They teach you in writing school to grab the reader’s attention with your first sentence. I didn't go to writer’s school, too busy studying theology and history (true story), but I'm still going to attempt to grab your attention, albeit with my third sentence. You're likely handling the waiver-wire in your fantasy baseball league wrong, perhaps epically so. Whatever the method that your league uses, I would strongly suggest, that's why it's in bold, that your league should move to some form of a Free Agent Acquisition Budget, or FAAB if it hasn't already.
Total Free Agency
This is a completely bananas setup. It's a first come, first served setup. What an antiquated setup. Why? Pretty simple to explain the faults in this approach, if you ask this scribe.
Let’s say you live on the West Coast, and let’s posit that Huston Street blows his arm out at 11:45 PM PST in the 14th inning of a game against the Athletics. On the telecast, right after the game, manager Mike Scioscia announces that Joe Smith will be the new Angels closer, so you run and pick him up off the waiver-wire. Winner. If you live on the East Coast and are in bed because it’s 2:45 AM EDT, dreaming about the smile that barista flashed you while you were ordering your cafe latte, you're totally hosed. Loser. You never even had a chance to grab Smith, merely because of your geographical location. Conversely, what if some big news story breaks at 8 AM EDT, and you live on the West Coast? In that instance, the West Coaster is hosed in reverse - that is, unless you were up all night hopped up on vodka Red Bull, waving glow sticks and trying to remember what your last name is (it happens). Otherwise you're in bed sleeping at 5 AM PST. This system isn't equitable, as it rewards someone randomly for living in a different location or another.
Weekly Free Agency
Most leagues that run once-weekly free agency choose to have those waivers processed on Sunday. Let's go with Street blowing out his arm and the Angels moving to Smith. The injury occurs Thursday night. Everyone in the league has until the designated waiver processing time on Sunday to make a bid on Smith. You don't have to be tied to your computer 24 hours a day. You can take your time, have a life, and still have time to bid on Smith. However, there's still an issue that renders the last sentence only partially true. You want Smith. You try to add Smith. You don't get Smith. Why?
Most times in a waiver-wire setup like this, there is another level of added concern, and that is waiver priority. In this scenario teams are offered players based on the reverse order of the standings. Players are awarded in reverse order of the standings. No strategy at all. However, and this is key, once a team picks up a player, it goes to the back of the bus. Let’s say the 12th place team doesn’t need a closer, so they pick up Michael Morse off waivers in the first week of the season. They then drop to last in line, and the team in 11th place would get a shot at Smith or whomever else they wanted. This situation, though, has the unintended consequence of causing some people to hoard their spot in free agency. Teams with the #1 waiver-wire priority often pass on free agents for weeks, waiting for the big payoff. Something's still wrong with this setup if you ask me—it's based on standings alone.
Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) Bidding
This is the way that most “money” and "expert" leagues handle the waiver-wire. In this setup, each team is given a budget of fake dollars to bid on free agents. Most of the time, there is one day a week when bids are due in this setup (a few leagues implement the FAAB process on a daily basis). In this setup everyone gets a chance at every player, provided they have money left to spend.
Let’s say we have a $1,000 budget to work with for the year, and we owned Street and would like to add Smith (you can use $100 as well, but $1,000 is preferred because it allows for more units to bid). You’re not sure Smith is really the “answer” for the Angels, so you drop a bid of $137 for his services. Another club, realizing they are going to be short for saves, bids $328. Another team who is also desperate for saves might think Smith will eventually lose the job to Kevin Jepsen, so they skip out bidding on Smith and toss a bid of $13 dollars on Jepsen, hoping to strike it rich in the near future. You not only have to identify the players you want in the FAAB setup, you also have to identify how much is an appropriate amount to spend. Once your money is gone, you can no longer bid, so it makes no sense to simply toss out a massive bid of $627 on Smith.
The best way to run your waiver-wire seems rather obvious to me. The first two options are filled with luck. Are you at the ready when the news breaks? Hopefully. Do you constantly check your cell phone for updates? Hope not. Are you a nerd that sits at his/her computer all day just waiting for news to break? Heaven help you. Or are you “normal,” meaning that when you're out on a romantic dinner date transfixed by the eyes of the person across the table from you, you turn your cellphone off? Please tell me that you fit into that last category.
FAAB bidding ensures that every player in the league has a chance to add every available player off the waiver-wire. It also adds another level of intrigue/strategy that you will be engaging with on a weekly basis.
NOTE: In 30 Fantasy Baseball Strategies I'll explain the best way to spend your money in a FAAB Setup.