2010 WISC Team Building Process (38 owners posted) Topic

Dalefan1
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It is time for #95 to weigh in on how his teams were built.   will say right now this was an absolute kick n the pants to build these teams, and If I finish higher then my rank of 95, I will be back next year.  I built 2 to 3 teams of each theme and pit them against each other to see which was strongest.   I am happy with how they came out, and I'm hoping to be the lowest rank to ever make ROUND 2.



70 mil (5 man rotation)
Team name:Big Dawgs Inc.
I love 5 man rotations,  prefer those no matter what, so this came to me easier then it might for some.   I of course started with the pitching staff  3 of my 5 starters have a WHIP under 1,  with the low walk count they should eat up innings to make up for the weaker bullpen.    Speaking of bullpen, I didn't draft a real closer.   the most saves on my team is 8.    As far as the position players, since I used more money on my staff I kept the defense a premium on this team, with OBP 2nd.   I have one real hitter on the team and although his average is low(ish) Mr. Raul Ibanez  does have 34 HR.    I have 5 guys on the team with double digit stolen bases so we play to be aggressive on the base paths  The team has a mush higher OBP the average, so I put the in CHASE FIELD, which benefits the hitters, that way the averages come up a little and hopefully we always have guys on base.   the numbers overall look like this.  Offense  .276 average . 370 OBP  .404 Slug.  Pitching   2.84 ERA 1.02 WHIP .212 opp ave and a 3-1 K- BB ratio.


80 mil (clone)
Team Name: Frank Robinson and Roy Halladay
The team name gives away who my cones are.  I tried other mixtures, for pitching i tried Marichal, R. Johnson, and Shilling.  I felt  got more bang for my buck with Halladay, I have 5 clones of him,  I plan to use a 4 man rotation with another in long relief.   throw in a decent pen and you get numbers of   2.94 1.08 .245 with almost 5-1 K-BB ratio, the pithcin not as strong on this team as others, but  I shoud have some runs produced.  All 3 of my robinsons play great D and have almost 30HR and 10SB, the only other option I really looked at was Mel Ott, but i didn't feel his defensive was good enough.  Offensive numbers look like this.   .283 .389 and .440, they also boast more walk then strikeouts.   With a weaker pitching staff and a low average offensively anyway, I went with Dodger stadium, a pitchers park, just hoping that my OBP will hold us up.


90 mil (GM Challenge)
Team Name: 98 Braves
I decided to use a team that was already a winner, If they are already winning there's a reason why.  The '98 Braves had such a winning record I was allowed only one free agent.  I chose to go with pitching so my free agent was Kevin Brown, adding him to a rotation that already has Smoltz and Maddox.  Other teams I looked at were any team that ended in 'Yankees' and the mid-60's Reds.  With no big changes made to this team, I'll just give you the numbers:
Offensive:
.280 .352 .473
Pitching:
2.84 1.14 .233

100 Mil (Twist League)
Team name: Deuces 1970 Orioles
I had the most fun building this team.  I tried to twist the '65 Reds, '98 Braves (who I chose for the GM challenge) and the '03 Yankees.  I feel the pitching staff on this one was better than I could have gotten with those other teams for the price.  One thing is for sure, I definitely don't have to worry about fatigue with this pitching staff, as they have over 1600 inning pitched.  Before I give you then numbers, the one big number with this team is they should hit twice as many HRs as the give up.
Offensive:
.280 .366 .449
Pitching:
2.33 1.05 .21

120 Mil (Power/Speed)
Team name:  2 legit 2 quit
The required total between HRs and SBs is 500.  My team blows that away with a whole 585.  I have six guys hitting 30 or more HRs with the biggest hitter being Sammy Sosa of 2001 hitting 64 HRs.  But, my team does not lack in speed.  I have five guys stealing at least 20 bases with one of those guys being Ricky Henderson of '80 stealing 100 bases.  I looked for the best defensive numbers I could for guys who can hit and run.  As far as my pitching staff goes I went with a strong three-man rotation - Juan Marichal, Sandy Koufax and Catfish Hunter.  Along with the bullpen, the pitching staff records almost seven Ks per nine innings.  I chose Kaufman stadium to some-what kill the HRs that will be hit.  The final numbers look like this:
Offensive:
.313 .407 .536
Pitching:
2.20 .98 .217

140 Mil (Through the Decades)
Team name:  Cash Money
With a salary cap this high I didn't even know where to start.  I feel like this is a complete crap-shoot.  I went for a high OBP and as few walks as a pitching staff can allow.  I also went pitching first with my money.  The numbers are:
Offensive:
.342 .444 .558
Pitching:
1.60 .85 .192

With any luck at all I'll make a run at the second round.  Thanks to everybody who helped put this together and who are being commissioners of leagues. 





8/4/2010 5:02 PM
markeking
Posts: 2317 (1)
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Posted by schwarze on 8/4/2010 10:05:00 AM (view original):
markeking... great writeup... LMFAO
Thanks.  It was fun to draft the teams and write about them.  Watching the results roll in ... probably not so much.  Despite that, thanks for putting together a fun tourney once again.
8/4/2010 5:32 PM
jjgreen14
Posts: 239 (0)
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Since we are sharing and I wouldn't mind the constructive opinions of the group, I'll add to the conversation. This is my first venture to the WISC and feel I am nowhere near as good as my ranking would suggest. I should be closer to the bottom, near last would be perfect. I know I'm dead money in the tournament but you never know. That is why we play the games.

70M - Modern Day 5-Man Rotation: (Five Eager Young Pups)

Never played a 70M cap league and left this til the end, a recipe for disaster. Playing at Citi Field was not my intention but ended up being so after I read that we had to pick a modern park. For the Starters, I went with '81 Forsch, '93 Avery, '06 Wang (Helped me a lot in my OL Championship team, so went back to him although he was a 4th starter then), '09 Cliff Lee & '94 Joey Hamilton. I am gambling on the back end of the rotation as it does not have enough innings. However, I feel that the front three can pitch extra games if necessary. For the Bullpen, I'm going with the Closer A & B with '88 Milacki & '01 Fikac. My 3 Setup pitchers are '06 Otsuka, '08 Jenks, '03 Rivera. My Long Man is '00 Sparks. The line for the staff is 1321 IP 2.96 ERA 1.17 WHIP & .254OAV.

For the Lineup, I went with a scrub bench and even got some scrub starters. Completely forgot about the platoon strategy, silly me. '92 Lofton is leading off for me, followed by '99 Castillo, '09 Votto and '82 Reggie Jackson are my power, '04 Figgins follows for his triple prowess, '86 Gedman is my C with his A+ arm, '89 Spike Owen is SS (I have no idea who he is, just used him to take space, would have been better off with a platoon there maybe?), & '89 Coleman rounding out the lineup with some speed. The line for the batters: 5127 PA's .280/.357/.414/.771.

80M - Clone Me - Snazzy Dazzy and the Thorny Rose

This cap was tight for me but I knew early on I wanted to use Rose because of his ability to play the infield as well as the OF and I did not want to fill up the OF with just one player although the use of Raines would have been interesting. I picked Dazzy Vance on a whim. He is a SP I could use in a 3-man & is relatively solid in that I can pick two solid versions of him and a serviceable 3rd version of him. The bullpen has '88 Milacki and '87 McDowell as the closers, '01 Foulke, '06 Rivera & '98 RJ as the Setup and '67 Hardin as the Long with 2 mop-ups. The Line is: 1,378 IP 2.53 ERA  1.10 WHIP & .224 OAV.

On Offense, the bench is full of scrubs and am worried about it. I picked '64 Rose to play 2B, '67 for OF, and '80 for 1B. I have a 700+PA 1B that can't hit, get OBP, run or hit for power, what am I doing? Well live and learn. Line up is '80 Dilone, '95 Weiss, '23 Cy Williams, '67 Rose, '95 Boggs, '80 Rose, '75 Carter, & '64 Rose rounding it out. The Line is: 5,348 PA .288/.365/.404/.769. Playing at Ebbets Field

90M - GM Challenge w/ Blacklist - The 1942 St. Louis Cards

I tried to make this team and the 100M team first. Did a lot of research and tried to use the pythagorean formula. Just made me more confused. Ended up just looking for good teams in baseball reference that I thought would work. Guess I'm alone in thinking the '42 Cards would work, hee hee. I felt that the pitching while not stud would work and that the offense containing Slaughter and Musial are solid. In picking the lone FA, I thought of the 60M AAA challenge I played before the WISC and how one offensive player could really carry a team on his back so the best hitter available in 1942 is...Ted Williams and the Cards played in Sportsman Park which should amp up his doubles and LH power. I know this is totally against the grain and will either work tremendously well or awfully, I tend to think the latter but it'll be fun.

When I had to set up the pitching staff, I saw something I never saw before. Pitchers that only pitched 4 or 5 IP/G. Got me to use the Tandem feature of WIS and will be a learning experience as such. Everyone on the staff has a good number of IP so I just hope I balanced it out right so that it works. The line is: 1,486 IP 2.66 ERA 1.19 WHIP & .231 OAV.

With the Lineup, I had to fudge a little and put Slaughter at first and playing the better fielder/PA in the OF instead of the given 1B. 3-4-5 is Williams, Slaughter and Musial. I'm hoping that the guys in front of them get on and can score on the hits the middle of the order generates. (Lot of hoping going...I sense a theme) The line is : 6,151 PA .285/.365/.419/.784.

100M - Limited Seasons Twist - The 1993 Toronto Blue Jays

Another pick that is followed by few others. The main reason for my pick is that I remembered that this team had a lot of good players in and around their good seasons, or so I thought. The team is solid but lacks the pitching that I'd be comfortable with. I'm happy with the offense. Should be interesting to see how it does.

Pitching includes two mop ups, a rotation of '90 Stewart, '96 Hentgen, '91 Morris, '91 Stottlemyre, and '92 Guzman. The pen has '96 Timlin as the closer, '93 Ward and '91 Eichhorn as Setup A's,  and '93 Cox and '95 Castillo as Setup B's. The line is: 1,612 IP 3.11 ERA 1.20 WHIP and .233 OAV.

The Lineup has many stars of the time. '91 White leads off, '90 Henderson hits second, followed by '93 Alomar, '91 Carter, '93 Olerud, '90 Molitor, '90 Fernandez, and '93 Borders catching. Molitor does not have a ton of PA and will have to split time with someone on the bench, most likely Darnell Coles. I was able to '95 Shawn Green onto the team which should be a good bat off the bench and save time for Henderson. Got '94 Sojo to spot players on the infield as well. The Line is: 6,287 PA .294/.363/.476/.839.

120M - Power/Speed - Beep-Beep and Boom

I went for as much speed as I could but took a few boppers to hit on the road. Chose Astrodome as that can help my pitchers with their HR/9 problems. Built a rotation of '86 Scott, '99 RJ, '86 Clemens, & '30 Vance (I must have had a fascination with him in building these teams). The Pen has '09 Feliz closing, '06 Meredith and '89 Eck Setup A, '05 Wagner, '91 Harvey & '04 Gordon Setup B and '02 Woody Williams as a Long. I'm hoping not to use Woody at all but with IP I think it might have to be. The Line is: 1,568 IP 2.25 ERA 0.96 WHIP and .201 OAV.

The Lineup consists of: 1891 Hamilton (picked to cover the requirement - speed), '87 Raines (speed), '57 Mantle (power), '89 HoJo (both), '85 McGee (speed), '93 Jefferies (speed), '79 Downing (Catcher), '92 Bip Roberts (Speed), and '04 Figgins (Speed). The line is: 6,187 PA .327/.413/.489/.902.

140M - Across the Decades - Spanning Time for Baseball's Best

For this theme, I wanted to draft pitching and a ton of it. I decided to go with a 3-man staff and decided to go with '12 WJ, '09 Three-Finger Brown, and was not sure about the last one. Debated between Koufax and Carlton since I wanted a Lefty and 300-IP season. In the end, I went with Koufax as I played out the different scenarios, I wanted Koufax and Morgan at 2B more than the alternatives. Therefore, the rotation is far too few IP as I have read and we shall see if the pen can bail it out. Doubt that though as too few IP were drafted total. Live and Learn. Rotation of '12 WJ, '09 Brown, and '63 Koufax. Pen with a lot of pitchers, more than I normally use: '90 Eck as the closer, '03 Gagne and '81 Gossage as the Setup A's, '43 Niggeling as Setup B, '70 Blue as the LH Specialist, 1898 Leever as the RH Specialist, '58 Latman and '31 Harris as the Long A's and '29 Grabowski as Long B. The Line is: 1,564 IP 1.42 ERA 0.86 WHIP .186 OAV.

On Offense, was unsure of SS but ended up with '99 Jeter there, '75 Morgan at 2B like I discussed before, '57 Mantle Hitting 3rd, '42 Williams, 1889 Tommy Tucker at 1B (this is the decision that I'll probably regret), '88 Boggs, '37 Waner (Should have gone with the Ruth there), '06 Mauer. The Line is: 6,238 PA
.350/.454/.517/.971.

I welcome any comments/questions
JJ
8/4/2010 7:04 PM
Jtpsops
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I love seeing guys who used teams I gave up on or guys who gave up on teams I selected.  Gets the butterflies going knowing one of us is going to be kicking ourselves at season's end...and I hope it's not me :)
8/4/2010 7:38 PM
mllama54
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Last year was my first year in and a great learning experience and fun. Not sure where I will finish this year but hope to improve on my high 30’s ranking (though dropping a bunch of spots is probably more likely.). I came within two game 7 losses in the league championship series from making the second round. 


70 mil (5 man rotation)
I have had a lot of luck with Tim Hudson (2003) at higher salary caps so I wanted him here. Also tried to get low OAV’s for the best salary with 3 lefties. Went with Langston, Sid Fernandez, and Scott Kazmir and right Bob Tewksbury. On the offensive side Ted Simmons, Gary Sheffield, and Victor Martinez have been good to me.. Augmented that with solid defense and range up the middle and high OBP with from Rickey and Bip Roberts.   .277 AVG, .758 OPS with 226 HRs. Also went with Network Colliseum Park for High home runs and also too help the pitchers.


80 mil (clone)
Joe Torre and Dave Stieb: My experience with the 1971 Torre 3B and 1963 Torre C has been good no matter the salary cap. 63 Torre has an A. A, A+ rating. Also figured 3b, C, and 1b were anchor positions with more flexibility in the outfield. Thought about Raines as my clone but would have had trouble affording the RBI positions. Instead went with Lofton, Lawton, and Carter sb, OBP, and Power. Again went with good defense and switch hitters at 2nd and SS. Also high PH averages on the bench . Stieb was extremely consistent. Wanted Score but fell 5 innings short. Then tried Eckersley but every time I used him he has stunk. Either Stieb will be good or bad but he was consistent. .291 BA, 111 HRs and a .781 OPS. Pitching 3.17, .230 OAV. Went with the best pitcher’s park available to me which was Shea. Given that Stieb pitched in the Rogers Centre I hope a pitcher’s park will help him do better overall.

90 mil (GM Challenge)
2003 Dodgers
Tried to go with a better team but kept coming back here. Dodger bullpen best in the 2000 era. Added my new favorite Hudson. But I desperately needed offense so I went with two of the studs of the era Pujolis and Helton. Thought about another pitcher Jason Schmidt but to make this work I really needed offense. .281 Avg, .794 OPS and 172 HRs. Pitching 2.89 ERA and .226 OAV but I am counting on that big stud on the back end (Gagne) to make this work.
100 Mil (Twist League)
1974 Cincinatti REds
My experience with 70’s teams is that they always finish around 500. I hope this one does a little better. I started with the 1975 Reds but realized that there was not as much value in the 1978 options as there was in 1971 so I moved back a year and kept the same nucleus. I added Merv Rettemund and Clay Kirby from the 1971 team while downgrading Cesar Gernonomo. I just hope  Joe Morgan actually performs at this cap. He has stunk at higher caps but Pete Rose has always worked well for me. If George Foster hits 30 – 35 home runs (he hit 52 in actual) I should be all right. Don Gullet 1975 is my ace in the hole. Only 159 innings but pitched great for me at the higher cap levels. .303 Avg, 274 Home Runs, and .856 OPS. Pitching 2.82 ERA and .223 PAV. Fielding is dynamite with Morgan and Concepcion up the middle.

120 Mil (Power/Speed)
My key here was going with a bad home run park and load up on stolen bases. Also I needed some home runs to use in the competition’s parks but those players had primarily high BA along with power to cover my bet,,   Mize and Piazza. I also went with Raines and Collins two of my favorites because of the way they always perform for me.   This time I went with Longoria, Smith, and Beltran for defense. It always seems speed and defense are needed to win. Pitching I went with three left handers and Pedro 2000. Koufax, Santana , and Valenzuela. My closer is also a lefty Billy Wagner. Tried to negate some of the left handed power I anticipate seeing. .324 BA, .880 OPS, 157 HR and 381 SB. With the DH I am also able to finally use Lou Brock.

140 Mil (Through the Decades)
Pitching I had to have the big train, and Joss. I added Koufax rather that Maddux or Martinez because I wanted the good relievers from the 1970 – 2010. I took Wagner, Gagne, Reardon, and Brewer. For my offense I chose the players that have always performed well for me. Eddie Collins, Johnny Mize, Mickey Mantle, Joe Torre, and Sam Thompson. I added defense and some offense with Ozzie,  Mauer, and my wild card of Ted Williams for the kicker on offense. I know most would have taken a big bat like Ruth, Gehrig etc from the 20’s but Collins has been a performer and a lucky charm. Thompson, Mize, and Torre have been rocks at any cap and fit my style of play. I almost went with A-rod at third but decided to boost my pinch hitters with Shane Spencer since there is no DH in this league. Rather than pick the best from each decade I tried to build a team based on need and then worry about the decades. BA .358, OPS 1.005, SB 143 and HR 178. Pitching 1.47 ERA and .182 OAV. 
 
I tried this year to incorporate range(lesson learned from Schwartz the hard way) in all of my teams. Fielding maybe the differentiator. If it is I should be OK. Again I tried to keep track of performances this past year and use them here. We will see what happens. Need 2 or possibly 3 teams in the playoffs with good performances there. Last year I had one real bad team. I almost overcame that. If all play close to 500 with a couple of exceptional ones I could make the second round. One bad one and I will probably drop like a rock. 
8/4/2010 8:30 PM
thejuice6
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$70M (5-Man Rotation):  This was the first team I built after signing up for the tournament.  I can't honestly remember what logic I followed in building this team, other than I wanted to use nothing but players who (1) I'd never used before, or (2) Had never performed well for me at all in previous leagues - regardless of the CAP.  I remember thinking that all of their collective "badness" may turn out to be a positive and maybe they'll get a little bit of help from the other no-name, talentless hacks that I teamed them up with.  When your most expensive player is Nick Swisher, just try to imagine how good of a team you're gonna have.  Usually when I think a team is going to be bad, they surprise me.  The last couple of years in this tournament, the team I thought was going to be my worst, ended up being my best.  That said, I'm predicting a maximum of 65 wins for these bums - and maybe they'll surprise me by winning 67...

$80M (Clone League):  Which way to go?  I couldn't make up my mind on my hitter - whether to go with three versions of an awesome player like Foxx and surround him with crap, or to get a worthless bat and surround him with a much better line-up.  I decided to go somewhere in the middle with Frank Robinson.  With only one other owner going with Big Frank, it remains to be seen if we were smarter than everyone else or dumber.  Same scenario for my pitcher - really great one like Maddux or Pedro, or a scrub - like the one I chose.  Josh Beckett is possibly the worst pick of any pitcher in this theme in this tournament.  I've come to the conclusion that I'm an idiot and that I like pain.  70 wins tops.

$90M (G.M. Challenge):  Another sure-fire dumb move on my part.  I've always been sympathetic to the Brewers of the last ten years since I won my first WIS championship in a $100M theme league with the early-2000's Brew Crew.  However, stacked up against the best of the best in this tournament, I'm afraid my heart may have taken the wrong approach in this one.  Even with the addition of 2004 Jim Edmonds, 2004 Pudge Rodriguez and 2004 Miguel Tejada, the offense leaves a lot to be desired.  I was able to add Johan Santana and Randy Johnson to an awesome Ben Sheets and a serviceable Doug Davis.  The pitching should be alright but I seriously doubt if this team breaks .500.

$100M (Twist League):  What is it about the year 2004 that I'll never learn?  After checking out many teams for this one, I was torn between the 1928 Athletics and these guys.  Yep, I turned down Lefty and Jimmy and Al and Mickey and all the others, just so I could go with these freakin' Astros.  2004 allowed me to get the pitching of the 2005 Clemens and Pettitte, along with a bullpen that includes 2004 Lidge and 2002 Dotel.  When you look at the offensive numbers for 2001 Bagwell, 2002 Kent, 2005 Ensberg, 2006 Bletran, 2001 Berkman and 2003 Hidalgo, this team shouldn't have a shortage of power.  Now to just avoid a SIM record of team strikeouts.  I'll go out on a limb here and predict this team finishes right at .500 (though I saw where another owner took the 1928 Athletics so I'm going to keep my eye on them so I can see at the end of the season just how dumb of a choice I made.

$120M (Power/Speed):  This is one of those teams where I go into the season thinking that they've got a playoff berth locked up.  I honestly can't find any flaws with this roster.  Pluswise, I've assembled a pitching staff - even with the restrictions, that should dominate any team that they face.  Therefore, I'll predict a finish in the cellar and fortunate to win 70 games.

$140M (Through The Decades):  I have absolutely no faith in this team doing anything.  Most of the players I've chosen are on a lot of the other rosters in the tournament - and they historically never do as well for me as they seem to do for all of the other owners.  I've never had a 13-man pitching staff so innings shouldn't be a problem.  Winning will be the only problem we have here.  Since I've got no confidence in this team doing well, I'll predict they'll be my best team and be the only team I have in this tournament that makes it to the playoffs of their league.


 

8/4/2010 11:20 PM (edited)
ncih
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$70M

Drafted low ERC and selected low BBs and low HRs. This was a common theme in my pitching staffs. Drafted 03 Quantrill to close (not really closer great ERC) with Quisenberry as my setup man. Concentrated on higher OBP with an eye toward batting average. Not really an emphesis on either HR or SB with 16 the most in either catagory.

$80M

Pujols/Eckersley. Liked Pujols as he provides great offense and covers three positions (OF, 1B, 3B). Eckersley was my only choice for pitcher. He has three excellent starting seasons, a good long relief season, and of course an awesome closer. Filled in with high OBP offense and low ERC pitchers.

$90M

Settled early on the 1920 White Sox. They have excellent hitting (five batters over 300 led by Shoeless Joe at .382). Worried that I am only using six pitchers (Ciccotte, Williams, and Faber starting, Kerr, Wilkerson, and FA Babe Adams in the bullpen. We will see how this works.

$100M

The last team I built. Looked around before settling on the 1927 Yankees. The greatest team ever was already at $98M, so I just mixed and matched. Only using seven pitchers, so that will be a concern.

$120M

Ended up going with mainly SBs because HRs are just too expensive and cause too many shortages in other areas. Had to use Ruth, 80 Henderson, 97 Billy Hamilton, and 75 Morgan. Mauer is my catcher. Love my starters 03 Schmidt, 02 Pedro, 67 Hughes, and 80 Sutton, again concentrating on low BBs and HRs. Returned 89 Eckersley as my closer.

$140M

Started with pitching 95 Maddux, 67 Joe Horlen (a great pitcher for me), 09 Ed Walsh, and 14 Caldwell. Went with 03 Gagne as my closer, 77 Gossage to setup. Very strange for me to have 12 pitchers. Was able to build a great offense (three 400 hitters (Cobb, Hamilton, Heilmann) (hated to miss out on Ruth, but could not afford him)

I have never done well in this tournament, but hopefully this time will be different.



8/4/2010 10:55 PM
eman_wi
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$70 M (Tired Hitting)
Like many others... I started by building my pitching staff.  Chris Carpenter '09 at $6.9 mil might have cost too much, but I wanted a pitcher who should win his matchup to try to neutralize other teams' best pitcher.  My other starters are '89 Jeff Ballard, '90 Dave Stieb, '80 Steve Trout, and '04 Tim Hudson.  I will be running a 6 man rotation, with everyone available to pitch in relief.  My bullpen is limited, '92 Cal Eldred and '01 Mariano Rivera will be my setup men, and '06 Cla Meredith will close out the games.  My stadium is the Astrodome, which will help with the generally high OAV(.253) my pitchers have.  My team WHIP is 1.19, and ERA is 2.86, and I shouldn't give up too many HRs.  With 1503 IP, my staff shouldn't face fatigue issues.
My team name speaks for what my lineup will look like.  Only one batter ('94 Bip Roberts) has over 600 PA, and 6 have less than 550.  My plan was to get guys who would had a higher AVG or OBP, without spending too much for it.  My infield is '81 Milt May (c), '85 Pete Rose (1b), '92 Lou Whitaker (2b), '83 Bill Madlock (3b) and '92 Omar Vizquel (ss).  My outfield is '07 Luis Gonzalez, '03 Larry Walker, and '94 Roberts.  Poor range all around, but decent fielding, so hopefully not too many errors.  My hitters AVG (.295), OBP (.378) should be good at this cap, but the SLG could be better (.406).  
I should end up in a lot of 2-1 and 3-2 games, especially at home.  Hopefully I can stay around .500 over the first half of the season, and maybe pick up some extra wins in the 2nd half from teams that run into pitching fatigue issues.  Maybe 85 wins?

$80 M (Bert B and Elmer V)
I knew right away, with 900+ IP required from the pitching clones that I wanted someone I could do a 3 man rotation with, because I had a soft cap of around $25 mil for my rotation to save some money for my bullpen.  I initially looked at Wilbur Cooper, and had my whole pitching staff put together before I realized that I was using seasons that were outside of the theme (1919 and (1916).  Crap.  It didn't take me long to find Bert Blyleven ('72, '73, and '74) though, and while I think my pitching would have been better with Wilbur, Bert should be a good fit for what I wanted.  Key members of the bullpen are '92 Rod Beck, '05 Felix Hernandez, '58 Hal Woodeshick, '07 Joakim Soria, '21 Chief Yellowhorse, and '06 Cla Meredith.  1452 IP, with a line of .231 (OAV), 1.10 (WHIP), and 2.62 (ERA).  Would have liked more IP, but I didn't want to sacrifice quality.  In Griffith Stadium, a bit of a pitchers park, it should be enough to avoid fatigue.
Knowing I was going to use a pitchers park, I figured I would use a high OBP and AVG team.  I choose Elmer Valo as my hitting clone because I have had good success with him at this cap before, and his seasons from '49, '50 and '51 fit perfectly with what I wanted.  My infield is '85 Mike Scioscia (c), '88 Alvin Davis (1b), '82 Joe Morgan (2b), '95 Wade Boggs (3b) and '70 Luis Aparicio (ss).  Only Aparicio has an OBP under .400.  The line on my hitters is .299 (AVG), .402 (OBP), and .421 (SLG). Fatigue shouldn't be an issue with this lineup.  Scioscia is a A- for arm... and that should hold back some of the SB based teams (Raines / Henderson, etc) that seem so popular.  My team's range isn't great... but again, the fielding should be decent.  
For this team to be successful, they are going to have to bring runners in when people get on base.  Probably a lot of 1 or 2 run games.  Maybe 85 wins.

$90 M ('71 LA Dodgers)
Like many others... I went through season by season looking for teams that had big differentials in runs scored and runs allowed.  I found a couple of teams that had good numbers and were available... but didn't like what the team would have actually looked like.  I can't say that I love the team that I ended up with, but I am stuck with it.  I added Tom Seaver, Bobby Murcer, and Joe Torre to the team.  The pitching line is .243, 1.16, and 2.94.  The hitting line is .294, .359, and .426.  It worries me that my $80 mil team has better numbers than my $90 mil team. 

If this team wins 70 games, I will be happy... but at the same time, in a strange way, I could see this team doing much better.

$100 M (1997 Atlanta Braves)
I picked this team because of the pitching.  Looks like other people thought the same.  Hopefully it works out.

$120 M (506 SB/HR)
The first team that I built.  In theory, my pitchers will strike out many of the HR hitters and Dodger Stadium should help limit HRs also.  My hitters have enough HRs to take advantage of the pitchers, and enough SBs to take advantage of the poor arms. 

No guess on how this team will do.

$140 M (Legends across the decades)
This was my favorite team to build.  I liked trying to play with seasons to put together a team that would fit.

I started with my pitching staff.  I knew I needed enough IP, and ended up with 1578.  Hopefully that will be enough.  Walter Johnson '13, Greg Maddux '95, and Pedro '00 are my starters, with '09 Babe Adams as a spot starter.  '81 Fingers and '77 Sutter are my setup men, and '67 Carlos is the closer.  .196, .86, and 1.56 is my pitching line.

My hitters took much longer to get put together, since I had to fit them in with the pitchers salaries.  My OF is '26 Ruth (had '27 version but changed it to save money), '99 Delahanty, and '54 Williams (batting ninth to stretch his PAs and take advantage of his high OBP).  My infield is '09 Mauer (c), '34 Gehrig (1b), '04 Lajoie (2b), '85 Brett (3b), and '92 Ozzie Smith (ss). 
I really like the team that I have put together, and could see it being a 90-95 game winner.  

All in all, if I end up in the top 40, I will be happy.  Anything beyond that will require me to make the playoffs in multiple leagues, and probably make a good run in at least one of them.  
8/5/2010 4:33 AM
tracyr
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70 Mil - 5-man Rotation

i hate low cap leagues - not because i don't have a superstar at every position, but because i never win at this level...i tried to find 5 low K starters to get more innings out of them (hopefully they don't suck) and went with a 6 man bullpen all but Mariano should pitch 80+ innings - 83 Moose Haas and 91 Bill Wegman are favorites of mine as is 87 Rick Reuschel, even in 80 mil leagues, 07 Dustin McGowan is gonna suck tho, but he was my last pitcher selected and was the best available for the money i had left....batting - to me, 83 Darrell Evans and 81 Gorman Thomas are absolute musts as middle of the order of a low cap league - i went mainly with high walk guys with a little pop - and picked a basically neutral park (Tropicana) for them to work in - defense overall is average to below average - which will probably kill the team - although i dont believe in D at 1B/3B having any real affect in the game

i hate this team - prediction - 70-92


80 mil - clones

Bret Saberhagen - very good value in the sim - took 6 iterations - less than 100 innings will come from elsewhere - given how his seasons shake out, i was surprised he wasnt used more in this - i used his ERC# seasons of 1.90 (his best), 2.45, 2.46, 2.48, 2.64 and 2.65 - that should serve well at this cap - his low walk/K totals should net him more innings as well

Tony Phillips - hated to cookie it up - but i was actually looking for a player i could clone at the 7 non catching positions - i took 5 consecutive years (92-96) all 5 mil plus seasons, and he will be hitting in the top 5 spots in the order - serious OBP, so hopefully that will translate - altho not much pop, so maybe i lead the league in runners left on base!  amazingly, this team ended up being much better defensively than i had hoped

i put them in Shea to negate extra base hits - this is probably my 2nd best team, prediction  90-72


90 mil - messiah(s)

1944 Philadelphia Bluejays (.399 - 6 messiahs) - my original choice, the 77 Mets had been used in a previous iteration, so in a random act of madness, combined with drunkenness, i went with a team that i ran across in another similar league but was afraid to use - some solid innings were available in Ken Raffensberger, Charley Schanz and Bill Lee - i added good hitting pitcher and 300 inning arm Bucky Walters to the mix, giving me a very solid rotation at this cap (and providing a swingman) - bullpen is very thin - but i added 100+ inning superstud finisher Joe Berry as a 2nd saviour....offensively, i had 4 guys i could pick, and 3 were no-brainers - all 8+ mil players in Lou Boudreau, Stan Musial and Snuffy Stirnweiss - Bluejays Ron Northey, Tony Lupien and Sparky Adams were all very solid seasons, so that left 3B or catcher for my last spot - all catchers in 44 sucked, so i went with Bob Elliott at 3B as my last player

defense on this squad ended up being above average, which given the year, was a tad surprising - Shibe Park is all neutral except a +2 in doubles, which is great since my lineup had 300 irl

the backend of the rotation could end up hurting this team - prediction -  88-74



100 mil - 6 yr twist - 1939 Yankees

i love this squad for twists - always does well - the year limitiation didnt matter much - i really wanted Gehrig's (36) best season to base the team on - still got a 9 mil DiMaggio (37) and a bunch of 6 million dollar men (37 Dickey, 36 Rolfe, 42 Keller) - the offense should score plenty of runs - after Gomez and Ruffing (37's), the pitching isnt as good - but it should still be plenty to give this team a real shot - if i make the playoffs, i shorten the staff and hopefully make a run

defense is solid all-around, i love this team - we lost the opener, but still predicting 92-70



120 mil - power & speed

out of my depth at the 120+ leagues - i'll lead off by saying this is my best fielding team of the group - and thats about it - i like my 4 starters, 95 Unit, 03 Hudson, 07 Peavy and 09 Felix - but i fear they may not be good enough against 60 mil+ offenses - i should know better with the 99 Lowe, he already cost me the first game - ugh - what the hell was i thinking - on offense - i started with 98 Big Mac, 68 Yaz and 09 Mauer - Utley and Beltran are solid seasons and i always wanted to use 87 Eric Davis - i don't like Slidin Billy at the top of my lineup - and Ozzie and Hack are just filler - i think i will struggle to score runs

picked a completely neutral park in League Park - prediction - 75-87


140 mil - decades

my team building was very simple - take the best ERC# available from each decade and make sure i got in the 1500 IP range - then for hitting, i wanted Ruth, Williams and Foxx no matter what - it was just by accident i got Foxx's good catcher season - Big Ed will leadoff in front of that trio - the bottom of the lineup sucks - Roy McMillan and Jimmy Wynn have no business in this type of league

another neutral park - pitching *should* be very good - hitting will be marginal outside the big 4 - prediction - 81-81
8/5/2010 12:54 PM (edited)
jfranco77
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70mil – Five Man Acoustical Jam

I’m surprised to see the number of owners who felt that power was too expensive and/or not the way to go with this theme. I know that speed is the typical answer to a low-cap league so I started with Bob Boone ’82 at catcher, which will pretty much put the brakes on any speed teams I run into. Then I started looking at the pitchers in this era who were good value and I kept finding guys who kept the ball in the park very well. So I’ve got 5 SPs with HR/9 under 0.40 and HR/9+ over 250 – basically cheaper versions of my favorite 5-man rotation guy, ’81 Righetti, who I couldn’t afford here. (Magrane, Alejandro Pena, Tim Hudson, Lary Sorenson, Nabholz) I drafted 1291 “real” IP plus a mop-up guy, which might be a few too many innings.

On offense, I went with higher OAV guys and kept the walks to a minimum. Then I stuck the team in Tiger Stadium to keep the hits down. On offense I did add some speed (Vince Coleman, Kirk Gibson, Jerry Mumphrey) but also a lot of power in Gibson, Wallach, Greg Walker and Lou Whitaker. Anyone bringing HR-prone pitchers to my park will feel the pain. My fielders are all low-range guys so we won’t turn many DPs, but again, I figured that we’d see a lot of speed teams and it wouldn’t matter if we had A+ range all around. Typically for a 70mil team I have a 6-man bullpen and 3 platoons on offense to maximize the roster spots I am using.

Projection: 85 wins

80mil – Raines Maddux Inc

Eppa Rixey was the first guy I thought of, and apparently I wasn’t alone. I wanted to pair him with a power hitter since his HR/9+ numbers were so good, and I couldn’t find one. I tried Griffey Jr, Al Kaline, and Rocky Colavito with no success. I also thought of Red Lucas and Greg Maddux. I looked at pairing some speed guys with Maddux (Raines, Rickey, Amos Otis, Willie Wilson) and Raines was the only guy I really liked.

I still couldn’t get over Rixey so I went back to try again, pairing him with Mike Cameron and Dale Murphy, but I didn’t like those either. I couldn’t get enough defense behind Rixey who needed the gloves behind him so I went back to Maddux/Raines. The Maddux seasons I could afford were some of the cheaper ones (2000, 2001, 1991, 1988) so I needed a pitchers’ park. Playing in Olympic Stadium I wanted other guys who could take a walk and run a bit so I added Lu Blue and Delino Deshields. I skimped on infield range again but did buy a good catcher arm in Clint Courtney (A rated). The Raines/Rickey teams will still give him a little trouble but it shouldn’t be awful.

Projection: 82 wins

90mil – 1944 Philly Blue Jays + 6

In last season’s WISC, I spent forever on this theme, building about 15 teams. I didn’t really have a strong preference for how many players I wanted to add – I looked at great teams with 1 add, so-so teams in the middle, and awful teams to add 6 players. I didn’t think to do any research into teams that underperformed their real life records, or I might have liked the ’99 Royals too.

I was surprised to see that two of the teams I really liked but didn’t choose last year were still available – the 97 Braves and the 44 Phillies (who were known as the Blue Jays that season). There were also some new teams available that I liked – the 2009 Cards and the 2009 Braves both looked really interesting (St. Louis could use Holliday’s full season and add an ace, a CF and SS, Atlanta could add 2 aces and a better 3B). I would have gone with the ’09 Cards until I discovered they actually only get 2 additions. Oops!

I also still liked the ’72 Cubs from last season but their pitchers were a bit HR-prone for Wrigley and they didn’t have a good CF, and the ’97 Braves, who I loved but weren’t quite expensive enough. So I strongly considered the 1909 Pirates with their great pitching, but they needed a 1B most of all and there wasn’t anyone great to add. I would have added Eddie Collins out of position (or maybe an outfielder) but I decided to keep looking. I checked the ’86 Royals, the 1907 Cubs, and the 2008 Padres.

Ultimately I was just too curious about my runner-up team from last year so I decided to go with the 44 Jays. I added Lou Boudreau at catcher and a so-so Vern Stephens at SS, but it was better than any combination of available catchers and Boudreau at SS. I liked the Jays because they had about 700 usable innings and some good hitters (Buster Adams in CF, Ron Northey in LF, Tony Lupien at 1B). I looked at a lot of 1944 teams because there were 2 huge IP pitchers to add to any team (Dizzy Trout 371ip/1.19whip and Hal Newhouser 329ip/1.17whip). Plus I get to add one of my sim favorites – Snuffy Stirnweiss! Finally I added Ken Keltner (good glove, decent bat) as my 6th guy. The bullpen isn’t great other than closer Andy Karl but I have almost 1200 innings in my rotation, so I might run a 3-man rotation and shift Bill Lee to the bullpen at some point.

Projection: 88 wins

100mil – Semi-Twisted 2004 Yankees

This actually seemed like an easy theme at first. I would just find a team that was already historically great and make them a bit better. I tried a ton of Ruth-era Yankee teams (obviously 1927, also 1932 and 33 and then 1926). 1926 was the best of the bunch with Garland Braxton but I couldn’t make it work – either Gehrig was too expensive or too cheap.

I looked at the ’72 and ’75 Reds but their pitchers were too homer-prone and never really worked right even when I had them twisted. So I looked at one of my all-time favorites, the 2001 Mariners. They topped out at around 93mil and the rotation wasn’t great. I looked at the ’97 Braves, figuring that I wasn’t using them for the 90mil league. They didn’t have a good long reliever and the ‘pen was only pretty good. The first draft was around 102mil and the pitching was awesome. They were a frontrunner for a long time. So you’ll notice now that I passed on the ’97 Braves for BOTH of these themes. That might come back to haunt me.

Like all the people using the ’40 Yankees I wanted to try to find a Spud Chandler team as he is my 2nd favorite sim pitcher after Maddux95. So I tried the 46 Yankees but nothing really worked. I never thought to go back to 1940 though I did look at ’41 and ’43. Then I moved on to the 2005 Yankees and I also liked them a lot, but Jeter’s range and having to use Pavano as my SP4 scared me. They did have a great bullpen and a balanced offense and were a strong contender anyway.

After that I looked at the 1909 Pirates (infield not good enough), 1926 Cards (Hornsby – but the pitching wasn’t good enough) and the ’28 As. The ’28 As were a better version of what I was looking at for the 26 Cards with a bunch of mashers, but they only had 8 pitchers and one solid SP in Grove.

Then I looked at the ’49 Red Sox, I really liked them but all of their pitchers were either in the 250-300 IP range or the 100-150 IP range, I wasn’t sure I could manage the staff well enough. I checked the ’70 Cards which would have given me 2 awesome aces in Gibby ’68 and Carlton ’72 but they also had a weird IP mix and their up-the-middle guys were bad. I tried the ’69 Cards but the offense wasn’t good enough to spend all the money.

After 13 teams I stopped and did a little ranking, rating each team 1-13 on a few categories (AVG#, OBP#, SLG#, fielding, range, WHIP, HR/9+, HR/9, OAV#, BB/9#, catchers arm) and seeing who came out the best. The 2005 Yankees came out on top with the ’27 Yankees in second and the 97 Braves/28 As in 3rd.

Still searching, I looked at the ’46 Indians and ’51 Yankees but didn’t see anything I liked. Before I entered the 2005 Yankees I decided to look at the 2004 version. They didn’t have an ace in Johnson but they also didn’t have a crappy #4 in Pavano. They also had much better HR/9+ numbers, mostly for their relievers. So with a rotation of Mussina, Vazquez, Brown and Loaiza, this is the team I went with. It will be interesting to see how a rotation of 4 very similar righties fares. They have 11 pitchers and a killer bullpen. They have a great Giambi season but the compromise is a Homer Bush/Miguel Cairo platoon at 2B. I should note, I have had some 21st century Yankee twist teams in FK6 leagues and they haven’t done well. So why did I pick this team?

Projection: 91 wins

120mil – Fire Joe Morgan

I didn’t spend a lot of time on this team, partly because I was the commissioner for my league and needed to get them in. But really, there wasn’t a lot to think about … you could either go for a +HR park and try to mash or go for a –HR park and try to steal. No matter what I did I was going to have ptichers with good HR/9+ numbers and low HR/9 numbers in order to survive my road games. I figured that it was not impossible to prevent steals if I focused on keeping runners off base and getting the best catcher I could, so I went for a Piazza season (98) that was close to the top of the range of CS% guys available at 26.3%. I also wanted to focus on high SB success rates because in the research I’ve done, you can’t necessarily get guys with horrible SB/SBA rates to run successfully against bad catchers (now against unrated catchers, that’s a different story).

So I started out by building a team with ridiculously good pitching (1442ip, 0.86whip) but then the offense was just too ugly to compete. So I built a ridiculously good offensive team (315/423/511) but the pitching wasn’t really good enough. Plus the first version had Pedro99 who I’m not sure if I trust any more. So I ended up with a compromise of both. I’ve got Tiant, Pedro, Koufax and Randy Johnson all with OAV under .200 and BB# under 2.70. I’ve got a stacked bullpen. And I have a lot of guys with great SB success rates: Raines 90/104, Amos Otis 52/60, Bonds 40/47, Joe Morgan 58/70, and Barry Larkin 57/63. I also grabbed George Gore 1885 to DH, figuring he should reach on a lot of errors and steal  against D- catchers (81sb/38cs).

Projection: 93 wins

140mil – Decades of Decadence

This was another seemingly easy theme that kind of drove me nuts. I am not sure I’ve ever played in a 140mil non-DH league before, so that was a little strange. I knew I’d be building around a few guys – Maddux95, Hughie Jennings to get something out of the 1890s, and Ruth. I figured I’d probably have Mays or Mantle from the 50s and maybe Williams from the 40s, plus Johnson from the teens and another guy from the aughts. I tried to build the best pitching staff I could but I was having a hard time building a good 3-man rotation with Johnson12, Joss08 and someone else. I tried to go 1/2/3a/3b with Johnson, 3-Finger Brown and Maddux95/Pedro00 but it seemed to be a little too much pitching. So ultimately I went with a 4-man rotation using Matty09, Dutch Leonard, Maddux95 and Pedro00. I’ve got the ever-reliable Howie Pollet as my long man and Joey Devine as my favorite closer.

After that I just had to fill in the hitters with the decades I had left. It was hard finding someone I wanted from the 30s but I ended up with a catcher platoon of Dickey and Brucker. I had Mantle from the 50s, Ruth26 and a platoon of Billy Hamilton and Jerry Mumphrey for my outfield. I used a lesser Jennings season at SS and Joe Morgan at 2B. Yes, my WISC fate is squarely in the hands of Joe Morgan, who I used on both my high-cap teams. I’m sure that will end well.

I initially planned to use my 1880s slot on RP Bill George but I needed a 1B and leadoff hitter so I went with Roger Connor instead. This team has a ton of great OBP guys, 3 platoons and 8 relievers. I only drafted 1455 IP which I worry won’t be enough, and I’ll be a bit short on PAs. Hopefully it will all work itself out – I stuck the team in Colt Stadium to minimize the damage.

Projection: 84 wins

8/5/2010 11:17 AM (edited)
tracyr
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holy crap - you took the 44 Jays as well - i thought i was the only one - wow
8/5/2010 11:06 AM
jfranco77
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Posted by tracyr on 8/5/2010 11:06:00 AM (view original):
holy crap - you took the 44 Jays as well - i thought i was the only one - wow
Yeah, I really liked them last year but the mix of pitchers scared me off. This year I decided to roll the dice, as much out of curiosity as anything. I looked at adding Musial but decided the pitching sucked and I'd rather have Keltner's glove at 3B and suffer through some crappy RF play. This is what I've got:

v2 - 1944 Philly Blue Jays (Phillies) - add 6 (.399)
Trout, Newhouser (or Walters), C, 2B, 3B, SS
v2 6028pa 291/361/424 B-/C+ 93hr 94sb/19cs, 48.62m
v2 1453ip 1.19whip 0.27hr9 .244oav 2.38bb9 40.889m

2B Snuffy 761pa B+/A+ 320/391/476
CF Adams 723pa C+/A+ 283/371/450
C Boudreau 717pa D/A/B 328/408/452
SS Stephens 661pa C/C- 295/367/477
3B Keltner 665pa A-/B+ 296/357/482
1B Lupien 707pa B/A- 284/348/387
LF Northey 683pa B/D+  289/368/507
RF Wasdell 539pa B-/D+ 278/345/364 and Triplett 215pa A-/D+ 234/307/296

bench
OF Demaree 62pa C/D+ 256/335/307
3B Gladu 74pa C/D 243/277/358 ... also D/D+ at OF
OF Boland 63pa C/D- 272/273/353
C Susce 72pa D/D-/D+ 231/256/258
SS Hamner 86pa D+/A+ 248/276/268
IF York 95pa 235/270/247 C/C at 3B and SS

Sp1 Trout 371ip 1.13whip 0.23/161hr .238oav# 2.14bb# 7.19ip/g 2.61erc#
Sp2 Newhouser 329ip 1.17whip 0.17/214hr .230oav# 2.14bb# 6.65ip/g 2.63erc#
Sp3 Raffensberger 274ip 1.17whip 0.31/148hr .254oav# 2.14bb# 6.99ip/g 2.79erc#
Sp4 Bill Lee 221ip 1.23whip 0.39/119hr .250oav# 2.48bb# 6.72ip/g 3.11erc#

SUA Andy Karl 95ip 1.09whip 0.10/459hr .239oav# 2.14bb# 2.34ip/g 2.34erc#
CLA Matthewson 34ip 1.34whip 0.28/165hr .238oav# 4.52bb# 1.88ip/g 3.30erc#
SUB Shuman 29ip 1.39whip 0.34/147hr .247oav# 3.73bb# 1.48ip/g 3.54erc#
SUB Covington 41ip 1.40whip 0.47/100hr .298oav# 1.87bb# 2.03ip/g 4.11erc#
LRA Kennedy 59ip 1.45whip 0.49/95hr .270oav# 3.27bb# 4.61ip/g 4.35ip/g
8/5/2010 11:20 AM
tracyr
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yeah - for me i liked Walters hitting and Berry closing

SP1 Walters -            300 ip  2.49# (erc#)
SP2 Raffensberger - 274, 2.79#
SP 3 Lee -                    221, 3.11#
SP 4/LA Schanz -       256, 3.63#
RP Karl -                        95, 2.34#
RP Berry -                    118, 1.65#
same 4 others (Mathewson, Shuman, Covington, Kennedy)

at 90 mil  - that should do just fine  - 1264 innings for those 6

lineup
2B Stirnweiss  319/389/460
SS Boudreau   327/406/437
LF Musial         347/440/549
RF Northey       288/367/496
3B Elliott           297/383/465
CF Adams        283/371/450
1B Lupien         284/348/347
C Peacock/Finley platoon

its basically Musial for Newhouser - either way - pretty solid teams
8/5/2010 11:44 AM
Whiteslave
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70 Mil
 
Our first baseman, Dave Nilsson, is from Australia. Great cricket player. Once batted for three straight days in a test match and never missed a ball. So we’re thinking this guy is pretty good. Turns out he can only rake with a cricket mallet, and last time I looked they weren’t considered legal timber in MLB. Who knew? Got Ron Leflore in the outfield, he’s the guy wearing uniform number 7734561. In spring training, he stole 14 bases, and three stereos.
Prediction: Team wins 40-45 games….tops.
 
80 Mil
 
Joe Horlen and Bernie Williams.
Might have been better off with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Our 3 mop-up guys, Hesketh, Gilson and Benton are set to come in only when we’re losing. Translation: Those three cats will be battling for the league lead in innings pitched this season. Dr. Ron Taylor is in the pen and he should be busy this year. Not with pitching, but in the stands attending to people who suddenly become violently ill from watching our team’s performance. Not to mention the time he’ll be spending jamming the hypodermic syringe into Javy Lopez a$$. You’d have thought by now that Javy would have figured out the DIY method of injecting his, uh, vitamin supplements. Guess not.
 
90 Mil
 
Counterfeit Bucs of 1968.
Season tickets already sold out. Why? Our scathingly brilliant marketing campaign “Come Out to The Park and Watch Manny Mota play 2nd base!” Yeah, who would take the chance on missing that experience, huh?  His fielding ratings look like my grade six report card. Oh well, it’s either that, or we play Mazeroski until he reaches 35% fatigue. Pretty nice looking pitching staff here, but with normalization factored in, the team ERA is expected to easily reach double, maybe triple, digits. Dock Ellis is in our bullpen, and might get a spot start when we run our “Hallucinogenic Hot Dog” promotion night later in the year.
 
100 Mil Twist
 
1959 White Sox
Nobody else went with this team. Am I worried? You bet. This pitching staff is going to take more pounding than a ten-dollar hooker. Our ace? Early Wynn. You laugh…we cry. In spring training he got shelled like Hitler's bunker. Thought we had Dick Donovan signed up, but through some strange mix-up, the folksinger from the 60’s, Donovan, showed up at training camp. With a 32 mph fastball, there ain’t no sunshine, superman. On top of that, he can't catch the wind....or anything else, for that matter.
 
120 Mil
 
Probably my best team. No reason this contingent can’t win at least 55 games. Barry Bonds batting fifth and doing double-duty as the team’s PR director. How about Jerry Don Gleaton in our pen? You just know this guy is spending most of his free time at WalMart searching for the latest thing in engine oil additives and rear-view mirror ornaments.
 
140 mil
 
Some of the guys on this team are over 100 years old, but they’re playing like they’re still in their 60’s. At spring training, I really thought we were running one of those fantasy baseball camps. We fully expect to lead the league in pulled muscles and false teeth. If Geritol is a banned substance, we could really be in trouble here. Our trainer just placed another large order for stirrup socks, wrist bands and Depends.
Another great job by schwarzie, and Jeff, when can I expect to receive my tax receipt for charitable donation? Thank you.
8/5/2010 4:55 PM (edited)
schwarze
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LOL... always fund reading your comments Whiteslave.
8/5/2010 1:01 PM
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