Best Way To Do Waivers: End Of Line, or Last Place First?

[lennykravitz2004]

In my local, we've done two different options.

 

1. For the first ~10 years or so, we did inverse of standings every week. Crummy team(s) could pilfer the wire with the first WW pick every week then move to the end as each team's transaction was processed.

 

2. Up until a couple/few years ago, when we switched to "use it, then lose it". Starting week 1, inverse of standings. Every week thereafter the WW would not change in that, if I had 1st WW in week 1 but did not use it, I was still 1st on the WW even if I improved every week to 1st overall. Once I used the WW selection at #1, I would go to the back of the line and only move up as other people performed more WW transactions/requests (NOT FCFS). The catch is, it would only apply to WW requests. When I wake up Wednesday morning (when our WW processes) I am still #1 in WW order, but we all can FCFS after those initial requests are done.

 

In both scenarios, after initial WW claims were put in and processed, FCFS.

 

Blind bids may be great and favored by a lot of people, however for our league, most of us see that as "one more thing to manage" about the league. We've tried to keep things very basic and simple over the 11+ years together. No IDP, no negative points for INTs or fumbles, etc. Like these ideas/rules or not, it's what we started with (all have been discussed over the years) and have simply not changed.

[Shorttynaz]

In just about all the leagues I play in - it's pretty standard - players lock at the start of their game, and stay on waivers until Wednesday morning. Every week the teams are re-seeded based on W/L, and then points. Last place gets first pick, and moves backwards. I think this is pretty fair for the most part, however I would be a bigger fan of the blind bidding - only having a certain amount of $$ to bid with each season - reason being is what if after 6 weeks you're 4-2 and tied for first place by points. That week you lose your 1st round pick for the season, your team is crippled (to an extent), while a team who started out 0-2 got first dibbs on the waiver wire the first few weeks and picked up the early season darling (a la Alfred Morris a few years ago) - he's now also 4-2 and set up nicely for the rest of the season. Kind of far fetched, but the free hosting sites I don't think there's any other way to do this other than a rolling set - meaning if you had the first overall pick, your waiver priority is 10 or 12 (however many people are in your league) and every time someone ahead of you makes a waiver claim, you move up - until you've made a waiver claim. This kind of goes a little more along the lines with blind bidding, but it's not blind. Hold onto your waiver priority as long as you can until you really need it..

 

There's a lot of different options, I don't think you can go wrong with any of them - however I think the reseeding of teams each week works well for the most part..

[stevegrab]

My favorite way is blind bidding with a first come first served period afterward.

 

On ESPN, you can only do blind bidding if it is an auction league. I have told them many times that this is an idiotic limitation, but they are idiots, so waddayagonnado. We use the move to last after claim option as it adds the wrinkle of strategy on when to burn a claim.

 

I hate the reverse order of standings waivers. It actually encourages teams to throw week 1.

 

 

Blind bid waivers sounds cool, but I doubt our league would go that way.

 

I disagree that reverse order of standings encourages a team to throw week 1, there are too few games in a FF season to be losing any game on purpose. Unless there is some true stud on waivers after any FA period and before the week 1 game.

 

PS Anybody rush out and buy UDD Guru's book yet?

http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Football-Upside-Down-Drafting-ebook/dp/B00KYBSTRG

[Mustangt125]

So is it true that ESPN only allows blind auction bidding on auction leagues? Cuz if so that's whack, we use snake draft.

[Big Country]

So is it true that ESPN only allows blind auction bidding on auction leagues? Cuz if so that's whack, we use snake draft.

 

 

Have you checked your ESPN league options or contacted ESPN?

[Zooty]

 

 

PS Anybody rush out and buy UDD Guru's book yet?

http://www.amazon.co...k/dp/B00KYBSTRG

 

 

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought- Fantasy Football for Idiots, Look! I Can Tie My Own Shoes, Everybody Poops

[Delicious_bass]

In just about all the leagues I play in - it's pretty standard - players lock at the start of their game, and stay on waivers until Wednesday morning. Every week the teams are re-seeded based on W/L, and then points. Last place gets first pick, and moves backwards. I think this is pretty fair for the most part, however I would be a bigger fan of the blind bidding - only having a certain amount of $$ to bid with each season - reason being is what if after 6 weeks you're 4-2 and tied for first place by points. That week you lose your 1st round pick for the season, your team is crippled (to an extent), while a team who started out 0-2 got first dibbs on the waiver wire the first few weeks and picked up the early season darling (a la Alfred Morris a few years ago) - he's now also 4-2 and set up nicely for the rest of the season. Kind of far fetched, but the free hosting sites I don't think there's any other way to do this other than a rolling set - meaning if you had the first overall pick, your waiver priority is 10 or 12 (however many people are in your league) and every time someone ahead of you makes a waiver claim, you move up - until you've made a waiver claim. This kind of goes a little more along the lines with blind bidding, but it's not blind. Hold onto your waiver priority as long as you can until you really need it..

 

There's a lot of different options, I don't think you can go wrong with any of them - however I think the reseeding of teams each week works well for the most part..

 

Not far fetched at all and a perfect argument for using Blind Bidding over a record-based ordered waiver system, IMO.

[flemingd]

PS Anybody rush out and buy UDD Guru's book yet?

 

 

Why would you even link that garbage and justify the moron's existence on these boards?

[BA Baracus]

So is it true that ESPN only allows blind auction bidding on auction leagues? Cuz if so that's whack, we use snake draft.

 

 

As of last season this was true. I contacted them and they had no plans to change it. They actually said that if there was no auction then there was no basis for blind bidding costs. I told them that made no sense because the two things are completely unrelated. Their response was some damn form letter.

[HutOne]

I had this exact same post last year. We went with blind bidding and everyone loved it except for one guy in our league that never prepares and is usually in last but he got voted down 11-1

[datatom]

We use the WW request based on the weekly standings (last place gets 1st waiver). We only do one round of waiver requests. The waivers are awarded at 8:00 PM every Wed. (before Thursday night games). Then we use FCFS until kickoffs. The one thing we do is limit the weekly transactions to 2. This requires some planning to avoid bye week issues and to accomplish weekly switches for certain positions (DEF, PK).

[Goopster24]

Blind bidding is the way to go, no doubt about it.

[stevegrab]

Why would you even link that garbage and justify the moron's existence on these boards?

 

To have fun. People tell me lighten for being rigid at times, geez. Its not like I mentione he who's name shall not be mentioned.

[Mustangt125]

As of last season this was true. I contacted them and they had no plans to change it. They actually said that if there was no auction then there was no basis for blind bidding costs. I told them that made no sense because the two things are completely unrelated. Their response was some damn form letter.

 

 

I was clicking around the league settings and it looks like they may have changed that. I was able to select the auction based free agent option and was able to change the amount and time periods, but I never actually clicked save.

 

We will be putting ours to a vote. Just worried that some won't want or like it because they may take it less seriously.

 

In your experiences have you seen this method to only be viable for league balance if all players are near same level of caring?

[BA Baracus]

It works in all my leagues where it is used. There are varying levels of players. I think it tends to reward the more shrewd managers as you have have to make a very specific decision.

 

Some guys manage their funds over the season, some are broke by week 3, and some never spend a dime. To each his own IMO.

 

The only thing I strongly recommend is having a FCFS free agency after the weekly waiver run. FCFS should open at a time where everyone has a reasonable opportunity to be online - so not during the workday and not 2 am for most folks. I think it's 10pm EDT in the Ladder, which is perfect.

[flemingd]

I was clicking around the league settings and it looks like they may have changed that. I was able to select the auction based free agent option and was able to change the amount and time periods, but I never actually clicked save.

 

We will be putting ours to a vote. Just worried that some won't want or like it because they may take it less seriously.

 

In your experiences have you seen this method to only be viable for league balance if all players are near same level of caring?

 

 

If they don't care, they don't care and the system is irrelevant. If they don't put in a bid vs. if they don't put in a claim when they have first waiver priority makes no difference, someone else will get him. If they aren't paying attention to who's improving and on the cusp of rosterable, and another owner is, that owner is going to have the advantage. Always.

 

The only way this matters is the FCFS aspect. If there's no FCFS at the end, then the guys that forget to put in claims can't come in at noon on Sunday and get a bye week cover at the last second. I think CBS doesn't support FCFS in my one league that's on CBS (not 100% sure, but pretty sure - 85%?), and for that reason I"m a big fan of MFL for this.

[Mustangt125]

Yeah we would defo have FCFS after the bidding period.

 

When i was cliking around on ESPN it seemed like there was a new bidding period starting every day....so do you just cancel it and say there's one bidding period, it ends at this time on this date, and afterward its FCFS?

[stevegrab]

If they don't care, they don't care and the system is irrelevant. If they don't put in a bid vs. if they don't put in a claim when they have first waiver priority makes no difference, someone else will get him. If they aren't paying attention to who's improving and on the cusp of rosterable, and another owner is, that owner is going to have the advantage. Always.

 

The only way this matters is the FCFS aspect. If there's no FCFS at the end, then the guys that forget to put in claims can't come in at noon on Sunday and get a bye week cover at the last second. I think CBS doesn't support FCFS in my one league that's on CBS (not 100% sure, but pretty sure - 85%?), and for that reason I"m a big fan of MFL for this.

 

CBS can handle this.

 

Our CBS league is setup to have first come first serve after waivers. Exception is players dropped may still need to clear waivers later in the week (if I drop a player on Tuesday to add somebody, that player is on waivers, and waiver order will dictate who gets him on the next run, think that is Friday/Saturday).

 

Your commish either didn't want to allow FCFS or didn't know how to set it up. There is a setting on the Roster Management and Transactions page labeled "Free Agent players always on waivers" which if checked makes all free agents go through waivers.

 

When I look at free agents it will tell me which are on waivers and which are not. And when you add it shows them being added to the waiver list if they are on waivers.

[Delicious_bass]

 

CBS can handle this.

 

Our CBS league is setup to have first come first serve after waivers. Exception is players dropped may still need to clear waivers later in the week (if I drop a player on Tuesday to add somebody, that player is on waivers, and waiver order will dictate who gets him on the next run, think that is Friday/Saturday).

 

Your commish either didn't want to allow FCFS or didn't know how to set it up. There is a setting on the Roster Management and Transactions page labeled "Free Agent players always on waivers" which if checked makes all free agents go through waivers.

 

When I look at free agents it will tell me which are on waivers and which are not. And when you add it shows them being added to the waiver list if they are on waivers.

 

If that option is unchecked, all non-drafted players are FAs and available FCFS but then are you able to control when an owner can add a FA the way you can when when you specify when waivers runs? Just curious. We were on CBS a long time and asked them several times if there was a way to run FAAB for a couple days(ie tues and wed) at the beginning of the week but then open it up to FCFS towards the tail end of the week. We were always told CBS did not support that and had to go all FAAB or all FCFS. Perhaps we were misinformed, though.

 

I was setting up a league on Yahoo recently and saw a similar option. You can choose to make all un-drafted players FAs which makes them avail for FCFS but then it looked like it would be a free-for-all on those players all week. From what I can see, Yahoo is similar to CBS this way and (if we want to use Blind Bidding) we'll need to have all un-owned players be on waivers at all times or they'll be FAs which can be added pretty much anytime which we don't want. I could very wel be wrong and someone please don't hesitate to let me know if that is the case.

[flemingd]

CBS can handle this.

 

 

 

With Blind Bidding?

[BA Baracus]

Yeah we would defo have FCFS after the bidding period.

 

When i was cliking around on ESPN it seemed like there was a new bidding period starting every day....so do you just cancel it and say there's one bidding period, it ends at this time on this date, and afterward its FCFS?

 

 

I will check it out tomorrow night. I need to wake up my silly work league anyhow.

[stevegrab]

If that option is unchecked, all non-drafted players are FAs and available FCFS but then are you able to control when an owner can add a FA the way you can when when you specify when waivers runs? Just curious. We were on CBS a long time and asked them several times if there was a way to run FAAB for a couple days(ie tues and wed) at the beginning of the week but then open it up to FCFS towards the tail end of the week. We were always told CBS did not support that and had to go all FAAB or all FCFS. Perhaps we were misinformed, though.

 

I was setting up a league on Yahoo recently and saw a similar option. You can choose to make all un-drafted players FAs which makes them avail for FCFS but then it looked like it would be a free-for-all on those players all week. From what I can see, Yahoo is similar to CBS this way and (if we want to use Blind Bidding) we'll need to have all un-owned players be on waivers at all times or they'll be FAs which can be added pretty much anytime which we don't want. I could very wel be wrong and someone please don't hesitate to let me know if that is the case.

 

 

With Blind Bidding?

 

Not sure, we don't use blind bidding. Those are separate settings from waivers. Just checked and the check box I was referring to for "free agent players always on waivers" is only present with the Use waivers options is specified for Add/Drop policy, not with their two FAAB (blind bidding) options.

 

Sorry for the confusion.

[BA Baracus]

Yeah we would defo have FCFS after the bidding period.

 

When i was cliking around on ESPN it seemed like there was a new bidding period starting every day....so do you just cancel it and say there's one bidding period, it ends at this time on this date, and afterward its FCFS?

 

 

So it looks like ESPN has finally added blind bid waivers, I am claiming that as a personal victory.

 

The way the ESPN waiver setting works is you set the waiver period. After this period, a released player becomes a FA who can be added immediately. I set the waiver period to one day. This results in all FAs being on waivers on Tuesday with claims processed at about 3am Wed. Any dropped players to make claims will be on waivers for Wed and can be claim in a run that processes 3am Thursday. Setting it to one day allows claiming of players dropped in the first run in time for use in Thursday night games.

[Ck_7]

I agree that Blind bidding waivers is the best way to do it. I didn't realize so many people preferred this. If thats the case, do all of you prefer auction drafts over snake drafts?

[Henry Muto]

Switch to MFL they allow blind bidding waivers followed by FCFS and had you signed up in July you would got a discount and it would only cost like $4-5 per team. Well worth it IMO.

 

What my league does is runs blind bidding waivers on Wed night at 9 PM then blind bid runs again Friday at 9 PM then it is only after the 9 PM waivers does FCFS come into play and FCFS are $0.

 

We start with $1,000 for the year and we allow $0 bids as well.

 

The reason we don't do FCFS waivers after 9 PM Wed before 9 PM Friday is that a lot of times news breaks during this time and everyone should get equal shot at players if possible on Firday (Stacy comes to mind last year news broke Friday morning)