Transaction Time

Welcome all to Transaction Time where I hope to maintain a somewhat regular column taking a look at weekly transactions in the league, pointing out the waiver wire wonders and the dejected drops. I like alliteration.

For this first edition, I'm going to take a look at the last 25 moves page. It so happens that that the time duration spans from April 2nd to April 10th. Highlights!

1.) Carlos Gomez.
Tomke picked up the Minnesota speedster, only to drop him moments later in favor of Padre outfielder Scott Hariston. Hariston has hit .235 this season and was recently ejected for arguing with an umpire. On the other hand, Gomez, the league leader with 5 steals, found his way to The M.B.A.s who cut loose slow to start Garrett Anderson.

2.) Johnny Cueto.
Viano emerged from fantasy baseball inactivity to snatch, perhaps, the waiver wire steal of the year. Cueto's line through two starts: 1 win, 2.02 ERA, 0.45 WHIP (0 walks), and 18 K's. Viano then threw salt into Baron's perpetual Cincinnati wound by mocking him in the smack talk.

3.) Early season relief
The desperate grasping of the closer has begun. With a slew of injuries befalling MLB closers, a whole host of unknown relievers suddenly find relevance in our beloved fantasy game. JR snagged Scot(t) Shields who will see opportunity in lieu of K-Rod's injury. Atlanta's Rafael Soriano's pesky elbow soreness has him out of action. Edwin jumped in and took Peter Moylan, and I took the other half of the closer by committee, Manny Acosta.

4.) Tomke dumps (on) Asians
A disturbing trend in the VUFSA of Dave Tomke turning his back on his namesake. Both Akinori Iwamura and Masa Kobayashi were not long for Bondo and the Asians only briefly holding roster spots.

5.) Cute little pick-ups.
The VUFSA has seen a slew of nice little acquisitions that I kinda liked and thought were worth mentioning. Bill Hall to Tomke might pan out as JR informs me that Hall had an off season contact fitting, which means this is the first season he can actually see the baseball flying towards him. JR scooped up Ted Lilly who could make for a decent fourth or fifth starter. Joe Saunders and Kyle Lohse have gotten off to terrific starts and could benefit both Champ and Eli, respectively, if they continue to pitch at a level higher than they should be.

6.) Remember when?
Garret Anderson (Wolf), Barry Zito (Radcliffe), and Jon Garland (Whitlock) were all no brainer draft picks?

7.) Corey Patterson, Nate McLouth, and Xavier Nady - all players ranked in the single digits by Yahoo.
All of whom might be better options than starting Michael Cuddyer in the outfield after the Twins slugger went on the DL six days ago. Slick in response said, "To hell with it. It's fantasy baseball isn't it? It's my fantasy that he knocks two out of the park tonight. Screw off."