DESPITE a strike threat and to some degree because of it as non-contenders looked harder than ever to shed contracts, there were plenty of trades (27 from late June to July 31) before the non-waiver deadline Wednesday.

Here are the biggest winners and losers:

WINNERS

1. CARDINALS – Despite a poor farm system, they bagged a desperately needed starter (Chuck Finley) and, without touching top prospect Jimmy Journell, deepened an already strong lineup by nabbing Scott Rolen.

2. A’S – Forever doing more with less, Oakland GM Billy Beane not only added young talent in Ted Lilly, Jason Arnold and John Ford-Griffin (from the Yanks) in a three-way trade, but actually got the Tigers to kick in $500,000, which facilitated swiping Ray Durham from the White Sox. Good set-up lefty Ricardo Rincon also was added.

3. RED SOX – There was suspicion about Boston, which is owned by Bud Selig’s pals, getting Cliff Floyd from Montreal, the team owned by the Commissioner’s Office. But non-Yankee teams involved in trying to get Floyd thought it was a legit process. From a depleted system, the Red Sox used top pitching prospect Seung Song for Floyd, who is not as good as the hype, but is far better lefty protection behind Manny Ramirez than Tony Clark or Brian Daubach. Boston also added the lefty-righty set-up duo of Alan Embree and Bobby Howry to an unsteady pen. Boston wanted one more rotation piece, but failed.

4. METS – A worthwhile gamble on John Thomson for now and the future, especially since the main cost was Jay Payton, an All-Star in strut only. Steve Reed provides bullpen depth/dependability. These were incremental upgrades, but the wild card might be a very close race, so incremental matters.

5. PLAYERS SHOWING IT WAS NOT ABOUT THE MONEY – Especially during labor war, players are viewed as greedy pigs and, in general, do little to dissuade that notion. But Rolen turned down $140 million he will not be able to match anywhere else to get out of Philadelphia, where he was miserable. Jim Thome’s wife is pregnant in Cleveland and he did not want to leave, and either did Ellis Burks or Omar Vizquel. One Kenny (Rogers) spurned trades to Cincinnati and Arizona to stay in Texas while another (Lofton) removed bonus provisions so he could be traded into the pennant race in San Francisco.

LOSERS

1. WHITE SOX – Viewed as contenders with a deep farm system when last season ended, Chicago has watched GM Kenny Williams damage its present and future. This started with the misguided trade to Pittsburgh of Josh Fogg, Kip Wells and Sean Lowe for Todd Ritchie. Recently, dealt Durham, Howry, Lofton and Sandy Alomar in salary dumps, yet paid money on all but the Lofton deal while getting little in return.

2. PHILLIES – Let hot-headed dinosaurs Dallas Green and Larry Bowa, who will be long gone while Scott Rolen is still thriving, set the Rolen-will-go tone a year ago. And GM Ed Wade was the last to know he had to move the third baseman, devaluing him by the deadline. Wade actually had to take expensive, useless Mike Timlin to balance dollars plus utilityman Placido Planco and Bud Smith, who in less than a year went from elite prospect to dubious.

Want more Philly follies? The Phils retained 40-year-old Dan Plesac rather than move him for prospects because they like his influence on young pitchers. Isn’t that why you hire a pitching coach?

3. ROCKIES – Wanted to trade overpaid Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle, instead moved Thomson, who projects to have a much better, less expensive future than those loser lefties.

4. ROYALS – Paul Byrd never had more value, probably never will. Yet, Royal GM Allard Baird pigeonholed himself to find a major-league-ready second baseman and ended up keeping a pitcher he probably can’t afford to re-sign rather than negotiating the best package possible. To exacerbate matters, he did not cut any of the true fat (Roberto Hernandez, Neifi Perez, Jeff Suppan, Michael Tucker).

5. REDS — Despite heading into a new stadium with plenty of revenue-sharing dollars pocketed and a contender, team execs would not allow creative GM Jim Bowden to increase the payroll. So he not only couldn’t complete deals for Finley and Rolen, but watched both go to the division-leading Cardinals.