Hi from Tulum, Mexico. I've been living down here for the last few weeks and living with almost 20 other entrepreneurs as I work on a new startup idea. Normally I don't like having to be done with my teams first, but in this case it worked out because I definitely am not spending much time on WIS down here.

Right now I'm in 5th, and I'll risk jinxing myself by saying I think my teams are good enough to get me to 1st before this thing is over. Between the start of Round 1 and now, I took the plunge and better developed a modern-pitching heavy strategy. It's been working well for me in the few leagues I've played this summer, and I'm bullish on it here too.

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Variable Cap: MH 05 NYY #11
Stadium: Yankee Stadium (II)

Man, this theme. I didn't think salary maximization would be as important when I first designed it, but there are only a few teams that can make it close to the 120M max and have a balanced team. Hence, 11(!) 2005 Yankee teams. Luck is going to play a factor here.

I'm sure my process to find them was similar to others', but I just thought about good twist teams. I didn't build any deadball teams even though a few teams (1917 Braves, 1919 Giants, 1911 Pirates) came to mind because so few players changed teams in those days. Playing the numbers game, I went to the modern era and remembered how often those Yankee teams brought in aging superstars hungry for a title.

Played around with 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2012 — 2005 had the best balance.

Interesting choice was around how much to focus on salary maximization. Final players to decide on were Posada vs a scrub C platoon and Bernie vs Sierra — I never really considered Jeter bc then I couldn't use the Mariners SS version of A-Rod. Another option was dropping Rivera. Eventually decided to keep and twist Posada and take the hit — Sierra is ok.

I'm scared to use Al Leiter but so are close to 10 other people.

Hitting: 5,127 PA, .323 / .396 / .560, $55.9M
Pitching: 1,411 IP, 1.00 WHIP, 0.54 HR/9, $55.6M
Prediction: Since there are a ton of 05 Yankee teams, variance here will be high. 92 wins +/- 7

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$90M:
Stadium:

Ran out of time tonight, will do this tomorrow.

Hitting:
Pitching:
Prediction: 90 wins +/- 5

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$110M: MH Retaking Number 1
Stadium: Citi Field

I saved my better team for Round 2, where wins count for double.

My pitching may be the best of anyone in Round 2 because I bit so many bullets in Round 1 ('19 deGrom, '03 Bernhard, '09 Walsh, '15 Kershaw, '86 Connor, '36 Herman, '20 Carey).

I'm worried that, by focusing more on pitching in Round 2, I'm setting myself up for a lot of extra inning games. This could work against me since my total IP is pretty low. Hoping for the best there.

Hitting: 5,141 PA, .333 / .415 / .472, $53.0M
Pitching: 1,390 IP, 0.87 WHIP, 0.25 HR/9, $55.5M
Prediction: Despite the team being better the competition is too, so let's say 89 wins +/- 4

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$120M: MH 11 But Also 22
Stadium: Polo Grounds (IV)

I got placed last overall, which is flattering but annoying. When it was my turn to pick players I was sad that milest had taken Silver King, as I expected to snag him as part of my remaining 21 guys after the draft. Maybe a blessing in disguise though, because I was able to go more modern with my staff.

Probably should have taken Verlander, Santana, or Kluber (or Joe Jackson) instead of Alexander, Hamilton, or Carey but panicked a bit due to the lack of great value hitters.

Also, kudos to justinlee_24. Not saying my view is the correct one but I feel he dominated the alignment draft. I expect we'll see him expand on why in his post.

Hitting: 5,469 PA, .328 / .404 / .503, $60.1M
Pitching: 1,401 IP, 0.85 WHIP, 0.76 HR/9, $58.7M
Prediction: This will probably be my worst team. 85 wins +/- 4

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$130M: MH More Worried About Verlander tbh
Stadium: Target Field

Apologies in advance for my cocky team-name, but if this team doesn't crush it then my entire thesis for this Round is wrong and I may as well just go home early.

skunk206 said that this league is not the time to experiment, and he's right, but it is the time to be thinking one step ahead. This game is all about countering the other guy.

There's a narrative out there that a deadball, HR-restricting strategy is a dominant strategy in WIS, but that's just plain wrong. In a world where all your opponents are A) spending money to restrict HRs and A) not drafting HR hitters, why would you A) draft HR hitters and B) spend any money restricting HRs?

Enter 2019 Justin Verlander. My guess is that no one in this league drafted anything close to a HR team. I'm expecting lots of Tris Speaker types. So, great, Verlander's 1.45 HR/9 will be totally safe in Target Field, and I can benefit from his crazy WHIP and strikeout rate safely.

My only pitcher from before 2014 is the infamous 1905 Win Kellum. He's going straight to Long B and hopefully this team is going straight to the playoffs.

Hitting: 5,387 PA, .346 / .418 / .513, $64.7M
Pitching: 1,399 IP, 0.82 WHIP, 0.70 HR/9, $64.5M
Prediction: This sounds crazy for Round 2 but I think this team will win 100 games +/- 5

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$160M: MH Without Clayton Kershaw
Stadium: Palace of the Fans

Going into this I knew it was going to be tough, but Round 2 is tough — it tests everything.

I could have probably built some complex value-tradeoff model for this but figured it'd be easier to brute-force it. I just used a spreadsheet to help me keep track of whether adding someone would be legal or not at any given time.

I don't have any great insights to add here, I just think I did a good job not overcommitting to any one player and being flexible to take some leaps.

One thing I'll add is that I first built this team without a DH. Man was I mad when I realized that.

Hitting: 6,001 PA, .360 / .440 / .573, $83.3M
Pitching: 1,492 IP, 0.83 WHIP, 0.20 HR/9, $73.6M
Prediction: Tough to say. I think this team is pretty good for 160M in general? On that basis I'll say 94 wins +/- 6

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My predictions put me at 550 wins with a full range of 520 to 581. 550 is slightly more wins than anyone had in Round 2 last year. Not sure how much that means though.

FWIW I also took 2019 Verlander at the $130m cap. Pretty much identical reasoning

Oh and Tulum sounds nice. My wife and I visited maybe fifteen years ago. I’ve heard it’s been more developed since?

Posted by doctorcc on 9/24/2020 11:58:00 PM (view original):
FWIW I also took 2019 Verlander at the $130m cap. Pretty much identical reasoning

I suspect we'll see a lot of this thinking. I remember brianjw actually sharing this idea last year. He talked about how the deadball/anti-homer strategy had become so engrained, that it was actually wise now to start going the other way and drafting high HR/9 guys with low OAV because no one built HR teams.

Other than mop-up scrub Harry Wilhelm, I don't have a single pitcher from pre-1989 on this team.

Variable Cap - DR9 1908 Not Red Sox

When I first read this theme, one team immediately came to mind, the 1917 Braves. Ed Walsh, Ed Reulbach, Art Nehf... the team was too good. I built that team first and sat on it. As time went on and I second-guessed, and third-guessed my team. This is my typical pitching, speed, and range team, what’s wrong with it? Well, I just didn’t have enough juice. Johnny Evers and Sherry Magee are great, but I didn’t have enough oomph. I don’t know how much I could rely on a lineup consisting of Ed Konetchy, Red Smith, and Zip Collins. I looked at the 1918 Cubs with Pete Alexander and Claude Hendrix, but I didn’t really like the offense on that team either.

But that’s when I went to my tried and true 1908 Red Sox. A classic. I’ve used this team so many times in the past when ssupfoo was around with his roster twist leagues.

Gavvy Cravath puts a damper on my speedy range-y outfield of Jimmy Barrett and Tris Speaker, but provides extra base power that the other teams I built sorely lacked. Frank Laporte and Larry Gardner are underrated bats that I’ve only seen myself use. And I tried oh so hard to have a rotation of 1912 Smokey Joe, 1903 Cy Young, and 1902 Jesse Tannehill so I could essentially have a DH with them all batting .291 or better, but sadly, that cap wouldn’t allow for that. Ed Cicotte will take Smokey Joe’s place and Wood will move to part time COF.

I have way too many PAs and wayyy too many IPs, but it was all in the name of net positives and increasing my cap.

Hitters - 5934 PA, .315/.384/.448
Pitchers - 1581 IP, .217 OAV, 0.95 WHIP, 0.07 HR/9?

Prediction - 90 wins

$90 Mil - DR9 Playing Whiffleball

Man I can make winning $80 mil teams, and I can make winning $100 mil teams, but idk wtf I’m doing with $90 mil teams. I made my team as a counterpick to what I thought most teams were gonna be building. I drafted some 1800s ballplayers that could hit some homeruns, and stuck them in the KingDome. Now that I see half the league chose the Non-K teams, I’m nervous. I hate modern players, they never score from 3rd with less than 2 outs, they hit for low averages, and never fail to disappoint me. So I went with what I know, and chose a bunch of deadballers. I am experimenting with a lot of these guys because I haven’t used most of these seasons outside of roster twist leagues, but I don’t play much under $110 mil caps, so I’m just going off performance history.

Hitters - 5156 PA, .332/.395/.485
Pitching - 1391 IP, 0.99 WHIP, .230 OAV, 0.10 HR/9

Prediction - Couple of platoons I don’t like too much, hoping I can go .500

$110 Mil - Baseball’s Ol’ Nubbers Enterprise Revamped

Man what was I thinking when I saved this for Round 2??? We’re low on IPs, don’t have that much speed, and the XBH department is lacking. I still got my too expensive but good rotation of Brown, Mathewson, and Kershaw. But that’s not how I play. When you see me win, you see a pattern. #1 or #2 in runs scored, average pitching, and a defense that makes hella errors, but also does decent with “+” plays. This is the complete opposite of what I do. I got some good names in Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, Dan Brouthers, and King Kelly, but I do not have the extreme XBH versions of them. I’m gonna have to manage the bullpen to avoid appearance fatigue, but my starters will all play all 162 games so hopefully that’ll balance things out.

Hitters - 5828 PA, .324/.396/.462
Pitchers - 1381 IP, 0.92 WHIP, .205 OAV, 0.29 HR/9

Prediction- 85 wins (and yes, I did wait 2 rounds just to make my team Boner)

$120 Mil - DR9 Behind The Eight Ball

Cmon guys, I finished 23rd!!!! Why the hell am I waiting til the 8th pick! I really thought this league would help me rise in the ranks for Round 2, but I watched as everyone gobbled up all the pitching right before my eyes. Even Silver King got taken right in front of me. My $120 mil is gonna be a lot different without my Walsh, Bernhard, Hendrix, Adams, Ford, Mathewson, or King that I like to deploy. Again I’m gonna have to go back to the roster twist leagues I used to play to find someone I can rely on. Y’all hurt me with pitching, so I tried hurting y’all by taking MIFers Hornsby and Wagner. Seymour was specifically for me so I could use the Palace, and Koufax was a panick pick because pitchers were disappearing. Great now I have this super expensive pitcher and have way less to spend on Offense. My only thought was to get bad fielding 1800 hitters to save on money. Enter Henry Larkin, George Davis, John Reilly, Pete Browning, and King Kelly. All D fielders who are fast, range-y and hit XBHs. I could use more walks, but I like it enough to not look at it again.

Now here comes the dreaded part. Going thru whatever is left to finish my rotation. Maybe I should’ve done a tandem with the likes of Koufax and Hoyt Wilhelm or something out of the box like that, but I just went with a typical 3 man. I’ve used 1915 Eddie Plank two times in Finn’s Bookend Twist league, and he’s returned a combined 2.95 ERA for me. Now he faces much stiffer competition, but I’m hoping he’ll give me more innings due to his alright K totals and low walk rate. Next I went to my most reliable pitcher in the KOH league out of the modern pitchers. I don’t expect much from John Tudor, but I can’t deny his track record for me. Going from Royals Stadium to the Palace is a step up, but hopefully he’ll rise to the occasion. The rest of the rotation are Joe Berry and other stereotypical people, but due to Koufax, they aren’t the best cookies.

Hitters - 5566 PA .345/.396/.513
Pitchers - 1418 IP, 0.93 WHIP, .207 OAV, 0.34 HR/9

Prediction - I’m dangerously low on IP considering I don’t have my Walsh or Kershaw to help out. And I got a Honus I don’t like, but want his range. Maybe I’ll get 90 wins. This is my hotspot, I should win more, but the 8th pick, losing out on Speaker, Cobb, Kershaw hurts.

$130 Mil - DR9 Penn’s Got Me Quaking In My Boots

Honestly, I just chose a team I won a championship recently with, made some minor adjustments, and entered it. It’ll face stiffer competition, and might fail because of my aggressiveness with IPs, but as long as I avoid multiple 20 inning games (no joke that happened in another league where I tried copying how little innings ozomatli drafted in a $200 mil Cap league w/ DH, and at one point, I had 100 more innings pitched than league average) I think my team will hold up. Switched off of King Kelly to Jim O’Rourke in an effort to cut on passed balls, even if my offense will suffer. Replaced Lady Baldwin with 15 Kershaw to increase the quality of my innings, and replaced Bob Milacki with Pat Neshek to recuperate on some of the lost innings from the other swap.

High offense, lots of range, for some reason I’m still drafting George Brett, it has all the makings of a winning team.

Hitters - 5762 PA, .351/.412/.512
Pitchers - 1419 IP, 0.86 WHIP, .200 OAV, 0.32 HR/9

Predictions - Because I’m about 20 IPs lower than what I’m comfortable with, there’s a possibility I spiral. That makes my prediction range from 75-100 wins, but if all goes well, only George Brett can stop my team.

$160 Mil - Missin’ Seymour and his Steamed Hams

I know some of y’all advised me to build from the bottom up, start with hard franchises and letters, but I couldn’t do it. I’m stubborn. I want MY GUYS, and I’ll jam whoever I can into the remaining slots. This includes 2016 Kershaw, 94 Maddux, 85 Connor, 99 Delahanty, 08 Wagner, 20 Hornsby, and whatever Tris Speaker I can find.

My roster is a bit uneven due to my choices at SP. I probably could’ve used a Walter Johnson, and maybe use a good Brown as my deadballers, but instead I went with ultra expensive Addie Joss. Idk why, I just did. I’m very confident in starting Joss and Maddux 2 times a day. Russ Ford however, not so much... I went about getting some middle relief pitchers from decades I figured would be hard to fit. Barry Latman from the 50s, Johnny Niggeling from the 40s, Toad Ramsey from the 1880s...but since there were a lot of modern pitchers to choose from, I went back to finish my starting lineup.

I hate every single 3B to exist on this website. They never do well for me. I might as well just use the cheapest defensive replacement I can find and put him there all season.

I chose George Brett. Ugh.

Tony Gwynn fit the criteria I was looking for as a speedy high AVG outfielder, and filled out the Padres. And I begrudgingly took Mike Piazza just because I needed more modern hitters from newer teams so I wouldn’t trap myself with a couple roster spots left to go.

I went back to fill out the rest of my bullpen, Eck...check. Urbina...check.

All I really needed was about 30 more high quality innings and I had the 60s and 70s to find it! Easy right? No. It sucked. No one ******* matched. Ended up taking 87 IP Ken Tatum from the Angels in 69.

Now I have about 50 innings too many, and it took away from my final roster non-scrub, DH.

With just a little over $5 mil to spend (not the best money managemen) I finally found a terrible fielding doubles hitter in Al Zarilla. He’ll bat 9th and just try to stay out of double plays.

A bunch of $200k scrubs (Coot Veal, Chris Iannetta, Mel Queen, Christian Arroyo) and an $800k guy (Bob O’Farrell) later to make me feel better about myself not having extra dollars, I finally completed my roster. And I really don’t wanna deal with any changes.

Hitters - 6559 PA, .352/.416/.515
Pitchers - 1544 IP, 0.87 WHIP, .190 OAV, 0.20 HR/9

Prediction - Maybe the extra innings were a blessing in disguise as all my relief pitchers walk hella hella batters. I might have to use all of them up, even though I don’t go over 1500 IPs until the salary cap starts with a ‘2’.
But with the restrictions on the rosters, maybe I would’ve been better off getting trudging thumpers like Ruth, Williams, and Bonds.

I expect to be competitive til the end, 85 wins.


All in all, this was the perfect setup to catch back up in.

The Roster Twist league, the $110, $120, $130, and $160 mil caps are ones I’m experienced with, even if this is only my 2nd time in a competition like this.

I’m a little too aggressive with IPs in a few of my leagues and that may come to haunt me, but I could very well have 5 playoff teams here.

I am looking forward to playing against ozomatli in the 130M theme. I did draft a bit of power hitting, including Babe Ruth, Chipper Jones and Robby Alomar (24 HRs)..

In the first round, I didn't make predictions for my teams' performance and didn't look at the tournament standings until the last day of the regular season. Despite an incredibly unlucky post-season (7 points from 4 playoff teams as well as a 92-win team being knocked out of the playoffs on the last day of the regular season), I squeaked through into the second round. While I won't be able to avoid the standings because there are only 24 owners in round 2, I'm going to stick with my round 1 strategy of not making predictions about my own teams. The stats for the hitters and pitchers shown below include everyone on the roster.

Variable Cap: 2005 Yankees for $114 million
Hitters: .299/.383/.492, 225 HR, 6084 PA
Pitchers: 1.02 WHIP, 0.49 HR/9, .217 OAVG, 1535 IP

I immediately decided to look at modern teams due primarily to a relative lack of player movement in the past and a desire to avoid dead ball pitchers and fielders in the same lineup. Additionally, it seems like there's usually 1-2 hitters on a deadball team whose career best OPS# is around .700 or lower so I wanted a more balanced lineup.

After researching several options, I made rosters for five teams: '93 Blue Jays, '82 Angels, '67 White Sox, '97 Indians, and 2005 Yankees. It came down to the Angels and the Yankees. The Yankees are slightly better offensively but the Angels can put out a strong IF defense with Carew/Grich/Burleson/DeCinces and are good at other positions with Ferguson, Lynn, Reggie (B+ range from the 1970s), and Baylor (worst of the group with C+ range).

But, the Yankees pitching was simply too strong. After '68 Tiant, the Angels' pitching falls off dramatically. For the Yankees lineup, I kept Jeter because of the solid D at SS, A-Fraud because I wanted Sheffield for the OF, and Rivera. I made a couple of teams in which I had a player twisted from the same franchise and it dramatically affected what I could do with the rest of the roster so I avoided that here in the final version of the roster. I went with Flaherty as a low-end A+ arm as the primary catcher with an infield of Giambi/Cano/Jeter/A-Fraud. The OF defense isn't great with Sheffield and Sierra but Matt Lawton gives me an A-/A defender. The negative park factors for doubles and triples should help. When I used to play APBA decades ago, the '89 Sierra had a monster season for me. Hopefully, some of that old karma will come back here.

I'm also worried about Leiter and Pavano. But, the bullpen of Rivera/Groom/Karsay/Gordon/F Rodriguez should help.

$90M: Improvement at $90M?
Hitters: .274/.381/.413, 118 HR, 5642 PA
Pitchers: 1.04 WHIP, 0.45 HR/9, .216 OAVG, 1376 IP
Park: PNC Park

In the first round, this was my one bad team because I didn't execute the deadball pitchers/hitters combo correctly. For this team, I made both a low-K and a high-K roster. In general, I think the oft used winning strategy of A+++ defense with speed isn't one that would work as well in real life. But, I have to recognize the realities of the sim. I naturally gravitate toward teams with more power and have never minded the high-K hitters who draw walks. More on this in other team write-ups below.

My first high-K team had more power and worse defense. As I started to think about it, I realized that there could be a play here to have better defense within the confines of a high-K team and use a park with a positive factor for singles. So, I changed the offense to focus on OBP and range in the field. To reduce base stealing by my opponents, I chose Sundberg at C. My IF has Hernandez/Grich/Bonilla/Joost. I'm hoping that Bonilla's C- fielding rating at 3B won't offset his A+++ range. In the OF, I went with North/Yaz/Singleton. Singleton is the one low range player in the lineup but I've had too much success with him as a power-hitting switch-hitter at caps lower than $120M so I went with him. Since PNC is +2 for singles, this team's offense should improve at home especially against the low-K pitchers.

If the sim didn't have the flaw that hit/out is determined before checking if a K occurs, picking the high-K team would be a no-brainer. There is a mix of eras in the rotation as I was concerned about HR/9 against other modern teams. The rotation is Santana/Waddell/Grove/Seaver. Three lefties could be helpful as there are likely to be a fair number of LHBs in the league. I'm a little nervous about Grove but have used this season in the past and he's been solid. The bullpen looks good with Wilhelm/Poole/Alexander/Best/Bridges doing most of the pitching. I don't think I've ever used the '84 Sutcliffe before but he fit well with the theme and the cap.

All in all, this strategy was either brilliant or stupid. Range is too important in the sim to ignore, IMHO. I've used PNC successfully in the past and have usually hit some HR there. While I wanted a park with a positive 1B factor, I didn't want positive HR factors to protect my own pitching and not give teams with more HR power a potentially big advantage.

$110M: Two More Years on the Ohio
Hitters: .284/.375/.454, 162 HR, 5995 PA
Pitchers: 0.94 WHIP, 0.28 HR/9, .212 OAVG, 1565 IP
Park: Riverfront Stadium

I had the better offensive version of this roster in the first round because, even though the points count more in round two, you need to get through round one first.

Four pitchers will do the bulk of the pitching in this round: '03 Young, '04 McGinnity, '05 Mathewson, and '16 Kershaw. The four useable relievers are all modern pitchers: '09 Adams, '14 Street, '15 Manship, and '16 Miller.

Other than 1988 Ozzie and 1885 Kerins, this offense is what I normally like to use, a balanced lineup with power and walks. When I built this team, I wanted Riverfront or a similar park because I've had a lot of success building offenses this way against teams with speed-based lineups with little power. The negative park factor for singles doesn't hurt my hitters as much as it does my opponents and my lineups are better able to take advantage of the positive HR factors. Deadball pitchers can work in this park at this cap because they shut off the HR for the relatively few teams that usually draft HR power and the negative singles factor hurts the speedsters with A+++ range who don't draw as many walks and/or don't have decent ISO numbers.

In addition to Ozzie (B/A) and Kerins (A+ arm) the lineup is Connor/Grich/Mathews/Singleton/Mantle/Ott. This lineup is only about $50M compared to nearly $60M on pitching. The first version of this team won 86 games in a 12-team league in which each team was between 70 and 88 wins. If the offense can be at least respectable, this team should be OK.

$120M: Ten Good Arms
Hitters: .309/.394/.498, 187 HR, 5869 PA
Pitchers: 0.93 WHIP, 0.30 HR/9, .195 OAVG, 1425 IP
Park: Dodger Stadium

This roster is what can happen when you combine high range with power and a mix of modern and deadball pitching.

Justinlee_24 said he was sorry for putting me in the NL East with brianjw. Personally, I'm not convinced that any one owner of the final 24 is materially better than the others. People use different strategies and do better at different cap levels.

That said, since I picked 10th, I spent a few minutes looking at rosters from people who would be in my division/league to see who I could pick that would not only fit with my strategy but perhaps disrupt my theirs as well. Since I build pitching first, I wanted to draft the three starters that I wanted. I haven't used 1888 Tim Keefe in a long time but he covers half of my starts with strong normalized numbers. To balance out all those deadball IP, I chose Maddux and Pedro. Others like to use both of team so it's also a little extra defense on my part. I've had some good results using the '92 Maddux season at this cap and lower. Taking 2002 Pedro is a bit of a risk because his Hit Rate is higher despite a great OAV#. Since the usual 100-150 IP long men weren't available for me, I chose '43 Pollet because he's a lefty with low HR/9 and a hit rate of only .230. The bullpen is modern pitchers with Ontiveros/Henry/Meredith/Sanchez/Feliz/Santos carrying the load. I chose Meredith over Northrop because I wanted a lower OAVG# combined with a .199 Hit Rate.

For the hitters, I wanted power and range with reasonable OBP. I chose Dodger Stadium because the +2 singles factor usually allows for HR power to play well (only -1 HR factors) while cramping doubles and triples that are stereotypically too characteristic of A+++ range teams.

My fourth exclusive pick was Rafael Furcal. I used the 2006 version because of better offense. Like most teams that I build when theme rules allow it, I built this lineup with a strong catcher arm, HR power, and very good IF defense. OF defense is less important in Dodger Stadium so I didn't feel the need to pay for A+++ range factors there. '97 Rodriguez will shut down opposing base stealers. The rest of the infield is 2007 Helton (A+/A+), 1991 Phillips (A+/A+), and '67 B Robbie (A/A+). My hope is that the +2 singles factor at home will help these strong defenders at least be OK offensively. The OF has '44 Musial, '23 K Williams, and '58 Mantle. Mantle is someone who isn't a popular pick in many themes but has done well for me because of walks, some HR, and a few SB with slightly above-average range. Musial is the one player on this roster who may be hurt more than helped by Dodger Stadium because of his 8 2B/100#. But, he will get his hits and HR and will hopefully be a stud in any road park that is positive for doubles.

I considered using a better offensive park for this team as I had Wrigley, Fenway, and the Launching Pad as potential options. But, given the quality of the competition in this league, I didn't want to risk the death spiral of pitcher fatigue. And, cutting down 2B and 3B tends to hurt deadball high-range lineups more than it hurts mine.

$130M: Solid as a Rock
Hitters: .314/.397/.481, 125 HR, 5898 PA
Pitchers: 0.85 WHIP, 0.35 HR/9, .193 OAVG, 1396 IP
Park: National League Park II

The strategy for this team was similar to the $120M team and both rosters came together quickly. I chose a park with negative HR factors and a 0 for singles because of fewer IP from the pitching staff and fewer HR in the lineup.

The starting pitching was again a mix of deadball and modern starters. '08 Mathewson, 1996 K Brown, and '18 deGrom will be the starters. Brown not only has great normalized numbers but his A+ range is usually good for a few + plays each season. I went with '16 Kershaw and '50 Hearn (0.88 WHIP) as long men and spot starters. Hearn has higher HR/9 than I usually like but I'm hoping his .176 hit rate and a negative HR park offset that. I focused on low OAVG in the bullpen with Green, Devine, Hill, and both stud Mike Adams seasons.

The offense has four players who overlap with the $120M theme roster: Phillips, B Robbie, Musial, and K Williams. For the other spots, I used '64 Howard (A+ arm), 1890 Connor (B/A+), '87 Ozzie (A+/B+), and '14 Speaker (C+/A+). Since there were no restrictions on rosters for this theme, I went with less HR power than the $120M theme due to anticipating more low HR/9 deadball pitchers.

As with the $120M theme, if the offense is OK, the team should do fine. I tend to build teams that have stronger pitching than hitting and this would be another example of that. There's enough HR and 2B power to hurt opponents but not so much HR power that deadball pitchers would completely shut down this offense over the long run.

$160M: Missing the Babe
Hitters: .323/.405/.521, 253 HR, 7758 PA
Pitchers: 0.93 WHIP, 0.16 HR/9, .203 OAVG, 1609 IP
Park: Ebbets Field

This was the second of two versions of this roster that I made. The first one wasn't bad but in reality was a learning experience for this theme.

I started with what I felt were the most difficult letters: E, I, O, Q, U, and Z. The only player from this group who isn't a scrub for me is 1985 Ontiveros. I also consciously avoided most of the original 16 franchises from 1903 as long as I could. Using defunct franchises definitely helped me to fill out the roster the way I wanted.

Once I got those six tough letters out of the way, I built the entire pitching staff next. I went with a big three of '08 Walsh, '12 Johnson, and '94 Maddux. This will likely be a 2 1/2 man rotation with Maddux moving between the bullpen and the third starter role as needed. I chose the 0.88 WHIP '50 Hearn as the long man. The other relievers were 2009 Adams, 2018 Doolittle, and '64 Shantz. Shantz isn't someone who I would usually pick but he doesn't have many IP and should be OK in a Setup B role. The other three pitchers have 111 very bad IP to round out the staff.

The restrictions of this theme make it exceptionally difficult to build the typical high-range lineup without making big tradeoffs elsewhere. Consequently, I felt that my normal lineup strategy would work well here and I'd have a lot of options to build the team. I picked 1890 Connor, 1999 I Rodriguez, '27 Frisch, and '38 Vaughan first. I worry about Vaughan's defense but it is his best defensive season and he has normalized .319/.433/.447. The others are defensive studs. By picking the Brewers version of Quirk from the 70s, I was able to add '85 Brett at 3B. His hitting can be up and down but the A-/B+ defense is great at 3B.

For OF, I wasn't focused on A+++ range. '14 Kauff was an easy pick because of his name, normalized numbers, and a defunct franchise. I went with '67 Yaz because the numbers normalize so well at .342/.433/.637. Since there had to be at least one hitter from every decade, I went with 2013 Trout as my last OFer. Trout is one of those players who have more value IRL than they do in the sim. He's the classic 5-tool player and hopefully he can be at least solid on this roster.

Interestingly, the letter G was one of the last letters I used when I built both versions of this team. I went with '40 Greenberg as my DH because of 8 2B/100# and 6 HR/100#. The key will be whether he can get enough hits to have a strong season. In another oddity, the Yankee that I used was Harry Niles of the 1908 Highlanders. I was able to squeeze in the .424 Mark Loretta season as well.

Andy Pafko from 1952 made my roster solely so I could get Ebbets Field as my home park. The starting rotation and offense are perfect examples of what I like to use in parks like Ebbets, Riverfront, or Sicks Stadium.

This team isn't perfectly efficient in terms of IP and PA. But, I accomplished what I wanted with the roster with no holes anywhere among the 17 main players. If the more modern players in Trout, Brett, Yaz, and Greenberg can contribute offensively, this team could be really good.

Q: Why does d_rock hate George Brett so much?

Posted by doctorcc on 9/25/2020 12:01:00 AM (view original):
Oh and Tulum sounds nice. My wife and I visited maybe fifteen years ago. I’ve heard it’s been more developed since?

I’d imagine so. Lots of new construction down here. Beach clubs, modern Airbnbs via foreign investment, coworking spaces, surprisingly good WiFi, and tons of delicious food

Posted by schwarze on 9/25/2020 9:32:00 AM (view original):
I am looking forward to playing against ozomatli in the 130M theme. I did draft a bit of power hitting, including Babe Ruth, Chipper Jones and Robby Alomar (24 HRs)..

Fully expecting to lose the division to you on the last day of the season via walk off HR

I've been sliding downwards in the standings in recent years and some of that is due to better competition. However I've also made some poor decisions on roster selection and have been slow to embrace the high K pitcher strategy. So this time I'm trying to blend in some high K pitchers. I didn't go 100% for high K guys because I expect to face some HR hitters in each league.

90M - Protect Ya Neck

This is the one league where I didn't go with some high K pitchers. I built some high K and low K teams and simmed a few dozen games and noticed that (a) the low K teams had a bit better record and (b) the low K offences didn't strike out much and basically nullified the high K advantage. So I went with the low K option. Two other factors played into this: (a) I was able to construct an outstanding defensive team for the low K option (Berra, Anson, Herman, Kuenn, McGraw, Speaker, Dimaggio, Cobb) and (b) I needed some power against the high K teams and was able to afford Berra and Dimaggio. I've always been impressed by hitters with more HRs than K's in a season. Only 6 hitters have pulled off this feat multiple times (min. 25 HRs): Mize, Kluszewski, Gehrig, Berra, Dimaggio and Ted Williams. Then again, they didn't have to face many sliders and splitters.

VAR - 2005 Bronx Bombers (112M)

I was shocked to see 10 other owners picked the '05 Yanks (I expected way more diversity). However, I suspect that I chose a LESS optimal version (Jeter at SS, ARod at 3B, Posada at C, Melky in CF). For some reason, I forgot that Sheffield had a good season at 3B (even though I've used that version before), so I didn't consider the ARod at SS, Shef at 3B, Bernie in CF option, which I'm sure is a better option (at least 5 games better in my opinion). I love the bullpen on this team. None of the other team options I considered had a bullpen anywhere near this one. As for Al Leiter, I have no doubts that he will be OK in this league as there won't be very many high walk teams.
For a long while I had the 2008 Dodgers as my team because the starting rotation included '94 Maddux (gulp), '13 Kershaw (gulp) and '02 Derek Lowe. However the bullpen was weak and I had two guys playing out of position (Manny at 1B, Nomar at 3B). The offence was decent, but not as good as the '05 Yankees. The Yankees were a bit better option.

110M Big Ed And Big Train Redux

This team was really good in round 1 and the round 2 version has virtually the same ave., on base % and WHIP, so it'll be interesting to see how it fares against better competition. I went with a blend of high K and deadball pitching (Verlander, DeGrom, Walter J, Pfiester). The offence, lead by Delahanty, Brouthers and Gore, gets on base and hits doubles and triples, but very few HRs (which is one reason we lost in the round 1 playoffs). In retrospect, I wish I had at least one big HR guy.

120M Turn It Up To Eleven

Really interesting theme. I was nervous (but ultimately happy) to get picked 11th because it made me go outside my comfort zone and not roster the usual cookies. I went with a blend of high K and deadball pitching and my 4 player picks were Mike Scott, Kluber, Jim Hearn and Fred Toney and I also got the Astrodome as a park. Ernie Shore and Toad Ramsey will round out my rotation. I'm happy with that, I wouldn't want to face that rotation in the playoffs. I went with a high on base pct. (.430) team, which generally works in the Astrodome.

130M The King B, The Dougie and PK

Tough division (but they're all tough, aren't they?). Wow this will be interesting as everyone pits their favourite players and strategies against each other. I expect lots of parity and luck will play a role. My team is a tray of cookies, so boring and predictable that I won't post it here. However, I do have Ted Williams to hit HRs against modern pitching, which might help elevate this team above mediocrity.

160M Dominican Pedro Or Maybe Boggs

The team name is a tip of the cap to ligapelota, who was my nemesis when I started playing this game so many years ago. I grew to greatly respect ligapelota and he should be mentioned as one of the early adopters of the high K pitcher strategy (he experimented with it endlessly in open leagues 5 to 10 years ago). Oddly enough, ligapelota never played in the WIS championship, to my knowledge. Dougpalm should also be mentioned as one of the early proponents of the high K pitcher strategy, as I can remember him using it years ago.

Did I mention how much I loved this theme? Super challenging, a bit frustrating, so many options and decisions to make. Very worthy of a round 2 theme.
I went with a mix of modern/deadball pitching (Kershaw, Maddux, Walter J, Three Finger) so I have 1100 quality innings and 500 innings of wishful thinking (Narleski, Holdsworth, Umbricht, BJ Ryan, Rollie Fingers). I really wanted Maddux for the playoffs (if I get so lucky). The offence has a couple of old favourites (Connor & Speaker) and two players I've never used before (The .398 hitting O'Doul & Jimmy Williams and his 29 triples at 3B). Gwynn, Appling, LeMahieu, Dimaggio, Piazza fill out the lineup.

I won't be surprised if Brian wins again. He's the best who ever played this game in my opinion. You gotta admire someone who tells you their strategy in advance and then goes out and beats you time and again. His lateral thinking is on another level. Also, props to justinlee who improved year over year and ascended to a prime contender (and was so clever in the 120M owner's draft). Good luck my fellow Canadian. And a big thanks to Ozo, who has managed this tournament beautifully despite some apparent upheaval in his personal life. Good luck Mike.

Posted by ozomatli on 9/25/2020 11:40:00 AM (view original):
Q: Why does d_rock hate George Brett so much?

A typical George Brett gives me a .310 OBP, but I still choose him because of his speed and range

Variable Cap: 2005 Yankees (110M Edition)
Stadium: Yankee Stadium II

When I started considering base teams, I went right to the modern era to take full advantage of constant roster switching. Wanted to have several aces, so the 2005 Yankees with Randy Johnson & Kevin Brown made sense right away. Of course going with this group means that my third starter (Mike Mussina) gives up a few too many homers for my liking. Decided against Al Leiter as a fourth starter and will take my chances with an extremely deep bullpen (kept 2005 Rivera, all other pitchers were twisted to other franchise seasons).

On the offensive side, kept 2005 Jeter, A-Rod, Matsui, and Posada. Added Giambi and Sheffield for power, will just be a question of how many homers they can hit given almost all the other franchises utilized non-deadball pitching.

Hitting: 5,893 PA, .314 / .396 / .513, $57.1M
Pitching: 1,350 IP, 0.213 OAV, 1.00 WHIP, 0.59 HR/9, $52.7M
Prediction: It’ll be a crapshoot with so many similar rosters. Hoping avoiding Leiter and relying on the strong bullpen can lead to a few more victories. 85 wins

90M: When You Whiff Upon a Star…
Stadium: Safeco Field

I’ve had successful 90M teams during round 1 of the last to WISC, and both of them have featured 1908 Christy Mathewson. Decided to give that formula another whirl, and will add a favorite of mine 1885 Lady Baldwin to the mix. Was going to go with a Dazzy Vance or Rube Waddell as the third starter, but could not make it work to my liking. So I’m going to give 1885 Ed Cushman a try and hope he can be just good enough. Going to be relying on the starters a lot, as the relievers are a bunch of low inning guys. Of the nine relievers in the bullpen, one is a 46 inning mop up and six others threw <40 innings. Only 2001 Troy Percival (58 IP) and 2008 Jonathan Papelbon (69 IP) had a higher inning total. Obviously this is a very top-heavy staff, as I spent just over 50M on pitching.

The offense is ok (did my best to save given that I spent under 40M on the hitters), hoping it will be enough. Not the best fielding team you’re going to see, but hoping a few more K’s than usual will work to our advantage. At this cap, my all M switch hitting outfield (1990 Willie McGee, 1896 Tom McCreery, and 1993 Orlando Merced) will produce and also make it nerve racking in the field. Will need to juggle position players (particularly at C, 1B, 2B, and SS) to avoid fatigue, but that’s one of the things I really enjoy about the game.

Hitting: 5,386 PA, .314 / .376 / .461, $39.5M
Pitching: 1,346 IP, 0.209 OAV, 0.94 WHIP, 0.23 HR/9, $50.5M
Prediction: I’ve had luck at the lower caps going pitching heavy, hope I’m able to continue that streak. Cutting it close on the pitching and hoping the hitting will enough. 90 wins

110M: +/-3: Big Train, Mathewson, Kershaw…V2
Stadium: Griffith Stadium

In my write-up for round 1, I stated that I thought this would be my best (round 1) team. Alas, it was not to be as the team stumbled to an 86-76 record and missed the playoffs. I planned on my round 2 team being slightly stronger; very little change between the Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson versions but now I get to use 1885 Lady Baldwin (instead of his mop up counterpart) and 2016 Kershaw. Will need to utilize Kershaw in relief, as I lost a few good innings in the bullpen. On the offensive side, the main difference is at catcher where it will now be 1892 Buck Ewing along with 2001 Shawn Wooten splitting the duties behind the plate.

Hitting: 5,701 PA, .325 / .400 / .465, $52.7M
Pitching: 1,411 IP, 0.208 OAV, 0.93 WHIP, 0.21 HR/9, $57.3M
Prediction: Will come down to how much the pitching improvement is worth. I think it will make somewhat of a difference, but this will be counteracted by the improved competition. So I’m going to say 86 wins (again).

120M: Four What It’s Worth
Stadium: West Side Grounds

Went fourth on the NL side of the bracket and went heavy with starting pitching (1909 Mordecai Brown, 1885 Lady Baldwin, 2015 Jake Arietta) along with 1895 Hughie Jennings at SS. In hindsight, spent a bit more on Jennings (nearly 12M) than I would have liked, but he will produce and if he bats leadoff we won’t lose out on too many plate appearances. The lineup is solid; saved a bit at catcher with my three headed monster of 1891 Sy Sutcliffe/1894 Farmer Weaver/2001 Shawn Wooten for just over 5M combined. In addition to some of the usual suspects who were left off the draft board (e.g. Wade Boggs), I took 1914 Steve Evans to play first base. Usually I try to avoid the D- fielders but shouldn’t hurt too much at first and he does have A range (and a bargain of a bat for <6M).

Hitting: 5,555 PA, .360 / .423 / .508, $60.4M
Pitching: 1,381 IP, 0.200 OAV, 0.89 WHIP, 0.22 HR/9, $59.6M
Prediction: Solid team, but not really sure how good versus the competition. 88 wins

130M: Eye of the Tigerrott+Thehuseman+Jtpsops
Stadium: Target Field

Basically went with the pitching staff I wanted at this cap (1912 Walter Johnson + 2016 Kershaw + 2018 DeGrom & Sale + six high end relievers + 1 decent mop up pitcher) and then optimized the hitters/fielders around them.

Hitting: 5,665 PA, .355 / .421 / .491, $65.1M
Pitching: 1,361 IP, 0.188 OAV, 0.87 WHIP, 0.30 HR/9, $64.9M
Prediction: 91 wins

160M: Come Sale Away
Stadium: Griffith Stadium

Fun and extremely challenging theme. Began by grabbing the starting pitching that I wanted (Walter Johnson, Moredcai Brown, Greg Maddux, and 2016 Kershaw) and then went about the process of fitting the other pieces into place. I originally wanted 1913 Johnson and 1995 Maddux but both would not fit under the cap. Went with the 1912 version of Johnson instead as he will make up for the slightly worse WHIP with less homers flying out of the yard. Top relievers are 1988 Dennis Eckersley, 1956 Ray Narleski, and 1942 Johnny Rigney.

Tried being as efficient with the pitching staff as possible, but this wasn’t going to work at the tail end of the selection. My last three pitchers (1972 Mel Queen, 1886 Larry Twitchell, and 1892 Frank Foreman) will give me 94 mop up innings and little else. Will also hope to keep high leverage spots for 1962 Jim Umbricht and 2005 Jose Valverde to a minimum)

The lineup will be as follows:
1B: 1885 Roger Connor
2B: 1937 Charlie Gehringer
SS: 1901 Honus Wagner (he will make a lot of errors but make up for it with a lot of + plays and a great bat)
3B: 1921 Roger Hornsby
RF: 1895 Ed Delahanty
CF: 1914 Tris Speaker (will make a ton of + plays; this also blocked me from grabbing 2018 Chris Sale)
LF: 2019 Christian Yelich
C: 1940 Ernie Lombardi / 1987 Geno Petralli
DH: 1993 John Olerud
Subs: 1969 Luis Alcaraz, 2006 Chris Ianetta, 1977 George Zeber

Hitting: 6,468 PA, .357 / .439 / .548, $84.5M
Pitching: 1,572 IP, 0.204 OAV, 0.93 WHIP, 0.27 HR/9, $75.1M
Prediction: Felt I was reasonably efficient with the team (only left ~400K on the table), confident that this should get me above 0.500. Let’s say 87 wins.

Overall this would get me to 527 wins and with some playoff luck could move me up towards the top of the standings (I’m only 17 points out of first place right now even starting in 17^th place). It’s going to be a dogfight!

Variable Cap – MXC WISC Variable 2014 Detroit Tigers

As soon as I saw this theme after Round 2 was posted, I knew a few things for certain: It would be the last team I would build and I would not be winning the 2020 WISC. I hate team-building that requires extensive research or is highly restrictive on the type of team you can put together and the players you can use, so a single-season twist league is my ultimate WIS version of Dante’s Inferno. Themes like this one were the very reason I never played a WISC before last year. I have zero interest in even attempting them. What I ended up with is probably a good bet to lose at least 90 games. I waited too long to start putting this team together and didn’t put enough thought into what other teams could look like. Behold the wet sandwich of my Round 2.

It made sense to start with teams of the free agency era with more player movement creating more twist options. I thought first of the most recent expansion teams like the Rays, Diamondbacks, Marlins and Rockies, but looking through their early seasons I saw nothing I liked. I typically start with pitching when building other teams, so I shifted my focus to teams who could provide at least 2-3 good starters and several strong relievers. I’m not sure what made me think of it, but I remembered the Tigers having a pitching staff with a ton of All-Stars on it, both past and future, so I went through their b-r page and found what I was looking for; the 2014 team that had Verlander, Scherzer, David Price, Porcello, and Anibal Sanchez, with Joakim Soria, Joe Nathan, Drew Smyly, et al in the bullpen. All had their best seasons elsewhere. I looked over their hitters and saw J.D. Martinez, Victor Martinez, Miguel Cabrera, Ian Kinsler, Castellanos and thought I could make it work. The problem with doing this is that once I have a team complete, I don’t like to tweak, tinker, or totally rebuild. When I’m done, I like to be done. I kept on researching, looking at pitchers I thought I’d rather have (Maddux, Pedro, etc.) but I never really gave more than a quick glance at individual rosters; an eyeball test to see if anything jumped out at me as superior. I even came across the ’05 Yankees but dismissed them too quickly to see that there actually was enough depth there to field a better team than I had. In the end, these Tigers will hit fewer HR and give up more HR than all those Yankee teams at least, which is a losing recipe. Abandon all hope, ye who enter (this team) here…

Hitters: .302/.362/.513
Pitchers: 1470 IP, .204 OAV, 0.99 WHIP, 133 HR

------------------------------------------------------------------ $90M – MXC WISC $90M Hypokalemia

I wasn’t convinced one way or the other on which option was truly best, and I felt the final tally would end up about even (which appears to have been correct) so I built a team for each and chose the one I felt most comfortable with, which was the low K team. While not a power team, my high K team could still be hurt by anti-HR pitching and low K suited my style more anyway. They have a higher AVG, more speed, and restrict HR on the pitching side. Hypokalemia = low potassium = low K. Get it?

1925 Bill Lamar is back after two successful appearances on Round 1 teams. The weakness for the rest of the team is likely to be defense, which older pitching won’t help, but they should rack up a lot of hits in Kauffman and negate any power brought to the table by modern-leaning high K teams. I finally found a way to use 1902 Bill Bernhard who should perform well at this cap, and he’s flanked by 1888 Henry Gruber and 1909 Addie Joss in the rotation. The starters won’t walk many guys; that job is for the bullpen where 1909 Cliff Curtis, 1946 Red Ruffing, and 1975 Ken Sanders lurk.

Hitters: .334/.399/.482
Pitchers: 1393 IP, .215 OAV, 0.97 WHIP, 33 HR

---------------------------------------------------------------- $110M – MXC WISC $110M One Year Later…

I’m regretting now not saving my Round 1 team for Round 2. The Round 1 team had the 1908 Ed Walsh and 2016 Kershaw, along with some slightly better relief versions than this Round 2 team does, but ultimately I thought this Round 2 team would be able to produce more runs against better competition. We shall see.

1918 Walter Johnson joins 1909 Ed Walsh and the 2015 Kershaw in the rotation. This team has the lights-out 2015 Rich Hill but otherwise the bullpen is a little worse than the previous round. This team has non-mop versions of Dennis Rasmussen and Brandon League, but fewer overall IP. Need quality to outweigh quantity. Offensively, 1888 John Reilly is usually a lock for sneaky SLG and 100+ RBI. This team also gets the 1915 Benny Kauff season, 1925 Harry Heilmann’s .393 AVG, and the 1888 King Kelly season at C. Hitting seasons from the others may be considered the “lesser” (Max Carey, Rod Carew, George Brett and Omar Vizquel) but I feel this team is well balanced enough to be competitive in this round.

Hitters: .326/.392/.482
Pitchers: 1406 IP, .196 OAV, 0.92 WHIP, 41 HR

----------------------------------------------------------------

$120M – MXC WISC $120M 17^th and Main

Even at 17^th overall and in the back half of my own league draft, I was happy enough with the exclusive players I was able to get. George Brett is my favorite 3B for this cap and he brought Kauffman Stadium with him so that choice was easy. I also love multiple seasons of King Kelly at C, so I wanted to make sure he was part of the team. Pitching that I wanted was disappearing quickly so I took some valuable IP with my remaining exclusive picks. When I selected Koufax I wasn’t sure I could fit his 1963 season on the roster but in the end I did. 1942 Mort Cooper and 1906 Doc White support him in the rotation. Fred Toney was my other exclusive and will fill a needed role providing reliable long IP out of the bullpen, along with Art Nehf. The rest of the bullpen is mostly standard, with Rich Hill, Dumont, Smyly, Heathcock, Kenley Jansen, Nick Maddox also included. I lost some cap-level favorites to others (Frisch, Hornsby, Speaker, etc.) but they were never expected to last. Thankfully, plenty of good alternatives were untouched so this team looks very similar to something I’d normally build for this cap anyway.

Hitters: .324/.386/.506
Pitchers: 1400 IP, .191 OAV, 0.87 WHIP, 46 HR

----------------------------------------------------------------

$130M – MXC WISC $130M Surround Sound

I suppose this theme made up for the variable cap for me, though I can hardly count on 100+ wins against the quality of competition. Still, it was nice to have a theme that literally took 5 minutes to draft and be done with. No experimenting or second-guessing here. As the team name implies, I broke out the surround sound OF with Speakers everywhere. 1912, 1913, and 1914. 1885 Roger Connor leads off and collects + plays at 1B, 1920 Rogers Hornsby at 2B, 1979 George Brett at 3B, and King Kelly/Jimmy Rollins handle the bottom of the lineup. There’s AVG, XBH, defense, range, and speed to round the bases.

1908 Ed Walsh will start half our games, with deGrom and Doc White alternating in the #2 spot. I have some concerns about White. He can be real hit or miss at this level, but 2016 Kershaw eats IP when called upon and hopefully becomes a playoff weapon. A good balance of LH and RH relievers fit my specialist bullpen strategy. Obviously, I’m the most confident this team will perform well, though that won’t necessarily equate to a lot of wins if the competition rises to the challenge.

Hitters: .341/.410/.512
Pitchers: 1438 IP, .194 OAV, 0.85 WHIP, 38 HR

----------------------------------------------------------------

$160M – MXC WISC $160M No Tryst With Tris

This theme was more annoying than difficult. It could have been truly excruciating at a lower salary cap. At $160M it wasn’t trouble drafting good players. The trouble was in working through the layers of restrictions to put something together that was balanced and cohesive enough to represent an actual strategy and not just a bunch of square pegs rammed into round holes. I hope I did that fairly well.

I ended up building two viable rosters for this theme. My first non-viable attempt began with guys I wanted for the cap. 1920 Rogers Hornsby, 1912 Tris Speaker, 1915 Pete Alexander, 1895 Hughie Jennings, 1885 Roger Connor, 2016 Kershaw, etc. I then tried filling in around the core I wanted but ran into too many instances of conflict. In the end I had to scrap it and start over. That first attempt did show me though that it would not be easy to spread the IP around to various decades. Some decades would need to be relied upon for both quantity and quality, to make the lesser decades easier to choose from. That brought Silver King into the equation. When nearly half your quality IP can come from a single decade that doesn’t otherwise provide many top-shelf SIM seasons, it helps the rest of the build, even if King himself isn’t an optimal choice for the cap. With King as the foundation, I brought in 1994 Maddux and 1914 Dutch Leonard to form a 1/2a/2b rotation with over 1200 quality IP. 1909 Babe Adams will provide the bulk relief IP and the rest is an assortment of lower-IP guys like ’43 Niggeling, ’58 Wilhelm, ’17 Verlander, ’03 Urbina. A few pure mop-ups used up some other letters/decades/franchises and bring the overall pitching numbers down (and the IP total way up), but the core should be strong enough for the cap.

Offensively, only 1885 Roger Connor and 1912 Frank Baker are true fixtures for me at this cap, and I couldn’t fit Speaker or Hornsby as wanted, but the offense still came together pretty well. 1905 Cy Seymour, 1920 Joe Jackson, 1895 Sam Thompson at DH, 1994 Tony Gwynn; they all fit my style of high AVG and XBH. 1982 Robin Yount, 1949 Jackie Robinson and 1930 Gabby Hartnett round out the lineup, and those three are the guys who are less than ideal for the cap level. Still, the team overall looks solid for $160M and should perform well enough. And it better, because I ended up choosing it over my other team that did have Hornsby and Speaker and Alexander. It was a tough decision between the two, but this team I felt had a tougher lineup top to bottom and the pitching was not far off. A lot will ride on Silver King though.

Hitters: .363/.421/.566
Pitchers: 1760 IP, .203 OAV, 0.95 WHIP, 42 HR (1500 IP, .192 OAV, 0.87 WHIP, 22 HR from the core)

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?