Instead of waiting until all the teams were entered, I thought it would cool if we did our writeups on this draft right away, while everything is still fresh in our minds. What went right? What went wrong? Did your initial draft strategy work? Did you change anything mid-draft?

Before I add mine, I am going to post some stats on the draft (in a different thread).

I made the calculation early on here that although we will all need a lot of good pitching, we also only have to compete with 3 other owners for arms. There are dozens of pitchers good enough to use in this theme, and missing out on a handful of big name starters in the first few rounds didn’t mean I’d have a shortage of choices later. So I went all in on offense first.

My mental targets for this team were about $90M for offense considering there’s a DH and all, and about $70M for pitching. I wasn’t likely to take any hitter over $14M, but I didn’t shy away from $10M+ guys in the first few rounds either. My offensive goals were to get guys whose slugging came mostly from 2B and 3B, hit for high averages, had decent speed, and played good defense. Also, I aimed for starters well over 600 PA because I might need the bench to be pretty cheap by the end of this thing and will need enough PA to cover the likely big blowouts we’ll all get in this league once the mop-ups come in. I was also unafraid to be very lefty-heavy, since almost all the big-inning deadball SP we’ll see a lot of are righties.
(Note: Player notes were made at the time of picks and reflect thinking as I went along.)

Round 1: 1908 Honus Wagner, SS

I picked last, following Ruth and two pitchers, and I only had to get under $13.1M to be able to pick back to back. There are really no other SS who have A range and hit .350+ with power, so I felt like I had to suck up the potential high error count and welcome all the good things Honus brings to the lineup.

Round 2: 1917 Ty Cobb, OF

There are many similar Cobb seasons once you set the $21M season aside, and I picked this one for high 2B/3B totals (44/24), one of his best defensive ratings (C+/A), and plenty good 84 speed. He normalizes well this season, too, with 1.014 OPS becoming 1.053 OPS#.

Round 3: 1920 George Sisler, 1B

The next 3 picks were pitchers, so I have almost no competition for taking hitters and everyone else has higher salaries by a lot now. I gave a lot of thought to Hornsby here, and I did notice the popularity of Roger Connor in other drafts, but I felt like Sisler checked the most boxes: .400 hitter with tons of 2B/3B and speed. The only downside is an average glove, but maybe he winds up my DH?

Round 4: 1912 Frank Baker, 3B

Two other shortstops went last round, plus a pitcher, so I still had my choice among hitters everywhere I need them. I decided that I liked either Baker or ‘79 George Brett best here, and Baker is better in just about every way. Lots more 2B and 3B (40/21), 75 speed, A++ range. At some point I have to go a tad cheaper in the lineup, but for $42M I’ve got a .374/.429/.573 slash line going and no worse than 75 speed thus far.

Round 5, 1896 Ed Delahanty, OF

Two hitters I was definitely thinking about went in between, Hornsby and Speaker, and ultimately this pick came down to Big Ed or Stan Musial. So I’m up to 5 hitters and $54M now, with a .378/.436/.583 slash. Ed gives us more great range in the OF and good enough speed (74). This is going to be a deep, loaded lineup. Heck, Musial might make it back to me even.

Round 6: 2020 Dinelson Lamet, P

I was really going to take another hitter here, but Lamet is one of a handful of great value modern pitchers who also have enough innings to be pretty useful. He brings 186 IP at $45K/IP with a very low OAV. I’ve almost never used him, but he seemed like the right guy to break my streak of hitting picks to nab.

Round 7: 2016 Clayton Kershaw, P

This feels like the right time to grab some more elite innings, even if it’s only 149 of them. Like Lamet, he’s just harder to hit than comparable $/IP pitchers and that should make a helpful difference in this league. He might make a valuable half of a tandem, possibly with Lamet even.

Round 8: 2020 Shane Bieber, P

Well, I wasn’t necessarily planning to take this many pitchers at this point. But I feel like these three are all great values, hard to hit, and hard to pass up. Fun fact: Their combined K/BB totals are 387-52. Maybe I can find a lefty with 100-150 innings to tandem with Bieber and then use a deadballer like Brown or Mathewson as the third piece of the rotation. Schupp is a bit expensive but still on the board, so he’s an option. Maybe Toad Ramsey?

Round 9: 1886 Cap Anson, C

I won’t lie. He wasn’t on my radar before the draft, and I’m not sure I’ve ever used him. But when I noticed he was taken frequently and as high as No. 1 in other drafts, I decided to give him some consideration. And then when he was still on the board here, well he fits pretty nicely into my lineup. I’ll have to go cheaper at a couple spots here (2B in particular), but it’s quite a deep lineup now.

Round 10: 1885 Toad Ramsey, P

Based on the other 3 pitchers I took so far, it made sense to try to create a couple tandems with L-R combos. Lamet and Kershaw have 335 IP combined, and now Bieber and Ramsey have 324. I think it can work and maybe get a few lineups crossed up after the first time through the order here and there. Ramsey walks a lot of guys, but his low OAV really appeals to me in these parks where a ball in play is a park-factor danger and most lineups will be tough to strike out.

Round 11: 1913 Joe Jackson, OF

I considered a lot of options here as the last pieces of my lineup started to take shape. I still need one OF and a DH, and moving Sisler to DH would also be an option if I get a better defensive 1B. At some point I also need to save a tiny bit of salary, so getting a $7.6M hitting stud now seemed like a wise move even if he does limit my options with my last pick at OF/DH. Unlike my other picks, Jackson isn’t quite as fast nor can he field well, but he lengthens the lineup with all the offensive tools. My slash for my 7 starters is at .376/.439/.574, and I won’t need expensive backups or pinch hitters either.

Round 12: 1914 Claude Hendrix, SP

I got caught out without expecting to have to pick again right away, and rather than hold things up I just pulled the trigger on a SP I was pretty sure I wanted to draft. Hendrix will be the other third of the rotation along with two tandems. I’ve got 1,040 IP between the 5 arms there, and as long as I have a couple bullpen pieces with high IP/G to spot start and handle bulk relief I should be fine. I’m targeting at least 1,600 innings and probably 13 pitchers to minimize fatigue possibilities, especially if I pick a few low-innings guys as I inevitably will.

Round 13: 2018 Sean Doolittle, RP

I’ve calculated that I can average a little over $40K/IP with the rest of my staff, but Doo is definitely on the high side for a reliever at $57K/IP. Still, he’s one of the few premier lefties available and could be a strong closer candidate.

Round 14: 2004 Tom Gordon, RP

I’m going to need a few guys with a lot of innings in the pen, so I might as well grab 90 strong ones here to get started.

Round 15: 1944 Joe Berry, RP

Keeping this pen fresh will require a few guys with a lot of innings who aren’t just 10-15 pitch guys either. Berry brings 118 IP and can handle multiple innings an appearance, too.

Round 16: 2022 Spencer Strider, P

This was a bit of an impulse pick. I was looking at the likes of Willie Hernandez, Goose Gossage, and Hoyt Wilhelm for another bullpen horse, but I’ve had bad results with all of them. Strider has a low OAV and also can handle lots of bulk innings and even start occasionally. Hopefully he works out.

Meanwhile, as I turned my focus to my pitching staff, three of the guys I had targeted for my final 1B/OF/DH spot went off the board: Musial, Mize, Ken Williams. Time to rethink that spot.

Round 17: 2020 Liam Hendriks, RP

He gives me 68 innings of 0.69 WHIP# and 0.90 ERC#. I’ve got 1,493 IP now, which would ordinarily be tons, but I have 3 spots left and see no reason not to pick up a couple low-inning guys to add depth. Tack on a mopup, and I’ll be good to go with somewhere around 1,600 innings.

Round 18: 1986 Rob Murphy, RP

I figure a second lefty in the pen will really come in handy against all the huge bats. I thought about the more costly but more effective Norm Charlton, but I’m getting down to pinching a few pennies here. I’ll have to hope the walks don’t hurt Murphy too badly, which they probably will against the likes of Bonds, Ruth, and Williams.

Round 19: 1945 Snuffy Stirnweiss, 2B

I gave a lot of thought to taking a Frankie Frisch season, particularly 1921 with 98 speed, and having him bat 9th to turn the order around. Stirnweiss has +++ range and offense, however, and his 87 speed is still elite.

Round 20: 1941 Jeff Heath, OF

I had to save a tiny bit of cash with my final lineup spot so I opted for Heath over Ted Williams. He has a not-so-shabby .977 OPS#, 80 speed, and hits lots of 3B. I wish he had a better glove, but I have two other good range OF and I’ll get a backup for late innings.

Round 21: 2015 Corey Seager, SS

Deciding who goes on a 3-man bench when you don’t know how much you’ll need them aside from late-inning rest and very occasional spot starts is a bit of a challenge. I was just going to be cheap with it, but I thought it’s actually possible to get some hitter fatigue so best to cover my positions tolerably. Seager plays SS and 3B and hits a ton, so he can spell Baker and Wagner as needed.

Round 22: 1983 Butch Davis, OF

I wanted someone who can PR and replace Heath in late innings when needed, too. Davis also happens to be a .344 hitter, so if he needs to spot start in the OF against a lefty here or there he’ll be fine.

Round 23: 1902 Charlie Hickman, 1B

With only 3 bench players, I had to decide whether to cover Anson with a backup catcher, get more speed, or play it more for defense. I went with Hickman for his great range at 1B and OF, as both are positions I could use a replacement. This will allow Hickman to sub at 1B and Davis in LF, potentially. It’s a bit of a risk to have no backup C with a slow guy there, but I limited myself to maximize the pitching spots and I’ll see what happens.

Round 24: 2021 Kendall Graveman, P

With 2 picks to go and about 1,550 innings drafted, I had to decide whether to go for quality or quantity here. I only get 33 IP from Graveman, but he might wind up being my closer now. It was either this or about 50-60 just OK innings to use on a long man. I did some math on how many more pitches my bad teams have needed compared to good staffs, and I think I’ll be OK with a bit over 1,600 IP here. If I’m wrong, well then it was fun while it lasted.

Round 25: 1971 John Curtis, RP

A 26-IP mopup. I suspect he will pitch a lot more than that. He isn’t totally horrible, so I could try using him even with big leads as well as blowout losses to save some innings elsewhere.

Stats: I wound up with 6,736 PA with a .361/.425/.560 slash, 410 2B, 192 3B, 120 HR

I’ve got 1,603 IP, 1.85 ERA, .184 OAV, 0.89 WHIP, 0.37 HR/9

Stadium: I went with Mile High because my team hits tons of 3B and has no reason to desire the big HR boost.

Summary: I basically got the team I wanted, which I know other owners won’t be able to say. I don’t use tandems a ton, and I have to trust it’s the best way to maximize those innings since I don’t have a real backup plan. I should have drafted more high-IP/G guys in the bullpen, though. That might hurt me.

I feel like my hitters-first strategy worked out well, as I wound up tied with the highest team AVG (.365) and also have the lowest OAV (.180). It just seemed to me that putting the ball in play in parks with high + factors was going to pay off, and the opposite on the pitching side. If it doesn’t pan out, then it was an imperfect strategy and not because I got crossed up in the draft anyway.

Prior to the draft, I quickly built what I thought would be a pretty good 160M offense. I didn't put a ton of thought into the pitching or inning total yet, but was targeting around 1600-1650 innings. My offense had R.Conner, '20 Hornsby, Caminiti, Wagner, Speaker, Delahanty, Cobb on the team (I can't remember who I had at catcher). I wanted '08 Ed Walsh as my main pitching anchor due to his insane salary cap value.

Generally speaking, in any draft where salary is plentiful, my goal is to draft switch hitters and great defensive players, especially A+++ range in the infield. In this particular draft, I wasn't going to load up on HRs but I wasn't going to completely avoid them either.

Round 1.04
I drew the fourth pick. Anson, Wagner and Ruth were the top three picks. The quintessential hitter I love is 1885 Roger Connor. The "Babe Ruth of the 1800's" is a switch hitter who normalizes well and will accumulate 30-40 + plays at 1B. He crushed it for me in the 255M theme in round 1. He was a no-brainer 1st round pick.
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Round 2.03
Well, two more guys from my pre-built roster were taken, Tris Speaker and Rogers Hornsby. How did I get into this tough division? I considered Ed Delahanty here, but 1908 Ed Walsh is just too valuable in this theme. 495 innings with low HRs allowed at a reasonable salary just can't be duplicated.
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Round 3.03
Sure enough, ronthegenius takes Ed Delahanty on the very next pick (he says he wanted Walsh, so I guess that worked out for me). Walter Johnson and Eddie Cicotte also went, but that's fine as I wasn't taking either of them. Reviewing some of the other drafts at this point, it was clear that most teams were leaning toward high-average low-HR hitters, so big Ed would be my only deadball pitcher. I was going to take modern starting pitchers (with low OAV) the rest of the way. I wanted a high-average high-walk guy that had a reasonable cost. 1946 Ted Williams was the perfect guy here. Not sure if anybody noticed, but I initially typed in 1942 Williams due to a higher average and a few more PAs, but his cost was $1.1 million more than the '46 version. So I changed it right away before anybody else made a pick.
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Round 4.04
I am now picking last in the round. Ty Cobb, Silver King! and Jack Clements went. I would never take Silver King in a salary cap league. I have never been able to effectively use all his innings. I would've strongly considered Cobb here, but with him gone, now there's no hitter that I feel is a must draft, so I started focusing on getting shorter-inning stud SPs that I could use in relief. (I will not be taking any modern day low IP/G relievers). The players I was focusing on were Kershaw, Gonsolin and a guy I've never used before, 2021 Jacob deGrom. With all the deadball hitting, I am not really concerned about his 0.59 HR/9. But I do love the 0.55 WHIP. And with all the $9M+ players going off the board, his salary moves me up in the draft order.
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Round 5.03
DiMaggio and Mathewson went. Great - two more players I wasn't taking. My choice here is one of the other two pitchers I mentioned in the previous round. Kershaw is probably the better pick here, b/c there just aren't many lefties like him. But I went with 2020 Tony Gonsolin instead. Of course, Kershaw goes on the very next pick. Damn!
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Round 6.02
I'm up to picking second in the round now. Besides Kershaw, 1916 Ferdie Schupp just went, so it seems others are realizing what I'm doing and want to get their short-inning-SP-to-be-used-as-a-reliever guy. It's time I focus on the rest of my starting rotation. If I weren't going to focus on modern day pitchers, I would have absolutely taken '09 Mordecai Brown here. The top SPs modern-day available are Maddux, Pedro, Arrieta and Bieber. 1995 Maddux and 2000 Pedro are too expensive. I decide on 1999 Pedro Martinez. What a shock that ronthegenius takes '09 Mordecai Brown on the very next pick.
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Round 7.02
Billy Hamilton and Claude Hendrix are now off the board. For just about every player I am considering here, there is an equivalent similar player also available. So I decide that I am taking a player that I like and who has always does well for me. He's an offensive juggernaut who normalizes well and is reasonably priced. Nobody has selected this guy in any of the other leagues, so I'm sure it's too early to take him, but what the hell. 1923 Ken Williams provides stats that players that cost $11+ million provide, and he's only $8.7 million.
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Round 8.01
When adsmith182 took '14 Hendrix last round, I knew I'd move up to first pick. One player who I had penciled in to replace '20 Hornsby was '45 Snuffy Strinweiss, so of course ronthegenius takes him right after I take Williams. Damn it. I need to figure out what I'm doing in the middle infield. I see that a certain player has gone off the board in a couple of the other leagues, so I'm kind of forced to take this guy now. Time for another switch hitter. 1897 George Davis. Yes, he'll make some errors when Walsh is on the bump, but the rest of my (modern) staff will help him out. Oddly enough, two other seasons of G.Davis were drafted.
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Round 9.02
Nobody that I wanted got taken last round (Rojas, M.Schmidt, Wakefield, Joyce). Until Wakefield had gotten taken, I actually had forgotten this was a DH league. I had considered drafting '94 Maddux very soon, which would've given me a great starting rotation of Walsh/Pedo/Maddux. But now, I needed to allocate some cap room for my DH. But that can wait. I was monitoring the current D.E.A.L. draft and noticed that ronthegenius drafted one of my favorite RPs. This player also did very well in the 255M round 1 leagues. So I grabbed him here, also guaranteeing myself first pick in most (if not all) future rounds. 1967 Cisco Carlos. He will be my closer, and I will use deGrom to pitch the 7th-8th.
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Round 10.01
E.Clase and H.Larkin off the board... Nobody I wanted. Let's continue the run on my favorite SPs to use as RPs... 1918 Jake Northrop. Notice how all my RPs can pitch multiple innings, if necessary?
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Round 11.01
Throughout the draft, I have been keeping track of what positions my division mates have filled and which positions they still need. Once a position has been filled by the three teams, I know I can wait on picking that position. At this point in the draft, only one other person still needs a catcher, one person needs a 2B and one person needs a 3B. King Kelly is still available, but his price tag is just too much. Both Frank Baker and Ken Caminiti are still available so no hurry to draft a 3B. I am fine platooning at catcher if necessary. Although Frankie Frisch is very tempting (I love him in lower cap leagues). The obvious choice for me here is 1902 Nap Lajoie. I went with his 459-PA season b/c his hitting and defense are both awesome. I already had a few guys in mind for his platoon partner, including a Frisch season that could platoon at 2B/3B, if necessary.
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Round 12.01
Basically, nobody I want is getting selected anymore. Boggs & Bernhard went. With Boggs going, I can choose between Baker and Caminiti in the last round. I've considered this next player for each of the last 4 rounds. There are a few teams who are very left-handed so I wanted a guy who I could spot start against them. Since I missed '16 Kershaw, this is the next best thing (among modern day options). 2018 Chris Sale.
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Round 13.01
King Kelly finally gets taken, so although I hadn't seriously contemplated taking him, I may have tried to figure out a way to fit him in, if he had hung much longer. I can now wait till the end of the draft to pick my catcher. I also figured out a way that I could squeeze in '94 Maddux. But that would require me to draft about 60 fewer innings and downgrade a bit at OF and DH. In the end, I just couldn't justify what I would be giving up. I figured I could have both Bieber and 2020 Dinelson Lamet for the same price as '94 Maddux and a $2M reliever. When I picked Lamet here, I basically gave up on Maddux. He would go undrafted in this division.
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Round 14.01
More SP-as-long-relievers got taken ('09 Babe Adams and '18 Fred Toney). I like both those guys, but no more dead-ballers for me. I can wait on catcher and third base, and I can wait to take either Bieber or Arrieta as my other SP (I don't think anybody else is taking them). It's time to think about what I'm doing at OF3 and at DH. Still trying to draft value, I can't believe 1913 Joe Jackson costs only $7.7 million. His outfield defense isn't great (D/D+) but isn't not a D- and I will have mostly modern day pitchers to help him. He can really hit. Not sure yet, if he'll play DH for me.
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Round 15.02
Round 16.01
Round 17.01
At this point, I feel pretty confident that I can get whomever I want. The only thing I really need to do is figure out who is going to be my catcher., my 3B and last OF/DH. I toyed with the possibility of using '14 Victor Martinez as my DH. He's a great value at only $6.0 million and he's a switch hitter. I could put together a really strong catching platoon or maybe go with Arrieta instead of Bieber. But I kind of wanted to use Joe Jackson as my DH and draft a better fielding OF. These next three picks are a way of delaying my decision on who these three starters are going to be. In round 15, I draft 1927 Doc Farrell (.387 avg) to be a partial platoon partner with Lajoie. He can also spell George Davis at SS if necessary. In round 16, I grab my second lefty RP, 1992 Dennis Rasmussen (0.82 whip). In round 17, I take 1946 Dave Philley. He can be a defensive replacement in the OF (A+ range) and also pinch hit (.353).
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Round 18.01
OK - there is enough data out there to determine that a bunch of teams really don't hit for power and so I draft 2020 Shane Bieber over Jake Arrieta. So I have SP1: Walsh, SP2A: Pedro SP2B: Beiber. With Gonsolin, Lamet and Sale all handling the long relief and deGrom, Northrop, Rasmussen & Carlos finishing up in innings 7, 8, 9.
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Round 19.01
Up to this point, I hadn't decided on Caminiti or F.Baker yet. With all the deadball pitching, it would seem as if Frank Baker should be the obvious choice, especially since he has 60 more PA than Caminiti. But I do love switch hitters. I spent time analyzing the stats of these two players in all four $255M leagues from round 1 and it appeared that Caminiti was slightly better. Therefore my pick in this round is a backup to fill in when Caminiti needs to sit. 1942 Roy Cullenbine and his A+ range at 3B and his .364 average and .484 OBP is the perfect compliment to Caminiti.
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Round 20.01
I needed a couple more RPs to get me to around 1650-60 innings. 2015 Marcus Strohman costs only $700K with a .208 oav and 0.96 whip. As my worst pitcher, he'll probably pitch mop-up.
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Round 21.01
Nap Lajoie and Doc Farrell only have 627 PAs between them, so I needed one more infielder. 2002 D'Angelo Jimenez is a switch hitter (w/ .384 obp) who can play 2B, 3B, SS and is A+ range at 2B.
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Round 22.01
I was deciding between Ted Simmons and this guy as my starting catcher. Since I wanted a slight upgrade with my last RP (drafted next round), I went with 1891 Duke Farrell as my starting and only catcher. He'll bat last to save on his 644 PAs. He's another switch hitter (my 4th regular) and has a .302/.384/.474 slash line. And unlike the Ted Simmons I was going to draft, Farrell has a decent throwing arm (A).
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Round 23.01
Round 24.01
Round 25.01
Since my division mates were already near $160M, I made these last three picks at the same time. My last RP is 1960 Marshall Bridges (27 ips of 0.83 whip) and is my third lefty pitcher. My starting 3B is 1996 Ken Caminiti. And I decide on 1946 Stan Musial as my last position player (moving Joe Jackson to DH). Yep, you read that right... my second most expensive batter was my 25th round pick.

I am happy with the way my roster turned out. Looks like I fall right in the middle of the pack for number of innings and plate appearances drafted. I have no wasted players. My worst pitcher has a 0.96 whip and my worst hitter has a .384 obp, but A+ range. I spent $81.8 million on position players and $78.2 million on pitching. My number shows that my team is above average in pitching and defense and about league average in offense.

I targeted $80M for my offense and $80M for pitching. I also aimed for 6300 PA/162 and 1,550 IP. That works out to $12,698/PA and $51,613/IP. My strategy was to be efficient by avoiding dynamic pricing by grabbing 2017-2022 pitching and pairing them with old school hitters. I know the defense on the old school players would be bad, but with the normalization of using modern pitching even over deadball pitching should help out a lot . I anticipated there being a lot of deadball pitching as many owners would be scared of the HRs of Coors/Mile High. But I also figured that élite modern-day HR hitters like Bonds, Sosa and McGwire would not be drafted so it's not something I was overly worried about.

I ended up with the every SP that I wanted: 21 deGrom, 16 Kershaw, 94 Maddux, 20 Lamet and 20 Bieber. 94 Maddux does have a bunch of dynamic pricing but the others have none to little which makes them very efficient. Yes they give up more homeruns than the deadballer pitching staffs that are out there, but seeing that there are few post-1920 homerun hitters in all drats, I'm not too worried about that, even though we are in Coors/Mile High. Though I did avoid 20 Maeda and 20 Bauer as they do not have very good HR/9 ratios. But my entire rotation has a better ERC# then 10 Walsh, 09 Mathewson, 08 Joss and 15 Alexander. So I'm very happy with that. I also ended up with 20 Devin Williams and 20 Victor Gonzalez as my setup A and closer A. I did end up grabbing 86 Eichorn and 84 Hernandez who will pitch 300 innings as but they don't have a lot of dynamic pricing. 70 Ken Sanders is also in the mix. 1916 Mike Prendergast is my only significant deadballer as I decided late in the draft that I wanted some more innings from a LongB.

My lineup is mostly old-school. 20 Ruth is not salary efficient but there is only one Ruth and he stands out amongst the rest as the biggest HR threat in the league. As I was grabbing pitchers starting round 3, a lot of OF were taken by others in the draft. So I knew I could wait to take OF until the end of the draft. So when I did take a hitter, it was going to be an infielder. I had already taken 08 Wagner with my 2nd pick, but after my run of pitchers I ended up with 94 Joyce, 86 Brouthers, 91 Farrell and 20 LeMahieu. For my DH, I was thinking of grabbing a platoon of Cravath and Cullenbine, but I like Edgar Martinez 96. He seemed like a good value as he has no defensive value and has minimal dynamic pricing. Also, he's a really good doubles hitter. When it came to my last 2 OF, I had penciled in 20 Soto and 23 Ken Williams. I swapped 1885 Larkin instead of 20 Soto to save on $ I noticed there were very few good arm catchers in all of the drafts. Normally, SB aren't something I would draft in a $160M league, but if I already knew who the catchers were, then I could safely do so. So 85 Raines was my pick. I got Raines not only for the SB, but he was cheaper than Ken Williams and I decided to allocate the savings to my pitching so I could get more innings then what I was originally going to draft.

In conclusion I have 6351 PA and 1632 innings. I'm not worried about my PA, but it's really unknown if my innings are going to be enough. I see that I'm in the lower third of innings drafted. I did choose Coors over Mile High due to the lower park factor. I do see that on paper I have the worst defense in the league. I'm hoping the normalization of D fielding guys from 1885-1894 will work out. I am mostly happy with how my draft turned out, but wondering if I drafted enough innings.

C'mon fellas.... Anybody else want to share? Surely, you must have been sniped a few times. Or maybe you changed your strategy mid-stream once you saw how others were drafting. Don't tell me nobody has any regrets.

I have it on good authority that your team does better when you do a writeup.

Posted by toysboys on 8/31/2023 5:26:00 PM (view original):
I have it on good authority that your team does better when you do a writeup.

This is the way.

I don’t recall having any experience for this type of draft and theme. I had first pick and rather than wait for other leagues to go first to see what made sense I dove in with ’17 Cobb. I figured you can’t go wrong with one of the surer bets for consistent hits. He also brings A range. At high caps I know that range is quite important as a differentiator where everyone has strong hitting and pitching. I believe it is even more important in the required home parks for this theme.

Similar to red, I was looking at about a 90/70 hitting/pitching split given the DH and since it was only a 4 man draft I knew I could wait on pitching. Sure I would love 08 Walsh but I focused more on the scarcer areas. Fortunately, two division mates went with expensive pitching off the bat which allowed me to grab ‘08 Wagner and then ‘12 Baker. Both with lots of xbhs and good to great range.

Booger then selected an expensive Ruth season which meant it was pretty easy for me to pick 1^st every round if I wanted to. I believe we went about 20 straight rounds with me having the first pick. In Round 4 I had my hardest decision. I couldn’t figure out who I wanted at 2B. The great Lajoie seasons were too expensive for me and other than him it’s really only Hornsby and possibly Gehringer if you are looking for a strong bat. Hornsby has brutal fielding other than the 1920 season but I felt that at 160 mil I had to do better at the plate. This may prove to be the wrong decision as I perhaps should have gone with ’20 Hornsby or even Stirnweiss or Frisch. I ultimately went with ’29 Hornsby hoping to add some homerun power and high RC. He is my poorest defender by far – hopefully his bat will outweigh this issue.

Next up was grabbing ’95 Clements at catcher which is a no-brainer considering the theme. I have him rated as the best catcher. At this point I was happy to get the best C,SS,3B with one of the top OFs and hopefully the best hitting 2B. After that I looked at 1B and OF, continuing to delay my first pitching pick. Musial’s XBH are so attractive in this theme and he has that one year with monster range at 1B so I took him (’51 Musial). I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who took him at 1B (?). After that it was ’54 Willie Mays to provide more power and great range in the OF.

By round 8 I was happy to start moving on to pitching to see how much I would spend there before finalizing the last two spots in lineup (OF and DH) as there would be plenty of options left over there. It seemed like ’14 Hendrix was the best available pitcher if I didn’t want to go with a modern arm. The home parks scared me off from going modern although I did see many arms like Lamet and Bieber going early in other drafts so likely a mistake to worry too much about that. I will be interested to see the Bieber vs Hendrix stats. Once I selected Hendrix I decided to make things easy on myself managing-wise and go with a 3 man staff. Next up was ’10 Russ Ford followed by ’06 Pelty two rounds later (a fantastic value in my opinion) with ’85 Ramsey in between.

RPs will be hit or miss as always. I tried to focus on low oavg and high ks where possible. Rounded out my lineup with ’41 Reiser to add more range and XBHs. Then I went with a platoon at DH with ’19 Cravath and ’01 McGraw. Both have very high RC/27.

I’m mildly concerned about my PAs – I don’t have much of a bench as most of my roster spots went to pitching. I figured with a DH that didn’t matter but I may have overlooked the impact of the home parks on fatigue. Other than that, I expect it to be a frustrating season as usual with the fickleness of the high caps coupled with the WIS second round grind given the high quality of owners/competition.

Thanks for the writeup. You W-L record just improved by 4 wins.

Posted by schwarze on 9/2/2023 5:45:00 PM (view original):
Thanks for the writeup. You W-L record just improved by 4 wins.

Bolding the player names gets it up to 5.

I ended up with the first pick in our draft. In all honesty, I'm not sure I wanted it, but it's hard to complain.

I knew the kind of team I wanted to build. A+++ range, even at the cost of offense. Is that right? I go back and forth. There will be more ABs, so the value of each AB is less? But the value of preventing more ABs is even greater? If the park makes your hitters 30% better, isn't it better to get a 30% boost on a $10mil hitter than a $7mil hitter? I don't know. Ultimately I decided that I didn't want to draft a crazy number of innings, and having great range would allow me to draft less innings, and thus better pitchers per inning.

So I was looking for pitchers with low OAV# (under .200) without a ton of walks, and ideally not many homers. On offense, high AVG and lots of triples. Depending on how the team ended up, I figured I would probably end up in Mile High, but I didn't want to tie my hands.

Round 1
There were MANY players I considered here, but I narrowed it down to four - Walsh, Connor, Baker, and Speaker. There were multiple shortstops I'd be OK with (Wagner, Jennings, Tulo) and multiple 2Bs (Snuffy, Nap, Frisch, Collins) so I didn't put them at the top of the list. There were a couple of 3Bs (Baker and Brett79). There were three 1Bs (Speaker14, Connor, Roush). I expected Connor/Speaker to go very early, and Baker too, so I knew I might not get multiple shots at those guys. Walsh was one of the few <.200 oav# deadballers out there. Ed Walsh.

Round 2
Ruth, Baker, and Connor went, and then Maddux, Walter and Honus. Having considered Tulo a bit more carefully I decided I was less excited about him, and so I tried to sneak Speaker through another round and took Hughie Jennings.

Round 3
Well, Speaker didn't make it another round. I lost that gamble. Of all the 2020 pitchers, the one I like the most for his ability to keep the ball in the park is Dinelson Lamet. I figured Roush would end up being my target at 1B, and there were plenty of 2B/3B options left, so it was OK to go with another pitcher early.

Round 4
I had a team sketched out and it didn't really seem like any of the players I needed were going to be picked immediately. Maybe that was a sign I should have changed course? :) The one thing that didn't really seem abundant was high-range, high-OBP outfielders. So I picked the 542 PA version of Billy Hamilton to be the big side of my LF platoon and hit leadoff.

Rounds 5-7
I grabbed Jake Arrieta to pair with Lamet as my SP3a/3b (probably not a tandem, since they're both righty.) He's a little bit price inflated but was on the very short list of 200 IP, low OAV, low HR guys left. I really strongly considered just taking Pete Alexander but figured I'd need to save money on SPs somewhere. Then I grabbed Snuffy Stirnweiss to be my A++ range 2B who could hit some triples. He's not an elite hitter for this league, but he can run, hit triples and probably put up 30 or 40 plus plays and provide some unknown boost to our ability to turn double plays. Plus, who doesn't want a guy named Snuffy? Since I had already tipped my hand by taking Jennings and Snuffy, I grabbed Edd Roush in round 7. He's an A+++ range guy at 1B and OF, and also a solid high-range 2B, though with a D rating I wouldn't play him there full time. He's definitely not a great hitter for this league, but he can hit at the bottom of the order, and at least these parks benefit what he does (AVG and triples).

Rounds 8-10
So if Dutch Leonard and Chris Sale combine to be 20mil, and Claude Hendrix is only 15.4, that makes Hendrix a good deal, right? I think so? I was going to go with 2 tandems but decided to just grab Hendrix and go 1-2-3a-3b. I had Pete Browning at the top of my list for a while, since he had decent range, a great AVG and some triples. He can hit 3rd with his low walk rate. Then I added a 3rd guy who isn't really a hitter you'd expect to see in this league, but makes up for it in everything else he brings... welcome to the team Curtis Granderson. Elite triples, elite range, great stolen base ability, and a little bit of home run power just in case we can use it. Plus he's one of my all-time favorite players.

Roush, Snuffy and Curtis will all be towards the bottom of the lineup, but I've still got both of 1B/DH left to bat above them.

Rounds 11-13

Figuring that long relievers would probably be important, I killed 2 birds with one stone and took Pedro Martinez and his 118 IP season. I didn't think anyone was planning on taking one of his big seasons, but it couldn't hurt to take it off the board. I never really had a good plan at catcher so I decided to take King Kelly (not his 16mil season) so I'd at least have some speed and triples behind the plate. With relievers starting to go off the board, I had a list of about 10 RPs that I really wanted - mostly from 2020, like everyone else - but the only one with 70+ innings was Emmanuel Clase, so I grabbed him. Similar criteria to the SP list - low OAV, keeps the ball in the park - but also with a limit on $/IP to eliminate the guys who have gotten really inflated, which is why the list was mostly 2020 guys.

At this point I had my team built in a different draft center team and I was just seeing if I could get all the guys who were on it.

Rounds 14-16

For most of the draft I was thinking it would be fun to draft Ke'bryan Hayes and his crazy half season to platoon at 3B. He had good defense, some triples and wasn't inflated. Building out the rest of my team made me sure I could fit him. In round 15 I picked Giovanny Gallegos from the pile of 2020 relievers and then grabbed Hayes' platoon partner in round 16 - Bill Joyce. He's got a D/A- rating so he might boot some balls, but he's also got a ton of speed and triples, solid range, and a really good OBP. I'll have to fill in some ABs at 3B since those guys are only around 630 and I want them higher than the bottom of the order guys.

Rounds 17-25

At this point, I was just filling up the roster. Shawn Armstrong joins the reliever pile, Willians Astudillo gives me a great contact-oriented backup catcher, Eddie Moore platoons with Sliding Billy in LF and covers 3B when I need more PAs there, and Sean Doolittle gives me a lefty in the bullpen. I grabbed Tim Foli early just to make sure I had a good defensive replacement around the infield and Steve Howe for another lefty. Interestingly, Doolittle and Howe still fit into my salary-limited search criteria even though they were pre-2017.

Things were all going smoothly until Stan Musial got picked. I had been leaving my DH slot open for flexibility, figuring that I could always change things up at the last minute, so even though I had Musial penciled in, I hadn't gotten around to picking him. I needed to pivot to another hitter and opted for Freddie Freeman over Todd Helton. Tough call - and I am still not sure I made the right one - but Freddie hits a lot of doubles, and has a better OBP. He can also play 1B just fine, and let me slide Roush to the outfield or even 2B occasionally.

With the extra cash I saved, I upgraded my bench OF slot to Jay Kirke, who I've definitely never heard of before but hit 5 triples in 96 AB in 1911, so he could be a fun experiment. And Tom Murphy (probably not the mayor of Pittsburgh?) gives me another long man to round out the bullpen.

I'm surprised that I only ended up with 11 pitchers. But I've got 1665 IP and great defense, so hopefully it's enough. I'll be really curious to see just how crazy the scores get.

Thanks, jfranco77.

Your team and boogelips teams are very similar in the fact that the offense numbers are much lower than most of the other teams, but both your roster contains a lot of triples hitters combined with a very strong defense. We all know the deadball pitchers will suppress HR hitters, but will it be enough offset the large difference in aggregate OPS# that your teams have vs some of the other teams?

I know this is a long write-up but I think some might want to see the process and shifting that went on, especially the other teams in my league as they can see how close they were to getting players or how close they were to not getting a particular player.

I decided that pitching was more plentiful and I would go after hitting early since there were specific ones I wanted in my price range. I was OK with somewhere a little less than 90M hitting and a little more than 70M pitching. I also didn’t want to skimp on any positions so I wanted to have a balanced team. Therefore, there would be no hitting seasons over 12M. I wanted my offensive starters to average mid-to-high 9M. I’m also valuing average and XBH above OBP. I haven’t played a lot in Colorado but it makes sense to me that walks wouldn’t be as valuable. For pitching, I wanted a combination of deadballers and newer pitchers. I’m also not as afraid as walks as I normally would be. I love drafts and I play more of them than any other league type but this was different. I worked out a team beforehand that I like and would use as a starting point. Also, please forgive my seamlessly going back and forth between present and past tense. If that bothers you, this is a good stopping point.

Round 1: 1931 Babe Ruth
I had pick 2 and I had a lot of guys I was considering. I thought of taking an early pitcher and then abandon pitching for awhile. I also thought about Frank Baker, Jack Clements, Roger Connor and Honus Wagner. I then abandoned all of that to go with Babe Ruth if he was available. If we had the draft a day earlier, I may have gone with someone else but I didn’t want anyone else to have him. All of his seasons with at least average fielding were too expensive so I decided on his 1931 season. D- range means I’m drafting my DH in round 1. Little draft tip for the kids: NEVER draft your DH early as there many, many choices. Also, I picked my most expensive player in the entire draft to be my DH. Sigh….

Round 2: 1908 Honus Wagner
Baker went in round 1 but I had already decided on Wagner in round 2 if he was available. He was and I took him. The only season I really considered was 1908. I had him as the best value SS so I was glad to get him. He also has the lowest amount of plate appearances of any of my starters so I picked my 9 hole hitter as my 2^nd pick. Oh yeah – This is going well.

Round 3: 1920 Rogers Hornsby
I was picking first so I only had to wait one pick. Hornsby was going early in other drafts and I consider his 1920 season as the best combination of value, hitting and fielding. I’m still averaging over 10M per pick so I need to average low 9M the rest of the way. I have the middle infield I wanted and have Babe Ruth in Colorado so I’m starting to feel OK about things.

Round 4: 1886 Dan Brouthers
I had targeted Speaker but he went in round 3. This was probably better anyway as OF is pretty deep. I’m still keeping an eye on them as both Cobb and Speaker went after my round 3 pick. I had originally planned on taking Roger Connor as my 1B but he went first round. I like Brouthers hitting more in Colorado although his iron glove is a concern. He at least has A- range. In the 200M draft league I play in, Brouthers has been lights out in Coors and Mile High so I was pretty happy to get him here.

Round 5: 2018 Jacob deGrom
OK, this may have been a little mean spirited as this meant no one would get the 2021 deGrom. Or maybe I just saw 2018 deGrom being one of the best values in the high end starters. I’m still pinching pennies so I went deGrom over the likes of Grienke, Bieber, Arrieta, etc. This is the 2^nd player after Ruth that I took early so I wouldn’t have to play against other versions of him and so I could get him and not lose him to someone taking a different season. It made sense in my head anyway. I now know I will have a four pitcher rotation.

Round 6: 1919 Pete Alexander
I considered Clements here but I was afraid someone would take another season of Alexander and I like his value. If I took Clements, that means I’d be taking Jocko Milligan in Round 7 and I’m not quite ready to double up and to spend that much on catcher. I’ve used 1919 Alexander once before in a high salary league and he did well. I thought he was a good value here and I was afraid someone would take another season of his. I’m still looking for a balanced team so, since he’s under 11M, he fits. I might take Clements in round 7 and then Milligan in round 8.

Round 7: 1886 Cap Anson
Well, so much for that plan. Clements and Milligan went back to back after Alexander. I was actually relieved because I wanted to end up with both or with neither. I considered a high inning reliever here (Kershaw was gone but I really liked 1885 Toad Ramsey and 1909 Babe Adams) and I was checking to see if I could clear out enough cap room for 1909 Christy Mathewson who I really like. If I clear out room for Mathewson and he gets picked, I can switch to 1908 Mordecai Brown. However, Anson was the best hitting catcher available, he has plenty of plate appearances and he’s under 9M. I put the over/under at 100 passed balls but he can flat out hit. It really is tough turning every other single into a double or triple but I’ve had a lot of success with him in high cap leagues even with his fielding deficiencies.

Round 8: 1885 Toad Ramsey
I’m still seeing if I can free up room for Mathewson but Brown is no longer a fall back option as he’s now gone. Toad is still there and I see him as the best value 100+ inning reliever and I could use a lefty. I’m also considering 1885 Lady Baldwin and 1914 Dutch Leonard as I need to have at least on LH starter. Leonard is over priced but really, really good. They are my new fall back options if I don’t free up money for Christy. I also need a rangy CF and the cupboard is getting more and more bare. I have a lot of OF I like so I have some time. I just don’t want to be stuck with a CF that doesn’t provide a good enough bat for a 160M league. I decide to go with the value of Ramsey. I can wait on OF and there are still good pitchers. I’m also surprised to see Shane Bieber still there as he’s a good value and not a lot of heavy HR hitters are being picked in any of the leagues.

Round 9: 1905 Cy Seymour
I started getting a little nervous. I’m not sure if I can afford Mathewson so I will wait and hope he drops. I’m looking hard at Shane Bieber and I’m considering 1909 Babe Adams. I’m afraid someone might take his 1919 season so he’s in the running here. At the last moment, I decide to look at OF and I know Seymour does well in these parks and could play CF if necessary. I’m also looking at 3B as I’m considering Ke-Bryan Hayes although I’m not convinced who would be a good partner with him in a $160M league. I’m also considering Caminiti. As part of the plan to save money for Mathewson, I decide on Seymour because he’s only 9.2M. Yay - I have my first OF.

Round 10: 1925 Al Simmons
Well, Mathewson just went but I’m not sure I could have afforded him anyway. Bieber is still on the board but, between rounds, I saw a season of Al Simmons that I’ve never used. I’d prefer a LH bat but Simmons can play CF and his high average should play well in this league. I’m also considering 1909 Adams again but I decide he can wait. I don’t see another CF I like so I pull the trigger on young Al.

Round 11: 1909 Babe Adams
At this point, my defensive range is OK (no one less than A-) although I’ll probably be in the top three in errors. Also, I ran out of reasons to not take Adams. It was basically between him and Bieber here. Bieber’s HRs still worry me a bit so I go with Adams. I’m happy with my two long relievers.

Round 12: 2020 Shane Bieber
Well, Trevor Bauer just went so Bieber it is! I like Bauer but that’s too many HRs for my taste so, while I need a lefty, Bieber is too good a value here. I still am doing pretty well with salary and balance here. 3B can wait and I’m probably going to wait to the end for my last OF. I think I can take Fred Clarke late as my leadoff hitter and that will save money where I can get either 1914 Dutch Leonard or 1885 Lady Baldwin as my last SP and only LH SP. I think it’s time to get some quality but cheap RP.

Round 13: 2020 Adam Kolarek
I need some cheap bullpen options. I’ve also started looking on who I could pair with Hayes at 3B but I’m looking at Caminiti and I just looked at 1979 George Brett. He has similar range at 3B and I wouldn’t have to spend extra on a backup 3B. Also, If I use him, I could save money for Dutch Leonard. First things first though – I need some value RP. Since I don’t have a LH SP yet, I wouldn’t mind grabbing some LH relievers. Kolarek seems like a good value that will help me keep on picking first each round.

Round 14: 2018 Blake Treinen
I’m still looking for some quality bullpen help and I’m looking for more modern pitchers since I have two deadball long relievers. I also could use more innings so I start looking in the 60 – 90+ range and Treinen sticks out to me. He has 80 very good innings for 4.36M. I consider that to be good value so figuring out 3B can wait.

Round 15: 1986 Rob Murphy
Well, I was wrong. Ke’Bryan Hayes just went so now I can definitely decide between Caminiti and 1979 Brett. That can wait now as I like going first each round and I could use more lefty relievers. I end up with Rob Murphy as he has 51 solid innings at 2.55M. I’m also not worried as much about his high walk count since this is a Colorado only league. I don’t have any lefty starters yet so I need to stock up on lefty relievers. Also, this helps me continue the plan to draft Dutch Leonard later in the draft with Lady Baldwin as my 2^nd choice if I can’t afford Leonard.

Round 16: 1907 George McQuillan
I still want to pick first so RP is the way to go. I’m also not going to skimp on quality as I’ve now decided to use every single one of my pitching slots. I don’t have any offensive platoons so this will give me flexibility to pick more 50 inning pitchers. I vet a bunch of newer pitchers but I found 1907 McQuillan to be the best choice. I didn’t want any more deadball pitchers but I found more value in him than any others I was considering. I still need to pick 3B and OF. If I’ve figured things out, everyone has all their OF and DH so I can wait on that. Plus, there are a bunch of really good OF options on the board. I like Fred Clarke but, if I can afford better, I am looking at 1930 Chuck Klein and 1923 Harry Heilmann. Best case would be 1948 Stan Musial at 13.97M but I’d have to go with 1885 Baldwin over Dutch Leonard. I’m also looking at 1969 Pete Rose but I prefer a little more pop.

Round 17: 1979 George Brett
OK, I no longer want to wait on 3B. There’s only one other team without a 3B but the money is getting a little tighter. It’s between Brett and Caminiti. I go with Brett as he saves me over 1M and he gives me over 700 PA. If I went with Caminiti, I’d need a backup 3B to pick up some extra innings. I also don’t see much of a drop off between the two offensively. So now I’m in really good shape to get 1914 Dutch Leonard as my last starter. He’s not a good value but he’s the best SP left on the board. I can also grab a quality OF at the end.

Round 18: 1981 Kevin Saucier
OK, I need some more innings and I really like Saucier. I’ve used him many times in my DEAL league draft and he usually holds his own. As I’ve mentioned several times above, I’m not worried about walks and I needed more LHP. He will probably be my worst reliever and I'm fine with that in a 160M league. So my plan is in place. I will take Dutch Leonard next and then will take a bunch of relievers to get me to 1600 IP. I feel confident that no one else will take him in the next three picks.

Round 19: 2022 Justin Verlander
Change of plans!!! Leonard is on the board but I start tinkering around and I see 2022 Verlander looks to be a good value at 7.18M for 175 IP. I didn’t want another righty but 1916 Ferdie Schupp just pitched lights out in Baker Bowl in the most recent DEAL season. He went 21-4 with a 2.95 ERA in one of the top hitting parks. Even though he’s a little overpriced, I like the combination of Verlander and Schupp over Leonard. If I don’t get Schupp, then I majorly messed up here but I like my odds. I’ll start Verlander but have Ramsey and Schupp to spot start against some heavily lefty lineups, especially if I’m lucky enough to make the playoffs.

Round 20: 2020 Jesse Hahn
I’m in the end game now and I don’t believe any other team will take Schupp. I’m not worried about Hahn’s walks and he gives me the right amount of innings. I will take Schupp next round and then, if I pick scrubs, I’ve decided on 1946 Stan Musial as my last hitter. His fielding is really good for a corner OF, he’s an XBH machine and I need another lefty. I can take him last before my scrubs since no one else needs an OF.

Round 21: 1916 Ferdie Schupp
Just like I planned, I was able to take Schupp here as my last pitcher. I have an all righty rotation but I have five lefty relievers. I’m OK with that. I was aiming for 1600 IP and, after my late decision to switch to Verlander/Schupp over Leonard, I end up with 1625 quality innings. That should be enough but I won’t know until the season starts.

Round 22: 1946 Stan Musial
Just as I planned, Musial was still there and I grabbed him. He completes a rangy OF that will also hit really well. I found out in JFranco’s update from earlier in the week that he was eyeing Musial late so I got lucky to get him. I had figured he was using 1920 Edd Roush in the OF but I was wrong as he's using him at 1B. I now will need to take 200K scrubs instead of having any quality backups but I need to take chances in this league.

Rounds 23 – 25: 200K Defensive Replacements
My lowest PA players are Wagner at SS and Seymour in the OF so I take good range scrubs for those positions. I also take a scrub catcher with a noodle arm but good fielding to replace Anson late in games.

Summary:
As I had planned, I was able to wait on pitching and still end up with a good staff. I also was able to maintain balance. Ruth is my most expensive player at 11.15M and Alexander is my most expensive pitcher at 10.67M. Musial is my only other player over 10M. My only player under 8.4M is George Brett at 7.6M. Because of my balance, I determined my lineup order by PA as I don't have any hitting backups. None of my fielders have a range rating below A- but I will be giving up a lot of errors and more passed balls than the combined total of the National League. I leave some drafts feeling like a lot of guys went right before me and I didn’t respond well but this isn’t one of them. I think I’ll be in the playoff mix.

Very nice writeup. Thanks for sharing

Posted by schwarze on 8/30/2023 4:14:00 PM (view original):
Prior to the draft, I quickly built what I thought would be a pretty good 160M offense. I didn't put a ton of thought into the pitching or inning total yet, but was targeting around 1600-1650 innings. My offense had R.Conner, '20 Hornsby, Caminiti, Wagner, Speaker, Delahanty, Cobb on the team (I can't remember who I had at catcher). I wanted '08 Ed Walsh as my main pitching anchor due to his insane salary cap value.

Generally speaking, in any draft where salary is plentiful, my goal is to draft switch hitters and great defensive players, especially A+++ range in the infield. In this particular draft, I wasn't going to load up on HRs but I wasn't going to completely avoid them either.

Round 1.04
I drew the fourth pick. Anson, Wagner and Ruth were the top three picks. The quintessential hitter I love is 1885 Roger Connor. The "Babe Ruth of the 1800's" is a switch hitter who normalizes well and will accumulate 30-40 + plays at 1B. He crushed it for me in the 255M theme in round 1. He was a no-brainer 1st round pick.
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Round 2.03
Well, two more guys from my pre-built roster were taken, Tris Speaker and Rogers Hornsby. How did I get into this tough division? I considered Ed Delahanty here, but 1908 Ed Walsh is just too valuable in this theme. 495 innings with low HRs allowed at a reasonable salary just can't be duplicated.
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Round 3.03
Sure enough, ronthegenius takes Ed Delahanty on the very next pick (he says he wanted Walsh, so I guess that worked out for me). Walter Johnson and Eddie Cicotte also went, but that's fine as I wasn't taking either of them. Reviewing some of the other drafts at this point, it was clear that most teams were leaning toward high-average low-HR hitters, so big Ed would be my only deadball pitcher. I was going to take modern starting pitchers (with low OAV) the rest of the way. I wanted a high-average high-walk guy that had a reasonable cost. 1946 Ted Williams was the perfect guy here. Not sure if anybody noticed, but I initially typed in 1942 Williams due to a higher average and a few more PAs, but his cost was $1.1 million more than the '46 version. So I changed it right away before anybody else made a pick.
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Round 4.04
I am now picking last in the round. Ty Cobb, Silver King! and Jack Clements went. I would never take Silver King in a salary cap league. I have never been able to effectively use all his innings. I would've strongly considered Cobb here, but with him gone, now there's no hitter that I feel is a must draft, so I started focusing on getting shorter-inning stud SPs that I could use in relief. (I will not be taking any modern day low IP/G relievers). The players I was focusing on were Kershaw, Gonsolin and a guy I've never used before, 2021 Jacob deGrom. With all the deadball hitting, I am not really concerned about his 0.59 HR/9. But I do love the 0.55 WHIP. And with all the $9M+ players going off the board, his salary moves me up in the draft order.
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Round 5.03
DiMaggio and Mathewson went. Great - two more players I wasn't taking. My choice here is one of the other two pitchers I mentioned in the previous round. Kershaw is probably the better pick here, b/c there just aren't many lefties like him. But I went with 2020 Tony Gonsolin instead. Of course, Kershaw goes on the very next pick. Damn!
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Round 6.02
I'm up to picking second in the round now. Besides Kershaw, 1916 Ferdie Schupp just went, so it seems others are realizing what I'm doing and want to get their short-inning-SP-to-be-used-as-a-reliever guy. It's time I focus on the rest of my starting rotation. If I weren't going to focus on modern day pitchers, I would have absolutely taken '09 Mordecai Brown here. The top SPs modern-day available are Maddux, Pedro, Arrieta and Bieber. 1995 Maddux and 2000 Pedro are too expensive. I decide on 1999 Pedro Martinez. What a shock that ronthegenius takes '09 Mordecai Brown on the very next pick.
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Round 7.02
Billy Hamilton and Claude Hendrix are now off the board. For just about every player I am considering here, there is an equivalent similar player also available. So I decide that I am taking a player that I like and who has always does well for me. He's an offensive juggernaut who normalizes well and is reasonably priced. Nobody has selected this guy in any of the other leagues, so I'm sure it's too early to take him, but what the hell. 1923 Ken Williams provides stats that players that cost $11+ million provide, and he's only $8.7 million.
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Round 8.01
When adsmith182 took '14 Hendrix last round, I knew I'd move up to first pick. One player who I had penciled in to replace '20 Hornsby was '45 Snuffy Strinweiss, so of course ronthegenius takes him right after I take Williams. Damn it. I need to figure out what I'm doing in the middle infield. I see that a certain player has gone off the board in a couple of the other leagues, so I'm kind of forced to take this guy now. Time for another switch hitter. 1897 George Davis. Yes, he'll make some errors when Walsh is on the bump, but the rest of my (modern) staff will help him out. Oddly enough, two other seasons of G.Davis were drafted.
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Round 9.02
Nobody that I wanted got taken last round (Rojas, M.Schmidt, Wakefield, Joyce). Until Wakefield had gotten taken, I actually had forgotten this was a DH league. I had considered drafting '94 Maddux very soon, which would've given me a great starting rotation of Walsh/Pedo/Maddux. But now, I needed to allocate some cap room for my DH. But that can wait. I was monitoring the current D.E.A.L. draft and noticed that ronthegenius drafted one of my favorite RPs. This player also did very well in the 255M round 1 leagues. So I grabbed him here, also guaranteeing myself first pick in most (if not all) future rounds. 1967 Cisco Carlos. He will be my closer, and I will use deGrom to pitch the 7th-8th.
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Round 10.01
E.Clase and H.Larkin off the board... Nobody I wanted. Let's continue the run on my favorite SPs to use as RPs... 1918 Jake Northrop. Notice how all my RPs can pitch multiple innings, if necessary?
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Round 11.01
Throughout the draft, I have been keeping track of what positions my division mates have filled and which positions they still need. Once a position has been filled by the three teams, I know I can wait on picking that position. At this point in the draft, only one other person still needs a catcher, one person needs a 2B and one person needs a 3B. King Kelly is still available, but his price tag is just too much. Both Frank Baker and Ken Caminiti are still available so no hurry to draft a 3B. I am fine platooning at catcher if necessary. Although Frankie Frisch is very tempting (I love him in lower cap leagues). The obvious choice for me here is 1902 Nap Lajoie. I went with his 459-PA season b/c his hitting and defense are both awesome. I already had a few guys in mind for his platoon partner, including a Frisch season that could platoon at 2B/3B, if necessary.
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Round 12.01
Basically, nobody I want is getting selected anymore. Boggs & Bernhard went. With Boggs going, I can choose between Baker and Caminiti in the last round. I've considered this next player for each of the last 4 rounds. There are a few teams who are very left-handed so I wanted a guy who I could spot start against them. Since I missed '16 Kershaw, this is the next best thing (among modern day options). 2018 Chris Sale.
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Round 13.01
King Kelly finally gets taken, so although I hadn't seriously contemplated taking him, I may have tried to figure out a way to fit him in, if he had hung much longer. I can now wait till the end of the draft to pick my catcher. I also figured out a way that I could squeeze in '94 Maddux. But that would require me to draft about 60 fewer innings and downgrade a bit at OF and DH. In the end, I just couldn't justify what I would be giving up. I figured I could have both Bieber and 2020 Dinelson Lamet for the same price as '94 Maddux and a $2M reliever. When I picked Lamet here, I basically gave up on Maddux. He would go undrafted in this division.
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Round 14.01
More SP-as-long-relievers got taken ('09 Babe Adams and '18 Fred Toney). I like both those guys, but no more dead-ballers for me. I can wait on catcher and third base, and I can wait to take either Bieber or Arrieta as my other SP (I don't think anybody else is taking them). It's time to think about what I'm doing at OF3 and at DH. Still trying to draft value, I can't believe 1913 Joe Jackson costs only $7.7 million. His outfield defense isn't great (D/D+) but isn't not a D- and I will have mostly modern day pitchers to help him. He can really hit. Not sure yet, if he'll play DH for me.
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Round 15.02
Round 16.01
Round 17.01
At this point, I feel pretty confident that I can get whomever I want. The only thing I really need to do is figure out who is going to be my catcher., my 3B and last OF/DH. I toyed with the possibility of using '14 Victor Martinez as my DH. He's a great value at only $6.0 million and he's a switch hitter. I could put together a really strong catching platoon or maybe go with Arrieta instead of Bieber. But I kind of wanted to use Joe Jackson as my DH and draft a better fielding OF. These next three picks are a way of delaying my decision on who these three starters are going to be. In round 15, I draft 1927 Doc Farrell (.387 avg) to be a partial platoon partner with Lajoie. He can also spell George Davis at SS if necessary. In round 16, I grab my second lefty RP, 1992 Dennis Rasmussen (0.82 whip). In round 17, I take 1946 Dave Philley. He can be a defensive replacement in the OF (A+ range) and also pinch hit (.353).
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Round 18.01
OK - there is enough data out there to determine that a bunch of teams really don't hit for power and so I draft 2020 Shane Bieber over Jake Arrieta. So I have SP1: Walsh, SP2A: Pedro SP2B: Beiber. With Gonsolin, Lamet and Sale all handling the long relief and deGrom, Northrop, Rasmussen & Carlos finishing up in innings 7, 8, 9.
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Round 19.01
Up to this point, I hadn't decided on Caminiti or F.Baker yet. With all the deadball pitching, it would seem as if Frank Baker should be the obvious choice, especially since he has 60 more PA than Caminiti. But I do love switch hitters. I spent time analyzing the stats of these two players in all four $255M leagues from round 1 and it appeared that Caminiti was slightly better. Therefore my pick in this round is a backup to fill in when Caminiti needs to sit. 1942 Roy Cullenbine and his A+ range at 3B and his .364 average and .484 OBP is the perfect compliment to Caminiti.
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Round 20.01
I needed a couple more RPs to get me to around 1650-60 innings. 2015 Marcus Strohman costs only $700K with a .208 oav and 0.96 whip. As my worst pitcher, he'll probably pitch mop-up.
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Round 21.01
Nap Lajoie and Doc Farrell only have 627 PAs between them, so I needed one more infielder. 2002 D'Angelo Jimenez is a switch hitter (w/ .384 obp) who can play 2B, 3B, SS and is A+ range at 2B.
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Round 22.01
I was deciding between Ted Simmons and this guy as my starting catcher. Since I wanted a slight upgrade with my last RP (drafted next round), I went with 1891 Duke Farrell as my starting and only catcher. He'll bat last to save on his 644 PAs. He's another switch hitter (my 4th regular) and has a .302/.384/.474 slash line. And unlike the Ted Simmons I was going to draft, Farrell has a decent throwing arm (A).
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Round 23.01
Round 24.01
Round 25.01
Since my division mates were already near $160M, I made these last three picks at the same time. My last RP is 1960 Marshall Bridges (27 ips of 0.83 whip) and is my third lefty pitcher. My starting 3B is 1996 Ken Caminiti. And I decide on 1946 Stan Musial as my last position player (moving Joe Jackson to DH). Yep, you read that right... my second most expensive batter was my 25th round pick.

I am happy with the way my roster turned out. Looks like I fall right in the middle of the pack for number of innings and plate appearances drafted. I have no wasted players. My worst pitcher has a 0.96 whip and my worst hitter has a .384 obp, but A+ range. I spent $81.8 million on position players and $78.2 million on pitching. My number shows that my team is above average in pitching and defense and about league average in offense.

This team went 99-63 in round 2 of the 2023 WISC (outscoring it's opponents by an average of 3.4 runs per game), won the World Series (11 wins vs 4 losses), and just recently won the Tournament Of Champions (17 wins, 7 losses).

One of my better drafting efforts.