Earlier in this Guide I wrote about what FAAB is (Free Agent Acquisition Budget) and how you should set up your league. In this piece I'll explain how to use FAAB.

When is a B- Player more valuable than an A- performer? The answer comes down to context, so let me give it to you. Let's say you can add the B- player on April 15th off waivers. You're then able to get 5.5 months of solid work from that player. Let's say on July 15th that hotshot rookie gets the call. He performs as expected and gives you 2.5 months of tremendous work. In this instance I would almost always go for the B- minus player (if you're in a H2H setup the answer might change). Why? Volume. I would rather have a solid player for 90 percent of the year versus an elite performer for 40 percent of the calendar. Therefore it's hardly surprising that I will suggest the follow main tactic with FAAB - be aggressive early. It's better to get that strong performer who you can take advantage of all year instead of waiting for someone who is more highly skilled, possibly even more productive per contest, but a fella who won't be playing in the big league for months. Be pro-active (I'll speak more about this in the following waiver-wire piece). 

Bidding totals are also key. Don't be the guy who bids $5, $10, $50, $100 etc. Never bid a number like those. Never. With FAAB dollars you have flexibility, so take advantage of that. The lazy thinker will say to themselves - I think $10 is about right. The active thinker will think - I think $10 is fair, but since I really want the guy I'm going to go $12 or $13. Makes sense, right? Always, and I mean every time it's feasible given your remaining funds, be aggressive with your bids and add a few dollars to the obvious bid. It would also be extremely helpful if you're able to get a list of FAAB bids from the past few years. Knowing how your opponent spends might help you to gain a seemingly small advantage that could end up paying huge dividends for you. 

You might also think about going to Vickery FAAB to save you heartache. Named after a professor at Columbia who developed his process to evaluate commodities (he won the Nobel Peace Prize in Economics in 1996), this setup works to limit the amount of money you needlessly spend. Let's say someone bids $350 to add Smith, but the next highest bid is only $155. The Vickery FAAB process would dictate a +1 situation. Practically, what that means is that the person who bid $350 would win Smith but they would only be required to add $1 to the next highest bid, or a bid of $156. That saves folks for blowing tons of FAAB needlessly, and is a nice advantage for those that are new to FAAB and don't quite know what to bid on players each week.