The Armchair GM: Scouting the Trade Deadline

As the Trade Deadline looms, and speculation starts to run wild, I thought it might be fun to let folks play GM and see if there are any fresh ideas out there. I'm not going to bore you with the details of what the Giants needs are. They've been discussed here and on other sights ad nauseum. Brian Sabean filled one huge need in the middle IF with the acquisition of Jeff Keppinger. From his statements, it seems highly likely that at least one more deal is coming. Here's a short list of the possibilities:

Carlos Beltran, OF, NY Mets: Beltran is a fine hitter who has been plagued by injuries over the last few seasons. The Mets will almost certainly trade him and several teams appear to be interested including the Philadelphia Phillies. Beltran is a FA at the end of the season. He has about $6 M left on his current contract. The Giants are rumored to be willing to take on his contract, but the Mets would rather pay the contract and take a top notch prospect or 2. Zack Wheeler and Gary Brown are names that have been mentioned in rumors. Jim Bowden says his sources tell him the Giants are willing to part with Wheeler but not Brown.

Hunter Pence, OF, Houston Astros: Pence is apparently available but would require a huge package in return, probably at least 3 of the Giants top prospects. Unlike Beltran, Pence has never been seriously injured and his contract is controlled through 2013, although he will be well paid through the leverage of the arbitration process.

Melky Cabrera, OF, KC Royals: Melky would probably not cost as much as either Beltran or Pence, but is he really an upgrade on Ross, Torres and Nate?

Ronnie Paulino, C, NY Mets: Paulino seems to be the only catcher upgrade who might be available. As OGC points out in his latest blog post, the Giants catching situation is not nearly as dire as it appeared to be after the Posey injury.

Michael Cuddyer, 2B/OF, Minnesota Twins: Apparently the "bigger" trade Sabes was working on was for Michael Cuddyer of the Twins with the idea he would play 2B for the Giants. When those talks seemed to hit a wall, and Miggy Tejada went down, Sabes went to his fallback which was Keppinger because he knew he could get that deal done immediately.

If you are sitting in Brian Sabean's office what moves would you make in the next 2 weeks? I'd like to hear your ideas. Are there any sleeper trades out there nobody is talking about? The Keppinger trade was certainly under the radar.