A.L. FAAB Log: July 6, 2008

Brett Gardner $15. Other bid $10.
Gardner's game is speed, speed, speed. He's stolen 148 bases in his minor league career. He's been a consistent C+ prospect for John Sickels due to his lack of power, and he's looked over matched so far in his limited MLB AB. There are a couple of pieces of good news in Gardner's profile, however. First, unlike some speed-only prospects, he has a strong SB/CS rate, which means that he could be a pretty successful major league thief. Second, Gardner actually seems to know how to take a pitch; he had a 61/68 BB/SO ratio in the minors this year before his promotion. He seems to struggle at each new level for about half a season, so his BA could stay low while he's up for DLed Johnny Damon, but he could steal some bags for you in his short time up. The winning bidder here was a Damon owner, so the high bid makes some sense. The other bidder was a rebuilding team, who was probably hoping Gardner gets traded to a weaker organization where he might get a real chance to play.

Wes Bankston $7. Other bid $1.
Bankston is a former Rays prospect who excited many with a strong 2004 A-ball campaign. Since then, he's battled injuries and poor plate discipline and fell off the prospect map with a loud thud. Bankston was waived by the Rays this winter, claimed by the Royals, and then waived again and claimed by the A's. He's up now and has been getting starts at 1B and DH for the A's. He had a hot weekend against the ChiSox, but his minor league numbers before his promotion don't speak to a total resurgence. The power was there (with 30 extra base hits in 269 AB), but a poor BB/AB rate led to a 316 OBP. He's not a bad short term pick-up with Eric Chavez out, and could spell Daric Barton if the A's decide Barton needs more seasoning, but Bankston could disappear as quickly as he appeared.

DeWayne Wise $4.
Wise is a 30-year-old ex-prospect who was called up by the White Sox last month to provide some depth in the outfield. He was tearing it up at AAA Charlotte and has continued to ride the hot hand in Chicago, getting a lot of starts in center field with Paul Konerko on the DL and Nick Swisher slotting in at 1B. Wise should cool off, but he's provided some good power and speed in limited AB and is a good temporary fill-in, even if his long term value is extremely limited.

Brad Ziegler $2.
I'm glad I get to write about Ziegler, because he's one of those great baseball stories. He was, by his own description, a "generic baseball righty" before the A's approached him in 2006 about converting to a submarine-style relief pitcher. He agreed to do it, and the results have been phenomenal. Ziegler's thrown 16 shutout innings since his promotion to Oakland and while he'll probably never be a closer, could probably provide decent middle relief value to both the A's and to Rotisserie teams. So far, he's mostly thrown middle relief, but the A's are forward thinking enough to likely put Ziegler in a more prominent 7th or 8th inning role. There should be some regression to the mean here, but Ziegler could be a Chad Bradford-type who can provide $5-10 of value in 4x4 leagues.

Scott Feldman $1.
Feldman's put up some OK numbers thus far for the Rangers, but his low K/IP rate doesn't bode well for continued success. He's typically a severe groundball pitcher, but even that hasn't held up this year. He's still young at 25, but was never much of a prospect. He's got the Angels this week, and I'd recommend avoiding him even for the spot start.

Darren Oliver $1.
Oliver's put up a very good ERA and an OK WHIP, but his K/IP has dropped this year and he's not a good middle relief candidate for 4x4 leagues. With only two wins so far, he's not even much of a vulture candidate.

Darrell Rasner. Claimed by 6th place team.
After a strong start for the Yanks (1.80 ERA in four May starts), Rasner's been getting hit pretty hard (6.47 ERA in June). His stuff is passable for the majors, but Rasner has little margin for error and when he's not fine enough in the zone he gets tagged. He gets the Pirates this week in a make-up game, but I wouldn't recommend him even in what should be a relatively soft match-up compared to some of his tougher A.L. opponents.

Jose Vidro. Claimed by 4th place team.
Even though the Mariners should be in a full blown rebuilding mode, Vidro keeps getting AB. He's a DH with a sub-600 OPS who will provide some RBI opportunities if he plays but not much else. Vidro could get a little better, but is a poor bet and only worth owning in very deep leagues.