In my first season I really blew it in team construction and found myself chasing players all over the waiver wire to plug and fill holes, which of course cost me a lot of $ in the long run. I've been trying to be more conscious about it in my second season and have only made 1 move so far as I near the All-Star Break, but generally speaking, what are the conditions that you see that make you start to hunt players for replacements on the waiver wire? Do some of you have an attitude that you just trust your original team as constructed and ride out whatever problems arise?

For me, I dumped Ed Summers (1909) after 16 starts with an OAV of .324, an OBP of .368 and a SLG of .430 and 1.65 WHIP with most of his starts coming at home at Riverfront. For 9.7 mil, seemed like a disaster, but the guy I replaced him with (Noodles Hanh) it's actually been worse.

Unless you blew it and have way too many or way too few innings pitched or plate appearances, you should be using the waiver wire very sparingly. Dumping one deadballer for another similar deadballer and eating a $1M loss is not a good move at all.

A classic situation to use it would be if you spent a lot for a catcher with an A+++ throwing arm, then discover no one in your side of the league has anyone who steals bases. So replacing that catcher with a Victor Martinez or Piazza type would improve your team since even though you've lost salary it was salary you were wasting on a throwing arm.

It IS best to avoid the WW. But yes, sometimes you realize that one position is making all the difference.

So I had Darrell Evans 1985 at 1B for my current OL team and after 255 AB he was hitting .209 with 7 homers. That seemed to me long enough to wait. I dropped him for Lucas Duda 2014 who is hitting .275 with 12 homers in 233 AB, and my team still holds onto a narrow division lead. So I am glad I made that one move.

1985 Darrell Evans! That brings back the memories. I believe that's the first player I ever waived. I had him on a team in a HR positive park, and at the all star break he had 1 HR. Dumped him, and 600 teams later I don't think I've ever used him again.

I generally have a longer leash on hitters than pitchers, though I very rarely go to the WW.

I recently did so in “The Opener” theme, where my 1999 Derek Lowe made 12 appearances, and had 3 losses, and 2 blown saves in relief for a 7.17ERA and 1.81WHIP.

I cut him in frustration and then was without a replacement for some time. In the end I made a few swaps in order to get the $ to work out, and I feel like my team is better overall.

I ended up cutting 1979 C Darrel Porter (.162/.285/.210 after 32 games) and replacing with 2001 Pudge (.302/.324/.385 in 25 games), and then also dropping 2008 CC Sabathia who’d been ok for me (30.2IP, 3.26ERA/1.35WHIP) and picking up 2013 Neil Cotts and 2018 Chris Sale (27.2IP, 1.30ERA/0.76WHIP).

I only use the WW to manage fatigue. No need to dump players because of a slump you're wasting money.

I would've kept him. He was 2-6 at home and 5-0 on the road. He won his last 2 decisions before you released him plus you are in 1st place in your division. You drafted him for a reason, trust your instincts. Noodles looks solid as well. Wish you the best.

A wise and very learned WiS SIMer once told me to, 'draft like you hate the WW.' It makes sense from the dollars involved, there's already a fatigue factor for a player on the wire, and as a strategy, it seldom works. If a league owner wants to throw $5mil into the league for teams after 20-30 games in, as a plus, then that is gratis--- the exception to the rule of stay away from the WW. I thought the logic seemed sound.