Play Like the Pros: What is Maybin's value?

• Jeff Erickson (Rotowire.com) trades Raul Ibanez to Ron Shandler (BaseballHQ) for Paul Konerko

Week 3 of the Erickson Trade Barrage continues with no end in sight; Erickson is attempting to hold onto his first-place position for the remainder of the season. Pulling off three trades in three weeks is impressive in any league, but in one in which trades historically happen so infrequently, it is awe-inspiring.

• Cameron Maybin: $11 Joe Sheehan, Baseball Prospectus ($10, $7, $4)
Take that, Justin Upton: Consider Cameron Maybin the American League's version of Justin Upton, but without the recognizable last name. Maybin homered off Roger Clemens in his second major league game, and he will most likely bounce around Detroit's lineup for the rest of the season. This is a surprisingly low four bids, but what readers don't see here is that Sheehan originally bid $71 on Maybin, and many of the other owners in this league spent a lot of their budgets during the FAABonanza on Aug. 1. Maybin could be mixed-league worthy in a couple weeks, depending on how he responds to the call-up, how committed Jim Leyland is to Marcus Thames and, obviously, how well he plays.

• Russ Adams: $2 Dean Peterson, STATS, Inc. ($1)
11: Adams has been relatively quiet in Syracuse so far this season. He has fallen incredibly far off Toronto's radar after spending all of 2005 and parts of 2004 and 2006 as its starting shortstop. His average in Triple-A was a pedestrian .262, but he managed to hit 11 home runs, surpassing any previous season's total.

• Donnie Murphy: $1 Mike Siano, MLB.com
• John Rheinecker: $1 Peterson
• Jack Hannahan: $1 Peterson
• Jair Jurrjens: $1 Steve Moyer, Baseball Info Solutions
Red squiggly lines everywhere! Jurrjens will give your Microsoft Word spell-check program fits, but it's worth checking out his stats from time to time the rest of this season -- and learning how to correctly spell his name. He had a decent debut against Cleveland last week, and he will face them again this Tuesday. His performance may have some bearing on whether he sticks in the Tigers bullpen as a long reliever, or is sent back to Toledo when Andrew Miller returns from his injury.

• Wily Mo Pena: $29 Jason Pliml ($28, $11, $11)
• Shea Hillenbrand: $28 Scott Wilderman, RotoTimes.com ($27, $26, $11)
Two tickets to the North Pole!: Hillenbrand has been a bit of a traveler lately, playing for Boston, Arizona, San Francisco, Toronto, and both Los Angeles teams since 2003. Usually, this type of world-exploring would be reserved for utilitymen and light-hitting shortstops. But Hillenbrand is a career .287 hitter, and he is usually good or 15-18 home runs a season. Plus the occasional fight with the manager, which is how he has ended up filling in for an injured Nomar Garciaparra with the Dodgers. Ironically, Hillenbrand went for $1 less than Wily Mo Pena, another former Red Sox player who sulked his way out of town. Pena will help with the power numbers, but for runs scored and average, you may want to consider Hillenbrand.

• Pat Misch: $15 Brian Walton, CREATiVESPORTS.com 15 ($14)
• Pete LaForest: $2 Wilderman ($0)
• Braden Looper: $1 Walton
The Looper Scooper: Walton may have picked up Braden Looper at just the right time; the converted closer has allowed just three runs in the last 13 innings, and he looks to be on a nice run since allowing seven runs in four innings just under three weeks ago.

• Todd Linden: $1 Scott Pianowski, FantasyGuru.com
• Jake Fox: $1 Mike Lombardo, Wise Guy Sports
• Gabe Gross: $1 Lombardo ($0)
Mad Libs: Team Wise Guy picks up both a noun and an adjective (for "name of person in room," incidentally, Mike picked "Joan King") for a combined $2. Fox is the 57th catcher the Cubs have employed this season, but he could show flashes of power while backing up Jason Kendall. Gross, meanwhile, has been up and down between Milwaukee and Nashville, but he may see some playing time after hitting two home runs in his first three games back. Of the two, Gross has much more value.

• Mike DiFelice: $1 Pianowski

• Matt Treanor: $0 Phil Hertz, BaseballHQ
• Jeff Cirillo: $0 Rob Leibowitz, FantasyBaseball.com

• Peter Moylan: $0 Leibowitz
One errant keyboard stroke away from root beer: But that would be "Boylan's." Moylan is a key cog in Atlanta's bullpen, with four wins, a save and enough innings pitched with a low ERA and WHIP (1.90/1.04, respectively) to help offset a horrid outing from one of your starters.

• Russ Springer: $0 Lombardo
• Mike Gosling: $0 Trace Wood, LongGandhi.com
I wrote you 365 letters: Why is Trace Wood bidding on a guy with a 4.18 ERA and a 2.06 WHIP? Because those are Gosling's numbers as a reliever, the only role he has served for Cincinnati this season. When he was a starter in Triple-A, however, Gosling had a 3.00 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. There was talk of Gosling taking Matt Belisle's spot in the rotation Saturday, but Gosling was needed in relief and, therefore, could not start. Still, he could be an interesting pitcher to watch if he makes his way into the rotation.

• John Lannan: $0 Pianowski

• Rajai Davis: $8 J.P. Kastner, CRATiVESPORTS.com ($7)
Joan Rajai: Davis made his first appearance in this column as an NL-only acquisition for Pittsburgh over a month ago, where he was destined to be rotated in and out of the McLouth/Duffy/anyone else circle of fun. Since his trade to San Francisco, however, Davis has been on a roll, hitting .323 with 13 stolen bases and 18 runs in just 99 at-bats. At this point in the fantasy season, steals and runs are at a premium, and speedsters like Jerry Owens and Davis are legitimate additions to any team looking to make a run.

• Jose Guillen: $1 Kastner
• Joel Pineiro: $1 Kastner
Wily Mo Pineiro: Remember back in March, when the Red Sox were going to march Pineiro out as their closer? And how quickly he fell out of grace? Pineiro has found career resurgence in St. Louis, to the tune of a 2.84 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. Granted, his career numbers are high, but Pineiro did have two great seasons with the Mariners in 2002 (14 wins, 3.24 ERA, 1.25 WHIP) and 2003 (16, 3.78, 1.27). He is only 28 years old, and, with an arm that has been kept fresh by infrequent use out of the bullpen in Boston, Pineiro could keep these numbers up the rest of the way out.

• Chris Snyder: $1 Dave Adler, BaseballHQ
• Jose Vidro: $1 Larry Schechter, Sandlot Shrink
• Ryan Spilborghs: $1 Alex Cushing, MLB.com
• Jeff Weaver: $0 Cushing
• Matt Murton: $0 Cushing

Nando Di Fino is a fantasy analyst for TalentedMrRoto.com and ESPN.com. You can e-mail him at Nando@TalentedMrRoto.com.