There's nothing like a tweet from a respectable source to get everyone freaking out, and SI's Jon Heyman set the Phillies' corner of the internet ablaze with this tweet:

There's a sense out there that if #phillies sub domonic brown for singleton and include cosart they might land pence

Domonic Brown was good enough to hold back in the deal for Cliff Lee. Domonic Brown was good enough to hold back in the deal for Roy Halladay. So finally giving Brown up for Hunter Pence seems a little anti-climatic, even if Pence is under contract (for a lot of dough) through 2013.

But the fears were allayed just a few hours later, with Buster Olney reporting thusly:

As of 5:15 p.m. (EST), NL source says the Phillies have no intention of putting Domonic Brown in a deal for Pence.

And the sound you heard was the collective exhale of Phillies partisans. But Heyman isn't letting Phillies fans totally off the hook, saying the Phillies are still in the lead for Pence.

The internet sentiment was against a Cosart/Singelton trade for Pence, but after the Brown rumors were floated as a brilliant smokescreen, maybe that swap wouldn't seem so bad after all.