$70M - Expansion Ball
87 HOU, 89 CAL, 93 NYM
Ballpark - Dodger Stadium
I saved this theme for last because it was the hardest to research. I typically play in only two "low cap" leagues per year, those being the round 1 and round 2 low cap leagues of the WIS Championship. I focused on two things during my player search, switch hitters and speed. I was hoping to get 1-2 starting pitchers and 2-3 hitters from each of my three selected teams. I figured that I could fill in RP and backups at the end. The first team I found was 1987 Astros. Although they had no pitchers I wanted, I was able to fill half my starting lineup with Bill Doran (.283/.365, 31 SB), Billy Hatcher (.296/.352, 53 SB), Kevin Bass (.284/.344, 21 SB), Gerald Yong (.321/.380, 26 SB) and Denny Walling (.283/.356). Walling (3B) and Young (OF) are part-time players. The second team needed to have at least two SP's I could use. I quickly found the 1989 Angels with the reasonably priced Bert Blyleven (241 ip, 1.12 whip, $6.4M) and Kirk McCaskill (212 ip, 1.23 whip, $4.8M). This team also added three solid RPs with Willie Fraser (92 ip, 1.12 whip), Bob McClure (53 ip, 1.03 whip) and Greg Minton (90 ip, 1.26 whip). That's 235 relief innings for about $6.2 million. Since I was able to roster some RPs, I decided I only needed to fill two of my four starting hitters with my third team but I still needed two more starting pitchers. This last search took a really long time. I actually thought about dumping one of my first two teams because I couldn't find anything to fit. Then I stumbled across the 1993 Mets. They had a key player in Bobby Bonilla who can play both 3B and OF thus solving my Walling/Young platoon problem. I also get to roster another switch hitter in Eddie Murray (.285/.325/.467). And I got the two SPs I needed with Dwight Gooden (209 ip, 1.19 whip, $5.7) and Bret Saberhagen (140 IP, 1.06 whip, $3.8M). Mike Maddux (75 ip, 1.25 whip) gives me my 4th RP. The rest of my roster includes starting batters '78 G.Tenace (.224/.392) and '11 E.Bonafacio (.296/.360, 40 SB). I added a few short-inning SPs to offset the lack of starting pitcher innings. Overall, I have six switch hitters in my starting lineup..
Offense: 5399 PA, .279 avg, .352 obp, .424 slg, 187 sb, $35.2 million
Pitching: 1348 IP, .244 oav, 1.16 whip, 0.57 hr/9, $34.8 million
$90M - Real Team & Clones
A Halladay in Toronto, 1999
Ballpark - Skydome
I spent weeks on this theme as it was the first team I started building. I wanted to find a team where I could clone the SP a bunch of times and also find a switch hitter I could clone multiple times. I tried really hard to get a Smoltz/Chipper team, getting rosters built for both the 2007 and 2008 Braves. On one of these rosters, I had an entire pitching staff John Smoltz plus four Chippers on offense but I just couldn't fit in enough IP or PA to make it work. This would've been a great team at $100M (damn DH rule). Anyway, in order to meet the first deadline, I submitted a team that was just o.k. (but not great) - the '64 White Sox. They already has great pitching and so I used my one twist to add a bunch of (switch-hitter) Don Buford clones. But even with the upgrade, I didn't think the offense could score enough runs and there were still some big holes on the pitching staff. So once I had all my teams entered, I went back and kept searching for different combinations. I really wanted a Roy Halladay team... he's got so many decently priced seasons. I finally discovered the 1999 Blue Jays (84-78) with two clone options. Since their pitching staff is horrendous, I quickly put together a 7-man staff (1464 ips) of Roy Halladay. And I was able to use Tony Fernandez as my second clone, as he is starting at 2B, 3B, SS and DH. Once again, I got my switch hitter. I bet I am the only one using this team. My guess is that some smarter owners figured out a Chipper/Smoltz team that is going to crush it.
Offense: 6385 PA, .288 avg, .365 obp, .459 slg, $45.6 million
Pitching: 1464 IP, .242 oav, 1.06 whip, 0.68 hr/9, $44.2 million
$100M - Hitting the Limit Twist
40, 41, 46 St. Louis Cardinals (39-48)
Ballpark - Sportsman Park III
This theme was a bit tricky to figure out the best way to search for players. I finally determined that I needed to search for a 10-12 year range for a specific franchise, then figure out which three years weren't being used to pull players from... then I would search those three years to figure out which players I could use. I started with the 2005 Yankees because I knew they had Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson, etc. I almost had a complete team built when I decided to scrap it because it had too many HR hitters. I played around with the mid 1980's Cardinals (Ozzie, Coleman, McGee), the early 1980's Astros ('81 pitching staff), the 1980's Expos (Raines, Dilone, LeFlore in the OF), the early 1900's Indians/Naps (Bernhard, Joss, Lajoie) before deciding on the 1940's Cardinals. Two of my favorite underrated sim players are '43 Pollet and '44 Munger. I decided on 1939-48 so I could get '39 Johnny Mize. The lineup is pretty solid with O'Dea (.254/.359) & Klutz (.302/.355/.435) at C, Mize (.349/.444/.626), E.Lake (.279/.412, C/A), Kurowski (.310/.420/.544), Marion (.276/.343, B-/A-), Musial (.347/.440/.549), Slaughter (.321/.409/.470) and H.Walker (.363/.436/.487). The pitching staff has the usual suspect, M.Cooper, H.Brecheen, T.Wilks, R.Barrett, Pollet, Munger, Brazle, Lanier.
Offense: 5559 PA, .313 avg, .405 obp, .479 slg, $51.7 million (excl. 200K guys)
Pitching: 1473 IP, .223 oav, 1.06 whip, 0.29 hr/9, $47.2 million
$110M - Choose Your Soup
Alphabet Soup Nazi
Ballpark - Target Field
With an eye toward round 2, I figured it would be easier to build a team with the franchise and decade soup combined, so I went alphabet in round 1. I decided to limit HR's and play in Target Field so I drafted a bunch of high average / high onbase guys, with one exception. I took 1928 Ruth. He always seems to do well for me. I also made sure to grab some A+++ players to help the pitching out. The starting lineup includes C- '33 Cochrane (.322/.459/.515), 1B- '14 Speaker (.338/.423/.503), 2B- '03 Lajoie (.344/.379/.518), 3B- '13 Baker (.337/.413/.493), SS- '03 Wagner (.355/.414/.518), OFs- '28 Ruth (.323/.461/..709), '01 Delahanty (.354/.427/.528), '91 Hamilton (.340/.453/.421). The pitching staff has many of the usual suspects, but not the overpriced versions... '03 Joss, '97 Maddux, '15 Kershaw, '66 Peters, '21 Adams, '11 Fister, '43 Niggeling, '87 Innis, '29 Grabowski, '63 Tiefenauer, '18 Yingling.
Offense: 5704 PA, .339 avg, .430 obp, .520 slg, $65.3 million (excl. 200K guys)
Pitching: 1453 IP, .220 oav, 0.96 whip, 0.34 hr/9, $54.1 million (excl 200K guys)
Variable Cap - Out of Range
C is for Can't Field
Ballpark - Target Field
In my opinion, the two logical choices for this theme are A or C. With A, you can draft all the A+++ guys and this allows you to draft fewer innings and/or slightly worse pitching. With C, you get the extra $10 million to improve the offense. I don't think the difference in fielding between B and C is that great so I didn't even try a B team. And there's no way I am putting an all D team on the field. So I built two teams. With the A team, I had a lot of the same players from my Soup team above, which includes players with A+++ range, but with C or worse fielding. To offset that, I drafted modern pitchers. Then using mostly the same pitching staff, I upgraded the hitters significantly. I wasn't really sure which team would be better, so I did something I've never tried before. I used the sim matchup and played my two teams against each other. My C team was winning 2 out of every 3 games, so that's the team I went with. The offense looks like this... '19 Schang / '29 Hargrave, '20 Sisler, '23 Hornsby / '91 Barberie, '94 G.Davis, '07 Wagner, '11 J.,Jackson, '23 Heilmann, '95 S,Thompson. The starting pitching staff: '89 Saberhagen, '96 K.Brown, '97 Maddux, '67 Horlen. I am a little worried I am light on innings, although hopefully Target Field will help.
Offense: 5585 PA, .376 avg, .444 obp, .568 slg, $70.3 million (excl. 200K guys)
Pitching: 1438 IP, .215 oav, 0.95 whip, 0.37 hr/9, $54.3 million (excl 200K guys)
$140M - XBH Challenge with DH
Doubling Down
Ballpark - Polo Grounds V
No way was I going to try a home runs team - those teams will get killed in this theme. I originally had built a triples team but spent too much money on defense and pitching and didn't think the team would score enough runs, so at the last minute, I changed to a doubles team. This may be a mistake because the available ballparks for doubles teams don't really suppress offenses enough which will require more innings than a triples team. I'm not sure why I didn't simply change a few players on my triples team to upgrade the offense. Anyway, I kept one A+++ defensive player (Bancroft) but spent a lot more on offense. I think I have a bit too many HR's on this team, but what the hell... too late now. Offense: '00 Posada, '93 Olerud, '20 Hornsby, '07 Chipper / '42 Cullenbine, '22 Bancroft, '23. Speaker, '48 T.Williams, '46 Musial and a multiple-platoon at DH ('46 Galan, '91 Barbarie, '84 Rose, '01 Raines). I wasted no salary on scrubs... everybody plays. Starting pitchers include '96 K.Brown, '64 Horlen, '02 Pedro, '15 Kershaw, '14 Arrieta.
Offense: 6349 PA, .347 avg, .443 obp, .551 slg, $75.9 million
Pitching: 1532 IP, .200 oav, 0.92 whip, 0.40 hr/9, $64.1 million
7/31/2017 4:27 PM (edited)