Apologize in advance as I tried this time to type up notes real-time as the draft went on, so it's long and very stream of consciousness, but it was interesting to go back and read it after seeing how things progressed and unfolded:
Nomination: 2019 Joe Smith (Houston Astros)
Teammates: Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Zack Grienke
Pick: I didn't spend too much time researching, but was able to dust off my old 16x16 stuff to help out. I figured starting pitching, per usual, would be at a premium but especially in this iteration where ALL of your starters would have to be teammates. Joe Smith brings Verlander, Cole, and Greinke, if I want all 3. He also has some relief options (Pressly) and some hitting options (Bregman, Alvarez) if needed. Finally, Smith himself only has 25 IP but they are quite good (1.88 ERC#) so he can be a part-time closer. His salary ($752,585) should keep me towards the top of the draft to start.
Post-Draft: Generally happy with this pick. Having 3 starters in this version proved very useful. I didn't use Bregman but having him as an option also was very helpful as I went through the draft, giving me the option to use him at 3B and/or SS.
==============================
Round 1, Pick 6: 2016 Howie Kendrick (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Teammate: Clayton Kershaw
Pick: Kinda crazy my $750k salary only gets me the 6th pick, but that's usually how these drafts go! My spreadsheet is about halfway set up. I mostly am looking for pitching. Kendrick brings a 149 IP Kershaw (1.20 ERC#), a fantastic Kenley Jansen season (69 IP, 1.01 ERC#), and a good Rich Hill short-inning season (110 IP, 2.00 ERC#) if needed. Kendrick himself isn't very good but he has 543 PA and can play 2B, 3B, OF, and 1B. His $2.65m salary hopefully won't hurt me too bad in the draft order and I don't think the $120m salary cap will be a huge concern at the end of this draft.
Post-Draft: In hindsight, not my best pick. In a more normal draft, Jansen and Rich Hill would be potentially very useful, but innings were at way too high of a premium in this version. I did still get Kershaw, who will essentially be my relief ace, but Kendrick is pretty useless and his salary hurt me. I spent much of the rest of the draft trying to find ways to make Jansen make sense and it just never did. Had I done all my research before this pick, I think I'd have gone in a different direction.
==============================
Strategy Note
Interjecting here as I'm waiting on my Round 2 pick and have set up my spreadsheet and gotten a better handle on what this league will look like. Innings will be at a premium given the lack of options among the nominations. That means teammates are the only way to fill out the bulk of the pitching staff--heck, even the nominated relievers themselves are unlikely to be useful, there are only 7 seasons with an ERC# below 2.00! Given the years we're using, there aren't many big-inning starters to fill the staff with. There are 3 Phil Niekro seasons with 331 to 347 innings (all teammates of Dale Murphy from the late 70s Braves) and no other season has more than Steve Rogers' 302 IP. There are a fair amount between 250 and 300, but many aren't elite seasons.
Given all that, you probably need at MINIMUM 5 teammates to use on pitchers and likely 6 or 7. And that's just for starting pitchers. Taking a reliever as a teammate is a luxury, so my Kenley Jansen teammate selection is looking less useful. That also means most of my hitters will have to be from nominated players. If I can save a teammate spot or two from being used on starting pitchers, that can go to either another hitter teammate or to a reliever. I see only two ways to do that: (1) draft big-inning teammates like Niekro or Rogers. Two 300 IP teammates gives me 600 IP just like three 200 IP teammates would. The tradeoff here is quality. The other option is to take one of the few higher-inning seasons from nominated players (mostly Darren Oliver). There are just 7 seasons from nominated pitchers with over 108 innings, all are 145 to 202. Most of them are pretty bad, with 5 of them at 4.49 ERC# or worse. The two best options are 1999 Darren Oliver with 198 innings and 3.76 ERC# and 1990 Mark Guthrie with 145 innings and 3.67 ERC#. In theory, that gives you another hitting teammate--is it better to have 99 Oliver and one more stud hitter, or just another good teammate starting pitcher? Probably the latter, but worth monitoring at least.
==============================
Round 2, Pick 5: 2013 Miguel Cabrera (Detroit Tigers)
Teammate: Max Scherzer
Pre-pick: With my strategy more honed in, I could narrow down my options here. Generally speaking, picks can fall in one of 4 categories: pick to get a useful nominated hitter, get a useful nominated pitcher, get a good hitter teammate, or get a good pitcher teammate. Obviously getting 2 of those things is great, if you can do it. I quickly eliminated picking a nominated pitcher, a good relief season just isn't super valuable in this draft especially. Outside of 2001 Barry Bonds (taken by njbigwig with Round 2, Pick 2) there isn't a hitter teammate worth taking this early.
I know I need most of my nominated hitters to play and that means likely Cabrera, Polanco, Rollins, and Murphy will start. Jack Clark probably too. Tony Pena doesn't have great seasons, but there are precious few teammate spots so using one on a catcher could mean tradeoffs elsewhere. My Kendrick pick is already a backup and likely Uribe, Maldonado, and Jorgensen will be too.
The best seasons left are mostly Cabrera and Murphy, though they each have a few good ones. Rollins has a bunch of similar-ish seasons. Jack Clark's 1987 STL season is interesting but it's not as good as Cabrera/Murphy and it comes with no teammates. Murphy has 6 similar "best" seasons but none of them come with any teammates, so I ruled him out next. That leaves me with Cabrera, Polanco, and Pena.
Cabrera's best remaining season is 2013. He plays 3B that year, so that would rule out my Bregman teammate pick, but that's ok. He also comes with Max Scherzer (214 IP, 2.05 ERC#).
The best Polanco season left is 2007, where he has a .383 OBP# and A+/B defense at 2B. I prefer a 2B version of Polanco to 3B given the better options at 3B I have with teammates (or Cabrera). No pitching teammates for Polanco but he does have two good OF teammates (Ordonez, the better hitter, or Granderson with A+ range). Polanco has two other seasons of similar quality in both his 2005 combined years. They don't come with teammates though and have about 100 fewer PA.
Tony Pena's best season is 1986. It's not great, but it's usable with 565 PA, A+ arm, and a .360 OBP#. His next-best season has just a .341 OBP# and he only has 4 seasons total with an OPS# of .750 or higher. After that, I probably have to burn a teammate on a catcher. Back to 1986, it's not only his best season but it comes with a very good Rick Rhoden teammate (254 IP, 2.72 ERC#). Rhoden's quality isn't as great but his volume of over 250 innings could help save a teammate spot later on.
After going back and forth a lot, I've decided to rank them: 1) 86 Pena, 2) 13 Cabrera, 3) 07 Polanco.
Pick: After all that, I called an audible on myself and went with 13 Cabrera. I figured he's the best 3B season out there, I can move Bregman to SS (if I get a short PA version of Rollins) or just move to a different teammate altogether (including a catcher if I don't get a good Pena), and 13 Scherzer is better than 76 Rhoden.
Post-Draft: Happy with this choice. Cabrera's defense (range, specifically) at 3B won't be great but he's the #1 nominated hitter, plays a premium position, and brings a very solid teammate with him.
==============================
Round 3, Pick 13: 1986 Tony Pena (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Teammate: Rick Rhoden
Pre-pick: Cabrera's expensive season sent me towards the back of the round. 1986 Pena is still there, currently, but I no longer need Rhoden as much with Scherzer now in tow, though he gives me options. 2007 Polanco is gone, so the next best ones there are the pair of 2005 seasons. The best nominated hitting seasons left are from Dale Murphy, though he doesn't come with any teammates and has 4 very good seasons that are similar. He does have a sneaky good catching season--the defense isn't great at D/B/C- but the offense is quite good with .810 OPS#. He also has two small salary seasons if I end up punting him and needing to save money. The only other hitting season that seems worth considering is 87 Jack Clark with his 1.045 OPS#, though there's no teammates and he has to play 1B (D-/D- in the OF).
As far as teammates go, I don't necessarily need another SP teammate, though one more would be nice as I'm currently projected to get to about 1250-1300 innings with my 5 SP teammates plus the nominated relievers I'll be forced to draft. The best hitter teammates are almost all big-hitting 1B/OF, with multiple McGwires, Belles, Pujolses, Giambis, and Heltons available. Two combinations stick out here. One is picking up 2001 Isringhausen. He has the best remaining RP season, a very usable 2.01 ERC# with 72 IP, and he brings Jason Giambi with him. His low-ish salary may help move me up a few spots as well. The other is 2001 Juan Uribe. It's only 281 PA, but with an .821 OPS# and A/C- defense at SS that could be a useful platoon. More importantly, he brings both Todd Helton and Larry Walker as potential teammates. I should also mention 1994 Tony Pena who brings both Albert Belle and Kenny Lofton, while Pena himself has a decent short-PA season with .745 OPS# (his 3rd-best remaining hitting season) with A/B/B defense and a small salary. This would necessitate using a teammate spot on a catcher though (unless, I guess, I do the Dale Murphy season mentioned above).
Pick: When my pick came up, both Polancos had gone and his next-best season isn't good enough to take here. That left me with two pools of choices--backup options 94 Pena, 01 Uribe, and 01 Isringhausen primarily to get a good hitting teammate; or 1986 Pena or one of the Dale Murphys (or perhaps Jack Clark) as a nominated player who could start. I like a lot of the hitting teammate options left--there's not much difference between Belle, Walker, Giambi, Helton, etc. I also would not move up the draft order much given how the salaries work out. Additionally, Uribe's 2004 season is now a viable option at 2B on par with Polanco, so I'll keep him available. Finally, there are plenty of Murphys and other OF options (Jack Clark, Maldonado, teammates, etc.) if I don't get a good one.
All of that pushed me to take 86 Pena. With 565 PA he can bat last and make it through pretty much the whole season. It's probably his best hitting season and he has the A+ arm. Finally, he does bring Rick Rhoden as a potential teammate, which I may need. If I use the 6 best pitching teammates I currently have (19 Verlander/Cole/Greinke, 16 Kershaw, 13 Scherzer, and 86 Rhoden), that's 1261 IP. That would leave 3 teammates for hitters and I no longer need a catcher, so can put those towards big hitters.
Post-Draft: In hindsight, I wonder if trying to roll with 79 Murphy with a Pena as a backup would have been better? 79 Murphy went in the 13th round. Still, I'm pretty happy with this Pena, which I had as the best of his seasons. Relatively high OBP# and A+ arm, plus he brings Rhoden with him.
The other thought, looking back, is maybe it would have been better to go with the best Murphy season and used a teammate spot on catcher, instead of Pena and Abreu.
==============================
Round 4, Pick 14: 2001 Juan Uribe (Colorado Rockies)
Teammates: Todd Helton, Larry Walker
Pre-pick: As I wait around for my next pick, I'm planning things out. I am probably going to use 3 hitting teammates, meaning I need 5 offensive spots taken by nominated players. I already have 2 of those (Pena, Cabrera) so need 3 more. Rollins and Murphy likely make up 2 of those. I'll almost for sure want to use two teammates on 1B/OF. The third will likely either be a 2B or another OF. On 2B in particular, it either needs to be Polanco (there's also one Uribe season) or it has to be Utley coming with Rollins as a teammate.
Pitching-wise, I'm set on innings from starters. It's looking unlikely I'll be able to or want to use a teammate spot on Jansen (or any other reliever), so I'll need to rely on the nominated players in my bullpen. Down to just two seasons for any reliever with an ERC# below 2.27 (one is just 28 innings), so mostly will just be Setup B-type guys with Kershaw (149 IP, 1.20 ERC#) likely pitching out of the pen.
Next pick leaning towards getting a stud hitting teammate or two, though may need to ensure I get a good starter from a nominated player, like Murphy or Polanco. 01 Uribe is interesting to get two great lefty-hitting teammates in Helton and Walker. We'll see how this round goes.
Pick: A couple of the good Murphys went, so I reconsidered again whether I should take one of his two very good remaining seasons--82 with better hitting or 80 with better defense. However, I decided I really wanted Helton and Walker. Not only are they obviously great hitters but both are lefties and with the one good Jorgensen season going, all the good nominated hitters are righties. The only other 1B/OF lefties in the same ballpark as Helton/Walker are a couple Giambis, a Delgado, and a Ryan Howard. The next best lefty OF available to me was probably Granderson or Edmonds. I now will have a 2-3-4 batting order of Walker/Cabrera/Helton. That's pretty good, I think. In addition, Uribe's lower salary moves me up a couple spots next round and he will be a good platoon SS against lefties. I could potentially wait and grab the last Rollins (he has a 394 PA season that's not great, but will do) or potentially add Bregman as a teammate and have him shift to 3B when Cabrera needs a rest.
Post-Draft: Very happy with this pick. There won't be many lefty hitters but will probably be lots of righty pitching. Getting two of the best left-handers should be huge for my offense. I also stuck this team in PNC Park, which favors lefties with -1 HR to RF but -2 to LF. Hopefully, that gives us a small boost for Helton and Walker.
==============================
Round 5, Pick 12: 2004 Placido Polanco (Philadelphia Phillies)
Teammate: Bobby Abreu
Pre-pick: Moved up to the 12th pick and currently writing this at the start of the round. Likely next pick will either be Dale Murphy, Polanco or Rollins. For Murphy, if one of his two good seasons are left, that would be very intriguing. They are by far the best remaining OF seasons among nominated players. Otherwise, I will wait and piece together OF spots from lesser Murphys and Clark/Maldonado/Jorgensen. I also still have 543 utility PA from my 16 Kendrick and he's rated in the OF, though his bat is not great.
As for the middle infield, I have a couple possible scenarios. (1) Get a Polanco and a Rollins (no teammate), (2) get Rollins and bring Utley with him, or (3) get Polanco, punt on Rollins, and use Bregman as a teammate. The best remaining Rollins that brings back a good Utley is 2006, but he's not significantly better than about 5 or 6 other Rollins. So that pushes me towards Polanco. His two best remaining 2B seasons are both quite good (around .340-.350 OBP# and A/A defense). He also has 3 other serviceable seasons, so I'm leaning towards Polanco soon, then wait on Rollins with Bregman as a fallback option if needed.
Pick: Interestingly, all of the Murphys and Polancos made it back to me. In the interim, I became convinced drafting Polanco was the right move. He's almost as good as Utley or any other teammate 2B would be and if I miss out on the best Murphys, I can still go with a 2nd teammate outfielder and then just piece the last one together from the nominated players. If I miss out on Polanco, I have to use a teammate on 2B and that means I likely have to burn a pick sooner rather than later on Rollins, who I don't love any of his seasons really.
The two best remaining Polanco seasons (03 and 04) are nearly identical. $5.46m vs $5.56m, 554 vs 555 PA, .779 OPS# vs .763 OPS#, A/A vs A+/A. Incredible really. His 03 season is a slightly better hitter, but slightly worse fielder. I very slightly preferred the 03 version but it really was a toss up. I ended up going with the 04 version simply to have the option to use Bobby Abreu as a teammate. I don't know if I will, but his .426 OBP#, decent speed, 713 PA, and passable defense that I could stick in center if needed is a good option to have.
Post-Draft: Glad I took this version as I ended up using Abreu. It feels like I should have done better than Abreu but it's not easy to find good lefty outfielders in this league and his high PA, high OBP, decent fielding, good speed combination will fit great.
==============================
Round 6, Pick 14: 1984 Jack Clark (San Francisco Giants)
Pre-pick: Starting to plan out the remainder of my roster and see how I'm doing with the salary cap. To this point, I've pretty much ignored it. As of now, if I use the 6 SP teammates and then Helton/Walker/Abreu, I'm around $98m with 10 spots left, all for nominated players (5 hitters, 5 pitchers). I need to get a good enough Rollins to at least platoon with Uribe and I need to fill one remaining OF spot. My relievers don't have to be great--I'm at 1286 innings already--they just have to get me enough innings to feel comfortable.
I did some checking and the average salary for each of the players I have left to pick comes in just below $20m, which is about what I have left. I should be fine but need to minimize any wasted salary and perhaps make sure I grab a couple low-salary versions to make sure I preserve enough cap room. I can also downgrade some of my teammates if necessary, of course, though that's not ideal.
Pick: Before this pick, I went through each remaining player to see where I may want to pick early versus who I can wait on. Embree and Rodney have enough seasons to either get a decent relief season or at least a cheap one. Mike Jorgensen is the best hitter to wait on. For Rollins, I can likely wait a while, though there are a couple seasons that I prefer to at least save some money if I need it.
Both of the good Murphy seasons finally went, so there really isn't an elite OF season left. At this point, I will likely use two teammates in the OF (probably Walker and Abreu), so just need to piece together one season from four remaining OFers. Because of that, I don't need to worry as much about volume and so I went with the best per-at-bat season left for me, 84 Clark. He has a .324/.439/.544 slash line and plays A-/D- in the OF. He'll likely be the short side of my LF platoon.
Post-Draft: I'll be playing a few D- range guys, so that may doom me, but I rated this the 5th-best batting season among nominated players. Of course, only 249 PA and the aforementioned poor range, but he'll be a great fit in the lineup vs lefties.
==============================
Round 7, Pick 13: 2002 Mark Guthrie (New York Mets)
Pre-pick: Looking forward, there's not much more on the hitters side that's exciting. Will need to find another 400 or so outfield PA and pick up a Rollins. Pitching-wise, will likely just pick up the best relief options left, though I already have my top 1286 innings locked in, so the rest of my pitchers will be low-leverage innings mostly.
I keep trying to find a way to make the teammate puzzle more optimized but I don't see any. Rhoden is my worst teammate pitcher but giving up his 250 innings for either a reliever (Jansen) or another hitter (Bregman) just doesn't seem to make sense. I'd have to replace his 2.72 ERC# with something like 90 Guthrie or 99 Oliver and their ERC# are basically a full run higher. Is that worth upgrading Rollins to Bregman or an OF spot to someone like Trout or Beltran?
Pick: I went with 02 Guthrie, who had 49 innings with a 2.49 ERC#. That was the lowest ERC# available to me. He doesn't have a lot of cheap seasons so most are in this $1-2m range but have more/worse innings so this way I get usable innings and avoid some wasted money.
Post-Draft: Nothing to add here, Guthrie will be my 3rd-best reliever after Kershaw and Joe Smith.
==============================
Round 8, Pick 10: 2014 Jimmy Rollins (Philadelphia Philllies)
Pick: Didn't get time to look at this before my pick so looking at it as I'm up. Down to four hitters and 3 of them are outfielders so I can wait there. A few Rollins have gone, do I go for 14 Rollins, who is the best available to me but has 609 PA when I only need about 400, or wait and get 10 Rollins, who has 394 PA and I can get hopefully much later? The problem is I don't want to be the last one left out and get one of the two short PA seasons.
For pitching, I can wait on Embree and Rodney, where I'll either get a semi-usable season or a cheap one, most likely. That leaves me looking at Darren Oliver and Isringhausen. Oliver's big-inning season went and he does have some landmines to avoid. He has two good relief seasons with ERC# under 3.00 (07 and 08) which are interesting. Isringhausen has a couple decent relief seasons, but he also has the one teammate I'm still looking at in 08 Pujols, though I don't really NEED him, he might be an upgrade over Abreu even if I have to play him out of position in the OF (his A-/A+ ratings at 1B should translate fine).
I went back and forth a bunch, even typing in 08 Isringhausen at one point but decided to play it safe and get the best SS left for me. That pretty much sews up all my starting spots, with just half of an outfielder left to go.
Post-Draft: Glad I ended up taking Rollins here as the other version (2010) I was looking at went in the next round, surprisingly, I also wouldn't have really had a way to use the extra salary, which was the main benefit of the 2010 version.
I have a lot of bad fielding, but my up-the-middle defense of Rollins and Polanco is very good at least.
==============================
Round 9, Pick 13: 1976 Dale Murphy (Atlanta Braves)
Pre-pick: I went safe with my Round 8 pick to make sure I got a Rollins I liked. I probably could have waited and gotten the 394 PA Rollins, but there's just not really enough other value left to make up the difference I thought. Now I just need to get as much OF or RP value from my nominated players while making sure I stay under the cap. It shouldn't be too much of an issue to do so--I have about $12.7m for the final 7 spots and the average salary for those remaining players is around $10.8m.
Offensively, I think my best hope is to get a couple hundred decent PA from both Maldonado and Jorgensen in the OF, then get one of the Dale Murphy seasons with like 75 PA as a backup catcher to both save money and spell Pena just a little bit (he has 565 PA). Maldonado has several seasons that fit this, but Jorgensen has fewer. His best remaining season has good offense but he's more expensive with 500+ PA and would have to play 1B, moving Helton to the OF.
On the pitching side, there's a handful of somewhat useful relief seasons with ERC# around 3.00 or a bit below. I can probably mostly avoid a big hit on salary, with the exception being Isringhausen. Rodney has nothing exciting left but also no landmines, so will likely pick him last.
Right now, leaning towards focusing on the hitters to make sure I get the last pieces I need to complete my lineup. Jorgensen only has the one strong season left and he's a left-handed hitter but it's 535 PA and makes me play Helton out of position. I also don't want to take on the $3.5m salary without some assurances I can fit it easily. Maldonado has enough similar seasons I can wait a bit. So I think I'll lock in one of the low-salary Murphy seasons (76 or 77) where he gives me a backup catcher and ensures I don't have to roster one his high-salary seasons (he still has 6 seasons at $3.5m or higher).
Update: Looking more at it, do I take the one good remaining Jorgensen season and roll the dice I can fit it all in? There are 7 owners left who need a Murphy and there may be folks loking to shave off from salary. If I do take Jorgensen, that leaves me with $9.3m for the final 6 spots. Amazingly, the average salary of the remaining 6 players is...$9.3m. I should be able to fit it.
Hopeful plan: 75 Jorgensen, 76/77 Murphy, 91/95 Maldonado.
Pick: 77 Murphy ended up going a few picks before me so I figured I should play it safe and grab the other cheap, backup catcher season to be safe, 76 Murphy. 637 PA for catchers makes things a lot easier than 565.
Post-Draft: Getting a few more catcher PA certainly helps managing this team. I was able to get all 3 of the guys in the plan, with 75 Jorgensen and 95 Maldonado coming on the next two picks. Whether that is a good plan, that part remains to be seen.
==============================
Round 10, Pick 11: 1975 Mike Jorgensen (Montreal Expos)
Pre-pick: With cheap Murphy in tow, salary shouldn't really be an issue any more. My next target is 75 Jorgensen. If I get him, I'm pretty much set for my lineup, with Jorgensen essentially platooning with Jack Clark. Kendrick can fill in anywhere but SS and C wherever I need some extra rest. At that point, Maldonado would be a decent luxury to have as a pinch-hitter/spot-starter and I can try to nab another relief season or two that can help, though I already have 1335 good innings so just need some filler.
I'm also starting to think about where to play. I have some pretty good HR hitters--Helton hit 49, Cabrera 44, Walker and Abreu in the 30s--but I also have a bit of a HR problem on my staff. Verlander is at .96 HR# and Cole is at .79, with most of the rest of the staff around .50 to .60. I'll probably go for a negative HR part but not heavily so, with neutral to plus for doubles and singles. Limited to 1973+, there's no perfect fit. PNC Park, SunTrust Park, and Humphrey Metrodome look like options at a first quick glance. I'll look more into it later on.
Pick: Jorgensen made it to me and for once I didn't change my mind at the last second!
Post-Draft: This ended up being the weakest part of my team. I probably should have gotten a better Murphy or figured out a way to use another teammate here. Jorgensen at least gives a decent lefty bat, but it's not a great bat and he hurts my defense even more by forcing Helton to the OF.
==============================
Round 11, Pick 11: 1995 Candy Maldonado (Toronto Blue Jays)
Pre-pick: I now have about 5500 PA I'm happy with and then Howie Kendrick's 543 PA will just fill in as needed. Maldonado may help a bit to spell Walker against some lefties, but it's not necessary as I can give a few more at-bats to Jorgensen or let Kendrick rest Walker. There are 3 Maldonado seasons that would be nice fits--95 TOR, 95 TEX, or 91 TOR.
On the pitching side, down to 3 pitchers available to me with ERC# below 3.00 (all barely so, they are in the 2.90s). Isringhausen also has a 105 IP 3.29 ERC# season (95) that wouldn't be terrible. I've got $8.8m to play with for the final 5 spots so the cap shouldn't be an issue.
Pick: Isringhausens were going fast and I was worried I could get stuck with his $3.8m 96 season, causing cap issues. However, after planning it out, as long as I ALSO didn't get stuck with Maldonado's highest remaining season ($2.7m), I would be fine. I thought about Embree's 04 season which has the best remaining ERC# of any options avaialable to me at 2.93, but I went with Maldonado to ensure I could fit under the cap. Maybe I should have gone Embree, we'll see.
As for Maldonado, his two best seasons remaining were both 1995, one Toronto and the other Texas. I chose Toronto simply because if I needed to I could swap down to his partial season and save a few hundred thousand. I won't use all of his 256 PA on the combined season anyway, so dropping to 214 PA shouldn't matter. He'll mostly just relieve Larry Walker against some lefties and provide a decent enough bat off the bench (better than Kendrick at least).
Post-Draft: Maldonado is mostly a luxury, so I probably should have gotten the better Embree here. Probably won't matter much either way.
==============================
Round 12, Pick 11: 2001 Alan Embree (Chicago White Sox)
Pre-pick: I'm essentially done with my roster. I will carry six pitching teammates (Verlander, Cole, Greinke, Kershaw, Scherzer, Rhoden) and three hitting teammates (Helton, Walker, Abreu). The only other teammate that could possibly make sense is 06 Pujols (by taking 06 Isringhausen), replacing Abreu. That would cost me about $2m, but could fit that in with the cheaper Isringhausen. The main positive for Pujols is the power, his .650 SLG# is 130 points higher than Abreu. However, there are three negatives--1) Pujols has 75 fewer PA, 2) Pujols is right-handed and 3) I would have to play Pujols out of position in the OF. Abreu's .426 OBP# is almost an idential match for Pujols and his B-/C+ defense likely outpaces Pujols 1B grades of A-/A+ translated to the OF. Abreu also has 79 speed vs 56 for Pujols, which would be a benefit in the leadoff spot. All of those smaller things likely don't outweigh Pujols huge edge in power, but it makes it closer for sure.
Otherwise, I just need to get the best innings I can from the last 4 reliever picks and fit it in the budget, which won't be a problem. Hopefully I can grab 04 Embree (2.93 ERC#), but if not my next 3 targets are with ERC# in the mid-3s: 01 Embree CHW, 05 Rodney, and 19 Rodney WAS. After that, well, let's hope they don't have to pitch important innings.
Pick: Ugh, 04 Embree goes right before me, so I settle for 01 Embree. He'll be a Setup B for me. I chose his full season in the draft just because it was only a few thousand more, but I'll almost for sure use the partial version (fewer innings, better quality).
Post-Draft: Bummed the 04 Embree didn't make it to me...almost!
==============================
Round 13, Pick 10: 2013 Darren Oliver (Toronto Blue Jays)
Pick: Slim picking at this point as I'm down to Oliver, Isringhausen, and Rodney. A couple Isringhausen seasons went, so I checked to make sure I'd be fine if I got stuck with his $3.8m 96 season and I am, as long as I don't take a high-salary Oliver. Rodney has the best ERC# of any available season but just 33 innings and he has a few decent seasons left. There are 3 owners left who need Darren Oliver and he has two relief seasons at the top, one is 49 innings at 3.79 ERC# and the other is 56 innings at 4.17. After that, he has 3 starter seasons with IP in the 174-202 range and ERC# around 4.50, but I can't roster those if I get Isringhausen so would need to take probably his 04 season with 5.34 ERC#. I was able to jump ahead and so I went with the 13 Oliver with 3.79 ERC#. I'll now be fine with whatever Isringhausen I get and then I'll get some 50-odd innings of high-HR, high-BB, high-K Rodney innigns with ERC# in the 4.00 range.
==============================
Round 14, Pick 8: 1996 Jason Isringhausen (New York Mets)
Pre-Pick: At this point, I actually prefer to get the expensive 96 Isringhausen. I have nothing else to do with that salary and while I don't need the innings, it's always nice to have some extra. His 4.61 ERC# in 96 is about the same as his 99 Mets partial (4.55) and way better than his 97 season (7.82!!!). Hopefully the other two owners who need Isringhausen need to save money and want his cheaper options.
There are 6 owners who still need Rodney. He has 5 seasons between 3.47 and 4.09 ERC#, innings range from 33 to 75. If I'm last in line, I'll get likely a 64-inning 4.35 ERC#. I'm guessing he'll give up about 500 walks whichever version I get, so hopefully don't need to pitch him too often!
Pick: I was able to get 96 Isringhausen. As expected, 3dayrotation wanted the lower salary and didn't want to get stuck with this one so I could have waited (or I could have taken a different version and tried to force 3day or someone else to roster his $3.8m).
==============================
Round 15, Pick : 2018 Fernando Rodney (Minnesota Twins)
Pre-Pick: My last pick will be a Rodney. I have enough room to take any of his remaining seasons under my salary cap. Someone took a bad but cheap season so I'll get something with a 4.09 ERC# or better, not terrible? He'll join Embree and Oliver in the Setup B group that I hope rarely has to see the mound.
Pick: 18 Rodney (MIN version) it is. He'll join Embree and Oliver in my Setup B scrum.
==============================
Ballpark: PNC Park
Recap:
My biggest blunder was taking Hendrick in the 1st Round. I also probably should have taken Murphy instead of Pena early on and committed to a teammate catcher.
I wonder if focusing a bit more on finding pitchers with just a few more innings could have saved me a teammate spot and gone with 5 pitcher/4 hitters instead of the 6/3 I ended up with. One more big-hitting OF (replacing Jorgensen) would be a big improvement.
I also think it's funny how as the draft progresses, the players get worse but it still feels like the top guy you want is the most important thing and oh-my-god I hope he falls to me. Early on, I couldn't have given two sh*ts about 75 Jorgensen. In Round 11, I was sweating out whether he'd make it to me. Heck, I was even hopeful on which version of Fernando Rodney I'd get with my last pick that hopefully never sees an important inning.
Anyway, overall, I'm relatively happy with how things turned out and, as always, a very fun drafting experience.
Lineup:
CF Abreu
RF Helton
3B Cabrera
LF Walker
1B Jorgensen/Clark
C Pena
SS Rollins/Uribe
2B Polanco
Bench:
Backup C: Murphy
Utility: Kendrick
Backup OF/PH: Maldonado
Rotation:
SP1 Verlander
SP2 Cole
SP3 Grienke
SP4 Scherzer
SP5 Rhoden
Bullpen:
Relief Ace Kershaw
Closer Smith
Setup A Guthrie
Setup B Embree
Oliver
Rodney
Mop-up Isringhausen