70M: DR9 Walking The Bases Loaded
Hitting: 5139 PA, .241/.354/.433, 202 SBs
Pitching: 1292 IP, .197 OAV, 1.12 WHIP, 0.74 HR/9
This team will either be really good, or really really bad.
It seems like a lot of people went with pitchers with a really low walk rate, and HR hitters with a high OBP. It makes a lot of sense since high OAV, low BB pitchers are cheaper, and the HR/9 minimum made Adam Dunn and Gene Tenace viable, and my initial build looked very similar to a lot of the other rosters.
But as time went on, I not only tinkered, I completely rebuilt my team with a new strategy.
I played in a low cap league recently (that I can’t remember the parameters of) where I chose the 1981 Astros, and threw them in a negative singles park in the Astrodome. It was there where I saw low OAV high BB/9 Nolan Ryan massively outperformed high OAV low BB/9 Don Sutton, despite similar ERC’s. Bob Knepper, who is similar to Sutton statistically, wasn’t too much better than him. This was enough for me to completely change my pitching staff, and fully lean into low OAV pitchers, despite the higher walk rate. Out goes Kyle Hendricks and Bob Tewksbury, and in comes Nolan Ryan, Floyd Youmans, Dylan Cease, Sid Fernandez, and Wayne Simpson (who I’ve never heard of) as I aim for the low OAV pitchers to overpower the low AVG hitters, and limit the damage done by walks. The bullpen somewhat follows the same philosophy, as I had to get some cheap innings out of Jack Ryan and Ralph Comstock to stay under the cap and (hopefully) avoid the fatigue spiral.
This switch to higher priced, lower OAV pitchers means I had to cut costs elsewhere, and my starting lineup ended up being affected by it. My first build was focused on OBP and XBHs, which included guys like Juan Soto, Adam Dunn, and Josh Donaldson, who have 5 doubles and 5 HRs per 100 ABs. I couldn’t quit Adam Dunn, but the other two got the axe as I substituted them with ****** little hitters in Tommy Harper and Jon Berti, who could maybe make up the lesser production on the basepaths.
Following the trend of 5 doubles/5 HRs per 100 ABs, Brandon Lowe, Justin Smoak, Rhys Hoskins, and Butch Nieman join the frey. None of them have crazy high OBPs, but they should be decent at driving in runs. And to round out the lineup is 1978 Gene Tenace. I’m hoping his A- arm slows down the running game just enough, and that he draws 100 walks ahead of the pitchers spot, so I can have a bunch of runners on 2nd for my leadoff hitters after the 9 hole bunts him over. I originally had that crazy Yasmani Grandal season tandem with
1981 Tenace, but the Rickey’s and Vince Coleman’s I almost drafted scared me off of them.
Threw them all in -2 singles -2 HRs RFK because I’m a cheapskate and want to save on innings and PAs wherever I can, and to slow down all the Adam Dunn’s and Norm Cash’s I’m seeing.
Prediction: 90 Wins
80M: DR9 Card 5 Blackout
Hitting: 5219 PA, .305/.389/.426, 326 SBs
Pitching: 1311 IP, .229 OAV, 1.03 WHIP, 0.71 HR/9
I always knew I was going with Card 5. All the 80s years provided cookie switch hitting SB threats. It was just a matter of how I was gonna get my bingo. Initially I wanted the diagonal with all the 80s years, and just spam the lineup with switch hitting cookies such as Raines, Vince, and Ruben Sierra, but I felt the years restrictions led to some inefficient spending, which is a no-no at this cap, plus I could really use a bunch of 2020 pitchers for next round’s 120 mil cap. So I went with the blackout option as it had all the best cheap OL pitchers in Halladay, Tudor, and Tewks, and a bunch of sub-900k RPs that I regularly use in OLs (Stroman, Barry Jones, Dave Ford, Dan Miceli). It’s pretty much the opposite of what I did with the pitching in the 70M, but it was also the much cheaper way to do things as some of the hitters I just couldn’t give up.
On the offensive side of things, I stuck with the switch hitting SB cookies “strat” I was planning on doing with all the 80s years. Coleman and Raines stay in the lineup, but Ozzie gets substituted for Vizquel, and Jose Offerman will make an appearance atop the lineup. Filling in the rest of the lineup with 50s and 30s players was a little awkward as I just have no experience with much of these players. Dale Alexander mans 1B and the middle of the order because of his 9 doubles/100 ABs and not terrible range. He’s a lot slower than what I like to usually draft, but that’ll be a common theme for the rest of the roster too with the restrictions. Mickey Cochrane makes the team despite his inability to throw runners out just because of his knack for getting on base and hitting doubles at a relatively cheap cost. And Roy Cullenbine rounds out the lineup as a switch hitting, A+ range 3B who’ll likely provide no offense whatsoever outside of his ability to draw walks. But that’s what I like to look for ahead of the pitchers slot so I can have a lot of runners on 2nd for my leadoff guy. This team has no range, which doesn’t bode well for my high OAV OL cookie pitchers, but I’m still confident enough in the offense to where it won’t sink me.
Prediction: 84 wins
100M: DR9 Corona Brew Crew of Chi-City
Hitting: 5250 PA, .302/.373/.528, no substantial offensive category to mention
Pitching: 1370 IP, .180 OAV, 0.97 WHIP, 0.69 HR/9 (pretty good for a 2020 year)
I briefly tried to make something work with 1908 Ed Walsh, but I pretty much knew from the get go that the 2020 season would be the best year to choose from. The small sample size allowed a lot of usable seasons and fluke years from teams.
The White Sox and Mets were a match made in heaven as they provided a majority of key players I’ll be using, on opposite ends of the spectrum in the W-L column. The Sox provided a ton of great bullpen arms, and two cheap SPs, while the Mets gave me deGrom, and nearly my entire starting lineup. All I needed was a 3rd team 2 games below .500 to make it all work. The flaw with the Mets is that all their hitters have terrible range, so I needed a team to provide some range up the middle. I drew things up with the Giants and Yaz, and the Angels with Trout, but their role players were just awful, and I was still in need of another SP. So I made the poor decision to blow off range settle on the Brewers with Burnes and Woodruff. I’m really hoping the huge strikeout numbers from these guys help hide the D- range fielders I’ll be throwing out on the field.
The lineup was also poorly constructed as I usually just put it in order from most PA to fewest, and draft accordingly. Instead Jose Abreu and his 51 HRs will be leading off, while Tim Anderson will bat cleanup. Conforto, Nimmo, and Dom Smith make up the outfield with Conforto’s D+ range leading the bunch in CF, while Cano and McNeil round out the Mets with D- range at 3rd and 2nd. Abreu and TA provide the only semblance of mobility with A+ range at 1B and B+ range at SS. So as I saved money with D- range everywhere, and drafted cheap SP, I got a lot of money leftover to overspend on the bullpen. Devin Williams will be the primary setup man, and anything less than total annihilation will be a disappointment. The rest of the Brewers will make up a crappy bench as I platoon Catcher and try to catch up on PAs at other positions.
2020 hitters tend to disappoint, while I usually use 2020 pitchers as the backbone of my pitching staffs, probably the team I’m least confident in.
Prediction: 80 wins
110M: DR9 Ryan and Raines Make Opponents Go Insane
Hitting: 6131 PA, .308/.384/.463, 410 SBs
Pitching: 1382 IP, .189 OAV, 1.06 WHIP, 0.51 HR/9
And we’re back with the same philosophies I used in earlier formats. The low OAV pitchers from the 70M, and the 1980s switch hitting SB cookies from the 80M. I didn’t even bother looking at other combinations as I was pretty dead set on making this work from the jump.
We’ll be throwing them in the Astrodome, pairing Nolan Ryan’s low OAV with negative hits and it’s -4 HRs. Ryan’s wildness also provides a ton of pitches per inning, so I was able to draft a little bit fewer IPs than I usually do for DH leagues (which have always been tricky for me). The Astrodome also provides me the luxury of drafting cheaper RPs that were a little prone to the longball in real life. At first I tried to make Jeff Reardon and Tim Burke work, thinking their elite seasons would dominate at the Astrodome, but just couldn’t quite fit them in the budget with all the Tim Raines I’m using. Joe Sambito, Jim Poole, Jeff Russell, Dave Smith, and Pascual Perez make up a majority of the bullpen for a relatively cheaper price.
I feel like Captain Obvious when I say I’m not gonna draft the likes of Hank Aaron and Co to play at the Astrodome, Tim Raines just made too much sense with what I was trying to do. His triple hitting and stolen base prowess will make up slots 1-5 in the batting order, with the “running every single time he’s on base” Miguel Dilone filling in occasionally. Sadly I couldn’t squeeze in A+ arm teammate Gary Carter into the fold to stop the run game from terrorizing me, the one drawback of this team, but the B arm one should provide some offense behind all the Raines. Raffy Palmeiro and Art Howe provide some cheap doubles at the bottom of the order, and a Hubie Brooks and scrub platoon, who the latter will play against what I deem lesser teams, round out the order.
All in all, I can’t wait to look like a total fool in this one. Very excited to watch this team play.
Prediction: 95 wins
120M: DR9 The Cleveland Baseball Club
Hitting: 5449 PA, .353/.417/.529, 375 doubles
Pitching: 1376 IP, .188 OAV, 0.88 WHIP, 0.60 HR/9
For this one, I just threw the salaries in the SP slot in the draft center, and looked at which team came up the most on elite starting pitching seasons. Cleveland was the pretty obvious choice to go with for me. I’m kind of surprised to only see 3 others make the same decision as me. Unfortunately, it looks as if I’m sharing the division with someone who probably did a better job than I did in drafting a Cleveland team in duhbigcat.
Bernhard, Bieber, and Kluber were the names I saw pop up in that earlier search, and while Kluber is bad, maybe, just maybe, he’ll overperform this time (doubt it). Zach Plesac will be the SP4 with spot starts from other guys, but he seems to do better out of the bullpen rather than in one. I’ll be pairing these guys with -2 HR League Park in an attempt to get these homers under control. The bullpen is made up of guys with great stats that never perform the way they should in Mike Jackson, Andrew Miller, Mingori, Narleski, and Rafael Perez. Maybe the new Emmanuel Clase I couldn’t quit will shoulder the brunt of the load.
On offense, I’m looking forward to seeing Tris Speaker and Nap Lajoie win MVP with their 9 doubles/100 ABs# at +3 double League Park. Cleveland also provides a few decent switch hitting options in Robbie Alomar, J-Ram and Vizquel. I have no idea how they’ll do, but I expect the worst. Shoeless Joe is the final player I’m familiar with, batting cleanup. After that it’s a complete crapshoot with Charlie Hickman and my platoon of $1 million catchers. Bo Diaz will take a majority of the at bats with his A+ arm and knack for hitting doubles, but who knows what Glenn Myatt, Hal Naragon, and Ossee Schreckengost will do. There was no real plan other than “Ooga Booga hit doubles” with this team, so I don’t expect it to do much.
Prediction: 85 wins
255M: DR9 Silver King Shoulders The Load
Hitting: 6219 PA, .348/.437/.581, 420 (nice) doubles
Pitching: 1501 IP, .176 OAV, 0.81 WHIP, 0.30 HR/9
I royally flubbed this one up. Once I saw how the alignment was gonna work, I tried to overdraft everything in hopes of getting in a division with lesser experienced players who’d overdraft poor quality players. I never surpass 1500 IPs, I drafted super expensive bullpen arms in Gagne and Kimbrel, I platooned the overpriced Tulo, and it still wasn’t enough. Somehow I ended up at the bottom in salary, so maybe it’ll accidentally work out for me.
Box A was massively superior to Box B, it was almost a joke. It was just a matter if I wanted to target hitters first or pitchers. My initial build took all the hitters at the top, and all the still great relief pitching seasons available at the bottom, but the middle tier of starting pitchers blew. There was 0 chance I was gonna throw out Yu Darvish and Stan Coveleski to face the Ruth’s and Williams, and Lajoie’s, so I scrapped it.
What I then decided was to take Silver King for a ton of innings in one box, then to take all the hitters and create an insane lineup that way, but pairing deadball hitters with Silver King was scary to me. I still wanted to draft all the overpriced players to rack up the budget, so in came Gagne and Kimbrel and briefly deGrom and Nick Anderson.
To make Silver King work, I felt I needed modern hitters with A fielding, which I dreaded as I cannot stand looking at a play-by-play with modern hitters striking out all the time. Offense dwindled a bit down below so I replaced some of the elite RPs with Freddie Freeman and Wade Boggs. Tulo and Hanley make up an expensive SS platoon, but other than that, I really aimed for LHHs as I felt a majority of y’all were gonna roster almost entirely RH pitching staffs. That’s where Joey Votto, Josh Hamilton, Chase Utley, Paul O’Neill, and somewhat awkwardly, Bobby Murcer, who doesn’t really fit what I was trying to do at a +doubles park, other than bat left handed.
Buster Posey was the best of a bad bunch of catchers, and he rounds out the lineup as I’m not really too afraid of SBs for this theme. A lack of range in the outfield might be the downfall, but I really believe in what I’m doing with this team…
Prediction: 90 Wins
Final Tally: 524-448 (.539 win%)