70 million -  **Amethyst Kelly - Who That, Who That

I threw together a general blueprint for this team early on and left the finishing touches for the (very)  last minute.  I only wanted 2 position players over $6mm and went with 1986 Raines automatically and figured I would use the catcher with an A+ arm and about 650 plate appearances as close to $6mm as possible, which turned out to be 1997 Ivan Rodriguez.  For the rest of the hitting side I only looked at cheap switch-hitters with an edge to speed and OBP and good fielding in the middle IF.  I pretty much 2 guys like that per position besides Raines and IRod.   My concept for pitching was:  6 man rotation of 100ish inning RHPs that could go 3-4 innings per game.  2 stud 300 IP LHPs that would be super relievers every other game.  A couple of relievers like 86 Quiz and 92 Franco to finish.  At about 20 minutes before midnight on deadline day I finally had a 25 man roster and liked my pitching:  100 IP guys like Ed Walsh, Walter Johnson, 1910 Joss.  Super lefties like 1933 Hubbell and 1906 Doc White.  You know it -  I forgot about the 1961-2013 rule and the draft center let me take them until I had a complete roster.  After conceding that I would have to take a penalty, I returned to the keyboard and threw together an absolutely horrible pitching staff.  Goodbye Joss, Hello LaCoss.  Goodbye Carl Hubbell, Hello Randy Jones.  At five minutes before the deadline I put them in the Astrodome and left it at that.  Ba-da-bump-bump-bump.  Ba-da-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump!!  

80 million - **Hoyts So Bad**

Absolutely great theme for an $80mm team.  Very restrictive which accounts for the wide variety of choices.  I tried out several guys.  Kind of liked Carl Hubbell (who nobody took) but couldn't get quite under the cap.  Liked the offense options of the Dennis Martinez team but kept trying others.  I looked at Hoyt Wilhelm and he fit the logic I decided to favor whenever possible.  I took 10 Wilhelms which gave me a lot of options for teammates (not many good ones, though).  Starting pitching is WEAK, 1959 Wilhelm, 1968 Tommy John, 1968 Wilbur Wood and that's all folks.  But again, 3-4 innings for the starter followed by a legion of 100 IP pretty good relievers.  As for the offense, I couldn't fit any of the top talent like 1954 Mays but settled for 1958 Colavito and 1961 Gentile to provide a little power.  Sing it, Little Anthony.

90 million - **LA Dodgers 2008

Really wanted to find that exactly right team with 6 or more wild cards.  Really wanted to go with dead ball pitching.  Really thought 1919 Cards, Phillies or A's would work well.  Always look at 1910 Indians (1908 Joss, 1910 Walsh on the same team!!).  And 1930 Phillies with Old Pete twisted and 7 more wild cards!!!  Just for fun, tried out the 2008 Dodgers and started over-thinking.  Do modern teams field better?  Do I want to try 2013 Kershaw for the first time?  Got the nod from schwarze that I would be a commissioner at this cap level and had this one in the draft center.  I'm sure I would have played with this one for hours and hours if I had the chance so I just threw it in there.  Not really liking it at the moment.

100 million - **Mets/Cards switchfest

Another trial of "the Experiment".  As many switch-hitters as possible was the first goal.  Cardinals seemed to be best for that.  Dead ball pitching?  Sorry, nothing there.  So, which modern team could give me some good, low HR/9 pitching.  Other teams were probably better but I went with Gooden, Harvey and (oh no, not again) Bob Ojeda as well as McGraw and Orosco to get the Mets to 40mm.  Switch-hitting Mets?  HoJo is there - didn't take him, went with 87 Ozzie instead.  Used Roger Cedeno and Luis Castillo as my Mets hitters.  Seriously?!?.  Maybe I should have looked at the Expos and taken Raines and Vidro instead.  DOH.  Actually, I should have scrapped this idea entirely and gone with a Mariners offense and bullpen and some strong deadball pitching team like even the White Sox.

110 million - **Misters Five by Five"

I had about 8 clusters I was working.  Again, the obsession with switch-hitters was poisoning my thought process.  Definitely wanted 08 Joss and other pitching in adjacent years.   Liked 33 Hubbell and 35 Foxx  and wound up going with them.  1916-20 range had to be considered for its pitching as well.  Liked the hitting of the mid 80s - Raines, Ozzie, McGee maybe.  Late 1990s have a lot of talent.  This was the Rubic's cube that I left for the last 2 days and didn't finish it until about 11pm on deadline Sunday.  Went with:  08 Joss-16 Schupp-19 Nehf alternating with 33 Hubbell - 09 Adams - 05 Griffith.  18 Toney to close with 17 Bender as "use-when-needed".  Relaxed the switch-hitting obsession at around 9pm and went with:  86 Raines, 88 Boggs, 97 Bonds, 96 Big Hurt, 35 Foxx at catcher, 2000 Castillo (hah), 20 Cobb, 99 Tony Fernandez (one of my favorite bargains) and 87 Ozzie.  My favorite thing about this team may be the name.  I just found this song today in my effort to have my teams line up low-to-high cap in the draft center.  

120 million - **R-U-T-H, Roll Up That Herb

How would the hedonistic Bambino enjoy himself these days on a 3 day road trip to Denver.  How about a full 162 game season with all of his home games AND road games played at Coors.  This is such a crap shoot for me I actually tried to put together a team only using the letters R,U,T,H.  Contrary to all of the top owners who have offered their strategies in this forum, I went exclusively with the 1.10 WHIP guys.  My staff of 1,717 real life innings pitched gave up only 15 total HRs.  Their collective OAV was .204, which I thought would be OK.    And guess what my hitting strategy was:  1931 Ruth, 1935 Foxx catching,  everyone else switch-hitters.   1b Tommy Tucker, 2b Tony Phillips, SS Ozzie, 3b Chipper,  OF Raines and Mantle.  Should be fun to read the box scores.  Note:  REALLY wanted to add the one and only Herb Hash to this team but didn't want to burn $2mm on a mop up.  Would have been fun to see him get smoked repeatedly, though.

As an owner, I may actually hold a record or two in the WISC history.  Pretty sure my range of finishes (7-90) may be #1.  The bad news is that my 90th place finish was last year.  I also made it into Round Two one year with a 100-loss team in Round One.  That has to be pretty rare.

As always, schwarze does a GREAT job every year with this.  Checkered flag can't be that far off.

70 million:          Nothing In Between

Low caps is typically about SBs, so for my two hitters I went with 93 tandem of Roberto Alomar and Gregg Jefferies in the 2 hole/cleanup.  Cheap 94 Vince Coleman is at leadoff with 01 Knoblach at the bottom give this team 230+ SBs.  To battle other SB teams, I have a trio of catchers, with 2 being 01 Wooten and 64 Cannizzaro with A+ arms.  For SPs, I went with a 4 man rotation of 64 Ford, 66 Perry, 94 Mussina and 82 Reuss (1041 IP).  Spent about 50/50 between hitting/pitching and hope Petco will help stretch out the low IPs/PA.

Hitting:                 5158 PA                .289/.360/.417/.777         231 SBs/94 HRs

Pitching:               1282 IP                  OAV/WHIP         .245/1.13

Ballpark:               Petco

80 million:          No It's Not Mike Maddux

Since cloning good dead-ball pitching was out of the question, it meant the first thing was to look at Greg Maddx who definitely had good quality years to clone.  Managed to go with the elite 95, great 97, along with the 01 and 02 versions to give me 904 IPs.  Toss in 06 and 08 ones and ended with 1247 IPs total which I don’t know if it will be enough.  Hitters are a split between Braves (Chipper Jones, Furcal, McGriff, Blauser, Lopez) and Dodgers (Kemp, Ramirez, Ethier).

Hitting:                 5517 PA                .290/.360/.465/.825         103 SBs/171 HRs

Pitching:               1247 IP                  OAV/WHIP         .234/1.04

Ballpark:               Turner Field

90 million:          Twisted 1919 Cubs

Wanted low HR pitching but without the dead ball hitters, so looked at teams in the 1915 thru 1920 range.  I looked at the 1920 St. Louis Browns but didn’t like the pitching options so looked at 1919 and saw both Pete Alexander/Claude Hendrix as good twist opportunities.  Tried a number of other combinations but settled on elite Alexander/Hendrix with free agents 1919 Babe Ruth/Eddie Collins.

Hitting:                 5638 PA                .277/.341/.378/.719         164 SBs/56 HRs

Pitching:               1477 IP                  OAV/WHIP         .219/0.99

Ballpark:               Weeghman Park

100 million:        Blue Jays & Indians

My first attempt was to look at the White Sox/Astros combo but thought everyone would get dead ballers so instead of going with HRs, decided to attack with a OBP/Speed combo.  Some Blue Jays (Alomar/Henderson/Moseby) and Omar Vizquel fit the bill and gave me access to some good Indian  pitching as well (Joss/Bernhard/Coveleski/Moore) with some decent relievers.

Hitting:                 5489 PA                .305/.395/.483/.878         196 SBs/171 HRs

Pitching:               1452 IP                  OAV/WHIP         .212/0.98

Ballpark:               Jacobs Field

110 million:        Five Year Runs

When constructing the intervals, I knew I wanted late 1900 and 1910 for their starting pitching, then modern eras for positional/relievers.  Decided on 1904-1908 (Joss/White), 1915-1919 (Alexander/Nehf), 1984-1988 (Winfield/McGee/Raines), 1995-1999 (Boggs/Ivan Rodriguez/Vizquel/Alomar) and 2007-2011 (Ortiz, Rivera, Cabrera, Kuo).

Hitting:                 6237 PA                .319/.391/.485/.876         230 SBs/163 HRs

Pitching:               1441 IP                  OAV/WHIP         .195/0.86

Ballpark:               Target Field

120 million:        Babe + Coors > Scores

Coors isn’t as HR friendly as I initially thought so I mainly looked at low OAV pitchers (thus high HR/9).  Running a large # of simulations with a number of constructed teams gave me a good handle on approximate # of pitches per game which 1600 to 1700 IP with some good pitching would be sufficient.  Wanted a large # of good contact (and low strikeout) hitters while still having some good power.  Ruth (1931), Gehrig, Alomar, Sheffield, HoJo, Boggs, Bill Dickey, with Billy Hamilton batting leadoff.  Rotation of Pedro, Koufax, Mike Scott and Don Wilson with a large # of 100+ IP pitchers, 08 Rivera to close and a pair of mopups to give me 1621 total IP.

Hitting:                 5880 PA                .330/.431/.555/.986         197 SBs/293 HRs

Pitching:               1621 IP                  OAV/WHIP         .208/0.99

Ballpark:               Coors Field

 

$70M = ***** - Counting on my fingers and toes, I figured that I could only use two $6M hitters while platooning at the other six positions to reach fourteen hitters and keep a workable balance between hitting/pitching.  My two hitting stars are 1969 Reggie and 1996 Sheff, who provide a nice bang for the buck, while platoons make up the other six positions.  I probably overweighted SLG over speed/stolen bases, based on what I’m reading in other strategies.  For pitching, I went with three full SP with two near-$3M SP to Tandem in the 4-slot.  Like someone else mentioned, RP is easy in this theme, so I just had to make sure that each RP could pitch a full inning since I knew I was going to go a little short on the innings.  I also have no $300K scrubs… everyone is going to have to contribute.

Hitting: 5452 PA, .262/.368/.447, 192 HRs

Pitching: 1339 IP, .242 OAV, 1.11 WHIP
 

$80M Lather, rinse, re-Pete – Like most people, I went through quite a few iterations before sticking with one of the more obvious choices.  The hardest thing was deciding which Pedro seasons to use, based on who brought the best mix of hitters and RP.  I ended up with ’94, ’96, ’98, ’04, and ’06.  I dragged along ’04 Schilling to be the fifth starter, and demoted ’06 Pedro to the bullpen.  Again, I probably went a little heavy on the standard OBP/SLG/OPS, but that’s how the Red Sox built their teams too.  I threw them into Shea to hopefully reduce Pedro’s tendency to give up gopher balls.

Hitting: 5634 PA, .291/.374/.486, 196 HRs

Pitching: 1457 IP, .231 OAV, 1.14 WHIP
 

$90M Cubs ’02 in the Bonds market – One of my strategies was the same as BrianJW, which I take as a good sign.  I figured that teams that underachieved compared to their Pythagorean expectations would have statistically strong performers and abnormally low winning percentages. I also figured that I wanted at least 6 X+Y options so I could fill in an entire rotation if necessary, while leaving some flexibility for offense.  So I began looking for teams with sub-.450 winning percentages underperforming their Pythagorean win totals by at least eight games (.050 winning percentage).  Yeah, it’s tortured logic, but I followed it.  The ’02 Cubs had decent years from Kerry Wood and Matt Clement, meaning I only needed three SP, and could use the extra slot for LaTroy Hawkins to close.  Getting to put Bonds and Pujols around Sosa give me a juggernaut 3-4-5 heart of the order in Wrigley, so this team should be fun, if not successful.

Hitting: 5509 PA, .275/.374/.497, 250 HRs (should be a lot of runs scored)

Pitching: 1491 IP, .225 OAV, 1.10 WHIP
 

$100M A’s-mazing Mets – There are a lot of Mets teams in my league.  Interestingly, they all seem to be matched up with different “older” clubs.  I took the A’s after testing out a bunch of possibilities, and ended up with the same Bill Bernhard that the Indians’ teams are all pairing with Addie Joss.  I replaced Joss with Mike Norris, and added Seaver and Koosman to fill in the rotation.  The infield of Foxx, Bishop, HoJo, and BobbyBo seemed to almost be automatic, and adding Strawberry and Canseco put the slash line over the .300/.400/.500 mark without completely abandoning fielding.  A tidy platoon of Richie Ashburn/Willie Mays filled in an amazingly entertaining lineup.  I may have underdrafted innings, so this one could spiral downward by the end of the season.

Hitting: 5771 PA, .303/.401/.530, 246 HRs

Pitching: 1484 IP, .209 OAV, 1.00 WHIP
 

$110M 5x5 – Hey, I finally got to use Addie Joss!  Based on the $20M rule though, it was tough to go with the ’09 Matty that I wanted to pair with him, so I had to spread out the heavy innings SP with ’17 Cicotte, and added two 200-IP pitchers to take the 3A/3B roles (’02 Pedro, ’03 Schmidt).  I’m platooning at C and OF (including the ’18 Ruth) while’69 Reggie makes another appearance, bringing along’70 McCovey and ’72 Billy Williams.  I then found a nice sequence of ’50 Rosen, ’51 Kiner, and ’52 Hemus to help fill in the lineup.  The hardest thing about this lineup was optimizing my filler players (low IP, pinch hitters, utility players) and balancing the salaries with the target years.  I ended up with a solid lineup and probably too few innings.

Hitting: 6369 PA, .294/.403/.519, 236 HRs (one scrub hitter and pitcher)

Pitching: 1446 IP, .200 OAV, 0.91 WHIP


$120M Death to Pitchers! – I really didn’t know which of the two criteria would work better, and I didn’t want to fully commit to either one.  I went with three starters, two with over 1.1 WHIP that had good hitting stats (Newhouser and Luque).  I figure if they give up some hits, they’ll also be getting more than their share (I’m hoping for 20-25 extra hits or about one extra hit every other game).  The third starter is Koufax, who inched above .50 HR/9 with an absurdly low 0.87 WHIP.  Even if he gives up a homer, it will likely be a solo shot.  I thought I overdrafted innings (1675), but based on the other recaps, I may have actually gotten it right.  I used the 1928 Ruth, who should put up 70-80 homers for a reasonable cost, and surrounded him with Bonds, Gehrig, Mathews, and personal favorite Gavvy Cravath.

Hitting: 5941 PA, .314/.423/.558, 244 HRs

Pitching: 1675 IP, .204 OAV, 1.00 WHIP

I love reading everyone’s write-ups every year. I built my teams early and then re-did them around July 4th when I got some time and submitted them in. I have some trends and themes that are repeated throughout the teams. I used my prior experiences to help build these teams and hope they still hold up.

70 M – Stars and Scrubs
JJ Scrubbing Stars
Like many others, I picked the minimum 2 star hitters, I went with ’86 Raines and ’68 Rose. Raines has speed and xbh while Rose is a high avg hitter who sims well in high caps so I’m hoping he will rake in a low cap. The rest of the Offense is a platoon with 2/3 PA’s as LH and 1/3 PA’s as RH. No real speed as others have done but I focused on Average and Defense to help my low IP.
For the pitching I tried to get the best that I could and felt that the team did not have the balance I wanted with 4 star pitchers as starters so I went with a risk and am going with 3 stars: ’08 Lee, ’11 Fister, ’08 Lowe and one back end tandem: ’04 Garcia & ’10 Anderson for Righty/Lefty mix. The Pen is light on IP with 283 IP so we shall see if that is enough.
Hitting: 4852 PA/ .306 AVG/ .389 OBP/ .429 SLG
Pitching: 1204 IP/ 1.16 WHIP/ 2.86 ERA/ .249 OAV
Ballpark: Polo Grounds

80 M – Clone Pitcher and Teammates
Captain America (Steve Rogers)
With this team, I wanted to use a pitcher that gave me access to a good OF with speed and xbh and did not pay as much attention to the quality of the starter because I think that offense is more crucial to success in the sim now than in the past. I looked at the Expos for Raines and found Steve Rodgers. I thought he was ok and gave me access to players I could use in this theme. I decided to be a little goofy and play Raines at 2B with his ’83 season so I could play some other OFs that have good offensive numbers. The lineup has ’83 Raines, ’81 Dawson, ’73 Singleton, ’82 Oliver, ’81 Cromartie, ’73 Bailey, ’75 Carter at C, and ’82 Speier.
On the pitching side, my 4 starters are various Steve Rogers like ’82, ’83, ’75, and ’81. The pen has ’73 Rogers, ’82 Reardon, and some scrubs to fill the roster.
Hitting: 5565PA/ .290 AVG/ .374 OBP/ .448 SLG
Pitching: 1472 IP/ 1.22 WHIP/ 3.05 ERA/ .248 OAV
Ballpark: Olympic Stadium

90M – GM Challenge w/ Twist
1993 NYM
As soon as I saw this theme, I wanted to go with this team. They have the worst Pythagorean number in history. In the past, I have used this team to win one of these leagues and reach the WS of another of these leagues so I’m going to keep running with them until they give me a stinker, which they could this time since I did not use the twist option and picked FA’s instead. I kept their infield of Murray, Kent, Fernandez, and Bonilla. I used 3 FA’s in the OF and got Henderson, Butler, and Bonds for speed and power.
On the pitching side, I used 2 FA’s for the rotation and 2 more in the pen. The rotation has Maddux, Appier, Gooden, and Tanana. The pen has Poole, Montgomery, Saberhagen, Fernandez, and some mop up IP. We shall see if this is enough to do well in this league.
Hitting: 6206 PA/ .275 AVG/ .355 OBP/ .448 SLG
Pitching: 1481 IP/ 1.14 WHIP/ 3.11 ERA/ .234 OAV
Ballpark: Shea Stadium

100M – Old & New Franchise
Indians-Expos Hybrid
With this team, it looks like I followed the herd and went with those two teams. On the offensive side, I was able to build a balanced lineup with speed, xbh, and power so I’m happy with it. The lineup has ’93 Lofton, ’93 DeShields, ’87 Raines, ’73 Singleton, ’02 Thome, ’10 Zimmerman, ’82 Carter, and ’43 Boudreau.
The pitching has the benefit of Joss and Bernhard as well as ’92 Dennis Martinez and ’08 Lee. The pen has a solid closer in Karsay and is average everywhere else.
Hitting: 5697 PA/ .299 AVG/ .398 OBP/ .464 SLG
Pitching: 1439 IP/ 0.98 WHIP/ 2.09 ERA/ .220 OAV
Ballpark: Nationals Park

110M – Five Consecutive Fives
Having Five Fives are Wild
This team was super tough for me. I use Excel to help straighten out the roster building for me. I knew I wanted to have ’08 Joss but not as the ace of the staff. I am using him as a number 2 to a pitcher that I really like at higher caps, ’14 Claude Hendrix. They are in separate groups so it worked out in that sense. For the third starter I chose as split starter or A/B side with ’04 Otto Hess and ’11 Johnny Cueto. The pen is eclectic with ’09 Darren O’Day closer, ’18 Toney and ’90 Zane Smith to setup with ’88 Doug Jones, ’86 Frank Williams and ’13 Gerrit Cole as longs.
For the offense, I have speed and power mixed all through the lineup. HoJo, Raines, Votto, Wright, ’68 Yaz, ’65 Rose, ’69 Staub, ’06 Chance, ’15 Rariden at C.
Hitters: 6278 PA/ .299 AVG/ .394 OBP/ .479 SLG
Pitching: 1579 IP/ 0.95 WHIP/ 1.78 ERA/ .212 OAV
Ballpark: Polo Grounds

120 M – Babe Ruth in Coors
Drunken Homers
With this team, I was petrified to have enough IP especially with the restrictions on pitching that we had. I originally built the team as all one side but changed when I re-worked the teams around July 4th. For the pitchers, the starters are WHIP restricted since they are going to be out there for longer stints and I wanted to limit the amount of xbh and hr/9. I searched for pitchers with low hr/9 and era normalized to limit the xbh. We shall see if this will work. In the pen, I went the other way with the thought that they are out there for fewer PA and I need to get them out before worrying about the type of hit they give up.
My offense is HR based considering the park we are all playing in. Some speed is mixed in there so for those of you that did not pick an A+ arm catcher, I’m planning to get you. With the Ruth, I picked the best one I could afford and ’31 was the choice.
Hitting: 5655 PA/ .315 AVG/ .418 OBP/ .586 SLG
Pitching: 1857 IP/ 1.09 WHIP/ 1.90 ERA/ .230 OAV

70Million: That’sa One Spicy Meatball

For hitting, I have two starters, Boggs at 3B and Chipper in the OF. Every other position has a part-time player. I have three guys playing 2B/SS. That leaves seven other players filling in the final four positions (C, 1B, and 2 OF). This allowed me to have good hitting (for the CAP) everywhere all the time, while keeping to the 3mil cap. No player runs particularly well, and the catchers don’t have A+ arms (I have 3 guys who play C and none of them have great arms), but everyone is generally average defensively. I’m hoping to win by just having better hitters than everyone else, and hope the speed teams don’t run me ragged. I believe that this theme doesn’t lend itself well to speed in general (it’s harder to find part-time speedsters), so the speed won’t be as dramatic as with other low-cap themes.

The pitching, well, I did sort of the same thing. I have two starters (Saberhagen and Kline) who pitched about 250 each. Everyone else is around 75-100 innings (thus keeping them under 3mil), except my closer Brandon League, who I think is a great bargain for this theme. My team gives up more than their share of homers, but all the pitchers have good HR/9+ values.

This team will require hands-on management after every single game, but if that’s what it takes, then so be it (especially since several of my other teams are going to be high-maintenance as well). I’m in Jacobs Field to suppress triples and a little bit of homers, but not too much, because my team has some power.

Prediction: This team will do ok; probably 87-75. Hopefully that will be enough to make the playoffs.

Hitters: 5129 PA, .291 avg, .401 obp, .446 slg
Pitchers: 1347 IP, 2.90 ERA, .243 OAV, 1.13 WHIP, 0.78 HR/9

80Million: Dazzy Vance and his Minions

Wow, this one was tough. I tried Saberhagen, Schilling, El Presidente, Maddux, Smoltz, Sutton, Wilhelm, RJohnson, probably at least five others. Most of the time, I didn’t get very far with any pitcher. The ones I got close to making a team with, I would end up with about 1200 IPs and 4400 Abs and already be over the cap. I finally was able to make a team I didn’t intensely dislike from Dazzy Vance, who I liked because of his HR/9 numbers and his normalization. But while Vance normalizes well, the hitters in that era normalize poorly, so either way, I was screwed. But, so far, this was the best I could do. I tried to make a better team… tried and tried… and just couldn’t do it, so late Sunday evening when the deadline was looming, I entered in that damn Vance team.

This is the team I think will do the worst for me.

The pitching is pretty good, actually, Three good/great years of Vance and a good (not great) closer in Rube Ehrardt (really good numbers for the era). The HR/9 numbers look great. It’s the hitting I’m worried about. Jake Daubert at 1B is great. My catching platoon is very good, and Babe Herman as a part-time OF is also very good. Everyone else is pretty damn average at best. At least I have no glaring holes. It will be extremely interesting to see what everyone else has done.

Prediction: 80-82, missing the playoffs, but not (hopefully) keeping me out of the 2nd round.

Hitters: 5265 PA, .311 avg, .388 obp, .464 slg
Pitchers: 1414 IP, 2.81 ERA, .241 OAV, 1.14 WHIP, 0.46 HR/9

90Million: 1965 Reds, Mostly

I didn’t like using a terrible team, because there would just be too many holes to fill, nor a great team, because there wouldn’t be enough changes allowed to fill any holes. I tried looking for an average team that had a record below their expected Pythagorean record, and somehow, I stumbled onto the 65 Reds.

What is amazing about this team is that there are absolutely no holes in the lineup, but no one is outpriced either. There are even scarily perfect platoons at C and 1B. The only minor hole in the lineup is that Tommy Harper in the OF isn’t good, but he isn’t terrible. The defense is also surprisingly strong.

Plus… there are actually about 500 innings of useful pitching on this team. I got 4 twists/FAs. Three of them I used on pitching (Koufax, Marichal, and Wilhelm) which means I get 800 innings of *great* pitching added. The 4th change was improving that last OF spot, swapping out Harper for Colavito.

I feel this team is going to do pretty well. The hitting is even better than the numbers, considering this was 1965 for chrissakes! The pitchers give up more homers than I’d normally be comfortable with, but Koufax, Marichal, and Wilhelm should still cover a lot of ills in the pitching. However, after looking at the 1908 Red Sox after the fact, I think that would have been a better choice. Oh well… I still think this team should make the playoffs.

Prediction: 89-73, playoffs

Hitters: 5610 PA, .289 avg, .357 obp, .470 slg
Pitchers: 1410 IP, 2.54 ERA, .213 OAV, 1.03 WHIP, 0.76 HR/9

100Million: Captain, The Marlin’s A Giant

The first question for me regarding this theme was which franchise was going to be the expansion franchise? I figured I could get enough pitching from the original franchise team (probably the Giants), but was going to need some more from the franchise team.
Two expansion franchise pitchers stood out for me: Kevin Brown of the Marlins, and Randy Johnson of the Diamondbacks. I liked Brown’s better HR/9 number, but Randy Johnson was really good too. I looked at other franchises but there just wasn’t enough to justify 40% of salary without using a starting pitcher, so it really did come down to the Marlins vs. Diamondbacks for me. And then, the decision became easier because the Marlins have Hanley Ramirez at SS and Miguel Cabrera at 3B having really excellent seasons. Plus they have Piazza at C too. Heck, I could even grab Rick Helling’s 28 great innings.

As f or the original franchise team, I thought about the Phillies, since they have Alexander and some of my favorite cookies. But… as far as the pitching goes, that’s really all they have: Pete Alexander! The Giants have that Schupp, Toney, Nehf gang, plus Mathewson… they just seemed to make the most sense. I was able to fill out my OF with Giants, including using the ’10 Snodgrass, one of my favorites.

I’m actually surprised that I’m one of the few owners who picked the Marlins. I just don’t think speed as nearly as important at this cap level so; maybe that’s why I ignored other popular choices like the Expos. At this cap, I’d rather have Hanley’s .342 batting average playing SS, for example. I think this team is going to do fine.

Prediction: 91-71, playoffs

Hitters: 5258 PA, .317 avg, .412 obp, .498 slg
Pitchers: 1416 IP, 1.77 ERA, .197 OAV, 0.90 WHIP, 0.31 HR/9

110Million: 5-Dimensional Chess

This was the second-hardest team to create, but my favorite. I tried a few iterations, but I feel the pitching for this cap has got to be great, not just good, so I kept trying. I also felt that those great pitchers who pitch 100 innings or so are very valuable in this sort of league, since it spreads out the innings, and the salary for each group.

First of all, I knew I was going to include 1908 for Joss, 1918 for Toney and 1916 for Schupp. I also wanted 1991 and 1995 for Boggs and Maddux, and I love the 1992 Kruk too, so 1991-1995 was one group. The 1907 McQuillan also slots in nicely. I expected to use the 2000-2013 seasons for another group to fill in with relievers. After doing further analysis, I decided that the 1917 Hornsby would fit in nicely at SS (excellent defense, great normalization). So, some of the groups were coming together.

Another huge strategy decision: I decided that this team would not be a homer team. The pitchers at this cap just too easily cut down on the homers allowed. I wanted a team with a great batting average and OBP, and a good SLG based on lots of doubles and triples, but not necessarily homers. That seems to do well at this sort of cap. I also decided to have several part-time OFs/DHs to spread out the salary across eras.

Anyway, after doing more research, the 188x years looked interesting, especially that 1888 Chamberlain. I also liked the 1889 Carroll at C, he’s a normalization god! That meant that the 1890 Swartwood, who fit nicely with my low-homer strategy (but lots of other good stuff), would work.

I needed one more group, and it was going to have to have my 2B. After doing yet more research, it appeared that the 200x years would work best. I chose the 2005 Brian Roberts, since he hit .320 that year with other nice qualities. That allowed me to fill in with some relievers and other part-time OFs, like the 2003 Milton Bradley.

So it all came together. I think the pitching will be dominant, especially in my homer-suppressing home park, and the pitchers don’t give up many homers anyway. I think the hitting will work out nicely too; I have some good triples hitters, which I fit to my park, and the batting average throughout is very high.

Prediction: This is my best team: 94-68, playoffs

Hitters: 5729 PA, .320 avg, .413 obp, .470 slg
Pitchers: 1429 IP, 1.48 ERA, .188 OAV, 0.83 WHIP, 0.17 HR/9

120Million: This Babe Ruth Person Might Be Ok

First of all, with regards to HR/9 vs. WHIP, I think the decision was pretty easy. I wanted to limit as many baserunners as possible, and that means the lowest WHIP possible. I really don’t think it is close. The HR/9 can still be worked around by picking pitchers with high HR/9+ values. For example, the 2000 Pedro has an excellent HR/9+ number; and the result will be that Pedro will still be able to do well, without giving up too many homers.

So my entire pitching staff is of the HR/9 > 0.5 group, except for the 1932 Rixey, who I think is great value and won’t be asked to pitch the truly important innings! Based on this decision, the pitchers are not much of a surprise (Martinez, Hearn, RJohnson, Meredith as a reliever, etc.). I did decide that I needed at least 1600 innings, and ended up with 1631. I think that will be fine.

For hitting, I went with the 1919 Babe, and generally just picked various favorites. I did decide to add Jesse Burkett, to add ABs. After thinking about this more, I do not think I have enough ABs, so this will have to be managed as best as possible. I’m confident I can handle it without going into hitting “death spirals”, but it will mean my hitters will probably be in the mid-to-low 90s fatigue-wise for most of the year. I think that will be ok.

I think I’m ok in this league, but I’m certainly not sure about it. Let’s just say I’m cautiously optimistic.

Prediction: 86-76, just missing the playoffs

Hitters: 5722 PA (too few!), .315 avg, .414 obp, .498 slg
Pitchers: 1631 IP, 2.44 ERA, .204 OAV, 0.95 WHIP, 0.64 HR/9

I hadn't played SLB in years before joining a progressive last year. My ability to field a consistent contending team, combined with some good medication I was on post-surgery when the invite came; gave me an underdog belief that "anything can happen". As a Canadian, I am the rare breed that put baseball ahead of hockey growing up. My tendencies lie with the early '90's, as my life was consumed with Strat-O-Matic (surely some of the older guys know the game, kinda like WIS with dice - pre internet stuff!). I also lean towards the Expos and Blue Jays, my favourite teams growing up. I can see that I am among some seriously knowledgeable players and hope to learn a lot in this, my first attempt at this tournament. Here's the lowdown on my teams and thought process behind each:

70M -  I went with 2 position studs, Robbie Alomar and Tony Gwynn. Alomar was my favourite player from my favourite team and the Gwynn selection was paying homage to the recently deceased "Hit Machine".  I took 3 stud SP's in a 5-man rotation. My bullpen is fairly solid, but fatigue could be an issue if the starters don't get it done. I play with my heart and do not make draft teams before selecting one. I go on instinct and surely I will pay dearly for that. I hope this team does not cost me a chance at round 2, but if it does, so be it...

80M -  I decided on Turk Farrell. Like the Smoltz example, I got solid starting years and relief years, allowing for a few extra seasons to choose teammates from. As well, the best SLB team I ever had was an all-time Phillies team so again, my heart got in the way. I feel this could be one of my better teams, but with the competition here, that might just mean 70 wins instead of 60!

90M -  The 1992 Montreal Expos - I wanted a middle of the road team that had a quality support staff so I could twist/change players but still have a quality bench and bullpen. This team should fit the bill. There could be a fatigue issue here as well, but I believe this will be my best shot at making the playoffs. With a twisted Gary Carter and inserts Will Clark, Barry Bonds and Greg Maddux, this team should win some games.

100M -  I went with the Blue Jays (no suprise for the Canuck) and the Dodgers. My 9 year old did a school project on Jackie Robinson and I promised him I would make him the centerpiece of one of my tournament teams. I like the starting pitching and general feel of this team but with 100M, I imagine a lot of teams look pretty good to their owners...

110M - This was the toughest one to build. I went with the older franchises more than I ever had. I needed a Mantle, because he was my father's all-time favourite and I owed him for not killing me during the 1993 World Series (a story for another time!). Still, even with all history at my disposal, I leaned towards the newer years. This team was fun to build and staying around .500 would be a good feat.

120M -  Never had The Babe on a SLB team and never used Coors Field. My only strategy was to stay safe in IP's and strike as many guys out as possible. I figure if they can't hit the ball, they can't hit it out. This is the wild card. No clue, no expectations. Could be brilliant. Could be a disaster. Only time will tell.

I wish everyone the best of luck and I hope I can compete in a way to at least justify my presence. Very excited to be here!

npg,

I played Strat-O-Matic for many years (from 1977-96), running face-to-face and play-by-mail leagues (this was before their computer edition).  I even travelled to play in the TBA tournaments held throughout the country.  I even finished 2nd in the first TBA Championship tournament held in New Orleans - won $2000.  (First place was $10k).  Stopped playing when my first kid was born. 

Well, this tournament has already been an experience for me. I've done mostly progressives for the last few years. Building theme league teams is quite different for me. So, with that in mind, hopefully I won't sniff last place:

Did I do enough to not make a fool of myself?  I have no idea, but I think so…maybe.

 

70 million “Berkman and Boomer”: 
I think I didn’t pick ’86 Raines because of his defense, or maybe I liked 2004 Berkman a little better. But I might be kicking myself for that one.  Anyway, I went with Berkman and 2002 Chipper Jones as my stud players and tried to fill out the roster with guys with 550 or so PA’s.  Pat Tabler at 3B might be an adventure but at least it gives us a good player to have up with the bases loaded (really, look up Tabler’s numbers with bases loaded, they’re amazing).  I’ll also platoon catchers, since finding a 600 PA catcher for under $3 million and have him be a reasonable hitter is practically impossible.  Chris Iannetta ’13 and Jim Leyritz ’98 will handle the catching and Leyritz also plays 1B, 3B and OF so that could be useful. For pitching I went with a four man rotation with a long reliever who can spot start – I like doing that if possible in most of my leagues.  I’ve never played with Turk Farrell ’63 but with a low cap I have a bunch of guys on the team who I don’t normally see.  I drafted 1,411 IP and hopefully I can squeeze out enough out of my rotation to compete.  Playing in a pitcher’s ballpark in Busch II (which I had no idea was that much of a pitcher’s park) should help.

 

80 million “Randy’s Johnsons”: 
I first thought of picking a guy who just played a long time, like Maddux or Clemens.  But Johnson played for a bunch of different teams at both the beginning and the end of his career and played a long time and has a bunch of seasons with a lot of IP.  I ended up using two Mariner Johnsons (’95, ’97), along with DBack Johnson (’02), Yankee Johnson (’05 – mostly for his hitting teammates), Astro Johnson (’98 – solely for the great half-year stats of that season) and Expo Johnson (’88).  I have a pre-steroid A-Rod leading off and a pre-Operation Shutdown Derek Bell in probably his best year.  And I tried to get a better OF than ’88 Hubie Brooks but to no avail.  Still I like the team – I really didn’t have to do too much tweaking with this one.

 

90 million “1988 Red Sox Plus”: 
I’m shocked I’m the only one who picked the ’88 Red Sox – they were the first team that came to mind.  They have the magic winning percentage – right at the edge of the 4 twist barrier - and they underperformed during their season according to their expected percentage.  I ended up using almost all of the regular hitters (Greenwell and Boggs particularly had good seasons), and just twisted Rich Gedman to ’85 to have a catcher who was above average rather than the below average ’88 Gedman.  Then I supplemented Clemens with three ’88 pitchers – Mike Scott, Ted Higuera and Pascual Perez.  I couldn’t fit Hershiser under the cap, and for that matter those three guys actually had better WHIPs than Orel anyway.  Is it bad that I have more IP on this team than I do for the Coors team?  It probably is, right?  Oh well.  Regardless, I probably have the highest hopes for this team.

 

100 million “New York, New York”: 
Since I’m from New Jersey this one just made sense to me.  The first two players I drafted were ’85 Gooden and ’78 Guidry and worked around them (though I’ve never had great luck with Guidry).  I also had to work in a few of my favorite players from both teams (I’m a Yankees fan but I grew up in the ‘80s watching both teams), so I worked in El Sid, Jeter and Mariano.  1969 Cleon Jones’ low PA total scares me so I’m hoping to use my bench to fill in from time to time for him.  I picked mostly Yankee hitters and Met pitchers but I was able to pick all pitchers with a WHIP under 1 so hopefully that translates.  And to honor both teams, I made my home stadium Shea, but during the Yankee years of 1974-75 even though there’s no difference between that and Shea during the Mets years (and I could have picked the Polo Grounds since both teams played there 40 years apart). 

 

110 million “Five on the Five”: 
I had to name the team after a song by noted baseball fan Jack White’s former group The Raconteurs.   Plus I didn’t know what else to call them.  I tried to pick years that spanned hitting and pitching eras – 1919 to 1923 has good pitching in the beginning and good hitting at the end.  Same goes for 1965-69.  This was probably the toughest one to fit into the puzzle, only because changing one player usually meant having to also change 3 or 4 others.  Surprisingly I went with pitching in the 2001-2005 bucket – none of my main hitters are from that hitter-friendly era.  Like my 70 million team I went with basically a four man rotation but used ’68 Bobby Bolin (who I had never heard of before drafting him) as my long relief/spot starter.  Getting every era over $20 million was more challenging that it seemed – at first I missed the 1906-10 $20 million barrier by about $500K and had to re-work a few players to fit it in.  The one player I’m most concerned about is ’32 Don Hurst, only because I currently drafted him in another league and he’s been terrible there, so I hope that’s not a trend, since I don’t have a backup for him here.  Other than him I went mostly with Hall of Famers and a decent amount of power (Frank Robinson, Killebrew, Ott) and put them in Ebbets field to try to exploit that a bit.

 

120 million “Beers and Bombs for Babe”:
At first I thought to take all players with exactly a 1.10 WHIP and who had a very low HR/9 and OAV.  And I drafted my team like that.  And then about a week later I changed my mind and decided to go very low WHIP, a HR/9 between .5 and .6 and (this is crucial, at least to me) a HR/9+ of way over 100.  That way even though the HR/9 might be slightly high, it actually was much better than average for the league that year, so it’s really better than it seems.  I ended up still going with two players with my old strategy, 2011 David Robertson and 1913 Willie Mitchell.  Robertson strikes out everyone and Mitchell allowed 1 HR in 200+ IP.  I don’t understand why anyone would draft a player with both WHIP > 1.1 and HR/9 > .5 but maybe that player either gets them innings or has everything else going for him.  Nonetheless, I only drafted 1563 1/3 innings so I’m hoping that’s enough – I think it’s barely enough but if I get into some slugfests I could be in trouble.  Hitting wise I went with 1924 Ruth mostly because he had 726 PA’s besides the usual great hitting numbers.  I might have to sub in another catcher for 1996 Piazza on occasion but I drafted 1972 Duke Sims to pick up some of the slack – I was surprised at how good of a hitter Sims was in limited action.

 

All in all, this was a blast to put together and I’m looking forward to testing my teams against the WIS elite.  Good luck to all.

70 million theme-- K.C. Skillz

Plan here was to get em' on base, and keep em' off base. We will see how it works. I ended up with 2 6+mil
position players and 3 6+mil pitchers. I usually like to go all OPS when possible but this league the $$$ was
just not there. I settled for the best OBP guys I could. My defense sucks though. Pitchers, I have no idea
what to expect. Alot of guys that I have not used before, don't really know what to expect. This league will
require plenty of TLC, that seems to be the feeling across the board. I think the balance between quality of IP's
and AB's vs. the number of each will be the biggest factor in this one.


80 million theme-- K.C. Skillz via Eck

I looked at Maddux FOREVER, looked at Pedro for a bit, and then I started to think about pitchers who were
effective as starters and relievers. That led me to Eck. I went with the pitching seasons that I wanted first
and then added the best hitters that I could find. Those late 80's early 90's A's teams were pretty dang good
so I was able to add some pretty decent 80 mil league offensive players. Feel better about the pen than I do
about the rotation. Will have to get some leads to the 7th inning for sure.

90 million theme-- K.C. Skillz via 2013 Angels.


Chewed on this one for a while, it was my last team entered. I must have sat on the 08' Senators forever then I
finally decided that I would not score enough runs even though the pitching was very solid. After that I went
to the 25' Yanks thinking the twists with Ruth/Gehrig/Schang would be advantageous, I was flat out too
worried about the pitching, it was awful. So I started thinking about teams that under performed and finally
the WIN% vs. PYTHAGWIN% light clicked on for me. I settled on the 2013 Angels, hoping that Trout, Cabrera,
Kershaw, Harvey, Tulo and Uehara come up big.


100 million theme K.C. Skillz via Sens/Twins and Royals

Started with these two Franchises and never looked back. Sens' deadball era pitchers are prominent, the Twins
have had great players up and down the line, and as bad as the Royals have been for 2 decades that's how good
they were in the late 70's and early 80's. So I just ran with it and I think that I have a decent team. Just hope
ole' Walter does not let me down.


110 million theme K.C. Skillz

Wow, In this theme I figured that I had enough $$$ to cherry pick "MVP" type WIS players and then bracket
the best I could around them. Only problem is that I did not add up my 5yr brackets correctly and had to
rebuild twice, (ughh embarrassing). At the end of the day this bad boy was tough...... The guys I built around
are 08' Steele-22' Cobb-71' Torre-95' Maddux-11'-Kershaw


120 million theme K.C. Skillz

No idea what to do here. Decided to go with the best ISOP that I could afford at each position with a reasonable
number of at bats. Pitching was changed around ALOT. I guess in the end I am going to try and keep the ball in
the yard and hope for double plays LOL! After seeing the data come out I am going to really have to manage
fatigue as I am on the low end of the curve with #'s of IP's and AB's.


Can't wait to get it on. Good Luck to all and THANKS!!! to everyone who invested so much time into setting
it up and managing the process. Should be fun!

$70M Stars & Scrubs
My "stars" are Raines '86, Berkman '04, Tewksbury '92, Buehrle '01 and Lowe '08. Based on Jeff's stats, the first 3 were pretty popular. We'll see if Buehrle and Lowe work out. I always knew I was going to put this team in Safeco and let them run. Just about everyone can contribute on offense except my main catcher who was chosen for his arm (to stop all of you from running). I'm no good at a cap this low but this strategy is pretty tried and true. At least one can hope.
Hitting:  5155 PA  .285/.385/.427
Pitching: 1275 IP (excluding scrubs)  3.13 ERA, 1.12 WHP, .244 OAV, 0.74 HR/9

$80M Cloned Pitcher
Mike Mussina
Looking at Jeff's breakdown of pitcher choices, I considered a lot of usual suspects. Maddux (didn't like the teammates and his good years were expensive for this cap), RJ. (a lot to like but I had to take pitching seasons I didn't like much to fit the cap) and Kevin Brown (liked the team a lot but the pitching was just expensive enough that I was a little queasy with the offense). Then I remembered Moose. Lots of good seasons for this cap and his remarkable consistency meant that I had a lot of comparable seasons to choose from. The team more or less put itself together. I ended up choosing several different platoon seasons for my offense. I hope I have time to manage it properly. 
Hitting:  5635 PA  .284/.387/.459
Pitching: 1380 IP (excluding scrubs)  3.16 ERA, 1.09 WHP, .238 OAV, 0.82 HR/9

$90M GM Challenge
1925 White Sox  (0.513) 4 twists/FAs
Like a lot of people, this theme was a challenge. Every team I tried had some sort of weakness when I was done. That made the choice hard. In a similar theme some years ago I went with the 2008 Dodgers (Maddux, Kershaw, Lowe, Manny...). It did well but not great so I didn't spend a lot of time before discarding that idea. Then I went to 1914 Red Sox. Lots of pitching and Babe Ruth but only 2 twists. After adding Ruth and Benny Kauff, the offense still had a lot of holes. After trying lots of other possibilities I remembered the 1920 White Sox teams. They offered quite a few twists but some had surprisingly good hitting. I narrowed it down to 1924 and 1925. 1924 gave me more twists but I wasn't sure 1924 free agent pitchers would be good enough. 1925 gave me fewer twists but access to Chief Bender. I went with 1925. Time will tell if it was wise or not. But the more I look at the choices you guys made, the more suspect my pitching looks. This team might never get off the pad.
Hitting:  5960 PA  .298/.385/.408
Pitching: 1440 IP (excluding scrubs)  2.82 ERA, 1.21 WHP, .251 OAV, 0.26 HR/9

$100M Old & New Franchise
Red Sox and Marlins
I went into this one with the idea of getting a pretty solid deadball staff and trying to pair it with some decent hitting from the modern franchise. I zeroed in on the Red Sox pretty quickly. I first thought I could use Ruth, Williams, Young, Leonard, Pedro, and Foxx. Then I remembered the salary restrictions. So I dropped Ruth for Ortiz. Then I happened on the Marlins. They gave me Kevin Brown, Sheffield, Miggy, Castillo, and some good bullpen arms. I'm surprised more people didn't use them. Or I was until I remembered that I'm not particularly good at this game.
Hitting:  5877 PA  .298/.398/.486
Pitching: 1409 IP  1.85 ERA, 0.92 WHP, .205 OAV, 0.31 HR/9

$110M Five Consecutive Fives
This one was a bit of a brainteaser. I knew I wanted Joss so I chose 1905-09 as my first five. Because of the salary restrictions, I got Joss and Doc White and complimented them with McQuillan for the pen. Then I knew I wanted Toney and Nehf. So I picked 1915-19 for the next five. That also got me Cravath and Collins for my offense. I wanted Ruth too. Because of the cap, I decided on 1933-37. That five also got me Foxx as a catcher and Camilli as my 1B. My fourth five was 1985-89 for Raines, Trammell and Boggs as well as Ontiveros and RJ for my pen. I finished up with 1995-99 for Maddux, Mariano, Edgar Martinez (DH) and some bench help. It was fun to puzzle this one out. Maybe not so fun watching them struggle.
Hitting:  6419 PA  .316/.419/.510
Pitching: 1412 IP  1.55 ERA, 0.86 WHP, .200 OAV, 0.17 HR/9

$120M Babe Ruth in Coors
Most years I don't make the second round and generally its because one of my first round teams is a colossal failure. This year I'm nominating this team. I started out building the most effective staff I could within the theme restrictions. I quickly found myself compromising on quality to add more IP. Then I had the kind of great idea that sinks my second round chances. I decided to go with great hitting pitchers. Babe Ruth was an obvious choice along with '25 Walter Johnson and '39 Bucky Walters. Of course they don't pitch so good so that might be a problem. To give me some depth and playoff starters (I know, I know) I added Koufax and Pedro. For my hitting I picked up lots of OBA (Foxx, Edgar M., Collins, Thome, Bonds, Sheffield...). It should be fun to see how this all works out... well, until the roof caves in at least.
Hitting:  6307 PA  .320/.435/.533
Pitching: 1702 IP  2.34 ERA, 1.07 WHP, .216 OAV, 0.41 HR/9
 

$70m - Stars & Scrubs: Mad Dog, Rock, Rickey, & Kevin Brown

I wanted to maximize my value from pitching, and the best way to do that without deadball pitchers is to stretch IPs. In my experience, Maddux and Brown are the two best pitchers for stretching and these versions of those two are excellent at this cap. I can build my entire starting rotation with these two and fill in the rest of the bullpen with sub-$3m RPs. I also wanted to maximize my offensive value with platoons, but rather than the traditional R/L platoons that can be combated with all LHP rotations, I went with mostly switch hitters. Then I looked for two guys I could keep at the top of my lineup for my star hitters. Rickey & Raines are two of the best top of the order guys you'll find, so I grabbed both of them, and spent less than $3m on every other hitter. The only other hitter likely to start every game is my #9 hitter, McLemore, who with his .369 OBP will likely set the table for the the top of the lineup at this cap. Also, I made sure I grabbed better A+ arms to combat the teams built around the SB. I tried to build a team that was well balanced with speed, power, and above average OBP and hit skills mixed throughout. So long as I can stay on top of the pitching fatigue, this team will be a solid playoff contender. If I can't, they'll still stick right around .500. 

Hitters: .284/.390/.422 106 HRs, 220 SB (@81.8%)
Pitchers: 1,115 IP, .246/1.14/3.10, .58 HR/9 
Stadium: Petco HR LF/RF:-3/-3 1B:-3 2B:-3 3B:2
Prediction: 87-75

$80m - Clone Pitcher & Teammates: Schmidty & the Boys

Right off the bat I started with Maddux, built a team I liked, but it was nagging at me as I felt I had to settle and compromise in a few places. I ended up also building teams around Pedro, Randy Johnson, Kevin Brown, John Smoltz, Mike Scott, and Nolan Ryan. In the end, I initially tried Scmidt because he could get me access to Maddux and Smoltz, bus discovered I liked his overall offering enough to stick with just him and some bullpen help. He provided a number of great teammate options, including Bonds, Aurilia, and Chipper Jones. This team is definitely built around OBP and HRs. With Bonds, you kind of have to start there. 

Hitters: .288/.376/.497 217 HRs, no SB to speak of
Pitchers: 1,185 IP, .226/1.20/3.38 0.68 HR/9
Stadium: SBC HR LF/RF:-3/-3 1B:1 2B:0 3B:2
Prediction: 86-76

$90m - GM Challenge w/Twist: 1906 Cubs

As I mentioned elsewhere, I started off with the 1902 Blues as that team starts with several stars and has few holes, plus they qualify for an above average number of X+Y with their sub-.500 record. I just couldn't make this team work. 1902 is my favorite season to build around, so I then tried making something work with each of this seasons Cubs, Pirates, & Giants... when I decided this just wasn't working. I then went to the '96 Marlins, a team I've used with success in the previous similar versions of this theme, still nothing. In the end I tried several more teams good for twisting and for free agents (2005 Yankees, 1918 Red Sox, etc), but nothing clicked satisfactorily. Just for kicks I threw the '06 Cubs in to see how much they cost, and realized they were only weak in two areas, bullpen and MI offense. I was tempted to grab a free agent, but knowing how good the '02 Jack Taylor is at this cap, I just twisted him, and in the process eliminated the need for a bullpen. Still weak offensively at 2B & SS, my 7 & 8 holes, but this is an all around solid team that will normalize well. I don't really know what to expect, but I do expect this team to finish above .500. 

Hitting: .267/.334/.346 20 HRs 308 SB (52%)
Pitching: 1,517 IP, .209/1.02/1.64 .06 HR/9
Stadium: West Side Grounds HR LF/RF:-1/0 1B:0 2B:0 3B:0
Prediction: 88-74
 

$100m - Old & New Franchise: Giant Astro Men from Mars

There were so many ways to go with this theme, so I tried to start with pitching. I wanted a solid 3-man rotation, so I first looked at expansion franchises to see who fit the bill. Mike Scott was hard to pass up, plus JR Richard's short season in the pen, I looked at some of their offensive options and new I found my expansion franchise. I went to find an original team that meshed well and afforded me the other two starters and ultimately it came to the Cubs & Giants. I built one team of each and them simmed them against each other roughly 250 times... The Giants won about 150 of those matchups. So, I went with that team. Rotation with '66 Marichal, '09 Mathewson, and '86 Scott. An offense with Biggio '94, Bagwell '96, Bonds '00, Berkman '04, Bresnahan '06, Dahlen '06, Wynn '69... I don't know how this team will stack up against the others, but I really like this team, especially with a bullpen rounded out with Nehf, Toney, Spencer, Romo, and Matt Cain. 

Hitting: .285/.411/.457 156 HRs, 110 SB (82.7%, from 4 guys who will be allowed to steal)
Pitching: 1,356 IP .191/0.87/1.91 .47 HR/9
Stadium: 3COM HR LF/RF:0/0 1B:-1 2B:0 3B:-1
Prediction: 90-72

$110m - Five Consecutive Fives: I Got Nothing...

This team was a struggle for me. I started out with a team I really liked, but then realized I missed the rule about the DH and my hitting pitchers team wasn't going to be a good value and I was wasting money. So I started over and tried to build around some key players I knew I'd want to have and then I couldn't get the $ amounts per era to work. After a few more tries, and some tinkering, I finally got a team I liked only to realize I forgot to actually draft any semblance of a DH. Back to the drawing board. I tried tinkering around with the eras I had to add a DH without messing with my pitching, but I couldn't get the pieces to fit. Scrapped it all and started over. So, this time I went with value players that I could live with: '08 Joss, '19 Ruth, '86 Brouthers, '88 Chamberlain, '88 Milacki, and then built around them. I had 4 of my 5 eras solid and just had to fill in some holes at 3B, SS, 1 or 2 pitchers (depending on IP). So I started looking around for years that would give me what I needed in a budget that worked. I came close to grabbing some years in the early 2000s, but kept coming back to the mid-late '30s. I tinkered around quite a bit here and every iteration and combination of Vaughan, Hack, and Ott possible, with various pitchers and pitching combinations. Ultimately I settled on the '40 Vaughan, '36 Hack, no Ott and the pitching combo of '39 Russo and '37 Stratton. I had a little money left for my DH, but not enough to get a full time player, so I grabbed the best hitters I could find from each era with the money I had left and have a five man platoon at DH. My DH platoon has about 400 PA, so there will be some fatigue, but with them hitting 9th and their baseline stats, I expect them to hold their own (.278/.358/.406), at least better than a pitcher would in the 9-hole.

Hitting: .317/.408/.516 156 HRs, 115 SB (87.8% from 2 who will be allowed to steal)
Pitching: 1,400 IP, .194/0.91/1.81 0.14 HR/9
Stadium: HR LF/RF:2/2 1B:2 2B:0 3B:-1
Prediction: 78-84
 

$120m - Babe Ruth in Coors: Bonds, Ruth, & the Band of Misfits

I knew right off the bat from my experience in high offense parks like AFC, Wrigley, and even Coors, that I wanted the better WHIP and good normalized HR/9 numbers, so it wasn't even a question for me of where my IP where coming from. I grabbed Pedro, Randy, Koufax, Nolan, and Jason Schmidt and then a solid bullpen with Wilhelm, Gossage, and bunch of guys from the last couple of seasons with absurdly low WHIPs and good normalized HR/9s. On the offense I wanted the '20 Ruth, who is my favorite Ruth. I know it's probably a bad strategy, but I've always wanted to put Ruth & Bonds together in Coors, so I got the '04 Bonds also. Obviously, I have very little money left for my hitters after spending $30m for two of them. So I tried to stretch my remaining money by taking HR hitters who take BBs. The BBs for the guys who went with higher WHIPs and the HRs for those who went with the pitchers who give up HRs. My team won't score with lots of hits, but my 1,2,3 hitters will  almost always be on base for the rest of the lineup to slug in. This will probably be my worst team, but it will probably be one of the more fun ones to watch.

Hitting: .274/.410/.520 264 HRs, 29 SB (76.3%)
Pitching: 1,527 IP .180/0.88/2.06 .63 HR/9
Stadium: Coors HR LF/RF:4/4 1B:3 2B:3 3B:3
Prediction: 73-89

This is my first time in the WIS Championship and I expect to get spanked, but to learn what I need in order to compete next year. I have already learned that those who play a lot of different themes have an advantage because they may have already played a Coors only league, a $70m cap league, a clone pitcher theme, etc. I have not played any of these themes before and that puts me at a distinct disadvantage.

I also am learning how better to find bargains in the sim, how to fit the right ballpark to my team, and how many PAs and IPs I need for various caps and themes. These are things most people in this league already have down pat. But I won't go down easily, and if I just make it to the final round I will be satisfied. Next year I will be ready to take down brianjw and the other studs in this game.

$70m   Stars & Scrubs

I have never played in a low salary cap league so I am treading new waters here. I never compromise on pitching, but it seems to be required to stay this cap. I have never used Mark Fidrych before, and even though his $6.8m price tag is pretty high, I thought I would give it a go. !980 Sutton is my other $6m pitcher. After that I am rotating in 08 Sabathia, 83 Thurmond, 70 Vance, and 78 Kip Young to fill the final two spots in the rotation. I will have to visit this team every day to keep up with that.

Vince Coleman will lead off for me (and probably every other team) and Rickey will bat 8th. My pitchers might lead the league in sacrifice bunts.  My only HR hitter is 82 Kingman with 37 HRs. I expect to see 15 or 20 Kingmans in this league. I chose a -3 HR ballpark so he will have to earn his money on the road. My slugging is light, but that fits the stadium. I am counting on my pitching to be strong and to scrap for enough runs to win 85 or 90 games.

My two $6m guys are 74 Carew and 89 Boggs. They provide high BA and super high OBP. Carew also steals some bases. I just filled the rest of the roster with values. I have plenty of PAs and IP. I hope that does not cost me too much in quality on my starting team. But I wanted more IPs so I could stash Milacki.

Stadium: AT&T (HR LF/RF:-3/-3 1B:+1 2B: 0 3B:+2)

PA     HR    BA     OBP    SLG                      IP      WHIP OAV     HR/9

5301   81  .283  .360      .398                  1,401   1.11    .234     0.70

$80m  Clone Pitcher and Teammates

25% teams in this league are using Maddux and mine is one of them. I have no doubt this and the other teams will be successful, but there are bound to be 2 or even 3 Maddux-led teams in one division. What makes one team excel over the others? My first tactic was to make sure I got one of his 2 great seasons, and I picked '95 because his IP is easier to manage. I also wanted a high quality 2nd season and '97 serves me well for that. The rest of the versions would be a combination of finding good teammates and getting a year where he has a low $/IP. I wanted 1 Dodger year so I could use that stadium. My very first WIS team (OL), when I didn't know what I was doing, I had '95 Maddux in Dodger Stadium and he won his first 14 decisions and flirted with 2.00 E.R.A. the whole season, carrying me to the WS, where I won the first 3 games only to lose 4 straight. That still bothers me because my only other SP was Mordecai Brown. How can those 2 lose 4 straight? Ever!

I made a late decision to pick up a stud closer and took 07 Heath Bell. He is expensive, and causes me to place some subpar guys on the roster, but I think I can win 30 or 40 games with just Maddux and Bell pitching. That way I don't risk my below average versions of Maddux blowing games I should win.

I anchored my offense with '08 Manny Ramirex and '02 Chipper. I picked '06 Lofton to lead off and just filled the rest of the lineup with whatever chumps fit under the cap. I could not find guys with high BAs, which is what you want in Dodger Stadium, and I have a lot of HR, which is sure to be disappointing when I only get about 60% of them, but this is what I had to work with. It's the price you pay to get Greg Maddux to lead your staff.

Bottom line: I hate my offense, but every team I get that sick feeling in my stomach, I just pull out a photo of the Professor and I start to feel better again. My hope is that heath bell is the difference maker on my team that pushes them past the other Maddux team(s) and the other(s) in my division.

Stadium: Dodger (HR LF/RF:-1/-1 1B:+2 2B: -4 3B:-3)

PA     HR    BA     OBP    SLG                      IP      WHIP OAV     HR/9

5257   141  .271  .357   .425                  1,409   1.08    .238     0.50

$90m GM Challenge with twist:  

 and his coach tells him the next one is probably gonna be low and away. Then at the last second says, "but watch out for in your ear." That's how I feel about this team. It's the team I like the best. I am targeting 100 wins with it, though I know the sim could decide to stick it in my ear and give me 80.

When I saw the theme I immediately went after the '95 Mariners because they had the Unit and a great offense. I then switched to '98 before finally settling on '94. I could not believe this team had such a poor record that I could have 6 twists + FAs. I was able to use that version of the Unit as my S4 while picking up '94 Maddux as a free agent ace. Clemens and Cone round out my rotation.

I picked up 1 FA for the bullpen and chose Steve Howe over Mike Jackson because of his lower HR/9 stat, which will be needed in the Kingdome. Jackson also pitches for SF and I literally hate the SF Giants in WIS, or should I say the sim hates them?

The offense is loaded with Griffey Jr. and his 58 HR, A-Rod twisted to '96, where he has 36 HR and 54 2B to go with a line of .358/.414/.631. They should dominate in the Kingdome. FA Piazza, Buhner (30 HR). and Edgar Martinez, whose OPS of .869, is 5th best among starters, should make the offense dominant everywhere. Add Maddux and this team will be successful.

I searched teams high and low and could not find one this good. '00 Houston was enticing, but I could not pull the trigger. All the great pitching teams have no hitting. There are a number of good teams in this league (e.g., '66 Braves; '64 Twins), but few teams I see look as good as the '94 M's My only complaint is that this was a strike year, and there were only a handful (literally) of <$300,000 players. I could not maximize my cap usage because of this, and my bench costs more than it should. Small price to pay, though, for a lineup like this hitting behind Maddux and company.

Stadium: Kingdome (HR LF/RF:+2/+2 1B:-2 2B: +1 3B:-1)

PA     HR    BA      OBP    SLG                       IP      WHIP OAV     HR/9

5329  225 .298   .365      .508                  1,418   1.11    .213     0.68

$100m Old & New franchise

I did not want to spend a lot of time researching different franchises, so I chose a strategy that would limit the options. I knew Houston and Montreal would be popular choices for new, but I wanted to pay a tribute to Tony Gwynn, one of the two or three greatest pure hitters of my lifetime. So I took the Padres with Gwynn's .394 BA,  '92 Mcgriff, '85 Templeton, and '94 Bip Roberts. I considered the Athletics for the old team because my strategy was great pitching at a low $/IP. But I finally settled on Cleveland. My staff consists of Joss, Coveleski, and Bernhard.

Stadium: Qualcomm (HR LF/RF:0/-1 1B:0 2B: -2 3B:-1)

PA        HR       BA    OBP    SLG                         IP      WHIP OAV     HR/9

5399    131   .335   .399    .509                       1,419   0.98    .208    0.23

 

$110m Five Consecutive Fives

I opted to get low #/IP pitchers and hitters from years where they will produce closest to the RL numbers. That meant getting three "fives" from the deadball era (98-02; 08-12; 18-22). Some of my best hitters are from 33-37, and I found 1988-92 to be productive, with several cookies in that time period. I did not take '89 HoJo because I wanted primo defense at SS. Might regret that move, but Kevin Mitchell is a beast that season, too. I did get '92 Bip to maintain my cookie addiction.

Stadium: Oriole Park at Camden Yards (HR LF/RF:1/1 1B:0 2B: -2 3B:-3)

PA       HR      BA    OBP    SLG                   IP      WHIP OAV     HR/9

6560  166   .331   .419    .520                1,409   1.08    .238     0.11

$120m Babe Ruth in Coors

I have never played in Coors, never mind an all Coors theme. I did not know if it was foolish, but I decided to use a pitching year for Ruth since there are so many good options among OF. The pitching restrictions made the P options much more limited.

Since I have no experience with Coors, I did not know how many PAs or IPs I needed, so I made an educated guess. I picked players who have proven they can put up huge numbers in Coors by using their PH. If a few of them actually produce the numbers they are capable of, I will have a decent offense. Rather than choose WHIP or HR/9, I took a few of both, thinking that will enable me to compete against either type of team I face. But I really don't know how this team will fare. It will be a learning experience for me.

 

Stadium: Coors (HR LF/RF:+4/+4 1B:+3 2B: +3 3B:+3)

PA       HR     BA    OBP      SLG                    IP      WHIP OAV     HR/9

6191  255   .310   .393      .528                1,672   1.02    .199      0.30

Most intriguing statement in this thread that I have seen: toddcommish's "I replaced Joss with Mike Norris." I am interested to see how that works out.