I agree with schwarze. The commitment to building towards your own personal theme for all your teams is impressive, but to have a 26 letter alphabet soup team for the 255m league is incredible

Great writeups, everyone! I've enjoyed every one. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to contribute this time. If I make the cage I'll do my best to muster the strength to get one done.

Posted by ronthegenius on 6/13/2023 9:24:00 AM (view original):
I agree with schwarze. The commitment to building towards your own personal theme for all your teams is impressive, but to have a 26 letter alphabet soup team for the 255m league is incredible

Alphabet, Franchise and Season soup all while drafting one player per Box, and still trying to build a valid roster!

I have been in a WIS rut over the past few years. I’ve been trying different things and new strategies, but not had much success (not that I’ve ever been super successful). On the one hand, like Thomas Edison, I’ve learned a lot of ways not to build a winning team. On the other, I haven’t really had as much fun playing as I used to. So for this year’s tournament, I decided I was going to have fun and use players I wanted to use. I’m not abandoning stats and strategy, but if I’m going to finish 75th either way, I am going to have fun doing it.

$70 mil - Chicks Dig the Longball - Bennett Park

I generally prefer lower cap leagues, so I am pretty comfortable here. The lower you go, the more different strategies become viable. I decided to totally lean into the spirit of this theme. This team hit 294 RL HRs. I messed around with a “normal” team of guys who’s AVG normalized a little better, but where’s the fun in a team of guys hitting .250? So, bombs away! A lot of guys here that I wouldn’t normally use - Killebrew, Kiner, Dunn, Giambi, Tettleton, Lowe, McCann, McMillan. I tried really hard to get Khris Davis into the team, but ultimately decided the OFs I had were better. I also considered guys like Rob Deer, Cory Snyder, and Darrell Evans. Where else would they be usable? I love this theme!

The goals of the pitching staff - a) try to limit HRs as best as possible. Everyone has a HR/9+ of 110 or higher. b) limit walks. Everyone has a BB/9 of 1.78 or lower. No free bases here. That’s it.

There’s nobody special on the staff - Pappas, Tewksbury, Peterson, Horlen and a bunch of vanilla relievers. My hope is that this team is Earl Weaver’s dream - a bunch of 3 run homers. I can see this team winning anywhere between 55-95 games. But no matter how many wins, it will never be boring.

$80 mil - They Say This is the Golden Age - Royals Stadium

I recently celebrated my 50th birthday. When I first started working on this team, there were a number of pitchers from 1973 that turned up in my preliminary search. So it became clear to me that I needed a card with 1973 on it. I settled pretty quickly on Card #14, as I wanted to avoid the poor normalization of the 20s and 30s if possible.

Chronologically:

1947 - Rookie Jackie Robinson seemed like good karma. I also got HOF SS Luke Appling, a couple of relievers in Johnny Rigney and Ray Poat, and my mopup Al Lyons.

1973 - Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, and Tommy John form ¾ of my rotation,Ron Fairly and his .422 OBP in the OF, and bench bat Bobby Floyd.

1986 - as a child of the 80s, some of my favorites here - George Brett, Jim Rice, Willie Randolph, Mike Fitzgerald, and Greg Swindell. It’s like playing Strat-O-Matic all over again!

2012 - Jason Vargas is a bargain 4th starter. The other 4 spots were platoon/bench guys - Jerry Hairston Jr, Reed Johnson, Pete Kozma, and Xavier Paul.

2020 - I know 2020 is full of great value SP (see next writeup below). But I ended up with Jeff McNeil and Aaron Nola in my lineup, then 3 solid bullpen arms - Aaron Loup, Matt Strahm, and Caleb Baragar.

Were there better options? Most likely. Would I have had the same connection to those teams? Probably not. I also gave exactly zero consideration to Round 2.

$100 - Hindsight is 2020 - Minute Maid Park

When I began working on this one, I originally missed the part about the teams being from the same season, despite it literally being the first condition. For research I went back to the Good, Bad, and Ugly theme from a few years back. Particularly, the Ugly teams. My goal was to find a really bad team to give me more flexibility. Turns out, bad teams are bad for a reason. The few that I found (2010 Mariners) didn’t really match up well with the better teams. Then I looked at 2020. The shortened season provided some unique results that I was able to capitalize on. Plus, with fewer games, the math was easier. The one position that was really thin was catcher. I zeroed in on the Red Sox pretty quickly with the combo of Vazquez and Plawecki. The Sox also had a number of other strong offensive seasons, and perhaps the biggest piece of the puzzle - finishing 12 games under .500. I was able to use Bogaerts, Pillar, Verdugo, Bradley, Moreland, and Dalbec. Next up was the Astros. Not a fan, but a generally good team that was 2 games under .500. While I got all bats from the Sox, I took mostly arms from the ‘Stros, along with Michael Brantley. Valdez, Greinke, McCullers, Javier, Raley, Urquidy, and Pressly are the backbone to the pitching staff. I had the makings of a pretty strong team and now had +14 games to play with. Originally I used Cleveland. There are a lot of good options there. At the last minute I switched to the Padres. Strong hitters in Tatis, Machado, Cronenworth, Profar, and France compliment my Sox. The Friars also had some strong pitching in Lamet, Davies, Clevenger, and Strahm. This version ended up a couple of million less than the Cleveland version. While I’d rather not leave that much $ on the table, I think this team is better. As a Yankees fan it pains me to use the Red Sox and Astros, but I really like this team.

$110 mil - Gotta Have Clones, Clones, Clones! - Fulton County Stadium

In previous tournaments, we had a theme where we cloned a pitcher, and another where we cloned a hitter. I used Randy Johnson and Chipper Jones, respectively, in those tournaments. Randy to me is the perfect pitcher to clone. There’s a Unit for any role you want on the staff. I chose 2 high-end starters (95, 04), a back-end starter (05), cheap long A (07) dominant reliever (98) lefty specialist (88) and mopup (89). I never really considered anyone else. Through RJ I was able to bring in Tim Raines, Edgar Martinez, Moises Alou, Orlando Hudson, Jorge Posada, Roberto Aloma, Mike Fitzgerald, and Richard Hidalgo. For the pitching staff Johnson gave me access to Pascual Perez, Tim Burke, Mariano Rivera, and Aaron Small, who will most likely be an opener for Perez.

Whenever I play in a league with clones, I think switch hitters. In this case the decision was made easier with the year restrictions. I might have considered Speaker, Joe Jackson, or even Rogers Hornsby otherwise. I briefly considered Tim Raines and Pete Rose. With Raines his better seasons ended up being too expensive collectively, and there was a bunch of teammate overlap with Johnson. Rose is a good option with the many positions he played, but I don’t particularly like Pete Rose and don’t really want to root for him. Besides, I just knew I wanted to use Chipper. I actually ended up using only 4 Chippers - 96, 99, 01 02. The only Chipper teammates were reliever John Smoltz and scrub (salary, not as a person) Ed Giovanola.

I’m pretty sure this was the first team I finished. I pretty much knew what I wanted to do from the minute I read the theme.

$120 mil - The Bronx Bombers - Yankee Stadium II

When I first looked at this theme, I was impartial. I did a search of SP by criteria and the team that stood out was the White Sox. So I built a ChiSox team. It was pretty good. If this were last year, I’d be writing about Mark Buehrle and Frank Thomas now. But it was just a bunch of numbers to me. So as a Yankee fan, I built this team instead.

Since they’re the Bronx Bombers, I’ll start with the offense first. I realize it’s not one of the high-end versions, but I believe you can never go wrong starting your team with Babe Ruth. He’s joined in the OF by Joe D, who I rarely get to use, and Bernie Williams. At first is my all-time favorite player, Don Mattingly (side note: my brother got me an autographed Mattingly ball for my above-mentioned birthday.) Cano, Jeter, and Wade Boggs round out the IF. Jorge Posada is the C.

Other than 78 Guidry, who wasn’t eligible, the Yankees don’t have a ton of high-end SP, which I think actually helps here. With the $11m individual cap I don’t have to worry about sending Fritz Peterson out there to face Christy Mathewson. I’m going to create tandems using Spud Chandler, Ray Caldwell, Nestor Cortes, Gerrit Cole, Guidry (81) and Tanaka. The bullpen is strong with Mo, Wetteland, Steve Howe, Andrew Miller and Johnny Sain. Is this the best possible team I could have built? Probably not. Is it my team? Yep.

$255 - Mildly Annoyed B’s - Kaufmann Stadium

I sometimes feel like I’m the opposite of many of the people who play the WISC. I play in and enjoy lower cap leagues. The only higher caps I play all year are in this tournament. I have, at best, a very basic understanding of the nuances at this cap. The boxes only made this more challenging. What also made this more challenging was how the boxes were arranged. I am genuinely curious what the methodology was to place players in boxes. I know enough about $255 to know that when I made a list of the top 10 players I would use, 9 of them were in box A1. It seemed like the easy choice until you realize you can only take one of these players. Everything being equal I would have started with Ruth and gone from there. But there were a couple of factors that made me change my mind. First, I used 11 Cobb in the high cap league last year, and both he and the team did pretty well. While he’s not the HR threat Ruth is, he is an XBH demon. He would fit great in a park like Kaufmann. Also, there are times in this tournament where it feels like everyone is zigging and there might be an advantage to zagging. I have no idea if that’s the case here or if I just think most people are going to pick column A and I want to be different.

From there, I began looking at positions of scarcity - C and SS, as well as SP since most of the ones I’d normally use at 255 were in column A. Piazza seemed like the clear choice a C. At SS I went with Ozzie Smith. Probably not the best offensive option, but he’ll bring his glove and he made the larger puzzle fit. The rest of the lineup, built for Kauffman, was 1B Sisler, 2b Gehringer, 3B Al Rosen, OF George Stone, Riggs Stephenson, and Bernie Williams in addition to Cobb. The bench is a bunch of guys I paid way too much money for since there is a DH.

My SP are guys I use often, like, am comfortable with, and usually do well. But that’s at caps much lower than this. Anyway, Guidy, Verlander, King Felix, and Marichal will start. Matt Harvey, Seaver, and Rodon will provide long relief as the Ruths and Hornsbys wear out my starters. The bullpen seems strong - Diaz, Duffey, Ontiveros, and Henry, but what do I know? My goal for the $255 mil team every year is to not have it bury me, at least not early on. Seems like a reasonable goal for this one too. I also didn’t see the note about grouping teams by salary. This makes me feel a little better because no version of this team got much higher than $190m. In hindsight, I probably should have gone cheaper on the bench. I just wasn’t sure where the salaries were going to end up.

Posted by schwarze on 6/13/2023 9:39:00 AM (view original):

Posted by ronthegenius on 6/13/2023 9:24:00 AM (view original):
I agree with schwarze. The commitment to building towards your own personal theme for all your teams is impressive, but to have a 26 letter alphabet soup team for the 255m league is incredible

Alphabet, Franchise and Season soup all while drafting one player per Box, and still trying to build a valid roster!

I'm blown away by this. All of it, really. Here I thought I was marginally clever for finding a song that matched each of my rosters. Heck, starting with the song is some seriously next level commitment.

70m - Khris Davis' Only Fans

I could see two distinct approaches here - embrace the homers or hide from them. Any ballpark was allowed, so I could certainly put a team in Petco or Target Field, focus on low WHIP pitchers and try to figure out how to score some runs. The only problem is, I’ve never been good at Petco teams. I built the team, and while I liked them on paper, their raw SLG was 75 points lower than a comparable home run team. Clearly the homer team would lose a lot of their power if they ran into other Petco teams, so maybe that difference wasn’t real.

The more I looked at it, I decided that even with the benefits of stolen bases and a more friendly park, I couldn’t really find enough XBH guys who hit below .247 to make that approach work. Did I make the wrong call? We’ll see how things play out. This league seems very much “horses for courses” and I expect most teams will have a big split between their home/road splits. If I end up in a league with other power teams, and I did it better than them, then I’ll be OK. If I end up with a bunch of Petcos, I’ll be in trouble. These were the numbers:

v1 (sluggers) 5399pa 238/330/484 C/C 299hr 52sb/34cs 33.48m ; 1303ip 1.17whip 0.58hr9 2.56bb9 8.32k9 .237oav
v2 (triples) 5452pa 238/322/407 C/B- 128hr 193sb/62cs, 33.6m; 1259ip, 1.02whip, 1.07hr9, 1.93bb9, 7.25k9, .219oav

Anyway, for the team I actually did build, I wanted a bunch of modern SPs whose home runs would normalize really well, so I’ve got Charlie Morton (209 hr+), Kevin Brown (207), Framber Valdez (211) and Logan Webb (214) all just under 200 IP in my rotation, 125 IP from Marcus Stroman as a swingman, and a pretty deep bullpen. As usual for a low-cap league, I wanted to maximize the value of every lineup spot, so I’ve got 5 platoons on offense. Evan Gattis should be solid enough behind the plate to slow down some running teams. And I have the actual Khris Davis in left field, since it would have felt weird to leave him out. And I’ve got the team in Yankee Stadium III, so if I’m wrong about the home run normalization, I’ll be really wrong. My division is Forbes (meh), Redland (yay?) and Metrodome (meh) so at least I'm not hosed from the start.

1B Mantle 553pa B/D+ 259/405/450 and CJ Cron 145pa C/A+ 199/352/531
2B Lowe 615pa C/D 255/346/506 ... also D/D- 1B, C/C- at OF
3B Wisdom 375pa B/D 240/310/505 (A+/D- 1B, B/D+ OF) and Isaac Paredes 381pa A/C+ 214/314/430 (B/D- 1B, A/D- 2B)
LF Khris Davis 654pa D/D 253/331/531
RF Kingman 510pa D/D+ 242/290/518
CF Mel Ott 511pa C/D+ 240/335/500 and Butch Nieman 311pa D/B+ 246/359/488
SS Oneil 361pa C-/A+ 242/301/442 (D/B OF) and Tim Beckham 328pa D/A+ 241/296/431 ... also D-/A 1B/2B, D/A 3B, D/B+ OF
C Schwarber 273pa D/B/D- 260/362/479 and Gattis 382pa B+/B+/B+ 248/297/477

80m Card 11: 2001, 1926, 1944, 2022, 1925

This is definitely a league where I wish I’d had more time. I am just assuming that if I make it to round 2, I’ll be able to build a competent team. In past years, I would have actually built both teams, but given the limited restrictions, I’m not worried about being able to field a legal roster in round 2. It might not be good, but I can do it.

Beyond that, there were just so many seasons to choose from that this theme seemed a little paralyzing. I just tried to focus on groups of seasons that I liked for a few key players - which is the way I usually build teams like this where you have to pick a starting point. Usually I start with SS, 3B, 2B and SP. In this case I also liked the really new years (2020-22) and wanted to include those if I could. I started with the 2020/22/1971/1992/1924 season (which just seems like it should be amazing) but I couldn’t make it work due to a lack of interesting infielders for the low cap.

So then I looked at the 2022/1925/1926 trio with 1944 and 2001 added in. I like the 1920s pitchers at lower caps (low Ks, HR prevention) and 1944 is a year similar to those, plus a couple modern years for hitters and relievers. I built a homer team and intended to put them in a good homer park like Yankee III but I couldn’t get a perfect hitter there so I settled for Minute Maid. My rotation is 3 guys from the 20s (Mays, Rixey, Donohue) and my lineup has Ott, Ruth, Hack Wilson and a fun DP combo of Andres Gimenez and Dave Bancroft. William Contreras the slugging outfielder will be a fun adventure too. This team lacks the speed I’d like in a low cap team, but has at least 1 catcher who can throw (Cal Raleigh) and with 211 homers hit and 22 allowed, I’m hoping we can mash our way above .500.

RF Ott 520pa B/D+ 289/424/554 and Contreras
LF Ruth 449pa C+/C 275/376/530 William Contreras 376pa D-/B 289/392/498
3B Riley 693pa B/C- 283/357/520
CF Hack Wilson 645pa C+/B+ 312/401/537
1B Sweeney 630pa C-/A- 302/370/518
SS Bancroft 593pa C/A+ 304/390/410
2B Gimenez 557pa B/A+ 308/381/461 ... also C+/A+ at SS
C Raleigh 415pa B+/A+/B 220/293/484 and Hank Camelli 155pa D/D-/D- 297/386/386

100m - Dodging 2015 National Rockies

This is one I spent a little time on, though clearly not enough to find the magical 1906 trio that’s likely the answer to this puzzle. The key seems to be finding a terrible team with enough useful players to lower your overall winning percentage while still contributing at least a little bit. Finding non-elite teams with multiple elite pitchers also seemed like a good strategy, but there aren’t a lot of those.

Naturally I thought of the Rockies first, who usually manage to have some useful hitters while being terrible. I really liked a 2020 team with the Rockies, Braves and Brewers, but couldn’t find the right fill-in players. Those Braves and Brewers are pretty good, though. There’s probably a 2020 combo in there somewhere, even though the lack of cheap bench bats makes it tricky.

Then I found that the Rockies also had a lot to contribute in 2015 and could be paired with a mediocre Nats team that had Harper and Scherzer, and left room for a 92-win Dodgers team. So I’ve got the 2-headed monster in Kershaw and Greinke, a solid #3 in Mad Max, and then pray for rain when Jordan Zimmerman pitches. While this team doesn’t have a ton of OBP outside of Harper, they’ve got some power and a lot of infield defense. I do worry that they’ll get neutralized by deadball pitchers or that Harper won’t earn his salary, but playing in Dodger Stadium with some solid batting averages should help a little. I’m really curious to see if the 1906 teams and other really old-time teams are the answer here.

LF Blackmon 682pa A-/C- 292/354/442
CF Harper 654pa C/C+ 336/468/642
RF Ethier 445pa C/D- 299/373/478 and Dickerson 234pa A+/D- 309/340/528
1B AGonz 643pa A-/A- 280/357/472
3B Arenado 665pa B+/A+
SS Tulo 534pa A/C- 306/354/463 and Seager 113pa D+/A+ 342/432/554 (also D/A- at 3B)
2B Lemahieu 620pa A-/B+ 307/365/381
C Nick Hundley 389pa B+/A/A- 306/346/460 and AJ Ellis 217pa A+/A+/A+ 242/362/396

110mil - Johan Cedeno's St. Louis Adventure
This is a really fun idea for a league that I’d happily spend months working on if I had the time. I definitely like the modern pitcher aspect of it. Clearly I had power on the brain while I was working on these themes since that’s where my mind went first for this one. There are some modern pitchers who do a great job keeping the ball in the park (Maddux, Clemens, Brown) and I figured I could pair one of those with a Yankee and hit bombs. The team I liked most was a Lemahieu/Clemens team. DJ can give you 3 or 4 different teams from the Yankees, Rockies, Cubs and play a bunch of different positions.

After sitting on that team for a while, I had an idea to try something very different, because I was worried everyone would go Petco/Maddux. So I started looking at Johan Santana who gives you 3 good years in the rotation with really low WHIPs, if you can protect him from the homers. Enter Cesar Cedeno, who can give you both Busch Stadium and the legendary 85 Cardinals and also the Astrodome. In the end I decided to enter this team, though I can’t say for sure it was the right call. Definitely a lot less OBP, but maybe a better fit for the leagues I’ll end up in. Sadly, I couldn’t fit ‘85 McGee under the cap, so I’ve got 3 Cedenos in the outfield, another at DH, and 2 more on the bench. The middle infield is Herr/Ozzie and the corners are Koskie/Morneau, so it’s a fun mix of teams. The Cesars can run, too, so if we run into any shaky catchers, we’ll be off to the races.

V1 - DJ and Roger
6172pa, 304/369/523, B/B-, 251 HR, 60.4m; 1415ip, 1.08whip, 0.42hr9, .215oav, 2.65bb9, 8.26k9, 49.47m

V2 - Cedeno and Johan
6182pa 301/370/469, B/B-, 174hr, 352sb/90cs, 59.2m; 1389ip, 1.00whip, 0.72hr9, .210oav, 2.11bb9, 7.96k9, 50.7m

Checking my actual league, I’ve got Dodger Stadium, Turner Field and Shea Stadium, so the DJ team might have been OK after all. In fact, 2 of those 3 are bad for Cesar’s triples, so maybe I would have been better off the other way.

DH Cedeno80 566pa C+/B+ 310/394/469
RF Cedeno72 662pa B-/A- 328/392/546
CF Cedeno73 576pa B/A 325/379/541
1B Morneau 661pa B/C 314/370/531
LF Cedeno76 635pa C+/A 301/362/465
3B Koskie 649pa B+/B+ 274/360/464
2B Herr 696pa B/C 308/385/421
SS Ozzie 615pa A/A+ 281/360/365
C Mauer 554pa B+/A/A+ 292/371/390

120m - Guardians of the Galaxy
I started by looking at which franchises had the best combination of infielders and SPs that would fit into the cap, and figured that I could make the rest work around those guys. Who IS the go-to infield at this cap? Which teams actually have the ability to fill all of the spots in a park that emphasizes what they do? Probably Boston (Boggs/Nomar/Pedroia), Cleveland (Boudreau/J-Ram/Nap) and the Giants (Frisch/Davis/Panda).

I ruled out the Giants based on their pitching not being quite as good, though I wonder if I was too quick - could have tandemed Schupp and Anderson to start with. So that left Boston with Sale, Pedro, Clemens, Lowe and Wood, or Cleveland with Bieber, Kluber, Bernhard, Plesac and Carrasco. Cleveland came in with a slightly lower OBP on offense and a lower WHIP in the pitching staff, and I decided to go with the pitching over the offense. Might have some regrets about this one too. I’ll need a big performance from Speaker and good work from the not quite monstrously expensive seasons I picked for Nap and Boudreau to make things work.

V1 - Boston 5589pa, 332/421/535, C+/C+, 143hr, 62.4m; 1429ip, 0.95whip, 0.52hr9, 2.22bb9, .196oav, 8.49k9, 57.5m
v2 - Cleveland 5664pa, 344/407/532, C+/B- 115hr 62.25m; 1423ip, 0.91whip 0.53hr9 1.89bb9 .196oav 8.30k9

CF Speaker 734pa C/B+ 368/457/607
RF Francona 467pa C/B 369/417/566 (also A/C+ at 1B) and Joe Wood 241pa B-/D- 348/423/548
1B Charlie Hickman 545pa D/A+ 370/398/566 (also D+/A OF) and Joe Harris 265pa C/C 372/470/502
LF Milton Bradley 451pa A/A+ 318/419/478 and Riggs Stephenson 281pa D/D- 327/410/503 (also D/D- 2B, B-/D at 3B)
3B J-Ram 645pa A/D+ 322/376/559 (also B-/C- at 3B)
2B Lajoie 608pa C/A+ 349/393/538 (also D/A+ 1B, C/A 3B)
SS Boudreau 656pa A/A 310/385/433
C Ted Easterly 324pa D/B/D+ 318/340/448 and Bo Diaz 313pa C-/B/A+ 317/363/538

255m - Boxing Day
This is probably the league I spent the most time on. I’ve never been very good at high caps. Too many good options I guess.

I had 2 main thoughts for this league that were sort of contradictory. For this league it seemed to me that trying to get several elite SPs would really impede your ability to build an elite offense, because you’d be using too many high level boxes on pitching where all the good hitters were. At the same time, some of the boxes only had 1 or 2 players that seemed worth bothering with, and I figured I could help guide myself by picking the guys from those boxes first.

The real question was, to Silver King or not to Silver King? I tried to build a Group A team with a bunch of later round pitchers (Cole/16, Fern/14, Darvish/11, Gallen/10, Schmidt/9) and a killer offense, and it didn’t seem any better than my Silver King team. So I decided that this was probably a league where good innings were not quite unlimited, and thus getting as many as possible with one pick had value, so yes, it was Silver time.

I’ve got King and then a tandem of Lamet and Mike Scott as my rotation, and tons of scarce position OBP in Boudreau, Eddie Collins, Boggs and Mauer. I’ve got Bill Joyce at DH even though he always disappoints. I’ve got Goose and Possum Whitted in one corner, and Bryce in the other, with Mike Griffin hitting 9th and playing CF. I've got the great Votto/Teixeira combo at 1B. I hope the bullpen is adequate. Not having a ton of power, I stuck them in the Astrodome. It seems like I ended up slightly below average in salary, which I guess is good. Compared to the teams in my division, I feel good about my team, which is definitely the kiss of death. I definitely focused on position scarcity rather than just getting my MI guys at the end, and that doesn't always end well for me.

Box 1 King
Box 2 Boudreau
Box 3 Lamet
Box 4 Collins
Box 5 Boggs
Box 6 Mauer
Box 7 Scott
Box 8 Joyce
Box 9 Kenley
Box 10 Papelbon
Box 11 Harper
Box 12 Valdez
Box 13 Griffin
Box 14 Bailey
Box 15 Goslin
Box 16 Teix
Box 17 Rivero
Box 18 Whitted
Box 19 Astrodome
Box 20 Rags
Box 21 Eichhorn
Box 22 Votto
Box 23 Dotel
Box 24 Beltran
Box 25 Brown
Box 26 McGuire

LF Goslin 556pa D+/C+ 368/435/607 and UT Whitted 167pa 392/430/573 .. C/B- 1B, B-/B+ 2B, D/D 3B, D+/B+ OF
RF Harper 654pa C/C+ 336/468/642
DH Joyce 558pa D/C+ 329/468/622
3B Boggs 719pa A/D 368/478/485
1B Votto 475pa B/C+ 342/480/558 and Teix 234pa A/A 354/445/614
SS Boudreau 707pa A-/A 353/441/534
2B Collins 716pa B/C+ 340/463/466
C Mauer 602pa A/A/D+ 363/440/564
CF Griffin 599pa B/A 332/439/458

Collective Strategy:

Similar to last year, given what I've seen with HRs allowed vs errors in overall RA/G, and how the HR impact was priced in, such that a pitcher similarly priced as another pitcher will essentially have the same RA/9 without regard to how they get to it. So, again despite some HR heavy themes, not only did I not even look at the HR/9 for the pitchers I drafted, most of the time, their HR/9 is relatively high.

I've also continued to play around with very heavily offensive oriented teams and again carried that over here. I have become a huge fan of non-traditional pitching staffs that are built almost entirely of RPs or shorter IP SPs. There's so much value in these pitchers with 80-130 IP, especially with IP/G <2. On most teams these days I run pitching staffs of 11-13 80-130 IP guys at roughly a 20-30% discount to a similar staff built around higher IP/G or traditional roles due to dynamic pricing and most of these guys being generally ignored as it takes a little more careful effort to use them effectively.

$70m: Kingdome (-2, +1, -1, +2/+2)

No secret that I love the low caps. The lower the better. My favorite is $40m, though I always loved the old HLCYG leagues that ran as low as $25m. I started with this one and built this team similar to some of the HR bounty teams with a focus on HR/H instead of HR/AB, A+ range, and a negative hit park factor to minimize hits for both my team and my opponents. I want as close to all hits as possible to be HRs and my goal is to limit those hits from my opponents more than myself. So, I focused on OAV from pitchers and didn't even look at their HR/9 and only used BB/9 as a tie-breaker. We will give up very few hits, and ballpark and range will take away some of the others we allow. HRs will be about the only hits allowed. And given the decision tree and where HRs sit, these players should equal or exceed their RL HRs, even if they hit under .200.

LINEUP:
'12 Curtis Granderson .232/.319/.492
'81 Jason Thompson .242/.396/.502 / '16 Jedd Gyrko .243/.306/.495
'02 Jeremy Giambi .244/.435/.538 / '20 Kole Calhoun .226/.338/.526
'47 Charlie Keller .238/.404/.550 / '16 Ryan Schimpf .217/.336/.533
'21 Brandon Lowe .247/.330/.523
'22 Willy Adames .238/.298/.458
'13 Pedro Alvarez .233/..296/.473
PITCHER
'21 Yasmani Grandal .240/.420/.520 / '74 Cliff Johnson .228/.357/.439

Went mostly with platoons to save a little budget instead of paying for bench that won't be utilized. Speed plays up in low caps as power is usually too costly and easy to stifle, so an A+ arm is must, and it will also help stifle any teams that didn't lean heavily into HR given the theme and trying to save a little $ going with BB+SB.

I'm running a 3-man rotation with:
'66 Larry Jaster 152 IP 3.26/.227/1.12
'20 John Means 118 IP 4.53/.220/0.98
'78 Catfish Hunter 118 IP 3.58/.226/1.13

Overall stat lines:
Hitting: 5,368 PA, .236 AVG, .341 OBP, .500 SLG with 325 HR/162
Pitching: 1,251 IP, 3.50 ERA, .221 OAV, 1.10 WHIP, 1.41 HR/9


$80m: Baker Bowl (0, +4, +1, +2/+1)

With this one I started by making a sheet of all of the combos of seasons from each card that I found viable at this cap to see how many cards I felt had great options for the two teams. I ended with 6 cards I felt strong about, with four of those having two solid team combinations, one having three solid options, and the last having seven solid options. This made it a little easier than trying to build 5 billion teams from all of the possible combinations. This left me with 18 teams and the goal was to select the card that had what I felt was the two strongest. I ended up with Card 10 and decided to use the corners for the round 1 option using 1935, 1960, 1979, and 2011. If I should be lucky enough to get to round 2, I'll use the 1934, 1935, 1994, 2011, and 2021 diagonal.

LINEUP:
'60 Nellie Fox .289/.351/.372
'79 Gary Templeton .314/.331/.458
'35 Johnny Moore .323/.375/.483
'35 Ripper Collins .313/.385/.529
'79 Chet Lemon .318/.391/.496
'60 Brooks Robinson .294/.329/.440
'35 Wally Berger .295/.355/.548
PITCHER
'79 Butch Wynegar .270/.363/.351

This is, first, the closest to a traditional pitching staff I've built in some time with a rotation of four all from 2011:
'11 Roy Halladay 234IP 2.35/.239/1.04
'11 Alexi Ogando 169IP 3.51/.234/1.14
'11 Josh Tomlin 165IP 4.25/.248/1.08
'11 Josh Collmenter 154IP 3.38/.237/1.07

Overall stat lines:
Hitting: 5,649 PA, .299 AVG, .355 OBP, .454 SLG
Pitching: 1,330 IP, 3.26 ERA, .233 OAV, 1.12 WHIP, 0.87 HR/9


$100m: Angel Stadium (-1, -1, -2, -1/-1)

This was the hardest one for me... I built so many teams... I lost count... in the end I went with one of the first ones I built (second, I think). My immediate gut was 2020. With the short season it allows for more extreme W% to play with as well as has a large number of bargains on both sides of the ball. I initially tried to work with the Dodgers, but their W% was just too high and forced me to use teams that were hard to mesh, plus, the Dodgers team was so strong, it was hard to limit to just 8-9 players. After looking at my team options, I ended up back in 2020, but with the other LA team. The Angels have some of the best hitting options, solid defense, and useable pitching. Their strengths were well complimented by the Padres who are also exceptionally strong across the board. The Royals then filled out the squad in a way that worked both with W%, as well as with positional fits. Wanted to go with the most hitter friendly park, and Kaufman fit that bill, but it's strengths didn't mesh with my team, so rather than go all in on Petco, I settled on Angel Stadium as the closest to neutral as possible.

LINEUP:
'20 Fernando Tatis Jr. .277/.366/.571
'20 Manny Machado .304/.370/.580
'20 Mike Trout .281/.390/.603
'20 Trent Grisham .251/.352/.456
'20 David Fletcher .319/.376/.425
'20 Tommy La Stella .281/.370/.449
'20 Jurickson Profar .278/.343/.428
PITCHER
'20 Salvador Perez .333/.353/.633

Still running a 4-man, but it's lighter on IP than something more traditional:
'20 Zach Davies 187IP 2.73/.216/1.07
'20 Dinelson Lamet 186IP 2.09/.161/0.86
'20 Dylan Bundy 177IP 3.29/.207/1.04
'20 Brad Keller 148IP 2.47/.202/1.02

Overall stat lines:
Hitting: 5,992 PA, .288 AVG, .360 OBP, .498 SLG
Pitching: 1,280 IP, 2.49 ERA, .190 OAV, 0.97 WHIP, 0.66 HR/9

$110m: County Stadium (+2, 0, 0, -1/-2)

I knew immediately that Rollie Fingers would be one of my two clones... tons of clone able seasons with great teammates and cheap $/IP because of his IP/G. I then spent time trying to find a hitter to compliment what I could get from Fingers. I narrowed it down to Trout, Yount, Brett, Bernie Williams, and Griffey Jr. I built a team for each and settled on Trout. This team is probably my favorite of all of the WISC teams this season.

LINEUP:
'82 Paul Molitor .302/.366/.450
'82 Robin Yount .331/.379/.578
'20 Mike Trout .281/.390/.603
'17 Mike Trout .306/.442/.629 / '21 Mike Trout .333/.466/.624
'18 Mike Trout .312/.460/.628
'20 Anthony Rendon .286/.418/.497
'20 David Fletcher .319/.370/.425
'20 Tommy La Stella .281/.370/.449
'75 Gene Tenace .255/.395/.464

With a 2-man rotation of:
'71 Vida Blue 314IP 1.82/.189/0.95
'72 Catfish Hunter 309IP 2.04/.189/.92
and six Rollie Fingers in the bullpen.

Overall stat lines:
Hitting: 6,253 PA, .290 AVG, .388 OBP, .503 SLG
Pitching: 1,327 IP, 2.23 ERA, .200 OAV, 0.97 WHIP, 0.63 HR/9

$120M: South End Grounds (+2, 0, +1 -1/-1)
I won my first ever WIS championship a little over 20 years ago in a $100m franchise league with a Braves team, so I have a bit of nostalgia whenever I'm given the option to take the Braves in a similarly high cap franchise theme. This team bears little resemblance to that team of 20 years ago, which just shows the depth of the Braves as a franchise. This team is also the one that fits my regular team-building style the most closely. Offensive heavy, lots of platoons, decent range, with mostly deadball hitters, and modern pitchers in a hitter friendly park. Funny enough, I forgot about the $1m-$11m rule while drafting, and it wasn’t until I started reading these posts that it registered I needed to look at that… thankfully, my normal, tons of platoons and RP heavy pitching staff didn’t have me drafting anyone on the outside of either end of the cap restrictions.

LINEUP:
'93 Hugh Duffy .363/.416/.461
'89 Dan Brouthers .373/.462/.507
'98 Billy Hamilton .369/.480/.453 / '97 Jack Stivetts .367/.417/.533
'28 Rogers Hornsby .387/.498/.632
'08 Chipper Jones .364/.470/.574 / '13 Tex McDonald .359/.422/.441
'70 Rico Carty .366/.454/.584 / '57 Bob Hazle .403/.477/.649
'25 Dave Bancroft .319/.400/.426 / '18 Zeb Terry .305/.360/.362
PITCHER
'06 Brian McCann .333/.388/.572 / '98 Eddie Perez .336/.404/.537

Overal stat lines:
Hitting: 5,805 PA, .359 AVG, .441 OBP, .518 SLG
Pitching: 1,330 IP, 2.22 ERA, .200 OAV, 0.94 WHIP, 0.66 HR/9

$255m: Jefferson Street Grounds (+2, +2, +1, -2/-2)

This is the one I'm most looking forward to and the one that will most likely perform the worst overall. I took a quick scan of each box, and while Box B had a bunch of players I like to use, Box A had Ruth. There’s no one that puts up numbers like Ruth either in a vacuum or on a RC/$ basis. He’s just too valuable to pass up. Any other player can have their value made up somewhere else. After Ruth, my strategy was to take the best player available in each box and then at the end I’d adjust here and there, if needed. I didn't look at salaries or even consider them. I got to the end and didn’t need to adjust. My only decision really came down to the last two boxes and choosing ballpark and my last 80+ IP. In the end having ~1300 IP even if I had to take some deadball RP was worth more than having 1400+ IP. I ended up with Jefferson Street Grounds and Jim Handiboe over the option of having too many IP and Wrigley (LA).

Here is my box by box selection and where they fit in my lineup/roster:
Ruth: 1920 .376/.530/.846 bats 3rd.
Kershaw: 2016 1.63/.184/0.72 LH Specialist
Lamet: 2020 2.09.161/0.86 SP #3
Bauer: 2020 1.73/.159/0.79 SP#2
Gonsolin: 2020 2.31/.193/0.84 RH Specialist
Kauff: 1915 .342/.446/.509 bats 5th
Kimbrel: 2012 1.01/.126/0.65 RH Specialist
Freeman: 2020 .341/.462/.640 Leadoff hitter
AROD: 1996 .358/.414/.631 bats 6th
Schoendinst: 1953 .342/.405/.502 bats 7th
Meredith: 2006 1.07/.170/0.71 RH Specialist
Napoli: 2011 .320/.414/.631 bats 9th
Saito: 2007 1.40/.151/0.72 RH Specialist
Magee: 1910 .331/.445/.507 bats 2nd
Sanchez: 2006 .344/.378/.473 bats 8th
Zimmerman: 1999 2.36/.166/0.84 RH Specialist
Bresnahan: 1903 .350/.443/.493 bats 4th
Corkhill: 1888 .380/..429/.563 spells Bresnahan
Fingers: 1981 1.04/.198/0.87 SP #1
Haney: 1995 .411/.463/.603 spells Sanchez and Schoendinst
Cedeno: 1985 .434/.463/.750 spells Freeman, Ruth, Magee, Kauff
Brucker: 1938 .374/.437/.561 spells Napoli
Dotel: 2002 1.85/.173/0.88 RH Specialist
Soria: 2008 1.60/.169/0.87
Handiboe: 1886 3.32/.193/1.01
Jefferson Street Grounds

This team may be a touch light on IP, but I think I can manage barring a few early extra inning games or a bunch of extra inning games strung together. Also a little HR heavy, but I focused almost entirely on AVG/OBP, so HR are just a by product of those players and features... as salary wasn't a concern in drafting, I don't care that I'm paying for HR that may not materialize, I'm still getting those AVG/OBP values, and if I'm lucky, those HR will play up against key opponents.

Overal stat lines:
Hitting: 6,100 PA, .349 AVG, .439 OBP, .578 SLG
Pitching: 1,339.67 IP, 1.89 ERA, .173 OAV, 0.82 WHIP, 0.59 HR/9.


Final Thoughts:

There was some discussion in the league rules thread already, but thought I’d note here that I’m also not a big fan of leagues that require research or tools outside of WIS. Especially for something like this, where league rules aren’t necessarily known before signups, I feel all research and rules should be able to be done and enforced through the draft center directly. Also not a big fan of the box style league, especially at higher caps. Higher caps ($120m+) are already essentially a bunch of teams with the same players and just a crapshoot, boxes just essentially narrow the pool even more so and create a larger crapshoot in terms of league performance/results.

This year, more than most, resulted in a bunch of “quickly draft and forget them” teams as the rules or themes didn’t allow much creativity or strategy, most of them were fairly straightforward or restrictive enough to force certain types of strategies. I’d rather see more leagues or themes that force decisions or trade offs. The $255m was the closest to this this season in terms of trade offs.

That said, I appreciate the effort to get this off the ground this year and I got to play most of these teams within the sphere of strategy that I find enjoyable right now without also feeling like I have no chance (which is usually the case). I may still have no chance, but these teams feel somewhat competitive AND fun and normally WISC teams only feel competitive OR fun. So, there’s still that. Looking forward to getting these rolling and seeing how they actually play.

Posted by schwarze on 6/13/2023 8:58:00 AM (view original):
calhoop, this is insane! I can't believe you built your 255M team like that. I will be rooting for you.

Agree, absolutely phenomenal... love it!

I think some people put more effort into their writeups than I did my rosters, so I may be in trouble! I did most of mine over a couple days at least a month ago. I barely remember who I selected for my rosters, much less why I chose them! It made sense at the time, so I hope it works.

This team may be a touch light on IP, but I think I can manage barring a few early extra inning games or a bunch of extra inning games strung together. Also a little HR heavy, but I focused almost entirely on AVG/OBP, so HR are just a by product of those players and features... as salary wasn't a concern in drafting, I don't care that I'm paying for HR that may not materialize, I'm still getting those AVG/OBP values, and if I'm lucky, those HR will play up against key opponents.

Overal stat lines:
Hitting: 6,100 PA, .349 AVG, .439 OBP, .578 SLG
Pitching: 1,339.67 IP, 1.89 ERA, .173 OAV, 0.82 WHIP, 0.59 HR/9.


HOLY CRAP. You are either crazy or a genius. 1340 innings in what amounts to a 180M salary cap? If this works, I must be doing this wrong.

Posted by schwarze on 6/13/2023 3:49:00 PM (view original):
This team may be a touch light on IP, but I think I can manage barring a few early extra inning games or a bunch of extra inning games strung together. Also a little HR heavy, but I focused almost entirely on AVG/OBP, so HR are just a by product of those players and features... as salary wasn't a concern in drafting, I don't care that I'm paying for HR that may not materialize, I'm still getting those AVG/OBP values, and if I'm lucky, those HR will play up against key opponents.

Overal stat lines:
Hitting: 6,100 PA, .349 AVG, .439 OBP, .578 SLG
Pitching: 1,339.67 IP, 1.89 ERA, .173 OAV, 0.82 WHIP, 0.59 HR/9.


HOLY CRAP. You are either crazy or a genius. 1340 innings in what amounts to a 180M salary cap? If this works, I must be doing this wrong.

If it was anyone else I would say there is absolutely no way that can work. But I think if anyone can pull it off, it's j4m.

70M: DR9 Walking The Bases Loaded

Hitting: 5139 PA, .241/.354/.433, 202 SBs

Pitching: 1292 IP, .197 OAV, 1.12 WHIP, 0.74 HR/9

This team will either be really good, or really really bad.

It seems like a lot of people went with pitchers with a really low walk rate, and HR hitters with a high OBP. It makes a lot of sense since high OAV, low BB pitchers are cheaper, and the HR/9 minimum made Adam Dunn and Gene Tenace viable, and my initial build looked very similar to a lot of the other rosters.

But as time went on, I not only tinkered, I completely rebuilt my team with a new strategy.

I played in a low cap league recently (that I can’t remember the parameters of) where I chose the 1981 Astros, and threw them in a negative singles park in the Astrodome. It was there where I saw low OAV high BB/9 Nolan Ryan massively outperformed high OAV low BB/9 Don Sutton, despite similar ERC’s. Bob Knepper, who is similar to Sutton statistically, wasn’t too much better than him. This was enough for me to completely change my pitching staff, and fully lean into low OAV pitchers, despite the higher walk rate. Out goes Kyle Hendricks and Bob Tewksbury, and in comes Nolan Ryan, Floyd Youmans, Dylan Cease, Sid Fernandez, and Wayne Simpson (who I’ve never heard of) as I aim for the low OAV pitchers to overpower the low AVG hitters, and limit the damage done by walks. The bullpen somewhat follows the same philosophy, as I had to get some cheap innings out of Jack Ryan and Ralph Comstock to stay under the cap and (hopefully) avoid the fatigue spiral.

This switch to higher priced, lower OAV pitchers means I had to cut costs elsewhere, and my starting lineup ended up being affected by it. My first build was focused on OBP and XBHs, which included guys like Juan Soto, Adam Dunn, and Josh Donaldson, who have 5 doubles and 5 HRs per 100 ABs. I couldn’t quit Adam Dunn, but the other two got the axe as I substituted them with ****** little hitters in Tommy Harper and Jon Berti, who could maybe make up the lesser production on the basepaths.

Following the trend of 5 doubles/5 HRs per 100 ABs, Brandon Lowe, Justin Smoak, Rhys Hoskins, and Butch Nieman join the frey. None of them have crazy high OBPs, but they should be decent at driving in runs. And to round out the lineup is 1978 Gene Tenace. I’m hoping his A- arm slows down the running game just enough, and that he draws 100 walks ahead of the pitchers spot, so I can have a bunch of runners on 2nd for my leadoff hitters after the 9 hole bunts him over. I originally had that crazy Yasmani Grandal season tandem with

1981 Tenace, but the Rickey’s and Vince Coleman’s I almost drafted scared me off of them.

Threw them all in -2 singles -2 HRs RFK because I’m a cheapskate and want to save on innings and PAs wherever I can, and to slow down all the Adam Dunn’s and Norm Cash’s I’m seeing.

Prediction: 90 Wins

80M: DR9 Card 5 Blackout

Hitting: 5219 PA, .305/.389/.426, 326 SBs

Pitching: 1311 IP, .229 OAV, 1.03 WHIP, 0.71 HR/9

I always knew I was going with Card 5. All the 80s years provided cookie switch hitting SB threats. It was just a matter of how I was gonna get my bingo. Initially I wanted the diagonal with all the 80s years, and just spam the lineup with switch hitting cookies such as Raines, Vince, and Ruben Sierra, but I felt the years restrictions led to some inefficient spending, which is a no-no at this cap, plus I could really use a bunch of 2020 pitchers for next round’s 120 mil cap. So I went with the blackout option as it had all the best cheap OL pitchers in Halladay, Tudor, and Tewks, and a bunch of sub-900k RPs that I regularly use in OLs (Stroman, Barry Jones, Dave Ford, Dan Miceli). It’s pretty much the opposite of what I did with the pitching in the 70M, but it was also the much cheaper way to do things as some of the hitters I just couldn’t give up.

On the offensive side of things, I stuck with the switch hitting SB cookies “strat” I was planning on doing with all the 80s years. Coleman and Raines stay in the lineup, but Ozzie gets substituted for Vizquel, and Jose Offerman will make an appearance atop the lineup. Filling in the rest of the lineup with 50s and 30s players was a little awkward as I just have no experience with much of these players. Dale Alexander mans 1B and the middle of the order because of his 9 doubles/100 ABs and not terrible range. He’s a lot slower than what I like to usually draft, but that’ll be a common theme for the rest of the roster too with the restrictions. Mickey Cochrane makes the team despite his inability to throw runners out just because of his knack for getting on base and hitting doubles at a relatively cheap cost. And Roy Cullenbine rounds out the lineup as a switch hitting, A+ range 3B who’ll likely provide no offense whatsoever outside of his ability to draw walks. But that’s what I like to look for ahead of the pitchers slot so I can have a lot of runners on 2nd for my leadoff guy. This team has no range, which doesn’t bode well for my high OAV OL cookie pitchers, but I’m still confident enough in the offense to where it won’t sink me.

Prediction: 84 wins

100M: DR9 Corona Brew Crew of Chi-City

Hitting: 5250 PA, .302/.373/.528, no substantial offensive category to mention

Pitching: 1370 IP, .180 OAV, 0.97 WHIP, 0.69 HR/9 (pretty good for a 2020 year)

I briefly tried to make something work with 1908 Ed Walsh, but I pretty much knew from the get go that the 2020 season would be the best year to choose from. The small sample size allowed a lot of usable seasons and fluke years from teams.

The White Sox and Mets were a match made in heaven as they provided a majority of key players I’ll be using, on opposite ends of the spectrum in the W-L column. The Sox provided a ton of great bullpen arms, and two cheap SPs, while the Mets gave me deGrom, and nearly my entire starting lineup. All I needed was a 3rd team 2 games below .500 to make it all work. The flaw with the Mets is that all their hitters have terrible range, so I needed a team to provide some range up the middle. I drew things up with the Giants and Yaz, and the Angels with Trout, but their role players were just awful, and I was still in need of another SP. So I made the poor decision to blow off range settle on the Brewers with Burnes and Woodruff. I’m really hoping the huge strikeout numbers from these guys help hide the D- range fielders I’ll be throwing out on the field.

The lineup was also poorly constructed as I usually just put it in order from most PA to fewest, and draft accordingly. Instead Jose Abreu and his 51 HRs will be leading off, while Tim Anderson will bat cleanup. Conforto, Nimmo, and Dom Smith make up the outfield with Conforto’s D+ range leading the bunch in CF, while Cano and McNeil round out the Mets with D- range at 3rd and 2nd. Abreu and TA provide the only semblance of mobility with A+ range at 1B and B+ range at SS. So as I saved money with D- range everywhere, and drafted cheap SP, I got a lot of money leftover to overspend on the bullpen. Devin Williams will be the primary setup man, and anything less than total annihilation will be a disappointment. The rest of the Brewers will make up a crappy bench as I platoon Catcher and try to catch up on PAs at other positions.

2020 hitters tend to disappoint, while I usually use 2020 pitchers as the backbone of my pitching staffs, probably the team I’m least confident in.

Prediction: 80 wins

110M: DR9 Ryan and Raines Make Opponents Go Insane

Hitting: 6131 PA, .308/.384/.463, 410 SBs

Pitching: 1382 IP, .189 OAV, 1.06 WHIP, 0.51 HR/9

And we’re back with the same philosophies I used in earlier formats. The low OAV pitchers from the 70M, and the 1980s switch hitting SB cookies from the 80M. I didn’t even bother looking at other combinations as I was pretty dead set on making this work from the jump.

We’ll be throwing them in the Astrodome, pairing Nolan Ryan’s low OAV with negative hits and it’s -4 HRs. Ryan’s wildness also provides a ton of pitches per inning, so I was able to draft a little bit fewer IPs than I usually do for DH leagues (which have always been tricky for me). The Astrodome also provides me the luxury of drafting cheaper RPs that were a little prone to the longball in real life. At first I tried to make Jeff Reardon and Tim Burke work, thinking their elite seasons would dominate at the Astrodome, but just couldn’t quite fit them in the budget with all the Tim Raines I’m using. Joe Sambito, Jim Poole, Jeff Russell, Dave Smith, and Pascual Perez make up a majority of the bullpen for a relatively cheaper price.

I feel like Captain Obvious when I say I’m not gonna draft the likes of Hank Aaron and Co to play at the Astrodome, Tim Raines just made too much sense with what I was trying to do. His triple hitting and stolen base prowess will make up slots 1-5 in the batting order, with the “running every single time he’s on base” Miguel Dilone filling in occasionally. Sadly I couldn’t squeeze in A+ arm teammate Gary Carter into the fold to stop the run game from terrorizing me, the one drawback of this team, but the B arm one should provide some offense behind all the Raines. Raffy Palmeiro and Art Howe provide some cheap doubles at the bottom of the order, and a Hubie Brooks and scrub platoon, who the latter will play against what I deem lesser teams, round out the order.

All in all, I can’t wait to look like a total fool in this one. Very excited to watch this team play.

Prediction: 95 wins

120M: DR9 The Cleveland Baseball Club

Hitting: 5449 PA, .353/.417/.529, 375 doubles

Pitching: 1376 IP, .188 OAV, 0.88 WHIP, 0.60 HR/9

For this one, I just threw the salaries in the SP slot in the draft center, and looked at which team came up the most on elite starting pitching seasons. Cleveland was the pretty obvious choice to go with for me. I’m kind of surprised to only see 3 others make the same decision as me. Unfortunately, it looks as if I’m sharing the division with someone who probably did a better job than I did in drafting a Cleveland team in duhbigcat.

Bernhard, Bieber, and Kluber were the names I saw pop up in that earlier search, and while Kluber is bad, maybe, just maybe, he’ll overperform this time (doubt it). Zach Plesac will be the SP4 with spot starts from other guys, but he seems to do better out of the bullpen rather than in one. I’ll be pairing these guys with -2 HR League Park in an attempt to get these homers under control. The bullpen is made up of guys with great stats that never perform the way they should in Mike Jackson, Andrew Miller, Mingori, Narleski, and Rafael Perez. Maybe the new Emmanuel Clase I couldn’t quit will shoulder the brunt of the load.

On offense, I’m looking forward to seeing Tris Speaker and Nap Lajoie win MVP with their 9 doubles/100 ABs# at +3 double League Park. Cleveland also provides a few decent switch hitting options in Robbie Alomar, J-Ram and Vizquel. I have no idea how they’ll do, but I expect the worst. Shoeless Joe is the final player I’m familiar with, batting cleanup. After that it’s a complete crapshoot with Charlie Hickman and my platoon of $1 million catchers. Bo Diaz will take a majority of the at bats with his A+ arm and knack for hitting doubles, but who knows what Glenn Myatt, Hal Naragon, and Ossee Schreckengost will do. There was no real plan other than “Ooga Booga hit doubles” with this team, so I don’t expect it to do much.

Prediction: 85 wins

255M: DR9 Silver King Shoulders The Load

Hitting: 6219 PA, .348/.437/.581, 420 (nice) doubles

Pitching: 1501 IP, .176 OAV, 0.81 WHIP, 0.30 HR/9

I royally flubbed this one up. Once I saw how the alignment was gonna work, I tried to overdraft everything in hopes of getting in a division with lesser experienced players who’d overdraft poor quality players. I never surpass 1500 IPs, I drafted super expensive bullpen arms in Gagne and Kimbrel, I platooned the overpriced Tulo, and it still wasn’t enough. Somehow I ended up at the bottom in salary, so maybe it’ll accidentally work out for me.

Box A was massively superior to Box B, it was almost a joke. It was just a matter if I wanted to target hitters first or pitchers. My initial build took all the hitters at the top, and all the still great relief pitching seasons available at the bottom, but the middle tier of starting pitchers blew. There was 0 chance I was gonna throw out Yu Darvish and Stan Coveleski to face the Ruth’s and Williams, and Lajoie’s, so I scrapped it.

What I then decided was to take Silver King for a ton of innings in one box, then to take all the hitters and create an insane lineup that way, but pairing deadball hitters with Silver King was scary to me. I still wanted to draft all the overpriced players to rack up the budget, so in came Gagne and Kimbrel and briefly deGrom and Nick Anderson.

To make Silver King work, I felt I needed modern hitters with A fielding, which I dreaded as I cannot stand looking at a play-by-play with modern hitters striking out all the time. Offense dwindled a bit down below so I replaced some of the elite RPs with Freddie Freeman and Wade Boggs. Tulo and Hanley make up an expensive SS platoon, but other than that, I really aimed for LHHs as I felt a majority of y’all were gonna roster almost entirely RH pitching staffs. That’s where Joey Votto, Josh Hamilton, Chase Utley, Paul O’Neill, and somewhat awkwardly, Bobby Murcer, who doesn’t really fit what I was trying to do at a +doubles park, other than bat left handed.

Buster Posey was the best of a bad bunch of catchers, and he rounds out the lineup as I’m not really too afraid of SBs for this theme. A lack of range in the outfield might be the downfall, but I really believe in what I’m doing with this team…

Prediction: 90 Wins

Final Tally: 524-448 (.539 win%)

I've had a long-standing (albeit infrequent) and gentle debate with j4m on this topic...I think using fatigued pitchers is a very risky strategy in any league. The data from the TWISL experiment that j4m ran in fatigued pitchers a couple of years back suggests that the performance impact of pitching fatigue, even in the high 90s, is significant. Facing the kind of competition that you see in the WISC...I will be stunned if that 1340IP team finishes .500 or better.

I think the 70M leagues will prove another interesting set of data points - I see a lot of teams in my league with far fewer IP than I would be comfortable with, and I am very grateful that we have the hard IP minimum requirement in that theme. Schadenfreude alert: I put my 70M team in Coors just to provide some extra punishment to those teams that went light on IP. I have 1440IP on my 70M team... 100 more than j4m is using at the high cap. And I am not sure 1440 will be enough. We'll see...

First time back here in a couple years...we'll see if we can repeat our fortuitous runs to the 2nd round in 2018/19 (although from the writeups thus far, I'm guessing not).

70 mil -- You Can't Steal First Base (237/353/388, 138 HR, 283 SB; 1315 IP, 1.10 WHIP, .243 OAV, 85 HR, Target Field)

So, I decided to zig when everyone else zagged. I like high SB teams at low caps anyway so what better time to use it then when everyone else is building power teams. The problem, of course, is that a) they have to get on base in order to get steals and b) someone will eventually have to drive them in (unless y'all drafted a lot of high WP pitchers). So, we'll see how this works out. Target Field to minimize power teams--a little bit of defense from 85 Ozzie Smith up the middle and then 40+ SB seasons from BJ Upton, Gary Redus, Rickey and Deshields. 08 Giambi to hopefully address condition b above. One additional problem is this team strikes out A LOT (6 guys over 100 Ks) but we're committed.

Nothing exciting on the pitching side...looked for low walk guys with HR/9 between 0.5 and 0.6, settling on 43 Bonham, 90 Whitson, 81 Forsch and 32 Swift. Shrug.

80 mil -- Bingo Bango Bongo (299/413/432, 101 HR, 97 SB; 1288 IP, 1.01 WHIP, .218 OAV, 98 HR allowed, Dodger Stadium)

Like every team I build where the round 2 team is connected to the round 1 team---I completely ignore the Round 2 possibility, given its unlikelihood, and just try to build a good Round 1 team. I did use one row, figuring that it would be easier to build a decent 120 mil team by using all 25 squares should the stars align (or multiple owners get food poisoning). I started with pitching--love 42 Bonham at this cap as well as 80 Sutton/Reuss so looked for rows with that combo, finding it on Card 4. This also got me 1961, 1997 and 2018 so I took 18 Kluber and 61 Donovan to pair with Sutton and Tiny (Reuss being a tad too expensive). Like the high OBP options in the lineup including 80 Randolph and Hargrove, 61 Moon and Pearson and 42 Cullenbine). 61 Battey has an arm and then I have a half-*** Rickey/T.Phillips platoon in RF.

Dodger Stadium to help with HRs allowed and my general lack of IPs, which--per contrarian's note above, I fully expect to bite me in the ***.

100 mil - Dodging Red-Socked Brewers in 2002 (295/364/485, 209 HR; 1423 IP, 1.03 WHIP, .208 OAV, 118 HR allowed, Miller Park)

Clearly missed the boat on 2020 but that was mostly because I built this team first and liked it. Gravitated toward Bos/LAD b/c they each have good frontline starters (pedro, lowe, odalis), it allows me to draft my namesakes, and there are good bats with Manny, Nomar, Green, LoDuca. The problem is that these two teams were a combined 6 zillion games over .500 so I needed a bottom feeder with at least a little talent. Hello, Milwaukee!

For a team that lost 100 games (or close to it)--I get a strong Jose Hernandez (to play out of position at 2b), a power hitting Richie Sexson, a great platoon option in Mark Loretta and usable bullpen options in Durocher and Vizcaino. And it came in about $400 under the cap. So I never tinkered again--I'm guessing we'll finish closer to Milwaukee's record than Boston or LA's.

So far, it's the only 2002 team I've seen so I'm either a mad genius or a total moron. You be the judge.

110 mil -- Chipper and Trevor Sittin' in a Tree (311/388/528, 270 HR, 115 SB; 1392 IP, 1.01 WHIP, 92 HR allowed, Miller Park again)

So, on the plus side, I actually remembered up front that this was a DH league and planned accordingly (file that thought away). I tried lots of combos here and built some fantastic 115 mil teams. Was close to pulling the trigger on a Kershaw/Raines team but didn't like the infield so I gravitated to Chipper b/c he can play SS (kinda), 3b, OF and DH--and he brings along good starting pitching options in Millwood, Smoltz and Maddux. That meant find a good bullpen option so I worked thru Kenley Jansen, Rivera and a couple others before setting on Hoffman who has many usable seasons plus he gets me Kevin Brown and Gwynn. Couldn't get 96 Caminiti to fit so we're sacrificing defense. The 09 Trevor added Prince and Braun although we had to shift to McGriff to get under the weight limit.

Am I the only owner with 2+ teams in Miller Park? See above statement about mad genius, etc.

120 mil -- Guardians of the Galaxy (337/416/541, 170 HR, 146 SB; 1388 IP, 0.90 WHIP, .195 BA, Jacobs Field)

Here's a shock. A Cleveland team. But when I searched best ERC# seasons under 11 mil -- Bieber, Klubot and Bernhard were all in the top 10 so this was a no-brainer. Plus you get Tris Speaker. Overpaid for 94 Lofton--not sure why and going with Bill Bradley at 3b and the low PA Lajoie who will have to platoon. But this is cookie cutter as it gets for me.

169 mil -- Step 1: Cut A Hole in a Box (350/436/537, 181 HR, 217 SB; 1641 IP, 0.85, .186, Olympic Stadium)

Well, this team is going to be a disaster. Yes, it has a lower team SLG% than my 120 mil team but hey at least I have a lot of IPs. This was a constant tinkering team but I felt like drafting Silver King was the way to go because then I could focus on hitters from the top boxes. Who then became Heilmann, Collins and Boggs (b/c I took Adams in Box 3 as my 2A starters). Woof. And then, I entered the team and wondered why there was a DH slot in my lineup because dammit I already entered my DH team in the clone league (seriously man, TWO dh teams in one WISC?) So, we panic-added Cecil Travis to DH, had to dump BOTH Pop Corkhill and Phenomenal Smith, making my player names much less interesting, and added 84 Willie Hernandez as my lefty who will be horrible at this cap. Raines, Mauer, Cronin, Mike Griffin and Votto round out a very pedestrian (for this cap) lineup. I did add some fabulous pinch hitters like Cedeno but when the F are they going to play in a DH league?

This team is a lock to lose 95 games.

Regardless, let the games begin!

My turn. For all of my teams, I start with the players I want who fit the rules, and then whittle them down to fit each salary cap. I didn't really spend a lot of time on this, so we will see what happens. In most cases, I tried for a balanced team, except for the $255M cap, where I just had fun with it. Highest I ever placed in a ToC was 27th, and I don't remember the year but it was several years ago.

Cherry Lime Rickeys $70M

Since this requires a .247 or lower batting average for each position player, I went for high OBP at a discount as the low cap would require. Rickey Henderson was one of my favorite players growing up so I added him and his 1996 season with a .410 OBP and 37 SB in 52 attempts. Around him, I added cheap power sources such as Jack Cust (2008), Travis Shaw (2018), Roy Cullenbine (1947), and Eddie Joost (1952). The defense while not terrible was not a priority, with the exceptions of C Gene Tenace (1977, C/A-/A+) and CF Mark Canha (2020, B/B).

All 4 of my SP (Joe Coleman, Rick Wise, LaMarr Hoyt, and John Smiley) have between 208 and 225 IP, 3.08 and 3.53 ERA, 1.10 and 1.19 WHIP, and 0.72 and 0.86 HRA/9. My 8 relievers have between 0.51 and 0.74 HRA/9. My 5-man bench has between a .385 and .409 OBP, all 100+ PA and between $421K and $666K. Total IP is 1,436 2/3. Nationals Park because it's completely neutral and this team seems balanced.

Bingo Card 19 (not COVID-19) $80M

This was the first row of Card 19, and I didn't really look at every card closely. I wanted a strong bullpen (hence 2020) and a couple of good aces (hence 1972). Steve Carlton would've been way too expensive so I went with Mike Cuellar and Jim Perry. 1999 has table-setter Tony Womack, slugger Gary Sheffield, and defensive whiz and 20/20 man Marquis Grissom. Other solid bats include Roy Sievers (1956, 29 HR) and Christian Yelich (2020, projected 32 HR). All my position players except for C Kenji Johjima (2006, 542 PA, B+/A/B+) have between 663 and 694 PA, so durability shouldn't be a problem. Top bench guys are Scott Hatteberg (1999), Gene Stephens (1956), and Gil Garrido (1972).

In addition to Cuellar and Perry, my rotation includes Bob Rush (1956) and Hyun Jin Ryu (2020). I have Dave Goltz (1972) if a 5th starter is needed and Dave LaRoche (1972) for long relief. Victor Gonzalez (2020, projected 55 IP, 1.33 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, 0 HR allowed) is my closer, and I have several other solid relievers including Brad Hand (2020), Dennys Reyes (2006), Ray Narleski (1956), and of course Mariano Rivera (2006). Total IP is 1,425 which I hope is not too few. Yankee Stadium II is used in honor of Mo.

A Bigger Unit $100M

I chose 2004 because I wanted an ace from a really bad team (Randy Johnson, Arizona) and solid players from 2 good teams (Boston and Houston) whose records fit the total record requirement. This is the team I am most worried about because I see that other teams' rotations are better than mine, and I really could've done more research for this format. After Johnson, it's Schilling, Pedro, and Clemens. While the last 2 had solid seasons, they were not career seasons for either pitcher. Third base (Chad Tracy) and shortshop (Orlando Cabrera) are probably weak compared to league competition. After closer Brad Lidge, no member of the bullpen has a WHIP under 1.17.

The bright sides, however, are the first 6 hitters Mark Bellhorn, Lance Berkman, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Steve Finley, and Jason Varitek. Carlos Beltran (399 PA, 23 HR, 28 SB) leads the bench and can also be a pinch-runner and defensive replacement. Other key bench players are Roberto Alomar, Richie Sexson, Jose Vizcaino, and Quentin McCracken. Chris Snyder backs up Varitek. Bronson Arroyo and Roy Oswalt are available for long relief and 5th-starter duties, with Andy Pettitte, Octavio Dotel, and Greg Aquino setting up. Total IP is 1,649 which is way more than I need. Fenway Park because of Papi and Manny from that infamous Red Sox team.

Clean Arms, Dirty Bats $110M

The "clean arm" is Greg Maddux (5 of him) and the "dirty bat" is Jose Canseco (3 of him). Spending over $35M on the top 2 Madduxes (1994 and 1995) may have left me light in the bottom third of the order (Mike Gallego 1991, Terry Steinbach 1991, and Walt Weiss 1988). Rickey Henderson (1991) is once again my leadoff hitter and is in LF, and his $4.19M salary fits into the cap though his 578 PA total means he will need at least 25 games on the bench. 1990 Canseco is in CF, 1988 Canseco (the 40/40 version) is in RF, and 1991 Canseco is at DH, with yet another dirty bat (Mark McGwire 1990) at 1B. Solid but not spectaular Casey Blake (2008) is at 3B. Rafael Furcal (2008, 164 PA) is my only good bench player, though with a DH that problem becomes minimal. Eddie Perez (1997) backs up Steinbach only because he fits the cap.

Now for the good stuff! Aside from the obviously great '94 and '95 Maddux seasons, there is also the '97 Maddux and then a dropoff with '94 Steve Avery as the 4th starter, whom I hope will be used minimally. The other Madduxes are '06 and '08 (both LAD partial seasons). Top relievers are Dennis Eckersley (1988), Takashi Saito (2006), Cory Wade (2008) and Hong-Chih Kuo (2008). Total IP is 1,417 2/3. Oakland Coliseum to take advantage of Maddux's unreal low ERA and WHIP and to offset the low total IP.

Section 111 at Yankee Stadium $120M

This was one of the two teams I had the most fun building, and it took little effort. It was always obvious that I would choose the Yankees as my franchise for this format. Unfortunately, Ron Guidry's 1978 season is worth over $11M, so it was not available. The cap meant that Lou Gehrig was out, but I got to fit in Babe Ruth (1930, $10.91M, .359/.493/.732). This is also my third Rickey team (1985 here), with Derek Jeter (1999) leading an infield that includes Wade Boggs (1994), Willie Randolph (1980) and bargain-basement Jason Giambi (2005). Thurman Munson (1975) threw out 50% of runners so don't even try! Since the minimum player salary is $1M, none of my 5 bench players exceed $1.04M but all are solid.

Only 3 starting pitchers (Catfish Hunter 1975, Fritz Peterson 1969, and Spud Chandler 1943) here, but they total 874 IP, so I am not worried. Nine-man bullpen WHIP ranges from 0.69 (Andrew Miller 2016 with 14.96 K/9) to 0.95 (long-man Clark Griffith). Once again, Mariano Rivera (2010) is included, and Aroldis Chapman (2016), David Robertson (2017), and Chad Green (2017) also bring the heat! Total IP is 1,467. Yankee Stadium II because I didn't want too many slugfests with Yankee Stadium III.

Ruth, Jeter, Mo and a Brooklyn Kid $255M

A couple of things to start with: 1) My team's actual salary is $221,903,300 which puts me at top of my league and third in the entire tournament, and 2) I am a big fan of the Oxford comma but it would've put my team's name over the 40-character limit.

Your starting lineup:

1) Willie "Hit 'Em Where They Ain't" Keeler (1897), LF - .424/.464/.539, but could be pulled for defense due to lack of range.
2) Derek Jeter (1999), SS - you knew this was coming! But you don't know what's coming next. Wait for it!
3) Babe Ruth (1921), RF - I felt I would have had no chance if I didn't draft him, as he brings the most value in my opinion.
4) Edgar Martinez (1995), DH - at .356/.479/.628, the perfect protection for the Bambino, even with "only" 29 HR.
5) Joey Votto (2017), 1B - continuing the lefty/righty pattern in his best overall season.
6) Ralph Kiner (1947), CF - 51 HR, B/B defense not the best for CF but will do.
7) Joe Morgan (1975), 2B - 67 SB and .466 OBP, however only 639 PA so will need occasional rest.
8) Adrian Beltre (2004), 3B - 48 HR and Gold Glove defense. Could be lifted for a pinch-runner though.
9) Johnny Bench, C - because he's a world-class stud at his position.

Bench: OF Carlos Beltran (2006) once again PH, PR, and great defense, 3B/SS Howard Johnson (1989) yes that one, the cookie we all love, OF/INF Tony Phillips (1993) .443 OBP and can start at 2B against certain lefties, C Mike Napoli (2011) can start some games when I want a higher OBP and his defense almost matches Bench's, SS Rich Aurilia (2001) is the Brooklyn kid here and can step in for Jeter as a late-inning defensive replacement (B+/B+ vs. Jeter's A-/D). Yes, you read that last part right! No room for sentimentality when I am trying to win the ToC!

Rotation: Howie Camnitz (1909), Reb Russell (1916), Mike Scott (1986), and swingman Harry Krause (1909).

Bullpen: Dennis Eckersley (1990) is my closer. Top setup men are Mariano Rivera (2008, making it 3 Mo teams for me), Rich Gossage (1981), and Takashi Saito (2007). Rounding out the pen are Hoyt Wilhelm (1965), Mark Eichhorn (1986), and Roger Nelson (1972). As all my pitchers are righties except for Russell and Krause, that can be a challenge, but I feel that this was the best team available given the parameters.

Total IP is 1,846 2/3, which is way more than I need. However, 4 bullpen guys (when you count Krause) with 144 or more IP can come in handy in any extra-innings game that runs really long. Nationals Park because it was a Box 26 park and I didn't want a deadball park or the abomination that is Tropicana Field.