It was an association that my friend Michael Duca made during last night's Athletics game that sent me into peels of laughter.

Just before the start of the game, as we were all getting set for the first pitch, I noted to all that in Tout Wars I had purchased the rights to newbie Athletic pitcher Sean Gallagher for a mere $27 FAAB.

"What?" the shocked minions asked, "how much?"

They can be forgiven to a degree as they forget that Tout is a non-keeper AL only format: a league in which my having Kevin Cash on my bench allowed me to trade my surplus catcher, John Buck, so I could replace my injured first sacker, Carlos Pena with the itinerant Frank Catalanotto.

That, my friends, is how deep it is.

Deep enough that my $37 bid to get Justin Masterson failed, as did my$37 bid to get Chris Davis, and my $27 bid to get Rhadames Liz, over the past month.

And that should tell you how tough and careful the bidding in Tout goes at free agent time.

This time, I was pretty sure I had to do what I could to get Gallagher as one of my five starters, Dustin McGowan went down earlier in the week with a dead rotator cuff. And, well, my team was lounging in sixth place with 70 points, falling off from a second place peak of 88 three weeks ago, which means most of my lost points are soft, and some solid pitching will keep me in the hunt.

And, trade deadline looming or not, I knew that the chances I could pick up a potential strikeout pitcher as potentially good as Gallagher without making a swap were slim to none.

That is because there were four teams with more FAAB in their balances than I, and to use the moves to the NL of CC Sabathia and Rich Harden as examples, you will see what I mean.

Sabathia went for $82 to Scott Wilderman, who actually bid $88. But, since we play the Vickery rules which award the player for the dollar value of the second highest bid, plus $1, Scott plucked Sabathia from Glen Colton and Rick Wolf, who bid $81 for the rights to the new Brewer.

But, undaunted, Glen and Rick also put a bid in for Harden of $81, and snatched him for $78 under the nose of Pete Becker, who bid $77.

There are AL Tout teams that have as much to spend as Glen and Rick and Scott, and I am not among them. And, those teams are banking on a name player being swapped to the AL, and if so, they will get him, as opposed to me with my measly $57 balance.

So, I saw a chance with Gallagher and went for it, bidding $35, edging out Jason Grey who bid $26.

Now, remember, this is FAAB, not the auction, so the dollar values and the league makeup do point to some odd stuff.

And, in the course of relaying the above information to the esteemed Mr. Duca, and the amounts paid for some arguably good, but mostly speculative--for Gallagher is a crapshoot--players, his response was, "You are the people responsible for the mortgage crisis."

And, well, that sent me into that lovely laughter. Of course Michael also made a pretty salient point regarding the subjective value of anything and everything, and how the market really does drive the price.

Me? I was just happy I could pick up a replacement for McGowan without having to make a trade or compromise my team's pretty good offense, for now anyway.

Even better, I could still make a swap, so having Gallagher potentially deepens my team, as does McGowan when and if he returns, but, at least for now, I probably won't lose any ground. Not too mention my getting Gallagher keeps my opponents from having him.

And, as the game commenced and my laughter subsided into chuckles, I watched happily as my new pitcher two-hit the Angels over seven innings, striking out six, and looking worth every penny of his $27 inflated self.