I was very surprised at how few franchies were taken. There are so few franchises that can really support 2 (or especially 3) full teams at this cap. I expected 17 franchises to get used, all 16 original ones, and 1 of the Astros and Mets. This was obviously off by a bit, but it sounds like I wasn't the only one with a mis-prediction.
I wanted to trade up to grab a franchise that no one else would double up on. I thought about taking Verlander rather than Cobb with the first pick, just to make sure that anyone else who went Tigers would know that I was committed to taking them. (This is the equivalent, in playing Chicken, of unscrewing the steering wheel and tossing it out of the car, which is often a good strategy.) But I thought no one would want the Tigers without Cobb, even if they thought they might be able to scare me off of them. And that worked OK.
If I was going to end up with a doubled-up franchise, I'd really want it to be the A's. That's the only one I thought had 2 complete usable 25-man rosters at this cap. I don't like the Yankee pitching at all, and I've never been able to figure out the Red Sox hitters. But the A's should be able to do well. And the Pirates I think are great as a single franchise, though I would have been terrified sitting through the first round without even Babe Adams on board.
I had forgotten how badly the Tigers did in the league a few years ago. That worries me a bit. I hope that (a) they are a bit better at $120M than at $110M, and (b) Verlander helps a lot. I had put together a team that looked OK before the 2013 players were released, so I don't think I need Scherzer. I guess I'll just watch how many HR hitters I have to face, and decide whether to go back to one or other deadballer or use Scherzer alongside Verlander. It's nice to at least have some options on a Tigers pitching staff.