It’s been six years since Jeffrey Lurie armed the Philadelphia media and fans with one of the most explosive pieces of ammunition possible.

Fresh off four straight NFC Championship berths and a trip to the Super Bowl, Lurie kicked off the 2004 season by declaring that the Eagles were the “gold standard” for NFL franchises.

Phoenix was the epicenter of the July 31 MLB trade deadline this year.

In four separate deals, a total of 16 players changed hands.

From the Arizona Diamondbacks side, the club parted ways with ace Dan Haren, Edwin Jackson, Chris Snyder and Chad Qualls.

Although the core of the Diamondbacks is still in tack, the organization over the next few years will see many new faces take the field in Phoenix.

Get to know these names, Arizona fans, you will be hearing a lot about them.

In this slideshow, I'll rank the top 30 closing pitchers in the MLB.

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The last we heard, the Yankees were still looking to deal and were specifically looking for an infielder who would be an upgrade on Ramiro Pena and a way to help their bullpen, even if it meant acquiring a starter so they can move Phil Hughes to the pen.

Here is the latest:

It’s amazing to me that a team that is supposedly in financial ruins continues to add players at the trade deadline.

If there is an early winner from the July 31 trade deadline it has to be the Texas Rangers. First they added Cliff Lee, then they added Jorge Cantu, and now they have added Cristian Guzman. Obviously, the latter two aren’t in the same category as Lee, but they are solid pieces that can be used to help solve the Rangers’ World Series puzzle.

The trades continues to fly yesterday, with four “bigger” deals done and a few more rumored to be completed on Saturday.  Let’s recap what actually happened in case you missed anything:

We’ve seen a lot of questionable decisions in the run-up to this year’s non-waiver trade deadline.

The Nationals have refused to move the soon-to-be-gone-anyway Adam Dunn without a getting an elite prospect in return. The Twins traded away one of the game’s top future backstops for an overrated closer. And the Rangers reportedly tried to get the Marlins to add ace Josh Johnson as a throw-in in their deal for Jorge Cantu.

The trade deadline is a little more that 24 hours away, and teams are making moves.

The pretenders are trying to rid themselves of high priced veterans so that they can start over.

The contenders are looking for the final piece that will set them up for a long playoff run.

Now that Oswalt has been dealt, it seems as if it is time to make a move for one of the three big sluggers that might be available.

Yesterday, the talk was all about the Chicago White Sox acquiring Adam Dunn...

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