Waiver order, what do y'all think?

[juniorvarsity33]

My long-time, highly-competitive league ($200 per owner, 12 owners) just initiated a keeper league this season. And, with that we changed the waiver order to a standing order. (meaning, the beginning order was inverse of draft order, and does NOT reset each week. Instead, it stays the same, and as owners make waiver claims, they fall to the bottom). And, with this... however the order ends this season, we will begin the next season in this order.

It was decided by majority vote for this. (though some owners still voted against).

However, one of the detractors has made a good complaint, that after going 0-2, and next week playing another divisional 0-2 team... the loser will likely be out of contention after only 3 weeks. And, they are still down on the waiver order, because the upper people are saving their spots for the "hidden gems" to arrive out of the free agents.

I'm always interested in finding ways to improve the competition of our league. I have a GREAT base of highly involved owners.

Is this a fair for the league? Unfortunate circumstances for the underperforming teams? Or, just chalk it up to dumb luck that the teams are losing like they are?

Thanks for lookin'
-jv

No Fun League (6th year as commish)
(12 Team, 2 player Keeper) $200 entry per team.
0-1
QB - {Brady}Quinn
RB - {LJ, Edge, AGreen} TBell, SamMorris
WR - {Holt/ DJack} Chambers, SHolmes, DBennett, JPorter
TE - {DaClark}
K - {Mare}
D/ST - {Falcons}

[steelerfan513]

It's a fair enough rule, but no rules should be changed during the season without unanimous consent. You can vote on it during the offseason, but for now, the rule should stay the same.

[juniorvarsity33]

Oh... of course!! I'm not contemplating changing it now... I'm just curious how other's would respond to this. And, if it sounds like a change SHOULD be made next season. Thanks though!

[DDay]

I want to make sure I understand the nature of the complaint by the two 0-2 teams... that the teams with the most advantageous waiver positions are refraining from making waiver claims in the hopes that they can cherry pick a "gem" at some undetermined time in the future, so the teams with less advantageous positions always have another team(s) in front of them on the priority list and don't know if they'll get the player they bid on, correct?

I guess I don't see this to be as big a problem as they do - the bottom line, you make a claim and cross your fingers that you'll get him. If those other teams with better waiver position continue to sit on their hands and don't make claims, then for all practical purposes some lower-postioned team winds up with the top priority w/o having to claw all the way back to the top of the list. From my perspective, that make it *easier* to pick up players, not more difficult. It does increase the uncertainty slightly, but I'll take that if it means I have better access to players.

[juniorvarsity33]

all correct... but their feeling is that, as they continue to lose, they are unable to be the front runners to get those "gems"... essentially (if the teams higher on the priority list don't feel they want to "use" their position to take that player)

The alternative is resetting the order EACH week base on inverse order of standings (so a losing team would continue to get first crack at players in attempt to better their team) I dunno....

[DDay]

Well, our WW system works this way:

Any player that's dropped cannot be picked up until the next week's WW. Once the WW period begins Tuesday morning, teams have until Weds evening @ 5pm local time to make their "Priority" WW bids - every team gets 1 priority bid, which are allocated in inverse order of current league standings. Once the Priority period is over, all WW bids from that point until the start of the first game of the week are on a first-come-first-serve basis.

So, we give a leg up to the teams that are at the bottom of the heap during the Priority period but also allow for someone who's done their research to grab a player late in the week if they have a hot tip or read about an injury, etc.