This is my favorite part of these tournaments. Feel free to share your thought process during the drafts (and the pre-draft team selection process).

Pre-Draft Process

When I came up with this tournament concept, I was consulting with thejuice6, over the course of a few weeks. My initial plan was to release this tournament when I returned home from vacation in mid-February. But juice said he was going to be on his vacation right after that, and it would be tough for him to be involved in a bunch of drafts during that time. So I determined that if I posted the ad right away (last Thursday), there would be enough time to fill the 192 spots and to get through all the drafts before I left. That being said, I didn't really do any prep for the initial team selection, and in many cases, it shows. This first post will go over my team selection process.

Before I go into the team selection process, those who participated in round 4 in the last tournament may recognize many similarities to that theme. That theme had a 6-round serpentine draft (4-5 players per team) - one team from each 20-year time frame (1903-2022), used the DH, had a salary cap and did not allow any clones. I had a spreadsheet from that draft that I could use for my research, but it didn't have 1901, 1902, 2023 seasons set up.

Anyway, in the classifieds ad, I said I would wait 15 minutes before I posted my first two picks. It turned out to be 22 minutes, mostly because I couldn't decide which two teams to take. Five teams had already been selected (1906 Browns, 2011 Tigers, 1948 Cardinals, 1929 A's and 1927 Yankees). I easily had 10 teams I was considering and I knew many of them would get claimed in the first 24 hours. I didn't put too much thought into the team's winning% when I made these two picks and I ended up taking two teams that I had success with, 1909 Tigers (.645) and the 1905 Giants (.686). Teams that got taken after me, that I also considered taking included 2015 Dodgers, 1985 Cardinals (both by redcped), 1920 White Sox, 1937 Yankees (pedrocerrano), 1906 Cubs (DarthDurron), 1914 Red Sox (Bill_James47) & 1903 Pirates (ybsjports).

(I will go more into detail on each team when I start my draft writeups).

I've had some time to start devising a better team selection strategy. I no longer wanted to select any teams with ultra-high winning percentages unless they were loaded like the '27 Yanks. It's been 24 hours and so what I'll call "Round 2" has started. thejuice6 grabbed the 2002 Red Sox. Also, 1903 Naps, 1978 Yankees, 1921 Browns and 1930 Phillies all got taken. My choices for this round include 1901 or 1902 Pirates and the 1999 Red Sox. After juice grabbed the 2002 Red Sox, I made the 1999 Red Sox (.580) one of my two picks. I couldn't decide on the Pirates team (1902 was better but had a crazy .741 win%). 1901 was "only" .647. I figured I could wait so I started researching more 1901 & 1902 teams. I discovered the very nice 1902 Athletics (610). Sadly, both 1901 (njbigwig) and 1902 Pirates (calhoop) got taken this round.

Round 3 - One of the aspects of this theme vs last years' round 4 theme, is that drafting only 5 teams instead of 6 means it's a lot harder to draft a team with only one great player on it. A bunch of the dominant offense Yankees teams have been taken already ('27, '37, '31, '61, '21). I want to get one of the two stud Yankees deadball pitchers (Chesbro or R.Ford). 1904 Yankees (.609) has 3 usable players (Keeler, Chesbro, Orth), but if you count Chesbro as 2 SPs, it's essentially like having 4 players. 1910 doesn't have much else besides Russ Ford. Also, a bunch of pitching-heavy Dodgers teams have been taken ('15, '64, '21, '85, '65). But I love the offense of the 1941 Dodgers (.649) plus they have a very nice SP.

Round 4 - Right after I picked in round 3, redcped grabbed the '76 Reds and '04 Twins (two teams I also wanted). It appears that most of the decent seasons of the crappy franchise are all getting taken and I'm missing the boat on all of them. All the best Walter Johnson and Greg Maddux seasons are gone. The good Ed Walsh and Addie Joss seasons are gone. I really didn't spend enough time researching these next two picks. I grabbed the 1964 White Sox (.605) just because I am familiar with them and they also seem to disappoint. I've been eyeing two of the Cubs deadball seasons (1905, 1908), but there are only 3 people left to select, so I am going to wait. Similarly with the Cardinals, I am looking at 1943 and 1944, but will wait another round. I ended up deciding on the 1924 Reds (.542) for really no good reason other than I like Eppa Rixey and Edd Roush and I like the team's relatively low win%.

Round 5 - At this point, it's just me juice, football and 3day filling out our last 8 teams. I wanted to wait a bit longer on the Cubs & Cardinals decision. Also, I am waiting on the Pirates b/c I want to see if I can get 1905 or 1908 in first round of the Pirates draft so I am looking at taking a year where I will have the 1st or 2nd pick. For no reason that I can remember, I make the very odd selections of 1905 Browns (.353) and 1908 Phillies (.539). Really bizarre choices - the only thing I can think of is that I wanted deadball pitching on teams with poor-to-mediocre winning%. These teams are going to suck for me. I also could jump ahead and pick the last Braves team. I took 1917 Braves (.471), again to get a high draft pick (#2) and for 600 innings of deadball pitching.

Round 6 - Well, the 1944 Cardinals (thejuice6) finally got picked, so I quickly grabbed the 1943 Cardinals (.682). I hadn't spent too much time on researching the Indians before now, and I decide that 1968 Indians (.534) is the perfect choice with pitching depth (including stud Tiant) and a low team winning%. I can also grab my Pirates team, I was all set to take 1928 to get the great hitting Burleigh Grimes, but the 1920 Pirates (.513) will guarantee me getting a stud Honus Wagner in round 1. Also, '20 Babe Adams is no slouch.

Round 7 - I was very happy to grab the 1905 Cubs (.601), which gives me over 800 innings of deadball pitching. My last team wasn't the best pick. I should have done more research. The 1928 Senators (.487) allows me to pick 3rd, but I really only get two good players (Braxton, Goslin) plus 3 mediocre ones. I'm sure there were better choices had I spent a little more time. I'm sure my Twins/Senators will suck.

I didn’t have time to write anything up as we went along, busy as I was with work and trying to stay just ahead enough in my research to pick when my spots came up. This will be shorter than most of my recaps, though. Teams are listed in the order I took them.

Cardinals (1985, 2010, 2020, 1941, 1930)
When the post first went up, I knew I wanted to take my first Dodgers team and I didn’t really put too much thought into being strategic about anything else. I have almost always taken a WWII-era Cardinals team in a draft like this, but I also knew that 1985 never lasts either. So why not be the one to get them for a change? Tudor, McGee, Ozzie, and a few switch-hitters were the main attractions. I also knew there were enough useful pieces that I’d almost certainly have to leave off players I wanted. Stud PH Cesar Cedeno made the cut over Jack Clark or Vince Coleman.

I made my first error with the next pick, because at the time I hadn’t researched anything except the best pitching seasons. This meant I had failed to remember or take note of the roughly 30 or 40 great 1B seasons in Cardinals history. Taking a 2010 team for one SP (Wainwright) and a fine but not the best by means Pujols was not necessary here. I should have gotten more than one useful pitcher here. Matt Holliday is a platoon OF, and I wound up taking a no-hit, good-glove Yadi to catch half the time.

When it got back to me, I realized how desperately I needed to get a lot of useful arms and had to bypass all sorts of great hitting to take 2020. I did get 5 pitchers out of it though: my Wainwright clone, a tandem of 109 IP guys, and two relievers. All useful at least.

I was surprised to see any of the early 1940s seasons left at this point and took another look at 1941 as a way to fill out my pitching staff because there were still so many good hitting combo seasons to take last. White, Lanier, and Pollet aren’t world-beaters, but they get me 400+ innings I really need. Jimmy Brown plugs in at 3B if I want another good glove.

With my last pick, I still needed a C, a starting OF, and a possible upgrade at 2B or 3B. Of course there were tons of lovely Musial, Mize, Bottomley, and Collins seasons available at 1B, too, had I not jumped the gun on Albert way back. I thought about using a 1B in the OF here if the combination elsewhere worked out. I landed on 1930 to get a very nice Chick Hafey and George Watkins for my OF, a .346-hitting Frankie Frisch to use at 2B or 3B, and half a catcher with a mean bat in Gus Mancuso.

Outlook: So I’ll have 4 switch-hitters in the lineup most days. The rotation of Tudor, two Wainos and a 2020 tandem doesn’t look too bad, but the bullpen is shallow. I’ve got some speed out there, and the gloves are pretty solid most places. Somehow I managed not to wind up with any version of Gibson or Musial or Hornsby, which doesn’t feel so very Cardinals-like. I’m sure I got out-drafted here, but at least there are no huge holes on the team.

Dodgers (2015, 2023, 1955, 1962, 2002)
If there was one team I didn’t have to research as heavily, this was it. It’s just the franchise I know much better than the rest. When I grabbed 2015 in the initial picks, it was solely for the Kershaw-Greinke combo so I’d have half a terrific rotation. I didn’t think much about who else was on the team. I did know good pitching would be plentiful in this draft, but I also wanted to be able to pick some seasons that were offense-heavy and not just be trying to fill holes. I’ll use Jansen in the pen and Turner at 3B for ? of the time, and I kept the stud low-PA Seager season to PH and back up the left side.

The most recent few seasons have been the only ones with a plethora of amazing RP seasons in LA, and I knew there wouldn’t be too many shots at loading up the pen in one swoop. So I grabbed 2023. I knew that Freeman and Betts were as good a hitting combo as any season would offer, and I made the (bold?) choice to lock Mookie in at 2B despite his stupidly low range. He won’t make many errors at least. It turned out I could have done decently in the pen regardless, but I’m happy with the trio of Brasier, May, and Phillips to help close things out. I could have cloned Kershaw, but the other pitchers were much better.

I could afford to go for an offense season here and settled on 1955 after looking up repeatedly to see my poster of the team photo on the wall right above my monitor. Snider and Campanella are another great duo, Furillo can be a starter or platoon choice, and I can use a so-so Jackie to play the rest of the games at 3B. It’s good mojo to have him on the roster.

Since I’m still sitting with just half a rotation, I had to get at least one SP with Pick #4. I decided on 1962 to add 181 IP from Koufax and 300+ from Drysdale, plus a stud Tommy Davis for the OF and speedy SH Wills to play SS.

This left me with potential to upgrade at 3B ahead of Turner, in the rotation ahead of Drysdale, and at a corner OF ahead of Furillo. In 2002, I got 2 of those filled with Odalis Perez and Shawn Green, plus a dynamite Gagne to add to a very deep pen. Drysdale slides back to being a spot starter, and sadly he’d be a top 2-3 guy on most of my other rosters.

Outlook: The pitching is, as expected, the best of my 6 teams. I’ve got 6 guys in the lineup with a lot of power, and since this franchise had little deadball pitching talent I think it will play in this league just nicely. The defense is, well, Dodger-like: some weaker spots for sure out there. Wills is the only guy with outstanding speed, and I’d imagine he has to hit 8th anyway. A couple other guys can steal some bases against the Piazzas, too. I’d like to think I did this one as well as any of them. I might think otherwise when I see my division mates, though.

Senators-Twins (2004, 1914, 1988, 1975, 1926)

On the second day, I took the 2004 Twins to secure one of the golden Santana seasons and assuming I’d be able to pair at least some useful Walter Johnson with him later. He also comes with a couple good RP in Nathan and Rincon, which turned out to be helpful because I didn’t get much more out in the pen later. I kept hoping to find a better hitting SS than Cristian Guzman, but his switch bat and nice glove make him tolerable at least.

None of the good Walter seasons would have made it back to me at Pick #3, so I took 1914 for 391 IP of him, plus a solid rotation mate in Doc Ayers who pushed me up to about 900 SP innings already. That gave me flexibility later. No one else on this team will do much of anything for me.

I really don’t know if power will play all that well in this league with all the Walters, so I wanted to get a few guys who can just plain hit. I went with 1988 because it’s Puckett’s best season and he locks in a CF for me, too. He comes with a Hrbek who can draw a few walks and hit the ball out occasionally and a Gaetti who does the same. Helpfully, both were .300 hitters and they don’t make lots of errors. But their range leaves a lot to be desired. I also grab Frank Viola for SP4 at this stage, but he probably winds up the long man. Reardon isn’t all that good, but he makes my bullpen anyway.

I had my eye on getting a Carew to play 2B for me here and was just hoping either 1974 or 1975 made it back to me. Both did! They are pretty similar seasons, and there’s a solid Blyleven in both of them, too. I didn’t really have a catching solution at this point (it was looking like a few 100-200 PA guys might combine there), so I went with 75 to add Phil Roof to that pool and also get a nice half season platoon OF in Larry Hisle.

I still needed a starting OF and a half, some help at C and someone to cover PA behind Hrbek, possibly as a platoon. It turned out that 1926 had all the pieces I needed. Goose Goslin is a stud, and Sam Rice is a high-average OF who should do decently. Muddy Ruel gave me more PA than I had to have, so I was able to drop one of my rotating C with his arrival. And Joe Harris can platoon with Hrbek. The only thing I couldn’t upgrade was my bullpen or SS here, but it worked out well enough.

Outlook: I’ve got 4 high-average bats in Carew, Goslin, Puckett, and Rice in the lineup. A few guys can pop one over the wall if the opportunity presents itself, too. The speed and defense are decent. The rotation has a very good 1-2 and then tails off some. The bullpen is limited, alas, and in fact I only took 9 pitchers because everyone else sucked. Heck, one of those 9 sucks, too, and a couple others aren’t so hot. We’d better get great starts from the top guys and do a lot of hitting.


Reds (1976, 1904, 1932, 1989, 1955)

I figured I couldn’t go wrong with a Big Red Machine team to start things off here. You basically can take anyone from this 1976 lineup without being disappointed, though it was a down year for Bench. I watched eddiedzen win about 125 games with this team in the Cooperstown League, and they scored like crazy. I wound up with Morgan, Rose, Concepcion, and Griffey on the roster along with a so-so Eastwick for the pen. Foster got squeezed out at the end.

One thing you realize very quickly with the Reds is how dreadful their SP has been over a century and a quarter. It’s scary how fast the decent options dry up. I took 1904 to get Noodles Hahn and Win Kellum in the rotation, and I think honestly neither of them would have made my Dodgers rotation. They (and the rest of my pitchers, really) give up a lot of hits (.238 collective OAV), so part of me thought about not even trying to draft for pitching and just load up the best possible offense instead. I’m wasting two long man spots with scrubs from this team.

My next squad here was a better balance at least. From 1932 I get two more not-dreadful SP in Red Lucas and Eppa Rixey, plus my C in Ernie Lombardi and CF Babe Herman. Unless I wanted another Noodles clone with no help on his roster, I wasn’t going to do better.

None of the first three teams had anything resembling good RP, so I looked for any season with a couple good ones and some help anywhere else I needed it. I settled on 1989 for a pair of Nasty Boys in Dibble and Charlton (let’s not even talk about their walk rates!), plus a pretty darn good Eric Davis and a great half season of Barry Larkin. I’ll wind up having to take Concepcion as a second RH to platoon with him, but at least both play strong D.

For the final spot, I needed a second C, potential upgrades at 1B or OF, and maybe a LH shortstop if I could find one. Forget about pitching help, as that was nowhere to be found really. I landed on 1955 with a slugging Kluszewski and Wally Post, plus a pretty good Gus Bell for the OF and a LH Smoky Burgess to pair with Lombardi. This is when Foster lost his spot with Concepcion needed and Klu/Post leaving him no spot. I still don’t know how to manage the OF with 6 guys who could all start. It might have a lot to do with whether the SP gives up homers.

Outlook: Other than the pitching staff, I could like this team. But that’s a little like asking Mrs. Lincoln if she liked the play. I guess I could tout the fact that my entire staff gave up just 46 HR in over 2100 innings, so that could help offset the teams likely hitting over .300 against us. There’s plenty of offense to go around with a few L/R pairings because I might as well do that. I’ve got Pete Rose batting 7th or 8th, so I’m thinking we’ll score runs. Which we’d better because the Nasty Boys will blow many leads by walking the bases loaded, assuming the SP give them a lot of leads in the first place.

(I'll get to my last two teams tomorrow)

I will post my writeups in the order in which I selected the franchises.

Giants 1905, 1921, 1916, 1933, 1957

Like I mentioned above, I didn't consider winning% when I selected the 1905 Giants as one of my first two selections. Their .686 win% resulted in the 11th pick in the draft. But this season includes a stud Christy Mathewson (1.81 erc#), a usable Hooks Wiltse (2.65), a potentially usable Joe McGinnity (2.89), a very good Mike Donlin (.356 avg#, .420 opb#, .522 slg#), a starting worthy catcher Roger Bresnahan (.302, .418, .401) and a surprisingly effective switch-hitting 1B, Dan McGann (.299, .399, .461). I could either keep McGinnity or McGann depending on how the rest of the draft went. (I kept McGann).

By the time my pick came up in round 1, all the good Bonds seasons are gone. But that's ok because with all the great dead-ball pitching in this league, I wanted to focus on high-average doubles and triples hitters and get good defense. I had my mind made up to grab a Frankie Frisch season from the early 1920's. I had it narrowed down to 1921 and 1924. It's very close, but I finally decided on the 1921 Giants, because not only do I get a stud Frankie Frisch (.314, .379, .478), and a strong catching platoon partner for Bresnahan with Earl Smith (.336, .408, .529), but I also get a switch-hitting A+ range shortstop in Dave Bancroft (.318, .384, .449). This season also has a couple of good OF options, with Irish Meusel (.343, .375, .508) and Ross Youngs (.327, .406, .449). My final roster spot goes to 1B George Kelly (.308, .351, .520, A++ range) as McGann only has 619 PA and he's batting at the top of the lineup.

Another long wait for my second round pick. Note that 1924 went to 3day two picks after I grabbed 1921. The one year I was looking at was 2009, but barracuda3 took that season right before me. Lincecum and Sandoval would have been the perfect fit too. We're flipping the order in round 3, so I have two picks out of the next four. 1969 is very tempting here as this is my favorite Juan Marichal season (lower HRs) and of course a stud Willie McCovey, but I already have two 1B and I can't really justify a third. I noticed that both 1916 and 1918 are available. Could I somehow get both Toney and Schupp? That would be cool. I start researching the other players on those seasons. I like the 1916 Giants a bit better. Ferdie Schupp (1.55) is a stud. Oh, by the way, in a recent Immaculate Grid, I put down Fred Toney for a Giant that pitched at least one game --> 0.009%! In fact, the six players that I put for the Giants & Cardinals that pitched, played catcher and played shortsop were all black and white photos and the score totaled 2.709%. Slim Sallee (2.18) is another pitcher I can use in relief. I didn't know it at the time, but I'm using Christy Mathewson's 70-inning season (2.60) as my clone. Lew McCarty (.397, .468, .587) is my third catcher and first pinch hitter. My last player, Buck Herzog (A-A) is a defensive replace at 3B, but can also play 2B or SS.

DarthDurron took 1969 (nice pick) and 2006. So 1918 is there if I wanted it. But here's the thing. I only get one more team after this pick, and there will be 20 teams selected before my last pick. I can't afford to take a season with no useful offensive players and a couple of relievers, even if one of those RPs is awesome. One of the years I had my eye on is still on the board. I grab 1933 Giants. Besides getting the best season of Carl Hubbell (2.01). SP Hal Schumacher (2.41) isn't too bad as my SP3. Pitchers Hi Bell (2.85) and Dolf Luque (2.99) are basically innings-eaters. I rostered 1800 innings so hopefully, these guys won't pitch too much. It's not one of his better years, but the last spot goes to Mel Ott (.283, .373, .478). He's not that HR dependent (23) so he may get some starts.

Now I get to wait a very long time for my last pick. 1918 went to Jtpsops in round 4. Not sure I could take them anyway. I still need a 3B and a CF. I have three OFs but all three have poor range, I really don't need anymore pitching. 1989 is still available with Kevin Mitchell, Will Clark and Scott Garrelts. I already have two 1B, Mitchell can hit, but isn't suited to play CF, and Garrelts would certainly be good enough to pitch for my team. In the end, this 1989 isn't really filling any holes. I decide on the 1957 Giants to get a pretty good Willie Mays (.333, .411, .617, A+). Willie only hit 33 HRs this year, but hit 20 triples with a high average, so hopefully he will still be able to be effective against deadballer pitchers. Just as important as adding Mays to play CF is the fact that Red Schoendienst (.309, .347, .442) can start at 2B while I move Frisch to 3B. I hate that I don't get to use Frisch's A++ range at 2B but Schoendienst's defense isn't too bad (B+/A-) and in the late innings, I can move Herzog to 3B or defense. I added another inning eater, Marv Grissom (2.87). 2B/3B Danny O'Connell is another defensive-oriented player while infielder Andre Rodgers won't play.

Outlook:
Given how much I hate some of my other teams, I feel pretty decent about this team. Loading up on seasons with 4-5 usable players early in the draft gives the flexibility to draft a team with one stud later. This is one of my few teams with multiple stud SPs *and* a stud RP. The offense is full of .320+ hitters with moderate HRs but lots of doubles & triples. I have four switch-hitters in the normal starting lineup. The defense is above average. I won't project a win total. But I feel the probability of advancing to the next round = 85%.

My last two teams ...

Cubs (1919, 1912, 1922, 2022, 1971)

All the best pitching collections from the Aughts were off the board by the time I grabbed my first Cubs team, but I felt like I had to get at least a decent set of arms here. I went with 1919 for the really good Pete Alexander and two usable SP in Hippo Vaughn and Phil Douglas. Hitting, though? Not so much there.

I figured deadball pitching would be quite prevalent in this league, so I really didn’t want to build an offense based around the likes of Ernie Banks and Sammy Sosa. Getting a couple of really good high-average hitters early seemed like the best way to go, hence I stayed in the same decade and took 1912. This got me the great Heinie Zimmerman who could play 3B or 1B and a .340+ season from Johnny Evers at 2B. They had a couple great fielding OF too, and those can be helpful now and again and could even be my CF solution if need be.

I had to decide at this point between another strong pitching group from 2020 or a collection of hitters who might help against the Browns, Reulbachs, and Overalls. I went with 1922 (note that calhoop immediately took 2020 right after), which actually netted me 5 members of my starting lineup: C Bob O’Farrell, 1B Ray Grimes, SS Charlie Hollocher, OF Hack Miller, and OF Jigger Statz. So I guess it was the right pick, assuming my strategy was any good.

One thing there’s nothing much of 100 years ago was relievers, so I grabbed four of them from 2022. The problem is none of them are actually terrific, all with ERC# between 2 and 3 somewhere, so I’m not sure if quantity was the way to go here. I mean, I passed on a couple 100+ inning Bruce Sutter seasons because it was just him with no one else useful, but at least now I’d have Sutter in the pen rather than 4 average arms.

That left me looking for a starting OF, preferably LH, and any other upgrades possible. I did consider 1902 to get 384 strong innings from Jack Taylor (and a lot of nothing else), but I went instead for 1971 to get a solid Billy Williams, a usable Fergie Jenkins (who will be fun for all the teams who took the HR hitters to face), and a surprising .340 hitter in Glenn Beckert, who can platoon with Evers.

Outlook: I suppose this team has some positives, namely the top of the lineup has 5 hitters with averages of .340+ and of my 6 teams it’s got the best total AVG and OBP. It does lean a little too righty-heavy, though, and there’s not much speed to get these singles hitters around the bases. Pete Alexander is an ace, so there’s that, too. The rest of the staff is decent, but no one is going to be upset to face any of them either. All in all, it looks like a team that might struggle to score runs or prevent them, which I’ve heard are both helpful in winning. My optimism is low here.


Pirates (1919, 1925, 1977, 1989, 1998)

I tend to think about SP first in any draft, so not too surprisingly I grabbed an entire rotation off the bat here with 1919. By far the main attraction is 300+ IP from Babe Adams, and then I could always try to upgrade any of Wilbur Cooper, Frank Miller, and Hank Carlson later. Only one hitter came from this season, the .389 Possum Whitted as a likely platoon player at 2B or OF.

I was surprised to see that I got the 1st pick of the next round, so this was the team I had to research first and wound up doing differently than the rest. Basically I just looked for the most hitting spots I could fill with players I liked, and I arrived at 1925. I’ve got 5 of them in the lineup so I guess it was the right pick: C Earl Smith, 3B Pie Traynor, SS Glenn Wright, OF Kiki Cuyler, and CF Max Carey. They can all hit, field, and run pretty well (except Smith who is somehow only 38 speed). I think this worked out.

My 3rd pick was perhaps slightly more based on childhood admiration, but I always thought Dave Parker was such a phenomenal hitter in the late 70s and he had that cannon arm. To me, he was a guy everyone should want. I still think he should be in the HOF, but what do I know? Anyway, we’ve got his 1977 season in RF, and he came with a great 133 IP from Goose Gossage and another high average speedster in Rennie Stennett (whose PA line up nicely with Whitted to cover 2B). Oh, and they got 200 or so PA from that Pops guy, so I’ll get him in there when he can do the most damage.

I got to do the double pick at the end here, which was kind of useful in knowing for sure how you’d fill all the spots. It’s just that you have to watch 22 teams go off the board in between. I wound up with 1989 and 1998 to fill all the holes pretty well. From 1989, I get a couple useful RP, a versatile Bobby Bonilla who will play a lot of 1B when Pops doesn’t, and some reserve OF named Bonds. Has a little power and speed and a decent glove, so maybe he can help the team occasionally.

From 1998, I fill out the bullpen with 3 more guys and add Smith’s catching partner in Jason Kendall and even more speed with Tony Womack on the bench. I sometimes undervalue speed, but on this team it will be a key asset. I know it won’t hurt.

Outlook: While I wish the rotation had a second starter nearly as good as Adams, I think they’ll keep me in games. I have a deep balanced bullpen led by a Gossage who might even this time not suck for me. The offense is high AVG with a ton of 2B and 3B, though sadly none of the Pittsburgh parks truly favor them. But I think a lot of my guys will score from first on doubles and otherwise keep the bases busy. We should rack up a whole lot of plus plays, too. It feels like a team that should do pretty well. Ask me again in two months, though.

Tigers 1909, 1917, 1984, 1967, 1930

This initial team selection might have been a mistake. Sure, my 1902 Tigers team from round 4 won over 100 games, but there are some big differences between that team and this team. One of the biggest reasons why that team was so good is that besides the three deadball starting pitchers, Ed Summers (2.62), Ed Willett (2.78) and George Mullin (2.84), that team also was able to draft 1945 and roster Hal Newhouser (he won the Cy Young award for that team). Sadly, all three Newhouser teams were off the board before my next pick. That round 4 Tigers team also was able to draft 6 players. This version only 5 players. I do like Sam Crawford (.314, .380, .491) and will use him at 1B due to his A++ range. And of course Ty Cobb (.377, .445, .558) was really good, but I used him at DH. In this tournament, his D+/D+ fielding will certainly hurt the pitching. I was unable to add shortstop Donnie Bush (.394 obp#), who was a solid leadoff guy for me last time,

1945 made it all the way until 2 picks before my turn at #10, but footballmm11 crushed my hopes. Since I have three SPs (937 ips), I convinced myself that I could afford to take a year with just a couple of good offensive players. The 1917 Tigers gives me a stud Ty Cobb (..383, .450, 602) and a very good Bobby Veach (.399, .399, .491). But the other three players aren't super helpful. Pitcher Bernie Boland (3.00) gives me 252 ips of below-average long relief. Donnie Bush (.281, .376, .352, C/D+) is a place-holder at SS until I can upgrade. He made the team as a backup. And 3B Ossie Vitt is a below average hitter who has 3B eligibility, which I need to spell my other 3B drafted later.

Man, that last pick really put me behind the eight-ball in terms trying to fill the team's needs. I have no bullpen whatsoever, and I still need a C, 2B, 3B, and SS. Luckily, the 1984 Tigers fills a bunch of these holes. Willie Hernandez (1.64) is the only decent RP on my roster, but at least he has141 ips. Alan Trammell (.314, .384, .460) fills my SS. Lou Whitaker (.289, .358, .399) was slotted in at 2B, but I was able to upgrade him later. Chet Lemon (.287, .359, .487) adds a fourth OF and will replace my bad field Cobb in the late innings. I don't really need Kirk Gibson (.282, .363, 516) but I'm sure he'll get some pinch hitting ABs. And I added Aurelio Lopez (2.97) at the last minute. He's very HR-prone so he'll probably only pitch mopup. Had I been able to add a sixth player from my 1909 team (SS, Donnie Bush), I probably don't take 1984 and focus on a team with more relievers.

I still need a catcher and lots of relief pitching. It's not often that I find the perfect fit, but the 1967 Tigers gives me catcher Bill Freehan's (.282, .403, .463) best season, plus four pitchers. John Hiller (2.52), Bill Monbouquette (2.59) and Orlando Pena (2.61) aren't particularly great, but they are better than anything else I have outside of Hernandez. I also add SP Mickey Lolich (2.84) and he will rotate between spot-starting and pitching lon-relief. This season was a critical pick for me as I went from lots of holes to only needing a 3B and a potential 2B upgrade.

I could have taken one of the good 1950's Ray Boone's to play 3B for me, but those teams didn't have much else. Instead, I went with the 1930 Tigers, which gives me a huge upgrade at 2B with Charlie Gehringer (.330, .392, .514). And I get my starting 3B, Marty McManus (.320, .385, .455) who is very good defensively also. He only has 591 PAs though, so he'll bat last so I don't have to use Vitt very much. Catcher Pink Hargrave (.285, .368, .433) backs up Freehan. Tom Hughes (.373, .401, .488) and Harry Rice (.305, .391, .398) are pinch hitters.

Outlook:
Thanks to being lucky enough to get a bunch of viable pieces with my last two picks, I think this team turned out ok. It's hard to know where this team will rank in offense. There is no power, but decent average, thanks to rostering two Ty Cobbs. My 3 deadball pitchers shouldn't give up HRs to guys like Cabrera, Greenberg, Colavito, etc. I give this team an 80% chance of advancing to round 2.

Red Sox 1999, 1942, 1901, 1990, 1905

As much as I love 1914 Red Sox, I have no regrets taking 1999 Red Sox early in the selection process. Their .580 winning% nets me the 5th pick in the draft. I get Pedro Martinez' (1.53) second best season. I get Nomar Garicaparra's (.357, .409, .575) second best season. Derek Lowe (1.83) and Rich Garces (1.49) are competent relievers. I originally planned on keeping Brett Saberhagen (2.65) but badly needed a catcher so I dropped Saberhagen in order to roster Jason Varitek (.269, .321, .453). He is my worst offensive player, for sure.

I was very happy that the 1942 Red Sox fell to me at pick #5. I really wanted a stud Ted Williams (.356, .499, 660), but I also get a starting 2B, Bobby Doerr (.290, .369, .469), a starting CF, Dom DiMaggio (.286, .364, .451, A++ range), a second SS to spell Nomar, with Johnny Pesky (.331, .375, .429). I considered keeping SP Tex Hughson (2.83), but found better SP-innings later, so I pivoted to LHP, Bill Butland (2.42).

I was hoping I would get a shot at a stud Cy Young season with this pick. There were a few left, including 1905 and 1901. I went with the 1901 Americans, because this Cy Young (1.97) has 443 IPs and there are other useful teammates, including 1B Buck Freeman (.339, .398, .526), 3B Jimmy Collins (.332, .373, .501). Ossee Schreckengost (.304, .354, .391) is my best catcher option. And finally, Chick Stahl (.303, .375, .445) is one of five OFs that eventually made the roster... .not sure yet, if he will start.

I think I made a mistake with this pick. I badly needed a catcher and '72 Fisk was still available. But I needed some more pitching and the 1990 Red Sox have SP Roger Clemens (2.31) and RPs Larry Anderson (2.23), Lee Smith (2.55) and Jeff Reardon (2.62). I eventually dropped Reardon and added Ellis Burks (.296, .350, .484). I also decided to keep Wade Boggs (.302, .386, .416) even after rostering Jimmy Collins in the last round. I could play the lefty-right platoon with these two.

With one pick left, the 1905 Americans were still left and I hadn't used my clone yet. Even though this season offers very little in offense, I just can't resist putting together an awesome starting rotation, with another Cy Young (1.96). Hank Olmsted (2.88) only adds 27 innings, but he's a warm body. Jesse Tannehill (3.11) is the third best pitcher from 1905, and the rules say I need 5 players from this team, so he makes the team. To fill out the other two roster spots, I add Jesse Burkett and Myron Grimshaw, but I won;t use these guys.

Outlook
The starting pitcher is very strong. The defensive range is solid, but I may league the league in errors with all my C- and D fielders combined with 1901 & 1905 pitching. The bullpen isn't very good or very deep and I've been burned in the past by '99 Lowe. Outside of Ted Williams, my offense isn't very good. My hope is that the pitching is good enough to offset my lack of run production. I need to win a bunch of 3-2 games. I se the probability of advancing to the next round at 60%.

Athletics 1902, 1912, 1981, 1944, 1951

I felt pretty good about the initial selection of the 1902 Athletics. They have two really strong dead-ball pitchers, Rube Waddell (2.31) and Bill Bernhard (1.84). Nap Lajoie (.378, .418, .572, A++) only has 459 PA, but can rake. 3B Lave Cross (.342, .373, .447) didn't make the cut, but should have. OF Socks Seybold (316, .374, .513) normalizes well. And Ossee Schreckengost (.324, .346, .426) is 50% of my catching platoon. Solid start.

My selection of the 1912 Athletics is where the wheels fell off on my A's draft. Note that this season is not a bad season, and certainly would have drawn interest form others. Eddie Collins (.348, .448, .453) and Frank Baker (.347, .402, .559) are stud infielders. Stuffy McInnis (.327, .382, 451) is a decent 1B that I eventually didn't use. But that's really it. Amos Strunk (.289, .364, .485) is nothing more than a good defensive replacement. And the two pitchers that I eventually added, Eddie Plank (2.97) and Byron Houck (3.13) are nothing more than innings-eaters. But I already had Lajoie at 2B and Lave Cross at 3B so and didn't really need Collins or Baker. I passed up 1933, 1928, 1927 and 1935 - all offensive juggernauts seasons, to basically get an upgrade at 3B and some extra PAs at 2B to supplement Lajoie's short season. Really really stupid pick. It's all downhill from here.

I was hoping either 1980 or 1981 would get back to me this round and both did. I kept going back and forth on which team to take. I finally landed on the 1981 Athletics, mainly because I liked the '81 versions of Rickey Henderson (.319, .412, .443, A++) and Dwayne Murphy (.251, .373, .413, A++) better than the '80 versions. I will admit that '80 Norris is better than '81 Steve McCatty (2.45). RP Tom Underwood (3.02) is underwhelming. My fifth player Wayne Gross is simply a backup 3B, who will never play.

Due to my incompetence, my roster still has a bunch of holes. 1944 Athletics provides me my first decent RP, Joe Berry (1.65) and since I still need more innings, I add Russ Christopher (3.10). I get my other half of my catching platoon, Hal Wagner (.330, .417, .452). Dick Siebert (.306, .389, 438) replaces McInnis at 1B. And Bobby Estalella (.298, .376, 424) can play defense at 1B and OF. So while all the other A's teams have guys like Foxx and Simmons, I got Dick Siebert and Dwayne Murphy starting. This is going to be a disaster.

Since I have no real power, I might as well go all out and try to build a good on-base-percentage team. 1951 Athletics gives me three starters, with 1B Ferris Fain (.344, .444, .471), SS Eddie Joost (.289, .402, 462) and OF Elmer Valo (.302, .405, .446). Gus Zernial (.274, .344, 526) is a pinch hitter who doesn't walk or hit for average, so I'm sure that will work out well. And he's a scary thought. Sam Zoldak (2.89) is my team's fifth best pitcher.

Outlook:
I have 16 teams and only 8 can advance. This team will be one of the eight that doesn't advance. Somehow, I drafted a team with a really bad offense and bad pitching. I have three decent SPs, one good RP, and the rest of the staff sucks. I do have a very good defense, and that's basically it. Probability that this team advances to round 2 is probably less than 5%.

White Sox 1919,1933, 1965, 1995, 2021

This write up is for the guys who put half the effort and have half of the skill of the better players. You are not alone.

I almost didn't play. Pedro has just finished destroying Juice and I in the Boston draft of the Juice Puzzle ( we have less wins combined than Pedro),
and I was thinking it might be time to try something simpler like tic-tac-toe. Alas, I jumped in with just a few spots left and chose 1919 off the top of my head. Strike One!

1919 White Sox: Note, this is not the 1917 White Sox, the team I was thinking of when I chose 1919. You are starting to get the idea of what I'm up against brain-power wise. P Eddie Cicotte, OF Joe Jackson, and 2B Eddie Collins should be ok, but this roster pushed me clear down to 11th in the draft. Way to think it through. 3B Buck Weaver ended up on the roster, and P Lefty Williams will be the X-Factor, the X-Factor being the reason I lose 90 games.

2021 White Sox: This was a total pitching pick, as it seemed pitching would get thin rather quickly. 5 pitchers made the final roster: Carlos Rodon, Lance Lynn, Liam Hendriks, Ryan Tempera, and Craig Kimbrel. History will judge this pick the road, probably harshly.

1995 White Sox: Time to get some offense, and I wanted the Big Hurt. 1B Frank Thomas and OF Lance Johnson should be ok, 3B Robin Ventura will platoon with Buck Weaver, and Craig Grebeck/Ron Karkovice making the team are a great indicator of why it won't go very far.

1965 White Sox: Decided to get more pitching here, with P Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher. No regrets, and P Bob Locker made the roster as well.
For comic relief, C Johnny Romano is the starting catcher, and C Smoky Burgess is a cheap backup C option to keep my overall salary down.

1933 White Sox: 2nd to last pick, bottom of the barrel time. But OF Al Simmons and SS Luke Appling easily make my starting line-up, and OF Mule Haas might be ok as a platoon OF/pinch hitter. Earl Webb is another lefty bat off the bench, and Hal Rhyne is a warm body.

Outlook: Bleak.

Yankees 1904, 1928, 1942, 1959, 2014

My selection of the 1904 Yankees was the 8th Yankees team selected and at the time, their .609 winning percentage would've netted my the first pick in the draft. Three of the four picking Yankees teams after me picked teams with lower percentages, dropping me to fourth. The Yankees are known for their great hitters and don't have a long history of great pitching, so I wanted to get Jack Chesbro (2.04) and/or Russ Ford to get a leg up on the competition. I would have time to get some good hitters later. Al Orth (2.53) gives me a nice long-reliever. Willie Keeler (.343, .408, .441) was originally slotted in one of the three starting OF spots, but will probably be relegated to pinch hitting. Wid Conroy can sub in for defensive at 3B while Kid Elberfeld wont' play. I gambled that selecting a team with only 2-3 usable players wouldn't burn me later. Yankees have a lot good teams with many good players.

I strongly considered taking 1910 here and doubling up on the two best Yankees dead-ball pitchers, but 1910 doesn't have much else. Can I really use my first two seasons on a grand total of 3 usable players? No, I pass on them. A number of the great Babe Ruth seasons have been taken already, including 1927, 1931, 1921, 1930, 1926 and 1920. I was worried that if I passed on Ruth here, I'd totally miss out. I selected 1928 Yankees, b/c I've had previous success with this version of Babe Ruth (.323, .453, .703). I also get a stud Lou Gehrig (.374, .459, .641). I end up passing on Tony Lazzeri (.332, .389, .527) due to his D+/D+ defensive rating at 2B. Surprisingly, I roster two pitchers from this season. Herb Pennock (2.81) has a reasonable performance history, while RP Fred Heimach (2.86) is a warm body. I eventually add Earle Combs (.310, .379, .456), who may pinch hit and come in for defense.

FYI. 1910 went to nocomm999 two picks after I grabbed 1928. This next selection was very tough. I could grab another strong Ruth season (1924). I could add a stud Mantle season (1957). But I wanted another good SP. The 1942 Yankees provide Ernest Edward "Tiny" Bonham (2.20). Did you know Tiny was 6'2, 215 lbs? That was probably considered huge for that era. But just as important as getting a good SP, 1942 ultimately provided me four starting position players... 2B Joe Gordon (.322, .409, .504), SS Phil Rizzuto (.284, .343, .387), 3B Roy Cullenbine (.276, .405, .413) and OF Charlie Keller (.292, .417, .526). I was planning on using Joe DiMaggio (.305, .377, .512) and Cullenbine's partial season (.364, .484, .546) but circumstances forced me to switch to Cullenbine's combined season and also adding a no-hitting good-fielding SS with Rizzuto.

Sixteen picks went off the board before my third round pick. I was one pick away from my turn, but got tired and went to sleep thinking about which Yankees team I was going to take. I really wanted a good Mantle season. 1955 Mantle was the best one left, but the 1959 Yankees gave me a decent Mickey Mantle (.283, .394, .513) plus a lot more. SP Art Ditmar (2.41) could replace Pennock in the rotation, but I might use him as a long reliever. Lefty Bobby Shantz (1.83) becomes the team's best RP. I also get all two mediocre catchers here, with Yogi Berra (.284, .351, .461) and Elston Howard (.273, .309, .475). 1955 went one pick later to thejuice6.

At this point, I still needed a starting 3B, a starting SS and some more relievers. There just aren't a lot of teams that provide that combination. So I went back to my drafted teams and figured out that I could use Cullenbine's full season at 3B and I could start Phil Rizzuto at SS (he can't hit but is a good defensive player). By making those sacrifices, that opened things up to just finding a team with lots of good relievers. Like everybody else, I looked at the modern years. The 2014 Yankees provides me four RPs (300 IPs). Dillon Betances (1.28) and Michael Pineda (1.56) instantly become my team's top two RPs. Adam Warren (2.52) and David Robertson (2.48) gives me a total of eleven pitchers, more than most of my teams. I needed some extra PAs at 3B (Cullenbine only has 552), so my final spot goes to 3B Martin Prado (.316, .342, .537), who has some extra-base-hit pop.

Outlook:
I kind of figured this would happen, but focusing on getting good starting pitchers early (1904, 1942) means that my offense will be below average for this league. There are teams with multiple Babe Ruths, multiple Mickey Mantles, Joe DiMaggio, A-Rod, Jeter, Dickey, etc. Meanwhile, I have too many easy outs in the lineups (Berra/Howard, Rizzuto). I think my pitching should be near the top, but can I score enough runs to make any difference? I estimate the probability of advancing to round 2 to be slightly less than average, 45%.

Dodgers 1941, 1949, 2003, 1928, 1982

The 1941 Dodgers' .649 winning% puts me all the way down to the 9th pick in the draft. But this team does provide 7-8 usable players. The tough part is narrowing it down to just 5. SP Whit Wyatt (2.19) is an obvious choice. I end up passing on RP Johnny Allen (1.80) due to his high HR frequency. Pete Reiser (.343, .408, .569) and Dolph Camilli (.285, .408, .567) are my team's two best hitters. They're also both A+ range defenders. I end up keeping OF Dixie Walker (.311, .392, 463) over Joe Medwick (.318, .365, .528) b/c I wanted the lefty bat and high OBP. At the last minute, I add pitcher Curt Davis (2.55) who will probably spot start.

So, it's my turn and 2016 is sitting there waiting for me to take them. I was so certain that I was going to take them, that I already added their players to my team in the Team Center. Then after typing in 2016 but before hitting submit, I started to second guess myself. There is so much pitching available, that I was worried that this would be another situation where I had great pitching but couldn't score any runs. So Instead, I selected the 1949 Dodgers in order to get a stud Jackie Robinson (.342, .429, .524). I also added SS Pee Wee Reese (.279, .393, .407), OF Duke Snider (.292, .358, .489), C Roy Campanella (.287, .383, .494) and pinch hitter Gene Hermanski (.299, .428, .483). footballmm11 quickly grabbed 2016 on the very next pick, before I could change my mind, I immediately regretted this pick. I mean Jackie is great and Pee Wee is acceptable at SS, but these aren't exactly the best seasons for Snider & Campanella. Snider won't even start for this team.

Well, now that I have C, 1B, 2B, SS, OF, OF, OF drafted, I need to start rostering some pitchers. All the good Kershaw seasons are gone. The Koufaxes are long gone. Even '72 Sutton just got picked. I decided to go for quantity in the bullpen and grabbed the 2003 Dodgers. Of course, Eric Gagne (0.88) is the main attraction here, but Guillermo Mota (1.90), Paul Quantrill (1.92) and Wilson Alvarez (2.47) provide an additional 278 innings of quality relief. I had Kevin Brown (2.54) on the original roster but made some last minute changes and he got cut to add catcher David Ross (.258, .334, .538). I need to get at least two more SPs with my next two selections.

I love Dazzy Vance. Of course, his '24 season was off the board early, but the 1928 Robins have Dazzy Vance's (2.19) second best season. That's one box I can check off. I also need a 3B. Harvey Kendick (.318, .389, 470) isn't great but the teams with better third basemen don't have a SP as good as Vance. Maybe I can upgrade 3B with the next selection (spoiler alert, I don't). But I do add some more hitters, that might be useful, including 1B Del Bissonette (.320, .388, .536), OF Babe Herman (.340, .382, .507) and a backup catcher, Johnny Gooch (.317, .353, .359).

I need at least one more SP and anything else that might be useful. 1973 Sutton is the best SP left, but not much else I could use there. I decide to go with the 1982 Dodgers. I add my fourth SP, Jerry Reuss (2.56) but I also get other very useful pieces... an upgrade at OF, with Pedro Guerrero (.304, .383, .541). He can also play 3B in a pinch (D/D). I also get a very good RP with 100 innings, with Steve Howe (2.13). RP Terry Forster (2.57) also comes along for the ride. I don't really need much else, but it can't hurt to have some more innings, so I grab Fernando Valenzuela (2.73).

Outlook:
Of course, this draft went opposite of my Yankees draft. My first two picks loaded up on offensive players, and so my overall pitching is probably weaker than most teams. I think my bullpen is decent, although I'm sure it will frustrate me as usual. It's hard to know if my offense is above or below average, although it feels maybe slightly above average. When you factor that with a below average starting pitching staff, this feels like a 500 team +/- 2 wins, which means I have a 50% probability of advancing.

I'll bite.

I've never entered more than 1-2 teams in a Juice (now schwarze tournament). I mainly play progressives and have also been able to go deep here without a lot of entries. When I saw this, I thought I might grab two teams. I must have been busy, though, as I misread multiple parts of the ad and made multiple mistakes.

The Red Sox are the franchise I know best. I hemmed and hawed about taking a team, but then in a flash, all I wanted were gone. I read the league ad schwarze posted as only allowing people to grab two teams every 24 hours. But it turned out people could still grab 8 slots or whatever at once but could only claim two specific teams ever 24 hours. All to say, the slots were gone very fast. Before that, I was about to grab the 2000 Sox, which I still think was perhaps the best choice available for them. Super Pedro, Super Nomar, and a high choice in the other drafts....

Instead I grabbed an ORIOLES squad because they have fewer stand-out, mega-star seasons than other franchises, and I thought that would make for an interesting drafting experience. It did.

I took the 1969 team for two reasons. One, I misread the post in a second way and had the (wrong!) impression in my head that the subsequent drafts were a straight snake draft. Hadn't realized grabbing a team with such a strong real life record would be a liability. My bad attention to detail. Whatever, no regrets. The other reason I chose them was that St. Louis/Balitmore doesn't have a ton of standout starting pitching seasons and has far worse dead-ball era pitching than most other franchises. This season gave me Mike Cuellar's ace year and a lower inning but very high quality Jim Palmer season - two of the best starting pitching seasons in franchise history. Few to no SPs with sub 2.0 ERC# seasons, but these guys are both close. I figured I'd also have a great Frank Robinson season, at least one ace RP, and maybe use Boog Powell at 1B or the A+++ Paul Blair in CF. I kept Robinson's .955 OPS as well as ace RPs Eddie Watt and Dick Hall.

In the second round, I was looking at position scarcity. SS is a weak position in this franchise, so I grabbed the 1984 club to get one of Cal Ripken's two best years - strong power hitting and A++ fielding. I also grabbed Eddie Murray, with a great switch hitting season and more A+ defense. Not much else here, but Storm Davis and Mike Boddiker may be servicable long relievers at this cap and we ended up using Rick Dempsey as a bad half time catcher - by far our biggest weakness.

In the third and fourth round, I had back to back picks and took a long time figuring out what to do, including posting an initial choice that wasn't even available! (Did I mention how bad my attention to detail was for this league?!?) I needed a 2B and 3B, another SP, and a catcher still, as well as more depth in OF and RP. What to prioritize?

I ended up taking 1937 and 1976. Here's why. 1976 gave me a decent Bobby Grich for 2B. So so hitting and strong defense, but also a lot of pitching depth. I get Jim Palmer as my clone, making up 2/3 of a three man rotation we will use. Grant Jackson and Fred Holdsworth are ace relievers. Doyle Alexander is another respectable Long A pitcher. 1937 was a weird choice. I probably wouldn't make it again. But I get another ace fielding and strong hitting infielder in Harlond Clift's .960 OPS year. No usable pitching on this club, but Beau Bell (a .340 avg/.900 OPS player I'd never heard of) will platoon in one corner OF and Sam West in CF. Joe Vosmik, OF and Gerard Lipscomb, IF give us pinch hitting/back-up depth.

For my final pick, I wanted a team that would help us at catcher and provide other useful depth. With the very last pick of the whole draft, I actually had several Wally Schang seasons to choose from. I took 1929, with a non-awful half-time catching solution and very good OF platoons from Heinie Manush (.355 avg) and and A++ defensive whiz Fred Schulte. Ski Melillo is a defensive whiz back-up at 2B and Left Stewart a non-awful mop-up/Long B pitcher.

No idea how this team will do. I doubt any of the O's teams are all around great.
This one has solid if not superb pitching. It has truly excellent defense at all four infield positions and CF. And the team has some good hitters with a lot of doubles power. I'll be disappointed if they don't advance.

I don't know how many times during this drafting and team-building that I wished that we had a DH to put in the line-up - especially with the Yankees and stronger teams like them. But then, when you get to teams like the Orioles, you realize just how pathetic your D.H. would be.

I can't do a full write-up like some of you but I can talk a little bit about each franchise. I'll start with League 1 and the Dodgers: My initial pick was 1916 with some great choices in dead-ball pitching. Knowing that most offense in this league will be the "power" kind from the "50's", I was hoping that this pitching staff would negate some of that power. Four decent SP's available and a Zack Wheat OF'er seemed like a pretty good deal. Second pick, I figured I better go all-offense so I went with 1950 which gave me Duke, Roy, Jackie, Pee Wee and Gil. Okay, seems like we're off to a pretty good start. Pick No. 3 was a search for bullpen arms. 2008 gave me Hong-Chih Kuo, Jonathan Broxton, Cory Wade and Takashi Saito. As a bonus, I get the Manny Ramirez with the .601 SLG %. Honestly, I was happy with this team then - and didn't feel like I needed much more - other than a 3B and a bit more defense. The last two picks of 2019 and 1994 helped me obtain those. Justin Turner and Tim Wallach - whoever sucks less will get most of the playing time at 3B. Also, we got to add Mike Piazza to go with Roy Campanella (pretty good Catching combo) and Cody Bellinger's MVP season. Throw in Walker Buehler and Pedro Baez from 2019 and I'm feeling pretty good about this team. Since I feel good about them, I'm hesitant to say it but I think they'll earn me a spot in Round Two. (kiss of death)

My other League 1 team - the Yankees. I have no clue what I was thinking when I picked this team. How can you have a Top 12 pick with the Yankees and go with 1997? I crack myself up just sitting here thinking about it. That season didn't give me anything special - an average Andy Pettitte, and average David Cone, an average (for him) Mariano Rivera, an average Derek "past the diving" Jeter - and a pretty good season by Bernie Williams. What a joke - could have had a good Ruth/Gehrig season or some other...but Nooooooooooooo. Second pick, I finally did something right and went with 1939. Lots of good stuff on this roster. Dimaggio, Dickey, Red Rolfe at 3B and George Selkirk with his .452 OBP%. Throw in Marius Russo and it's a win. With my third pick, I'm slowly trying to redeem myself with 1946. Joe Dimaggio is my clone and he comes with a great Charlie Keller season. Spud Chandler is a win for the Starting rotation and Red Ruffing should be great in the bullpen. Aaron Robinson rounds things out as Bill Dickey's back-up - and he's no clouch at the plate. Already having some great hitting outfielders on the roster, I figured with pick four I'd add another one. Mickey Mantle came with 1955 and he brought along his pals Yogi Berra, Gil McDougald and Whitey Ford. Bob Cerv will be a good bench player/pinch hitter with his .341/.411/.541 batting line. Feeling pretty good about most of the team but I wasn't completely happy with the pitching staff. Lucky for me sitting there waiting for my last pick was 2023 which brought me Gerrit Cole's "Cy Young" season. Throw in two good relievers in Kahnle and Holmes and we strengthened the staff up quite a bit. Also grabbing a partial season of Aaron Judge and his .613 SLG% helps a bit. Gleyber Torres fills out the roster as the last pick.

This killed me doing this - I'm not into typing much so I don't know if I'll be able to do any of the other thirteen teams or not. We'll see. What I do know is this drafting was a blast. Kudo's to Jeff for not only doing this but at the time of his retirement from his job when he could be spending all of his time relaxing and partying, he did a great job keeping things rolling along smoothly.

Posted by crazyamos on 2/4/2024 3:14:00 PM (view original):
I'll bite.

I've never entered more than 1-2 teams in a Juice (now schwarze tournament). I mainly play progressives and have also been able to go deep here without a lot of entries. When I saw this, I thought I might grab two teams. I must have been busy, though, as I misread multiple parts of the ad and made multiple mistakes.

The Red Sox are the franchise I know best. I hemmed and hawed about taking a team, but then in a flash, all I wanted were gone. I read the league ad schwarze posted as only allowing people to grab two teams every 24 hours. But it turned out people could still grab 8 slots or whatever at once but could only claim two specific teams ever 24 hours. All to say, the slots were gone very fast. Before that, I was about to grab the 2000 Sox, which I still think was perhaps the best choice available for them. Super Pedro, Super Nomar, and a high choice in the other drafts....

Instead I grabbed an ORIOLES squad because they have fewer stand-out, mega-star seasons than other franchises, and I thought that would make for an interesting drafting experience. It did.

I took the 1969 team for two reasons. One, I misread the post in a second way and had the (wrong!) impression in my head that the subsequent drafts were a straight snake draft. Hadn't realized grabbing a team with such a strong real life record would be a liability. My bad attention to detail. Whatever, no regrets. The other reason I chose them was that St. Louis/Balitmore doesn't have a ton of standout starting pitching seasons and has far worse dead-ball era pitching than most other franchises. This season gave me Mike Cuellar's ace year and a lower inning but very high quality Jim Palmer season - two of the best starting pitching seasons in franchise history. Few to no SPs with sub 2.0 ERC# seasons, but these guys are both close. I figured I'd also have a great Frank Robinson season, at least one ace RP, and maybe use Boog Powell at 1B or the A+++ Paul Blair in CF. I kept Robinson's .955 OPS as well as ace RPs Eddie Watt and Dick Hall.

In the second round, I was looking at position scarcity. SS is a weak position in this franchise, so I grabbed the 1984 club to get one of Cal Ripken's two best years - strong power hitting and A++ fielding. I also grabbed Eddie Murray, with a great switch hitting season and more A+ defense. Not much else here, but Storm Davis and Mike Boddiker may be servicable long relievers at this cap and we ended up using Rick Dempsey as a bad half time catcher - by far our biggest weakness.

In the third and fourth round, I had back to back picks and took a long time figuring out what to do, including posting an initial choice that wasn't even available! (Did I mention how bad my attention to detail was for this league?!?) I needed a 2B and 3B, another SP, and a catcher still, as well as more depth in OF and RP. What to prioritize?

I ended up taking 1937 and 1976. Here's why. 1976 gave me a decent Bobby Grich for 2B. So so hitting and strong defense, but also a lot of pitching depth. I get Jim Palmer as my clone, making up 2/3 of a three man rotation we will use. Grant Jackson and Fred Holdsworth are ace relievers. Doyle Alexander is another respectable Long A pitcher. 1937 was a weird choice. I probably wouldn't make it again. But I get another ace fielding and strong hitting infielder in Harlond Clift's .960 OPS year. No usable pitching on this club, but Beau Bell (a .340 avg/.900 OPS player I'd never heard of) will platoon in one corner OF and Sam West in CF. Joe Vosmik, OF and Gerard Lipscomb, IF give us pinch hitting/back-up depth.

For my final pick, I wanted a team that would help us at catcher and provide other useful depth. With the very last pick of the whole draft, I actually had several Wally Schang seasons to choose from. I took 1929, with a non-awful half-time catching solution and very good OF platoons from Heinie Manush (.355 avg) and and A++ defensive whiz Fred Schulte. Ski Melillo is a defensive whiz back-up at 2B and Left Stewart a non-awful mop-up/Long B pitcher.

No idea how this team will do. I doubt any of the O's teams are all around great.
This one has solid if not superb pitching. It has truly excellent defense at all four infield positions and CF. And the team has some good hitters with a lot of doubles power. I'll be disappointed if they don't advance.

I have the 1937 Browns in the current Bad Neighbor League and am getting strong seasons from Clift (.319/.416/.536 with 18 plus plays thru 144 games) and Bell (.327/.373/.463 with 45 2B and just 2 errors splitting time at 1B and RF). I didn’t know Bell either. Named the team Beau Peeps after him.