As for Sunday’s slate of early games, it looks like Kyle Kendrick will get the nod for the Phillies, although that hasn’t been officially confirmed as yet. The Cardinals’ Jaime Garcia will look to celebrate signing a four-year/$27.5m contract extension by putting in a strong performance against the Reds, while the Braves’ Jair Jurrjens goes for win number thirteen on the season.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above.  You can listen to the 5 Live Sports Extra game via Digital Radio, Digital TV or online on the BBC website (UK residents only). The full schedule for this weekend’s games can be found on MLB.com.

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra will be bringing us action from Turner Field this evening, as the Phillies and Braves continue their fierce NL East rivalry. 

That’s one of 14 day-games scheduled for Sunday, all played at a convenient time for us to enjoy in the UK.  ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball game between the Yankees and Red Sox is the exception to the ‘early’ rule, with first pitch in that one set for 01.05 a.m.  All times are listed in BST.

18.05. Kansas City at Detroit (Hochevar – Porcello)
18.10. Washington at NY Mets (Marquis – Young)
18.35. Texas at Baltimore (Holland – Guthrie)
18.35. Philadelphia at Atlanta (Hamels – Lowe) * BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
18.35. Colorado at Pittsburgh (Chacin – McDonald)
19.05. Florida at Houston (Sanchez – Happ)
19.10. Tampa Bay at Chicago White Sox (Niemann – Floyd)
19.10. Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee (Coleman – Gallardo)
19.10. Oakland at Minnesota (McCarthy – Baker)
20.35. Toronto at LA Angels (Reyes – Weaver)
21.05. LA Dodgers at San Diego (Ely – Harang)
21.05. St. Louis at San Francisco (Lohse – Zito)
21.10. Cleveland at Seattle (Tomlin – Bedard)
21.10. Cincinnati at Arizona (Leake – Saunders)

The Phillies marched to a comfortable 10-2 victory over the Braves yesterday, with catcher Carlos Ruiz getting a pinch-hit grand slam along the way.  The Braves had got the better of Cliff Lee on Friday in a 6-3 win, so today’s game will be the series decider at Turner Field.  Derek Lowe has pitched well in both his starts so far this season, while Cole Hamels was roughed up by the Mets last time out.  BBC’s coverage begins at 18.00, allowing the team plenty of time to discuss recent MLB news and to preview the game prior to first pitch.

The Cleveland Indians are the form team in MLB having won their last six games to vault to the top of the AL Central.  Yes, it’s very early in the season, but it’s still a fine sight for fans of the Tribe who have had little to shout about over the last couple of years.  The Indians’ six-game winning streak is matched by the Mariners’ six-game losing streak, so either the two longest current winning/losing streaks will come to an end or they’ll both creep up to seven games.

Elsewhere, the Angels’ Jered Weaver is bidding to become the first pitcher to gain three wins on the season and Yovani Gallardo’s start for the Brewers will be the first test of whether my Performance of the Week award has any jinxing powers. 

Three teams enter the day on 1-7 records.  The Astros were expected to find the going tough, but no one thought the Rays and Red Sox would start the season in such a stuttering way.  J.A. Happ is on the mound for the Astros looking to avert a home sweep by the Marlins, the Rays take on the White Sox while the Red Sox face the Yankees in the sole late game of the day.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  BBC 5 Live Sports Extra is broadcasting the Phillies-Braves game from 18.00 on digital radio. ESPN America is not showing any of the early games today, although they will be broadcasting the Yankees-Red Sox game live.  The full schedule for today’s games can be found on MLB.com.