Week 8 Waiver Wire

Please welcome another guest poster, Michael, to FFLibrarian. Enjoy his thoughts and suggestions on the waiver wire options available this week. And I'm loving all the Twitter favorites the two guest writers are giving - definitely a plus. If there's anything in particular you'd like to see here either from a guest writer or myself, please feel free to let us know in the comments section. I personally would love to see a compilation of great fantasy podcasts, so if anyone wants to pull that bad boy together, please do it!

Greetings Fantasy Football Librarian readers, my name is Michael, another first-time writer here. It probably goes without saying that I am an avid fantasy football player, both in yearly leagues and in daily leagues. This is my initial foray into any published writing on the topic of fantasy football, but I enjoy reading and listening to everything I can about it.  My first year playing fantasy football was a joint team with my dad when I was in high school. We had to call in our starting lineups (on a land line no less), and our league commissioner compiled statistics by hand out of the box scores in the newspaper. I don’t say this to sound like a grizzled old war horse, but just to say I value the abundance of information available at our fingertips these days! And no, Johnny Unitas wasn’t our first draft pick, I’m not that old.

Before I get to the links, since this is my first post, I thought I’d impart a couple bits of wisdom regarding the waiver wire. For starters, if you aren’t already doing so, I highly recommend using a “blind bid,” auction-style waiver system for your league, as opposed to the traditional system in which waiver priority is determined by record. The blind bid system gives everyone an equal shot at each player, adds another layer of strategy to your fantasy seasons, and most importantly makes your league more fun.

Secondly, whichever waiver method your league uses, try to think a week forward whenever possible. Picking up a player that you’ve determined may soon have a clear path to success before they post a big stat line and become the target of every team in your league will be far easier than obtaining them after said stat line is posted. Sometimes a player comes out of nowhere due to injury or other circumstances, but often times through a bit of analysis and reading the tea leaves, you can act on developing situations before they happen, and before your fellow owners.

One example of this forward thinking approach from the past week is Tre Mason of the Rams. The explosive rookie RB didn’t register a single carry through the first five weeks, but in Week 6 put up a respectable 40 yards on just five carries. While his stat line doesn’t necessarily jump off the page, he did average 8 yards-per-carry, and did so for a struggling team with a mostly ineffective running game desperate for playmakers.  Rams coach Jeff Fisher has a history of a run-heavy offense and a propensity to change his squad’s primary ball carrier in the middle of the season (Zac Stacy took over in Week 6 last year).  

Mason will undoubtedly be a hot commodity on the waiver wire this week, but he would have been far easier to obtain for fantasy owners thinking a week ahead.  Certainly every speculative addition isn’t going to work out, but when they don’t, it’s painless to cut ties and move on to the next one.

There were a few key injuries in week 7, mostly in Buffalo, and several players that saw their stock shoot through the roof with breakout performances. Here are some suggestions for week 8 additions:

• Brad Evans of Yahoo  recommends splurging on Bryce Brown or one of the other attractive RB options this week.
• Adam Levitan of Rotoworld also likes Bryce Brown as the top RB pickup, and even has a Johnny Manziel mention.
• Christopher Harris of ESPN  is on the Tre Mason train, and gives us his blessing to go ahead and drop Zac Stacy.
• Fantasy Knuckleheads remind us that Doug Baldwin is now firmly entrenched as Seattle’s top receiver following the Percy Harvin trade.
• Is there finally a useful RB in Jacksonville? Fantasy Football Sharks puts Denard Robinson atop their waiver wire board.
• J.J. Zachariason of Numberfire tells us that Jerick McKinnon needs to be owned in every league.

I may be preaching to the choir here, but as Jen mentioned in her post the other day, Twitter is an invaluable tool for gathering relevant and timely information, and getting assistance from experts that can help you through your season. If you don’t use Twitter currently, it’s worth it just for fantasy football alone. A couple of my personal favorite follows are:

Sigmund Bloom of Football Guys

Evan Silva from Rotoworld

And of course myself. I generally don’t do any unsolicited tweeting about fantasy football, but I’m always interested in engaging in the topic.

Here’s hoping your week 8 transactions are fruitful.