I had every intention of getting this up on Sunday, but my ISP wasn’t cooperating (hard to post when you can’t connect at anything better than 21.6KBPS). Here are the player transactions in the NL Central that have occurred since the last update, as reported on the official web site of Major League Baseball.

Astros GM Ed Wade must have finally taken his holiday this week, as the Astros reported no transactions since I last updated you on these proceedings.

On Thursday 1/3, the Cardinals signed Matt Clement to an incentive-laden one-year contract with a club option for 2009. I reported on this in another thread. Also on Thursday, the Brewers invited OF Laynce Nix and RHP Steve Bray to spring training. A cursory search turned up no indication that Steve Bray and the Reds’ Bill Bray are relatives.

On Friday, the Cardinals signed IF Aaron Miles to a one-year contract, while the Reds – as previously reported by BubbaFan – claimed OF Jeff Fiorentino off waivers from the Orioles; and signed RHP Jim Brower, INF Jolbert Cabrera, INF Andy Green, INF Andy Phillips and LHP Adam Pettyjohn to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training.

On Saturday 1/5, the Cubs traded IF Angel Pagan to the Mets for a couple of minor leaguers, RHP Ryan Meyers and OF Corey Coles.

On Monday 1/7, the Brewers signed OF Drew Anderson, RHP Tim Dillard, 1B/OF Brad Nelson, LHP Manny Parra and RHP Luis Pena to one-year contracts. Also, the Pirates signed RHPs Adam Bernero and Elmer Dessens (a former Pirate, Red, and Brewer) to minor league contracts with invitations to spring training (Zeldink already told us about Dessens).

Note that there are two other Drew Andersons who have played recently in the minor leagues, one who was with the Reds’ organization the past three years and another who played in the Astros’ farm system last year. The Drew Anderson the Brewers signed on Monday spent all of last year at Class-AA and Class-AAA in the Brewers’ minor league system. Also, the Brad Nelson they signed is not the same Brad Nelson who pitched in the Braves’ farm system last year, and Luis Pena is not the same Luis Pena who pitched in the White Sox farm system a few years ago. The Brewers must be running out of names for their players and have to beg, borrow, and steal them from other teams…which, come to think of it, is pretty much the same approach they’ve used this winter in populating their bullpen.

🙄