This time: July 20-28

As always, be sure to visit two wonderful Baseball America resources: the Draft Database and Trade Central.

An asterisk (*) denotes an instance of a player agreeing to terms on a minor league contract with an organization with which he already had a major league agreement.

Arizona Diamondbacks
Released: RHP Saul Rivera
Traded: RHP Dan Haren to Angels for RHP Rafael Rodriguez, LHP Pat Corbin, LHP Joe Saunders and a player to be named
Optioned to Triple-A: RHP Rafael Rodriguez
Placed on temporarily inactive list: RHP Sammy de los Santos

Atlanta Braves
Signed: OF Jonathan Pigott (NDFA—Florida)
Released: 2B Alejandro Machado, OF Concepcion Rodriguez
Optioned to Triple-A: OF Gregor Blanco, OF Nate McLouth
Option transferred: OF Jordan Schafer (Triple-A to Double-A)
Placed on 7-day DL: RHP Caleb Brewer, SS Diory Hernandez, OF Kyle Rose
Placed on 60-day DL: SS Jim Linger
Reinstated from DL: OF Cody Johnson, OF Kyle Rose
Placed on temporarily inactive list: RHP Erik Cordier
Reinstated from inactive list: RHP Erik Cordier, RHP Frank Lafreniere, RHP Andrew Wilson

Nate McLouth hit just .168/.279/.265 in 185 at-bats as the Braves' regular in center field this season. But on the bright side, his demotion to Triple-A cleared the way for Atlanta to send down struggling Gwinnett center fielder Jordan Schafer, who hit a mere .201/.255/.254 with only one home run in 189 at-bats. The 23-year-old Schafer still has time to turn things around, but perhaps not an excessive amount of time. [...] Continue Reading »

Here's a look at a couple of the stars from this weekend's action around the minor leagues.

Mike Minor, lhp, Braves: Atlanta didn't add any starting pitching at the trade deadline because they didn't need to. The rotation has been pretty solid, especially since Kris Medlen moved to the rotation from the pen. But if Atlanta does need help in the rotation, Minor is making a pretty clear case that he could help out. [...] Continue Reading »