Rounding Third: One Crazy Hour

This was already going to be a pretty interesting FAAB week following "Gausmas," Kevin Gausman's major league debut. But then in the matter of about an hour things really blew up for those of us having some spare FAAB dollars in our pocket to bid Sunday night. To wit:

- Michael Wacha was a late scratch from his Triple-A start, in anticipation of a probable major league callup.
- Ian Kennedy was scratched with a finger laceration, and the Diamondbacks announced that Tyler Skaggs would start in his place during Monday's doubleheader.
- Jim Johnson blew his fourth save in five chances Sunday, giving up four runs on four hits and a walk.
- Joel Peralta put out a minor fire in the ninth inning with two strikeouts, albeit in a non-save situation.
- Bryce Harper was lifted for a pinch-runner after aggravating his knee injury. Afterward, manager Davey Johnson said that Harper would miss a couple of games.
- Chris Perez aggravated his shoulder injury while trying to protect the ninth, and Joe Smith finished the process of blowing the save by allowing a hit by Jacoby Ellsbury on his first pitch.
- The Red Sox announced that Clay Buchholz would miss his next start with a collarbone irritation.

At one point, I was wondering if Bobcat Goldthwait was going to show up for a sequel.

As of Sunday afternoon, here's my closer speculation bid hierarchy: Francisco Rodriguez, Joel Peralta, Cody Allen, Joe Smith, Darren O'Day, Brian Matusz, Vinnie Pestano, John Axford, Bryan Shaw.

Pestano is lower on my list than most, maybe in part an overreaction to Saturday's blow-up and his earlier DL trip - reports suggest his velocity is down now and he might have to hit the DL himself. If we had any certainty at all about who gets the next Cleveland save opportunity, I'd bump him up to the top of the list. I think Chris Perez has to go on the DL soon, and given that it's his shoulder again that's the problem, it won't be a short trip. Meanwhile, K-Rod appears to be Jim Henderson's replacement, given manager Ron Roenicke's statements on John Axford. Peralta has been great most of the year and in the past with the Rays, and there appears to be something fundamentally wrong with Fernando Rodney.

Schedule Alert

Remember to get your lineups set early this week - Memorial Day brings a full slate of games, half of which begin during the day. All 30 teams have a full seven-game slate, though the Diamondbacks and Rangers play a Monday doubleheader and then get Tuesday off. This week is also interleague rivalry week, so all 30 teams have a home-and-away four-game series to start the week. I personally can't wait for traditional rivals Seattle and San Diego to hook up. The other interleague series over the weekend will have the Blue Jays and Padres hook up. Has there been a better four-player trade than the blockbuster between these two franchises that sent Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter to Toronto, in exchange for Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez? Looking at Baseball-Reference.com's WAR calculations, here's what each player was worth for the remainder of their careers after the trade:

Alomar: 54.7
Carter: 7.5 (he closed out with a number of negative seasons, which may surprise some)

McGriff: 33.2
Fernandez: 16.6

Toronto got the very best of Fernandez, though, both before the trade, and then again late his career with two excellent twilight years. Even though Carter grades out with this methodology as the worst player of the deal, the Blue Jays won this trade by a good margin.

NFBC Main Event

Coming into this week, I had about 40 percent of my FAAB budget left, so I really didn't want to go too wild on any single player. Of course I participated in Gaus-mania, putting in a bid of $175, but that didn't get it done. In fact, I only was able to get Gausman in one league - my AL-only 4x4 home league, with a $11/100 bid on Thursday night. The real problem for my team is hitting, and that's a lot harder to address in FAAB bidding. I had bids in on Dominguez and LeMahieu, but in both cases that would just add a tougher decision to my lineups each week, and force me to make a tough decision with my cut, to boot. In fact, it was already difficult - I cut bait on Adam Eaton this week following his recent setback, making that a wasted roster spot all season long. For what it's worth, I had the second place bid on Tyler Lyons and Darren O'Day. Nuno gets a pretty good start this week, so I'll use him, and Allen is a spec play on the Cleveland closer situation with Chris Perez hitting the DL. Vinnie Pestano was already owned.

RFBOC

K-Rod was a natural target for me as a Jim Henderson owner, so I snagged him. In this league, I waited on starting pitching and I'm paying the price for that volatility. Sometimes it works, sometimes you get R.A. Dickey, Jarrod Parker and Ryan Vogelsong. It's a 12-teamer, so I had to cut Vogelsong this week. I'm last in wins, and second-to-last in each of the ratios categories. At least I'm second in the league in saves, so at some point I'll flip the switch, throw caution to the wind with my ratios, and plug in 8-to-9 starters per week to try to make up some of the stagger in wins and K's. I won't be competitive overall in the online championship, but I'm fourth in my league nonetheless.

RotoWire Staff Keeper League

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Erickson: Pick up Cody Allen ($3), drop Roberto Hernandez
(Browns: $1)
Wheeler in the Sky: Pick up Alexi Amarista ($1), drop A.J. Pollock
McLovin's Spoonful: Pick up Tyler Clippard ($1), drop Sergio Santos
(Liss and Shoe's Dynasty: $2)
Wheeler in the Sky: Pick up Chris Dickerson ($5), drop NO PLAYER
Liss and Shoe's Dynasty: Pick up Freddy Galvis ($1), drop Elliot Johnson
(Wheeler in the Sky: $4)
Casale Industries: Pick up Yan Gomes ($1), drop Adam Rosales
(Liss and Shoe's Dynasty: $3)
Liss and Shoe's Dynasty: Pick up DJ LeMahieu ($5), drop Marwin Gonzalez
The Bros McKeown: Pick up Steve Lombardozzi ($3), drop Jeanmar Gomez
(Liss and Shoe's Dynasty: $1)
The Bros McKeown: Pick up J.D. Martinez ($5), drop Brandon Barnes
(Liss and Shoe's Dynasty: $5)
(Wheeler in the Sky: $5)
(High-A West Madison: $1)
Liss and Shoe's Dynasty: Pick up Jimmy Paredes ($2), drop Jose Tabata
Browns: Pick up Vinnie Pestano ($3), drop Jake Westbrook
(Liss and Shoe's Dynasty: $8)
(McLovin's Spoonful: $2)
(Erickson: $1)
Liss and Shoe's Dynasty: Pick up Francisco Rodriguez ($25), drop Alex Gonzalez
(Erickson: $11)
(Casale Industries: $2)
High-A West Madison: Pick up Eric Sogard ($3), drop Maicer Izturis
(Liss and Shoe's Dynasty: $1)

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Both Gausman and Nick Franklin were on minor league rosters, so no big bidding war here. It's really rare to see an elite prospect slip through the draft, and yet be advanced enough to be called up to the majors in a given year. In this league we can only bid on players on active major league rosters during the season, so most of the prospect research is done either for trades or is done in the offseason. I missed on out K-Rod thanks to Liss & Shoe's aggressive bid, but I picked up Allen again for speculation purposes. Even though K-Rod won't be a keeper for those guys, it's a smart bid - when you're contending, you don't worry about whether the player is keepable at that price - you get the player that you need, period.

Streaming Marlins

If you're hoping to pick up a starter to use against the Marlins this week, you basically have three options: Jake Odorizzi on Monday, Roberto Hernandez on Wednesday, or Shaun Marcum on Friday - and they may already be taken. Here's the full streaming slate:

Monday - Jake Odorizzi (@TB)
Tuesday - Jeremy Hellickson (@TB)
Wednesday - Roberton Hernandez (vs. TB)
Thursday - Matt Moore (vs. TB) - just think how high Moore's price is going to be in daily games.
Friday - Shaun Marcum (vs. NYM)
Saturday - Jon Niese (vs. NYM)
Sunday - Matt Harvey (vs. NYM)