With the non-waiver trading deadline passing just five hours ago, we will now look ahead to the waiver deadline, which is on August 31st. If you are unaware of what this means, basically, trades can still go down, but players must pass through waivers in order to move teams. Mets general manager Omar Minaya will likely attempt to find a diamond in the rough during the month of August after passing on making any trades before July 31st.

With that said, here is a look at some of the notable trades that have gone down in August the past few years…

2007
Orioles traded SP Steve Trachsel to the Cubs.
Indians traded IF/OF Russell Branyan to the Phillies.
Phillies traded IF/OF Russell Branyan to the Cardinals.
Tigers traded OF Craig Monroe to the Cubs.
Red Sox traded OF Willy Mo Pena to the Nationals.
Twins traded P Ramon Ortiz to the Rockies.
Giants traded IF/OF Mark Sweeney to the Dodgers.

2006
Red Sox traded SP David Wells to the Padres.
Cubs traded 1B Phil Nevin to the Twins.
Orioles traded 1B/OF Jeff Conine to the Phillies.
Diamondbacks traded OF Shawn Green to the Mets.
Indians traded P Guillermo Mota to the Mets.
Mariners traded SP Jamie Moyer to the Phillies.
Blue Jays traded OF Eric Hinske to the Red Sox.
Blue Jays traded P Scott Schoeneweis to the Reds.
Indians traded OF Todd Hollandsworth to the Reds.
Phillies traded P Ryan Franklin to the Reds.
Orioles traded C Javy Lopez to the Red Sox.

2005
Braves acquired OF Todd Hollandsworth from the Cubs.
Cubs traded OF Matt Lawton to the Yankees.
Giants traded OF Michael Tucker to the Phillies.
Red Sox traded OF Jose Cruz Jr. to the Dodgers.

According to the NY Post, the Mets have shown interest in Blue Jay outfifelder Reed Johnson or possible Shannon Stewart.  Reed has done well against lefties and can play all three outfield positions.

Johnson makes some sense, since he could play right or left depending on the healthiness of Alou, but could primarily serve in platoon with Church (with Endy handling any needed center or left field substitution) and provide the hitting the Mets need.  That being said, with Angel Pagan playing the way he has been, lets give him a shot. Based on other recent transactions, it seems the Jays need bullpen help more than anything else (they signed Armando).  Unless they want Show for Reed, which doesn’t neccasarily seem likely, being that we already dealt away a fair amount of young players, we should probably hold onto what we have, give the kids a try before dealing away an arm. Especially since our arms have always been injury prone.

Jeremy Cothran of the Record says reliever Scott Schoeneweiss doesn’t want to be traded, though it has been reported he is on the block as the Mets look to find a replacement for Alou. Show struggled most of last season, especially at home, and claims to have been playing the entire season hurt.

Show on staying:

“I have a lot to prove to my teammates after last year, but I also bring a lot of things to a bullpen that can’t necessarily be quantified.”

Unfortantely for Show, it turns out often relievers can be quantified. Usually with such crazy things like ERAs, IP, K, and BB. With a decent supply of relievers, including some good arms in AAA, if a deal is made to get a left fielder its going to come at the expense of someone from the bullpen. And Wagner, Feliciano, Heilman and Sanchez are all not going to be put on the table. That only leaves so many options, and I doubt anyone really wants to trade for Juan Padilla or Schmoll. That all being said, its also important to remember that no one was probably really expecting more than a good half season out of Alou and his many, many injuries. Don’t be too surprised if they try to make do with Endy platooning with one of the younger guys like Pagan while he heals, so that we can keep our AAA relievers in AAA till we need them.

Here are some links from newspapers today:

• According to the Daily News, the Mets have interest in Yankees reliever Luis Vizcaino but he is expected to sign elsewhere this week. The Mets also reportedly have interest in soon to be 45 reliever Jeff Fassero, who’s planning a comeback.
• At Newsday, Kevin Davidoff takes a look at what the Mets’ have to do to improve their farm system. He says that teams like the Yankees have consistently restocked the system because they are not afraid to sign their players with above the recommended bonuses, while the Mets strictly adhere to the MLB recommendations for bonuses. He also writes that the Mets’ have hope that the Twins’ focus more on scouting than statistics and that’s why they’d have heavy interest in Carlos Gomez and Mike Pelfrey. Then he poses the question, “But what if the Twins’ scouts just don’t care for the Mets’ prospects? That’s what appears to be occurring.”
• At the San Francisco Chronicle, Susan Slusser writes that the A’s are considering more and more trading Joe Blanton and Dan Haren and that the Mets’ among other teams have expressed interest.

Well, please stay away from Fassero. He wasn’t particularly good when he was 35, and its been 10 years since then.

This Johan Santana roller-coaster is crazy. One day we hear he wants to play for the Mets, next day the Twins don’t want Gomez or Pelfrey according to Davidoff.

Mets Today has come up with a great idea, fed up with false ‘buzz’ propogated by mainstream media sources.

In their section, appropriately called Buzz Baloney, they are compiling a list of ‘buzz’ items posted to see which ones turned out to be true and which ones were, well, baloney.

Buster Olney on his ESPN.com blog hears that the Cardinals are shopping Scott Rolen and the Twins are interested.

Rolen is owed $33 million over the next three years.

According to MLB.com, the Mets are interested in Chad Cordero, while the Nationals seek Carlos Gomez and Mike Pelfrey.

Gomez is also, sought by the Minnosota Twins, and could be part of a deal to land Johan Santana. However in an ESPN poll by Jerry Crasnick, 14 out of 15 baseball executives and GMs polled at the General Managers meeting in Orlando do not believe the Twins will deal Santana this winter.

Buster Olney reports on ESPN.com from the GM meetings.

Olney sees the Johan Santana market heating up. Rival executives began for the first time to get a serious vibe that if the Twins don’t sign Santana, they will definitely put him on the market. The Twins will make a contract offer to Santana and if he refuses their offer they will look to trade him.

Olney heard of possible offer from the Dodgers for Miguel Cabrera that consisted of third baseman Andy LaRoche, minor league pitcher Clay Kershaw, and an outfielder, possibly Matt Kemp. The Chicago Sun Times believes the White Sox have enough young pitching to get Cabrera.

Two teams told Olney that their A-Rod bidding would need to begin with eight years and $32 million per season bringing it to $256 million, $4 million more than his old deal. Many GMs feel that A-Rod relatively fits into the market at $20 to $23 million, but as we have seen, the market for A-Rod defies reality.

The next best closer on the market after Mariano Rivera, Francisco Cordero, could net a deal worth $40 million.

The most coveted middle reliever on the market is Ron Mahay, who held hitters to a .189 average, and allowed just two homers in 106 at-bats.

Roy Oswalt is not available, however the Houston Chronicle reports that Brad Lidge is.

Ryan Zimmerman has a broken bone in his wrist.

Many more rumors, news and notes regarding the GM meetings can be found on Olney’s blog on ESPN.

Buster Olney on ESPN writes that the Mets need a reliable innings eater this season that can consistantly take games into the seventh or even the eight inning, however it will be extremely difficult to land one.

Olney thinks Carlos Silva is the best pitcher available on the free agent market, but will command a deal worth about $40 million.

Big names like Johan Santana, Scott Kazmir, and Roy Oswalt are available via trade but the Mets don’t have quite the level of prospects that teams would be seeking in return. Baseball executives are mixed on their evaluation of Lastings Milledge, and while many are high on Carlos Gomez, the Mets seem reluctant to offer him in any deal. Mike Pelfrey and Phillip Humber are viewed as 4th or 5th starters or relievers. Aaron Heilman would be someone Olney considers a valuable trade chip, but the Mets are coming off a season where their bullpen seems to require an upgrade. Olney believes a deal to acquire Joe Blanton is most likely.

Olney also predicts that the Mets will offer Jorge Posada a four year deal, which depending on how much the Yankees are willing to spend to retain Posada, could bring the 35 year old catcher to Queens.

Here are a few hot stove items involving National League teams…

The Nationals are seeking a center fielder, and according to Ken Rosenthal on Fox Sports, they are willing to make a big push for Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones, and Mike Cameron.

The Padres are looking for a center fielder as well and Buster Olney at ESPN believes CoCo Crisp, Andruw Jones, and Geoff Jenkins could be targets.

The Cubs are looking at Cameron but prefer a left handed hitter, such as Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome.

Kyle Loshe could receive money similar to Carlos Silva this offseason, reports Ken Davidoff on his Newsday blog, and the Mets are likely to discuss a deal with his representatives as well at this week’s GM meetings.

MLB Trade Rumors posts the top 50 free agents and predicts where they will wind up.

Nice list, and I think many of the explanations are reasonable. Tim Dierkes has his finger on the pulse of the hot stove season, so it would be in your best interest to pay close attention to his site all winter long.

Mark Hale at the Post reports than an MLB executive said the Mets would be interested if the Cubs were looking to shop Carlos Zambrano to a location that isn't Wrigley. Zambrano is 5-5 with a 5.62 ERA, and most recently got into fisticuffs in the dugout.

I tend to question the accuracy of this rumor.  The Omar regime at Shea tends to be very hush hush keeping it on the downlow. The vast majority of trades and such that have happened seemed to have come out of nowhere, and most of the things that were rumored (Zito) never ended up happening. So when I see that its coming from an MLB executive, I assume its coming from a Cubs executive. So perhaps its true, or perhaps someone in the Cubs wants Zambrano gone and dropping a team name is a ploy to make someone out there make an offer. Its the Cubs way of saying 'please someone, anyone, take Zambrano off our hands. Our budget is out of control, nobody wants to own us, our manager is crazy, and even the other NL Central teams think we're a joke.”  Of course, I could be drawing too much out of this.

Regardless, as much as there was some Zambrano to NY buzz in the offseason, I don't see this as something happening. I think Omar if anything waits till the offseason before going after any top of the rotation guys, and sticks with Maine and Ollie in the middle, and probably a series of interchangable fifth starters. Sosa has proven more than effective, and we still have a stockpile of other guys we haven't seen (Williams, Humber) or seen just a peak at (Vargas) and even guys who still have another chance coming their way (Pelf).  So short of El Duque or Glav going down with a season ending injury, I can't see a Zambrano level move going down.  And all this, isn't taking into account any personality factors. Would Omar bring a guy who gets in dugout scuffles with teammates to a team he seems to have molded into a more 'team first, everyone has their part' group?

Matt over at Metsblog is reporting that Baltimore is shopping for pitchers, and NO Zephyr Chan Ho Park is one of their options. While with AAA he's gone 3-1 with 7.29 ERA and given up 17 earned runs over 4 starts. In a brief stint with the Mets, he lost. Lost big time. His Mets ERA is 15.75, with 4IP, 2HRs, 2BB and 7 earned runs with 6 hits.

First, I can see Duquette making this deal. He seems to love guys that we don't want. I'm looking at you Benson and Rain Delay. Eventually Baltimore will have an entire roster of failed Met Pitchers. That, or Duquette will get fired. Its a tough call on what happens first. Secondly, if I'm Omar any sort of one for one trade involving Park would get my stamp of approval. Take Park, give us any player in your AAA system you don't want, lets call it a deal. I wouldn't package up any of our better prospects as part of the deal, but I'm sure we have a couple of guys who could be packaged off. I don't know Baltimore well enough to know what they need aside from pitching. But lets face it, if Baltimore will give us enough crab cakes to feed the Mets active roster dinner for one night, that'd be worth guaranteeing Chan Ho Park will never wear a Mets uniform again.  Not like he will anyway.

via Metsblog

Its been reported that Brian Lawrence, most recently of the Rockies, has signed a minor league deal with the Mets. Lawrence has been in the minor league system and missed 2006 due to injury. Playing at the pro level with the Padres he put up a 4.11 ERA over five seasons.

Time to shape up Pelf, AAA NO has a new guy itching to prove his worth.