This Week at Fantasy Baseball World

The first big domino has fallen in this week's countdown to the MLB trade deadline. The Cardinals, White Sox and Blue Jays have reportedly completed a three-team deal, with OF Colby Rasmus, 3B Mark Teahen and relievers going to Toronto; SP Edwin Jackson, OF Corey Patterson and a collection of relievers heading to St. Louis; and pitchers Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart on their way to Chicago. Let's push aside the main real baseball ramiification - that the Cardinals gave up a very talented 24-year-old outfielder for, well, not much - and focus on the fantasy sports fallout.

Blue Jays: Rasmus will almost certainly start in center field, and I'm betting on a big "Eff You, Tony La Russa!" second half from him; AL-only owners should empty their FAAB budgets for Rasmus. Rajai Davis is the logical choice to lose playing time, and when Brett Lawrie gets promoted, Edwin Encarnacion is a near-lock to do the same. The final outcome should be a Rasmus-Eric Thames-Jose Bautista outfield, with Travis Snider DHing and Lawrie at third base. Snider and/or Thames could take small hits in playing time. Teahen appears to be a nice, versatile backup with no fantasy value.

The Jays also apparently acquired relievers Brian Tallet, Trever Miller and P.J. Walters in this deal. Zzz ....

Cardinals: Now that La Russa has won his staredown with Rasmus, the Cards have a Matt Holliday-Jon Jay-Lance Berkman outfield, with Patterson around to provide late-inning speed and defense. Jay's now-steadier playing time makes him mixed-league worthy. Jackson is likely to replace Kyle McClellan in the Cardinals' rotation, and he's been pitching well lately. Jackson's power, ground-ball arsenal and pitching coach/genius Dave Duncan are a match made in heaven, and I'll be looking to grab E-Jax in mixed leagues.

The Cardinals now have some new setup men in Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski, but they're only worth your while in deep NL-only leagues.

White Sox: With Jackson gone, Philip Humber can now rejoin the rotation after a temporary banishment to the bullpen. Brent Morel has a more solid hold on the starting job at third base in the wake of Teahen's departure. Frasor will join the setup corps, while Stewart might compete for a rotation slot in 2012. He's a back-of-the-rotation guy, though.

As more trades happen, we will be back with more of the fantasy fallout. We will give more tips and news about fantasy baseball as everybody loves to play it.