That should be the name of the firm!

Jigger Statz had over 4,000 career hits! (Majors and minors combined)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigger_Statz

Jigger Statz
Mixological Data Services
"We keep track when you've lost count!"

Someone who has photoshop could make it look like he's holding the cocktail shaker, which would be way cooler. But you get the idea.

I almost named my team "They Cloned Martin Prado?!?"

Sorry I'm late here. Also apologize for the formatting, maybe I'll go back through and clean it up, but probably not!

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0 1994 ATL
1 2012 ATL
2 2022 ATL
3 1973 ATL
4 1951 ATL
Starting with 1994 was all about getting Greg Maddux, of course. I did also get a very good Fred McGriff, one of the top 1B seasons in Braves history, but that was mostly it. David Justice will platoon in RF, Jose Oliva has a fun 94-PA pinch-hitting season with a .663 SLG, and Steve Avery was added at the end for (hopefully) mop-up innings. This gave me a mid-round pick in the rest of the draft (7th).

2012 was mostly about pitching. Kimbrel has arguably the best relief season in franchise history, but also get Kris Medlen, Brandon Beachy, and Luis Avilan with about 250 combined innings with combined ERC below 2.00. The final spot went to Michael Bourn who can't really hit but is A/A and super fast. He'll platoon in CF.

2022 was similar--more pitching. Though it came without a Kimbrel-level stud, the combination of Strider, Minter, and McHugh give another 200+ super-relief innings. Max Fried adds 185 innings with 2.29 ERC to the rotation. I'm now at over 1000 innings (excluding Avery) with Fried as my worst-quality pitcher of the group. Offense? Who needs that. I did get Dansby Swanson to be my SS from this season.

Okay, my offense currently consists of Fred McGriff and a bunch of replacement-level guys. I need a broad range of hitters and 1973 does the trick. Darrell Evans and Davey Johnson are both top 5 at their position. It's not Hank Aaron's best season but 468 PA and OPS over 1.000 will do. Dusty Baker ended up making it and will platoon in CF and back up in the corners. For my last spot I went with Dick Dietz who can really hit but D/D/D- behind the plate isn't great. At the very least he can be a pinch-hitter.

For my last spot, I need two things mostly--a catcher and a few-hundred innings. 1951 isn't Spahn's best season but he has 327 innings and a respectable-enough 3.04 ERC. He, along with adding Avery, gets me plenty of innings (1605 total). At catcher, enter Walker Cooper, with 392 pretty good PA and an A arm. I also grabbed his backup Ebba St. Claire who can't hit but is a better defender than Dietz. Sid Gordon's best position is 3B where I alreaday have Evans but he's rated in the OF as well and hits well enough to platoon there.

Overall, my pitching better carry us. The Braves don't have a ton of deadball pitching and we have a fair amount of power up and down the lineup, so hopefully we can hit a few long balls and Maddux and company can shut down the Chippers and Hanks and Eddies of the league.


0 1991 BAL
1 1973 BAL
2 1925 BAL
3 1993 BAL
4 1978 BAL
My initial pick came late in the process and man, the Browns/Orioles don't have a ton of talent compared to some of these other franchises. At the very least, 1991 gets me a high pick in the draft (2nd behind schwarze). I get the top Cal Ripken season at SS and then four relievers under 100 innings. Great first pick!

Looking for some pitching and there's just not a season with more than 1 good SP. 1973 does get me a Jim Palmer season and a couple more good relievers in Grant Jackson and Bob Reynolds. That's almost 500 good innings between the three of them. On the hitting side, Bobby Grich is the main draw with the 7th-best Orioles 2B season, decent OBP and A+/A+ defense. I grabbed another elite defender in Paul Blair, who is A-/A+ in the OF. He can't great (.737 OPS) but well enough to man CF if needed.

I still need more pitching but I also need a ton of hitting. I have my double-play combination and maybe some CF at-bats but that's it. 1925 has a great outfield trio. Two of the three have less than 500 PA, but both Ken Williams (490 PA) and Harry Rice (445 PA) can rake. Baby Doll Jacobson brings a full season and with C/A fielding can play CF. Rice can also slide over to 1B if needed, so some flexibility there. I added Hank Severeid as the short-side of my catching platoon--263 PA with A- arm and .855 OPS, that'll do. My final spot went to Marty McManus who is just a mediocre bench guy.

Just two spots to go and still so many holes. Need a catcher, 3B, a 1B/OF, and a bunch of innings. Chris Hoiles is still thre and he's the best catcher for the O's franchise. His 503 PA fit perfectly with Severeid (although wish Hoiles was a lefty, oh well), and he has the A+ arm. Ben McDonald doesn't blow your socks off but it's 221 innings and a sub-3.00 ERC, so come on down. Anytime you can clone Jim Poole to get 87 combined innings, you gotta do it, so he'll be two parts of what's actually shaping up to be a pretty decent bullpen. For the final two spots I actually was able to piece together 400 decent PA at 3B between Mike Pagliarulo and Tim Hulett. Kinda like this pick.

Okay, I first and foremost need innings (I'm under 1100) but also need some 1B/OF and 3B at-bats. 1978 has a decent Scott McGregor (235 IP, 2.90 ERC) and a less-decent Dennis Martinez, who at least has 279 innings. I get my starting 3B in an actually pretty good Doug DeCinces season. And Eddie Murray brings a reasonable 1B season. For the final spot, I added Ken Singleton's switch-hitting bat. He probably won't play much, but gives me a better hitting option to counterbalance Paul Blair's glove when either Rice or Williams need to rest in the OF.

My starting pitching is horrid but my bullpen is actually pretty good. The offense turned out better than I thought with Ripken and Hoiles best-in-class, the 1925 outfield very solid, and the rest of the infield of Grich, DeCinces, and Murray have great gloves to go with decent bats. Cautiously optimistic here.

0 2018 BOS
1 1903 BOS
2 1948 BOS
3 1975 BOS
4 2017 BOS
2018 gives a nice solid base to work from. Chris Sale only throws 158 innings but with a 1.171 ERC. Ryan Brasier adds 34 innings at a 1.22 ERC. I chose him over Kimbrel for reasons that will become clear later on in this write-up. Mookie Betts has one of his better seasons and JD Martinez has a DH year but with A+/B- ratings in the OF, giving me 2/3 of my outfield. Xander Bogaerts isn't special, but he'll soak up the SS at-bats.

1903 brings 400 innings from Cy Young (2.24 ERC) and another 639 from Bill Dinneen and Tom Hughes--over 1000 innings between them. That gives me a ton of flexibility to focus on hitting and relievers the rest of the way. I also did end up using Jimmy Collins as my starting 3B despite looking at various upgrades later on. He'll be fine hitting in the 7 or 8 spot. Duke Farrell only has 73 PA as a catcher (and he can rake, OPS over 1.000) but as you'll see, that will be very useful!

Let's get some hitting and where better to start with than Teddy Ballgame. He completes my OF (or so I thought). Bobby Doerr has one of the top half-dozen 2B seasons. Those are the two most useful pieces. Vern Stephens provided another SS option and for a while I thought about using him and replacing Bogaerts with someone else, but in the end both made the roster because Bogaerts is better but there isn't a better use in 1948 than Stephens as a backup, oh well. I got a 2nd part of my catching platoon with 144 PA for Matt Batts. For the final spot, I ended up with Billy Goodman at 1B. He won't start there (more on that later) but he's got a decent bat and his B/B+ fielding will be the defensive replacement late in games.

Two picks left and I need lots of catcher at-bats, a 1st baseman and a few more relief innings. I looked at a ton of Fisk seasons (and a couple other random non-Fisk catchers) but none came with any help. 1975 Fisk only has 298 PA but he has a great offensive season (.925 OPS) and A+ arm and comes with a really good Fred Lynn. At this point, I made two decisions: my catcher spot was going to be a 4-headed monster as Fisk, Farrell, and Batts combined for 515 PA so I still needed a few more. And with Lynn added to the mix, I would play one of my 4 outfielders at 1B (likely Ted Williams). For my 4th catcher, well, he came from 75 as well--Tim McCarver's 95 PA push us to 610 PA between 4 guys, plus he's a lefty (Farrell is switch, Fisk/Batts are righties). My final two spots aren't all that useful--Juan Beniquez will backup Lynn in centerfield (Lynn has 613 PA) and Cecil Cooper provides a LH power bat off the bench, plus can play 1B in a pinch.

At this point, Boston was one of the last drafts to finish. For most of these, I had not looked ahead which saved me the disappointment of getting sniped. But I had some time to look ahead here and with 3-4 picks left before me I was looking for as many quality relief innings as I could get. 2017 had a stud Kimbrel and while he's not a reliever, Sale had another strong starter season. Because I couldn't clone both Kimbrel and Sale, that pushed aside 2018 Kimbrel (which let me keep Bogaerts). Instead, I added Joe Kelly from this year (58 IP, 2.48 ERC). Kimbrel, Sale, and Kelly added 341 innings and put me over 1500. Thanks to my 3 deadballers, I only have an 8-man staff. That allowed me to keep a super-utility season from Eduardo Nunez where he can play 2B/3B/SS/OF. I also added a 5th catcher--Vazquez will mostly just be a defensive replacement when Fisk can't do it as Vazquez also has the A+ arm.

I don't have many of the elite hitting seasons, but should have pretty good depth to the lineup. My weird catching group should actually produce like one of the best catching units among Red Sox teams. I am playing Ted Williams out-of-position at 1B but the rest of the defense on this team should be solid to very good. Hopefully the pitching will be a strength with Cy Young, Dinneen and Hughes providing bulk and then the 2017-18 Sales and bullpen-mates closing the door.

0 1909 CHC
1 2021 CHC
2 1928 CHC
3 1984 CHC
4 1967 CHC
I think this was my very first pick or close to it. 1909 has two great seasons from Mordecai Brown and Orval Overall, giving me 665 innings with ERC below 2.00 combined. But they also have Ed Reulbach, Jack Pfiester and a relief season from Irv Higginbotham with ERC below 3.00. That's 1248 innings with an aggregate ERC in the low 2s! The main downsides--no hitting and a high win % meant picking towards the end of the rounds in the ensuing draft.

I'm not really sure why I didn't go with more hitting here but I did get 3 awesome relievers in Kimbrel, Chafin, and Tepera. Only 137 innings but all have ERC below 1.61. Now at 1385 innings. I did get two useful bats out of the equation as well. I kept trying to upgrade on Javier Baez because of his .324 OBP, but it's not that easy in Cubs-land. Baez does have A+ range at SS and a bit of power, though not sure how that'll play with all the great Cubs deadballers. The other spot went to Frank Schwindel who has a great platoon season at 1B with 239 PA, A/A- fielding, and a .995 OPS.

At this point, I keep trying to find Cubs hitters and I just can't find teams with anything especially in the OF. After looking into it...yeah, the Cubs have the worst collection of OF seasons of any of these teams. Other positions are relatively normal, but outfield is barren. After adjusting the baselines a bit, I settled on 1928. Hack Wilson is a legit stud and while other franchises wouldn't give these other guys a second look, both Riggs Stephenson and Kiki Cuyler are legitimate starting options. I'll end up only starting one of them, with likely Cuyler pushed to a backup role, but at the time I needed to secure the depth. I also got a really good Gabby Hartnett, who I had as the 5th-best catcher for the Cubs. 489 PA, A+ arm, and OPS over .900. For the final spot, I ended up just taking Woody English to be the backup to Baez (who only has 547 PA).

Okay, need 2B, 3B, strong side of the platoon at 1B, backup catcher, and some final relief innings. Maybe upgrade one of the OF spots if possible. Unfortunately, there are no seasons left with both a 2B and a 3B, so I'll need to split them. I actually looked at 1967 here but opted for 1984 to get the #2 ranked 2B season in 84 Sandberg, though he perenially underperforms. The other key piece here was Leon Durham, a lefty 1B with 552 PA and a nice bat that fits nicely into a platoon with Schwindel. I preferred a little more quality to my final innings but Rick Sutcliffe's 152 innings with 2.51 ERC will be fine as the final piece to my pitching staff. The final two spots just went to a couple of bench bats--Richie Hebner and Thad Bosley.

Okay, I need a 3B as my primary need. I looked at both some Santo seasons and an Aramis Ramirez, but I almost took 1967 last time and the fact that it lasted almost 20 picks to get back to me was surprising. There are a lot of good 3B seasons I guess in Cubs history. Still I had this Santo as the 3rd-best. And I also get an outfield upgrade in new starting CF Adolfo Phillips. He's .395 OBP, 91 speed, A+ range. Only 545 PA but with Cuyler pushed out I have plenty of backup PA. Not much else here but luckily I don't need much else. Randy Hundley is not a great hitter but he has A/A/A+ behind the plate and can easily soak up the remaining catcher at-bats. I added Billy Williams (not one of his best seasons, alas) as a lefty bat and finally Ernie Banks, just because.

The offense feels underwhelming but I think that's just the Cubs. Sandberg, Santo, Hack Wilson, and Hartnett are all among the best options at their position. Schwindel and Phillips provide some nice quality behind them. My main worry is the deadballers just shut down my mostly modern offense. But my pitching staff has to be among the league's best with 2-3 great deadball pitchers and some lights out relievers in the back end.

0 1916 CHW
1 1963 CHW
2 1994 CHW
3 1986 CHW
4 1935 CHW
1916 provided a bunch of pretty good innings and some good bats. There were 5 pitchers with ERC under 3.00, though I only ended up rostering the top two--Reb Russell and Joe Benz. I left off Eddie Cicotte (197 innings, 2.54 ERC) and Red Faber (216 IP, 2.64 ERC) as I was able to upgrade innings later. That let me take two stud hitters--both Joe Jackson and Eddie Collins are top 10 seasons at their position for the White Sox. The last spot went to Happy Felsch as, like their Chicago brethren, good outfielders are in short supply in the windy city.

That got me a mid-pick in the draft and with my first pick, I got more pitching with 1963. Gary Peters always seems to be solid and both Wilhelm (137 IP) and John Buzhardt (127 IP) are sub-2.50 ERC bullpen arms with big inning totals. That's 500 more quality innings. I ended up adding Juan Pizarro (215 IP, 2.68 ERC) at the end for a long reliever. Pete Ward is a fine 3B, he was my 5th pick from this group.

I guess I wanted a big bat so I went with 1994 to get the Big Hurt's best season. The rest of his teammates are mostly filler, but decent filler at that. Lance Johnson can't hit (.313 OBP, no power), but is A+/A+ in the outfield and 95 speed. He'll play some in a weak outfield. Julio Franco will be a pinch-hitter (.881 OPS). The last 2 spots went to mediocre relievers, Paul Assenmacher and Jose Deleon, 150 innings of 2.50-ish ERC as Setup B types.

I still need catcher and shortop and some outfield help. My staff is strong but my bullpen could use some studs. Enter 1986, which brings Ron Hassey (393 PA) and his teammate Scott Bradley (241 PA) as my catching tandem. The other 3 spots are bullpen studs, but all 3 have just 29 to 36 innings each! But combined, Joel McKeon, Ray Searage, and Bobby Thigpen have 98 innings with sub-2.00 ERC. Not too shabby.

I know I need a SS and most of the best White Sox SS are Luke Appling years. I looked at 1933 to get a better Al Simmons, but he wasn't much of an upgrade on Happy Felsch so I just went with the best Appling which I liked 1935 the best. Zeke Bonura doesn't have OF ratings but his B+/A+ at 1B should translate just fine to the outfield and his bat will play there when needed. Tony Piet may actually platoon with Ward at 3B. I did take Al Simmons but his 1935 season cannot hit (.302 OBP) so he'll be mostly a defensive replacement (B/A in the OF). Finally, I needed some mop up innings so I took Ted Lyons to get me over 1600 innings.

0 1923 CIN
1 1939 CIN
2 1965 CIN
3 2012 CIN
4 2022 CIN
1923 gives me some high-level talent and decent depth. Dolf Luque, including volume, is the 2nd-best starter in Reds history with 339 innings, 2.30 ERC. Offensively, you get one of the best catching seasons with Bubbles Hargrave and a very good starting OF in Edd Roush. That trio is a great start. I rounded out with pinch-hitter extroardinaire, Les Mann, and at the end I did take another pitcher with Eppa Rixey. His 326 innings aren't great (3.14 ERC) but they are reasonable enough for the Reds and he can hit some.

1939 brought another big-inning pitcher with 336 innings from Bucky Walters. That's over 650 innings from my top two pitchers. I also took Junior Thompson's 161 innings (2.84 ERC) from this season. I also got some solid hitters with Lonny Frey (starting 2B), Billy Werber (starting 3B), and Frank McCormick (he'll end up being a platoon 1B). I've got the bulk of my starting pitching and part/most of 5 of my 8 starting position players, a good start through two picks.

Needing some pop in the lineup, I added 1965 to get Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson. Leo Cardenas survived and will be my starting SS, so I ended up getting 3 starters from this year. Johnny Edwards will platoon with Hargrave to complete my catching tandem. I would have been fine with Pete Rose starting at 2B but I already had Frey. Rose still made it as the 5th option, so he'll pinch-hit and spell Frey (616 PA) when he needs a quick rest.

With plenty of starting innings, I wanted some relievers and 2012 fit the bill, primarily for Aroldis Chapman and JJ Hoover, 103 innings and 1.50 ERC combined. I took two other lesser relievers in Sam LeCure and Sean Marshall as well. My fifth was a stud Votto, who only has 475 PA but with McCormick in tow, I have a nice 1B platoon set up now and Votto will be by far my best hitter (.480 OBP!).

Don't need much, which is nice. I used my final pick primarily to upgrade the staff. Luis Castillo's 154 innings with 2.60 ERC will be a good long man and his teammaets Connor Overton and Alexis Diaz provide almost 100 more relief innings with sub-2.00 ERC. The last two spots are just bench depth with utility man Brandon Drury and OF Stuart Fairchild.

0 2017 CLE
1 2022 CLE
2 1922 CLE
3 1912 CLE
4 1949 CLE
One of the things that really helps in these types of draft is flexibility. Having someone who can play two positions (or sometimes two different players who are relatively equal) allows you more options later on. If you have a 2B/SS, you can find a team with a 2B OR one with a SS. As options dwindle, this can be quite useful. With that in mind, these modern Indians teams have some useful options. I started with 2017 and that got me a good Jose Ramirez season that can play either 2B (B-/C-) or 3B (A/D+). That was a useful tool in addition to the main draw which was 4 very good pitchers--an elite starter and reliever in Kluber and Andrew Miller and then solid versions in Carlos Carrasco and Joe Smith.

2022 brings the 2B/SS version with Andres Gimenez who has A+ range at either 2B or SS. It also has another Jose Ramirez, this one can only play 3B but that completes my infield as I slide 2017 Ramirez to 2B and Gimenez to SS. I got 3 more pitchers out of it including an elite Emmanuel Clase to join Miller at the back end of the bullpen, plus another sub-2.00 ERC reliever in Sam Hentges. It's not Shane Bieber's best year but it's pretty good (2.59 ERC). I now have over 850 innings between 4 relievers all below 2.30 ERC and 3 starters below 2.85.

I think I chose 1922 for the combination of Tris Speaker and my primary catcher in Steve O'Neill (502 PA, .412 OBP, A arm). Riggs Stephenson can hit some and play poor defense at 3B/2B/OF. My last two spots won't really be used. Charlie Jamieson will be the 4th outfielder (Speaker in particular is light on PA with 543). George Uhle might have the worst rostered ERC of any of my teams (4.00) and I have over 1500 innings without him, but just in case, he brings 303 more. I think he can hit though, so maybe he can help himself should he ever be needed.

Still needed some pop and help at 1B/OF, I went with 1912 primarily to get a great Joe Jackson. I now have two top 10 OF seasons, both with great averages and on-base percentages. Nap Lajoie sounds awesome, but this is not a vintage Lajoie season. Still, he OBPs over .400 and despite C-/D- ratings at 1B, that's where he'll play as my 2B spot is filled. Ted Easterly will backup O'Neill behind the plate. Art Griggs was going to be my backup 1B until he got replaced, but he still made the team because there's not much else from this season. Finally, I added Willie Mitchell, who has 174 innings with 0.00 HR#. He's my worst non-Uhle pitcher and with 1335 innings better, he'll be mostly a long guy/mop up.

At this point, I still have only about 1000 innings that I want to count on so I need some bulk. I also could use an OFer and some bench depth. Bob Lemon is a bit HR (0.63) and walk prone (3.66) but he has a 2.79 ERC# and more importantly 295 innings. Plus, he can hit. He'll be in the rotation. Mike Garcia is better per-inning (2.65 ERC) and less of a HR/BB issue and brings 185 more innings. I used this strategy in a few drafts, banking on the fact that I could get the last few hundred innings with my last pick. For the most part it worked out. In this case, I was also able to add some key offensive pieces. Larry Doby isn't much but he's better than Jamieson and fills my 3rd OF spot. Mickey Vernon is better than Griggs and is a lefty, so he can spell Lajoie at 1B and, thankfully, bring his B-/A+ glove as a defensive replacement. And with Gimenez light on PA (557), i get a utility Boudreau who can play any of the 4 infield positions, but mostly will backup at SS.

I like how this team turned out. I have some elite pitching in Kluber, Clase, and Miller plus plenty of depth to the staff with Bieber, Carrasco, Lemon and Garcia all in the mid-to-high 2s for ERC. I didn't get any of the 90s mashers like ManRam, Belle, or Thome but I think I have a very good infield with Gimenez and the Ramirez clones and then Shoeless Joe and Tris atop the lineup. Doby and Lajoie are the weak spots but both should be serviceable. Happy with this one.

0 1935 DET
1 1945 DET
2 1903 DET
3 2023 DET
4 1925 DET
1935 was hitting heavy with three top-tier starters in 1B Hank Greenberg, 2B Charlie Gehringer, and C Mickey Cochrane. I also ended up keeping SS Billy Rogell as a starter as well, though he wasn't a lock at this point. For the 5th spot, I get a 296-inning Schoolboy Rowe to start off the rotation. Good start.

The depth seasons run out quickly in Detroite, so 1945 is more about just getting the #1 pitching season with Hal Newhouser, 332 IP with 2.29 ERC. Up over 600 innings with my top two starters. I did end up adding Al Benton (203 IP, 3.07 ERC) as well, though I have 1400 better innings so he's a mop-up guy. Unfortunately the best position player for '45 is 2B Eddie Mayo, but I don't need him. He still made the team as a backup for lack of other options. I cloned Hank Greenberg despite just 331 PA, he has a .970 OPS and will play a corner outfield spot half the time. Roy Cullenbine can get on base (.400 OBP) but will be my 5th or 6th outfielder so not much use.

1903 brought a 3rd 300-inning starter in Bill Donovan (2.51 ERC) and that's now almost 1000 innings between him, Newhouser, and Rowe. No stud hitters here but some good depth. At this point, I have C, 1B, 2B, and maybe SS filled, but need lots of OF and potentially 3B. Jimmy Barrett has A+ range and .421 OBP, he'll play CF against righties. Billy Lush gave me the option to play him in the OF (B-/A) or at 3B (D+/A) with his .392 OBP. Ultimately, I kept him as my 3B starter. Kid Elberfeld was another option at 3B or SS. When I decided on Lush at 3B and was able to keep Rogell at SS, that allowed me to switch to Elberfeld's higher-quality partial season and he'll play SS against lefties. Sam Crawford was a starting placeholder but ended up as my 6th or 7th outfielder. Was able to plug a lot of holes with this pick.

I need relief pitching and outfielders at this point. 2023 brings the former, headlined by a pair of elite relievers in Tarik Skubal and Tyler Holton, both with 80+ innings and ERC around 1.70. Teammates Will Vest (48 IP, 2.31 ERC) and Jason Foley (69 IP, 2.66 ERC) will add bullpen depth and I finished with a 5th pitcher--Eduardo Rodriguez will fight with Al Benton to be the Long B reliever (I have 1277 innings better than those two).

My final pick was a bit of a luxury, but 1925 brought a ton of hitting. At this point, my OF consisted of Barrett, Cullenbine, Crawford, and half of a Greenberg, with Lush as a possibility too (shifting Elberfeld to 3B). I wanted to upgrade Cullenbine/Crawford at least and get a platoon-mate for Greenberg, so that's 1.5 spots. Instead, I got 3 guys. Cobb is a no-brainer starter (though he has just 516 PA), but both Harry Heilmann and Al Wingo are stud hitters too with OBP near .440 and SLG over .500. Those 3 will platoon with Barrett and Greenberg to cover my OF spots, rendering Crawford and Cullenbine mostly superfluous. I also got my backup catcher with Johnny Bassler (no power but a .391 OBP and A arm). Final spot went to Frank O'Rourke for no real reason.

Getting 1925 with the last pick really bolstered my offense. My SS and 3B are weak but the other 6 starters should really hit. With three huge inning starters, I was able to get a decent bullpen behind them. Think there's a decent chance this team does well.

0 2021 LAD
1 2016 LAD
2 1954 LAD
3 2017 LAD
4 2001 LAD
I always end up hating my Dodgers teams. I believe in the prior juice version of this draft, my Dodgers were my worst team. I picked 2021 early on, not researching much or thinking about draft order. That put me 10th. I did get three sub-2.15 ERC pitchers in Scherzer (though he is HR prone (0.82)), Buehler, and Trienen for 459 combined innings. I also picked up most of my middle infield with 2B/SS Trea Turner and a 409-PA Corey Seager that will play against righties.

I didn't end up using the best 2016 position player (Seager) but this pick was about more pitching. The 149-inning, 1.20 ERC Kershaw is the gem and Kenley Jansen's 69-inning, 1.01 ERC season is elite as well. Rich Hill adds another 110 IP with 2.00 ERC and I added Kenta Maeda's 176 IP at the end, though again he's quite homer-prone (0.77). I'm hoping Dodger Stadium and the lack of power throughout the Dodgers history doesn't hurt Maeda or Scherzer too much. My final spot went to Joc Pederson for outfield depth and some defensive help.

Okay, time to get some hitting. 1954 Duke Snider is arguably the best position player in the sim for the Dodgers, he'll play CF. Gil Hodges has A-/A- defense at 1B and a .935 OPS, shockingly one of the top 5 first base seasons for them. Pee Wee Reese ended up making it as the other part of my SS platoon and Jackie Robinson provides some good hitting (.902 OPS) and ability to play 3B, 2B, and OF. I needed some bulk innings at the end so I took Carl Erskine for his 274 IP. Heowever, his 3.45 ERC and 0.91 HR don't inspire much confidence. I have 1343 better innings, so hoping he is mostly resigned to low-leverage outings.

2017 brought my starting 3B in Justin Turner, a nice short-side platoon catcher in Austin Barnes, and two more stud relievers. I cloned Kenley Jansen instead of Kershaw and also borugh on Brandon Morrow. For the 5th spot, I got Alex Wood's 152 IP (2.45 ERC) as another lefty to join Kershaw and Hill.

I need a catcher and some outfield help. I'm sure there will be plenty of Piazzas but 2001 gets me a nice LoDuca season who also has an A+ arm, something Piazza never brings. I also get two starting OF with Shawn Green and Gary Sheffield flanking the Duke. McKay Christensen has a .399 OBP and 90 speed--he can't field (D-/D-) but he'll pinch-hit and pinch-run in his 60 PA. Final spot goes to Kevin Brown's 116 IP (2.56 ERC), my 6th pitcher between 100 and 180 IP.

I have an all-modern pitching staff (save for Erskine, who I hope doesn't pitch much). All the Dodgers teams will have stud pitching, so hopefully this group can compete. I think my offense will be reasonable, though outside of Snider I don't have any studs. However, all my regulars are at .843 OPS or better, so we're betting on lineup balance.

0 1915 MIN
1 1924 MIN
2 1970 MIN
3 2013 MIN
4 1978 MIN
By my count, there will be 13 Walter Johnsons in this league totaling 4543 innings (I'm not counting 1927 Walter with 114 IP and 3.61 ERC#). Assuming 1400 innings for each of the 12 teams, that's 16,800 innings needed, meaning over a quarter (27%) of Twins/Senators innings will be thrown by the Big Train. All that to say, should probably get a good one and maybe two. 1915 isn't his best season but it's quite good. Plus, he can hit and he comes with friends. George Dumont is the rare good reliever from the deadball era with 1.57 ERC in 43 innings. I also rostered two other starters in Doc Ayers and Bert Gallia, giving me 899 innings with 2.56 ERC or better to start. My final spot from this year ended up going to my 3rd-string catcher, Rip Williams. Okay, not a lot in the way of hitting here.

1924 brought a Walter Johnson clone, though a lesser version (293 IP, 2.31 ERC). Still fantastic and my pitching staff is virtuall set now with almost 1300 innings. Luckily this Walter's friends are on the offensive side of things. Goose Goslin is the main draw (.913 OPS, C-/A-). Both Sam Rice and Wid Matthews will factor into the OF equation as well (Rice has the better bat, Matthews has the A+ range). Doc Prothro was the final spot, though mostly as a pinch-hitter.

Want to add some relievers at some point but the lineup is the priority now. 1970 Tony Oliva is a solid OF for the Twins franchise and can play CF (C-/A). Cesar Tovar is a great flexibility pick with A+ range at 2B, 3B, and the OF, plus a decent enough bat (.803 OPS). He'll start at 2B but then slide to 3B as a defensive replacement. That's because my 3B will by Harmon Killebrew who can rake (.963 OPS) but not field (C+/D-). Three starting position players is a nice haul. Oh, and I did get some bullpen help. Tom Hall's 156 innings are high-walk (3.68) but low OAV (0.179). And Stan Williams adds 114 more innings with 2.29 ERC. That's 1419 innings, all very high quality.

I need a catcher and a SS with my last two picks, plus a 1B upgrade. Right now '70 Cardenas is my placeholder at SS and he does have A/B fielding but .304 OBP is not ideal. Same for Muddy Ruel at catcher (A arm but .679 OPS). I've gone with the 2013 Twins before and you get ALMOST a full season of PA between the stud Joe Mauer (508 PA, .400+ OBP, A+ arm) and his small-PA backup Josmil Pinto (83 PA, .957 OPS, A+ arm). That's 591 pretty darn good catching PA. You also get a stud Caleb Thielbar, 46 innings with 1.36 ERC#. And for good measure, Glen Perkins has 63 innings with sub-2.00 ERC as well. The 5th spot isn't that useful but Brian Dozier can pop a HR every now and then and his A/B+ defense at 2B will essentially replace Killebrew late in games (with Tovar sliding from 2B to 3B).

Not a lot of great Twins SS with Smalley and Cardenas my main options here. 1978 got me what I needed though with a very solid Smalley at SS (7th-best SS season for the franchise) and a 1B upgrade in Rod Carew (.413 OBP). Not much else here. Dan Ford will be a depth outfield piece. And while, Mike Marshall and Jeff Holly are both bullpen pieces with sub-3.00 ERC, they are my two worst pitchers and I have over 1500 better innings. Not a bad luxury, though I'm glad I don't have to see how their 3.36 and 4.58 walk rates will play out.

With so many Walter Johnsons, plus some Johan Santanas and Blylevens and the like, the staffs in this league should be pretty good. But I gotta think mine will be among the best as I was able to get two Walters and supplement with 5 really good relievers. The offense will be less fearsome. I didn't stick the team in Target Field as I do have some power spread throughout but only Killebrew is really a bopper. I'll have A range across my outfield and except for Killebrew, some really good infield range as well. Will be a lot of low-scoring games, so we'll need the close game luck to favor us. Hopefully the bullpen and defense can have some say there.

0 1930 NYY
1 2017 NYY
2 1981 NYY
3 2022 NYY
4 2004 NYY
The embarrassment of riches that the Yankees have had is on full display in these drafts. So much talent! To that point, I chose the 1930 Yankees for my initial pick and their 55.8% win% not only got me the first pick but was the only team taken below 59%. The main draw was one of the many Ruth/Gehrig tandems. This is one of Gehrig's best seasons while Ruth has many like this but I still had it ranked as a top-10 OF season for all Yankees. A few other hitters were on the bubble. Both Ben Chapman and Tony Lazzeri gave me multi-position flexibility at 2B/3B (Lazzeri was also rated at 1B/OF and even SS) and I ended up using both, opting to put Chapman at 2B and Lazzeri at 3B where they both have A+ range. I also considered Earle Combs but was able to upgrade the OF later. Same for Bill Dickey at catcher. For my final spot, I ended up rostering the only pitcher of note from 1930, Red Ruffing. His quality isn't great, just 3.22 ERC, but it's not terrible and he can really hit--his OPS is over 1.000!

With the first pick of the draft portion and no quality pitching yet to speak of, I should have been looking for some innings. 2017 certainly has some and for a while, I had Luis Severino penciled in as a starter, though he didn't make the cut. Instead, I took 3 stud relievers all with ERC below 1.50 and 195 innings combined--Chad Green, David Robertson, and Adam Warren. On the offensive side, Aaron Judge was a no-brainer. Two others were decent options at premium positions--Gary Sanchez (A+ arm and good power) who I ended up keeping as my primary catcher, and Didi Gregorius who did not make the cut at shortstop.

At this point, my rotation consists of Ruffing and Severino, at best. I do have the three bullpen studs but I need innings. 1981 doesn't have a great pitcher with 200+ innings but it has 4 really good pitchers, three of whom are in the 100-200 range. Goose Gossage is the pure reliever with a 1.20 ERC in 71 innings. Dave Righetti's 160 innings with 1.97 ERC and low HR should be great. The other two gave me some pause with their HR numbers in a league filled with Ruths and Gehrigs and Mantles and Judges, but as the 3rd- and 4th-best pitchers from the season and with sterling other numbers, I figured it was worth it. The Rons--Davis and Guidry) have over 300 innings between them with 1.99 and 2.35 ERC, respectively. The 0.71 and 0.82 HR# numbers aren't great, but WHIPs of 1.01 are. For the final spot, I took Rudy May (224 IP, 3.17 ERC), but he'll just be mop up. That does give me 3 lefties from this group, which should help some against Ruth and Gehrig at least?

My final two picks were back-to-back, which is great in a league like this. I need a SS upgrade (over Gregarius), another OF, some bench backups, and more innings. 2022 brought Nestor Cortes (158 IP, 2.00 ERC) and Michael King (51 IP, 1.96 ERC). I also got my clone, another Aaron Judge, this one will have to play CF (A+/C) but he hit 62 HR so that'll help his defense look better. The last two spots went to Matt Carpenter's great 154 PA pinch-hitting season (1.145 OPS) and DJ LeMahieu to backup Chapman and Lazzeri in the infield.

Needs remaining: SS, backup catcher, relievers. 2004 brings a very reasonable Jeter, a good hitting Posada, and two more good relievers in Tom Gordon (1.35 ERC) and Mariano Rivera (2.21 ERC). For the final spot, I grabbed Gary Sheffield as my 4th outfielder.

This team obviously feels awesome--I mean, I have Gehrig, Ruth, and two Judges atop the lineup--but all Yankees teams will be stacked. My bottom 4 hitters of Sanchez/Posada, Chapman, Lazzeri, and Jeter are likely below-average. My pitching has over 1100 innings with ERC 2.35 or better, and 836 of those are 2.00 or lower! My two worries there: (1) HR prevention (I have six pitcehrs totaling over 900 innings with 0.50 HR or worse) and (2) the quality of my last few hundred innings. After my good 1100, I have Rudy May and Ruffing, both with ERCs over 3.00 and HR issues. Ruffing is my only pitcher from pre-1980 and even he's not a deadballer. We'll see if the home run issues bury us or if the low OAV and high K pitchers can overwhelm that by just keeping others off the basepaths.

0 2020 OAK
1 2019 OAK
2 1904 OAK
3 1969 OAK
4 1941 OAK
I don't remember exactly why I chose 2020 to start out with. For sure getting Liam Hendriks (0.90 ERC), Burch Smith (1.05), and Jake Diekman (1.36) to anchor the bullpen was one reason. I'm guessing getting the 3rd pick in the draft portion was another. The last two players were another (lesser) bullpen arm in Joakim Soria (2.44 ERC) and half of my catching tandem in Sean Murphy.

With the 3rd pick, I went back-to-back with 2019 and made Liam Hendriks my clone. This version wasn't as good (1.71) but adds another 85 bullpen innings. He brought two more friends in JB Wendelken and Yusmeiro Petit. I now have zero starters but 7 relievers totaling 419 innnings, and all but Soria's 60 IP are below 1.75 ERC. I also got some decent hitters with this season, most importantly Marcus Semien, the #1 SS in A's history. The other player was Mark Canha who had just 497 PA but a .400 OBP and he's got strong ratings at both 1B (A+/A) and the OF (B+/B+), which provided some nice optionality throughout the draft.

Okay, I have no starting pitchers and just one real starting position player. 1904 solves one of those issues in full. I took 4 starters from this season, none of whom are elite but all of whom are solid, with ERC ranging from 2.61 to 3.00 and low HR# numbers. Rube Waddell and Chief Bender lead the way (630 combined innings) getting me over 1000. I'll need one of Weldon Henley and Eddie Plank to be the 3rd starter and the other will fill in on mop-up duty. No real hitters from here, I rostered Danny Murphy as my 5th guy simply to be a backup 2B.

Okay, I need lots of position players but luckily no innings, and I have two picks to do it. For my first one, I went 1969, getting me three starters: Sal Bando (5th-best A's 3B), Reggie Jackson (7th-best OF), and Dick Green at 2B. Rick Monday will platoon and start against righties. And Tito Francona's 99 PA of .971 OPS will be our primary pinch-hitter.

With 3 1/2 more starters on board, I need a starting 1B/OF (Canha can flip between the two), a catacher, and a platoon partner for Monday. 1941 brings Sam Chapman to start in CF (A+ range) and Frankie Hayes to split time with Sean Murphy behind the plate. Bob Johnson brings the right-handed bat and solid glove (A/B+) to platoon with Monday. The last two spots are a pinch-hitter in Elmer Valo (1.033 OPS) and a left-handed 1B in Dick Siebert that probably won't play much.

Writing this well after the fact, I don't remember my strategy or thinking at the time. Clearly, I'm banking on an elite bullpen as the backbone of the team. Getting all of my innings from 1904 allowed me two full seasons dedicated to filling out the bulk of the lineup, so I think I did pretty well considering my first two picks produced 1.5 starters (hitters OR pitchers). But that also seems like quite a lot to put on a bullpen, so we'll see.

0 1980 PHI
1 2021 PHI
2 1933 PHI
3 1920 PHI
4 1943 PHI
1980 brings a stud Mike Schmidt, of course. I have him as the 2nd-best 3B for the Phillies. It's not the best Steve Carlton but it's a pretty good one, with 303 innings and 2.41 ERC. Two pretty good relievers come with him in Tug McGraw (92 IP, 1.62 ERC) and Marty Bystrom (36 IP, 1.78 ERC). I tried to upgrade at 2B later, but couldn't really do so. So while Manny Trillo doesn't really hit (.338 OBP), he does field (A-/A) so he'll likely be the starter at the keystone.

2021 was a pretty good combination of high-end talent with depth as well and I'll use all 5 guys. Bryce Harper is the top guy, and despite D- range in both spots, he has A fielding so is an option at both 1B and OF. Jean Segura can play both 2B and SS but he's just D/D+ at short. He's very similar to Trillo so I'll give both a shot and see who performs better. JT Realmuto isn't all that exciting (.775 OPS) but he's A+/A+/D+ behind the plate and A+/A+ at 1B so he can soak up some replacement-level at-bats at both spots (and be a defensive replacement for Harper). My other two spots are two pretty good pitchers. Zach Wheeler has an even better ERC than Carlton (2.27) and Ranger Suarez only has 106 innings, but an ERC under 2.00 (1.92).

Getting 10 usable players (and some bonus flexibility with multi-position guys) from the first two seasons is nice. I have about half of my needed innings (750) and likely 2.5 starting position players (Harper, Trillo or Segura, and Realmuto). 1933 starts to fill in the holes on the positional side of things, starting with Chuck Klein's monster season. Spud Davis also provides the 3rd-best catching season in Phillies history, meaning I'll only need a little bit of Realmuto to spell Davis (576 PA). Wes Schulmerich gives a replacement-level option in the outfield (unfortunately, he'll likely have to start most games). Harry McCurdy's .457 OBP will mostly be a pinch-hitter because I don't want to see his C/D-/D- catcher defense. One more decent relief pitcher gets added to the mix with Reggie Grabowski (52 IP, 2.47 ERC).

1920 brought two more key starters--both Cy Williams (CF) and Dave Bancroft (SS) bring A+ range to an up-the-middle position. Irish Meusel and Casey Stengel are just pinch-hitters and outfield depth. And I did bring Eppa Rixey into the fold. I don't love his 3.37 ERC but he does bring 302 innings and I'll need at least some of those.

For my final pick, I need a few hundred innings. Not counting Rixey, I'm at about 800. I committed the sin of looking ahead and figured I was safe with 1911 and actually built out my whole team with Pete Alexander and company. schwarze had a ton of innings already but he sniped me at the pick right before. Sherry Magee would have also been a slight upgrade on Schulmerich. Instead, I pivoted to 1943. There is no hitting upgrade--Pinky May (3B) and Buster Adams (OF) will just be backups--but I get another 100 usable innings relative to 1911. Dick Barrett (179 IP, 2.48 ERC) and Schoolboy Rowe (210 IP, 2.79 ERC) provide almost 400 innings of very reasonable pitching. I also get to add Si Johnson's 2.95 ERC in 119 innings. That's another 100+ innings at least that Eppa Rixey doesn't need to throw.

There's some high-end talent on this team. The heart of the order--Klein, Schmidt, and Harper--is elite, though the other 5 hitters are replacement-level or a bit above. There is some good defense, especially in the infield (A range or better at 2B/3B/SS) and in center (A+ range). Same story on the pitching side where the top 750 innings are pretty good, but needing to rely on Eppa Rixey, Si Johnson, and company won't be great. We'll see if stars and scrubs can hang with more well-rounded teams.

0 2003 SFG
1 1903 SFG
2 2015 SFG
3 1994 SFG
4 1962 SFG
There were still some of the deadball Giants teams available but 2003 allowed me to not just get an elite version of Bonds but also probably the best modern pitcher from the franchise in Jason Schmidt. Thos were the two main attractions here, but I also got a couple decent relievers in Matt Herges (2.07 ERC) and Joe Nathan (2.22). For a while Ray Durham was the heavy side of my 2nd-base platoon, but ultimately he'll end up as the light side.

The elite Mathewson seasons are of course gone but there's still some volume options in the Giatns deadball era. I went with 1903 to not just get 427 Mathewson innings (2.57 ERC) but also 506 from teammate Joe McGinnity (2.66). Maybe not the highest-quality starter innings out there but decent enough and with low HR# numbers such that the volume should allow me to stack up the rest of my pitching spots on relievers. I did take Jack Cronin as a 3rd pitcher but he's not even mop-up worthy, he'll be set to rest. The best hitter from this season is Roger Bresnahan and he's got a great bat (.442 OBP) such that his bad defense can play anywhere and he's reated badly everywhere (Catcher, 1B, OF, and 3B). That flexibility is always appreciated and for a long time he was going to be part of my catcher solution. Last spot was Sam Mertes, who will be just a backup 1B/OF (also reted at Catcher! D-/D/D).

Okay, I've got 1256 innings, so mostly just need a few relievers. I have two for sure starting position players in Bonds and Bresnahan, with Durham and Mertes as placeholders who can be upgraded. 2015 brings a bunch of hitting options. Buster Posey was a lock as the #2 Giants catcher. 2B Joe Panik, SS Brandon Crawford, 3B Matt Duffy, 1B Brandon Belt, and OF Hunter Pence are all in consideration. Panik (who will platoon with Durham) and Crawford ultimately make the cut. I really wanted to upgrade Crawford (.327 OBP) but he does have A/A fielding and the Giants just don't have many great options from their history. I also got my two best relievers to this point in Javier Lopez (39 IP, 1.28 ERC) and Hunter Strickalnd (1.73).

I have at least a replacement-level placeholder at most positions, so it's time to look for upgrades and then shift around the remaining pieces to fit. I know Bonds and Posey are in. Bresnahan will start somewhere. Panik/Durham at 2B is probably the next-best position, so that's 4 spots done with Bresnahan able to float 1B/OF or even 3B. Enter 1994. Am I worried about Matt Williams and his .317 OBP and HR-dependent offense? Absolutely. But while he probably won't be the 3rd-best 3B like I had him pegged as, hopefully he and his A+ range and power are at least solid. More confidently, I got a Bonds clone from his only-37-home-run days, with .424 OBP and 87 speed. Mike Jackson adds 60 innings at 1.48 ERC to the bullpen. Final spots went to backups/defensive replacements in SS Royce Clayton (.606 OPS, ugh) and OF Darren Lewis (A/A- in the OF).

Starting lineup currently: C Buster Posey, 2B Panik/Durham, 3B Williams, OF Bonds, OF Bonds, plus Bresnahan at 1B or OF. That's 6 of 8 spots. My best SS is Brandon Crawford and my next-best 1B/OF is either Brandon Belt or Sam Mertes. Easily the best players still left out there are different versions of some guy named Willie Mays. He doesn't usually bring great teammates in these years, so can understand why they're still around, but I focus on grabbing a Mays and just doing the best I can with the rest. I settle on 1962 to get an A+ range, .385 OBP, and nearly 700 PA. Willie McCovey only has 257 PA but I'm sure I'll find some spots to use them with his .953 OPS. He's D- range but at least rated at both 1B and OF. Tom Haller can hit and is left-handed. Posey (623 PA) doesn't need much rest, but perhaps his bat will play well enough at 1B where he's rated as well, while Haller catches. Jim Davenport is a backup 3B. Billy Pierce is my mop up guy as I have 1400 innings better than him and at least he's better than Jack Cronin.

There's probably too many good deadballers for the Giants for my Bonds, Bonds, Mays, Matt Williams lineup to handle. Schmidt and the bullpen are good, but my versions of Mathewson and McGinnity still have to pitch 2/3 of the innings and they won't be near the top of the league. A bit skeptical of how this one will turn out.

0 2004 STL
1 1953 STL
2 1970 STL
3 1917 STL
4 2016 STL
Schwarze's Cardinals write-up alluded to some 1940s team that he picked before me so I wouldn't, which just shows he doesn't know me at all. Now, SHOULD I have taken a war-time Cardinals team? Probably. I just spent Phase 6 of the last juice tournament where those exact 40s STL teams were my biggest misses. But c'mon. I'm not turning down the 2004 Cardinals for some soft-tossing lefties. Albert Pujols! Scott Rolen! Jim Edmonds! Larry Walker (half-season)! Those guys don't just rake, they have pretty darn good defense too (Walker is just A/D but Pujols and Rolen have A+ range and Edmonds is solid B+/B). Add in 76 innings of Jason Isringhausen to the pen also. I'll find pitching later.

That later will not be with this pick though! 1953 does bring Harvey Haddix (267 IP, 2.74 ERC). But mostly it comes with more offense. Red Schoendienst! Stan the Man Musial! By my ratings, I now have the 6th-best 1B, 2nd-best 3B, 9th- and 11th-best OF and 8th-best 2B. And Walker would be up there too if he had a full season. Solly Hemus was penciled in as my starting SS for a while and would have been perfectly serviceable. He still made the team, but as a backup. At the end, I added Vinegar Bend Mizell as my final pitcher. He likely won't pitch, but has a fantastic nickname.

Time to get pitching. And I kind of did here, with 294 innings from Bob Gibson (2.72 ERC) and 125 from teammate Chuck Taylor (2.74 ERC). But I mean, I also got the #1 catcher in Joe Torre! Dick Allen can mash (.932 OPS). He'll actually play some 3B as Rolen only has 593 PA, but will also platoon with Larry Walker (with Allen at 1B and Pujols shifting his B/A+ 1B defense to play the OF out of position). Jose Cardenal brings 90 speed and at least a decent glove as a 4th outfielder.

I only have a little over 750 usable innings. And with Hemus slotted at SS I have my entire starting lineup: C Torre, 1B Pujols, 2B Schoendienst, 3B Rolen, SS Hemus, LF Musial, CF Edmonds, RF Walker/Allen. So I don't need any more hitters, right? Wrong! Yeah, 1917 comes with 3 pitchers with ERC under 3.00 totaling 489 more innings--Bob Steele, Gene Packard, and Marv Goodwin. But it also comes with the #1 SS in Cardinals history, none other than a young Rogers Hornsby. He's C/A defense with .398 OBP and .513 SLG. Hemus is fine but Hornsby is a big upgrade. I now have 7 starters with $10k $/PA or higher. Larry Walker is half of the last spot and is at $9.2k. If this team doesn't lead the Cardinals league in offense, I will be severely disappointed. I did also roster C Mike Gonzalez. Torre doesn't need a backup (over 700 PA) but Gonzalez does have an A arm, so maybe he'll replace Torre's B- arm late in games.

Okay, final chance to get the remaining innings I need. With 2016, I'm able to stack up 4 relievers for 254 innings. Three of the four guys have ERC in the mid-2s--Alex Reyes, Matt Bowman, and Zach Duke. The headliner is Seung Hwan Oh, 80 innings and 1.65 ERC, best in my bullpen. For the final spot, I got Matt Carpenter to be a left-handed pinch-hitter off the bench. He can also fill in at 2B/3B/1B if needed, though his defense will leave much to be desired at any of the spots.

This lineup is tremendous. Hornsby and Torre are the weakest links, yet they rank #1 and #3 among SS and Catcher, respectively, in terms of hitting in Cardinals history. Schoendienst is obviously behind a few Hornsbys, but is the best non-Hornsby 2B hitter. Rolen is top 5 among 3B. And Musial, Pujols, Edmonds, and Walker/Allen are the heart of the order. They mostly play very good defense. Even lineup balance is there with 2-3 lefties, 4-5 righties, and a switch-hitter. The pitching? We don't need to talk about the pitching. Gibson, Haddix and Steele will form a 3-man rotation. None rank in the top 40 of the franchise's SP in ERC, but all are in the top 100. Similar for the bullpen, though Oh is almong the very best Cardinals relievers. All-in-all, the pitching just has to be good enough and it'll be on the position players to back them up with defense and ultimately put up a ton of runs. I'm probably the most excited about this team of any of them.

I find it funny that both footballmm11 and myself thought we drafted an awesome Cardinals offense. Thru 21 games, we are tied for 2nd worse in runs scored.

I know it!

I guess I underestimated how badly my 2004ers would get perform against the deadball/wartime era Cards pitchers?

My biggest underachiever is a non-HR hitter.

1920 Rogers Hornsby
Real Life stats: .370/.431/.559 (only 9 HRs)
Sim stats: .226/.280/.333

Finally sitting down to write this. Had to take a break from the PC for a few nights. Being that I made it to the last round of the last Juice tourney and the fun it was getting there, I knew I wanted in this one. Smaller tournament this time with 8 leagues to start. As much as I would like to put in 16 teams I know I don’t have the bandwidth for it right now. But I can put in 1 team per league. So 8 it is. I love the rule allowing only 2 initial picks every 24 hours. It allows everyone to get at least a little research in before picking. And all the top teams don’t get swooped up by the 1^st few entrants. I wish I could say I utilized that extra time to put in that research however, that was far from the case. Not only with the team selections, but throughout most of the draft as well.

Initial Team Selections

1^st pick : League 1, pick 5, 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers – These leagues and tourney’s schwarze puts on usually fill quickly and this one was no exception, filling 8 LEAGUES IN LESS THAN 24 HRS!!! What an accomplishment! Kudos to you, schwarze! That being said, I knew the Dodgers would be popular and by the time I logged in to pick, 4 had already been taken, including the coveted 2015 season. No surprise there. 1964 was also gone which has my favorite catcher. But the Dodgers have lot’s of pitching. Since we have no salary cap, and why only have to roster 5 players, why not take the greatest Dodger pitching season of all time. Welcome home Sandy Koufax!

2^nd pick : League 3, pick 4, 2015 Chicago Cubs – Like the pick above, this was a hasty pick made from memory. I like 2015 Arrieta and he has performed well for me in these tournaments. He’ll be my ace we build around.

3^rd pick : League 4, pick 7, 2020 Cleveland Indians – Those Addie Joss seasons were getting snapped up pretty quick but they weren’t all gone. That’s ok, I like 2020 Bieb’s to be my ace and Pleasac is a nice 5^th starter.

4^th pick : League 7, pick 6, 2020 Cincinnati Reds – You can probably see a recurring theme here. Rather than taking the teams with the most options, I have been drafting for one player, my ace pitcher. Why stop now. Trevor Bauer was the prize here.

5^th pick : League 5, pick 7, 1972 Philadelphia Phillies – We’re getting into the teams that I don’t play with as much and am not as familiar with who they offer. 2011 would have been my 1^st choice but they went 2 picks earlier. Looks like we’re building around Steve Carlton and his 360 IP/162.

6^th pick : League 8, pick 7, 1999 Atlanta Braves – By this time I had missed out on most of the Maddux seasons, 94-98, and only had 1993, 2000, and 2001 as options. I like 99 Millwood better. Hopefully he’ll perform this season.

7^th pick : League 2, pick 12, 1909 New York Giants – So we got the last Giants pick. I guess that means no Bonds for me? Not necessarily. But not this round at least. Christy Mathewson looks real good for this late of a pick. I’ll be happy to build around him.

8^th pick : League 6, pick 9, 1908 St. Louis Browns – My Orioles picks were all pretty much blind picks. This pick was probably the most research I did for them and it was only to see who my best available pitchers were. In this case, the 1-2 punch of Rube Waddell and Jack Powell are the best I can do without digging deeper. I probably should have dug deeper…

Draft Strategy
Everything moved so quickly that I got very little research done. Well, how quickly the draft moving was part of the issue. The other challenge I had was I attempted to draft my teams using a new rating system that includes fielding (my previous system didn’t include fielding in the calculation). The new one does but, for the moment, it requires me to make some manual data entries for each player. This takes time and when drafting for one team, it’s not an issue. But for 8 teams simultaneously, yeah, I need to fix it if I want to use it in these tournaments.
The new rating system values defense more than I expected. I’m not sure if that is good or not. But it led to some teams having less offense and my pitching staffs having higher OAV#’s than usual. But I still want to build my pitching staff primarily and hope I have enough offense between 5 teams to cobble together enough runs to win more games than I lose. We’ll see how it all plays out. This could be pretty embarrassing…

League 1 – Dodgers Franchise

Round 1.07 : 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers – I initially wanted to grab 2023 in either this round or the next round but apparently, I’m not the only one who liked their offense. I was a little surprised to see 63 Koufax was still available. This round allows for one clone and why not have the top 2 Koufax seasons. Maybe I can still get a decent Kershaw next round…
Round 2.07 : 2011 Los Angeles Dodgers – Ask, and you shall receive. It seems everyone is concerned with offense as the Dodgers don’t exactly have a ton of it. That’s fine by me. 2011 Kershaw is a decent one. We’re getting left-handed heavy but we do Have 65 Drysdale. Starting pitching is complete.
Round 3.06 : 2004 Los Angeles Dodgers – I’ve been so focused on pitching that I have no idea where I am for position players and what I need. I have a couple of Roseboro options at C. They don’t hit but they keep baserunners from stealing. 63 and 65 Maury Wills are SS options. And we have 2011 Kemp and 63 Tommy Davis in the OF. Looks like 2-3 starters. We need a lot of help. The 2004 squad gives us a stud (and often under-performing) 3B Adrian Beltre, CF Steve Finley and C Paul LoDuca to platoon with Roseboro.
Round 4.07 : 1925 Brooklyn Robins – What better place to look for offense than in the 1920’s! The prized 1924 season was long gone but the 1925 season was still available. We picked up 1B Jack Fournier, 2B Milt Stock, and OF’s Zack Wheat and Dick Cox. We also got a usable Dazzy Vance to consider as well as another C option in Zack Taylor.

Post-Draft Thoughts – I like my pitching options with Koufax, Kershaw, Vance, and Drysdale. I also have Gagne and Jansen in the bullpen. I could run a 5-man rotation and limit my bullpen exposure. Offensively, I have Kemp, Beltre, Wills, Fournier, and Wheat for generating runs. Would’ve been nice to have a Freeman and/or Betts on the team. Or Manny. Or Piazza…

League 2 – Giants Franchise

Round 1.08 : 1965 San Francisco Giants – We already had Mathewson for our ace but being able to get Marichal and Mays, both studs in 1965, was something I couldn’t pass up. There is also a decent McCovey who would be nice in the 5^th spot.
Round 2.08 : 1929 New York Giants – At this point of the draft, we had 3 SP’s I was pretty sure I would use: Mathewson, Marichal, and Hooks Wiltse. It was a good time to grab some offense. The 1929 Giants had quite a bit to choose from: 1B Bill Terry, 3B Freddy Lindstrom, SS Travis Jackson, and OF’s Mel Ott and Edd Roush. All 5 play solid defense and I can see rostering them all.
Round 3.05 : 2012 San Francisco Giants – Pretty happy so far with this team. Just need to fill more holes at C, 2B, and RP. I could use a 4^th SP but could also roll with a 3-man rotation if need be. Focusing on C and 2B I was pretty happy to find the 2012 Giants. They come with stud hitter Buster Posey and a Marco Scutaro who can play 2B, 3B, and SS. In addition, they also have a nice Melky Cabrera, SP Matt Cain’s best season, and nice Sergio Romo and George Kontos seasons in relief. Pretty happy with this pick.
Round 4.08 : 1992 San Francisco Giants – After my last pick I was pretty well set. I could upgrade and add RP’s. With a focus on a good closer, I took the 1992 Giants. The prize was closer Rod Beck. They also have a possible 5^th starter in Bill Swift, a strong-armed C in Kirt Manwaring, and a decent Will Clark to add an option at an already crowded position. Not sure who my 5 will be but I was happy to add Beck.

Pre-Build Analysis – This draft was interesting. I didn’t draft a Barry Bonds, but I do have a Willie Mays and he’s complimented by Ott and Cabrera. The Giants aren’t known for having a plethora of pitching, but I have two aces in Marichal and Mathewson. And I have Beck to close. Pretty excited to see how the build for this team plays out.

League 3 – Cubs Franchise

Round 1.06 : 1970 Chicago Cubs – I wanted to pick up more pitching. The Cubs don’t have much and what they did have was mostly gone. I considered Jack Taylor from the 1902 and 03 seasons but I didn’t feel like their offensive options were that great, at least not for the Cubs. I opted for 1970 who came with a usable Fergie Jenkins and good offensive weapons in 2B Glenn Beckert, 3B Ron Santo, and OF’s Billy Williams and Jim Hickman. None of these are stud picks but they are starter worthy.
Round 2.06 : 1937 Chicago Cubs – Decided to continue building the offense and selected the 37 Cubbies. Gabby Hartnett at C and Billy Herman at 2B look like starters. Demaree is a possibility in the OF and Jurges can play SS. There is also a Stan Hack whose defense might be enough to unseat Santo at 3B.
Round 3.07 : 2003 Chicago Cubs – At this point in the draft I can pretty much field my starting line-up, 3 SP’s, and a RP or two. I know I want a 4^th SP and it looks like 2003 Mark Prior is the best of what’s left. He brings with him a couple of RP’s, a couple of Kenny Lofton options, a Sammy Sosa, Mark Grudzielanek, and an Aramis Ramirez.
Round 4.06 : 1977 Chicago Cubs – I really didn’t need much but at the same time, I needed everything. I really don’t like this team. I have no standout players past Arrieta. Hartnett and Williams are good but not the best at their positions in this league. Every position could use an upgrade. And I could use a closer, too. I picked up the 77 Cubs for their Bruce Sutter, who is a stud. He doesn’t bring much with him. A couple of so-so RP’s and an Ivan Dejesus who I am considering rostering.

Pre-Build Analysis – I’m not feeling really good about this team. Other than Arrieta, Sutter, and Hartnett, this team has the look of a below average squad. Williams, Herman and Hickman will hopefully hit close to RL but that’s a stretch in this league. Jenkins, Lester, and Prior are all #4 SP’s. Hopefully, one of them will be a good one.

League 4 – Indians Franchise

Round 1.09 : 2018 Cleveland Indians – I wanted to try and build a top tier pitching staff that didn’t have Addie Joss. Bieber and Plesac are a good start. Adding 2018 Kluber and Bauer helps. And we get a couple of useful switch-hitters in Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez. Solid pick.
Round 2.09 : 2007 Cleveland Indians – I decided to focus on hitting, specifically a catcher. The 2007 Indians gave me switch-hitting Victor Martinez. They also have Grady Sizemore and Jhonny Peralta who both play solid defense. But the true prize here is RP Rafael Betancourt. So far, I like the looks of this team.
Round 3.04 : 1972 Cleveland Indians – For the most part, this team is just about set and we still had to rounds to go. I did need 1 more SP and I wouldn’t mind upgrading in the OF. This pick we would focus on our last SP. That would be Gaylord Perry. His 356 innings are just what this pitching staff needed. His teammates aren’t much to look at and I’m not sure which of them will join us.
Round 4.09 : 1998 Cleveland Indians – This round was for OF upgrades and RP’s. There were some Tris Speaker options left and that would have been great. But no RP’s. The 98 Indians however have a very nice Mike Jackson along with Jim Thome, David Justice, Manny Ramirez, Omar Vizquel, and Kenny Lofton. Pretty good pick for the 4^th round.

Pre-Build Analysis – I like the potential for this team. Good pitching. Some decent hitting and defensive players. No Addie Joss. Would have been nice to land Al Rosen or Tris Speaker but we did get Manny and Thome. It should be a lot of fun building this team.

League 5 – Phillies Franchise

Round 1.02 : 1981 Philadelphia Phillies – Although my initial 1972 pick got me my ace, it didn’t bring much else. I needed a pick that got me another SP and some offensive weapons. 1981 Mike Schmidt is a stud. Pete Rose and Manny Trillo can also start. I could use a Carlton clone. The 81 version isn’t too shabby.
Round 2.02 : 2022 Philadelphia Phillies – Trying to pick up another SP here that also has one or two usable hitters. 2022 Aaron Nola was still available, and he comes with teammates Zack Wheeler and J.T. Realmuto. Wheeler is a #5 pitcher, so I’ll need to find another starter. Realmuto will most likely start at C unless I grab a Darren Daulton team later on.
Round 3.11 : 2002 Philadelphia Phillies – I only have a C, 1B, 2B, and 3B on offense. I need OF’s and a SS. Needing 4 starting position players and one more starting pitcher was going to be tough this late in the draft. I found the 2002 Phillies who were capable of filling 3 of those positions: SS Jimmy Rollins and OF’s Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell. The OF’s can hit some. Rollins couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat, but he can field pretty well. RP Mike Timlin could make it although he allows a lot of HR’s.
Round 4.02 : 1990 Philadelphia Phillies – As much as I wanted, I couldn’t find any pitching that came with a good OF. I would have liked 84 John Denny but I didn’t need another Schmidt and Samuel would be a bench player. 09 McQuillan had zero teammates worth drafting. Maybe we can find another starter during our build. So, switching gears to the best OF available, we selected the 1990 Phillies. They give us Lenny Dykstra to man CF and add in Daulton, John Kruk, and Tom Herr vying for a roster spot. Boever isn’t too shabby in the bullpen either.

Post-Draft Thoughts – I’m not sure we’ll have enough pitching but 2 Carltons and a Nola to go with Rose, Schmidt, Dykstra, and Abreu gives us a good core to build around. Would have been nice to get an Utley or better Rollins. I think this team has potential.

League 6 – Orioles Franchise

Round 1.07 : 1972 Baltimore Orioles – As I said earlier, this team had the least amount of research done. The 08 Browns gave me a couple of SP’s but not much else. But when you don’t know what to draft, it’s best to draft more pitching. The 72 Orioles are full of pitching: Jim Palmer, Pat Dobson, Doyle Alexander, Grant Jackson, Roric Harrison, Mike Cuellar, and Eddie Watt will all get some consideration.
Round 2.07 : 2013 Baltimore Orioles – At this point we were pretty set on pitching. A quick look found a 2013 squad that gave us a few options: C Matt Wieters, 1B Chris Davis, 2B Brian Roberts, 3B Manny Machado, SS J.J. Hardy, and OF’s Adam Jones and Nate McLouth. None of them are studs but Davis and Jones are close.
Round 3.06 : 2016 Baltimore Orioles – Upgrades, OF’s and RP’s are what we feel we need. The 2016 squad had 5 players from the 2013 squad but only Machado was an upgrade. They also have 2B Jonathan Schoop and OF Mark Trumbo. We could have 2 Machado’s or 2 Adam Joneses… Oh, and they also have a stud Zach Britton.
Round 4.07 : 2006 Baltimore Orioles – We still needed an OF and could use some upgrades on offense. Had we done some research we probably could have found a nice Sisler or Manush. But no, we stuck with what little we think we know. The 2006 O’s gave us C Ramon Hernandez, SS Miguel Tejada, 2B Brian Roberts, 3B Melvin Mora, and OF Corey Patterson.

Post-Draft Thoughts – I have no idea what I really have. I feel like I have a low average/low OBP team that doesn’t hit enough HR’s to be an offensive juggernaut. And I feel like I will be paying more for it than I want to. The build for this team will be interesting.

League 7 – Reds Franchise

Round 1.01 : 1969 Cincinnati Reds – My recent 1^st experience in a Diamond Draft league allowed me to play with multiple Pete Roses and they performed pretty well. I’m thinking I want to have Rose clones again. We’ll start with the 1969 Reds. Aside from Rose we also get Johnny Bench at C, Tony Perez at 3B, and Bobby Tolan in the OF.
Round 2.01 : 1991 Cincinnati Reds – Although I got at least 2 pitchers from my initial 2020 selection, they were low innings and I needed to draft at least 2 more SP’s. The 1991 Reds get me a decent Jose Rijo and Rob Dibble. Offensively, 1B Hal Morris and 3B Chris Sabo are both viable options.
Round 3.12 : 1968 Cincinnati Reds – Time to get our Rose clone. He comes with Gary Nolan and Clay Carroll for the pitching staff and Alex Johnson in the OF. Nolan is shy on innings but we could cobble together 5 now. Carroll is not short on innings and that helps.
Round 4.01 : 2007 Cincinnati Reds – We still needed a 2B and a pitching upgrade if we could find one. The 2007 Reds would at least give me a solid 2B in Brandon Phillips. Adam Dunn and Griffy Jr. both have some pop in their bats. Aaron Harang is an interesting option for SP.

Post-Draft Thoughts – Although I did get my Rose clones and I did get 2020 Bauer, I’m not sure this team has what it takes to make it to the next round. We still seem to be short on pitching.

League 8 – Braves Franchise

Round 1.10 : 1969 Atlanta Braves – Like all of my other teams, we were starting out with an ace. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a Maddux but Millwood should be fine. I wanted more pitching and strongly considered 2009 Javier Vazquez but he didn’t have much in teammates that I would want to use. That brought me to 69 Phil Niekro who comes with a solid Hoyt Wilhelm, a nice Hank Aaron, and platoon hitter Rico Carty. Too bad we aren’t using a DH.
Round 2.10 : 2023 Atlanta Braves – Now we have 3 SP’s along with 2 good RP’s. We need to build some offense around Aaron and Chipper. The 2023 Braves should do nicely. I really like Acuna, although his defense sucks. But his speed and power are an awesome combo. He brings with him power hitting 1B Matt Olson, switch-hitting 2B Ozzie Albies, another power hitter in 3B Austin Riley, speedy OF Michael Harris II, strikeout pitcher Spencer Strider, and a plethora of RP’s to choose from. This was a good pick with plenty of good options.
Round 3.03 : 2006 Atlanta Braves – We were looking pretty good at this point in the draft. All we needed to fill were a SS and C position. And an OF upgrade would be good, too. The 2006 Braves bring another group of usable players, although as a whole, not as talented as the 2023 team. They do give us C Brian McCann who can hit but struggles getting the ball to 2B. We also get a decent hitting SS in Edgar Renteria and another power hitter in the OF with Andruw Jones. There is also another Chipper Jones I could consider trying to roster some how…
Round 4.10 : 1958 Milwaukee Braves – At this point, we are just upgrading positions and adding the best talent available. The trio of Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, and Lew Burdette would lure me to pick the 1958 Braves. They also have Joey Jay who has performed well for me in the past.

Post-Draft Thoughts – Although I don’t have a usable Maddux, I do have some decent pitchers who should be able to win when they aren’t pitching against the Professor. I have 2 Hank’s and 2 Chippers to consider cloning and I have Acuna. I think this draft went pretty well and I should be able to field a competitive team.

Team Builds and Outlook

Overall General Strategy – For the most part, I drafted for pitchers first. The new rating system didn’t change too much from how I typically draft pitchers but there were few surprises. However, for position players, adding in the defense did significantly change how they were selected for the team and some players who I wouldn’t have considered became possibilities. My offenses are usually low scoring so I’m not sure how much this is going to help being that it gave more weight to good defense while simultaneously, negative weight for bad defense. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out overall.
I built 3 teams for each franchise: Best Possible (max salary), Most Efficient (lowest salary), and Most Usable (mid salary). All of them were then evaluated for salary and performance. For the most part, starting line-ups and rotations were the same for all 3 teams in each franchise and numbered around 17 or 18 players. Based on how much salary they were would determine which of the 3 teams I would go with. For example, my Dodger team had 4 of the most expensive Dodgers players with 2 Koufax’s, a $10M Beltre, and a $8M Kemp. This team would be built for the east and utilize more expensive players but will also waste some PA’s and innings. But it would also use the best players. Not many of my teams were built that way. Most were built to avoid the east division and are my mid-salary teams. We’ll see how that works out for us.

League 1 : 5 Dodgers 1925 1963 1965 2004 2011
I was pretty excited to build this team once I had both 65 and 63 Koufax. I love the Dodgers and having these two seasons should be a lot of fun. Since I had $30M+ spent on both Koufax seasons, I felt we would most likely end up in the East so there were no salary restrictions. Everyone in the pool was in play.

Pitching Staff
We had some pretty good options for the rotation. 1965 Sandy Koufax (1.67 ERC#, 0.186 OAV#) will be our ace and 1963 Sandy Koufax (1.71 ERC#, 0.197 OAV#) will follow. I considered 1963 Don Drysdale (2.98 ERC#, 1.15 WHIP#) and 1965 Don Drysdale (2.94 ERC#, 0.239 OAV#) for our #3 but 1925 Dazzy Vance (2.64 ERC#, 0.235 OAV#) was rated better than both. The 4^th spot goes to 2011 Clayton Kershaw (2.04 ERC#, 0.212 OAV#) who would be an ace on some of my other franchises.

In the bullpen, we start off with 2004 Eric Gagne (1.61 ERC#, 0.180 OAV#) as our closer. Right-handers 2011 Josh Lindblom (1.94 ERC#, 0.217 OAV#), 2011 Kenley Jansen (2.00 ERC#, 0.163 OAV#) and 2004 Giovanni Carrara (2.44 ERC#, 0.227 OAV#) will set him up along with left-hander 2011 Scott Elbert (2.65 ERC#, 0.224 OAV#). The long relievers will be right-hander 1965 Bob Miller (2.60 ERC#, 0.232 OAV#) and left-hander 1965 Ron Perranoski (2.67 ERC#, 0.233 OAV#).

That gives us a total of 1328 usable innings with a 1.97 ERC#, 0.203 OAV#, 0.98 WHIP#, and 0.46 HR/9#. Not sure where we will fall amongst all of the other Dodger teams but this pitching staff looks pretty good.

Position Players
The Dodgers aren’t known for being offensive juggernauts and I don’t typically build high-scoring offenses. Not sure how we will build an offense that can score runs against all of the other Dodger pitching I’ll be facing. At least we aren’t worried about salary restrictions.

Starting at C, we selected 1963 Johnny Roseboro (.244/.302/.360, B+/A+/A+) over 1965 Johnny Roseboro (.240/.298/.315, A/A/A+) to bat from the left side and close out games started by our right-handed platoon C 2004 Paul Lo Duca (.301/.349/.423, A/A+/C-). Lo Duca only has 381 PA’s so Roseboro will have to get 220-250 PA’s. We also added 1925 Hank Deberry (.245/.313/.327, C+/A/A) as a 2^nd defensive option should there be a need to PH for Roseboro late in games.

At 1B we chose 1925 Jack Fournier (.334/.436/.552, C+/D) to start and 1965 Ron Fairly (.281/.370/.381, A/C-) to replace him late in games. Fairly can also play OF (B/B-) and may be used there as well. 2B will be manned by 1925 Milt Stock (.312/.358/.392, B/D+) who should start the entire season. If he doesn’t perform we have switch-hitting 2B 1965 Jim Gilliam (.291/.366/.392, B+/D-) who can step in and finish the season. 3B is owned by none other than super under-performer 2004 Adrian Beltre (.334/.386/.609, A/A-) and SS will be manned by fan favorite 1965 Maury Wills (.293/.340/.333, B/A+).

In the outfield, 1963 Tommy Davis (.336/.371/.467, C-/D-) will start in left. He will be replaced by 2004 Steve Finley (.271/.331/.469, A/B+) late in games for a defensive upgrade. Roaming centerfield will be 2011 Matt Kemp (.329/.405/.582, B/B) and 1925 Zack Wheat (.342/.393/.524, C-/D+) will hold down right field. Our last player is the power-hitting righthander 1963 Frank Howard (.282/.342/.528, D/D+) who could play in the OF against some lefty pitchers.

That gives us 5651 usable PA’s at .316/.374/.476 with 159 HR. Not exactly an offensive juggernaut. We won’t lead the league in runs.

Outlook
Really hard to say. I have no idea what other teams look like compared to mine. I suspect I like my pitching staff but wonder if I should have focused on Kershaw’s rather than Koufax’s. Kershaw’s come with better relievers and I think that may be this teams undoing. I’ll have to stretch my starter innings as much as possible, otherwise, I may be adding to the bullpen complaint boards. As far as scoring runs, I need Beltre and Kemp to perform this season. There should be plenty of LH pitching for them to face. I think this team can finish at or above .500. Not sure about playoffs with this suspect bullpen.

League 2 : 5 Giants 1909 1929 1965 1992 2012
Another team I was excited to build after the draft. Although I didn’t have a Barry Bonds, I did bag a decent Christy Mathewson. And he wasn’t the most expensive. With that in consideration, I felt this team would be better off avoiding the west, where the more expensive Bonds and Mathewson are likely to live. No sense competing with those guys if I could avoid it.

Pitching Staff
Our initial selection that was intended to bring us our ace, ended up being our #2. Our ace will be 1909 Christy Mathewson (1.59 ERC#, .210 OAV#) and 1965 Juan Marichal (2.05 ERC#, .212 OAV#) will follow. 1909 Hooks Wiltse (2.67 ERC#, .243 OAV#) will take the 3^rd spot and be our sole LH starter. The last spot in the rotation will go to 2012 Matt Cain (2.59 ERC#, .222 OAV#). 1992 Bill Swift, 1965, Bob Shaw, 1929 Carl Hubbell, 2012 Madison Bumgarner, 1909 Red Ames, and 1965 Bobby Bolin all failed to make the team. Swift (2.79 ERC#, .245 OAV#) was given strong consideration but I was already righty heavy.

In the bullpen, 1992 Rod Beck (1.56 ERC#, .195 OAV#) will close out games. Setting him up will be lefthanders 1965 Bill Henry (2.62 ERC#, .248 OAV#) and 1965 Masanori Murakami (2.77 ERC#, .212 OAV#) along with righthanders 2012 Sergio Romo (1.73 ERC#, .189 OAV#) and 1929 Ralph Judd (2.79 ERC#, .244 OAV#). Handling long-relief duties will be lefthander Bryan Hickerson (2.81 ERC#, .241 OAV#) and righthander 1965 Frank Linzy (2.98 ERC#, .257 OAV#).

That gives us a total of 1362 usable innings with a 2.18 ERC#, .220 OAV#, 1.00 WHIP#, and 0.53 HR/9#. Not exactly my Dodger pitching staff but not too bad. Whether they can hold those Bonds teams remains to be seen…

Position Players
The Giants are obviously known for some great offensive weapons: Barry Bonds, Mel Ott, and Willie Mays to name just a few. We got 2 of the 3 aforementioned hitters which will hopefully be enough to build around. I felt this offense had some potential following the draft…

Starting at catcher, we selected 2012 Buster Posey (.341/.414/.540, B/A+/C+) to start and 1992 Craig Colbert (.235/.284/.332, A-/C-/A-) to replace him late in games. At 1B, 1929 Bill Terry (.354/.403/.500, B/A+) beats out 1992 Will Clark (.306/.392/.483, B/A-) and 1965 Willie McCovey (.283/.391/.543, C+/C-). Clark and McCovey don’t even make the team. At second, 2012 Marco Scutaro (.311/.353/.396, B/C) beats out 1909 Larry Doyle (.312/.370/.456, D+/D-). Doyle doesn’t make the team. Third will be covered by 1929 Freddy Lindstrom (.301/.340/.442, B+/B+) and teammate 1929 Travis Jackson (.277/.353/.467, A-/A+) will play SS. 1909 Art Fletcher (.223/.246/.262, D/D-) was brought in as a cheap back-up at short and won’t see a lick of playing time. Infeld looks solid.

In the outfield we start of with switch-hitting left-fielder 2012 Melky Cabrera (.351/.396/.507, C+/C-). Cabrera is a little short on PA’s so 1909 Cy Seymour (.321/.379/.436, C+/B) will get the call when we rest Cabrera, as well as coming in as a defensive replacement. Our centerfielder will be none other than the Say Hey Kid, 1965 Willie Mays (.325/.408/.649, B/A) and in right, we have lefty Hall of Famer 1929 Mel Ott (.311/.433/.614, C/B). We have two more OF’s on the bench, 1992 Mark Leonard (.240/.338/.390, B/D-) and teammate 1992 Steve Hosey (.255/.247/.328, C/D-). Other than an occasional call to pinch hit, neither will see much time off the bench.

That gives us 5538 usable PA’s at .320/.387/.510 and 187 HR’s. And above average defense. This team looks like it can hit.

Outlook
I actually like how this team turned out. We attempted to keep out salary low, which is why I drafted a few players I never intend to use. I could have drafted Will Clark, Larry Doyle, and Willie McCovey but that would have been another $12M in salary that ultimately would not be used. And quite possibly a higher division placement that I didn’t want. Hopefully, I drafted a low enough salary for the east. If so, I think this team can compete for a playoff spot. And advance to the next round.

League 3 : 5 Cubs 1937 1970 1977 2003 2015
This was my 2^nd overall team I selected when this tournament started. I was really happy to get Arrieta to be my ace. But as the draft went on, I started to not like how this team was coming together. There are a lot of good Cubs players we didn’t get and the few we did get were not their best seasons. Not looking forward to this build as much as some of the others. Hopefully, it’s just a diamond in the rough…

Pitching Staff
As mentioned above, 2015 Jake Arrieta (1.54 ERC#, .190 OAV#) will be our ace. He will be followed by 1970 Fergie Jenkins (2.45 ERC#, .226 OAV#) who should also eat up 320 innings or so. The 3^rd rotation spot will go to strikeout pitcher 2003 Mark Prior (2.55 ERC#, .231 OAV#) and the final spot will go to 2015 Jon Lester (2.91 ERC#, .244 OAV#), our sole left-handed starter. The Cubs produce a lot of offense and I’m not too sure this rotation can keep them at bay.

In the bullpen, we do have stud closer 1977 Bruce Sutter (1.40 ERC#, .183 OAV#) to finish games. He’ll be set-up by 2015 Hector Rondon (2.14 ERC#, .217 OAV#), Rondons’ teammate, 2015 Pedro Strop (1.96 ERC#, .172 OAV#), venerable righthander 2003 Joe Borowski (2.14 ERC#, .207 OAV#), and lefty 1977 Dave Roberts (2.89 ERC#, .275 OAV#). In long relief, 2003 Kyle Farnsworth (2.45 ERC#, .196 OAV#) will handle the duties from the right side while 1977 Willie Hernandez (2.72 ERC#, .234 OAV#) will toss from the left side. Our only two lefties leave much to be desired…

That gives us 1384 usable innings at a 2.27 ERC#, .217 OAV#, 1.03 WHIP#, and 0.54 HR/9#, far from the standard set by my Dodgers team. And in a league with more offense…yikes!

Position Players
The Cubs really do have a ton of good offensive players throughout their history, Sammy Sosa, Ryne Sandberg, Billy Williams, Gabby Hartnett, Ernie Banks, and Bill Nicholson. I was only able to get 3 of them in our pool. And only two actually made the team…

One of those was at catcher, 1937 Gabby Hartnett (.348/.422/.548, A/C/A-) who provides both offense and decent defense. He’ll be backed up by lefthanded hitting 2003 Paul Bako (.229/.310/.314, C+/A/B). First will be covered by 2015 Anthony Rizzo (.283/.394/.504, B/A-) while 1937 Billy Herman (.330/.395/.479, D+/A+) plays 2B and bats leadoff. 1970 Ron Santo (.269/.368/.471, C/B+) will man third and 1977 Ivan Dejesus (.266/.329/.346, C+/A) will cover SS. We also have 1937 Lonny Frey (.273/.379/.369, D+/D-) who covers all IF positions and occasionally pinch hits.

In the outfield we have the other Cub we mentioned, 1970 Billy Williams (.325/.391/.582, A-/D+) in left, 1970 Jim Hickman (.318/.419/.577, C/C) in center, and 1937 Frank Demaree (.318/.380/.485, B/D+) in right. We also have 2003 Kenny Lofton (.327/.379/.453, A-/B+) who will play center late in games. Other outfielders vying for some playing time are 1970 Joe Pepitone (.270/.313/.493, B+/B-) who can play some late inning defense and pinch hit, 1977 Joe Wallis (.250/.375/.356, C/D-) who could see a pinch hit opportunity or two, and 1937 Tuck Stainback (.227/.267/.288, B/C) who may get some time playing some late inning defense.

That gives us 5406 usable PA’s at .302/.382/.489 and 171 HR’s. Seems awfully low for a Cubs team. My Dodgers offense may be better.

Outlook
Now that my build is complete, I’m still not convinced this team can win. The pitching staff is average at best. We don’t reach base as often as we would like, and we don’t hit with much power or steal many bases. It looks like we’ll have a tough time scoring runs and our opponents won’t. It’s very likely this team will not advance to the next round.

League 4 : 5 Indians 1972 1998 2007 2018 2020
Another team I was excited to build after the draft. I was happy to get the 2020 squad and it looks like we have some good pieces to build around. We should be able to build some decent offense along with a solid rotation and bullpen.

Pitching Staff
We started the build for this franchise targeting our ace, 2020 Shane Bieber (1.54 ERC#, .176 OAV#) who I hope will be as dominant here as he has been for my other teams that use him. Our #2 will be 1972 Gaylord Perry (2.18 ERC#, .217 OAV#) who will throw nearly 400 innings if all goes well. Our #3 will be 2018 Corey Kluber (2.39 ERC#, .230 OAV#) and his teammate, 2018 Trevor Bauer (2.34 ERC#, .214 OAV#) will be our 4^th. To shore up Bauers’ short innings, 2020 Zach Plesac (1.70 ERC#, .200 OAV#) will throw in the 5^th spot.

In the bullpen, 1998 Mike Jackson (1.63 ERC#, .190 OAV#) will close out games while 2007 Rafael Betancourt (1.14 ERC#, .179 OAV#), 2020 Brad Hand (1.15 ERC#, .173 OAV#), and 2018 Oliver Perez (1.09 ERC#, .160 OAV#) set up games for him. Left-hander 2007 Rafael Perez (1.60 ERC#, .183 OAV#) and right-hander 2020 James Karinchak (1.78 ERC#, .168 OAV#) will handle the long relief duties.

That gives us 1398 usable innings at a 1.91 ERC#, .203 OAV#, 0.95 WHIP#, and 0.51 HR/9#. I really like the looks of this pitching staff. It could be my best staff of this round.

Position Players
Normally I would select a catcher with an A am or better but its hard to pass on 2007 Victor Martinez (.296/.369/.484, A/A/B) who is also a switch-hitter. We selected 1972 Jerry Moses (.231/.301/.345, C/B/A-) to back him up and play some late inning defense. At first base we picked 1998 Jim Thome (.288/.407/.559, C/C+) who will bring some power to an already potent offense. 1972 Chris Chambliss (.305/.338/.417, B/A-) will play late inning defense and cover Thome’s short PA’s.

We didn’t select a good, true second baseman when drafting our 5 teams. Our options were pretty slim with Brohamer, Bell, Kipnis, and Cora being my top options. BUT, I do have a couple of Jose Ramirez’s and 2018 Jose Ramirez (.277/.393/.535, C+/D-) played some second in Little League so we’ll slide him in. To replace him late in games we picked up 1972 Jack Brohamer (.245/.281/.312, C+/A-) who can’t hit a lick but fields ok. That leaves 2020 Jose Ramirez (.303/.391/.591, C/D-) to cover third base and 2018 Francisco Lindor (.284/.357/.502, B+/C-) to round out the infield at short. On the bench we have 1998 Enrique Wilson (.317/.349/.430, A-/D-) who can cover 2B, 3B, and SS and we have 2007 Chris Gomez (.293/.320/.354, B/C+) who can play all 4 infield positions.

In the outfield we have 1998 David Justice (.275/.358/.450, A+/D+) covering leftfield, speedy outfielder 2007 Grady Sizemore (.273/.386/.441, A/A-) at center, and 1998 Manny Ramirez (.290/.371/.574, C/C) will provide more power from right field. On the bench we picked up 1972 Frank Duffy (.250/.308/.343, A-/C-) who will be a RF defensive replacement late in games.

That gives us 5347 usable PA’s at .286/.378/.516 and 239 HR’s. This team hits for power but doesn’t necessarily hit a lot.

Outlook
Now that I have this team put together, I’m having mixed feelings. The aforementioned three teams above all rated out the same as I felt once they were put together. This team is built much how I would build a team and rates as my best pitching staff of all my teams, which is exactly what I usually try to do but, it also rates as the worst position players of all my teams. And that is mostly due to the poor defense we have, specifically with anyone named Ramirez. I’ll be watching this team closely. I feel good about them, but the ratings say this is a 4^th place team that doesn’t advance. Maybe all the Indians teams are this bad??? I haven’t run numbers for anyone’s teams yet so, maybe I’ll get lucky?? Then again, maybe defense really is that important. We’ll see…

League 5: 5 Phillies 1972 1981 1990 2002 2022
Following the draft, I felt this team had some potential and was hopeful during the build. The Phillies don’t have a lot of dominant pitching and although I do have a stud Carlton, I do not typically use him as he doesn’t perform as well as many other lefty’s in the same price range. So we’ll see how this build goes…

Pitching Staff
Having 1972 Steve Carlton (2.05 ERC#, .214 OAV#) and his stud season is the best start I could get from this group. His clone, 1981 Steve Carlton (2.62 ERC#, .226 OAV#) will follow him. With 648 innings between the two of them, we were able to finish the rotation with teammates 2022 Aaron Nola (2.31 ERC#, .229 OAV#) and 2022 Zack Wheeler (2.58 ERC#, .231 OAV#). Not the scariest of pitching staffs but not horrible either.

In the bullpen, 1990 Joe Boever (2.18 ERC#, .218 OAV#) will be our closer. Leading the set-up crew will be 2002 Mike Timlin (2.38 ERC#, .214 OAV#). He’s accompanied by 2022 Jose Alvarado (2.53 ERC#, .213 OAV#), Alvarado teammate 2022 Seranthony Dominguez (2.59 ERC#, .206 OAV#), and 1972 Bill Wilson (2.81 ERC#, .241 OAV#). Our long relievers will be 1981 Tug McGraw (2.43 ERC#, .223 OAV#) and 2002 Cliff Politte (2.55 ERC#, .213 OAV#). In some ways, it feels like the bullpen are all the same pitcher…

That gives us 1341 usable innings at a 2.37 ERC#, .221 OAV#, 1.07 WHIP#, and 0.51 HR/9#. Not exactly a dominating pitching staff but then again, the Phillies don’t have a whole lot of pitching to offer so maybe they’ll be ok…

Position Players
I tried to keep salary down with this team as I didn’t feel real comfortable with my pitching staff. But C was not a position I went cheap on. Not only did I pick 2022 J.T. Realmuto (.286/.349/.470, B+/A+/A+) to start, I also enlisted 2 back-ups, 1990 Darren Daulton (.271/.371/.416, B/B/A-) and 1972 Bob Boone (.282/.340/.362, C/B/D-) which is more than I need. But I prefer Daulton’s A- arm to Boone’s D- arm. But most of their salary and PA’s are wasted.

Catcher wasn’t the only position with some wasted PA’s and salary. At first we are playing 1981 Pete Rose (.329/.396/.399, A/D) who doesn’t need a back-up but has 1972 Joe Lis (.250/.388/.424, A/D-) anyways. And then at second we have 1981 Manny Trillo (.290/.343/.405, A-/B-) who needs 50 or so PA’s to keep him fresh and we picked 1990 Tom Herr (.267/.324/.351, A-/D+) who comes with an additional 443 PA’s on top of the 50 we need. Our last two infield spots were filled by single players. At 3B we have stud 1981 Mike Schmidt (.320/.441/.653, B/A-) and at SS we selected 2002 Jimmy Rollins (.246/.305/.366, A/B+) for his defensive prowess. We didn’t have any really good SS options, a couple of Larry Bowa’s, a Dickie Thon, and a Bryson Stott. None of them could field and although Bowa hit better, it wasn’t worth the fielding downgrade.

In the outfield we start with 2002 Pat Burrell (.283/.374/.530, C/D+) in LF and gritty 1990 Lenny Dykstra (.329/.422/.440, B/A+) will roam center. The outfield will be filled out by 2002 Bobby Abreu (.310/.412/.507, B/D+) in RF. We have no need for additional OF’s but we have 1990 Ron Jones (.279/.377/.465, C/D-) and 1972 Roger Freed (.231/.351/.404, C/D-) to fill the final roster spots. Other than a little pinch-hitting, both of them will ride the pine.

That gives us 5319 usable PA’s at .300/.381/.470 and 136 HR’s. Not much for power but they hit a little and play decent defense in the infield.

Outlook
Nothing about this team looks very dominant but somehow, they are my 2^nd highest rated team overall. The team does hit and will steal some bases. Infield defense is solid and Realmuto has a gun. Dykstra covers a lot of ground in the OF but he’ll need to. Big seasons from Carlton, Rose and Schmidt will be necessary if we are to have any chance. This team might be able to make it to the next round but I’m not so sure it has any playoff potential.

League 6 : 5 Orioles 1908 1972 2006 2013 2016
I virtually did zero research on this team and have no idea where any of my players stand compared to the rest of the franchise. Would have been nice to have a Frank Robinson or Cal Ripken Jr. in the player pool. Hopefully I have enough pitching to make it not matter…

Pitching Staff
We got our ace with our initial Orioles selection, 1908 Jack Powell (2.46 ERC#, .244 OAV#) and his teammate, 1908 Rube Waddell (2.64 ERC#, .227 OAV#) will be our #2. Not our typical start to a pitching staff but we’ll see how these deadballers pan out for me. Our #3 was a tough choice between 1972 Pat Dobson (2.63 ERC#, .237 OAV#), 1908 Harry Howell (2.94 ERC#, .253 OAV#), 1972 Jim Palmer (2.65 ERC#, .229 OAV#), or 1972 Mike Cuellar (2.78 ERC#, .232 OAV#). I could have gone with two of these guys and having another lefty to compliment Waddell wouldn’t have been a bad idea but I was planning on using Alexander as our 4^th or 5^th starter (more on that in a bit). But did I really need 1200 starting pitcher innings? Decided to grab just one of them and stick to a 4-man rotation. Dobson rated the best of the 4 so he makes the cut. Did I really pass on Cuellar and Palmer???

For the bullpen I did land stud closer 2016 Zach Britton (1.14 ERC#, .164 OAV#) so if we have a lead, hopefully we can keep it. He’ll have his teammate, 2016 Brad Brach (2.19 ERC#, .204 OAV#) and 1972 Grant Jackson (2.23 ERC#, .229 OAV#) will handle the primary set-up duties with additional set-up support from 1972 Roric Hunter (2.35 ERC#, .221 OAV#), 2013 Tommy Hunter (2.51 ERC#, .226 OAV#), and 2006 Chris Britton (2.49 ERC#, .221 OAV#). In long relief, 2013 Brian Matusz (2.74 ERC#, .233 OAV#) will handle the left-hander duties. Our righty long reliever was originally intended to be Harrison however, when we calculated pitches, we found that 1972 Doyle Alexander (2.13 ERC#, .215 OAV#) pitched in far too many games to be able to be used as a starter as his IP/G was only 3.04. So now we have a 3-man rotation and Alexander will be our primary long reliever.

That gives us 1348 usable innings at a 2.42 ERC#, .227 OAV#, 1.12 WHIP#, 0.26 HR/9#. They allow more hits than my other pitching staffs but they also allow much fewer HR’s, something I’m not normally as concerned with. It’ll be interesting to see how they play out.

Position Players
Starting at C, we have 2006 Ramon Hernandez (.269/.337/.451, C/A/A+) and 1908 Syd Smith (.194/.239/.269, C/A/A-) backing him up. Lefty slugger 2013 Chris Davis (.289/.375/.623, A-/B+) will play 1B and 2016 Steve Pearce (.291/.378/.471, C-D-) may play some against LH pitching if Davis is in a slump. At 2B we have 1972 Bobby Grich (.291/.370/.436, A-/C+) who gets replaced late in games by 2013 Brian Roberts (.252/.316/.382, A+/A+). That should help to keep Grich starting most of the season. Covering 3B will be 2016 Manny Machado (.297/.347/.512, A/A) and 2006 Miguel Tejada (.323/.374/.470, B/B) will play SS.

In the outfield we start with 2006 Nick Markakis (.285/.345/.420, A/C-) in LF and his teammate, 2006 Corey Patterson (.270/.309/.415, B+/A) starting in CF. In RF, we have 2013 Adam Jones (.288/.322/.482, A/B+) who would play center on most teams. Markakis and Patterson are both shy on PA’s so 2016 Hyun Soo Kim (.305/.386/.399, A+/D-) and teammates 1908 Dode Criss (.355/.426/.457, C/D-) and 1908 Al Schweitzer (.304/.392/.391, D+/B-) will all get some playing time in the field and pinch-hitting.

That gives us 5367 usable PA’s at .293/.352/.476 and 220 HR’s. The 220 HR’s comes out to 3.0 HR/100# and in this league, will probably result in around 165 HR’s. But with a .352 OBP, no one will be one base. On the positive, we do play good defense. But if we do, I’m sure the other O’s teams do, too.

Outlook
Well, this is interesting. The team I chose mostly blind ends up eking past the Phillies and Giants to be my top-rated team. WTF??? Is something broken? Maybe I gave defense too much weight? It’s not the pitching staff, they rate pretty much where I would expect them too. It’s not offense or base running either. I can definitely see the weight on defense. I’m just having a hard time believing it’s true. I may have mucked this up. Oh well, that being said, I do like this teams defense and we’re going to need it being that we allow the bat on the ball much more often with this team than with others. And if we can truly hold teams from homering against us, maybe this team can limit runs being scored against us??? Well, I don’t feel as confident as the ratings say but maybe this team is good enough to advance??? I guess we’ll see.

League 7 : 5 Reds 1968 1969 1991 2007 2020
So, following the draft I had some concerns with my pitching, or lack of it. But at the same time, I got my Rose clones! I’m pretty happy about that and I hope they come close to the Diamond league numbers they put up for me. The Reds are my 2^nd favorite franchise of all time, obviously behind the Dodgers, and I am looking forward to seeing how this build comes out.

Pitching Staff
We started ourselves off with our ace, 2020 Trevor Bauer (1.51 ERC#, .168 OAV#) and I’m happy about that. But past here, everything starts to get suspect. At #2 we selected 1991 Jose Rijo (2.35 ERC#, .225 OAV#) which isn’t horrible but I would rather have that at #3. Who we do have at #3 is 2007 Aaron Harang (3.02 ERC#, .241 OAV#) who only makes the team because I needed innings. That’s because my next two starters, 2020 Sonny Gray (2.76 ERC#, .212 OAV#) and 1968 Gary Nolan (2.47 ERC#, .206 OAV#) combine for only 301 innings. Overall, we only have 934 starting IP’s…

In the bullpen we selected Nasty Boy 1991 Rob Dibble (2.58 ERC#, .229 OAV#) to be our closer. He has set-up men 2020 Raisel Iglesias (1.55 ERC#, .202 OAV#), 2020 Lucas Sims (2.06 ERC#, .154 OAV#), 2007 Jared Burton (2.21 ERC#, .185 OAV#), and 2020 Brooks Raley (2.68 ERC#, .187 OAV#) shutting down the 7^th and 8^th innings. In long relief, 1968 Clay Carroll (2.70 ERC#, .240 OAV#) and another Nasty Boy, 1991 Norm Charlton (3.04 ERC#, .242 OAV#). They’re not the 1990 Nasty Boys but hopefully they can get close.

That gives us 1367 usable IP’s with a 2.40 ERC#, .210 OAV#, 1.07 WHIP#, and 0.57 HR/9#. This staff doesn’t allow as many hits but those hits are a little more likely to be HR’s. We’ll need to keep the basepaths clear somehow…

Position Players
Having both the ’68 and ’69 Reds gave us a lot of clones, not just Rose. Catcher was no exception and we opted for 1969 Johnny Bench (.300/.358/.494, B+/A-/A+) and took ’68 Bench’s back-up C, 1968 Don Pavletich (.296/.367/.419, D-/D-/C+) to mostly pinch hit and start in 4 or 5 games. At 1B we will have a platoon of 1968 Lee May (.300/.352/.491, A/D+) and 1991 Hal Morris (.325/.381/.484, B-/D-) with May getting the defense call late in games. At 2B, 2007 Brandon Phillips (.286/.329/.464, A/B+) will handle the duties for the season while 1969 Tony Perez (.301/.362/.533, C-/C+) does the same at 3B. At SS will be 1991 Barry Larkin (.308/.384/.512, B+/A) most games. Resting him for 25 games or so will be utility man 2007 Jeff Keppinger (.330/.397/.456, A+/D-) who plays every position but catcher, mostly error free.

In the outfield, the Rose clones, 1968 Pete Rose (.347/.407/.492, A-/C+) and 1969 Pete Rose (.355/.434/.519, B+/B-) will cover the corner spots while 1969 Bobby Tolan (.311/.352/.481, C/A) roams CF. On the bench we have power-hitter 2007 Josh Hamilton (.290/.365/.533, C+/B-) and 1969 Ted Savage (.233/.349/.352, C/A+) who can come in and play a little defense if needed. Hamilton will pinch-hit some, too.

That gives us 5514 usable PA’s with .315/.374/.496 and 187 HR’s. This team can get the bat on the ball and for the most part, field it pretty well, too. Bench will keep base runners from stealing. Looks like a typical Big Red Machine to me…

Outlook
My Reds pitching staff rates out to be the worst of all my teams. They don’t allow a lot of hits but they do allow HR’s and it shows in the cumulative ERC#. The team does hit well but I suspect many of the Reds teams will. Their HR power does normalize a little better than the Orioles team did, 3.1 HR/100# with only 187 HR’s. And their defense is pretty good for the most part. They rate out pretty high compared to my other teams, 4^th best overall. That’s a tough pill to swallow being that this is my worst pitching staff. We’ll say, if the pitching can hold up, this team might be a playoff contender.

League 8 : 5 Braves 1958 1969 1999 2006 2023
This was a team I felt pretty good about after the draft. I had Acuna Jr. and a couple of Aaron and Chipper options on offense. And I felt I could cobble together a decent pitching staff. As the build went on, my feelings rapidly changed…

Pitching Staff
As with all my teams, we selected our ace, 1999 Kevin Millwood (2.04 ERC#, .200 OAV#), first. We supplemented him with 1969 Phil Niekro (2.38 ERC#, .228 OAV#) as our #2, lefty 1958 Warren Spahn (2.89 ERC#, .237 OAV#) at #3, 1999 John Smoltz (2.54 ERC#, .242 OAV#) at #4 and 2023 Spencer Strider (2.73 ERC#, .216 OAV#) as our 5^th starter. That gives us 1193 SP innings, far more than I actually need. I guess that gives us some flexibility if one of these guys ends up in a slump.

In the bullpen we have 1969 Hoyt Wilhelm (1.78 ERC#, .189 OAV#) closing out games. Setting him up we have 2006 Bob Wickman (1.83 ERC#, .230 OAV#), 2023 Jesse Chavez (2.46 ERC#, .209 OAV#) and 1958 Humberto Robinson (2.34 ERC#, .203 OAV#) coming from the right side and flame-thrower 1999 John Rocker (2.15 ERC#, .178 OAV#) will come from the south side. In long relief we have 1958 Joey Jay (2.13 ERC#, .177 OAV#) whom we’ve had good success with before. It is possible we move Spahn to long relief if he’s getting shelled as a starter.

That gives us 1364 usable innings with a 2.38 ERC#, .217 OAV#, 1.06 WHIP#, and 0.61 HR/9#. The homeruns are the issue with this pitching staff…

Position Players
Our options had nice offensive numbers but lacked good defense to come with it. This resulted in drafting more salary than I needed to use to make the necessary late inning defensive upgrades. That couldn’t be truer than at C with starter 2006 Brian McCann (.331/.385/.549, B-/A/D) and his back-up, 1958 Del Crandall (.272/.348/.445, B/B+/B+), who combine for over 1000 PA’s. At 1B we have slugger 2023 Matt Olson (.290/.392/.586, B/C+) and his unneeded back-up, 2006 Daryle Ward (.307/.377/.523, C-/C-) who will mostly pinch hit. Our lone 2B will be 2023 Ozzie Albies (.287/.339/.496, B+/C) who is also a switch-hitter.

On the other side of the field, our selection for 3B ended up being 1999 Chipper Jones (.316/.433/.610, C+/D-) who can’t field a lick. To relieve him late in games we brought in 1969 Clete Boyer (.256/.333/.378, B+/B-) who can’t hit a lick but can catch the ball, for the most part. There’s another 500 or so wasted PA’s. And finally, at SS we have 2006 Edgar Renteria (.292/.358/.413, A-/D+) whose only rated replacement is none other than the immovable object himself, Mr. Chipper Jones, who was already firmly planted at 3B.

In the outfield we have a plethora of options. My favorite one is left fielder 2023 Ronald Acuna Jr. (.345/.419/.578, C+/D+) who will steal bases for us. And since we didn’t take the other Chipper for our clone, we have 1969 Hank Aaron (.306/.401/.614, B/B-) in CF and his clone, 1958 Hank Aaron (.327/.386/.534, B/C+) in RF. To replace Acuna late in games we spent more money and brought in 2006 Andruw Jones (.261/.361/.507, A/B+) who will play center and bump both Aarons over. We also have lefty 1999 Ryan Klesko (.294/.369/.508, A+/D-) and righty 1969 Rico Carty (.349/.407/.556, D/D-) to pinch hit.

That gives us 5830 usable PA’s with a .308/.386/.539 and 303 HR’s. We also have a pretty shaky infield defense that, although we have late inning replacements, it cost us a pretty penny to do so.

Outlook
Offensively I really like this team. They hit, hit for power, reach base, and even steal some bases. But what they don’t do is get to the ball when they are out on the field. The overall team range is pretty bad and the fielding is just average. The exception would be McCann at catcher but then, his arm is also dead. On the pitching side of things everything seems fine until you get to the HR/9# stat and see a whopping 0.61 for your effective innings and 0.62 overall. This team rated as my 2^nd worst team, barely squeaking by the Indians franchise. I actually like this team better than they’re rated so we’ll see how it goes. Of course, we don’t have a Maddux either so, yeah, maybe this team doesn’t advance…but puts on a good show for the fans.

Overall Summary
Finally finished this! It took nearly two weeks but was an enjoyable experience. I wrote this from the perspective of before the season started but now we are 29 games in. Initially it felt like 4 or 5 teams would advance: Orioles, Phillies, Giants, Reds, and Dodgers. The other three would fall short. Currently I have 5 teams below .500, although 3 of them have 14-15 records. The 6 that are in contention are the Giants, Orioles, Reds, Cubs, Dodgers, and Phillies. My Braves team isn’t far off at 13-16. My Indians team is 8-21. Time to start running everyone elses teams to compare. Should be interesting to see how the season develops. I’m hoping to move 6 teams forward. I can’t believe my Indians team is as bad as the ratings said they were…

Thanks everyone for your patience during the draft and league filling. I know you all like to get started promptly and appreciate the opportunity to put in enough research to field a somewhat competitive team.

A special thanks to schwarze for continuing thejuice6 tourney legacy and having the patience and dedication to run such a tight running program. It’s tough to do and you are awesome at it!

Good luck everyone!

Posted by barracuda3 on 2/7/2024 10:04:00 AM (view original):

Quote post by toysboys on 2/6/2024 6:01:00 PM:

Jigger Statz is my starting CF?

If I ever get a job as a data analyst for a mixology firm I am totally going to go by nickname of Jigger Statz.

One guess who was 0.02% in today's Immaculate Grid?

Posted by schwarze on 2/19/2024 10:51:00 AM (view original):

Posted by barracuda3 on 2/7/2024 10:04:00 AM (view original):

Quote post by toysboys on 2/6/2024 6:01:00 PM:

Jigger Statz is my starting CF?

If I ever get a job as a data analyst for a mixology firm I am totally going to go by nickname of Jigger Statz.

One guess who was 0.02% in today's Immaculate Grid?

Nice. I just logged in. I thought I would raise him to 0.03% but he's still at 0.02%.

Thanks for sharing BeAllEndAll.

Here is a "way-too-early" look back at my projections. I will list the teams in order that I posted them (same order as I drafted them). The first number is the "probability of advancing" that I arbitrarily assigned each team. The second number is their current W-L record. The third number is their Exp Win%.

Giants: 85%, 19-16, .671
Tigers: 80%, 19-16, .583
Red Sox: 60%, 17-18, .519
Athletics: <5%, 23-12, .643 (this is a huge shock to me)
Yankees: 45%, 20-15, .638
Dodgers: 50%, 25-10, .602 (one of the few teams I have that is lucky in 1-run games, 6-2)
White Sox: 35%, 19-16, .487
Reds: 75%, 17-18, .599 (1-5 in 1-run games)
Browns: 20%, 19-16, .503
Phillies: 30%, 16-19, .515
Braves: 55%, 17-18, .511
Cardinals: 30%, 23-12, 635 (thought my pitching was terrible, somehow it's 1st in league)
Indians: 70% 20-15, .562
Pirates: 90%, 16-19, .540 (unlucky 1-run games record, 3-6, pitching worse than expected)
Cubs: 80%, 11-24, .372 (this team and my A's team shows that I know nothing about this game)
Senators: 20%, 16-19, .506

I didn't give expected advancement odds, but here's my 36-game update with some commentary:

VERY GOOD: 8 teams
8 of my 15 teams are at 22-14 or better (over 60% win%) AND have an expected win% of 55% or better. Except for my Giants (1 GB of juice), all are in 1st Place.

CHW 1916-1963-1994-1986-1935	25-11	1st Place
BOS 2018-1903-1948-1975-2017	25-11	1st Place
PHI 1980-2021-1933-1920-1943	24-12	1st Place
CLE 2017-2022-1922-1912-1949	23-13	1st Place
SFG 2003-1903-2015-1994-1962	22-14	2nd Place
CHC 1909-2021-1928-1984-1967	22-14	1st Place
DET 1935-1945-1903-2023-1925	22-14	1st Place
MIN 1915-1924-1970-2013-1978	22-14	1st Place

ON THE BUBBLE: 6 teams
I have 6 teams between records of 16-20 (.444) to 19-17 (.528). They all have Exp% around 50% as well, except for the Reds who are .400 x% but 6-3 in 1-run games. My Cardinals team, as schwarze mentioned earlier, has not hit great despite my very high expectations for the offense. They have scored more lately, but still far short of expectations. Only one of these teams, the Dodgers, would currently advance. They are in 1st Place (barely) in a bad division.

LAD 2021-2016-1954-2017-2001	19-17
NYY 1930-2017-1981-2022-2004	18-18
STL 2004-1953-1970-1917-2016	18-18
ATL 1994-2012-2022-1973-1951	17-19
BAL 1991-1973-1925-1993-1978	16-20
CIN 1923-1939-1965-2012-2022	16-20

NOT GOOD: 1 team
After a promising 6-1 start, my A's team has just cratered, going 7-22 since. We've had 3 separate losing streaks of at least 5 games and a .409 Exp% to prove we're not competitive. The offense is last in the league and the pitching has been slightly above average but nowhere near good enough to make up for the poor hitting.

OAK 2020-2019-1904-1969-1941

13-23