X. Utilize the Waiver Wire and Make Trades
As I mentioned before, the season cannot be won during the draft, it can, however, be lost there. After starting a season with a great draft there is still work to be done in order to win a championship. This can be done by being aware of the following: knowing the style of free-agency in the league, being constantly on the lookout to improve the team, and learning not to abuse waivers.
- Understanding how free-agency works is the first step toward mastering transactions. There are a few types of free-agency (FA) that everyone needs to be aware of. First, is the waiver system. Now I constantly refer to FA as waivers simply because it is the most typical system used for free-agency in fantasy football. Waivers work like this: after each week, players in the FA pool lock for a day or two where owners can put in a waiver claim for them. Waivers are set in a predetermined order and whoever has the highest claim for a player gets him. Waiver order is typically set in order based on who has made the last and most recent claims. If a player is claimed by only one owner then whoever claimed him gets moved to last on the priority list for the next week. Some leagues have it where waivers are based on inverse standings, the team currently in last gets first claim and the team in first gets last claim every week. Regardless of how it is done, after the waiver period is over, FA becomes a free-for-all. First-come-first-serve at this point has its advantages. Be sure to not waste a waiver pick (if it’s based on most recent claim) on a defense or a kicker; wait to use your claim until a highly-touted player comes around due to injury to another player. Other types of FA include free-for-all (bad experiences with this, do not recommend) and Free-Agent Bidding (FAB). FAB is something I haven’t personally done but I find it interesting. Here’s a simple breakdown: there are X amount of dollars to use all season long per team for FA, once the budget is emptied, it’s gone. Any amount of the budget can be bid on any FA player in a given week and whoever bids most gets him. Some players may be worth an entire budget based on the new circumstances they find themselves in. I tend to not dabble in this on the website here but many fantasy websites will recommend how much of a FAB budget should be spent on certain players each week.
- Always be on the lookout to improve the team. I mean this in two ways, FA and trades. In FA always be on the lookout for errant moves made by owners and available players with the potential to go nuts. There may be times during the season where an owner is forced to drop someone due to injuries, or bye weeks, that has tremendous value. If this happens, scoop them up immediately. I personally set a reminder each week to check out the FA pool after waivers expire in order to add a player I didn’t want to use a waiver on (typically QBs for bye weeks, team defenses, and kickers). Another thing, always be open to trades. I love Matthew Barry for many reasons, but mainly because he constantly writes about the stupid mistakes many fantasy players make regarding trades. One of my personal rules is to never label one of my players as “untradeable”. Some people may think that they should never trade away a stud, but I most certainly do not agree with that. With that in mind, I will never trade away a stud unless I get another stud back, or if I am very desperate due to injuries that have befallen my team. I entertain every trade offer I receive. The initial trade offer an owner receives will never blow them away but a trade can become beneficial to both parties with a little bit of work. Always be on the lookout for teams who may struggle at a certain position and throw an offer out there to see what bites. Trading is an art, just like haggling, but I won’t go into too much detail on that now, that’s for another time.
- Don’t abuse the waiver system. As I just mentioned above, it is not a good idea to use a waiver pick on a rental QB/Def/K; waiver picks are much too valuable and should be saved for a certain time. As I also said before, micro-managing a team is a good way to lose. The players that were drafted are there for a reason; they had the most value on draft day and should be treated as such (assuming you have been following along). Now obviously the general perception of them and their actual value change as the season progresses but it’s important not to lose sight of why they were drafted in the first place. Dropping a savvy veteran who is great for bye week starts in order to pick up a flier is not wise when there are still bye weeks yet to go.
* This is block 10 of an 11-part series that has been posted over the course of the last week. It will be posted in its entirety at the conclusion of the series. Thank you for reading and be sure to come back to the Overtime Network for more content!
