60m:
87W-75L at Comerica Park
1. Owner draft:
My plan was to build a speed team with an A+ arm catcher. So I wanted my division mates to use different strategies. Then I did a little research on how people built their teams in round 1 70m leagues. Based on my data, crystalao and alleyviper were likely to choose OBP/OPS players and average arm catchers. That is why I selected them. I selected rbow923 because I believed he was going to take OBP/OPS guys and left speed guys such as Vince Coleman to me. The result shows the strategy worked.
2. Position players:
Most position players I wanted were available then. Here is my roster:
(Player -> Reasons to pick)
Joe Morgan '69 (L) -> PAs & speed & steals & obp
Vince Coleman '86 (S) -> PAs & speed & steals
Otis Nixon '97 (S) -> PAs & speed & steals
Bip Roberts '92 (S) -> speed & obp & AVG
Gary Carter '75 (R) -> A+ arm & OPS
Ron LeFlore '80 (R) -> speed & steals
Ozzie Smith '90 (S) -> speed & steals
Jack Doyle '95 (R) -> relatively fast & A+ range & AVG
3. Pitching:
My original goal was to draft ~1400 Innings. Then I figured out innings are really expensive in low cap leagues. So I decided to go with ~1350 innings, and eventually got 1333 innings --- 978 innings from 4 SPs, 201 innings from 4 RPs, and 144 innings (wanted ~200) from mopups. Unfortunately, 1333 innings were not enough for this team. All the pitchers fatigued quickly and stayed at about 60%~90% in early season (due to extra innings and some high pitch count games). So I was forced to blow some games and got my SPs and RPs rested. Since then I have maintained my SPs at about 80%~95% and my RPs at 90%~100%. The strategy worked and the team went into the LCS. The team was then stopped by jmissirlis’ team which won the world series later.
Hitting Stats: 5337 PAs, .264 avg, .342 obp, .354 slg, 440 SBs @ 77.6%, $29.58M
Pitching Stats: 1333 IPs, 2.36 era, .250 oav, 1.15 whip, 0.18 hr/9, $30.41 M
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80m:
109W-53L at Riverfront Stadium
1. Position players:
I have tried 1981, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, and 2007 all-star teams. Then I figured out the 1988 team got the most cookies (Coleman, McGee, Ozzie Smith, Dawson, Gary Carter, Boggs, Rickey Henderson, Eckersley, ….). The problem is, there are four OF cookies in 1988 and I can only have three. They are Coleman, McGee, Dawson, and Rickey Henderson. I took Coleman and McGee first because they are switch hitters. I decided to take Dawson ’90 instead of Rickey Henderson ’88 for two reasons. First, Dawson ’90 can hit a lot of homeruns at Riverfront Stadium. Second, Dawson ‘90 is cheaper. Here is my roster:
(Player -> Reasons to pick)
Vince Coleman '87 (S) CF -> PA & speed & steals & OBP & cheap
Ozzie Smith '87 (S) SS -> PA & speed & steals & AVG & OBP & defense
Harold Reynolds '89 (S) 2B -> PA & speed & AVG & defense
Willie McGee '90 (S) RF -> speed & AVG & range
Andre Dawson '90 (R) LF -> HR & AVG & steals & cheap
Gerald Perry '88 (L) 1B -> speed & AVG
Wade Boggs '96 (L) 3B -> AVG & OBP & cheap
Gary Carter '75 (R) C -> A+ arm & SLG
Bobby Bonilla '98 (S) PH -> AVG & SLG
Darryl Strawberry '95 (L) PH -> AVG & SLG
2. Pitching:
I picked Dwight Gooden '86, Orel Hershiser '88, Bob Knepper '81, and Roger Clemens '92 as my starters (997 innings), and they won 82 games for me. I picked Dan Plesac '03, Doug Jones '88, Jeff Russell '89, and Dennis Eckersley '88 as my major RPs (264 innings). Finally I picked cheap RPs to eat innings - Bob Forsch '88, Dave Rucker '88, Donnie Moore '88, and Todd Worrell '93. The team was doing great (109 wins) and made the LCS. But it was then defeated by contrarian23’s team which won the world series later.
Hitting Stats: 5571 PAs, .295 avg, .360 obp, .399 slg, 259 SBs @ 76.6%, $38.91M
Pitching Stats: 1390 IPs, 2.67 era, .228 oav, 1.10 whip, 0.52 hr/9, $40.96 M
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90m:
86W-76L at Royals Stadium
1. Position players:
I usually draft 12 pitchers, of which 1~3 are mopups to eat innings. But in this theme I can only have 11 pitchers. So I decided to allocate more money to pitching, and less money to position players. My budget for position players (including bench) was $42M. The following is my roster:
(pick order: player, type -> reason to pick)
1: Richie Ashburn '59 (L), 270/.360/.450 hitter -> PA & speed & OBP & A- range & cheap
2: Asdrubal Cabrera '09, inf with A/A def -> considered Ozzie Smith and Asdrubal Cabrera. Chose Cabrera eventually.
3. Howard Johnson '89, 35+ HRs -> speed & steals & OPS & cheap
4. Willie McGee '90, OF w/ A+ range -> speed & AVG & cheap
5. Bip Roberts '92, 40+ SBs -> speed & steals & AVG & OBP & cheap
6. Kevin Young '99, 100+ K -> PA & relatively fast & A range & SLG
7. Lance Berkman '04, 100+ BB -> PA & AVG & OPS (chosen over Bobby Abreu)
8. Johnny Roseboro '64, $500K+ -> A+ arm & AVG
9. Dave Anderson '90, $500K+ -> AVG & backup inf
10. Micah Hoffpauir '08, $500K+ -> AVG & backup of
2. Pitching:
I decided to draft ~1000 quality innings for starters; ~250 high-quality innings for setup and close; ~150 mediocre innings for long relief. The team made the world series. Here is my roster:
(pick order: player, type -> reason to pick)
1: John Tudor '85 (L), sp1 -> IP & ERC#
2: Harry Brecheen '48 (L), sp2 -> IP & ERC#
3: Kevin Brown '96 (R), sp3 -> IP & ERC#
4: Bob Knepper '81 (L), sp4 -> IP & cheap
5: Barry Latman '58 (R), 11- saves rp -> my favorite cookie
6: Cla Meredith '06 (R), 11- saves rp -> my favorite cookie
7: Bill Henry '64 (L), 11- saves rp -> ERC#
8: Mariano Rivera '10 (R), 30+ saves rp -> ERC#
9: Marshall Bridges '60 (L), 11- saves rp -> ERC#
10: Jamie Moyer '96 (L), 11- saves rp -> cheap & IP & IP/G
11: Darrell Jackson '79 (L), 11- saves rp -> cheap & IP & IP/G
Hitting Stats: 5602 PAs, .297 avg, .374 obp, .442 slg, 178 SBs @ 71.2%, $42.73M
Pitching Stats: 1367 IPs, 2.07 era, .218 oav, 1.01 whip, 0.38 hr/9, $47.20 M
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2013-14 AL/NL Draft, No Cap:
94W-68L at Busch Stadium (II)
I was the last one to draft players in round 1. My original plan was to select an ace (Kershaw, Cueto, Harvey, Fernandez, Wainwright, Bumgarner…) but all aces were gone at that time. I didn’t want to waste my first pick on a #2 pitcher. So I decided to fill position holes first, and tried to build a team with good defense and speed. Most quality pitchers had gone when I began to draft pitching. Therefore the team has very weak pitching.
The team is not as good as the record (94W-68L) indicates. The team won 94 games because the starter Yovani Gallardo ’14 ($3.8M) pitched like a Cy Young winner before the trade deadline (17W-3L & 2.5 era). However, everything came back to normal after the deadline. Well, I mean lose, lose and lose! Fortunately, Mike Fiers tossed a no-no at the last game. The team made the playoffs because of the game. The game changed the winner of the 2015 WIS championship as well.
My roster is here:
(pick order, player -> reason to pick)
1 Yadier Molina '13 (R) -> A+ arm & ops
2 Matt Carpenter '13 (L) -> avg & obp
3 Denard Span '14 (L) -> speed & steals & defense & avg
4 Everth Cabrera '13 (S) -> speed & steals & defense
5 Angel Pagan '14 (S) -> speed & defense & avg
6 Nolan Arenado '14 (R) -> defense & slg
7 Adrian Gonzalez '14 (L) -> slg
8 Scott Feldman '13 (R) -> IP
9 Billy Hamilton '14 (S) -> speed & defense
10 Mike Fiers '14 (R) -> #ERC & IP/G & closer
11 Shelby Miller '13 (R) -> IP
12 Yovani Gallardo '14 (R) -> IP
13 Tyler Clippard '14 (R) -> #ERC & setup
14 J.P. Howell '13 (L) -> #ERC & setup
15 Hector Rondon '14 (R) -> #ERC & setup
16 Tom Koehler '14 (R) Wade Miley '13 (L) -> IP
17 Carl Crawford '14 (L) Chris Owings '14 (R) -> bench
18 Wil Nieves '13 (R) Brandon Cumpton '13 (R) -> bench & setup
19 Jerome Williams '14 (R) Blaine Boyer '14 (R) -> setup & long relief
20 Pedro Alvarez '13 (L) Jorge De La Rosa '14 (L) -> bench & IP & to get into NL East for no reason
Hitting Stats: 6034 PAs, .285 avg, .337 obp, .437 slg, 182 SBs @ 74.6%, $50.41M
Pitching Stats: 1518.7 IPs, 3.34 era, .236 oav, 1.20 whip, 0.84 hr/9, $36.78 M