waiver claim

[ddp]

Hey Guys,
Every year I pretty well start the year in hockey and baseball with the #1 waiver wire position. Either I've won it the previous year or the winner makes claims to start the year. Whatever the case I always end up NOT using it. I go in thinking I'll wait for a player who's owner was growing impatient but it never happens.
This year the pitchers are dried up in our pool...I have a few injured ones and not a very deep rotation.
One thing to note is I'm sure there will be 5-6 minimum of owners who put claims in even if there isn't much good. People have empty bench spots due to injuries and putting a guy in the minors spot....so I could jump right back to the middle of the pack maybe more.

My questions are:
Should I hang tight and hope one or 2 of the guys I wouldn't mind getting pass waivers and try to grab them tonight at 1:01am?

The guys I'm interested in there is a good chance they will be claimed BUT they are low on ownership so a bit hidden...one of them pitched well today and there are few twin fans.

Tommy Milone. Is he worth the #1 spot? A. Griffin?

Others that have my interest that I would never claim
would be Shoemaker, C. Young, S. WRight, V. Worley, Locke, J.Lamb, M. Garza, Finnegan, Feldman, Erlin, Elias, Danks, Chacin, Andrew Bailey, Cody Anderson, Ty Wilson, M. Gonzalez. A Simon, B. Norris

Now hitters available for 1 spot on my bench.
Gattis, A. Garcia, Castellanous, O Herrea, Brad Miller

The only one I'm thinking of claiming is Tommy Milone. (had him last year and he was solid, not many k's)
is it worth claiming him or settling for whats left?

Which hitter should I grab if they are free?

deadline tonight,
thanks

[Bass56]

I like the strategy of getting your player and then moving back down in the waiver list after others make their claims but I don't see any names worth giving that number 1 for. If you stand pat, there is the risk that nothing good will be dropped during the year, but you will be kicking yourself if a closer is dropped when he's cold and ends up getting the reins back a few games later. Same goes for an injury. I feel baseball managers are more impatient than hockey ones (just from my experience) and if I would have that number 1 spot, I would hold on to it until something worthwhile showed up...

[ddp]

Yeah...Tommy Milone is for sure worth picking up...but a 4th starter with soft stuff is hardly worth a 1st claim. yikes.
But I'd like to have him as he's solid in ERA i guess I'll be sitting tight and tonight I will take whatever is left.

[2014olympicgold]

I have at least one quick trigger GM in all my leagues, so I wait for them to drop someone I like. By 80 someone who is worthy of a WW#1 should have been dropped, if not, play it loose. By then players have cemented what they’ll be doing all yr who are droppable previously.

By that I mean Pablo Sandoval was terrible all yr, so if he’s terrible till game 80, it would take more than a game or two of good hitting for me to believe in him again.

If you don’t have like AAA players in the league yet, I’d wait till they come up and use the WW#1 on an elite prospect. Our league got rid of all players who haven’t played in the MLB yet because I stashed Correa all yr last yr on the Yahoo NA slot and the commish didn’t like it. So now AAA players pass through waivers first.

[ddp]

I hear ya! I wouldn't like it if you grabbed Correa from me either!

So Milone was the last guy selected in the 3rd round of waivers LOL. Lots of crap was taken...but alot of the guys on my next up were still available. I grabbed C.Young KC....and AJ Griffin Rangers.... then I grabbed an extra bat in Evan Gattis. I'm wondering if that is a steal or not? He's nearly owned at 80% yes he's hurt but he can jack them out! Hopefully he'll be the DH permanently this year. Would be nice if he would catch a game or two. Also Grabbed matt shoemaker in hopes he can return to form.

[2014olympicgold]

Gattis was owned a lot last yr because he was catcher eligible I think. He’ll do the same production wise, but I don’t know if I’d take him as a bench option. Beginning of the yr tho, he’s a safe option because you know what you’ll get out of him, but I’d be using him as a drop to pick up the next hot thing. Baseball has a lot of surprises every yr. Kuechel was like O-ranked 200 last yr, there’s always going to be a Polluck jump too.

Still upset about the NA thing in my league.

I’m curious how Kazmir is going to do this yr. There’s comments on his velocity dropping a lot. But if you look at his Fangraphs page he’s been up and down a lot throughout his career.

2007 FB = 92.1mph
2010 FB = 90.5mph
2011 FB = 86.5mph – obvious reasons
Skipped 2012 season.
2013 FB = 92.5mph
2015 FB = 91.3mph