The trade deadline is almost here, and if you've been following along, you know I've been saying for over a week that this is the best drama in sports. We've already seen the dominoes start tipping with arms moving around the league. Now the bats are next.

The Big Lead put together their list of six hitters who could find new clubhouses by the time the deadline passes, and it's a solid grouping. Several clubs sitting near the bottom of the standings have attractive offensive pieces that contenders would love to slot into a playoff lineup.

This is the part of deadline season I love. Starting pitching gets the headlines early because every contender needs another arm. But the bat that puts a team over the top? That's the move people remember. Think back to the rentals that caught fire in October and helped bring home a trophy. Those swings don't always pay off, but when they do, people talk about them for decades.

What makes this year interesting is the buyer-seller line is blurry in both leagues. A team sitting at .500 could go either direction, which means the truly committed sellers, the clubs already looking at next spring, have real leverage. They can hold out for the prospect haul that restocks a farm system for the next three years.

The hitters most likely to move are the rental types. Guys on expiring deals who won't bring back a compensatory draft pick worth sweating over. A power bat for the middle of a lineup. A contact hitter who can grind out an eight-pitch at-bat in October. A versatile piece who can play three positions and give a manager options in the late innings.

And when a season goes sideways, and you can feel it going sideways about a week before the standings make it obvious, the smart move is to cash in on what you've got while it still has maximum value.

The final hours will sort the buyers from the pretenders and the sellers from the holdouts. Somewhere in the middle of it all, one general manager is going to swing a deal that makes the rest of the league look silly for not pulling the trigger first. That's just how deadline week works.