Why the trade deadline is overrated

Each of the three teams that thought a month ago it had a legit shot at the AL Central title made deals just before the July 31 trading deadline. Two made waiver deals for significant veterans shortly after the trading deadline.

Here's how the players involved have fared thus far:

Detroit: Added LHS Jarrod Washburn (right) from Seattle. With the Tigers, he's 1-2 in six starts, ERA of 6.81. The Tigers have managed to win four of the six starts. Run support is wonderful.

Minnesota: SS Orlando Cabrera came from Oakland before the deadline; RSH Carl Pavano came in a waiver deal form Cleveland shortly after.

Cabrera is hitting .259 with a .289 on-base percentage since joining the Twins; he ended Monday game with one hit in his last 14 at-bats. As was said here when the Twins traded for him, he really doesn't belong at the top of the order.

Pavano has made five starts for the Twins, going 2-2 with a 4.06 ERA. The Twins won three of those five starts, scoring an average of 10 runs in the three.

Chicago: RHS Jake Peavy OKd leaving San Diego literally seconds before the deadline. The Sox then landed OF Alex Rios from Toronto on waivers in August.

Peavy was injured at the time of the trade and has yet to throw a major league pitch for the White Sox; his rehab assignment was extended when he took a liner off his pitching elbow. The Chicago Tribune reported late Monday that the Sox didn't yet know when he would try to pitch again.

Rios has played in 15 games with the Sox, going 10 for 56, a dismal .179 batting average.

What's more, picking him up probably put Chciago in a bit of a financial bind. According to USA Today last week, White Sox GM Kenny Williams cleared the Peavy deal and its financial implications with ownership first, but didn't with Rios, because he figured there was no way Toronto would just let the outfielder go. But the Blue Jays were delighted to dump the $59.7 million guaranteed Rios on the White Sox.

Conclusions: None of them are stellar.

The Twins fared better with their pickups, at least in August, but Pavano's wins came with lots of run support; the Twins probably would have won those games without him. Cabrera isn't helping the lineup in the No. 2 slot.

Detroit's not getting much out of Washburn other than innings; again, the wins came because the bats came alive.

The White Sox would have been better off sitting on their hands — certainly so far, but perhaps over the long run, considering how much money they now have tied up in Peavy and Rios.