By Ted Cahill

The American League and National League traded former Cy Young Award winners last week in what turned out to be a busy deadline for starting pitchers, even though Roy Halladay remained in Toronto.

Philadelphia acquired Cliff Lee from Cleveland and Jake Peavy finally accepted a trade to the South Side of Chicago, after nixing such a deal in May. Lee paid immediate dividends for the Phillies, defeating San Francisco in his Phillies’ debut. The White Sox will have to wait a little longer for Peavy, who remains on the DL with an ankle injury.

Left-hander Jarrod Washburn joined Detroit, where he should fit comfortably behind All-Stars Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson in the rotation. Luke French and Ian Snell headed to Seattle and Tom Gorzelanny got his pass out of Pittsburgh, who shipped him to the Cubs.

For fantasy owners, the trade of most interest is the Washburn deal. Lee and Peavy are owned in almost every league and highly valued by their owners. But despite Washburn’s hot streak he remained available in 40 percent of ESPN and Yahoo! Leagues.

He joins a Tigers’ team in the heart of a division race and won’t be expected to put the team on his shoulders for the final two months. He gets to pitch in front of the league’s top fielding percentage team and do it in a pitcher’s park. Washburn was already worth picking up in many leagues, now he’s an even better choice.

Lee and Peavy will both have more of an opportunity to pick up wins, now that they are also involved in playoff races. But they will have to do it in hitter friendly parks. It shouldn’t bother either pitcher too much, but I would expect Peavy to have a greater adjustment to his ERA than Lee. Petco Park is much more of a pitcher’s park than Progressive Field and Peavy throws more fly balls than Lee.

On top of that, the left-handed bats that Peavy will have to contend with in the AL Central are better than the right-handers Lee will see in the NL East. As a pitcher I’d rather face David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman and Hanley Ramirez than Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Grady Sizemore and Curtis Granderson.

Close the door:
The lone big name reliever to switch teams was George Sherrill, who got sent to the Dodgers. For Sherrill owners this is a huge setback since he will not supplant Jonathan Broxton as closer.

Sherrill will likely be used as either a setup man or a left-handed specialist for Los Angeles, but he’s likely too valuable to just pitch to lefties. Either way, without saves he’s not of much use to any fantasy owners. As I warned two weeks ago, Sherrill owners should have had a backup plan for when he was traded.

The other reliever of note to be traded was Justin Masterson, who was part of the package Boston sent to Cleveland for Victor Martinez. Masterson pitched three scoreless innings in his Indians’ debut and will be transitioning into a starting role, probably by the end of the month. Masterson could be an intriguing option for fantasy owners, but until he makes a couple successful starts, I would caution against plucking him off the waiver wire.

Pitcher Pickup of the Week: Brett Cecil, Blue Jays

Since the rookie got a chance to face Baltimore July 10, Cecil has taken off. Now his number will once again be called against the Orioles on Friday. He threw six shutout innings in Baltimore in his last start against the cellar dwellers, in each of his next three starts, Cecil threw seven innings.

In his last four starts, Cecil is 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA and 24 strikeouts. Cecil easily could be 4-0 as he pitched seven shutout innings against Cleveland, only to see the Indians score two runs in the top of the ninth and saddle him with a no decision.

He also gets to make this start in the Rogers Centre, where he is 2-0 with a 3.03 ERA this year. Combined with Baltimore’s sluggish offense, Cecil should be a great pickup this week.