There is a 100 percent chance the roster you draft will not be the roster you have at the end of the season. That is because everyone inevitably has to deal with injuries and players enduring prolonged periods of a lack of production. The two primary ways to change your roster are to make trades or utilize the waiver wire to acquire free agents. We already discussed the art of making trades earlier in the Draft Guide, so this article will focus on how to work the waiver wire.
Most leagues now employ free agent auction bidding (FAAB) to acquire free agents. In this format, all teams are given a budget of a certain amount of money to use to bid on free agents that are available on the waiver wire. Typically the bids are blind so you must bid aggressively if you want to ensure that you obtain a certain player. This is where strategy and discipline come into play because you do not want to spend all of your FAAB money too early in the season. It is rare that a player becomes available who may be worth spending a large percentage of your FAAB budget. A great recent example is Kris Bryant who was not drafted in many leagues last year because he began the season in the minor leagues. Once he was called up, many fantasy owners (including me) spent their entire FAAB budget on him. He proved to be worth the investment, but Bryant is the exception – not the rule.
When bidding on players with FAAB money, you should be economical in evaluating how much you want to bid. Rather than arbitrarily deciding whether to bid a specific amount, you should think in terms of percentages. Ask yourself if you think it is worth spending a certain percentage of your budget on a specific player? If you think it is worth the investment then add $1 or $2 to the number you are going to bid. The reason for this is because many owners will place bids using nice round numbers such as $25 or $30. If you bid $26 or $32 then you increase the likelihood that you will win the auction.
Not all leagues utilize the FAAB process. Some old school leagues simply use the “first come, first serve” method where players can simply be claimed by whoever gets there first. This requires diligently monitoring the waiver wire and timely claiming players as they become available. Not everyone has the time or capability of doing this, so you can have an advantageous position in the league if you check for available players on a regular basis.
Another method of obtaining free agents is the waiver position claim process. This method is similar to simply claiming free agents, but it also takes into account other factors as well. For example, when a player becomes a free agent either by being dropped or called up from the minor leagues, he is put on “waivers” meaning there is a period of time where the player cannot be claimed automatically. This is denoted next to his name on the list and usually has a corresponding date by which he will be eligible to be claimed.
Another factor is that there is an order by which teams in the league have priority to claim a player on waivers. The most common method goes in reverse based on the standings at the time so that the team with the worst record would have the first priority in a waiver claim. The reasoning behind this is to balance the league out and allow teams at the bottom of the standings an opportunity to improve. Typically once a team successfully claims a player from the waiver wire they then go to the bottom of the list unless the league specifically maintains a reverse standings setting.
There are pros and cons to both methods of claiming free agents. The strategies employed are different because making waiver claims requires some additional forethought in terms of whether
to use your priority pick on a certain player or save it for a potentially more valuable free agent that may become available later on. Irrespective of that, the goal is still to acquire players who will help improve your team.
Besides understanding what method your league uses for free agents, you also need to consider the number of bench spots your league permits. If you are in a league that only has three reserves, then your decision whether to acquire a free agent becomes much more difficult because you have less flexibility with which to utilize. In this instance, you want to target players that are eligible at multiple positions because it offers you more depth. You want to be able to plug in substitutes at each position in case one of your starters gets injured
When scouring the waiver wire you also want to target minor leagues that are likely going to be called up to the majors. Nowadays we have access to this type of information at our fingertips because there is so much more of a focus on prospects. Other targets on the waiver wire include setup relief pitchers who can become closers when the incumbents get replaced, backup catchers who are seeing an increase in playing time, pitchers with two starts in a week and players trending upwards with specific stats that you need to ascend the standings. Additionally, you want to target backups or platoon players who may get more regular opportunities thanks to position battles and job competition. This is similar to acquiring handcuffs in fantasy football leagues, but there is usually less payoff in baseball leagues.
The ability to add quality players on the waiver wire is dependent on the size of your league. If you are in a standard 12-team league then there should be a larger pool of higher caliber free agents as opposed to larger leagues. That is just simple math. The point is that if you play in a large league you have less wiggle room for mistakes and injuries after the draft. That is why the waiver wire is so critical and you should utilize it to augment your roster, not create it.