Right about now, fantasy commissioners everywhere are getting inundated with emails from whiney league members already looking to change the rules for next year. Some guys want to turn the league into a keeper league, some want the trade deadline pushed back, some want to create bigger benches and some are looking to change up the starting roster structure. But the one email that never fails to arrive and always draws the most ridicule, comes from the guys who don’t know how to budget their FAAB money and are sitting here penniless and begging for help.

If you’re a commissioner, you know the email. They send it to you in the form of some Choose Your Own Adventure story where they graciously allow you to pick one of the following: either increase the FAAB budget (which doesn’t even make sense) or just do away with it and make it a waiver priority-based system. While we commissioners always welcome the league input (insert sarcastic eye roll here) a change in system because you can’t seem to budget your FAAB dollars properly is not a “good for the league” solution.

When it comes to FAAB spending, there’s a fine line between being aggressive and being reckless. We tell you to be aggressive with your bids in the early weeks of the season as the injuries coming out of camp can be plentiful and there are still some position battles to be settled. If there’s a guy out there who looks like he could be a legitimate long-term option, then you need to make the necessary move to get him. However, some fantasy owners get too caught up in trying to grab every free agent who hits the market and they go from being aggressive and savvy to reckless and indiscriminate. Making it rain every week at Club FAAB is the quickest path to fantasy regret.

It’s called discipline, people, and it’s a lesson you probably should have learned at a very young age when your parents plopped you down in front of the T.V. to watch Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. While you don’t necessarily want to be a Charlie Buckett and simply wait your turn, you also don’t want to be a Veruca Salt, screaming “I want, I want,” and expect to get it. Available free agents pop up each and every week and because you’re being enticed with overhyped mediocrity from reading seven different web sites all offering help to struggling owners, too many of you lose sight of what your team actually needs and you haphazardly throw out bids on everyone.

You need to rein it in sometimes. You need to be aggressive when you need to be aggressive. If your running back depth is solid, then forgo the hype of Jerick McKinnon and use your waiver dollars on wide receiver depth. If you already own Demaryius Thomas and Dez Bryant then a big payout to acquire Davante Adams is a mistake. Buy yourself a running back or, if necessary, a tight end. Do what’s best for your team. And stop saying that you’re doing it so that you can have quality trade bait. This isn’t fantasy baseball. Rosters are much smaller and trades are much more difficult to pull off in football. You end up blowing your FAAB budget on a guy who can patch a roster for two or three weeks and then has no value on the trade market.

Being smart about how you spend your FAAB dollars is integral to your success in fantasy football. You don’t have to hoard it to the point where you’re leaving money on the table at the end of the season, but you also don’t have to piss it all away in the first five weeks. Play it smart and you’re actually playing the game properly and making competitive bids here in Week 8, not crying to your commissioner that the free agent rules are bad for the league. They’re not bad for the league at all. They’re bad for the stupid and impatient.

Dunks, 3-pointers and pressure D. The 2014 Fantasy Alarm Basketball Guide has you covered from all angles. Category targets, breakout performers, players to avoid & more than 300 players ranked highlight the offering.