Use this thread to talk about why you made the choices you did when building your teams. Maybe make predictions for how well they'll do. I'll include my own as well.

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This year, we started the tournament early (with only a few months since the end of last year's Round 2) due to the pandemic. Thankfully, I had some loose theme ideas already so getting things going was fairly easy on my end.

As for the themes, in my opinion they are more straightforward than last year. This is intentional — I wanted them to be fun puzzles rather than research projects. After a few years of running this tournament now, this is my favorite set of Round 1 themes yet and I hope you'll agree.

We have a fair amount of new blood this year as well as the return of a former champion (wildthings1) and others who haven't played in a few years but are nonetheless big threats. Overall, I'm expecting the highest level of competition we've had in a while this year.

As for my own teams, I flubbed it last year. I both overthought and rushed a few teams that ultimately sunk my chances of repeating as champion. This year, I took my time before finishing my teams and posting league numbers. Hopefully that means a return to the top.

With everything going on though, I really haven't spent much time on WIS in 2020 relative to past years. This means I've spent less time testing new strategies since last year's tournament as I would have liked. Hopefully that doesn't mean an off-year.

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$80M: MH '11 Aybar, Top Shelf
Stadium: West Side Grounds

At low caps it's more about value than anywhere else. This is a pretty standard league so I just identified all players' most expensive seasons, explored the options and then applied my usual search criteria.

There were a lot of comparable options in the OF (ok speed, solid XBH, lefty/switch, good range), so I focused on starting pitching where there were fewer options. Tewks and Bernhard are among the best value pitchers over 200IP in the game, so I started with them. Almost fit Tully Sparks as well but would've had to make concessions on offense and defense to do it, so I went with the slightly more cumbersome Jack Taylor as my horse instead.

RPs were easy — just filter by Value Index at a few $/IP and IP thresholds.

I can't believe I ended up with Erick Aybar and his .322 OBP both A) on my team and B) as my most expensive offensive player, so I wanted to honor him in the team name.

Hitting: 4,995 PA, .311 / .380 / .429, $37.9M
Pitching: 1,345 IP, 0.97 WHIP, 0.25 HR/9, $41.3M
Prediction: Tommy McCreery will make some errors in left field but this is a good team. 93 wins +/- 3

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$90M: MH My Pitchers Are Alive
Stadium: Target Field

These days, everyone expects everyone else to draft deadball pitchers, so no one drafts HR hitters anymore. This actually means that modern pitchers with mediocre-to-bad HR/9 tend to be better values than deadball pitchers to begin with before you even factor in the extra pitches they get allocated (since no one drafts hitters who strike out a lot, either) and their defensive benefits.

While I haven't tested enough of these types of teams to feel confident using the strategy across the WISC, I've used it enough to know it was the right choice for this theme, where their benefit is amplified due to the defensive benefits they provide.

On the pitching side, I rostered three 200IP+ guys (Pedro, Cliff Lee, and Chris Carpenter). Keeping them on short pitch counts in a 3-man rotation, and relying on a few 100+ IP long relievers will work in my favor here since RPs are cheaper than SPs (more on that later). I wish I had a few more strikeouts but I'll settle for minimal walks.

For hitting, pretty standard (range, speed, XBH) with the exception of C. I wanted to use 1891 Duke Farrell but he was ultimately too expensive. I spent a lot of time tweaking this but eventually left the rest of my lineup intact and settled for a 3.8M platoon at C with good OBP. Never thought about drafting HR hitters because I figured enough people would draft deadball pitchers. Also never really thought about trying to sabotage others' fielding with pre-1900 hitters specifically.

Hitting: 5,232 PA, .321 / .406 / .454, $45.2M
Pitching: 1,352 IP, 0.97 WHIP, 0.79 HR/9, $44.4M
Prediction: A little worried about innings but feel pretty good here otherwise. 90 wins +/- 4

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$110M: MH There Can Only Be One
Stadium: Citi Field

Where to start with this one? I knew two things going in:
A) I could make a great team by using +/- 1
B) I probably couldn't make a noticeably better team by using another value for x

Okay, done. The teams themselves came together pretty easily. The tough part was figuring out how much ammo other people would spend vs. save for Round 2 and weigh that against the higher inherent value of a Round 2 win.

Ultimately I chose to go super strong on pitching in Round 2. This may work to my detriment if it causes a lot of extra inning games, since I am light on IP. I also don't like how many bench scrubs I'm carrying. Wasn't able to make it work with as large of a bullpen as I'd like. Tradeoff there was between extra arms / less wasted salary and getting to use Bernhard and a few others. Ultimately they brought more value than I was losing.

Round 1 Hitting: 5,331 PA, .330 / .406 / .478, $53.7M
Round 1 Pitching: 1,396 IP, 0.95 WHIP, 0.36 HR/9, $53.7M
Round 2 Hitting: 5,141 PA, .333 / .415 / .472, $53.0M
Round 2 Pitching: 1,390 IP, 0.87 WHIP, 0.25 HR/9, $55.5M
Prediction: For Round 1, I'm pretty nervous that I'm light on XBH and P quality — a bad combo. This will probably be my worst team. 85 wins +/- 4

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$120M: MH Prob Cobb
Stadium: Turner Field

My choices:

• SP — Joss, because the aggregate salary to the others is comparable but the $/IP is not
• RP — Kimbrel, though I should've taken Uehara
• LRP — Kershaw, duh
• Hitter — Cobb, because Ruth was too expensive
• Defender — Furcal, because I wouldn't be losing much offense relative to a normal SS I'd draft, and the impact of good D at SS is the highest

Here's where it gets fun.

Assuming an even 60M/60M split between hitting and pitching, that left me with $23.2M "for" pitching and $28.4M "for" hitting. However, since the share of IP and position spots taken up by these players is not equal, you need to do some math.

It's easy on the hitting side. 6 positions open / 8 total positions = 75% and 28.4M salary open / 60M salary "total" = 47%. Then I compared .75 / .47 to quantify how much "ahead" I was on salary for hitting, and got a ratio of 1.59. Pause there.

On the pitching side I did the same thing, except using innings and 1,400 IP as my "total". This got me a ratio of 1.55.

When you compare those two values, I saw that I was further ahead on the hitting side, but not by much. I took this to mean that I could spend the remaining salary pretty evenly between hitting and pitching.

Hitting: 5,175 PA, .320 / .405 / .475, $57.3M
Pitching: 1,368 IP, 0.89 WHIP, 0.25 HR/9, $61.8M
Prediction: Worried that I should have taken less salary for pitching and bolstered the lineup more. Call it 88 wins +/- 3

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$140M: MH Dodgers A's Twins
Stadium: Target Field

I started with Group C because it seemed unlikely I'd be able to find 40M from each franchise in that group, which would let me rule out some combinations right away. This ended up being true, and I was left with the Twins and Braves.

Then I went to Group B and did the same thing, but with my players of choice from the Group C teams already in place. I knew these wouldn't be the exact players I would necessarily end up using, but I was just judging overall fit (i.e. the Braves and A's were a weird fit because you had Hornsby/Chipper AND Collins/Baker).

This process left me with only a few combos that I felt great about so I did the same thing with Group A, except this time trying to build full, real teams. I then compared the rosters and picked the best one.

The Dodgers bring most of the pitching and an A+++ center fielder, while the A's bring great hitting and RP, and the Twins/Senators round things out with Walter J and Mauer, Carew, Delahanty, and Travis to fit in nicely against the A's strengths. I actually ended up spending the most on the Twins/Senators.

Hitting: 5,529 PA, .361 / .429 / .531, $68.8M
Pitching: 1,474 IP, 0.86 WHIP, 0.40 HR/9, $70.4M
Prediction: Since I explicitly compared teams here, I really like my chances here but franchise leagues with limited player pools tend to produce parity. Let's say 91 wins +/- 5

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Variable Cap: MH Down 5M But Up 100W
Stadium: Target Field

Ok, so 100 may be a bit of a stretch, but I really like my chances in this theme.

Optimizing for the highest salary seemed like the wrong strategy (if there's one thing we've learned from variable cap leagues, it's that salary is not the biggest predictor of success) but so did being wanton about it. To strike a balance, it seemed obvious to start with Silver King who is already one of the best value elite SPs in the game on a $/IP basis (even if you assume you won't get the full 700 out of him).

I may have been able to get by with two 100-150 IP pitchers to pair with him, rather than three and I sort of regret not doing that and getting an extra 2M, but I think it will wash out. My pen is stocked with the usual, modern suspects. One benefit of having so many low inning RPs is that low inning pitchers are inherently cheaper. There is a direct correlation between number of IP and Value Index (my metric that compares $/IP and ERC#, among a few other things).

For hitting, platooning is generally less valuable at high caps because the $200K you gain/activate by platooning means a lot less than it does at low caps. Regardless, I platooned half of my lineup because there were good options (1902 Lajoie, 2014 Tulo, 1895 Clements as examples) at a few positions where I wouldn't end up sacrificing much. Basically my strategy here was to avoid losing more in efficiency than I would in quality due to having to use lower salaried players otherwise.

Hitting: 5,982 PA, .370 / .438 / .593, $90.1M
Pitching: 1,532 IP, 0.79 WHIP, 0.22 HR/9, $84.9M
Prediction: I'll hedge against my team name and say 95 wins +/- 4

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My predictions put me at 542 wins with a full range of 519 to 565. I had exactly 542 regular season wins in Round 1 last year and that was only good for 17th (565 would've been good for 3rd). So, hoping for strong playoff performances yet again. Luckily I have good bullpens. Good luck everyone.

First year in this tournament and expectations are...medium? I guess? In the last few months I've really thrown myself into theme leagues instead of my usual progressives and open leagues, and I've done a lot better than expected while learning a ton from the best owners on the site. Hopefully I can make the second round, I expect it to be close.

$80M: Feel The Bernhard

Had a lot of different ideas for this and eventually settled on the highly original strategy of dead ball pitchers and a lineup mix of speed, platoons and OL cookie extraordinaire Marwin Gonzalez who might be on 50%+ of rosters. Was pleasantly surprised to learn of the existence of a Jo-Jo White who wasn't the Celtics Hall of Famer, he's a great fit for this cap. Not all used to using a completely neutral ballpark, we'll see how that goes.

Stadium: League Park (I)
Hitting: .311/.381/.427, 5181 PA
Pitching: 1331.7 IP, 1.00 WHIP, 0.41 HR/9

$90M: 21st Century FiersSale

My initial entry was an attempt to zig when everyone else zags. I had a murderer's row of bashers in Yankee Stadium (III): Kingman, Tilly Walker, Rudy York, Davey Johnson, and that Hank Aaron 1B where he still raked at almost 40 years old. The problem though was I had to pay a ton for HR prevention in my pitching staff, and since I also wanted to pay for strikeouts, my pitching staff wasn't very good. But also, I just didn't have the heart to go with a strategy that depended on most of my opponents using modern pitching. I really think it was the right play now, but I chickened out.

So of course, I projected my cowardice onto everyone else and went with a modern pitching staff that will destroy every type of lineup...except one like my original team which would take this squad behind the woodshed. I'm also betting that everyone else will go with low K hitters, so my super high K pitchers will get a lot more pitches and I can survive with short innings. This could be brilliant or it could backfire spectacularly. The lineup is deadball slap hitters who should reach on errors quite frequently.

Stadium: Petco Park
Hitting: .316/.374/.465, 5372 PA
Pitching: 1284.7 IP, 0.91 WHIP, 1.04 HR/9 (a lot less normalized)

$110M: X=1 (HR allowed per 9 innings)

Ok that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I decided not to overthink this one. Found Phil Hughes to mop up two years in a row so I could use Target Field, then went with the usual suspects from recent seasons who haven't seen the big dynamic pricing increase on the pitching staff, and speedy hitters with good range who hit lots of doubles and triples.

Stadium: Target Field
Hitting: .314/.377/.460, 5930 PAs
Pitching: 1447 IP, 0.94 WHIP, 0.79 HR/9

$120M: Furcall Me Daddy, Mr. Bonds

Joss seemed like the obvious pick among the starters, so I went with him and two cheap dead ballers in the rotation. Then I once again projected my thinking onto everyone else and put together a team to beat a starting rotation like that, with a bunch of speedy slap-hitting very low Ks who will hit and run like crazy. Couldn't resist Bonds .609 OBP in the leadoff slot, and he's also had the smallest price increase among the super stud hitters, for whatever that's worth (probably very little). Maddest about paying for Furcal since he doesn't fit the hit and run bit but he does at least have the speed and necessary strong SS fielding behind a dead ball rotation.

Stadium: Dodger Stadium
Hitting: .313/.391/.446 5660 PA
Pitching: 1387.3 IP, 0.95 WHIP, 0.29 HR/9

$140M: BOS. LAD, MIN (Miss You Mookie)

Picked the Minnesota franchise to get Target Field, and Boston and LA to get the modern stud pitchers. Similar strategy to the $110M except with much better hitting and a lot less range. Like this team probably more than any other, not least because I finally got to use Mookie's MVP season somewhere (f*** you very much John Henry for salary dumping him like you're the damn Tampa Bay Rays).

Stadium: Target Field
Hitting: .354/.429/.543, 5733 PA
Pitching: 1461 IP, 0.85 WHIP, 0.62 HR/9

Variable Cap: Behind These Hazle Eyes

Have always hated high cap leagues and haven't played one in a very long time. That said, I think this came out OK. Two man rotation of Ed Walsh and the overpriced Pete Alexander to keep home runs down plus the standard modern relievers in the pen. On offense, paid up for a Ruth and Hughie Jennings of all people (as you can guess, I did not like the platoon options available there.) Then I have probably several of the same platoons everyone else has. DH is going to be by committee, with Bob Hazle, the Manny partial season, plus whoever else isn't tired. Also got to use a favorite Brett Lawrie as a backup/defensive replacement behind likely 90% used Denny Lyons. Ended up just under $178M. Went with South Side Park as I'm a bit concerned about innings in a DH league with monstrous lineups.

Stadium: South Side Park
Hitting: .367/.456/.628, 6028 PA
Pitching: 1563.7 IP, 0.82 WHIP, 0.22 HR/9

$80M - MXC WISC $80M Titanic At Polo Grounds

I very badly wanted to use 1902 Bill Bernhard but ultimately couldn't fit him on the team in a way that I liked, mostly because 1917 Ferdie Schupp stood out to me and was the first player I put on this roster. When I needed to save some cash later, Bernhard was the one shown the door. Because of Schupp we ended up in the old Polo Grounds which isn't a preferred stadium choice but it should work just fine. I don't typically play below $100M so I'm not as sharp on roster construction at a cap like this, and I'm not thrilled with the way my IP are distributed or my big platoon in RF, but numbers-wise the team looks good to me. Bullpen management will be important.

This roster features the most players I've never used before, even after 1000+ seasons. Amongst them are 1929 Roy Johnson, 1894 Bill Hassamaer, 1999 Kevin Young, 1987 Benito Santiago, and 1944 Ed Heusser at SP. The overall strategies don't differ much from my usual, with mostly high-AVG, solid range, 70+ speed, and XBH on offense, with a few positions sacrificing defensive quality for their bat, namely 2009 Jason Bartlett at SS and 1925 Bill Lamar in the OF. On the pitching side, I mostly used the best OAV/BB combos but stretched my own limits a bit with 1992 Bob Tewksbury (higher OAV to roster that beautiful 0.77 BB/9). Will be depending on Ferdie Schupp to get deep into his games as I only have three high-IP bullpen guys, lead by 176 IP from 1908 Bill Burns. If he can pitch effectively and prevent too many games getting deep into the shallow bullpen, we should be fine.

Stadium - Polo Grounds
Hitters - 5353 PA .318/.368/.475
Pitchers - 1404 IP, .229 OAV, 1.02 WHIP, 72 HR

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$90M - MXC WISC $90M New Millenium Falcons

Given the restriction on defensive fielding, the further harm that would be caused by deadball-era pitchers felt like overkill, so modern pitching seemed the way to go. Tried to get relatively low OAV to help combat the inevitable susceptibility to the HR ball and I'm using a rare (for me) 5-man rotation. This is another lower cap team where I'm not thrilled with my IP distribution. I have 154 IP of Collin McHugh backed up by a bunch of low-IP guys. Extra innings or the high-IP guys not getting deep could hurt, though I like the numbers overall.

On offense it's mostly older guys that fit my typical strategy. More of the high AVG, solid range, 70+ speed, XBH power to go around. I hope to take advantage of the 2B and 3B in Kauffman. This league finally gave me an excuse to use 1887 Sam Wise at SS and satisfy my inner Lord of the Rings nerd.

Stadium - Kauffman Stadium
Hitters - 5328 PA .331/.397/.506
Pitchers - 1347 IP, .214 OAV, 1.00 WHIP, 107 HR

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$110M - MXC WISC $110M Who's Your +1?

I have an intense loathing for doing WIS homework research so I immediately settled on 1 as my magic number and never thought for a moment about any others. I thought of as many guys I'd typically want to use at this cap in an open-style league and then whittled down those who had consecutive seasons that fit well together. This team didn't end up taking very long to put together.

You can substitute this paragraph with either from above with regards to offense. Nothing groundbreaking. King Kelly, John Reilly, Rod Carew, Omar Vizquel, George Brett, Max Carey, Benny Kauff, and Harry Heilmann represent the hitters while Ed Walsh, Walter Johnson, Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill, George Dumont, Don McMahon, Andy Rincon, Mark Melancon, Darren O'Day, Aroldis Chapman, and Greg Holland (to use Kauffman Stadium again) provide the IP. Brandon League and Dennis Rasmussen are mop-up guys in this round as their good seasons looked better in Round 2.

Stadium - Kauffman Stadium
Hitters - 5882 PA .328/.394/.462
Pitchers - 1481 IP, .206 OAV, 0.93 WHIP, 44 HR

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$120M - MXC WISC $120M Joss A Bit Outside

The stud decisions were rather simple for me. Addie Joss provided the best $/IP, Kimbrel was the cheapest and left more money for the rest of the team, same as Ty Cobb, Kershaw is a personal favorite, and when in doubt I always prefer strong D at SS (Furcal). After that, it was only a matter of putting together a decent supporting cast. Pre-heat the oven to 350° and start working on those cookies! On offense anyway. 1990 Willie McGee, 1956 Wally Moon, 1887 John Kerins, and 1897 Bill Joyce may appear on many teams, as the remaining salary made this league play more like the $80M, from which I've recycled 1925 Bill Lamar and 1932 Bill Cissell here.

The pitching studs are teamed up with an assortment of cheap innings-eaters. Tom L. Hughes and Barney Pelty join Joss in the rotation with 100-IP Joe Benz to man the long oars alongside Kershaw. Behind Kimbrel though, nobody else has more than 43 IP, so again my IP distribution is not ideal. Sensing a theme there. Used Joss for my stadium, the Switzerland-esque League Park (I) and its zeroes across the board.

Stadium - League Park (I)
Hitters - 5427 PA, .320/.382/.458
Pitchers - 1389 IP, .205 OAV, 0.91 WHIP, 37 HR

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$140M - MXC WISC $140M Dodgers A's Twins

I settled on my franchises quickly, based on how they filled some specific positional needs. I could have experimented and tweaked some more, but the final numbers looked good enough and I prefer my builds quick and clean.

The Dodgers mostly bring some high-end modern arms like Kershaw, Greinke, and Koufax, although Babe Herman and Pete Reiser helped reach $40M with their bats. The A's I wanted to have Frank Baker at 3rd and 1925 Al Simmons for the OF (as well as Municipal Stadium). Eddie Collins was brought along to lead off against RHP, but besides them, I mostly filled the bullpen with modern A's relievers to make the salary quota. The Twins big contribution was Walter Johnson of course, but Joe Cronin and Joe Mauer fit defensive positions of need as well as a strong 1B season from Ed Delahanty. This is definitely a salary cap that is more up my alley. Although the offense doesn't quite fit my ideal construction, the overall numbers look good.

Stadium - Municipal Stadium
Hitters - 5730 PA .359/.426/.554
Pitchers - 1496 IP, .188 OAV, 0.87 WHIP, 63 HR

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Variable Cap - MXC WISC $180M ($161M) Murder Hornets

As the team name suggests, we ended up having a salary cap of $161M, which early chatter suggests is low. I considered taking this team back to the drawing board, but my general abhorrence of tweaking a finished roster prevented that. When approaching this theme, it didn't seem like chasing extra salary with <200 PA and <100 IP guys would be that effective. At some point you can't deploy enough platoons and low-IP pitching to meet acceptable levels for fatigue purposes. Maybe I screwed this up though. Time will tell.

The offense mostly fits my general strategy as previously described. The one true outlier is 1926 Babe Ruth. Ruth seemed one of the few players who genuinely was still worth the extra $5M penalty. I've got a few platoons to save cash, like Jack Clements/Earle Brucker at C and Tulo/Hanley at SS. There's also an Al Simmons, Ty Cobb, Tuck Turner, and Bob Hazle (my only sub-200 PA hitter) puzzle to fit two OF spots next to Ruth.

1908 Mathewson and 1909 Mordecai Brown were the big $ at SP, backed up by a trio of Schupp, Kershaw, and Toney for the 3rd starter spot. The rest of the bullpen is where I picked up some extra cash with Betances, Kenley Jansen, Nick Maddox, Drew Smyly, Vida Blue, Rich Hill and Jack McDowell. I like this team overall as a $160M team but if others found better ways to work up towards $180M it may prove that I needed to think this one out more thoroughly.

Stadium - Sportsman's Park (III)
Hitters - 6174 PA .359/.430/.569
Pitchers - 1544 IP, .185 OAV, 0.81 WHIP, 31 HR

I wish these were longer, but I'm struggling to remember my entire thinking process from when I did these way back when.

$80M
Debbie Does Odalis
Dodger Stadium

I spent the least amount of time on this team. There didn’t seem to be much of a strategy beyond a lot of trial and error to find eligible players. I knew I wanted Dodger Stadium…that was about my only starting point. I tend to lean towards pitchers parks with low caps to conserve IP and PA, and walks and singles are cheaper than XBH.

My lineup includes the likes of Brian Roberts, Vin Campbell, Billy Rogell, Roy Cullenbine, Yank Robinson and Ferris Fain. This lineup features 4 SH, lots of walks and some speed, which should do me well at Dodger Stadium.

My pitching staff is a lot of guys I’ve never really used. Perez, Tewksbury, Wells and Mikolas make up the rotation, with Boucher, Shea, Grabowski, Fikac and Horton in the pen. I’m not the least bit optimistic about this team.

Hitters: .301/.389/.417, 294 2B, 676 BB
Pitchers: 1,272 IP, 1.04 WHIP, 0.77 HR/9, 1.27 BB/9

$90M
Modern Miracles
Target Field

The strategy for this one seemed obvious: deadball hitters with D/A defense and modern pitchers to improve that defense. I decided to go for a lot of doubles and triples, with low HR in my lineup, with Target Field to kill the HR/9 of my modern pitchers.

My lineup features Connor, Browning, McGraw, Jackson, Herman, Speaker, McGuire and Elberfeld. Everyone but Jackson has a range rating of A- or better. With just 273 Ks, this offense should hit well.

I went for low walks on my pitching staff. ’18 Kluber, ’18 Greinke, ’01 Moyer and ’05 Unit in the rotation and an oddball mix of relievers including Eovaldi, Weber, Villanueva, Calero and Will Harris. Verlander comes as a closer and stud SP option when needed. I’m banking on others going with a lot of low-HR lineups too.

I feel cautiously optimistic about this team. (cue jinx)

Hitters: .340/.424/.478, 284 2B, 108 3B, 644 BB
Pitchers: 1,432.3 IP, 1.07 WHIP, 1.29 HR/9 (yikes!), 1.83 BB/9

$110M
60 wins, +/- 2
AT&T Park

I actually didn’t struggle too much with this theme. I knew some base players I wanted right off the bat, that would have a couple comparable seasons, including Speaker, Delahanty, Honus Wagner, Eckersley and Jansen. Beyond that, it was just about finding “mirrored” players. If I had a 2B with a $6M season and an $8M season, then I needed to find another with the same. My most drastic change was in my rotation…I’ll be using 412IP of Alexander in Round 1, and his 33 IP closer season if I get to Round 2. I got within $200K of the cap for both themes.

In addition to Speaker, Delahanty and Wagner, my lineup includes Boggs, Pedroia, Connor, Giles and Wynegar. Stud Loretta is on my bench. He will move into the starting lineup in the second iteration. Once again, I focused on non-HR slugging and walks. This is a balanced lineup with solid D.

Alexander anchors the rotation, with Sale and Kluber rotating in behind him. Sheets and Bonham provide depth, and Eck, Jansen, Romo, Wagner, Beck and Verlander provide a great bullpen. Romo brings me AT&T Park for both rounds.

I think I did a good job with this team.

Hitters: .336/.412/.488, 327 3B, 630 BB
Pitchers: 1,466.3 IP, 0.99 WHIP, 0.7 HR/9, 1.42 BB/9

$120M
Addie-os Amigos
Oakland Coliseum

I based my decisions for SP and hitter on cost per IP/PA, to get the most bang for my buck, so Joss and Cobb came along. I suspect they’ll be the popular choices. I went with Schoendienst as my defensive stud, because he has enough PA to man the top of the order, and he’s a switch hitter. Roger Connor will bat behind him to set up Cobb. Kershaw and Eck were my stud bullpen choices.

The quality of this team is hard to judge. There are definitely rewards for choosing a good, economical roster, but I feel whoever is able to get the most out of their studs will succeed. Falk, Stephenson, Rogell, Sewell and Wynegar round out my order. My lineup has 4 SH and only 281 strikeouts, so hopefully we can put the ball in play a lot.

Kluber and Wells join Joss in the rotation, with Kershaw spot starting. Dean, Will Smith, Rasmussen, Chagnon and Timlin join Eck in the pen. I went with Oakland Coliseum to stretch my innings a bit further and take more advantage of my low walk staff. Not sure how I feel about this team, but it’ll be a fun theme.

Hitters: .321/.396/.443, 269 2B, 579 BB
Pitchers:1,354.3 IP, 0.93 WHIP, 0.67 HR/9, 1.09 BB/9

$140M
Native Tiger Cubs
League Park II

I knew immediately I wanted the Indians. They have a lot of good value options for this cap (Lajoie, Speaker, Jackson, Bernhard, etc.). I filled as many spots as I could, with the intention to plug in and replace as I chose other franchises. I initially went with the A’s and Tigers as my next two choices, but did not like my pitching that much. I eventually switched from the A’s to the Cubs to get Arrieta, Brown and Dean.

I love my lineup for this theme, adding Boudreau, Cobb, Cochrane, Cavarretta and Kell to the hitters listed above. I’m taking a chance on McLain in my rotation, with a negative homer park, and Kluber rounds things out. My bullpen features staples like Fister, Dean and Alexander, as well as guys I’ve never really used before in Fritz Peterson, Bill Henry, Jesse Chavez and Willie Hernandez. I really like the look of this team on paper. League Park should give a nice boost to my hitters and their 390 doubles.

Hitters: .359/.431/.497
Pitchers: 1,561.7 IP, 0.90 WHIP, 0.55 HR/9, 1.52 BB/9

Variable
The $177 Million Match Game
Exposition Park

My initial approach was one stud hitter to anchor the lineup and one stud pitcher to anchor the rotation. However, after I started constructing things I didn’t feel comfortable with so many platoons in my lineup. For me, lots of platoons invariably leads to fatigue issues. Instead, I opted for 3 fulltime hitters to anchor the lineup and no 200+ IP pitchers. ’96 Jennings, ’12 Speaker and ’12 Baker will provide plenty of PAs and stability atop the order. My mix behind them includes ’55 Williams, ’27 Simmons, ’12 Votto, ’02 Lajoie and ’61 Elston Howard.

For my rotation, I’m running three R/L tandems: Chamberlain/Sale, Toney/Kershaw and Harvey/Schupp. Bullpen is stocked with studs, including Miller, Kimbrel, Eckersley and Gagne. My team looks good, but it’s hard to tell in caps this high. I’m cautiously optimistic. I went with Exposition Park to cut down on homers without hurting my offense anywhere else.

Hitters: .360/.440/.559, 392 2B, 652 BB
Pitchers: 1,593.7 IP, 0.82 WHIP, 0.38 HR/9, 1.55 BB/9

$80 mil DR9 Taylor-Made Double Play

Let me start off by saying I’ve played 1 OL in like the last 4 years. I did win 98 games before losing to redsox1966 in the DS, but that still don’t mean I know what I’m doing. There were some guys I knew I was playing (John Knight((who’s best performance from the PH is from me)), Marwin Gonzalez, Danny Santana, Mike Kingery for example), but for the most part, it was complete guessing and looking at performance history. I have 3 RHH, 3 LHH, and 3 SH that look to be main parts in my lineup, but not much speed, so I expect to be among the leaders in GIDP. I busted my trusty Ol’ Tully Sparks for this one, who I’ve used in caps as high as $140 mil. My other 2 guys in the rotation are Barney Pelty, and Jack Taylor, who is what my team was named after. Both guys I’ve used in $120 mil roster twist leagues with moderate success, so here’s to hoping they don’t totally disappoint at $80 mil. In the bullpen is just whoever I could afford, that didn’t totally suck from the performance history. I’m just setting expectations at .500 with the hope of winning 85 games.


Hitters - 5241 PA .306/.370/.455
Pitchers **- 1309 IP .218 OAV 0.96 WHIP 0.11 HR/9
**excluding mop-ups who I plan on pitching even with a lead


$90 mil DR9 Deadball Delights

Next up is the $90 mil team as I built in order from low cap to high cap. With the bad fielding restriction, I wanted to build with modern pitching to help prevent errors, but I found myself spending more than I was comfortable with for pitching I liked, so I switched over to the deadball era with Bill Bernhard, Slim Sallee and co. Over on offense I chose a couple guys I know will produce (knock on wood) in Larry Doyle and Sammy Strang. Elsewhere is a bunch of speedy bois with range in Willie McGee, Jack Doyle, King Kelly, etc. I’d like to have drafted more homers to take advantage of modern pitching, but I’m hoping for 90 wins and a playoff berth with this one.

Hitters - 5380 PA .319/.383/.432
Pitchers **- 1350 IP .208 OAV 0.92 WHIP 0.09 HR/9
**excluding mop-ups

$110 mil DR9 Ol’ Nubbers Enterprise

This one wasn’t as difficult for me to draft as it was for choosing which team to go with. My other team has more IP, more PA, better hitting, and more range. I’m foolishly confident enough in myself to be a fringe contender for round 2, so I’d like for y’all to let me make it just so I could play with my round 2 team ;). I probably should’ve done more research, but I immediately went into my rotation with Kershaw, Mordecai, and Christy. Overpriced I know, but I just wanted sure things on the mound. I’m much less confident in my bullpen as I employed serial disappointments Mark Melancon and Don McMahon, but the $/IP were just too good to pass up. Other names include Grant Balfour, Jay Howell, Roberto Osuna, and Zack Britton. On offense I just went with the typical names like Max Carey, George Davis, Tris Speaker, King Kelly, Omar Vizquel and Frankie Frisch. Again these are not the good versions of the players, that’s round 2. This is probably the team I’m most nervous about as there’s not as much speed or XBH as I’d like, but I’m wishing for my rotation and lesser competition to bail me out. 85 wins.

Hitters - 5294 PA .321/.394/.449
Pitchers **- 1357 IP .195 OAV 0.87 WHIP 0.25 HR/9
**excluding mop-ups

$120 mil DR9 Conker’s Bad Furcal Day

Ugh, another team I gotta build like an OL, and it’s in my sweet spot cap! I went with all the ‘cheap’ options to give me the most flexibility with my payroll, apart from Furcal, as I was probably gonna have a defensive SS who can’t hit anyways. Cobb over ‘overpaid singles hitter’ Bonds and those expensive as hell Ruth’s that’ll dominate the league. Kershaw was the easy choice for me at Long Relief, and he’s likely the best pitcher in that group too. Also chosen were Joss and Uehara. Back is that Tully Sparks I was gleaming over earlier, and a guy who just recently dominated the ‘8 men only’ league in 1920 Babe Adams. This team probably has the least amount of walks drafted of all my teams as I got a Rasmussen, Herrera, and Charlie Smith to join up with Kershaw, Uehara, Joss and Adams. Offense has a lot of the same faces in Doyle, Doyle, McGee, and Joyce, but this team includes a guy I’m using (and seen) for the first time ever! 2016 Ben Zobrist already has over 570 uses despite only being a couple years old. I hope y’all know what you’re doing cuz this is blind hope! Give me 90 wins and a playoff berth!

Hitters - 5390 PA .326/.388/.462
Pitchers **- 1376 IP .207 OAV 0.88 WHIP 0.21 HR/9
**excludes mop-ups

$140 mil DR9 Twyne Sandburgh

Oh-ho-hoooo HERE. WE. GO with my favorite team of the bunch, so naturally chalk me up for 72 wins with this one! I immediately knew I wanted Twins/Sens just for Walter Johnson and their assortment of 9,999 HR/9+ pitchers in Niggeling, Dumont, and Breslow. Followed that with another team consisting of 9,999 HR/9+ pitchers with the Pirates and Nick Maddox, Bill Harris, and Mark Dewey. Throw in Babe Adams and this pitching is starting to round out nicely! With one team left, I went with a franchise who always seems to win nordawg’s ‘Best Damn Franchise’ league...the NY/SF Giants. Plucked Mathewson, Toney, Hornsby, and Mays from there. Had to use my bench and mop-ups to just get thousands over the $40 mil minimum for Twins and Pirates, this is a majority Giants team.
90+ wins and a playoff berth.

Hitters - 5529 PA .348/.424/.557
Pitchers** - 1432 IP .197 OAV 0.87 WHIP 0.06 HR/9
**excludes mop-up

Variable Cap $171 mil DR9 Spot Startin’

This one was changed drastically right before the deadline. Earlier I had managed to gain salary, but I just blew it on all overpriced hitters. Don’t get me wrong, my OPS was much much higher with that team, but I had no idea how some of those guys were gonna perform. I had a Lajoie/Scutaro platoon, Teddy Williams/MannyWood platoon, Jocko Milligan/Jack Clements platoon, and Joey Votto/Dale Alexander platoon to name a few. I blew money wherever. Skunk saying he is playing as low as the $160s made me rethink my entire team. Spending more just to spend more probably wasn’t a smart move. Gone are those overpriced platoons I mentioned earlier, and in are my cookie hitters in Roger Connor, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, and Tris Speaker. I feel I got some other cookie platoons like Hanley/Tulo, or Al Simmons with whoever, but I feel much better about this team despite the drop in salary. Over on the pitching side are guys who I plan on doing exactly what my team name says. Drafted Silver King because of course I do. Afterwards is a combo of ‘16 Kershaw, ‘18 Toney, ‘88 Chamberlain, and ‘16 Schupp. In the bullpen are Eck, Kuo, Green, Adams, and Milacki. Interested to see how this goes as this is just my normal $140 mil team with overpriced pitchers thrown in. Maybe 90 wins?

Hitters - 6131 PA .365/.440/.550
Pitchers** - 1515 IP .178 OAV 0.80 WHIP 0.18 HR/9
**excludes mop-up

Prediction: the overconfident fool says 530 wins and 3 playoff berths.

Interesting to see a deadball staff in the $90M theme. I'm definitely not an expert at this game, but a deadball staff with all D fielders behind them seems like an absolute disaster waiting to happen. I'm curious to see how it works out.

Posted by Jtpsops on 6/5/2020 11:59:00 PM (view original):
Interesting to see a deadball staff in the $90M theme. I'm definitely not an expert at this game, but a deadball staff with all D fielders behind them seems like an absolute disaster waiting to happen. I'm curious to see how it works out.

Final tally:

2000s: 57
Deadball: 39

Of the pre-ranked top 24:
2000s: 12
Deadball: 12

I mean, what really is the difference between D+/A defenders and the usual cookies who rate at C/A+

Posted by d_rock97 on 6/6/2020 12:16:00 AM (view original):
I mean, what really is the difference between D+/A defenders and the usual cookies who rate at C/A+

Which is why you shouldn't use deadball pitchers in most leagues.

The debate between modern and deadball pitchers is the most interesting strategic conversation in WIS right now, and no one's really even having it yet! That's basically why I included this theme.

To me, modern pitchers are better values right now, but I haven't used them enough yet to feel comfortable making all the necessary tradeoff decisions that the WISC requires and therefore didn't use them everywhere. This is the downside of the earlier start to the tournament, for my own chances at least.

as an overriding disclaimer, it's been nearly 10 years since i last participated in this tournament and since then i've only played in a couple of progressive leagues. themes and open leagues have been off limits for me. so generally speaking, i struggle with how many ip are required for anything with a cap north of 90M. i think i've been conservative (i usually can get by easily with 1,250 ip in your standard prog league), but we shall see... plus, i generally like to small ball it. build a team that can get on base and get around the bases while playing in a pitcher friendly home.

gump's top dollar - 80M ("whackin' andujar")
this team was the most fun to build and includes many favourite mediocre players of my youth. and all at their absolute best! though i fully expect this team to be middling at best.

5,166 pa .281 ba .364 obp .444 slg .808 ops
1,361 ip .233 oav 1.14 whip 0.58 hr/9
busch stadium

gump's pitching and (no) defense - 90M ("21st century boys")
i'm extremely curious to see how this theme works out. logic seemed to indicate that a league with horrible fielders all over meant you'd want a pitching staff that didn't induce contact so going with 21st century high strikeout guys seemed obvious? similarly, you'd want hitters who put the ball in play as much as possible so the batters are all early period guys that i've never used before. i went cheap on the ip here (but the quality is high) and, in hindsight, ought to have selected an even more friendly park than i did. i thought i'd had enough time to tinker, but it seems not. that said, this team has a chance to be decent.

5,735 .334 .395 .466 .861
1,383 .210 1.10 1.01
busch stadium (II)

gump's prog reg +/- 2 - 110M ("two up or two down")
this seems like a life's work. for whatever reason, a +/- of 1 seemed too easy, so +/- 2 was the goal from the start. and in the end, the puzzle is completed, which is victory in itself. i think i like building these teams more than managing them. this team can get on base, steal and is balanced through the line-up. big train and addie make a reappearance here (also in the earlier constructed platoon). so maybe i was getting a little lazy. this team is pitching heavy (and even heavier in round 2) and will make you work for it in the astrodome. this and the platoon theme are my best chances to do something.

5,334 .296 .402 .441 .843
1,581 .220 0.98 0.38
astrodome

gump's overpriced studs - 120M ("time for toney")
there was little "strategy" here other than i went with nap lajoie at 2b simply because in terms of positional relevance, these kind of numbers will be hard to find elsewhere. and i've never had addie joss on a team, so this seems like a good time to experiment!? lajoie was heavy on doubles so we added more like that and will accordingly play in the polo grounds to maximize this benefit. and finally, no idea who fred toney is, but he's our namesake, and will lead our bullpen. looking at the draft centre stat line for this team doesn't give me much confidence, but i'm hoping that the polo grounds tailoring works out.

5,393 .296 .380 .461 .841
1,494 .229 1.03 0.30
polo grounds (V)

gump's think inside the (franchise) box - 140M ("athletic red cards")
i like this team a lot led by the likes of joe morgan, johnny bench, joey votto, stan musial and rickey henderson at his most powerful. but again, at this cap level, can't tell if the stat lines are indicative of success. the pitching is elite. but only 7 deep, plugs aside. that may be trouble? but the defense is exceptional and we're playing in oakland. not a playoff team, but hopefully not an anchor.

5,648 .306 .414 .490 .904
1,647 .206 1.01 0.47
oakland coliseum

gump's platoon - 184M ("gump's platoon")
always a fan of the platoon, accepted the challenge of maximizing the cap here and got it to 184M, which i think is pretty good. the only premium talent is rogers hornsby at 2b and the 3 man rotation of walter johnson, addie joss, and sandy koufax. everybody else is a team player. and everybody will play. no plugs on this roster. we'll play in modern day busch, always a personal favourite. this squad may be our best chance.

5,778 .342 .448 .612 1.06
1,539 .180 0.80 0.33
busch stadium (II)

good luck.

Expectations, hmm - after taking the last 6 years off from the site, I really don’t have any. I am extremely competitive though, and spent a lot of time building teams and playing against other teams I’d created in the dream team section (does anyone else do that??), so I think I’ve got some pretty good teams that should, at the very least, be competitive.

I had all of my teams built before I was technically in the tournament, having accepted the invitation just after it filled. My wait to join didn’t last long though, and soon my teams were official.

None of my current teams bear any resemblance to the original rosters I created. I think for the better, but only time will tell. I played and tweaked and restarted my teams more time than I can remember. A lot of it having to do with me just remembering things as I reacquainted myself to the site again,and some as I dove into some OL's and got my feet wet again. I started developing some favorites, and a lot of them found their way over here. Many of the raw numbers above me look much better than what I have - but I'm hopeful I'll be competitive enough to make a run for the 2nd round!

$80m WISC: Ryno's Top Dollars

This was the first team I built, and the last team I entered. The trickiest part for me was finding a player I wanted, who’s most expensive year was in a stadium I wanted. I eventually settled on Kevin Brown’s 1996. Though I toyed with Kershaw and Degrom in that spot as well, but didn’t like the overall composition of those teams. I went with a lot of my OL favorites with the pitching staff. Halladay, Lee (though I wish I could’ve used 2010), and Tewksbury follow behind Brown, and just hope my bullpen is strong enough to carry through. For my offense, I have a mixture of OL regulars and newbies for me, while trying to focus on range, though I’m a little nervous about my poor fielding OF.

Starting 8:

C	1964 Johnny Roseboro	L	475	0.287	0.357	0.372	A-/A	$4,484,129
1B	1885 Bill Phillips	R	621	0.302	0.364	0.422	C-/A	$4,726,407
2B	1889 Lou Bierbauer	L	709	0.304	0.344	0.417	C/A+	$5,674,654
3B	1907 Dave Brain	R	605	0.279	0.324	0.42	C-/A+	$4,220,301
SS	2009 Yunel Escobar	R	604	0.299	0.377	0.436	A-/B-	$5,158,175
OF	1915 Max Flack	L	622	0.314	0.365	0.423	C+/C	$4,591,399
OF	1985 Keith Moreland	R	672	0.307	0.374	0.44	C/D-	$4,329,664
OF	1914 Benny Meyer	R	624	0.304	0.395	0.41	D/D-	$3,877,271

Rotation:

1996 Kevin Brown	233	1.89	.220	0.94	6.14	1.27	$9,903,221
1992 Bob Tewksbury	233	2.16	.248	1.02	3.52	0.77	$6,327,495
2011 Roy Halladay	234	2.35	.239	1.04	8.47	1.35	$7,857,245
2011 Cliff Lee	233	2.4	.229	1.03	9.21	1.62	$7,541,868

Stadium: Joe Robbie Stadium
Hitting: 5604PA .281/.344/.392 $38,501,925
Pitching: 1,259IP, .233OAV, 1.02 WHIP, 0.52 HR/9 $41,463,034

$90M WISC: Ryno's Pitching in the Future

Ok, I lied. THIS was the last team I entered - because I realized I hadn’t made any changes to it since my original team, and I decided...that can’t be good. And I was right. I dismantled the entire thing, though I kept the premise the same: Modern era pitchers (I don’t like deadballers remember?) with an entire team of D/A+ hitters. Ok, I lied again. An entire team of D/A+ hitters, with the exception of Tilly Walker and Gavvy Cravath, who I am hoping will put the hurt on all of ya’ll pitching staffs. I was similar to some of you, in wanting to draft a very power heavy team and throw them in Yankee Stadium (my dream team “HR or Bust” defeated all my challenges with a record of 1760-1320...so maybe I should’ve just kept that team…), but in the end I decided that the success of that team relied too heavily on playing against specific teams, and so in the end I made a combination team - keeping some of my power hitters, upping my pitching a bit, and throwing them in Arlington for some crazy fun. Hopefully my pitching staff can keep up.

Starting 8:

Pos	Player	PA/162	AVG	OBP	SLG	F/R	Salary
C	1975 Thurman Munson	670	0.318	0.366	0.429	D+/A	$6,169,426
1B	1918 George Burns	689	0.352	0.390	0.467	D+/A	$6,283,669
2B	1937 Billy Herman	665	0.335	0.396	0.479	D+/A+	$6,039,949
3B	1913 Frank Baker	682	0.337	0.413	0.493	D+/A+	$6,697,127
SS	1896 Herman Long	673	0.343	0.382	0.463	D/A+	$5,341,807
OF	1990 Willie McGee	665	0.324	0.373	0.419	D/A+	$5,330,423
OF	1914 Gavvy Cravath	636	0.299	0.402	0.499	D/D+	$4,947,660
OF	1918 Tilly Walker	590	0.295	0.360	0.423	D+/B+	$4,118,973

Rotation:

2000 Greg Maddux	250	3.00	0.238	1.07	6.86	1.52	$8,330,224
2010 Cliff Lee	212	3.18	0.24	1	7.84	0.76	$6,812,030
2011 Roy Halladay	234	2.35	0.239	1.04	8.47	1.35	$7,857,245
2011 Clayton Kershaw	233	2.28	0.207	0.98	9.57	2.08	$8,874,295

Stadium: Ameriquest Field in Arlington
Hitters: 5673PA, .314/.374/.441 $46,137,815
Pitchers: 1,331IP, .231OAV, 1.04WHIP, 0.62HR/9 $43,767,602


$110M WISC: Ryno's Blue’s Two’s, Blue’s Two’s

I knew right away I didn’t want to do just 1 year, and knew just as quickly that anything more than 2 years was going to start to start becoming a lot harder to create. So, 2 felt like the obvious choice for me. As I’m not really a higher cap guy, I have very little expectations for this team, except that I think it should be fun and I have some great players to watch. Between my aces Sandy Koufax, Walter Johnson and Eddie Cicotte, or my big bats of Ruth, Collins, or Donlin, there should be plenty of fireworks. This theme was probably the worst defense I’ve drafted in a long time, and I hope it doesn’t come back to haunt me. I was happy to find a couple usable seasons of Kirby Yates so I could use Petco for this one.

Starting 8:

Pos	Player	PA/162	AVG	OBP	SLG	F/R	Salary
C	1977 Thurman Munson	638	0.308	0.351	0.462	C/B	$5,531,726
1B	1903 Mike Donlin	$657	0.351	0.42	0.516	D/A+	$5,926,059
2B	1914 Eddie Collins	701	0.344	0.452	0.452	B/D-	$7,169,846
3B	1911 Frank Baker	$708	0.334	0.379	0.508	C+/B-	$6,420,205
SS	1937 Luke Appling	$700	0.317	0.407	0.439	C-/A	$5,683,796
OF	1930 Babe Ruth	$712	0.359	0.493	0.732	C/D+	$10,909,505
OF	1921 Max Carey	662	0.309	0.395	0.43	C-/A+	$5,644,324
OF	1943 Roy Cullenbine	634	0.289	0.407	0.404	B/C	$4,798,494

Rotation:

1918 Walter Johnson	413	1.27	0.204	0.95	4.47	1.93	162-70	$16,264,276
1965 Sandy Koufax	336	2.04	0.179	0.86	10.24	1.9	382-71	$16,141,140
1919 Eddie Cicotte	355	1.82	0.23	0.99	3.23	1.44	110-49	$11,723,968

Round1:
Stadium: Petco Park
Hitters: 5915PA, .313/.398/.473 $53,677,791
Pitchers: 1,498IP, .207OAV, 0.97WHIP, 0.49HR/9 $56,176,063
Round 2:
Stadium: Petco Park
Hitters: 5943PA, .307/.399/.446 $52,744,890
Pitchers: 1,445IP, .208OAV, 0.97WHIP, 0.28HR/9 $57,174,690


$120M WISC: Ryno and Koji’s Lament

It took me a little while to figure out how I wanted to play this one - but after tinkering with it a little bit, i finally found a setup I liked. Using both Cobb and Piersall, with Billy North in the OF - I hope to take away some XBH, and otherwise I’ve got some scrappers on offense who will hopefully get on base and move guys around! My pitching staff doesn’t really look like a real $120m staff, which of course is the point, but It’s definitely a pretty solid OL rotation, which is what I’m guessing the theme will play like overall. Maddux is my big man up front, with an OL favorite Halladay and Tewksbury in tow behind him, and a nice tandem of Pedro’s 2001 and Clayton’s 2016 to close it off. I am really betting on this playing more like a low cap than a high cap, and am very curious to see if this one blows up in my face or not. I’m riding behind my horse Maddux, and letting him play in his home park of AFC...another decision I may regret.

Starting 8:

Pos	Player	PA/162	AVG	OBP	SLG	F/R	Salary
C	1893 Jack Clements	528	0.285	0.36	0.489	C-/C-	$3,536,136
1B	1915 Hal Chase	636.00	0.291	0.316	0.471	D/B	$3,963,988
2B	1933 Billy Herman	717.00	0.279	0.332	0.342	D+/A+	$4,238,162
3B	1907 Dave Brain	605.00	0.279	0.324	0.42	C-/A+	$4,220,301
SS	1963 Maury Wills	580.00	0.302	0.355	0.349	C/C-	$3,996,197
OF	1911 Ty Cobb	688.00	0.42	0.467	0.621	C/A+	$21,147,360
OF	1956 Jim Piersall	717.00	0.293	0.35	0.449	A/A+	$7,086,806
OF	1973 Billy North	642.00	0.285	0.376	0.348	B-/A+	$5,628,796

Rotation:

1995 Greg Maddux	236	1.63	0.197	0.81	7.77	0.99	$19,207,768
1992 Bob Tewksbury	233.00	2.16	0.248	1.02	3.52	0.77	$6,327,495
2011 Roy Halladay	234.00	2.35	0.239	1.04	8.47	1.35	$7,857,245
2001 Pedro Martinez	118.00	2.39	0.199	0.93	12.57	1.93	$5,428,907
2016 Clayton Kershaw	149.00	1.63	0.184	0.72	10.39	0.66	$7,766,928

Stadium: Atlanta Fulton County Stadium
Hitting: 5718PA, .288/.344/.409 $55,057,671
Pitching: 1,354IP, .213OAV, 0.91WHIP, 0.50HR/9 $64,888,002

$140M WISC: Ryno's Chicago Twin Indians

I was finally smart enough to build my team in a way that would allow me to use Target Field! 1 out of 6 ain’t bad I guess. I toyed with the franchises for a long time. I thought for sure my Yankee team with Mantle, Ruth, and DiMaggio in the OF was gonna take the cake for sure, but in the end - I wanted to play the super rotation with 1918 Ed Walsh, 1912 Walter Johnson, and 1908 Addie Joss. Once I saw the potential of using these 3 monsters, I never considered another team - well, ok I REALLY wanted a Pittsburgh/St. Louis/Twin team...but I just couldn’t pass up that trio. I really like my offense too, with great defense behind Lemon and Speaker, great offense behind Thomas, Lajoie and Delahanty, and a pretty deadly bullpen if my studs get tired down the break.


Stadium: Target Field
Hitters: 5986PA, .323/.410/.480 $67,652,842
Pitchers: 1484IP, .198OAV, 0.88WHIP, 0.15HR/9 $72,260,978

$180M WISC: Ryno's 176 Million Red Balloons

My strategy for this team never wavered - though I tweaked a few roster spots over the weeks and tried to fine tune it as much as I could. In the end - only time will tell if I succeeded. My biggest goal was to have as little wasted PA/IP I could, so as to really utilize every $ I spend as much as possible.

I drafted 4 full time hitters, 1901 Wagner, 1887 Tip O’Neill, 1924 Babe Ruth, and 1917 Ty Cobb. I don’t really know why I pick those 4. Just did. I think it had to do with the availability of sub-500PA studs at the other positions. Jack Clements 1895, Votto’s 2012, Lajoie’s 1902, Lyons 1890, and Williams 1955 rounded up my starters, with 5 sub 200PA spots to get some money back. The numbers look great for my offense - now it’s up to my management to make it happen.

My entire pitching staff is going to be done through a committee of sorts. I don’t have a pitcher over 200IP on my team, and instead went with a bunch of tandem pairs. Schupp, Chamberlain, Sale, Kershaw, Toney, Arrieta...with some bullpen greats like Rivera, Rodney, Betances to fill in the holes.

On paper, this team looks phenomenal - but at this cap, I literally have no idea what to expect, though maybe Petco will slow down some of the crazy offense.

Stadium: Petco Park
Hitters: 5948PA, .372/.458/.600 $96,953,717
Pitchers: 1,511IP, .187OAV, 0.87WHIP, 0.32HR/9 $78,877,148

April 16, 2020. 9:26PM. Today, after hoping against hope that this would not come to pass, I cancelled my annual two-week trip to Portugal in early June. AKA the two weeks each year that I spend the other fifty looking forward to. Devastation. After a post-work sidecar, followed by a super-spicy homemade red beans and rice dinner accompanied by a local IPA, followed by smoking the last Cuban cigar in my humidor (Montecristo #5 for those keeping score at home), drinking a few glasses of Madeira (Blandy’s 5-year Bual) and listening to Wayne Shorter’s “Speak No Evil” album, I sit down to write this. As a wise woman once said, “fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!”

After two straight appearances in which I finished just outside of the cage but participated in the final round due to dropouts, my plan was not to play this year. But what else do I have to do? Nothing, as evidenced by the fact that I have all of my teams created at this early a date. I must say that ozomatli did a phenomenal job this year of creating themes. I love them all. So let’s get to it.

As always, stats are normalized and include only players that I expect to use.


$80M – Shawkey’s Machine
Great opening theme. Nothing too complicated, but allows for using players that you wouldn’t always consider. I fall back on my usual team-building strategy of skimping on defense, overemphasizing home run power, and using a lot of low-IP relievers. Some familiar faces (including recent personal cookie Marwin Gonzalez and perennial fave Walt Weiss) and some guys I’ve never considered (Evar Swanson? Wayne Krenchicki? Tex Neuer?). I think I’ve used Juan Padilla as a closer at some point before. I’m not proud.

5346 PA, .296/.399/.446
1376 IP, 2.27 ERC#


$90M – My typical defense, with deadballers
I was a little bit confused about the restriction to players with defense ratings of D+ or worse. Doesn’t that always apply, regardless of cap? Oh wait that’s only me…

I’ll bet everyone was like “well, I have to use guys who are D at fielding; I’ll compensate for that by using guys who are A+ in range.” That was my thought too, until I realized that the really good offensive Joe Sewell year was D+ in fielding. Range, schmange. Don’t get me wrong; I did choose some A range guys, like 1891 Bill Joyce who I discovered and almost used in schwarze’s recent 12x12 draft league. I rostered him here to see what I was previously missing, but of course I’m platooning him with the pathetic defensive 2000 Ken Caminiti because I’ve always been curious just how bad he would be in the field, and what better place to find that out than in the WISC? And I’m using Milton Bradley, ‘cause he got game……………I’ll show myself out…………….

I’ll also bet that a bunch of people are using modern pitchers to help their defense. The beauty of not having any defense at all is that there’s no defense to help. Trouble is, I might have skimped on innings. I thought about replacing closer George Dumont with a pitcher with more pitches in his arm, but if George is as good at closing games as namesake Margaret was at bearing the brunt of Groucho’s jokes I should be fine. I could dance with you ‘til the cows come home. On second thought, I'd rather dance with the cows ‘til you came home.

5416 PA, .320/.419/.490
1397 IP, 2.12 ERC#


$110M – Tea for Two
First things first: this team’s moniker was inspired by the song of the same name, as performed by Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson trio on this album, which probably had as much influence on my love of jazz as any other record: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNl63ARx0DM. If you’ve always wanted to explore jazz but didn’t know where to begin, this is my recommendation. Eminently approachable, classy, mellow yet swingin’, and of course featuring amazing piano work by Peterson, especially on the track that inspired this team name. OK, back to the writeup...

When I first read this theme idea I loved it. Then when I was assembling my bullpen I hated it. Once I made my peace with my pitching staff I loved it again.

My strategy for building these teams was pretty simple. $110M is my favorite cap, and I have a good idea of what types of players work here. My thought was to look at the types of players I usually use at this cap, and find ones who have multiple similar usable seasons. I didn’t want to play the whole “this guy has one good year and I can use him as a reserve in another, and now I need to find a similar guy at the same position to work it the other way” game. The funny thing is, as soon as I read this theme I knew my number would be 2. 1 would seem to make more sense for it to be 1 but somehow I knew it would be 2. What I didn’t know was that 17 of my 25 players would come from odd-numbered years. Which means that in round 2 (assuming I make it, which is probably a coin toss) my roster will also consist of 17 players from odd-numbered years. That’s…odd…

Once I started settling on players I simply alternated their better years between teams to even out the salaries. Better Mize on team 1, better Alomar on team 2, etc. I left my bullpen for last and that proved difficult. I didn’t leave much cap space for my relievers and there aren’t a lot of guys who have multiple similar low IP seasons but I think I did OK. I’m not a fan of LH closers but for Aroldis I’ll make an exception. My round 2 team is practically identical to my round 1 team, with round 1 besting round 2 in ERC# 1.91 to 1.95, while round 2 slightly surpasses round 1 in RC/27, 8.61 to 8.52. Changing my 3B from Chipper to Rendon allowed me to bolster my bench and use Nationals Park, which I appreciate because I have no idea how this team will compare to others so a neutral park suits me fine. I spent $57.1M on my staff, which is more than I’d usually do at this cap, but again, I have zero idea how the other teams will look so I played it a bit safe here. Admittedly, though, the fact that my offense is virtually identical to my $90M team is cause for concern.

PS – Weeks after originally writing all this, I researched the song Tea for Two and found that it was written for the play No, No Nanette. How’s that for a coincidental link to baseball history? Almost makes me want to completely revamp my team(s) to use Babe Ruth. Almost.

5519 PA, .320/.417/.493
1412 IP, 1.91 ERC#


$120M – What the Eck? $7.5M for a closer?
It’s amazing how much wasted salary there is in the higher-priced guys. I mean, I get it. The marginal cost to obtain elite performance is going to be very high, in WhatIf as in real life. And this theme really demonstrates that. My $120M team is no better than my $90M team.

Al cuarto de Tula
le cogió candela
Se quedó dormida y no
apagó la vela

Yep, I’m now listening to Buena Vista Social Club. Pairs well with a post-Cubano haze.

Why did I choose my particular albatrosses? Well, I went with Furcal because otherwise I’d probably end up with like a C-/D+ at shortstop, so this way I’d at least lock in a good defender there. And he can run, which is what all the cool kids care about nowadays. I chose Joss because I figured I’d rather have more good IP for my money than fewer. I think Joss can get these lesser lineups out just as well as Pedro or Maddux, so for similar money I’d rather have more innings of doing that. Kershaw seems like a (relatively) good value, and with Eck you can get a little more than an inning per appearance out of him and he prevents homers unless he’s facing a crippled Kirk Gibson. And I rostered Ruth because if you’re going to spend $20M+ on a guy it might as well be for the most dominant player of all time.

The rest of my team was filled in as if it were the $90M team this will mostly play like. Deadball starters, low IP relievers, OBP and too many homers. I’ve had good fortune with the ’80 Reggie in the past so I figured what the heck (‘Eck?), especially since I remember sitting on the couch listening to the radio broadcast of the last game of that season when he got the hit that gave him the only .300 average of his career. And how can you say no to King Cole as a long reliever? I mean, he’s a merry old soul. And why shouldn’t he be? Not only does he have a pipe as well as a bowl, but he has not one, not two but three fiddlers at his beck and call. Each in possession of a fine fiddle nonetheless. I think there’s a lesson there for all of us, especially in these troubled times.

5391 PA, .306/.411/.492
1386 IP, 2.03 ERC#


$140M – Brave Yankees wear White Sox
This was definitely the most straightforward theme. Those who have followed my previous writeups know that I am a very offense-first type of owner. But in a very *not me* development I started with pitching, and decided that I wanted Walsh and the two pale hose relief cookies (Carlos and Latman). I’m a little suspicious as to how well Horlen will do at this cap but I used him anyway. Which reminds me of my favorite Yakov Smirnoff bit: “I went to dinner at a restaurant last night. I had reservations…but I ate there anyway…” <<rimshot>> What the world needs now is more of the smooth comedic stylings of Yakov Smirnoff. Well, that and a vaccine against COVID-19. We don’t have the latter, but at least we can have some more of the former: https://twitter.com/Yakov_Smirnoff/status/1238549320049119233?s=20

I’ve never used the $9M Appling before because he strikes me as overpriced but I went with him here just for the hell of it. At least I have BlackJack McDowell in case I have one game that I really need to win, plus I get to use the low-PA Frank Thomas to fill in for my starting 1B, the always productive 1971 Hank Aaron. The Braves seemed like a no-brainer from Box 3 for me. Aaron, Maddux, Chipper, and IMO the most cost-effective dominant Hornsby. Rounding out the squad are my beloved Yankees. I use Posada and Murcer whenever possible at practically whatever cap possible, and I love the value of the ’62 Mantle. I was originally going to use Bernie in CF but I switched to Rickey so that I at least would have a SB threat on one of my teams (says the guy who rostered the 102 SB Hamilton in the $90M theme). Sadly there’s no room here for Mo, but I was able to roster old friend and utility infielder and pinch-hitter extraordinaire George Zeber, which is nice. I guess. I sometimes think about trying to explain this game to friends who like baseball, but then I realize I’d have to say things like “I didn’t use the greatest closer of all time but I was very happy to roster George Zeber” and then I just give up.

Anyway, this looks like a $140M team to me, which is a welcome change because my $110M and $120M teams look like glorified $90M teams.

5476 PA, .340/.443/.556
1449 IP, 1.64 ERC#


Variable Cap – Platoon Squad 172
An interesting exercise to close out Round 1 of the WISC. You usually see platoon themes at lower caps. This is probably because there are few platoon players who outperform the elite full season guys that you can afford to use in the $180M range. But this theme effectively incentivizes using platoons despite being a high cap league. Very nicely done.

I started roster-building with my pitching staff. What is this world coming to? I fear perhaps cabin fever is setting in. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. All work and no play makes barracuda3 a dull boy. I’ve always been the caretaker here.

What was I saying? Oh, pitching. To me it makes a huge amount of sense to use Silver King in this league. If you’re going to be dinged $5M for using a guy with more than 200 IP, you might as well use as many innings as possible with that one guy. My plan was to use just one 200+ IP pitcher. It’s easy to do this, even at a high cap, except that to use all of King’s innings you need to have a 2-man rotation, and since the minimum pitch setting for SPs is 40 (which is annoying AF, BTW, especially with the advent of “openers” in real life) your other starter needs to have over 180 IP so as to not have to replace him in the rotation much. And at this cap there aren’t very many usable 180-200 IP guys. The obvious one is 2014 Kershaw, but I really wanted to use his dominant 149 IP 2016 instead. Another possibility is the 2002 Pedro, who I’m guessing will be rostered a lot since he clocked in at exactly 200 innings, avoiding the cap hit. But I decided to take a chance on 2019 Blake Snell, whose HR/9 is high for this cap but should at least be a decent bargain since he didn’t go through the rigors of dynamic pricing. That is, should be a bargain if he can get anyone at all out, which remains to be seen.

Of course, what I said about needing a 180+ IP pitcher opposite King only applies if you don’t use the “Starter #2A / Starter #2B” functionality. For some reason doing so never occurred to me, even though I utilize its sister strategy, tandem starters, ALL THE TIME, as in probably at least two-thirds of the leagues I play in. I suppose if I want to make Snell a long reliever I still can use 2A/2B, as Kershaw, Chamberlain and Toney can all go that way. Hmmmm… Rounding out the staff I have Betances and Treinen setting up Mike Adams, with Ruffing in long relief.

Before drafting hitters this left me with a $183M cap. I briefly considered $185M with Andrew Bailey replacing Toney and a higher IP long reliever replacing Ruffing, but I liked Toney’s IP/G and I had the cap room to make the switch so I did. At $183M my plan was to use two 500+ PA guys and one or two under 200, leaving a cap in the $175M-$177M range. But I wanted one really dominant and good defensive outfielder so I didn’t end up with like Oscar Gamble in CF (don’t laugh; this sort of thing has happened to me before…actually, it’s OK, you can laugh…), and I didn’t love the platoon options at either 2B or 3B, so I used Mantle, Boggs and Hornsby and settled in at $172M. I’m guessing that this will be on the low end for this theme, but I think I deployed my money efficiently. Not much to say about the lineup other than that it looks like a high cap team, and the existence of the DH allows me to use the 1919 Gavvy Cravath (even I have my limits when it comes to bad defense), who I haven’t used in forever (as in, since before I developed said limits). I like the way this team looks, but that’s often the kiss of death.

6261 PA, .365/.463/.606
1552 IP, 1.47 ERC#


In conclusion, my sincere heartfelt thanks to ozomatli for creating such enjoyable themes and assuming the massive undertaking that is running this tournament. This is a really ****** time to be living through right now, and the enjoyable distraction of creating these teams was invaluable and very much appreciated. Good luck to everyone, and let the games begin!

LOL — great writeup, barracuda3! Entertaining as always.

Favorite moments were the dual/tandem SP realization, the King Cole tangent, and the (I believe) first use of AF in a WISC writeup.