Yards Per Fantasy University: FAAB vs Waiver Wire
By now you probably know that a key part of managing your roster is adding players to your team from the ‘waiver wire’ (the pool of players that don’t currently reside on any rosters in your league). Each league will have different rules on when and how you can add these players – most notably in all leagues is that once a player’s game has commenced then you won’t be able to add that player until the round of games has finished. At this point, the whole league has a chance to stake their claim for that player.
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So how do you stake that claim? Once again, and I cannot stress this enough, know the rules of your league. This will address ‘how’ you claim the players but also ‘when’. There are two main methods of waiver claims, Waiver Priority and Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB).
Waiver Priority
This is a simple priority system where each team in your league is given a priority. This priority is initially determined after the draft has completed and then updated every time a player is claimed.
If a player is on the waiver wire, you simply ‘claim’ that player and after the pre-determined time (check your rules) that player will be added to the roster of whoever claimed him. If more than one person attempts to claim him, then he will be added to the roster of the team with the highest waiver priority.
For example, if I have priority three and I put in a claim for a player along with the team with priority five, then I will get the player. But if the team with priority one also makes a claim, he goes there instead.
Once you’ve been successful in a claim, you go to the back of the queue. So in a 12 team league, your priority will now be 12.
Some leagues may have limits on the number of waiver claims that can be made in a given week or across the season but generally speaking, you can keep making claims and keep going to the back of the queue.
There’s a couple of competing strategies that can be employed with this system. The first is to wait and hold that high priority pick, let the rest of your league cycle through secondary players and hold that priority for a big time add (an injury to a starting running back or a breakout rookie for example). Of course, you could end up standing by as good players disappear and that big-time add never arises (or arises in week 14 when you’ve missed the playoffs!). So the opposite end of that spectrum is to use the waiver wire to speculatively add potential breakouts before your league-mates do, cycling through them until you land on a stud. If that starting running back goes down injured though, expect to be at the back of the queue for his replacement.
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FAAB
FAAB or Free Agent Acquisition Budget is less about priority and more about a value your willing to place on a player.
Everyone will start the season with a budget, lets say $100 for example. When you want to pick up a player from the pool of available players, you put forward how much of your budget your willing to spend on acquiring that player. If other managers make a claim for the same player, instead of looking at who has priority, it’s down to whoever put the most money on the table.
For example, I want player X and I’m willing to spend $15 to get him, but I’m up against another manager who is willing to spend $20 on that player. Player X just went to that other manager.
If you are successful with your claim, your budget reduces by that amount. If you’re unsuccessful, your budget remains untouched.
The main thing to be aware of with this is that your budget has to last you the whole season. If you spend it all in week one then you have nothing left for the rest of the season. That might be your strategy, pick up some big time free agents and stop the rest of your league from getting them, but be aware of what happens if there are breakout players and you have nothing left to go after them.
The trick with FAAB is trying to pitch just the right amount to beat your league-mates but without spending too much. If everyone else is bidding $10, you don’t want to bid $50. Of course, you aren’t going to know what they’re bidding so you’ll need to assess the situation, understand if the player is ‘can’t miss’ or speculative, and keep an eye on the spending patterns of other managers.
$0 bids is also a strategy you can deploy in most leagues. If you’ve not got much budget left or there’s a player you’d like on your team but aren’t willing to spend big, you could place a $0 bid or a $1 bid on that player. If no-one else bids then he’s yours without a big spend.
FAAB is a psychological game too. Many people will bid round numbers like $5, $10, $20, so bidding $6, $11 or $21 could be enough to get you over the line and outsmart other managers. Until they realise what you did and try to copy you, then you might need to up those numbers by another couple of dollars!
Know your settings
To re-stress this again, understand the settings in your league. Do waivers run every day or at set times during the week? Can you pick up players as ‘free agents’ without using a waiver/FAAB claim (some leagues do a waiver run then unlock as a free-for-all for the rest of the week, where you can just add a player instantaneously to your roster without it costing FAAB or a waiver priority)? If so, what time does it open up and can you beat your league-mates to those players? How much FAAB is available? Are you allowed $0 bids? Is there a cap on how many claims you can make in a week/season?
Understand what you’re working with and you can start building your strategy from there.
And of course, you can always ask the Yards Per Fantasy team for help and advice any time with our Ask The Expert feature.
Professor: Follow @MattFFBall
