Update 11:45 AM

Ken Rosenthal and Jon Heyman reported that the Mets were trying to push Oliver Perez andLuis Castillo to the Cubs for problematic RHP Carlos Zambrano.

They were rejected.

That’s like trying to push the Swine Flu on somebody…

Where do the Mets come off trying to trade two players who are not worthy of a Major League roster spot, and are still owed $20 million, in exchange for a pitcher with 108-74 career record and a 3.58 ERA, who just turned 29 years old?

Really? You expected the Cubs to say yes? 

Don’t ask other teams to pay for your own damned mistakes. Man up for crying out loud!

If you don’t want them, then release them already and do all of us a favor. It’s no coincidence the team hit the skids as soon as they came back.

Update 10:00 AM

Jon Heyman of SI.com tweets that the Astros asked the Mets for Josh Thole and Bobby Parnell for RHP Brett Myers. Of course, the Mets rejected the offer. As Heyman notes, that’s a steep price.

* * * * *

The defending World Champion Yankees, already own the best record in baseball, and already had $203 million dollars in payroll commitments this season.  But that didn’t stop them from going after Lance Berkman from the Houston Astros and Austin Kearns from the Cleveland Indians to bolster their depth and bench for the bargain rate of $13 million bucks, and that’s after you deduct the $4 million the Astros kicked back in the deal. That now puts their payroll at around $216 million, about $150 million dollars more than the second place Rays who are one game behind them. Incidentally, the Yankees gave up two non-prospects for Berkman, and a PTBNL for Kearns, but word has it they will simply give the Indians cash considerations instead.

As for the other 29 “normal” teams in baseball, here is what has happened so far leading up to today’s 4:00 PM trade deadline, along with some of the more serious rumors.

The Rays, who currently lead the Wild Card race,  acquired veteran Diamondbacks reliever Chad Qualls for a player to be named later. Qualls has an 8.29 ERA 38 innings pitched this season, and the Rays are hoping the change will help him find his former self when he was the D’Backs’ closer.

The Twins are making a strong push for the Astros’ Brett Myers, despite rumblings that the Stros would prefer to keep him and his very reasonable contract for next season. The Mets were interested or are interested, but lets just say that nobody believes they will make any deal for players who have more than a million dollars left on their contract. That rules out 99.9% of available players, so do the math.

The Twins also obtained the sought after reliever Matt Capps and $500K from the Nationals for left-hander Joe Testa and highly touted catching prospect Wilson Ramos.

The Rangers acquired infielder Cristian Guzman and $2MM cash from the Nationals for a couple of prospects. The Nats have been trying to unload Guzman for a couple of years, something that the Mets have also been trying and failing to do with Luis Castillo who makes $2MM a year less than Guzman annually. However, in the Mets defense, Guzman still has knees.

The White Sox landed the slumping but promising Edwin Jackson from the D’Backs for two prospects. However, many reports are circulating that Jackson could be flipped to the Nationals for first baseman Adam Dunn. Jackson has had a rough go of it this year after a breakout season in 2009, while Dunn is having his typical great season with a .926 OPS, 24 home runs and 64 RBI.

Out on the west coast, the Padres made a deal with the Orioles that will net them former MVP Miguel Tejada and a little cash in exchange for minor league pitcher and their #7 ranked prospect, Wynn Pelzer. Tejada will slide right into the lineup and hit behind Adrian Gonzalez, who will not be traded as many of the so-called experts predicted.

Deep in the heart of Texas, the first place Rangers have been uber-busy making in-season trades to make one big push in the final lap. Last night, they acquired infielder Jorge Cantu from the Florida Marlins for a couple of AA pitching prospects.

We’ll be keeping you updated with any major happenings between now and 4:00 PM, but we will also try to stay away from the gazillion or so rumors, tweets and whispers between now and then.

In the meantime, feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts and opinions on this open thread as we wind down to the end of the deadline.

To get things started, can you please tell me how you feel about the Mets’ lack of moves leading into today. A few weeks ago I asked if the Mets were buyers or sellers, but here we are on July 31st, and we still don’t know what they are. I find it kind of strange and bewildering. Where do we stand right now? Or maybe more importantly, where are we going?