This is where people can describe their various strategies used in how they went about building their teams for Round 1 of the 2009 WIS Championship.

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70M, League 1-D ($4M Bats, $6M Arms)

I do not play in many leagues with caps below 80M. And when I do, I focus on SBs since they are relatively inexpensive. Clearly, in this theme, SBs are devalued. So I really had no clue as to the best strategy when building my team.

I typically start building my team with starting pitching. I wanted 900+ IP/162 for my starting pitchers and about 300 IP/162 for my relievers with a few mopups thrown in. I wanted modern pitchers since 0.50 HR/9 normalizes better in the modern era. I also wanted pitchers who could hit since there is value there. I also knew I was going to spend around $35M on pitching.

I ended up with three pretty good hitting pitchers... 1993 Hershiser (.784 ops), 1971 Siebert (.821 ops) and 1975 B.Forsch (.803 ops). My fourth starter: 2006 Oswalt is the team's best starter (1.17 whip). Overall, my 1203 "good" innings average 1.19 whip, 2.92 ERC, 0.67 HR/9, .246 oav.

Hitting, I tried to keep the average as high as possible and the strikeouts relatively low. I only have two hitters with over 100 Ks. I did short myself a little in PA/162, averaging just over 600 per starting batter... My eight starting batters have the following totals... 193 HRs (my bench makes it up to 200), .273 avg, .345 obp, .467 slug. I do have all "A" and "B" defense in the infield and 2003 Mike Cameron's A+++ range in CF.

I really have no clue how this team will do. I would be happy with 85 wins, but wouldn't be surprised if I end up with 90 losses.


80M, League 2-D (St. Louis 84-93)

I hate to say it, but I didn't really look at any other options. I love SBs at this cap level and I knew there'd be plenty of high-percentage SB guys to choose from. I started with the '85 Cardinals and worked out from there. I wanted 93 Jefferies at 1B (my most expensive hitter), so that pretty much defined my 10-year period. I hated to downgrade '85 McGee to '90 McGee, but needed to in order to get the pitchers I wanted.

The pitching staff is pretty strong for an 80M league. '85 Tudor, '89 DeLeon, '92 Tewksbury and '86 Cox have a total of 973 IP/162 with the following averages... 1.03 whip, 2.13 erc, .221 oav, .55 hr/9. I am a little light in bullpen innings (237), but they're almost as good (1.08 whip, 2.32 erc, .220 oav and .61 hr/9). I do have 4 mopups to help with IP.

The offense is based on SBs of course, with 7 of my 8 hitters base-stealing threats... Jefferies 46/55, Herr 31/34, Pendleton 24/30, O.Smith 57/66, Coleman 109/131, L.Smith 50/63, McGee 31/40... for a total of 348/419 (83%). The other offense numbers aren't so great (.286, .353, .379).

I usually have pretty good success with these kind of teams. I would be disappointed if they didn't win at least 90 games. I do need to manage my innings carefully though



90M, League 3-A (1924 White Sox)

I really had no idea where I was going to go with this theme, then I remembered a mini-tournament I ran 3-4 years ago, where each team got 3-4 free agents and the playoffs were based on most improved (i.e., sim record vs. real life record). It wasn't exactly the same concept, but it was close and I was able to find an old standings spreadsheet to give me some ideas on teams to consider.

I ended up using a team that I had success with in that mini-tournament... the 1924 White Sox (.431). They had a number of good hitters on that team with 1b Earl Sheely (.320), 2b Eddie Collins (.349), of Bibb Falk (.352), of Harry Hooper (.328). Willie Kamm gives me a solid glove at 3b (A / A-). The White Sox pitching isn't great but I get to add FIVE free agents.

of Babe Ruth (.378, .513, .739)
ss Joe Sewell (.316, .388, .429)

sp Walter Johnson (292 ip, 1.12 whip, 2.32 erc, .224 oav, 0.32 hr/9)
sp Dazzy Vance (324 ip, 1.02 whip, 1.93 erc, .205 oav, 0.32 hr/9)
rp Claude Jonnard (95 ip, 1.16 whip, 2.45 erc, .229 oav, 0.20 hr/9)

I also used Sloppy Thurston and Red Faber from the White Sox but overall, the pitching isn't very strong. Hopefully, with my offense, I can win 75% to 80% of the games that Walter and Dazzy start and be competetive in the other games.

Here are my averages (exlc. 200K players)
Batting: .317 avg, .405 obp, .455 slug
Pitching: 1.24 whip, 2.92 ERC, .25 oav, .33 hr/9 (ugh)


100M, League 4-C (2001 Boston Tribe)

I tried a number of combinations with this theme, although many centered around the 2001 Red Sox pitching staff. I started by looking at Pedro/Lowe teams when I discovered that I could also get Cone and Saberhagen in 2001. Now, I had to find the right 2001 offense. I tried StL and NYY but eventually settled on Cleveland. They have a great mixture of speed (Lofton, D.Roberts, Vizquel, R.Alomar = 210 SB vs 38 CS) and power (Thome, Fryman, Ju.Gonzalez = 102 HRs). Plus, all four infielders are "A" fielders. Including platooners, my offensive numbers are: .309 avg, .390 obp, .482 slug.

I have 1361 pretty good innings. My starters average 0.98 whip, 1.90 ERC, .205 oav, .56 hr/9. The bullpen is led by Rod Beck's 92 innings of 0.84 whip.

Some other teams I considered were 1931 Brk pitching / NYY hitting, 1981 Hou pitching / Mil hitting and 2006 Cubs pitching / Phi hitting. I never really tried to put a Braves pitching team together. I just didn't like their bullpen options. It will be interesting to see how all the 98 Atl/NYY teams end up doing.


120M, League 5-D (Stratton & Caruthers)

I probably should have tried to build a team before announcing this theme. I do suspect that there will be a lot of similarity in the rosters. Lowering the cap to $110M would have made for some tougher decisions. I started with Silver King, but couldn't get the rest of the team I wanted to fit right, so I instead went with a 2-man rotation of Scott Stratton (1.07 whip, .777 batting ops) and Bob Caruthers (1.06 whip, .975 batting ops). Obviously, I wanted pitchers who could hit. I drafted 1600 IPs but 200 are mopup. I only have 6 quality pitchers... the two starters already mentioned plus four stud relievers (Chamberlain, Ramsey, Leever, Handiboe). Overall, they total 1.02 whip, 1.80 erc, .213 oav, 0.07 hr/9. (The relievers average 0;91 whip in 400+ IPs)

For hitting, I avoided the really bad fielders (no D- infielders). Other than that, I took the best obp hitters I could find. I imagine these will be the most popular selections.

c: King Kelly .388 avg, 483 opb
1b: Roger Connor .349, .450
2b: Cupid Childs .338, .435
3b: John McGraw .391, .547
ss: Hughie Jennings .355, .463
of: Billy Hamilton .340, .453
of: Ed Delahanty .334, .426
of: Ed Swartwood .327, .444
Overall .350 avg, .459 obp


140M, League 6-A (Simply Difficult)

For some reason, this theme gave me the most difficulty, despite it's seemingly simple concept (thus the team name). I think I spent more time building this team than the other five combined. I just couldn't get things to fit right. Even after I finally built my team and started the league, I later found out that I had an illegal team and had to fix it.

I started with four $10M pitchers plus Ruth, but I just couldn't find a firstbaseman that I felt comfortable using... so I took Gehrig and downgraded from "Tier 1" Dutch Leonard to "Tier 2" Kevin Brown. My other starters are '95 Maddux, '99 Pedro and '05 Reulbach. For whatever reason, the low-IP starting pitchers tend to do better in relief than pure relievers, so my entire bullpen consists of players like Toney, Nehf, Carlos, N.Maddox, etc. In total, I have 1452 IPs of 0.88 whip, 1.35 erc, .198 oav, .19 hr/9.

Since HR hitters severely underperform at the higher caps, I only took two HR hitters ('27 Ruth and '34 Gehrig). All the other hitters are high-ob guys, including cookies such as '93 Phillips, '86 Boggs and '51 Ashburn. I'm also using '30 Cochrane (.357, .424), '38 Vaughan (.322, .433), '91 Hamilton (.340, .453) and as DH, I'm trying the 1897 $4.6M John McGraw (.325, .471).

I tend to do well in high cap leagues, so I feel pretty good about this team.

$70M - I had an unbalanced approach to power, drafting some high HR guys so I could fit Tony Phillips and several other low HR guys I like. HR requirement was an albatross making this more like a $60M with extra HR. I tried to use strategies that work in low caps; hitting pitchers who can also pinch hit, look for part time bargains with various skills sets, use entire 25-man roster, etc.

$80M - this one was annoying! I found a suitable team and stuck with them because I was tired of counting years. I had searched 3 franchises and had so much trouble getting the year counts right I gave up and used the best of those 3. 85-94 Cards were my second choice, glad I didnt pick them because there are 4 Cards teams from that era in my league. chose 94-03 seattle for the safeco advantage and because I don't favor the running game. also looked at 70-79 Orioles.

$90M - very time consuming! I did an exhaustive search but first I had to figure out what I was searching for. To make best use of Free Agents I wanted a team with good hitting and mostly FA pitching. I wanted an unbalanced team of stars and duds so I could keep stars while upgrading duds. I wanted a losing team so I could use more FA. I needed adequate glove. and it helps to be in the right ballpark. 94 Mariners met all of my search conditions. I considered 2 other teams. 99 Rockies had solid hitting and 5 FA to salvage pitching but I struggled to get the extra stamina needed for Coors. 1919 Cardinals were an extreme mix of stars and duds with 6 FA to upgrade, but the fielding just wasnt good enough.

$100M - I stuck with the first team I drafted. Seattle for the Safeco advantage, 2001 because they won so many games, Atlanta for their pitching reputation. The team i drafted had excellent glove and pitchers who hit over .200. I briefly looked at a few other combinations. No advantage and none of them could compete with the glove and pitchers bats.

$120M - not enough tough choices. There will be a lot of duplication in this league. Biggest decision was were to cut the budget to meet the cap. I sacrificed 2B/SS bat so I could get half-decent glove. I chose a couple mediocre pitchers so i could meet the budget without fatigue, and this choice makes me nerrvous.

$140M - my least favorite league because I don't like high caps. The tiers were mildly restrictive but didn't have much impact on my roster selection startegies. 4 $10M+ SP then a lot of hitters, then I'm flexible with bullpen so I just adjusted the bullpen to meet the tier requirements.

70M - Cheap Power

for me, this was the toughest team to put together - i ended up figuring that most of the power hitters would be high OBP/low BA types as they are cheaper, so i went with pitchers who had higher OBA's, because they are cheaper than other similar pitchers with low OBA's, i ended up with a very solid rotation (05 Carpenter, 01 Garcia, 07 Lackey, and 94 Hill) but a thin pen - Crain and Street must be lights out for this to work

offensively i barely made the 200 HR's (with help from the 200 K's), i will probably be among the low end scoring teams, and my outfield D is awful - on the bright side, Tinker and Evers anchor the infield, so it will be fun to check scores

prediction - 83-79



80M - 10 year franchise

i went with the 99-08 Mets for no other reason than that i am a Met fan

my offense should be among the leaders in runs scored (Wright, Beltran, Olerud, Piazza), luckily there were pleny of 200K types to balance out the years

pitching wise - Santana, Pedro, Leiter and Hampton make up a solid rotation - but of course Armando is the anchor, and what he does will be what the team does ultimately - lets hope he doesnt apple in big spots

prediction 96-66



90M GM Challenge

i went with the 2004 Mariners who gave me 6 saviours - and holy crap did i need them - luckily there was some decent arms in the pen, but there was only 1 solid starter, so i ended up using 3 rotation spots on imports - Randy Johnson, Johan Santana and Jason Schmidt - and i added Joe Nathan to an already decent pen

offensively, my big bat is an import - Lance Berkman - he will fit nicely in the 3 spot behind Ichiro and Randy Winn - Carlos Guillen (the final FA) has a nice season and is backed up by Ibanez and Boone

i think i have stellar pitching, halfway decent hitting and very good defense - and in that park, it should jell

prediction 98-64



100M - 2 Team Twist

i went with the 86 Mets and Red Sox - i initially was going to go with the Mets pitching, then realized i could get Seaver AND Clemens and went with the Sox instead - those 2 are backed up by Bruce Hurst - with a 4th starter basically irrelevant, it gave me some flexibilty elsewhere - the pen is dicey tho, but Joe Sambito will be a solid closer - at this point in the salary game, i started concentrating on getting more quality innings overall and i think i reached 1400 with this staff

offensively, this should be a great team - 140 steals and 244 homers - i love this team, altho i am playing in Shea to help the pitching

prediction - 95-67



120M 19th Century

i'll start out with saying that i absolutely SUCK in high cap leagues and 19th century players, so i dont think i'll be competitive here

fielding - i made sure i had all A range players, so that should help

Pitching - ugh, my first ever use of Caruthers, who is probably on half these teams - but i'll need Charlie Ferguson to be at least halfway decent to be a 500 teams - i went with 1500 innings - hopefully quality! to combat the higher cap and heavier offenses

batting - i took all the usual suspects - Hamilton, Conner, Browning, Kelly, etc

prediction - 73-89



140M 5 Tiers

what a pain in the rear - a high cap, combined with having to do math, ugh

i screwed myself by not getting enough innings - i got 1470 - high quality innings, but that wont be enough i fear, i just didnt want to get lesser pitchers in a 140 mil cap

i have 4 10+ mil hitters in the lineup (Hornsby,Ruth,Mantle,McGwire) so i should score a decent amount of runs

prediction 80-82



overall - i went with the notion that you could get by with 1250 innings in the 70mil, 1300 in the 80 mil, 1400 in 90 and 100 mil, 1500+ for 120 and 140

i went better pitching than i usually do, as i expect most others will do, since offense outperforms pitching for the most part currently in the sim

as usual, ERC+ and OBP/OPS+ were my main factors in finding players - i am not a big fan of completely tanking a position to get better hitters in the lineup, but i will get a substandard player who plays decent defense to do that

i think i am strong in the 80-90-100 teams - but not so much on the 70-120-140

i cant wait to start

$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.

$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.

$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.

$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.

$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.

$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.

All 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.

$70 M Theme

I really thought this was an interesting theme. I thought of several different strategies to try out. At first, I agreed with Schwarze that good hitting pitchers would be the key to success. But I couldnt find a pitcher with a good enough bat that would offset his lesser pitching.

The second idea that I had was to go in a completely opposite direction. I figured since this would be a slugging league, fewer people would draft A+ catcher arms. I envisioned a team of Rickey Henderson, Eric Davis and Jose Canseco type players that could run wild on all weak catcher arms, yet still meet the HRs required. I almost entered this team, but I didnt quite feel right. I still think this would work. I felt that this team could very effective with its SB approach.

The team a settled on was built around '32 Babe Ruth. The whole idea is to get a ton of people on base in the top of the order. Then hope the bottom of the order can hit that 3 run homer. I have worries about the varience of relying on the 3 run bomb for your offense. I feel there could be a lot 8-2 games happening, with my team on both sides of the fence.

I don't know if this was a good idea spending over 10% of the budget on one player, but hell I was intrigued and want to try it. His HR numbers and OBP was so good looking, that I went for it. To make up for his huge salary, I went for some cookies that would work well in front him. I got Max Bishop and Walt Weiss to fill in at 2nd and SS.

70 HR League

Went with 1450 quality innings. Probably too much, but with a high offense league, you can never have too many. Took the only -2 park to help with the pitching and added the '84 Puckett for defense. Looked for pitchers with high HR+.


80 10 Year Franchise

Should have gone with the 80s Cardinals but completely spaced on them when putting together this team. I was a league commish so it was too late to switch. Still like the team, though with pitching from the early 40s, those Cards teams were the best pitching team in history. Good defense and some nice AVG+ guys.



90 GM Challenge

Was sweating this league big time. Must have made 25 teams. Decided on the '43 Cardinals with Spud Chandler. On a lark, I decided to look at the best team of all time, the '06 Cubs - took one look at their pitching and was shocked I hadn't thought of them earlier. 1400IP of 1.05 WHIP and 6 hitters above the league average in batting average.

100 Two Team Twist

Went right to the Braves Yankees of the mid nineties. '96 Yanks was always a great twist team and with the pitching depth that the Braves offer, this one went quickly. Wish I had spent more time with the '98 teams, though, but I think this is the right one.


120 19th Century

Found the best pitching I could. If they can't get on base, they can't score an unearned run. Whole team rides on Tim Keefe.


140 5 Tiers

1400 IP at .89 WHIP, add high AVG+ guys and throw them in the Astrodome. Stick with what works.

$70M Team:

1300+ IP's with a team WHIP of 1.22 and a team HR/9 of 1.09. Hopefully, they'll keep the other team's ball in the yard enough that my team can win a few 14-13 games. My team defense is rated at A/C so maybe they'll bail my pitching staff out of a few scrapes here and there. I never play lower CAP leagues so I'm assuming my record in this one will be somewhere around the 65-97 mark.

$80M Team:

Like many, I wanted to go with one of my favorite franchises and, at the same time, use some guys I don't often get to use. I went into this knowing I was going with the Twins but instead of using the 60's guys, I ended up going with the newer ones - 1999 to 2008. 1300+ IP's of 1.13 WHIP ball will hopefully keep me in games. Now if only my offense can score me some runs. Assumed overall record: 80-82.

$90M Team:

Did a little looking around for a team that had some really good individual performances on it but yet sucked in the "Win" category. I finally settled on the 1995 Orioles. Good seasons from Hoiles, Palmeiro, Brady Anderson, Mussina, Kevin Brown and Jesse Orosco. With the ability to add four FA's to the squad, once you plug in '95 Maddux and '95 Nomo to the pitching staff, then add the '95 Albert Belle and '95 Barry Larkin to the offense, you end up with a pretty good squad. I'm predicting this to be one of my better teams and I think they'll finish somewhere around 87-75.

$100M Team:

Seems I went with one of the more popular choices in this category - the 1998 Braves and Yankees. Pretty much a no-brainer with the Braves pitching and the Yankees hitting. Since most others in my league/division are inherently smarter than I am, I'm predicting a 76-86 finish.

$120M Team:

I'm thinking that a lot of the teams in this category are going to look similar so there's not much use in going into full detail about this one. I didn't want one of those 500+ IP Starters to start every other game - just a typical four-man rotation. Team pitching staff has a 1.06 WHIP and a 2.17 ERA so they will "hopefully" hold their own. The offense probably looks like everyone elses, though I did try to get the best defense I could. Team defense ended up being C-/B-. Projected team record: 81-81.

$140M Team:

Grab bag of the usual suspects. I'm just curious to see which "Babe" most teams went with. By the time the team salary was all sorted out, I ended up with the 1926 version. Projected team record: 78-84.

As you can tell, I don't forsee a lot of success in this tournament for myself, based on two things: (1) my past performance, and (2) I'm a "build 'em and let 'em play" kind of guy. Not a lot of tinkering and such so I'm not as "hands on" as a lot of the owners in here. My overall winning percentage should prove that nicely.

Good luck to everyone!

OK, here's the lo' down on how you can build six teams in a day - guaranteed to lose more than you win.


70M Cheap Power

No brain surgery here. The pitchers by and large have an HR/9+ of 200. I also looked for pitchers with good K/9, most have 7+ per 9. I have Dwayne Murphy in center. My most expensive hitter is the 63' Colavito 4.98m, and my nost expensive pitcher is the 2004 Jaret Wright 5.32m I have 1384 IP, maybe too many


80m 10 year franchise

I figured I need a team that was consistently good so I quickly settled on the 47-56 Yankees. At first I had a bunch of 4-5m blah blah blah in the field. I scrapped that and took a 3-4 punch of Henrich/Mantle, spending a bit more than 13m on them. A very weak leadoff hitter with 52' Rizzuto and two platoons in the field featuring Berra and Mize and first and catcher. I like a full pitching staff of 12 guys plus mop. I only have 10 + mop. The rotation is Reynolds/Ford/Lopat/Raschi 1.13 to 1.20 whip's



90m GM/free agent challenge

I went with the 2005 Astros and 3 free agents. Clemens and Pettite are very good. I added Satana and Martinez to the rotation. Team whip is 1.07 counting the mop. Hitting is weak. My third free agent is Jason Bay, that's how weak it is.


100m 2 team twist - 95' Yankees/Braves

Not trying to over analyze things, I figured I wanted Greg Maddux on my team. I took the 94' flavor with the better hr/9. Glavine and Jason Schmidt will be the 3 starters with an occasional start by Avery. Nice bullpen, Smoltz will close. As for the hitters, I have an 87' Fernandez playing for me nicely in another league, so I took him over Jeter at short. Check out the 99' Randy Velarde. He and 86' Boggs will bat 1-2. I'm a Yankee fan so it's filled with the usual suspects.


120m 19c. team

This team will stink, very very much. I went with above average range and refused to take D- fielders as some D- guys are really a big disaster. I spent more money on hitters and don't have any good ones except 99' Delahanty. I need a do-over


140m 5 tiers

I knew right off I want three SP's at 10m+ and took a Cy Young, the 94' Maddux (again, I'm such a *****) and Chief Bender. I insisted on low Hr/9 and good hr/9+. I almost fell into the Dan Quisenberry trap, he was calling to me, like a siren. Old school cookie Barry Latman will close. Good fielding in the OF - 58' Ashburn hitting leadoff and playing center in between Fred Lynn and Dimaggio. A platoon at catcher. My DH is the 22' George Sisler, the .420 season.

$70 Million

Looked for pitchers with high HR9+, low HR/IP, high K/9 and low BB/9. Theory was simple, HR hitters tend to strike out and BB alot as well. Balanced out the offense with some table setters (Walt Weiss, Bishop) and some big bats (McGwire 58 HRs and Juan Gone 42 HRs).

$80 Million

Blues Jays from 1989 to 1998 and was shocked to find not one but two other Blue Jays teams in my league. I used them because I had good luck with them in one of the WIS Championships a few years back. I absolutely hate $80 Million caps because I never have any luck in them so I'm pretty sure this team will be my worst.

$90 Million

Looked at a few teams including several from the 1920s and the 75 Dodger (this team was my second choice). After looking at the options for this league it was clear that every team was going to have 4 to 6 starters that really wouldn't make the cut in a normal $90 Million league. As such I assume the winner of this league will be the team that was able to get the most true $90 Million guys on their team. Found the 1919 Cards and liked what they gave me - 6 Free Agents including Cobb, Ruth, Sisler, Peckinpaugh, Hippo Vaughan, and Walter Johnson. My only concern is running a 5 man pitching staff.

$100 Million

The mid to late 90s seemed to be a popular choice because of the strong teams. I ended up going with the 1998 Braves pitching and Yankees hitting. Atlanta always had a weakness in the bullpen (no depth) but this team allows you to put smoltz, charlton, springer (2007 season is key), paul byrd (of all people), and embree to round out a nice pen. This leaves Maddux, Millwood, Dennis Martinez, Glavine, and Neagle in a five man rotation. The Yankees allow you to upgrade Brosius with Mike Lowell and take your pick between Raines, Williams, Strawberry, and O'Neill in the OF.

$120 Million

Focussed on the best defense you could get without sacrificing offense. As someone already pointed out, there really didn't seem like very many tough choices. Caruthers and Ferguson because they're decent pitchers and can hit. Got six strong RPs to close out games.

$140 Million

Built two or three iterations of this team and then realized that you really needed to platoon at least two positions to get the offense where it needed to be. Went with 3 max tier SP in a three man rotation, filled in with a five man bullpen with one $7Million long A/spot starter. Ended up going with a platoon at 1B and DH. This team will take some managing but should do well.

70 mil - Heavy Hitters
I figured that the hitters that many teams would have would be strikeout prone, so I drafted my 4 starters looking for a decent WHIP, with a high k/9. Higuera '87, Wood '02, Johnson '92, Estes '97 give me about 900 IP with lower OAV, high k/9 (8.1 is lowest), and unfortunatly high bb/9. That might come back to hurt me. My bullpen isn't very good, and I expect that to probably hurt. I was looking for IP more than anything else. 1338 total IP.
My hitters are for the most part guys that I haven't used before. I set the search for 4-5 million, and then looked at the top HR guys at each position. I didn't see any SS that I liked with some HR, so I went with Ozzie Smith instead, for speed and OBP.
I predict 87-75, if the strikeout pitchers work out, 77-85 if they don't.

80 Mil - 80-89 Astros
I didn't take that long on this one. I asked my fiance for a year between 1900 and now, she said 1980. I picked the Astros because I wanted the IP saving that the 'dome would give. I liked the team that I ended up with, and went with it.
Pitchers have a combined WHIP that is on par with what I would like in 80 mil cap. My hitters have a OBP that is below what I would like to see.
80-82 is my guess on this one.

90 mil - '75 Dodgers
I remembered from last year's tourney that I liked the pitching on the '75 Dodgers. I liked that I was going to get 3 free agents, which I obviously planned to use to improve the hitters. I don't think I improved them enough though.
75-87 I think

100 mil - '66 Astros/Yankees
'66 Astros pitchers - Robin Roberts, Larry Dieker, Turk Farrell, Barry Latman, and the other guys twisted pretty well also.
Yankee Hitters - Bobby Murcer, Mickey Mantle, Roy White, not sure that the rest will do well at 100 mil, now that I think about it.
80 wins unless the hitters really perform well

120 mil - Old School
I looked for hitting in my pitchers, and defense in my hitters. I think I have pretty similar guys to everyone else.
This team will win between 70 and 90 games (as will probably 75% of the teams, so not a very precise guess)

140 mil - 5 tier team
I really liked building this team.
10-15 mil tier - Maddux '95, WJ '19, Pedro '99, Clemens '97, Ted Williams '46 (I wanted my starters to be covered by this tier, and I didn't want to spend to much, to save money for some overspending in the next 2 tiers)
7 - 10 mil tier - All hitters. Arky Vaughan '38, Wade Boggs '83, Joe Dimaggio '41, Jo Morgan '75, Stan Musial '57.
4-7 mil tier - Don Buford '71, Fred Carroll '89 (my DH), Fred Toney '18, Bruce Sutter '77, Eckersley '90. Covered the last of my full time hitters, a long reliever, and 2 setup guys
1-4 mil tier - William Fischer '15, Carlton Fisk '75 (platooning Catcher), Nick Maddux (closer)
rest of the guys will chip in, but will not play primary roles.
I like my pitching, and I think my hitting will hold up at this cap level.
90-95 wins.

Overall, I think I will have 2 teams make the playoffs, and I will end up at about 40th place (based on previous years). Anything better than that would surprise me, as this is against the best WIS has to offer for competition.

I was a last minute replacement after being away from the site for several months.
Basically I went back to my roots and drafted my favorite players/team (Astros) as often as possible.

It may not be too late to request to be in the same division...

I'm a first timer to the WISC, lots of question marks. I don't normally play below $80M, and rarely above $120M, so I'm in unchartered waters there...

$70M- Went with Tiger Stadium, hopefully that'll help in reducing fatigue(-1 1B), and have a decent rotation ('01 Garcia, '90 Drabek, '07 Carmona and '91 Bosio). They have pretty good SO/BB ratios, and should be able to get us deep enough into most games. '07 Franklin, '06 Maddux, '95 Reuter and '06 League will do the majority of the relief work, hopefully they don't get too overworked.
Offense- decided on '92 Bob Caruthers to lead off, he should get on base okay as a table setter. Zernial, Petrocelli, Ed Mathews, Kluszewski, Sierra, Frank White, and there's a Haller/Boone catching combo. Barely 200 HR, but hopefully we'll score just enough runs.
$80M- '81-90 Astros, because I couldn't build a mid '70's Dodger team that I was comfortable with in Chavez Ravine. Good SP with '81 Sutton, '88 Scott, '87 Ryan and a 4a/b tandem of Deshaies and Danny Darwin. Both will make some relief appearances to aid a bullpen consisting of Dave Smith, Dipino, Sambito, Moffitt and Heathcock.
Offense- not great, but Billy Doran, Mumphrey, Puhl, J Cruz, Walling, Ray Knight, Thon and a C tandem of Ashby/Trevino will have to do...lack of run support will likely do me in...
$90M Challenge- Went with the '31 Giants +2 F/A's- Grove and Ruth. Bill Terry, Mel Ott and company will have to supply enough runs. Grove joins a pretty decent rotation of Hubbell, Fitzsimmons and Bill Walker. One of those will see plenty of RP appearances to aid a thin bullpen. We'll see...
$100M- Tough choice, but went with twisting the '25 A's/Senators. Senators have good SP with Walter Johnson, Coveleski, Dutch Reuther and Vean Gregg. Ogden and Mogridge are usually good out of the pen, but I'll use Reuther and/or Gregg out of there too.
Offense- Having Al Simmons, Jimmie Foxx and Mickey Cochrance in the middle of the lineup is never a bad thing. Whether or not their supporting cast is good enough remains to be seen...
$120M- Went with South End Grounds, and I'm hoping to score a ton of runs to offset this ragged fielding team. Pete Conway and Caruthers in a tandom rotation, Gilmore, Ramsey, George, Leever, Wehying and Dwyer form the 'pen.
Offense- Should be fun to read the box scores...Sliding Billy Hamilton, Pete Browning, McGraw, Sam Thompson, Cupid Childs, Roger Connor and Buck Ewing should provide lots of runs.
$140M- Shoved a bunch of Good hitters into the Astrodome, only the Splinter is a legitimate HR threat. King Kelly, Sisler, Delahanty, Musial and Boggs are in the lineup.
Pitching- backed off just a bit after originally having 3 $10M plus arms. Mathewson and Pedro are joined by Millwood and Kevin Brown. Bullpen is manned by Nehf, Rivera, Tim Burke, BlackJack McDowell and some 25-30 IP arms...
I'm not sure how I'll fare, but I'm hopeful to finish better than my #79 pre tourney ranking...

$70M - 200 HR League
I wanted as much OBP as I could get while getting my 200 HR. I utilized my $200K players to maximize HR there. Of my 8 starting hitters, one has an OBP of .350, 2 others between .360-.369 with the other 5 being in the .370s. They combined for 814 BBs and 755Ks. I'm hopeful that opposing pitchers will need to throw more pitches and tire against team. Also, once I picked '98 Rickey as my leadoff hitter, I decided to get some SBs because I don't believe most teams will have A+ catcher arms here. The four hitters on my team who can run combined for 165 SB with only 45 CS. We'll see if that works.

For pitching, I wanted at least two starters who could hit and took 1889 Ad Gumbert (.289/.339/.471) and 1936 Bill Swift (.295/.315/.448) to go with '29 Carl Hubbell. The bullpen is focused on mostly low BB/9 types who were barely above .5 HR/9 with strong HR/9+. I picked Turner Field (+1 for HR and -1 for singles and doubles) to help reduce the offense somewhat. Generally, I don't like to use extreme hitters parks in lower cap leagues because it's hard to draft enough good IP/162 to survive it. Hopefully, the high BB totals will allow me to generate enough offense.

$80M - 10-Year Team
For this league, I wanted to focus on teams that straddled 1920 so I could get a mix of deadball and "lively ball" players. After considering the 1924-33 Senators (to get that 1928-30 pitching) and the 1915-24 Red Sox (to get Ruth and some good early 20s pitching), I settled on the 1917-26 Reds. This team let me get relatively cheap lively ball pitching (Donohue, Rixey, Mays, Dibut, Napier, McQuaid) and combine it with a few strong deadball players/pitchers ('18 Roy Mitchell, '17 Eller, '18 Roush). While I like the team's defense, I am worried that this team isn't a great fit for its home park which is +1 for HR. But, the normalized pitching and team defense is very solid for this cap level so we'll see what happens.

$90M Challenge
This was by far the hardest team for me to make. I seriously considered at least 15 teams. This is much easier than it would have been two years ago due to being able to download a real team's roster into the draft center. The final six that I examined were the '75 Dodgers, '44 Cards, '28 Robins(Dodgers), '24 White Sox, '43 Cubs and '69 Yankees.
I generally value balance on the roster at low and medium caps and wanted to have a roster with as few holes as possible rather than a few superstars who balance out some below average players. I eliminated the White Sox and Cubs because the pitching wasn't strong enough, especially given the home parks. The '69 Yankees were a surprisingly strong defensive team and with McCovey and Aaron added to the lineup had a respectable batting order to support strong pitching. But, the pitching-friendly nature of the park only exacerbated the offensive imbalance. Adding y Grove and Garland Braxton to the '28 Robins stabilized the pitching staff and Ruth and Hartnett filled in offensive holes. However, an all D+ range OF and a mediocre IF other than Bissonnette doomed this team.

That the '44 Cards and the '75 Dodgers. The Cards have a solid pitching staff and lineup with Stirnweiss filling their one hole very nicely. The Dodgers have done well for me in the $90-100M cap level previously in this tournament and they were the first team I considered. Lynn, Harrah and Tenace filled the lineup holes well. Despite relatively high HR/9, I went with the Dodgers because of a much lower OAV# and the ability to draw walks. One OF spot is mediocre but I'm hoping that a starting four of Messersmith, Hooton, Rau and Sutton can carry the day.

$100M - Two Team Twist
This theme actually took me very little time, which can be good or bad. The '83 Phillies are a long-time sim favorite for twisting so that gave me my hitters. DeJesus at SS is a weaker bat but has a solid glove and was 41/53 stealing bases. '69 Rose, '72 Morgan, '73 Perez and '81 Matthews will hopefully normalize well.

The pitching came down to the Dodgers and the Yankees and I took the Dodgers in part to be able to use Dodger Stadium. 8 pitchers have WHIPs lower than 1.10 with another two low IP hurlers potentially being useful at 1.14 and 1.30. I went with 1,346 solid IP/162 for this team in order to get more quality innings and build a solid offense. I'm hoping Dodger Stadium will also allow me to compensate for mediocre OF defense.

$120M - 19th Century Challenge
I built this team first because I usually don't use many pre-1900 players. Since this league will have a lot of errors resulting in more plate appearances, I made certain to have more PA and IP per 162 than I might normally. On offense, I wanted to avoid the truly horrendous fielders and too many hitters from the huge offensive seasons. However, I did draft '94 Duffy as he plays reasonable defense and should anchor the lineup nicely. I chose Deacon McGuire as my C to get more PAs and believe that a B arm will be sufficient from being exploited on the bases. It will be interesting to see how much people run with the relatively poor SB success rates of most players.

For pitching, '86 Caruthers was a no-brainer. Then, I wanted to use the best LH SP that I could find ('85 Baldwin and '88 Titcomb) to round out a 3-man rotation. McMahon and Handiboe will support the two ies. I have roughly 1,497 quality IP/162 as poor defense will result in more PAs. While most eligible parks other than Baker Bowl are generally neutral, pre-1900 pitchers don't have the ultra low OAVG that some of their 20th century peers would have which will also lengthen games.

$140M - 5 Tiers
Given the structure, this league doesn't lend itself well to using the $15+ million SPs that would ordinarily appear at this cap level. So I used Reulbach, Maddux and Leonard as the basis of a 3-man rotation with Al Rosen and Lou Gehrig the other $10M + players. Only 2 of my 9 hitters were below $7 million and one of them was Dan Brouthers, my DH. I used '90 Eck as my closer and all of my $1-4M picks were pitchers. I'm hoping that Dodger Stadium will help me get by with 1,443 IP/162 (0.89 WHIP) in this league. I felt that was light for this cap level with a DH but also felt that I needed to take a chance to get the bats I wanted. The offense is a mix of four power hitters with good normalized HR/100 AB and five singles hitters with OBPs between .433-.466 who will hopefully normalize well.