Waiver Priority: What do you guys prefer?

[KipperSD]

I'm just your average fantasy football player and only know of 3 different types of waiver priority setups. If there are other types, please let me know. I know of reverse order of rankings, move to last after a claim, and the bidding system.

 

The money league I'm in uses reverse order of rankings. I have been in 1st place since week 1 and have been unable to pick up any new or hot waivers. I find this a little unfair. Yes i can pick up another defense or kicker if i need, but every year there is always hot waiver pickups that can greatly affect teams and the outcome of the league. I realize I should have talked with my commissioner before the start of the season and if I was in last place, I would be loving this setup. Luckily i have my two RBs handcuffed which brings up another issue i have with fantasy football. I hate when your RB gets injured and someone else swoops up the backup due to waiver priority.

 

I just recently learned of the bidding system and this sounds pretty awesome as well and will be recommending it to my commissioner for next year.

 

Anyways, what do you guys think is most fair? What do you guys prefer?

[Papajohn]

Bidding system and it is not even close.I have not played in a league with anything other than a bidding system in years and I will never do go back-.

[Def.]

Bidding system and it is not even close.I have not played in a league with anything other than a bidding system in years and I will never do go back-.

 

 

This ^

 

Blind Bidding ftw

[Shorttynaz]

Every league I'm in, we use reverse order of standings. It gives the shotty teams a good shot at doing something to get out of the cellar, but the downfall to this is a good team can have two bad weeks to start the season, and only strengthen their team to be unbeatable. It happened last year. Team who had Manning also had B Marshall, and Forte. Had some other good supporting cast members. They drafted Gronk, and also drafted whatever TE that lit up preseason when Gronk was hurt. Week 1, he lost. (No one picked up J Thomas). Week 2, he lost - J Thomas was atop everyone's list. He got him. He ended up only losing one more game through out the season, was the top seed of the playoff's at 10-3, however he did lose in the 2nd round of the playoffs to the owner of K Allen, N Foles, Hilton, McCoy, Vereen.

 

Personally, I'd like a blind bidding system - it give everyone a shot at the waiver wire darling - if you want to go all in one someone you think can help you the rest of the season, so be it. If you wanna hold your $$ till later in the season and go after that player who can fill a void or someone was dumb enough to drop, you have a shot regardless of standings..

[Zooty]

Blind bid and its not even worth a discussion about others.

 

I do hope at least that you have FCFS pick-up after waivers run until games start? You're only other option is to try a grab guys a week ahead. This obviously won't work for injury replacements but you can grab hand-cuffs and bye week fillers that way

[Big Country]

Blind bid and its not even worth a discussion about others.

 

I do hope at least that you have FCFS pick-up after waivers run until games start? You're only other option is to try a grab guys a week ahead. This obviously won't work for injury replacements but you can grab hand-cuffs and bye week fillers that way

 

Wish we had this in AFL...... the lack of a FCFS period is absurd.

[Big Country]

The answer depends on a few things - each method has merits and detractions. The reverse order of standings is simple, in theory helps the weaker teams, thus promoting parity. Problem is it makes it very hard, as you noted, for a team that starts fast to get any "hot" pickups. The use it and move to the back of the line method promotes teams being a little more careful in how they use their pickups, but, as there is no resetting for teams that are struggling, it can present more of a strong getting stronger set up. Both of these systems are decent though for the more casual leagues where owners may not be as involved. Now, for your typical Huddler, this is not the case, as I would postulate that the majority of people that would not only seek out a site such as the huddle, much less post on the boards, are more than your casual fantasy football player. For these leagues, nothing beats a blind bidding system. Every team has an equal shot at every free agent. It promotes smart roster management and budgeting of free agent dollars, as if you blow it in week one, too bad when an even better option presents itself in week 6. Blind bidding though is not the best for the casual leagues, but, IMO, for anything with a decent sized buy in or at least more than a casual level of involvement by the owners, it is the way to go.

[stevegrab]

Bidding is the most fair but not for every league. The others are certainly worth discussing. As somebody else pointed out, you need to at least have FCFS after waivers run if doing the reset every week by reverse of standings.

 

This got discussed in another thread, an idea I had of a hybrid reverse of rankings and move to last after claim. Basically the idea would be that you don't reset to reverse of rankings every week. Maybe every 2 weeks, or 2 out of every 3. This way the good team that waits on making a waiver claim can move to the front of the list to get that hot pickup. Problem is I doubt any sites have a setting for that, so you'd have to do it manually. I've researched it some for our CBS league and think the easiest would be to write down the order the week it shouldn't reset, let the site reset it then go back and edit the waiver order to be what it was before.

 

I'm going to discuss this system with our league during the year and offseason to see if there is interest. I know that bidding will not work, too many people will say its too much work.

Edited September 26, 2014 by stevegrab

[Big Country]

Bidding is the most fair but not for every league. The others are certainly worth discussing. As somebody else pointed out, you need to at least have FCFS after waivers run if doing the reset every week by reverse of standings.

 

This got discussed in another thread, an idea I had of a hybrid reverse of rankings and move to last after claim. Basically the idea would be that you don't reset to reverse of rankings every week. Maybe every 2 weeks, or 2 out of every 3. This way the good team that waits on making a waiver claim can move to the front of the list to get that hot pickup. Problem is I doubt any sites have a setting for that, so you'd have to do it manually. I've researched it some for our CBS league and think the easiest would be to write down the order the week it shouldn't reset, let the site reset it then go back and edit the waiver order to be what it was before.

 

I'm going to discuss this system with our league during the year and offseason to see if there is interest. I know that bidding will not work, too many people will say its too much work.

 

 

Interesting idea. I could see doing a reset every 3 weeks or so. If we assume a 13 week regular season, your initial order would be reverse of draft order, then, it is move to the back if you use a claim. After week 3, it resets to reverse of standings. Then, move to back if you use a move. After week 6, it resets. Repeat for week 9. If you allow waivers in the playoffs, reset at week 12 and 15. Obviously this could be maneuvered to fit league wants, etc., but it is an interesting idea.

[Zooty]

Wish we had this in AFL...... the lack of a FCFS period is absurd.

 

 

You don't need FCFS in dynasty leagues IMO. At least I can't vote against it any more

[stevegrab]

Interesting idea. I could see doing a reset every 3 weeks or so. If we assume a 13 week regular season, your initial order would be reverse of draft order, then, it is move to the back if you use a claim. After week 3, it resets to reverse of standings. Then, move to back if you use a move. After week 6, it resets. Repeat for week 9. If you allow waivers in the playoffs, reset at week 12 and 15. Obviously this could be maneuvered to fit league wants, etc., but it is an interesting idea.

 

For our league which is a 5 man keeper, draft is not serpentine I was thinking a reset after the first week. Then maybe every 2 weeks after that. If owners think that is too much of a change maybe try no reset every 3rd week (resets in 1-2-4-5....). This came to me because I was 2-0 to start and didn't even try for the guys on waivers because I was in the bottom 3 on the list. At that point if there was no reset for week 3 I would have been in the top 3.

[Phat Rugby]

Blind bidding is my preference. It's fair to all involved and is quite a challenge. It's the only place someone can spend 50% of thier budget for 2 rookie QB's (this actually happened this week). Most of my leagues process on Wednesday evening which allows FCFS waivers prior to Thursday's kickoff and over the weekend in case there is an inactive.

[KipperSD]

I'm not sure what FCFS stands for exactly. However, in my league where reverse order of ranking is used for waiver priority, waivers go through Wednesday early early morning. We then are able to pickup and drop anyone until the games start Sunday morning i believe. This is nice because someone can't pick up a backup when they see someone gets injured, it goes through waiver priority. However, it still doesn't address the order of ranking. The league I'm in is $150 buy in and I will definitely be advocating for changes next year.

[Zooty]

I'm not sure what FCFS stands for exactly. However, in my league where reverse order of ranking is used for waiver priority, waivers go through Wednesday early early morning. We then are able to pickup and drop anyone until the games start Sunday morning i believe. This is nice because someone can't pick up a backup when they see someone gets injured, it goes through waiver priority. However, it still doesn't address the order of ranking. The league I'm in is $150 buy in and I will definitely be advocating for changes next year.

 

First Come First Served- which is this:

We then are able to pickup and drop anyone until the games start Sunday morning

[pegos]

Never tried bidding, sounds complicated (I'm sure it's not) but I like move to last after placing a bid. It really forces you to "play" the waiver wire. Save it for a really solid pickup later on down the line and laugh at everyone that blew their priority on the flavor of the week. Reverse order of standings is the most ridiculous waiver system ever conceived.

[DMD]

Bidding systems are like auctions vs. drafts. Once you experience it and so long as you have even just moderate knowledge, then you never want to go back. But both drafts and "standard FA claim" are easier to do and understand. You don't have to be as good about player value or managing your team. You just pick when it is your team. The problem with "standard claim" (or a minidraft of available players each week) is that is seems more fair to reward the lower ranked teams with earlier picks in reality it is not. At least not for maybe the first four weeks and those are the only ones that really, really matter.

 

If you go reverse order of standings, then you could have had the second highest score in week one but lost but still pick 6th instead of 11th. If you had a great team in week one but lost your RB1 in the process, you have no shot at a decent replacement by pick #12. The reality is that I would say 90% of the most meaningful FA's are gone in the first four weeks and probably 80% in the first two weeks. That is too early to say who really has a bad or a good team. They are still battling the early schedule of their players.

 

There is a beauty in the simplicity of drafts and even "drafting" your FA's. I get that. Personally I prefer auctions and bidding and a lot of experienced players do. But the wonder thing about fantasy football is that it does attract so many casual players and that is why it is so popular. We all win.

[Big Country]

 

 

First Come First Served- which is this:

We then are able to pickup and drop anyone until the games start Sunday morning

 

Most of the sites nowadays let you pick up anyone up until their game time, which I don't mind for late deactivation situations, so long as players lock at their kickoff, so that you can't go pick up the backup RB to a guy that gets hurt mid game.

[KipperSD]

Anyone else know of any other systems?

[Zooty]

Anyone else know of any other systems?

 

 

In 20 years, I haven't heard of any others

[Big Country]

Well, the only other one not mentioned is just first come first serve at all times. But, it never gets mentioned as it is a pretty crappy way to do it.