This was a relatively quiet week on the waiver wire, but sometimes the quiet weeks present good free agents too. Remember to set your lineups early this week - Memorial Day always features a lot of day games.

NFBC Main Event (15-team mixed)

This is the hell of having Jayson Werth and Corey Dickerson go on the DL at the same time in a league that doesn't give you DL spots. The Mariners face seven right-handed starters this week, so I'm hoping that Seth Smith starts in at least six of those games. In the case of Van Slyke, I understand that he may not start every game, but he replaces Peter Bourjos, who also doesn't start every game (and is steadily losing time to Randal Grichuk) and won't have interleague play to provide an extra lineup spot. I also had bids on Grichuk, Michael Bourn, Aaron Hicks and Preston Tucker.

I'm hanging on to the Taijuan Walker disaster for now, but doing so kept me out of the bidding on some of the pitchers in this list - namely Chris Heston, Mike Wright and Lance McCullers. I stayed out of the bidding on Enrique Burgos because I picked up Shawn Tolleson as my third closer last week.

My drops were Bourjos and Kevin Plawecki.

RotoWire Online Championship (Gut and El Jefe)

Next year in the 12-team leagues I might consider emphasizing positional scarcity more. We're loaded with outfielders on this team, and don't have a place to play all of them. For instance, we took the discount on Hunter Pence (and yes, so far, we're happy with the results!), but getting him into the lineup forces us to sit at least one of Rajai Davis, Mark Teixeira, Adam LaRoche or Matt Adams. And now we're getting Josh Hamilton to play soon, perhaps as early as Monday. Maybe scarce positions isn't necessarily the answer, but getting another starting pitcher early might be in this format.

We overpaid for Wada, at my insistence. We've gotten aced out on other FA targets (notably Danny Salazar earlier) and I've underbid in the Main, so I basically doubled our original bid, which would have been sufficient. But Wada has a high strikeout ceiling, has two starts this week, and pitches for a pretty good team. I wonder if he has job security, but it's the type of high-upside worth ensuring that we get, particularly where starting pitching is a weakness for us.

We dropped Hisashi Iwakuma, Kevin Plawecki and Alex Guerrero to make room for our FA's.

RotoWire Online Championship (Beat Jeff Erickson I)

Once again, trying to find a decent replacement at catcher has been a chore. McCann replaces Kevin Plawecki, who was my second stab at a replacement for the injured Jonathan Lucroy.

The list of free agents picked up here is both sobering (in that I didn't get a few of these guys) and illuminating in how much different the FA pool is in 12-team leagues vs. 15-team leagues. Again, outfielders are plentiful in this league, so while I especially regret not grabbing Burns or Marisnick, I have three other OFs of comparable value on my bench.

Tout Wars(AL-Only, 12 teams)

Rob Leibowitz: pur WCastillo Sea 10
Andy Behrens: pur STolleson Tor 1
Steve Moyer: pur PNeshek Hou 0
Steve Moyer: pur SHeathcott NYY 0
Jason Collette: pur MMuncy Oak 5
Mike Podhorzer: pur MKrauss LAA 1
Steve Moyer: pur RLavarnway Bal 0
Rob Leibowitz: pur PKlein Tex 1
Jason Collette: pur CColon KC 1
Ron Shandler: pur GSoto CWS 6
Mike Podhorzer: pur BFarmer Det 3
Rick Wolf/Glenn Colton: pur DBundy Bal 1
Jason Collette: pur JLindgren NYY 1
Jeff Erickson: pur BSnell TB 1

Tout Wars has a couple of interesting bidding elements. We've discussed the Vickrey angle here before, but another aspect is the ability to bid on minor league players before they are called up, with the proviso that you have to keep them active for a week and you can't use $0 bids on them. Three such players were rostered in this league this week - Buck Farmer (who falls under that because he hasn't officially been promoted yet, though he will start this week), Dylan Bundy and Blake Snell. I was the $2 bidder on Farmer, and had to settle for Snell, who has been lights out for the Rays in their farm system so far. With injuries to Drew Smyly and Alex Cobb, there's a chance that Snell will get the call midseason. He's merely replacing Kyle Lobstein for me anyhow, so I'll take the one-week zero and then stash him on reserve.

LABR (15-team Mixed League)

Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Tanner Roark awarded to USA TODAY Sports for $15.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Failed bids for Tanner Roark: $8, $3, $3, $3.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Jaime Garcia awarded to Fangraphs for $7.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Failed bids for Jaime Garcia: $1, $3, $1, $4.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Kendall Graveman awarded to Rotowire-Erickson for $5.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Failed bids for Kendall Graveman: $1, $2, $2.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Charlie Morton awarded to MLB.com for $5.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Brayan Pena awarded to Mastersball for $4.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Wade Miley awarded to Baseball HQ for $3.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Failed bids for Wade Miley: $1.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Ryan Raburn awarded to FantasyScore for $3.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Shaun Marcum awarded to MLB.com for $3.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Lance McCullers awarded to BSports for $2.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Failed bids for Lance McCullers: $1, $1.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Joe Kelly awarded to Baseball Prospectus for $2.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Failed bids for Joe Kelly: $1.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Maxwell Muncy awarded to ESPN.com for $1.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Failed bids for Maxwell Muncy: $1.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Enrique Burgos awarded to RotoExperts for $1.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Will Venable awarded to Baseball HQ for $1.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: David DeJesus awarded to Razzball for $1.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Matt Duffy awarded to Razzball for $1.
Mon May 25 12:05 AM ET: Carson Smith awarded to Baseball Prospectus for $1.

This team is a disaster, despite starting with Mike Trout, Chris Sale and Bryce Harper. I've had some injuries, but I'm not remotely the only one, so I have to blame bad drafting. Anyhow, I dropped Danny Duffy to make room for Graveman. I fully acknowledge I might just be spinning my wheels on this one.

It's worth noting that Devin Mesoraco was dropped by the Baseball HQ team, and I can't blame them - what a nightmare to own. You can't start him because he only starts in interleague play (and didn't even do that this weekend for the most part thanks to his setback), but the Reds stubbornly refuse to put him on the DL. That they don't have anyone better to use as a pinch-hitter than a banged-up Mesoraco speaks volumes about their organizational strength. So does the fact that four non-roster players made their Opening Day roster, one of which was the great Jason Marquis. No, I'm not a bitter Reds fan, why do you ask?

XFL(15-team keeper/dynasty hybrid)

This league has monthly free agents, so there were no pickups this week. But because this is a long-term keeper league, it's always interesting to see when the big "go for it" trades start happening. Two such trades occurred in this league this week:

1. Between Steve Moyer and the Peter Kreutzer / Alex Patton team:

PK/AP traded Huston Street ($12), LAA to Steve Moyer
PK/AP traded Chris Young ($5), NYY to Steve Moyer
PK/AP traded Eric Young Jr. ($1), Atl to Steve Moyer
Steve Moyer traded Chris Hatcher ($5), LAD to PK/AP
Steve Moyer traded Melvin Upton ($1), SD to PK/AP
Steve Moyer traded Trea Turner ($0), SD to PK/AP

Moyer is in first place, PK/AP are rebuilding. Elite prospects are golden in this league - their respective salaries accelerate only $3 each year, once that player loses his eligibility. So Trea Turner has major value in this league. Steve sent out a league-wide missive requesting a closer and an outfielder that plays in exchange for Turner - Upton, Hatcher and EY Jr. are there just for balancing purposes. Essentially this is Turner for Street and Chris Young.

2. Gene McCaffrey & PK/AP:

Gene McCaffrey traded Sonny Gray ($15), Oak to PK/AP
Gene McCaffrey traded Brandon Phillips ($8), Cin to PK/AP
PK/AP traded Dustin Pedroia ($20), Bos to Gene McCaffrey
PK/AP traded Jeurys Familia ($1), NYM to Gene McCaffrey

Gene has the second-place team in the league, though he gave up a lot more in present value to address the categories he needed.

Somehow I'm in third place in this league heading into Sunday's games, despite thinking I'd be a rebuilding team. I kept Jurickson Profar and bought Cliff Lee in the November auction. In the March reserve draft I spent my first couple of picks on prospects and generally maintained focus on youth, and then did the same in the May reserve draft. In the past couple of years I've made "go-for-it" trades and fallen short, giving up some very good prospects. I'm wary of doing the same this year, so I'm leaning against the proverbial "answer" trades you often see other contending teams make when their competition starts the dump/reinforcement cycle. Especially because I think that there's a smoke-and-mirrors element to my contending status. I just lost Jacoby Ellsbury to the DL, Jordy Mercer is my shortstop, and I just sustained the Carlos Frias hit Sunday.

While flags fly forever, when you're in a keeper league, make sure you know where you stand before mortgaging your future.