A.L. FAAB Log: August 8, 2011

If you're interested in my write-ups on Travyon Robinson and Johnny Giavotella, check out this past Friday's Gearing Up. Since Robinson and Giavotella were the only players purchased for over $1, I'm going to focus more on the mechanics of this A.L. league's FAAB this week and less on the players below.

Winning bids or waiver claims are bolded.

1st place: Trade Ryan Raburn and Jacob Turner to 6th place team for Vernon Wells. Trade 1st round farm pick for Ivan Nova, Waive Louis Coleman, Activate Nova. Waive Hisanori Takahashi, FAAB David Pauley $1, Waive Charlie Furbush, FAAB Alfredo Simon $1, Waive Jorge Posada, FAAB Jose Molina $1, Waive Chris Getz, FAAB Johnny Giavotella $15, Waive Alejandro de Aza, FAAB Trayvon Robinson $3.

Trades for Wells and Nova put this squad $10 over the league's $350 active roster salary cap. With an 0.42 ERA and 0.114 WHIP lead on the 2^nd place teams in those categories heading into action today, the pitching moves above are an attempt to try and solidify as many wins points as possible. Wells should provide more power than Raburn, and in terms of playing time Giavotella should be > Posada/Getz going forward. These gains may seem incremental, but it is a four or five team dogfight for first, so every little edge is important.

2nd place: No moves.

This team is locked in at MI/OF so Robinson and Giavotella would not have been much in the way of an upgrade.

3rd place: Reserve Carlos Villanueva, Claim Matt Albers.

This team is nearly capped out. He could have bid a max of $6 for Robinson to replace Conor Jackson. He could have bought Giavotella and waived Tsuyoshi Nishioka but elected not to do so. Unlike the 1st place team, the 3rd place team is in a tough ERA/WHIP battle and can't afford to stream starters like Simon who might damage his ERA.

4th place: Trade Derek Holland and Elliot Johnson to 12th place team for Sean Rodriguez and 4th place team's 1st round farm pick. Reserve Travis Snider: 1) FAAB Robinson $10, Claim Ezequiel Carrera. Activate Jon Lester.

Holland for the playing time upgrade with Rodriguez makes less sense without taking Lester into consideration. This team needed to activate Lester and didn't have another logical pitcher to waive. There's a discrepancy between Rodriguez's performance and the buzz I've seen from Rays bloggers on Twitter. Carrera is a pretty solid consolation prize for Snider; I'm surprised one of the non-contenders didn't try to snag Carrera on waivers. He's probably not a keep at $10 next year, but he's at least worth a claim.

5th place: Trade Bobby Abreu, Chris Archer, Zach Britton, Trevor Cahill, Greg Halman and John McDonald to the 6th place team for Michael Brantley, Jeff Francis, John Lamb, Matt LaPorta and Nick Markakis. Waive Rich Harden, FAAB Jim Johnson $1. Waive Alcides Escobar, FAAB Giavotella $12. Reserve Chris Dickerson, FAAB Robinson $12. Waive Carl Crawford, Activate Juan Pierre.

Significant cap issues here. The trade above put this team at $355 and Harden at $30 was the most obvious candidate to shed. Crawford is at $43, and once again there wasn't an obvious player to waive. This squad could have bid $2 more on Robinson or Giavotella but would have lost out on both.

6th place: See two trades above. Reserve Mike Trout. 1) FAAB Robinson $12, 2) Claim Carrera. 3) Claim Alex Rios. Waive Blake Davis, FAAB Giavotella $3. Reserve Kyle Davies. 1) Claim Joel Peralta, 2) Claim Jesse Crain.

This team is in sixth place but waived the white flag. He had $12 of cap left so couldn't bid anything more on Robinson and didn’t' get Carrera because he was the owner who waived him. The conservative bid on Giavotella is a mystery to me.

7th place (tie): Waive Brad Penny, Activate Jo-Jo Reyes. Reserve Yamaico Navarro, Claim Adam Dunn.

Penny has been a disappointment, but Reyes is no upgrade. Dunn at $34 is not dumpable given all of the contenders' cap problems.

7th place (tie): Reserve Chone Figgins, FAAB Giavotella $9. Waive Endy Chavez, FAAB Trayvon Robinson $9.

This team had $9 left in FAAB. He blew his wad last week on Colby Rasmus, Brandon Allen, and Mike Adams. If he doesn't move Rasmus, he might have been better off saving some money for Giavotella and Robinson.

9th place: Waive Jim Thome, Activate Jason Kipnis. Release Kyle Seager, 1) FAAB Robinson $10. 2) FAAB Giavotella $10.

Kipnis had to be activated or waived. Among the contenders, there wasn't a market for a DH only, and for non-contenders Thome might not make sense. Should this team have bid more on Robinson or Giavotella, or is $10 the "right" keeper price?

10th place: Reserve Luke Hughes, FAAB Trayon Robinson $18. Waive Tim Wakefield, Claim Peralta. 

Robinson at $18 might be too expensive as a keep and might be too expensive to trade. The 5th place team has $9 in cap space is probably the most logical destination if he can clear $9 of cap space. There should have been a bid here on Giavotella; Eric Sogard is one of this team's middle infielders.

11th place: No moves.

Five open roster spots. No bids on Giavotella or Robinson. Eighty-eight dollars of FAAB. No comment.

12th place: Trade with 4th place team above. Reserve Craig Gentry, Claim Rios. Waive Mike Gonzalez to clear roster space for Holland.

Like Dunn, Rios is at a high salary ($28) and will be next-to-impossible to trade. This team had $67 of FAAB left. I could see the argument for not bidding on Robinson given the future potential of the outfielders in house. The lack of a bid on Giavotella is a mystery to me.