With your draft complete, and the first week of the season all but over, it’s time to shake it up. Some fantasy baseball experts advise you against making claims early in the season, and while I agree, that’s not the point. I’m not someone who preaches abstinence, I preach knowledge!
In the majority of leagues, your waiver-wire priority doesn’t matter; you can use the waiver-wire like an extended bench, simply picking-up and dropping players as you see fit.
If you’re going to employ this strategy, which is almost always a good one, you have to understand your waiver-wire.
Tips To Understanding Your Waiver Wire
- Look at your roster, and identify the first pitcher and batter you’ll drop. Mentally update these names every time you set your roster.
- Fill out this list with 2 more hitters, and 2 more pitchers. Ideally, you’d like 1 INF, 1 OF, 1 UTIL and 1 SP, 1 RP and 1 P. Doing this now will save you time down the road.
- Examine the waiver-wire depth and place it in tiers the same way you did your original pre-rankings. I cannot stress the importance of this, you need to know your back-up plan.
- If you’re dropping a HITTER, always drop the player who belongs to the largest tier or the player that is the *most* replaceable.
- If you’re dropping a PITCHER, and you can’t decide between two, always drop the player who’s furthest away from his next start. Most players will stay on waivers for 2 to 3 days, and you’d like him to clear waivers before he gets a chance to pitch — just in case he puts up a gem and you want him back. REMEMBER: If you drop a player, you cannot pick him up until he’s cleared waivers.
- Understand what your opponents NEED. Is the player you’re dropping better than a player they are starting?
- Which leads to, SHOP THE PLAYER FIRST. If the pick-up isn’t time sensitive, it can never hurt to shop the player first.
- Before you click the + button, CHECK OUT THEIR SCHEDULE. Sure, you may be getting a steal in the long run, but if they’re pitching in Colorado, Philly and then Milwaukee — Do you really want to pick them up now? You can count right? Fire up his team’s schedule and start counting to 5…
I really cannot stress tiering your waiver-wire enough. If there are 8 other first basemen that fall into the 70/20/70/.270 category, it’s okay to drop your bench first baseman, even if he’s not your worst player.
Don’t fall in love with your players, and simply view them as statistics.
If you’re in a shallow league, it’s beneficial to use the waiver-wire as extra bench spots.
