Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Strategy: Efficiently using the Waiver Wire
Posted by Derek Carty at 8:53pmWe'll make it quick today and go heavy tomorrow.
As I mentioned in one of my strategy articles (Trading strategy: Value), at this point in the year the standings are starting to get sorted out. Certain categories you have little room to improve, but in others there is a lot of wiggle room and plenty of possible points to pick up. I talked about this last time as part of a trading strategy... to target those players who can best help you gain points.
Since many trade deadlines have passed, that route may now be closed. If you weren't able to get what you needed, it isn't necessarily time to panic yet. It is possible to find some gems on the Waiver Wire that would serve your purposes.
It's likely most of these players will hurt you in other categories — that's why they're sitting on the wire in the first place — but if the categories a certain player will hurt you in are irrelevent now (there's little chance of you moving up or down), it might be worth picking that player up to help in the category that you can move upward vertically in, even if it means replacing a player that is generally considered to have more value.
The Waiver Wire articles will remain the way they are, giving a player's full value instead of highlighting players that can only help certain teams in certain situations. Those types of players will be tackled separately over the next few days. We'll look at maybe three categories tomorrow, take a break on Friday and Saturday for the Waiver Wire, and then tackle some more categories on Sunday — and Monday if there are any left to cover.
Anyway, we'll talk more about this tomorrow before we dive in.
Derek Carty, 23, has also been published by NBC's Rotoworld, Sports Illustrated, FOX Sports, and USA Today. This season, he'll be contributing to FanDuel and will be linking to all of his work at DerekCarty.com. In his three years competing in expert leagues, he has won 2 titles with 4 top three finishes, including a LABR NL title in 2009, making him the youngest person to ever win a major expert league title. Derek is a proud graduate of the MLB Scouting Bureau's Scout Development Program and is a firm believer in the importance of combining stats and scouting. He welcomes questions via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter.