$70M: Cheap Power

Offensively, I first drafted my favorite positive-normalizing HR hitters: Greenberg's cheap 1946 season and one of the more affordable Cy Williams years. Filling in the gaps, I took a few more power hitters who normalized reasonably well and some cheap high-OBP guys. I took a flyer on the 1999 Mike Piazza; I've never used him, but less than $5M for a .936 OPS/40 HR catcher seemed like a reasonable gamble. Lineup's at .265/.367/.457 with 192 HR; only 631 SO. For pitching, I stuck with post-90s guys. The 2006 Wang and Maddux did really well for me in a similar theme, so I opted for them and some other guys with similar numbers. I'm worried that I cut innings too close with this team, though, with only 1,300 (1.20 WHIP/.260 OAV/0.59 HR/9). I've been able to get by with that little at these caps before, but it definitely requires close management.

$80M: 10-Year Franchise

I decided pretty quickly that I wanted to use the mid-20s to mid-30s Senators for this theme. There's a good mix of high-quality seasons and inexpensive but solid seasons for both offense and pitching. I put together the rotation first; '28 Braxton should be a stud, while Lisenbee-Crowder-Zachary is solid for the back end. I'm not crazy about the relief pitching I had to take, but I've got at least 1,100 innings that I'm confident with before I need to start pushing it (1.20 WHIP/.245 OAV). The Sens at this time had seemingly tons of guys with solid OBPs, so I didn't have too much trouble putting together an offense I liked with enough cash over to buy good seasons of Joe Cronin and Heinie Manush to anchor the lineup. Overall my starters are at .303/.376/.427; light on the power but I think the OBP will translate at this cap.

$90M: GM Challenge

I tried a lot of teams for this one; like a lot of people, my first thought was to find an underachieving team with a couple solid players and build from there. But after looking for a while, I kept coming back to the 1924 Pirates. Their .588 WP was just under the 2 FA limit, and I really liked the pitching options they gave me--a base of more than 1,000 IP with 1.20 WHIP/.257 OAV, plus an excellent closer in Babe Adams. Offensively it's a mixed bag. They've got 600+ PA starters at almost every position with great defense (A+ range) at 2B, 3B, SS, and CF, but outside of an okay season of Max Carey and a great but short-PA season of Kiki Cuyler they're pretty anemic with the bat: with my three-headed C platoon and a backup for Carey they're at .298/.348/.423. Despite that drawback, I decided to stick with this Pirates team and trust in pitching and defense. I first made the no-brainer move of adding '24 Ruth (.378/.513/.739/46 HR) to give me the big bat I needed. I really wanted to add Dazzy Vance with my second FA to get a real ace, but I had to settle for a still-pretty-good Eppa Rixey (253 IP/1.12 WHIP/.246 OAV) because of cash constraints.

$100M: Two Team Twist

I was pretty dead-set on using the 1989 Phillies for my offense here, partly because I'm a big Phillies fan but also because it's a cost-effective but very solid offense: 1981 Schmidt is the anchor, with Phillies teammates Daulton/Kruk/Dykstra plus mercenaries Tom Herr, Dickie Thon and Dwayne Murphy. (Oh, and Von Hayes, I guess.) My lineup's at .293/.390/.478 with strong defense, especially up the middle. I was hoping I could find a team with some twistable pitching to match up with the Phils, and the Dodgers pretty much exactly fit that bill. I love my Tudor-Hershiser-Valenzuela top three, and Mike Morgan makes a pretty damn good #4. Wetteland and Howell make a good bullpen combo, but again though I find myself wondering why I shorted my long relief so much. Hopefully I can stretch my 1,305 non-mopup innings (1.03 WHIP/.213 OAV); maybe playing in Dodger Stadium will help.

$120M: 19th Century

This is a pretty by-the-numbers team. I toyed with targeting some of the fluky high-HR hitters from this era, but it didn't seem like a very fruitful strategy. I did cave in and take the '99 Buck Freeman, among the more cookie-cutter King Kelly, Bill Dahlen, Sam Thompson, etc. Overall my lineup hits .344/.437/.517. For pitching, I went with a two-man Ed Seward/Scott Stratton rotation with Elton Chamberlain as my main reliever. I'm a little unsure how the pitching will shake out, but I do have 1,426 non-mopup innings (1.01 WHIP/.212 OAV) and I'm hoping that's enough for the combination of the cap and the sketchy defense.

$140M: Five Tiers

I actually enjoyed the jigsaw puzzle feel of drafting this one, although I'm not sure how well it'll do. (I'm very hit or miss at these high caps.) I made sure to draft a ton of pitching, going with a Johnson/Hubbell/Luque rotation with more than 1,000 innings and a bunch of good relievers; all the usual suspects. I ended up with more than 1,500 quality innings (0.96 WHIP/.213 OAV), which I feel pretty good about. On offense, I put together some of my favorite <$6M cookies (Tony Phillips, Roy Thomas, Hank Greenberg) with the best seasons I could afford of the more expensive cookies (Ruth, Foxx, Boggs, Ashburn, Vaughan, Williams). My lineup looks a little OBP-heavy in retrospect, but I never trust power at these caps anyway. Overall the starters hit .338/.452/.524. My $10+ M guys are my rotation plus Ruth and Williams, for what it's worth.

Great reading so far... I hope JohnGPF, ballantine, shaybee and sford post here.

My claim to fame in the WISC is that I was the lowest-ranked owner to win a WISC league last year. So I'm not sure if anyone cares, but here it goes anyway.

$70 mil
I decided to go extreme with this team. I went with Sicks' Stadium (negative for 1B/3B; +1 for 2B; +2 for HR each field). Because of that, I looked for players with large discrepancy between AVG and OBP (so lots of walks) and, of course, with HR power. I ended up with 1 player over .250 AVG (86 Rickey Henderson at .263), but 5 over .350 OBP including one of my new favorites, Yank Robinson (this version, 1889, has a .208/.378/.292 line). My only 2 hitters over $4m are the aforementioned 86 Henderson ($5.82m) and 62 Killebrew ($4.90m), so I went heavy on pitching. Namely, I looked for pitchers with HR/9 between 0.5 and 0.6 that had the best HR/9+ numbers. I have the most expensive pitcher in the entire WISC for this theme according to Schwarze (95 Randy Johnson, $10.10m) along with co-ace 07 Peavy ($8.82m) who threw a no-hitter in his first start. I took 06 Cla Meredith to anchor my bullpen and filled out the rest with cheaper innings.

$80 mil 80-89 Dodgers
When in doubt, I always go with the Dodgers. I especially like this time frame because I can get cheap full-time position players such as 89 Jeff Hamilton at 3B, 83 Bill Russell at SS, and 89 John Shelpy at OF along with multiple solid options for Pedro Guerrero, Mike Scioscia, etc. That allows me to go heavy on pitching and grab the likes of Hershiser (I opted for the 85 version here) and Fernandomania. I went with Jay Howell and Tom Niedenfuer's best years to anchor my bullpen. I had enough money to grab 86 Sax and 88 Gibson to lead my offense in hopes that I can score enough runs to win with my superior pitching. In my league, I have the most drastic pitching/hitting split ($47m for pitching/$33m for hitting) so let's hope that pitching and defense win games.

$90 mil 77 Mets
I looked at team's in every winning percentage bracket. I just couldn't find a complete enough team at the top tier. I started thinking of the best ways to find a team with extra value. I looked at the rule that allowed you to take any season-type of a player, not just the partial he played for the team. So I looked around and found the 77 Seaver that had a $10m full season even though he was traded midseason...and I got 6 FAs to go with them. They had 2B Len Randle and some other spare parts on offense, enough to let me fill in with the FAs. I took 1B Rod Carew, 3B Mike Schmidt, and OF George Foster to fill the middle of my lineup. I was a bit peeved I had to "waste" a FA on a SS, but Chris Speier ended up being a good, cheap part that fit in nicely. On the pitching side, I had Seaver, of course, and then starters Koosman and Espinosa along with a couple bullpen arms. I needed another starter so I took Bert Blyleven. Finally, I took the fantastic season of Bruce Sutter to anchor my bullpen. The one thing I don't like is that Randle, my leadoff hitter, has only 585 PA. Gonna have to do some juggling to keep everyone fresh.

$100 mil 27 Senators (Pitching) and Athletics (Hitting)
I found the 27 Athletics incredible lineup: C Cochrane, 1B Foxx, 2B Collins, OF Cobb, Simmons, and Wheat. After I found some cheap 3B and SS options, I started trying to fit in 13 Walter Johnson. I just had to have him (never had him before). Alvin Crowder and Garland Braxton are my #2 and #3 starters. I used the 27 Senators for my RP in last year's WISC Single Season Puzzle so although I'm not thrilled with my bullpen, I think Bobby Burke and Co. will be good enough given 13 Johnson and my superstar-laden lineup.

$120 mil
I'm really scared that this whole thing might blow up in my face. I went bold and chose a pitcher's park and then took the 4 best pitchers I could find: 88 Silver King, 85 Lady Baldwin, 85 Toad Ramsey, and 88 Elton Chamberlain. However, they only leave me with a hair over 1200 quality IP and they fit together horribly. just4me was nice enough to offer some advice on how to get the most out of King, so I rested him for the first 6 games of the season (of course, he pitched 2 innings in an extra-inning game already) and hopefully he can make it to 750+ IP. I will keep a closer eye on this pitching staff than any other aspect of any team I have. To help with pitching fatigue, I went with good defense. Nearly all my starters are at least a C in both fielding and range. I ended up with 4 offensive stars ($8m+): 3B John McGraw, OF Sam Thompson and Ed Delahanty, and my favorite, C King Kelly. My other 4 starters are solid $4m players: 2B Bid McPhee, 1B Roger Connor, SS George Davis, and CF Mike Griffin. However, I'm again scared about fatigue here as 4 of my starters are below 600 PA and I have no bench. I don't think my ballpark is friendly enough to help out here and I might be in real trouble later on. Fingers are crossed; if I can handle fatigue, this team could be extremely dangerous.

$140 mil
Last year, my team got KILLED by fatigue in this league. I made SURE that didn't happen this year: I took the Astrodome, my starting rotation is made up of 4 of the 5 top tier players, I took 03 Gagne, 90 Eckersley, AND 85 Ramsey in my bullpen, and I have decent defense. My 5th top tier player was Tris Speaker at just a shade over $10m. All 5 of my 2nd tier players are hitters: 3B 99 McGraw, 1B 77 Carew, 2B 04 Lajoie, SS 06 Wagner, and OF 55 Ashburn. My last 3 hitters are old-timers: 90 Chief Roseman at DH, 06 Bresnahan at C, and 07 Roy Thomas in the OF. I took 3 of the best $1m hitters I could find to fill out my bench, I figured they'd have to be great to be of any use at this cap. Oh, and I also found a 153 IP pitcher for under $2m, since I REFUSE to succumb to fatigue again this year.

I'm pretty happy with all my teams, but I just don't think I'm good enough at using cookies to go on to the next round. I'd rank my teams like this:
1) $90mil
2) $100mil
3) $70mil
4) $140mil
5) $80mil
6) $120mil, so scared of fatigue

Quote: Originally Posted By schwarze on 8/12/2009
Great reading so far... I hope JohnGPF, ballantine, shaybee and sford post here.

...maybe this weekend, maybe next week...my son's in town until sunday when he goes back to school at UA after spending the summer interning in DC, and his 2 sisters have spent a lot of time home with me too for the last couple of weeks...

This post could not be converted. To view the original post's thread, click here.

70M: went for low OAV pitchers and hitters with lots of HR because I like them. Naturally, because the player pool was so large for this theme, my team sucks. (I seem to do best at the most restrictive themes.)

80M: I always like taking the Tigers when I can for franchise themes because, well, in theory you can build a decent team for just about any franchise, and I'd like to do well with Detroit. I started out looking to overlap with the '84 champs, but I kept missing out on good seasons, so I moved the range back until I could get players off the '61 AL second-place team. Of course with the cap so low, I couldn't get the Kaline or Cash that I wanted, but I figured I had a decent HR team with tolerable pitching. Of course McLain and Lolich are pitching like they're Senators, and Bunning is pitching like, well, he's a senator.

90M: I wanted a sub-.500 team with good pitching, figuring I could use the FAs to bolster the hitting and maybe squeak a decent finish out of it. I ended up with the '73 Yankees (80-82, 2nd in AL in runs allowed), but bolstered the rotation by borrowing Seaver from the Mets. Stargell was my third OF and Morgan and Perez came over from the Reds, giving me what might be a decent team, plus Fritz Peterson wants to talk to me about his wife.

100M: Searched for reasonably recent seasons where a couple of teams stood out looking at things like RC27 and OAV ... naturally the Yankees showed up again (I despise them but would wear a pinstriped shirt every day for the length of the tournament if it would help me win), and I couldn't pass up Houston pitching. I needed '83 so I could be sure to get both Ryan and Scott, and honestly the bullpen turned out pretty nice, or so it seems.

120M: Well, I dislike using old players (except in our Old Time LOTD) and don't play much over 100M any more, so I figured I'd go with a two-man rotation, good (for the era) defense, and hope. Naturally this team is off to a fine start. I blame small sample size.

140M: Every year, one of my staffs blows up like a doll at a bachelor party, and I was determined it wouldn't be this one. The three top players were my three-man rotation, focusing on low-OAV+, low-K pitchers, and the other two were high RC27# outfielders. RPs really don't get into the next tier, so I put five more position players there, again focusing on high RC27#. The next tier got the top of my pen (Hernandez and Gordon, again looking for low OAV and reasonably low K) and my C and SS; Hoiles was a nice surprise as a C with 500 PA, a solid bat, and A/A/A+ defense. Four more relievers (again the low-K model) to top 1460 IP/162, a backup C to fill in for Hoiles, and then probably the same five 200K guys that most everyone else has. If it weren't for a stack of unearned runs in game 4, this one would be off to a 9-0 start, and I can't really explain it.

I have a three-game lead with two of my six teams, so as far as I'm concerned, we can start the playoffs now. I usually get one wild-card team and maybe another playoff team, so that's pretty much what I'm expecting here. Two teams usually stink and two teams are decent but overmatched.

Quote: Originally Posted By JohnGPF on 8/13/2009

Quote: Originally Posted By schwarze on 8/12/2009

Great reading so far... I hope JohnGPF, ballantine, shaybee and sford post here.

...maybe this weekend, maybe next week...my son's in town until sunday when he goes back to school at UA after spending the summer interning in DC, and his 2 sisters have spent a lot of time home with me too for the last couple of weeks..

I'll be happy to put my thinking in a post, probably in a week or so - I'm out of the country at this point. That being said, just scanning the posts in this thread makes me want to start my teams all over... I think I'm out of my league with this bunch...

70mil -- don't play with teams below 80 anymore unless i have a crappy progressive club, and i don't use HR players much anymore either, so this team is as much a thoguht experiment as any thing else...first team i started, but not the first i finished since i kept refining and refining and refining...i think i may have just vanilla'd all the other flavors right out because i hardly recognize what i have looking at it now...got 16 HRs from my scrubs so i could have a bigger player pool of starters to choose from...IF has mcgriff, alomar, jeter and zeile; OF of moseby, bonilla and justice...D armed lopata behind the plate is the best hitter...have 6 guys with at least 20 HRs with 32 as the high...balance, balance, balance...

...went with the bext HR/9+ i good squeeze in and ended up with about 1275 in good IP and about 110 in crap...SP are bobby jones, kevin brown, candiotti, and erickson; rosado's the swingman with cormier, crabtree, flannigan and nelson cruz in the pen...the terrible 1976 rick jones has 104 IP to waste in selected spots...none of the pitchers can hit...i never have any luck trying that...

...the basic idea ended up being to get as much balance as possible...good AVG and HR potential through the lineup and decent OAV and HR/9+ for the main pitchers with a a guy i could waste in games against the expected troubled teams...no stars here and they'll be playing in cinergy in the hopes of stretching my IP...i finished this team after the 80 mil team and ended up with a number of the same players and that worries me...

80 mil -- looked at a lot of possibilities and really tried to make a 1915-1924 phillies (great HR hitting normalization) team work, but the lack of cheap backups kept leaving me with a 3 mil plus bench and that just isn't a good thing...i ended up settling on the 86-95 blue jays...altho it's the only blue jay team in my league, apparently it's not been an unpopular choice in other leagues...the main reason i took them was the starting pitchers they had available...

...IF is olerud, alomar, fernandez and gruber; moseby, winfield and bell in the OF; whitt and borders make a L/R platoon at catcher...any success is going to depend upon the SP who look excellent for an 80 mil league, at least on their stat sheets---steib, key, candiotti, hentgen with guzman in the swing role...i go to war with worse sets all the time at 80...bullpen consists of timlin, cone, crabtree, flannigan and ward...1375 good IP and another 70 to waste...the park is the skydome which has the same factors as cinergy, but has an overall park factor of 1.02 to cinergy's .90...i'm hoping it plays that way since it would boost my offence and i'm confident the pitchers can handle it...time will tell...

90 mil -- drifted aimlessly through a lot of teams until i had a brainstrom...the problem was all the teams had a hole or 2 even with the "free agents" and relatively expensive, useless benches..i needed a way to find a team i could maximize the # of free agents with a minimum amount of waste on the core team...so i decided to check the expected winning % of all the MLB teams since 1901...i went back that far on the off chance there would be something, but i hate ******* away bench money and it's just hard to find cheap players the farther you go back in time the tighter the theme rules are...the idea is that while EXP% is a useless guide in the SIM where there can be a lot of blow outs, in real life it's based upon the RS/RA that was achieved with the stats i would be using in the SIM...so even if the players got good stats that didn't translate to wins in RL, the SIM doesn't care...it just cares about the player's stats, not the team's success...and i wanted 5 or 6 free agents...

...the sort on the teams popped up 2 6 free agent candidates as the #3 and #4 teams...the 1993 mets were #3 with an EXP% of .449 vs a RL of .364 for a .085 difference...they might have been good with 8 free agents...next was the 1986 pirates with .473 vs .395 and a .078 diff...it was love at first sight and although i looked at a number of other teams i stayed with them...

...the offence is pretty much a conglomeration of solidly producing platoons...of the pirates only ray is close to an everyday player and he's joined by free agents ripken and raines...it'll be work to juggle the line up all the time, but they should be ok...

...i ultimately went with the 86 pirates because the had one of the NL's top 86 pitchers---rick rhoden...he's joined in the rotation by scott, valenzuela and witt...rickey horton is the final free agent and will be an old time stopper rather than a closer...the rest of the staff is mediocre, but they only make up about 200 of the 1400 usefull IP...i spent 7 mil more on the pitching and that has to be dominant for the team to win...

...this is my favorite team, so of course they'll suck...

100 mil -- the only team i succumbed to greg maddix disease on...i just got tired of looking at so many teams and figured starting with something that included him would be as good as anything else...went with the 2001 braves and yankees...the offence is solid except at 3rd where brosius and velarde (2 RHBs) will platoon...full of the usual yankee suspects...the SP are maddux, millwood, perez, and smoltz with a mediocre burkett as the swingman...karsay, spooneybarger and ligtenberg lead the pen with valdez and rocker filling it out...only 30 scrub IP out of 1420...not much imagination here...

120 mil -- i hate playing with 19th century players and rarely use 'em...i tried a few teams with what had to be common approaches and didn't like any of them...i've had a couple of teams lately designed to break the champs league triples record (the first one finish did so with 247) and decided on a whim to use the same principle except with doubles (lots of 19th century seasons are historically low in doubles making good doubles hitters from those seasons good SIM normalizers) to attempt a theoretical exercise...put the team in National League Park II with it's plus 3 for doubles...ended up spending 15 mil more on pitching than hitting since doubles hitters from the best seasons who weren't D- fielders were hard to find...only real offensive threat is the 1899 delahanty...got some other names (wagner, milligan, dahlin, brouthers) but not seasons i would normally use in a 120 mil league...

...the SP are 88 seward and 88 keefe with the 88 chamberlain as the swingman...that's 1300 IP right there and we reached 1558 with the rest of the pen...sounds high but i was sort of thinking that this would be a league that could go hard on pitching fatigue...

...if this isn't my worst team, i'll be surprised...

140 mil -- last team i did and i had fun building it even tho i almost entered a team that i had tiered the DH right off of...the offence is AVG, non-HR SLG and speed based...ended up with mauer, sisler, carew, HR baker, ashburn, mcgee, raines, cobb and a SS platoon of vaughn and jerry hairston(!!)...team AVG of .353 with 73 HR...the pitching staff can't be much different from everyone else's---maddux, guidry, martinez, & bender to start; nathan, devine, papelbon, randy johnson, milacki, bonham & cooney to relieve...again, not a very immaginative team...

Thanks John. Looking forward to seeing how your 86 Pirates do.

Quote: Originally posted by just4me on 8/09/2009$70m Cheap Power:

This is the theme I was most comfortable with as it combines my two favorite sim elements, a lower cap and HRs. That said, I will probably fare my worst here. My strategy was pretty much the same strategy I take into any league, good HR/9+ pitchers, good HR normalizing hitters, and Wrigley or AFC. I took Wrigley in this case, and loaded a $70m team that I had in my team center that was cruising into the playoffs. Due to the .50 HR/9 restriction I had to make a few changes to the pitching staff, and then had to make one adjustment to the offense to get back in under the cap. I expect 5 hitters to finish the season with 40+ HRs: Cy Williams, Jack Clements, Howard Johnson, Dave Kingman, and Alex Kampouris, and have some cheap power/defense from Rob Deer, Clete Boyer, and Hack Miller filling out my roster. With my pitchers I went with three strong starters who have close to 800 IP between them, and a weaker 4th starter, who hits well, bringing another 200+ IP. Overall, I feel pretty good about this team and bring 245 HRs and 1,293 IP to the fold.

Well, I didn't get my 5 40 HR guys, but had 4 with 36 and only Clete Boyer failed to hit 20. Pitching-wise, Ryan and Vance were stellar and finished 1-2 in Cy Young voting. Team is currently in LCS after finishing first in a fairly competitive division. Wouldn't change a thing here.

Quote: Originally posted by just4me on 8/09/2009$80m 10 Year Franchise:

I looked at probably 2 dozen teams and eras for this one... I came really close to taking the 1885-1894 St. Louis Cardinals, but had some problems filling out a complete roster. After finishing my $100m team I really liked some of the pitching options I saw with the Dodgers teams and settled in on the 1965-1974 Dodgers. I know normalization plays against me, but I'm hoping that the combination of ballpark and raw stats balance out. This team has more speed than I'm used to playing with, but is overall quite balanced in AVG, speed, power... I don't really know what to expect, but I have high hopes and am very curious about this one.

Well, as I'd feared this era didn't give me much, and after a hot start they tapered off and finished with a .500 record, but just 1 game out of the division lead. If I could do this again I'd go with my first gut instinct for teams instead of trying something I was doubtful about from the beginning.

Quote: Originally posted by just4me on 8/09/2009$90m GM Challenge:

This team was a virtual no-brainer for me. I initially considered using pythagorean records to find teams that underperformed and build from there, what I found though was alot of teams that underperformed also won alot of games, which meant little to no free agents, or teams that were already approaching the cap. Neither of which I really wanted. So I changed my strategy to look for a team that would net net me 3-5 free agents, have 1 or 2 stud pitchers, and allow me to add 91-97 Greg Maddux. That narrowed it down quickly. As soon as I saw the '96 Marlins I knew they were the right team. A good mix of power and speed, high OBP and AVG. A legit ace and a solid 2nd starter... I took Maddux and Smoltz as my FA and now have Al Leiter as my "weak" 4th starter, to also go with a bullpen featuring the Robb Nen, Mark hutton, and the short IP Rick Helling. Offensively I added MVP Ken Caminiti at 3B and toyed with the idea of bringing in a 2B, as I already had an AS catcher in Charles Johnson and 2B was somewhat weak and short PA, but I liked the way Pudge fit into this team so I took him as my final FA and am running a 3 man platoon at 2B. I was a little nervous about being the only one in my league to take the '96 Marlins despite my excitement over this team, only to have ballantine join with the same '96 Marlins.

This was probably my best overall team and they played hard in a tight and competitive division finishing 1 back of the wildcard after losing the last game of the season when my best pitcher (Robb Nen) gives up 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th to lose 1-2. Wouldn't change a thing here.

Quote: Originally posted by just4me on 8/09/2009$100m Two Team Twist:

This one was also difficult for me. I'd been wanting to use the '66 Braves in a twist league for awhile and this let me use their strength (offense) without having to also use their weak pitching. My struggle was with wanting to use an era that normalizes poorly, especially at this cap. In the end I decided to chance it, and really like the team I've put together by adding in the Dodgers pitching staff of Koufax, Drysdale, and Sutton. Have no idea what to expect, but look forward to seeing how this team does.

Same as with my $80m team, this team just didn't normalize well and didn't hold up well. In a very weak division were still in the hunt for a playoff spot with 15 games to go before we finished by losing 12 of our last 15 and finishing 10 back in a division where the winner had a sub-.500 record. My offense was everything I'd hoped it would be and my pitching did what I feared it would. If I could do it again I'd go with a 20's or 80's team and not with a year I had doubts about from the beginning.

Quote: Originally posted by just4me on 8/09/2009$120m 19th Century:

This one was a blast to draft as it let me use players I've wanted to try and also use some of my favorites. I started with a platoon at C with the 1895 Clements and 1889 Milligan, both of whom have high AVG, OBP, and AB/HR rates. I rounded my roster with McGraw, Dahlen, Brouthers, Tip O'Neil, Nap Lajoie, and King Kelly. Has a lot of speed, and relative power for the era. Not the most defensive oriented team, but I didn't skimp on defense and chose the best defensive options I could find while still meeting my offensive goals. Pitching wise I thought the no brainers were King and Caruthers, but I don't have time to manage King properly, and while I've won a WS, and reached two others, at this cap with Caruthers, I felt that he wouldn't be good enough with this group of owners. So instead of using a 2-man rotation with a couple big guns, I'm running a 3-man of Baldwin (85), Cushman (85), and Titcomb (88), with Chamberlain (88), Handiboe (86) as my big inning guys in the pen. Overall, including mop ups, only have 3 of my 12 pitchers with a WHIP over 1.00. Given the high AVGs of the era I went with a - hit park and good OAV pitchers. I feel good about this team and along with my $70m team and $90m team, is one of the three teams I'm confident in.

This was a bust in every way conceivable. My worst overall team and the worst at this cap across the whole tourney. In fact, only three other teams were worse across all leagues. Got off to a hot start, but then ran into serious pitching fatigue around game 20. Had to sacrifice 4 pitchers over the course of the season to keep enough fresh pitchers, but it wasn't enough and the short staff kept getting me into more fatigue problems. Across my entire team only John McGraw and Dan Brouthers performed to expectations, while everyone else, pitchers and hitters, underperformed severely. In fact, using Player Search, I had the worst Clements, Kelly, Kelley, Dahlen, Lajoie, and O'Neill in the league. Doing this again I don't know what I would do differently, I drafted more IP here than I did in the $140m league to account for poor fielding and had no fatigue issues at $140, but was struggling constantly here. My hitters were all the best available, but all underperformed. I guess I'd have to choose a different stadium and try to monitor my fatigue more closely early on.

Quote: Originally posted by just4me on 8/09/2009$140m Five Tiers:

I found this team fairly easy and just drafted favorites across the board. Pitching staff has 1,389 IP of .86 WHIP. Offense has a .407 OBP and 240 HRs... to maximize the value of my starters, I brought the 1886 Jim Lillie as my 9 hole DH. Figured he's no worse than most pitchers and that allowed me to bring along better offense and strengthen my pitching staff by not having to pay for another full time hitter. I like this team, but I don't really know what to expect as I'm not comfortable at this high a cap, and don't normally venture above $100m, which is usually as high as I go.

Well, I can't really say what I did here as I didn't do anything after drafting this team until about game 100 when I noticed backup/platoon catcher Johnny Schulte was well below his expect PA so I moved him to DH in place of the severely overperforming Jim Lillie who was the best $600k ever spent. .196/.223/.237 with 2 HRs and 48 RBIs in 393 ABs from Lillie whose RL line is: .175/.197/.197 with 0 HRs and normalizes poorly. Not bad at $140m. This was an auto-pilot team all season and while everyone else seemed to be dealing with pitching fatigue this team never had any problems and I drafted less IP than almost, if not in reality, anyone else (Had the least IP in my league, in which interestingly, only 3 teams brought less than 1,470 IP and three of them won their divisions). I guess I wouldn't change anything here...

Quote: Originally posted by just4me on 8/09/2009All told, I like my chances in three leagues, and have no idea what to expect in the other three. So we'll see how it all shakes out.

Well, I had three teams do well and three teams were busts. The interesting thing is one of the teams I expected to do well was my worst and one I wasn't sure about was my best (both of those teams were high cap teams further demonstrating that at caps above $100m even my expectations are a crapshoot to me). The other two I didn't know what to expect both finished around .500. Next year I need to focus on building at least 4 or 5 good teams and just taking a chance on 1 or 2 rather than taking a chance on half of them.

Bump. I like to compare last years thoughts to this years.

But please don't get confused. This is 2009's analysis - don't add your 2010 comments here