Strategies for blind waiver-wire free agent bids..... (1 Viewer)

[KCC]

If you are in a league where owners can submitt blind bids each week for waiver-wire pickups, are there any strategies you use (other than bidding more for better players)?

 

[Baloney Sandwich]

If you are in a league where owners can submitt blind bids each week for waiver-wire pickups, are there any strategies you use (other than bidding more for better players)?

for players you really want make sure your bid is the highest

 

[stickboy]

If you are in a league where owners can submitt blind bids each week for waiver-wire pickups, are there any strategies you use (other than bidding more for better players)?

Check your opponent's roster. You should be able to quickly determine who most likely needs a player at a given position based on injury, bye, or a player that sucks. If you are bidding, it must be some sort of salary cap league, so figure out what they might normally bid without disrupting their roster too much (people hate change and overvalue their current rosters). Decide if you want to match or beat that bid, or just bid what makes sense for your team and salary cap. You won't forsee all the moves, but planning around obvious ones sure beats way overbidding. And many times a low bid wins because the other coach didn't bother to submit a bid even though they should have.The other strategy is to look ahead two weeks rather than one, and scoop up needs prior to when they become must moves.All of this assumes that you are in a competitive league where the waiver wire is thin. Remember, there is a reason that many of those players are still out there.

 

[SSOG]

In my experience, the best waiver pickups wind up being minimum-cost pickups (<5-10% of the cap) or maximum-cost pickups (80-90+% of the cap). There's not much point in tiptoeing about and spending 40% of your cap on a player- either go big or go home.

 

[David Yudkin]

Early in the year, I generally will pick and choose the guys I want a couple of weeks in advance so the going rate is cheap. If someone is on the market in any given week with a known role increase, I generally won't foot the bill to bid on him as someone will pay a king's ransom for him.

This usually ends up working to my advantage, as at this point in the year I am left with a ton of bidding dollars while most other teams have hardly any left. Then I can outbid all the other owners for people that emerge late in the season when all the injuries start piling up. I just did this last week, acquiring Jason Snelling who helped win two games for me.

 

[Addai's Adidas]

I like to leave myself with what ever cap room I think I need to outbid everyone else. This way I get the guy I want or the "hot" pickup. If they don't pan out, drop em and bid high again the next week.

 

[just_want_2_win]

If you are in a league where owners can submitt blind bids each week for waiver-wire pickups, are there any strategies you use (other than bidding more for better players)?

Check your opponent's roster. You should be able to quickly determine who most likely needs a player at a given position based on injury, bye, or a player that sucks. If you are bidding, it must be some sort of salary cap league, so figure out what they might normally bid without disrupting their roster too much (people hate change and overvalue their current rosters). Decide if you want to match or beat that bid, or just bid what makes sense for your team and salary cap. You won't forsee all the moves, but planning around obvious ones sure beats way overbidding. And many times a low bid wins because the other coach didn't bother to submit a bid even though they should have.The other strategy is to look ahead two weeks rather than one, and scoop up needs prior to when they become must moves.All of this assumes that you are in a competitive league where the waiver wire is thin. Remember, there is a reason that many of those players are still out there.

 

[BUTTER]

All good comments. I remember being in WCOFF Boldin's Rookie year and he went for all $1000 week 2 in some leagues. It all depends but not in a big $ national contest, most guys this time of year do not even bid.

gl all!

 

[gonzobill5]

Early in the year, I generally will pick and choose the guys I want a couple of weeks in advance so the going rate is cheap. If someone is on the market in any given week with a known role increase, I generally won't foot the bill to bid on him as someone will pay a king's ransom for him.This usually ends up working to my advantage, as at this point in the year I am left with a ton of bidding dollars while most other teams have hardly any left. Then I can outbid all the other owners for people that emerge late in the season when all the injuries start piling up. I just did this last week, acquiring Jason Snelling who helped win two games for me.

I tend to do the opposite - spend all my money rather carelessly early in the year. Seriously. I spent 50% on MSW and 40% on Manningham early in the year. I would have had to pay more, but I believe they both emerged the same week, which sort of split the pot because people bid on both. It was obvious to me that these were more than one week wonders, so the way I see it I can fill a need for the entire season. That leaves me flexibility to make trades and other roster moves (previously WR was a weakness and it became a strength). Sure, I missed out on guys like Snelling this past week - but the idea is that hopefully come playoff time I'm not praying that someone gets hurt so I can grab a backup, my roster is already set. And if I'm the guy who has Turner, well maybe it wasn't my year. This isn't saying your method is bad - I think being thrifty can have advantages. On the other hand, if the guy is can't miss, don't go penny pinching.

 

[David Yudkin]

Early in the year, I generally will pick and choose the guys I want a couple of weeks in advance so the going rate is cheap. If someone is on the market in any given week with a known role increase, I generally won't foot the bill to bid on him as someone will pay a king's ransom for him.This usually ends up working to my advantage, as at this point in the year I am left with a ton of bidding dollars while most other teams have hardly any left. Then I can outbid all the other owners for people that emerge late in the season when all the injuries start piling up. I just did this last week, acquiring Jason Snelling who helped win two games for me.

I tend to do the opposite - spend all my money rather carelessly early in the year. Seriously. I spent 50% on MSW and 40% on Manningham early in the year. I would have had to pay more, but I believe they both emerged the same week, which sort of split the pot because people bid on both. It was obvious to me that these were more than one week wonders, so the way I see it I can fill a need for the entire season. That leaves me flexibility to make trades and other roster moves (previously WR was a weakness and it became a strength). Sure, I missed out on guys like Snelling this past week - but the idea is that hopefully come playoff time I'm not praying that someone gets hurt so I can grab a backup, my roster is already set. And if I'm the guy who has Turner, well maybe it wasn't my year. This isn't saying your method is bad - I think being thrifty can have advantages. On the other hand, if the guy is can't miss, don't go penny pinching.

The other issue which I neglected to mention is that many times I already have rostered a deeper roster than other teams and the few misses that I would get on any given team may not have presented themselves after a week or two. As for Manningham and MSW . . . were they really can't miss? You could have shot your load and ended up with one or two week wonders.I also am uncomfortable dumping almost my entire bankroll on one player when there is a season still to go with a chance of injuries to your whole roster. In the leagues I am in, you HAVE to bid to pick up players (there's no free agent pickups except for blind bidding). So with freak injuries, bye week issues, etc. you have a safety net.

 

[thriftyrocker]

I also am uncomfortable dumping almost my entire bankroll on one player when there is a season still to go with a chance of injuries to your whole roster.

A lot of people spent 100% of their budget on Ryan Moats after his 3 TD week. Monday night he got 0 touches. He is pretty much droppable in all leagues.