My third time in the cage, and first in the top ten. So I am fairly sure given the expertise here that I will be exiting the top ten and entering the bottom half post haste. But I cant resist an opportunity for self expression so, for what its worth, here are my roster thoughts:

Variable Cap -- Not So Brave in '98 -- I thought that modern rosters were the way to go, and sniffed around the mid-2000s Yankees but since I feel like Randy Johnson always underperforms I couldn't bring myself to do it. Of course, turns out everyone else didn't have that bias. I latched on to the 98 Braves, who at this cap level (which I estimated would be around 100-110 million) had some pitching that I thought would work: '99 Millwood, 92 Dennis Martinez, 2002 Odalis Perez. The question mark is the '92 Maddux. The 98 Braves also gave me the lights out 95 Norm Charlton, and the 07 Russ Springer tends to do well at this cap. A few scrubs to gain salary added to IP and WHIP but the core is good. On the offense side, Chipper, Walt Weiss, Javy Lopez and Eddie Perez, Andres Galarraga have some pop and good OBP. I'll need to mix and match at 2B and left field. Turner Field helps with the pitching, so fingers crossed that the extra Yankee salary doesn't prove insurmountable. 82 wins.

1472 IP, .209 AVG, 1.02 WHIP, 2.83 ERA
5500 ABS, .290, .363, .404, .823

90m -- No Wiffle Ball In the House -- I grew up with the family that invented Wiffle Ball. Probably the reason I hit the curve so well in real life baseball. So this name was a genuflect to them. Built strikeout and non-strikeout teams. Played 'em against each other and the non-K team killed the K team, so I went with non-K, and of course that means that it will get killed by the K teams. Not a lot of slugging in the offense but good fielding range which will help with the contact pitchers. Dan Brouthers (90), Jake Stenzel (96) and George Davis (95) better perform or my team will lose a lot of games 2-1. Starting pitching -- Coveleski, Siever, Fisher -- are kind of underwhelming but I have a nice corps of low whip relievers -- Red Ruffing, Hooks Wiltse, Slim Sallee, Babe Adams -- who should do OK against the K teams. (Pun intended.) 85 wins.
1457 IP, .226 AVG, 1.03 Whip, 2.01 ERA
5120 ABS, .321 AVG, .393 OBP, .420 SLG

110m Progressive/Regressive -- Once More Unto The Breach -- This was the "better" of the two teams, in that the pitching was better but the offense is fairly putrid. I took a step up in class with the 14 Benny Kauff, the 41 Keller and the 21 Frisch (but Frisch wont drive an offense and Keller was terrible for me last go-round). Step backward on the 89 Connor and the 19 Roush. But the starters are better with 08's Mordecai Brown and Frank Smith, and the 05 Reuhlbach. Cookies in the bullpen include 81 Gossage and the 16 Andrew Miller. I think this team might surprise. 90 wins.
5300 ABS, .310, .386, .447, .863
1395 IP, .202 AVG, .95 WHIP, 2.10 ERA

120 Million -- Two for the Show -- OK so I got picked second. Given my lack of success in the Championship, I would have picked me second too. But at 120 million, a cap I prefer, and the chance to select some of my favs -- DeGrom, Pfiester, Connor, Dutch -- I feel like I will be more than competitive. That being said, I went too heavy on the pitching yet again. Swapped in Altuve for one of my 120m usuals, Luis Castillo, after seeing a bunch of my division and league mates add lefties to their initial picks. Offense seems a bit pop gun -- Clarke, Burkette, Sheckard, Zimmerman, Connor (90) -- but I think somehow in a league where there will undoubtedly be triples stadiums I can get the runs I need to eke out some wins. 90 wins for this one.

5159 AB, .329 AVG, .383 OAV, .475 SLG,
1452, .185 OAV, .92 WHIP, 1.51 ERA

130m -- All Three of You WIS Gods -- How could I pick one nemesis when all three are legends? If I wasn't in the Division of Death and the league of Doom, I would say that this was my best team. Just worked in all my favs: a couple of Speakers including the great range of '14, the wonderful Roger Connor 85 (a Connecticut native for those watching at home), and my 3B stalwart, Heinie Zimmerman. The '10 Cobb doesnt give me enough ABs but I'll drop him down against lefties. Took a chance and did NOT select Ed Walsh 08. Instead, I've got Pete Conway as my number 1 starter (and he contributes at the plate) and my usual 2a/2b tandem of Pfiester and Degrom. (after being in ten or so similar cap leagues with Ozo and Skunk where my teams were good but not good enough, I decided to drop Walsh and take a gamble on Conway.) Bullpen has Stockman faves Rob Murphy and Johnny Niggeling, and I even worked in Hill and Milacki just in case i make the playoffs and undoubtedly face either or both of them. I will guess that this team does little more than tread water given the competition at 85 wins.

.351 AVG, .413 OBP, .492 SLG, .905 OPS
1442 IP, .186 OAV, .92 WHIP, 1.78 ERA

160m: I Miss Tris -- I went with the "pick my guys" approach and jammed everyone else in. Started with starting pitching. Ed Walsh 08, DeGrom 18, Hendrix (14) and Guidry (78). Already too many innings but I had some dead-ballers and some modern pitchers and figured I was covered depending on the style of teams the others were creating. Moved to offense and it all fell into place. Wanted to use a good Cobb season from '10-'19 but I was locked in to Zimmerman at 3B and as such took the 09 Cobb and gambled that between he and the 95 Sam Thompson I could find a serviceable fielding left fielder. Joe Mauer gave me my home stadium. Then i had to fit the final pitching pieces in, which left a LOT of chaff. I have way too many innings. But of my useable innings, 1762 of em at 1.67 ERA, 196 OAV, .92 WHIP should play well. Offense is 6880 ABS of .345, .418, .521 SLG. Probably get killed. 80 wins.

Good luck all!

Variable – 05 Yankees (another one)
Yankee Stadium II

.319 AVG, .393 OBP, .518 SLG, 203 HR
1524 IP, 1.02 WHIP

Same logic as half the teams, I suppose. Randy Johnson/Kevin Brown was too good to ignore. I haven’t seen anything in the writeups yet to persuade me otherwise.

My version has ARod at SS, Sheffield at 3B. I kept the 05 Posada and improved Bernie Williams. Somehow ended up with no Mariano Rivera, possibly because I took Carl Pavano’s best season which means I have 223 innings of long relief. I hit a fatigue spiral from drafting too little long relief in the Platoon league in round one. I’m probably overcompensating now.

$90m – The KKK Took My Baby Away
Sportsman’s Park III

.301 AVG, .368 OBP, .492 SLG, 192 HR
1405 IP, 1.06 WHIP

Like Vizinni trying to reason out which cup contains iocaine powder, I went back and forth between two squads trying to guess what strategy everyone else was going to choose. Then it turns out y’all split between the two strategies evenly. Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!

I ended up with the high-K team. I don’t know if I made the right choice, but I didn’t especially like either of the two teams I built. And my $90m modern team was my best squad in round 1. In this case the high-K squad brought slugging and better defense, the latter aided by a modern staff.

I have three starting fielders I’ve never used before: Cody Bellinger, Rafael Devers, and Whit Merrifield. The latter two I’ve never heard of, WIS or IRL. I went with Joey Votto at 1B, who brings B+ range and runs like molasses but with a high OBP and lots of doubles. Once again, tons of long relief from one guy: this time it’s 189 innings of Sonny Siebert in the pen, behind a starting trio of Dazzy Vance, Seaver, and Clemens.

For a top ten finish I need this team to do well, since I don’t see a lot of room for differentiation in the Variable or $130m leagues.

$110m – Oops!…I Did It Again
Palace of the Fans

.314 AVG, .372 OBP, .466 SLG, 111 HR
1478 IP, 0.96 WHIP

Some owners saved their best for round two; I picked two teams that were practically identical. Still one of the best fielding squads I’ve ever put together: Pudge Rodriguez, Pujols, Lajoie, Santo, Rey Sanchez, Cy Seymour, Speaker, Roush.

In round one we got off to a miserable start, recovered well enough to take the division by a game despite <90 wins, and lost the LCS in seven. I had high hopes for that squad and I'd like to think this one should do well, though I know I’m facing tougher owners.

$120m – Thirteen
Exposition Park III

.340 AVG, .403 OBP, .500 SLG, 99HR
1436 IP, 0.89 WHIP

I never play draft leagues and I don’t think I’m especially good at them, but fortunately there was just one this time. As usual I hoarded starting pitching, drafting Bernhard, Russ Ford, and Mathewson, along with Honus Wagner for defensive flexibility. In retrospect I could have gotten by with two starters and taken King Kelly or a third baseman, but oh well. I also totally forgot about stadium choice while drafting but Honus Wagner’s Exposition Park will do okay.

I got all the pitchers I wanted, as other than 2016 Kershaw tons of relievers were still available. My lineup features a lot of pre-1920 hitters with inflated stats (Eddie Collins, Fred Clarke, Jake Stenzel) or speedsters (Buck Ewing, John Reilly). My only modern hitters are Dave Parker and David Wright. This is probably the weakest of my six teams, especially since the AL looks really tough.

$130m – Drunk as a Skunk
Municipal Stadium

.337 AVG, .409 OBP, .519 SLG, 78 HR
1415 IP, 0.84 WHIP

Range! Speed! Walsh! Kershaw! Should I keep writing?

This team looks fine and will do fine, but what I like best about the WISC is the creative themes. I enjoyed the challenge of the $160m draft the most, and this one the least.

Do I fear skunk more than my other division mates? Not really, but it's a good expression, and I learned something looking up its origin. According to at least one internet source

Recent studies of the stomachs of wild skunks show that they eat large numbers of insects and arachnids, particularly scorpions, along with some roots and fruit. Eating fermenting fruit, fallen from trees, results in them becoming intoxicated in the wild, hence 'Drunk as a skunk’.

$160m – No I in Team
Fenway Park

.351 AVG, .426 OBP, .562 SLG, 192 HR
1568 IP, 0.91 WHIP

I tried two approaches: the Claude Hendrix method of building around decent players who would give me roster flexibility, or the Ed Walsh method of choosing superstars and struggling to fill the remaining spots. The Walsh method was trickier but seemed to result in superior teams.

I rebuilt this team probably three or four times while waiting for round 2 to start. Masochistic, I know, but the roster really did improve each time, especially once I went with Roger Connor rather than Ty Cobb for my Letter C. Why that helped so much, I have no idea. But as everyone experienced, this was a difficult build, with each little change having a domino effect.

I like the core I ended up with

C Foxx
1B Connor
2B Hornsby
3B Brett
SS Jennings
OF Seymour, Dimaggio, Yelich
DH Olerud

SP Walsh, Tiant, Pedro
RP Kershaw, Toad Ramsey, Babe Adams, Piniero, Niggeling, Gene Garber

My bench is useless but it’s a DH league so who cares. And I have 102 mopup innings available from Al Epperley, Bill Vargus, and Jerry Ujdur (household names all.) Subtract that and I’m left with 1466 quality innings, which feels right on.

I’m excited to see what this team can do.

70m/variable: Kinda like the 2008 Yankees
I loved this theme so much. I wish I could have looked at 100 teams. Such a fun idea. I was this close to just following the herd and entering a 2005 Yankees team. The 2000s Yankees were the obvious place to start - 2000 with Doc Gooden, 2005 with Unit and Brown, 2008 with Pudge, 2010 with Berkman, 2014 witth Ichiro... they really loved them some washed up veterans. I started with 05, and if I could have found a way to get the big Giambi seasons under the cap, I would have used them. Having two aces is nice. I really wanted to make the '15 Dodgers work too but the back of their rotation wasn't great, their OBPs were pretty low (Rollins, Crawford, Schebler), and they needed too many untwisted guys or even -3mil guys.

I really liked the 85 Cards with McGee and Tudor, but they needed penalty years to build a rotation. At 97 mil, even with a ton of speed and switch hitters, I don't know if they could hang. The '14 Yankees were fun with Headley, Ichiro, Ellsbury and B-Rob, but didn't have an ace. I also built a 2006 Mets team that I liked a lot, and at 109mil they were pretty close. But finally I settled on the '08 Yankees powered by Abreu (332/438/525), Giambi (340/474/638) and A-Rod (349/403/600). Morgan Ensberg is the weakest link at 3B and the Cano/Mariners season I used is only so-so, but this team has speed, defense, a good bench and a decent Pettite/Mussina duo leading the way with a great bullpen behind them. I used the untwisted Rivera even though he's 5mil. The cap was 116mil and we spent 115.2.

90mil - May the Forsch be with You
For me this one wasn't really about contact/no contact, as I think they're both pretty evenly matched in terms of strategy. With a 13/11 split among teams I guess most people feel the same way. I was just more concerned about which bucket of players had the better players. My usual preference is for low Ks, but I would have gone high-K if I liked their talent pool better. Instead I went low Ks, high range/bad field deadball hitters and modern-ish pitchers to improve the fielding a bit. The pitching choices were a bit more limited than I liked, but I've got Randy Jones followed by two tandems (Reuss/Doyle Alexander and Bob Forsch/Ken Forsch - hence the team name). Little worried about the bullpen as it's mostly 30-50 IP guys. Roger Connor '85 fit into the theme so I had to use him even though he was crazy expensive. The rest of the infield is Billy Herman's D+/A+ season at 2B, Herman Long's D/A+ season at SS and Lave Cross' C+/A+ at 3B. Not the best infield for a team that allows a lot of contact, but we'll also make a lot of + plays. George Davis brings his outfield glove to play RF along with Walt Wilmot and Tuck Turner as the heavy sides of a pair of platoons. Without much cash left for catcher I've got Johnny Gooch who can kinda throw and Farmer Vaughn who can't, and we'll have to use some advanced scouting to decide when to play them.

110m - Try and Try Again (#1)
My first team was named "If at first you don't succeed" so the name was easy to figure out. My first team won 99 games and then choked in the division series. In the first version, I used the best versions of Arrieta and Bernhard, along with a good Kershaw season ('15) and deGrom's 2nd best season ('19). Plus the best versions of Speaker ('14) and Frisch ('21). This version has Bill Dahlen moving over to 3B and George Davis going to SS. Tuck Turner and Pete Browning platoon in RF, Max Carey '22 in CF and Speaker '13 in LF. I've got Edd Roush '20 at 1B (swapping with Speaker who was at 1B in the first season) and an OK Frisch '22 season at 2B. I've got a 5-ish man rotation with deGrom 18, Kershaw '14, Jose Fernandez '13, Arrieta '14 and Bern '03. Lots of the same modern RPs as last season. Same AT&T Park. Counting heavily on Speaker's offense this time around, and my usual speed and switch hitting to save me.

120mil - Revolution #9

I'll be honest, I still can't remember which of my teams is the 120 and which is the 130. I got a late pick and a lot of guys I wanted were gone. I was screwed at 3B anyway (no Brett/Boggs) so I didn't bother to pick one. No Connor, No deGrom, no Speaker, no Hendrix, no Kershaw... kind of a bummer. It was easy to pick Hughie Jennings, though I'm not sure anyone else after me would have bothered. But with Honus gone, there weren't many shortstops I liked. I was happy to pick Greinke and Arrieta, two guys who are only moderately price-inflated. The 4th guy was a challenge. I went with Babe Adams , partly because I needed his park. I also debated Verlander. Not having a true -HR park may hurt me a bit. I did have the option of Dodger Stadium too, but when I was done I was worried I didn't have enough innings for it.

Around my core 4, I've added Verlander anyway (his '19 season, being either brave or foolish), and then Pendleton, Ian Kinsler (why???), and Hickman for the usual infield defense. Outfield is Cullenbine, Mike Griffin and Ken Williams, basically just whoever fit under the cap. I definitely do miss my Target Field-style park and I do miss Frisch a lot at 2B.

130m - Justin Lee drives the General Lee

I definitely missed the part where we could have clones. Probably would have added a 2nd Kershaw. Oh well - c'est la vie. I'm in a ridiculous division so my goal really is just to keep my head above water and not lose 100 games. This team starts with my 2 favorite bargains - Roger Connor and Jacob deGrom - and goes from there. That makes an A+++ range, so-so fielding, modern pitching team in Target Field. Like a lot of owners probably did. But hopefully that makes it harder to fail spectacularly. I thought about trying to cross up all those owners and go with a bombing team in Yankee III but it seemed like a great way to win 55 games at home and 15 on the road. Infield is Connor/Frisch/Honus/Brett (the 79 version with the range and the triples, and without the OBP), outfield is Kauff/Browning and a Cobb/Tip platoon. Buck Ewing catches and Earl Brucker was the guy who fit under the cap to be his partner.

The rotation is a 5-man with guys who will also relieve a bit - Kershaw '15, Bernhard '02, deGrom, Horlen '64 and Kluber '17. Yeah, we'll make some errors behind Bern, but I think he's good enough to justify it. Nothing special in the bullpen, just whoever fit under the cap. Probably should have gone for more post-2015 guys as I only have two (Morrow and Smyly) and that's not enough to really enjoy the benefits of the uninflated modern relievers.

160mil - Where's Babe?

I get that this theme is necessary because it's hard as hell, and I'm sure it will succeed in separating the owners who could really figure it out. But it seems like most everyone just started with filling in their QUIZ guys and then built the most "normal" team they could. I screwed up my team because I thought I had Eichhorn/Jays in my E slot all along,but I had swapped him out for Eck and forgotten. So I had to rejigger the last few spots. I kept Eck as my A and moved Eddie Collins to the White Sox years.

The big splurge is Tip O'Neill.. perfect in a DH league and a relatively hard letter to fill. The rest of the lineup is Hughie Jennings from the defunct O's, Speaker '14, Collins, Hank Aaron (hopefully OK as a guy with speed and doubles in addition to power), Tim Raines, George Brett ('79 again), Harry Walker and Mike Piazza the Marlin. My rotation is Hendrix (love the Fed League team), Matty, deGrom and Koufax. Bullpen isn't that great as I kind of pieced it together from my leftover teams and letters. Jeff Zimmerman and Joe Nathan are the big horses. Go Stony Brook University!

Variable Cap: WISC #1 - 1919 NYG Mercenaries
Stadium: Polo Grounds (V)

Well I definitely misread this league... I thought the salary cap range was going to be between $85M and $100M, and instead it looks like most people had caps between $105M and $115M. (This team has a cap of $96M)

I actually settled on this team pretty quickly because my goal was to get as many cost-efficient position players as possible, while also getting a complete cost-efficient Pitching Staff that didn't force me to roll out sub par starters or have a rubbish bullpen. The reason why this team was one of the first ones I looked at was the presence of Benny Kauff, Frankie Frisch and Heinie Zimmerman - these are really solid players to build a team around in Mid cap leagues. Once I saw that the surrounding players were going to be reasonably good, and not turn the resulting team into a top heavy team with huge holes in it, I stopped looking for other possibilities (probably did so too soon).

Had the other submissions had salary caps of between $85 million and $100 million as I had expected, I was going to go so far as to say that I predict 110+ wins for the team. Seeing that I'll be playing at anywhere between a $10 - $20 million salary cap disadvantage, all bets are off.

Hitting: 5,859 PA, .319 / .374 / .442 ($55,172,389)
Pitching: 1,391 IP, 2.32 ERA 1.05 WHIP, 0.18 HR/9 ($40,829,277)

$90M Cap: WISC #2 - Deadballers throwing Fastballs
Stadium: Petco Park

I highly doubt that many owners picked the "Not Whiff" option because it is incredibly restrictive on position player choice to need every player to have <4 K/100AB. Even if somehow managed to build such a team, it would be extremely vulnerable to any high average hitting team, whether they whiff or not, and they would struggle to punish modern day pitching staffs. Despite all these disadvantages, I actually tried building such a team which I considered going with until I took a closer look at the pitching staff and calculated that it could suffer major fatigue issues (Low K/9 means lower pitch count allocated to the pitchers, which is problematic if you are not heavy on IP).

Instead, I compromised by picking Deadballers who meet the K/9# requirement for the Whiff option. This mitigates the risk from the HR heavy teams that I might play against (1888 Tim Keefe is also a pretty good pitcher for this cap). Position player wise, I picked some obvious cookies like Ketel Marte and Babe Ruth while adding some of my favorite part time base stealers in Alex Cole and Davey Lopes, since I suspect several owners might make the decision not to roster a good arm catcher (there aren't that many that qualify as a surprising # of good arm catchers have a K/100AB of between 4 and 12). I didn't want to be vulnerable to base stealing though, so I rostered Buck Rodgers as my Catcher.

Hitting: 5,695 PA, .290 / .370 / .480 ($44,276,095)
Pitching: 1,400 IP, 2.44 ERA 1.03 WHIP, 0.28 HR/9 ($45,719,017)

$110M Cap: WISC #3 - Ball Four, Teddy BallGame (R2)
Stadium: Astrodome

This team has a better bullpen and starting pitching, but at the cost of a slightly weaker offense than the R1 team.

Hitting: 5,695 PA, .304 / .371 / .464 ($52,297,266)
Pitching: 1,405 IP, 1.79 ERA 0.90 WHIP, 0.31 HR/9 ($57,623,679)

$120M Cap: WISC #4 - The 12th Man
Stadium: Dodger Stadium

I believe I dominated the Alignment Draft, as I managed to meet all the goals I had for this draft:

(1) Secure a division with lower pre-ranked owners with low overall winning %s.
(2) Ensure that I did not wind up in a division with a high ranked owner, such as brianjw or mjkrunner that 06gsp stuck on my side of the league
(3) If possible, ensure that most of the serious threats to win the WISC are on the other side of the league, so they beat up on each other and get fewer wins

I'll also go through my thinking for my picks as the Alignment Draft was ongoing...

06gsp picks brianjw (NL East)

In my opinion, this is a mistake even if brianjw is the best active owner in all of WIS. First off, the first overall pick increases his chances of winning the WISC, which therefore decreases the chance that 06gsp can win the WISC. Also, picking brianjw means he cannot pick a lower ranked owner for his own conference, which means his conference is likely going to have more highly ranked owners in his own conference.

DISCLAIMER: No owner who made it to Round 2 in the WISC is an "easy" opponent. Anything I say below that seems to downplay how good an owner is merely highlights why I believe it was better to pick that owner rather than an even tougher competitor.

My first two picks were beauchamp (NL Central) and marinerrott (NL West). I knew I was going to pick beauchamp, because he was one of the last owners to secure their spot in Round 2, he finished #23 in the standings (so a high pick is less likely to propel him to the WISC title), and he has a career winning % below 0.500, with a WISC pre-rank of 57. The 2nd pick was a little harder (I considered Jtpsops here) but I ultimately went with marinerrott because (1) he was lower in the standings (#22 instead of #20) and (2) he had one dominant 109 win team and 5 teams below 90 wins.

06gsp picks mjkrunner (NL East) and Jtpsops (AL East).

I don't hate the mjkrunner pick nearly as much as the brianjw pick. First off, he's picking 4th in the conference rather than 1st, he is lower in the standings than brianjw and he's not considered nearly as big of a threat to win the entire WISC, though he is undoubtedly still one of the top owners in WIS. Obviously, there is still a problem with this pick in the sense that it will result in 06gsp's side of the conference being even more stacked with top owners, but what really baffled me is the fact that he stuck him in the same division as brianjw. This made it really easy for me to avoid any top ranked owner in my division, as long as I played my cards correctly the rest of the way.

My next two picks were thehuseman (NL West) and tigerrott (NL Central). If I knew I would be allowed to choose to go into the NL Central I probably would have sent thehuseman to the NL Central and tigerrott to the NL West, but at the time I couldn't control which of the two divisions I was going into so I could not afford to so overtly tip my hand which division I wanted to go into. This is because thehuseman has a lower WISC pre-rank and lower overall winning %. I did consider ejstockman instead of tigerrott, but despite his low pre-rank, he was #7 in the WISC standings due to his elite playoff performance. I was therefore hesitant to give him the sixth pick in my conference without sending him to the NL East.

06gsp picks ejstockman (AL Central) and pkearns (AL West)

Of course, ejstockman got to pick #2 in the AL instead.

My two picks here were PennQuaker (NL East) and d_rock97 (NL Central). One of my picks had to go into the NL East because if I didn't, 06gsp could put two guys into my side of the conference in such a way that I could be forced into the NL East (there had to be 3 non-NL East openings in my conference after I made these picks and there were two openings in every NL division prior to these picks).

I publicly posted that I was sorry that I was putting PennQuaker in the NL East. What I did not say was that despite finishing #24 in R1 of the WISC standings, PennQuaker does not profile as anywhere close to the #24 owner in WISC for Round 2 (his finish was due to an absolutely abysmal playoff performance). He has a winning % and a pre-rank well above that of many owners that made Round 2, and he has more overall total wins than almost any other owner in the WISC. This meant I did not really want him in my division, and therefore I handed him a slightly higher pick so that I could send him to the NL East to compete against brianjw and mjkrunner. Given all of the analysis so far, d_rock97 might complain why he doesn't have the #6 pick in my conference and tigerrott doesn't have the #8 pick in my conference. I wish I had an answer for him - but right now I don't remember the exact reasoning.

06gsp picks wink0094 (AL Central) and doctorcc (AL West)

Had this draft been more conventional, this is around the time I would have seriously started considering going offensive (putting top tier owners on my opponent's side of the conference). Given 06gsp's strategy, my best play was to fill up my conference as fast as possible. Therefore, my next two picks were mildnhazy (NL East) and dougpalm (NL West). As mildnhazy was the #10 owner in the WISC standings and as it turns out, the highest owner in the WISC standings on my side of the conference, it only made sense to put him into toughest division in my conference rather than give him an easier path to the playoffs. This also closed off the NL East which was my goal all along.

06gsp picks milest (AL West) and skunk206 (AL West)

I knew my next two picks were going to be discodemo (NL West) and schwarze (AL Central) - the question is, which one to send to the AL and which to give an easier path in the NL? (Putting an owner in the NL West locked in my spot in the NL Central)

Maybe schwarze should have lobbied more convincingly for the NL instead of questioning the value of the 11th pick in the NL . This was a hard decision for me, but the fact that discodemo was lower in the WISC standings and has been experiencing a bit of a decline in WISC performance over the last year or two clinched the decision.

Hitting: 5,960 PA, .324 / .411 / .511 ($61,934,011)
Pitching: 1,431 IP, 2.08 ERA 0.95 WHIP, 0.25 HR/9 ($58,064,815)

$130M Cap: WISC #5 - A Cobb Sandwich vs. jfranco77
Stadium: Dodger Stadium

Since I picked 4 hitters that are heavily reliant on singles vs. extra base hits, I picked Dodger Stadium (Two Ty Cobbs, Frankie Frisch and Roger Connor). Babe Ruth provides the power. Pitching wise, I went with 1912 Walter Johnson as the big inning starter with 1919 Pete Alexander for cost effective pitching as well as 2018 Jacob Degrom and 2016 Clayton Kershaw to round out my SPs. The bullpen consists of varied pitchers (some to minimize HRs, others to minimize OAV).

Hitting: 5,901 PA, .336 / .416 / .511 ($66,256,579)
Pitching: 1,427 IP, 1.74 ERA 0.89 WHIP, 0.24 HR/9 ($63,740,898)

$160M Cap: WISC #6 - Wish I Had A Big Train
Stadium: Safeco Field

This roster was a pain in the *** to build - the worst part when I accidentally blew up the completed roster when trying to submit all my teams around the time that ozomatli made the league #s available and had to start all over again. I found the key to getting a completed roster was to use as many defunct franchises as possible, as well as trying to use as many expansion franchises in the more modern decades as possible. It was also extremely important to find cheap players that satisfied the requirement for some of the most difficult letters to deal with (U and I especially come to mind).

Hitting: 6,668 PA, .340 / .425 / .568 ($87,257,115)
Pitching: 1,542 IP, 1.77 ERA 0.94 WHIP, 0.23 HR/9 ($72,611,708)

Posted by d_rock97 on 9/26/2020 2:29:00 PM (view original):
Do teams get randomly realigned or did I get unlucky enough to have the one other deadball team in my division in the variable cap league?

Randomly aligned

This is my second WISC Round 2. My first time in 2019 was a disaster. Life events left me with very little time to build teams, and I finished the regular season last in wins. Only a World Series appearance by my lone playoff team allowed me to rise to 22^nd, after sitting 10^th after Round 1. This year I finished Round 1 in 18^th, but I had more time to build rosters. I am dreaming of better things in round 2. I did a better job avoiding HR hitters, especially at low caps where they always underperform for me. I also emphasized AVG and OAV more, and I think I will have better results. I have a system to estimate wins, and it ended up at 555, better than the 535 I had as my estimate in Round 1 (I finished Round 1 with 545 regular season wins). That is ozo/brian territory, so it is more of a goal than a prediction. At the very least I hope to do much better than last year and get a fix on how far under my goal my win total should be. Call it the “Cage penalty”, as I am certain this is the toughest bunch of owners that I face all year.

1. I went a little heavier on homers, especially at the higher caps.
2. My lineup selections adhere to what I call the Big Six principle, after Mathewson. I spend extra on the first six lineup spots, relying on OBP for 1-2, OPS for 3-4 and SLG for 5-6. The last two spots are salary dumps at SS and C with good defense and AVG, but not much else. I stuck to this philosophy, but I emphasized AVG more than in Round 1 after 2007 Bonds was a disaster in the variable cap. I will mention at least one time I did not live up to the AVG ideal.
3. I usually chose a 3-2-1 rotation. One workhorse to start almost half the games, another to start almost a third, and then finally a LHP to start the rest. Ed Walsh, Bill Bernhard, and Clayton Kershaw are the prototypes. I think there are not enough opportunities for a LHP to start, and the best ones do not have enough innings for the 1-2, 1-2-3 or 1/2a/2b rotations. I end up with about 800 IP in the rotation, then I load up on RP. I learned this principle by studying brianjw’s teams, so how wrong could it be? This worked well in Round 1, even though I had too many innings in some leagues because I didn’t understand that some pitchers give you extra IP. I corrected this error in Round 2, and I do not think I will have the same problem, but I may have fatigue issues unless I am lucky. At least I like to micromanage, which will probably come to the fore.
4. I chose pitchers with lower OAV, significantly higher ERA and slightly higher WHIP and HR/9#. I hope this approach will help negate opponents’ BA, 2B and 3B by allowing fewer hits.
5. I spent extra on three relievers to give me good closer options. I spent less on the next 3-5 relievers as setup men. I also like to set my high BB pitchers (especially lefties) as “B” rather than “A”, as I think Sparky leaves them in too much after they’ve walked two batters when they are “A”s. I want Sparky to pull them in that situation.

In addition to the slash stats, I will include RC, which is AB*OBP*SLG and RA, which is ERA/9*IP. RC and RA are inexact, but I at least wanted to see improvement as the cap got higher.
WISC 70M Variable – Loyalty Does Not Pay
Started with the 2019 Astros over the 2015 Blue Jays, before finally settling on the 2015 Dodgers. I looked too much for a good base team because I am not experienced in single season twist leagues. I thought twisting 18 players was good, but I did not even look at the Yankees, let alone 2005 to get better players. Crawford and Rollins are low OBP options at the top of the order, Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Utley are a strong 3-4, Ruggiano/Kendrick and Yasmani Grandal are 5-6, and Turner and Puig are 7-8. Grandal and Puig have low AVG, and my emphasis on power has me worried, but with all the modern teams that might not be so bad. Kershaw and Greinke make a great 1-2 in the rotation. Latos and McCarthy are not very good at 3-4. Bullpen is strong with Joel Peralta, Kenley Jansen and Sergio Santos.
.298/.369/.508/5814 PA. 964 RC
2.37/0.97/.203/1369.2 IP. 361 RA
Estimated wins - 91
WISC 90M To Whiff or not to whiff
Chose the low K option because it was easier to build a good team. High K might have worked better if I had more experience with those pitchers, but I did not want to spider my team be mangling that version.
1-2 Anson Waner both have low OBP
3-4 Speaker Cobb strong
5-6 Garms Lajoie good
7-8 Vaughan Severeid good
Bench is weak
3-2-1- Taylor Bernhard and Sallee
Mitchell good closer Wiltse should be a nice B
Rest is only adequate
.317/.389/.449/5321 PA. 817 RC
1.88/0.97/.221/1361 IP. 284 RA
Estimated wins – 95
WISC 110M Progressive/Regressive.
Finally, a good 1-2 in McGraw and Hamilton
3-4-5 Anson Seymour Cobb
6 Lajoie
7-8 Henline Vizquel have low AVG. That could hurt
1-2 Walsh Cicotte 08 Walsh must carry this staff
Petit Closer A, Wagner closer B
Wilhelm Setup A
Three sub 300K pitchers and one at 434K. It would be nice if I get a lot of work from the other nine.
Wetteland, Warren and Harvey are good setup men
.333/.409/.475/5652 PA. 960 RC
2.10/0.94/.209/1451 IP. 339 RA
Estimated Wins - 94
WISC 120M Schoolyard Draft
I got three good hitters in the draft. Then I drafted Silver King. I tried to get good defense to back up King, and I picked a +2 1B park hoping that my infield defense can nullify some of the hits.
1-2 Hamilton Good Jay Bell at 2 is an experiment that may end soon.
3-4-5 Delahanty Connor Kauff – Three picks give this lineup a solid core.
6 - Torre, moved Bell to 2 because I did not want Torre batting 5.
7-8 Cirillo and Phillips acceptable bottom
Bench Braun and Staub are good Ramos ok.
After King, Greinke and Pollet will make most of the remaining starts. I also have several other pitchers who can start. Chavez and Ryan are good closers. Sampson is good, other setup men are mediocre.
.328/.407/.497/5541 PA. 978 RC
1.83/0.89/.198/1432.7 IP. 291 RA
Estimated Wins - 91
WISC 130M Pressure Cooker
I am not very good at open or high-cap leagues, but I think I put together a good team.
1-2 McGraw Hamilton very good
3-4 Cobb Delahanty strong
5-6 Brouthers Lajoie good
7-8 Posey Fernandez good
Bench Leyritz Pesky good
3-2-1 approach to rotation. Davenport and Bernhard eat up innings. Kershaw is awesome. Bullpen is extremely strong, so if my top two starters can keep me in the game, I should be OK. If they get shelled, I will struggle.
.349/.429/.510/5656 PA 1073 RC
1.84/0.85/.191/1419.3 IP. 290 RA
Estimated Wins - 98
WISC 160M Tough Man challenge
Many owners worked on the difficult franchises/letters/decades first, but I took d_rock’s approach and got McGraw, Cobb, Williams, Hornsby (I preferred him over Hamilton), Johnson and Kershaw. Then I ended up with problems in some areas, like Gene Tenace at C and Arthur Irwin’s 342 terrible PA’s coming off the bench.
1-2 McGraw Cobb good
3-4 Williams Hornsby good
5-6 Giambi and Dimaggio question marks
7 Flick is good at DH, but he will have to play OF a lot to relieve Dimaggio and Williams.
8-9 Larkin and Tenace. Larkin is mediocre, but Tenace could be a disaster if he bats .120, which I believe is possible. I filled C last among my starters, so it is not a surprise that I spidered it. At least he filled “T” and “Padres” and “1970s”, which were all I had left)
Bench – Arthur Irwin was an 1880s “I”, and franchise (Providence Grays) was no problem. He sucks but will have to DH when Flick is in the OF and Otis is fatigued, which will happen frequently. Ynoa is a nice option.
3-2-1 with Johnson Bernhard, who is also on the 90M and 130M teams (I do not think anyone’s THAT versatile, but we will see) and Kershaw who is on the 130M team as well. Bernhard may be a disaster, but at least he was cheap. Johnson and Kershaw should do well, and hopefully the bullpen, led by Putz and Zimmerman, can focus on assisting Bernhard, assuming the latter can keep me in the game.
.342/.444/.544/6170 PA. 1238 RC
1.78/0.86/.189/1556 IP. 307 RA
Estimated Wins – 86
I think my formula overestimated my wins in the 130M cap because of the lack of restrictions, and underestimated my wins in the 160M cap because of the severe restrictions, so I hope they collect 184 wins between them, but I do not think I will get 12 more wins in the 130M than the 160M.
Strengths: Pitching, especially bullpen, good contact and OBP hitters. A little power where it makes sense.
Weaknesses: SP is inconsistent, leadoff hitters have low OBP at two lowest caps, defense is barely adequate, but I do have C with A+ arms, average speed, pitchers have high ERA, fatigue could be a major issue.
X factor – I need to get lucky with fatigue or I could struggle again, like last year.
Like I said earlier, 555 wins is more of a goal than a prediction. I could finish anywhere from 5^th – 20^th, but I hope to at least avoid being on the bottom for two months.

Variable Cap - 2007 Mets

I did one smart thing here and one dumb thing. The smart thing was realising this was a $120M league with slightly different salaries for some players. This meant I didn't have to think about things like $/IP for players with negative salaries, and it made a lot of things clearer.

The dumb thing felt smart at the time. I wrote a quick and dirty script to tell me which teams were plausible bases, so I didn't have to look through 2000+ teams by hand. The problem was that it was too quick-and-dirty. In particular, it missed the 2005 Yankees. How? I think it did the following. It wanted to put Sheffield in RF (fine), and A-Rod at SS (fine), and then it said the team didn't have a 3B, so it wasn't even a candidate to consider (oops).

I'm not sure I would have taken it anyway. I usually use mid 2000s Mets for these teams, and I'm still happy with that choice. The script said the best three teams (in order) were the 2012 Yankees, the 2006 Mets and the 2007 Mets, and I'm happy that all three are actually being played, but I liked the look of the 2007 Mets best.

The big question was whether to have a balanced pitching line up or just go all out and pay for 2000 Pedro. And I paid the money. Between that and my bullpen, I have 400 IP that would be fine at a $180M cap. And I have 1000 IP that would be barely ok at a $80M cap. Hope it works!

Batting: 5980 PA, .312/.394/.529
Pitching: 1386 IP, 98 HR, 1.04 WHIP

90M - Three Strikes Law

Just about an open league for me given my current playing style. But not quite - I hadn't realised how much normalisation was doing these days, so while I basically never use pitchers below 7 K/9 in real life, getting above 7 K/9# was a bit harder. And I'm worried that the formula I use for judging needed IP breaks at these extreme cases. So this could all be fun.

This is one of several teams where I made one big change from R1. I managed to finish 1st in expected wins in R1, but not close to that in actual wins. And part of that was poor performance in extra innings games. A bit of that was luck, but not all of it - I too often ran out of pitching. So in a few leagues I'm trying to save a dedicated extra inning pitcher. Now with so few IP I'm not sure this will actually work, but I've set Ankiel to Long B, don't come in before 9th. So hopefully in any game that goes to extras, he can go 3-4 IP. He's not great, but he's much better than someone with in game fatigue. So maybe I can get closer to .500 in extra innings contests this round.

Batting: 5836 PA, .295/.383/.462
Pitching: 1315 IP, 113 HR(!), 1.01 WHIP

110M - A year older and wiser

Not sure why I didn't capitalise this one. I'm worried that everyone else saved up for round 2, and I just played it even. It would have all been a good strategy if I'd won a WS in round 1. But while I won a lot of games, I had a lousy playoffs. So here we are. It was a pretty good team last round, but it's a step up in quality now.

Batting: 5849 PA, .310/.406/.479
Pitching: 1399 IP, 117 HR (!), 0.87 WHIP

120M - And at number 1

Hey I got selected first in a draft. That was fun! Then I had such weird ideas for players that I'm not sure I got great value out of them. Anyway, it's practically an open league, and this is something like my open league. It's really pitching heavy for reasons I don't quite remember. Maybe a couple of my faves got taken and I felt like there wasn't much value left around $7-8M hitters; not sure how this happened. Platooning in the infield plus a couple of sluggers on the bench. Going for as many left handed starters in front of a largely right handed bullpen. And Andy Rincon as the extra inning guy, so I might have the odd 16 inning contest.

Batting: 5905 PA, .316/.396/.465
Pitching: 1434 IP, 50 HR, 0.83 WHIP

130M - Disco 2000

Going pitching heavy at 120M meant I'm running out just about the same pitchers in both leagues, but the hitters got a fair bit changed. I hadn't realised at first clones were allowed, but then I didn't end up feeling there were any that made sense for me. Maybe another Cobb, or Kershaw. I don't know. Anyway, it's an open league team and I never have much to say about them. Carmen Hill replaces Rincon as the extra inning guy.

Batting: 5870 PA, .336/.414/.506
Pitching: 1442 IP, 45 HR, 0.83 WHIP (see - really similar to last one)

160M - Kershaw

Here was how I put the team together. First the starting hitters, then the starting pitchers, then the bullpen, then the bench. Then I went back and looked at whether there were ways I could change a handful of players at a time while making the team better and keeping a legal roster. I think the result is ok, though it's a bit unbalanced. Spending $23M on Alexander, and $18M on O'Neil to DH doesn't feel optimal. But I couldn't see a way to get it better.

The bench hitters are weak, but in a DH league my bench usually just sits around. I didn't have an idea for how to even search for a platoon, so those are three roster spots that are sort of there to make up the numbers. The bullpen ended up better than I expected, just one bad player and one catastrophic one. That said, there are fewer lights out relievers than I normally carry - but a pretty good core of middle inning pitchers - Dizzy Dean, Mark Eichorn and Jim Hearn. Johnny Niggeling (a popular choice in this league) is the long relief guy.

Honestly I think this team would struggle in a 130M open league, which tells you something about how tough the constraints were. The guys I got can hit, and field, but it's weaker pitching than even by 110M league has.

Batting: 6279 PA (maybe a little light), .353/.440/.573
Pitching: 1469 IP, 77 HR, 0.92 WHIP

I never like predictions. I always feel that my teams will win 90-something games and hopefully a division series. I'm worried about too few IP at 90M (though relieved there are enough low-K teams to hopefully get me through), how much better the R2 teams will be at 110M, and whether the extra inning gambit will work. I got what's probably my only 6-0 for the year right out of the gate, so so far so good, but I suspect I don't have enough here to dig out of the R1 hole I fell into.

It's interesting to see that so many people took a structured approach to filling out their roster for the 160M theme

The constraints being so strict made an unstructured approach the superior choice IMO. I definitely spent a lot more time on the team as a result though

Alright. Fasten your seatbelts. Here's the writeup everyone no one has been waiting for.

Loyalty Doesn’t Pay (Variable - $110M)
2005: A Yankee Odyssey
Yankee Stadium II

Not really much to write here, as my logic is the same as many others. Modern era teams feature players who have played on more teams in their careers and the Yankees tend to feature more of such players than other teams.

I actually started with 2006 for the offense, which I loved. The pitching just wasn’t good enough though (Sidney Ponson anyone?). I then jumped to 2004 and loved the pitching, but the offense just didn’t wow me. Though the possibility of using ’93 Olerud in the OF for extra oomph was tempting. I ended up with 2005 for the balance.

Like some others, I totally braincramped on the whole ARod at SS/Sheffield at 3B thing, but I’m still very pleased with my team. I kept Jeter (solid leadoff hitter and one of his few good defense and range seasons), ARod, Matsui and Rivera. I ended up with a $110M cap, but decided to take a hit and go with ’03 Posada.

Giambi, Sheffield, Cano and Melky round out the order. Strong rotation of Brown, Johnson, Mussina and Pavano should do well, with Leiter as a swingman. Karsay, Felix Rodriguez and Quantrill join Rivera in the pen.

Given how few deadball teams there are, I’m cautiously optimistic about this team.

Offense (including scrubs): .312/.392/.511, 232 HR, 644 BB
Pitching (including scrubs): 1,472 IP, 1.08 WHIP, 7.47 K/9, 2.26 BB/9, 0.50 HR/9

Prediction: 86-76

Too Whiff or Not to Whiff? ($90M)
Sorry Tyson…No Punch-Outs Here
Astrodome

I don’t know why, but I immediately went low Ks here. Reading some of the other write-ups, that may have been the wrong approach, but I figured a low K staff with great range on defense would work, and a low K offense should score some runs. I went with the Astrodome to kill opposition HRs, since my team has few, and to help my pitching staff, which is flirting with too few innings.

On offense, I went with some usual suspects in Collins, Cobb, Connor, Traynor and Cochrane, along with a few guys I’ve never used before in Hollocher, Donovan and Griffin. I’m going to be relying on this team to string a lot of hits together, but their speed should help snag a few extra bases.

Many of my pitching choices are likely not surprising, with Bernhard, Joss, Sallee, Dean and Adams making the cut. Initially had Bonham, but forgot to look at his normalized K numbers and he was ineligible. He’s replaced in the rotation by ’02 Siever, who I’ve never used before. I also have Tuero, Hallett, Ruhle and Ox Miller in the pen who I’ve never used. I have no clue what to make of this team, but suspect I’ll be on the low end of the totem pole.

Offense (including scrubs): .335/.410/.456, 275 2B, 93 3B, 594 BB
Pitching (including scrubs): 1,267 IP, 1.00 WHIP, 2.24 K/9, 1.35 BB/9, 0.13 HR/9

Prediction: 78-84

Progressive/Regressive, Pt. 2 ($110M)
50 games until we’re eliminated, +/- 2
AT&T Park

My teams were relatively similar. This one hits for better average and has deeper overall pitching than my first round team. However the D is slightly worse and slugging is down a bit.

Connor, Delahanty, Speaker, Boggs, Wagner, Giles and Wynegar return to the lineup. Loretta moves into a starting role and Pedroia goes to the bench. These guys don’t strike out much, and we’ve got a lot of walks to go with a good BA, so we should produce some runs.

For pitching, Workhorse Alexander is now a setup man. Verlander, Sheets, Kluber, Sale and Bonham make up the rotation. A very solid bullpen featuring Wagner, Jansen, Eck, Alexander, Romo and Quantrill rounds things out.

My first round team really underwhelmed me, but I can see this one doing relatively well.

Offense (including scrubs): .323/.410/.486, 327 2B, 717 BB
Pitching (including scrubs): 1,462 IP, 0.95 WHIP, 8.87 K/9, 1.6 BB/9, 0.87 HR/9

Prediction: 88-74

Schoolyard Pick ($120M)
#5 is ALIVE! (props to anyone who gets this reference)
League Park II

I was hoping to go higher than #5, but thankfully I ended up as the first AL pick, so got to choose first in my draft. I was tempted to just copy brianjw’s picks from the NL draft, but even if I did, I probably wouldn’t know what to do with them.

I wanted to take some good hitters off the board, both for myself, and to hinder others. I thought about Wagner, to eliminate a top SS, but I felt there were better choices at #1. I went with Speaker, Lajoie and Delahanty, which is a pretty good top of the order. Sisler, Gwynn, Bartell, Wynegar and Buddy Bell round things out. This team hits for a lot of average and doesn’t K much, so League Park II should treat us well.

My 4^th draft pick was Ed Walsh. I planned to use his stud ’10 season, but both for salary and IP purposes, opted for the ’08 version. He’ll start half my games, joined by Denny McClain and Johan Santana. McClain will start at home and in negative HR parks on the road as often as possible to minimize his damage. The bullpen features guys who always consistently perform for me in Rivera, Eck, Wagner and Fister.

I really don’t know how my team will measure up against others, but I like it on paper. I’m going to go big and predict a 90-win team, despite my stacked division.

Offense (including scrubs): .353/.412/.505, 381 2B, 492 BB
Pitching (including scrubs): 1,491.1 IP, 0.92 WHIP, 7.21 K/9, 1.41 BB/9, 0.57 HR/9

Prediction: 90-72

Pressure Cooker ($130M)
Wile E. Coyote Meet the Mjkrunner
Target Field

Themes with fewer restrictions always scare me in the WISC because I know many of you are a lot more versed in the minutiae of what makes a team successful. My thought process was pretty simple with this one: I figured I’d be facing some high average offenses, so I decided to go with one of those myself, with a low OAV modern staff to minimize hits and help my defense, all while sticking them in Target Field. From the other write-ups, it’s clear this was a relatively common approach.

Not many surprises in my order: Collins, Delahanty, Burkett, Cobb, Baker, Wagner and Cochrane. I am trying Mickey Vernon at 1B, who I have never used before. The bench is more of the same in terms of offense, with Hosey, Perez, Doran and Toby Hall.

My rotation consists of ’15 Kershaw (more IP than the ’16 version), ’19 Verlander, ’04 Santana, ’18 Degrom and ’17 Kluber. The bullpen features low OAV staples in Eck, Uehara, Doolittle, Meredith and Wagner.

This is another team I like on paper, but looking at the competition and how good most of you guys are at this, I suspect that’s deceiving. Still, I’m going to be bold and predict another 90-win team here.

Offense (including scrubs): .368/.432/.518, 343 3B, 117 3B, 536 BB
Pitching (including scrubs): 1487.2 IP, 0.88 WHIP, 0.195 OAV, 10.66 K/9, 1.62 BB/9, 0.85 HR/9

Prediction: 90-72

Tough Man Contest ($160M)
No Corn on This Cobb
Hilltop Park

I didn’t have too much of a strategy when I started, as I figured some things would reveal themselves to me as I went. Things I realized:

1. Try to determine options for some difficult letters first, and lock them in
2. Use defunct franchises wherever possible
3. Try to use modern franchises in modern years and save oldest franchises until the end to leave max options

I tried a Silver King option early on, to really free up options, but it just didn’t seem practical.

I knew I wanted Speaker, Delahanty and Wagner for sure. That also helped by taking older players from older franchises. Hornsby eventually seemed like a no-brainer as well. I really liked ’77 Carew, but it was a challenge to not give up him at times, as there are so many good 1B options. I stuck with him though. Pudge, Bautista and Gehringer rounded out my original roster. I made an error though, in rostering Arthur Irwin as a scrub from the 1880s. I forgot the Quakers and Phillies were the same franchise. Ultimately, the easiest fix was to get rid of Delahanty. I added Browning to take his place. Adding another B, I also had to get rid of Bautista, so I added Donaldson. It ended up being a pretty easy fix. Wagner will now play OF and Tulowitzki will play SS. This is a really well rounded offense with good D. I’m pretty confident.

For pitching, I knew I wanted at least one high IP deadballer. Enter ’08 Mathewson. ’10 Ford also comes along, and ’65 Koufax rounds out the rotation. My pen features 4 mopup guys to eac up A, P, Q and Y. Eck and Uehara are the stud setup guys, with Sergio Valdez backing them up. ’04 Big Unit will also help the pen, and start strategically as needed.

This is another theme that’s hard to judge, but I think it was a bit of struggle for everyone. I doubt anyone was able to make their ideal team, or a team they’re 100% comfortable with, so I like my chances. At least I did, until I saw brian and schwarze in my division.

I’ve never used Hilltop before, but I figured I’d maximize on some of my extra PA and IP. I don’t really have any lefty power, so this should help with any Ruths, Gehrigs, Bonds or Williamses. Bring on the fireworks.

Offense (including scrubs): .347/.413/.541, 403 2B, 214 HR, 675 BB
Pitching (including scrubs): 1,598 IP, 0.90 WHIP, 7.79 K/9, 1.67 BB/9, 0.45 HR/9

Prediction: 86-76

#5 is ALIVE! (props to anyone who gets this reference)

Short Circuit!

I sometimes use a 1B in RF in roster twist leagues, and I remember using 93 Olerud in right. I wish I wrote it down somewhere, but iirc, he had around a .950 fielding percentage with less than 10 “-“ plays

Looking back, I hit 550 wins exactly, though the distribution was different than I thought it'd be

On my $130 mil team, I predicted 75-100 wins depending on whether I go into a fatigue spiral or not. If I use the upper end of that prediction (100) then I come to a predicted total of 531 wins. I ended up with 534.

Also: “All in all, this was the perfect setup to catch back up in” -d_rock97 9/25/2020



Yuuuuuuuuup. Caught back up and then some