Post your draft strategy writeups here.

I'm afraid my strategy writeup won't be very interesting, as I spent little to no time really thinking about what the ideal strategy for this draft would be.

When I first saw the rules, I convinced calhoop to reverse the round 3 draft order because I thought it was too valuable for for the 1st overall pick to also get 1st choice in rounds 3, 5, 7 and 9. I mean the very best players will go in round 1, including all the stud starting pitchers. After experiencing the draft from draft slot #3, I'm not sure I was correct in my assumption. Getting an early pick in the 2-player, 3-player and 5-player rounds is pretty advantageous. And the thing I didn't consider is it's also valuable to pick early in the last round as a bunch of great pitchers (with 1 good year) would still be left. I do think a reversal should be made, but maybe it's made later... say in round 7... so 1-24, 24-1, 1-24, 24-1, 1-24, 24-1 then 24-1, 1-24, 24-1.

Round 1.03
Silver King (1888)
Anyway, I was thrilled when Silver King made it to me at 1.03. He covers half my starting innings and can go deep into games, lessening the number of relief innings I will need. My second choice was going to be 1915 Pete Alexander.
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Round 2.22
Joe Horlen (1964, 1967)
I had very little time to think about this pick. I was in California dealing with funeral arrangements for my recently deceased father. I noticed most of the obvious stud hitters were already taken, so I focused on a starting pitcher with two strong seasons. The players I considered here were Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Joe Horlen. Clemens doesn't do well for me and Johnson is a bit HR prone so I went with Horlen.
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Round 3.22
Eric Gagne (2002, 2003, 2004)
Honestly, this pick seemed like a no-brainer. I even anticipated the chance of getting Eckersley with my next pick (4 picks away) and how cool would that be to get two of the best RPs in the game and then watch them implode every 8th and 9th inning. I have no idea what I will do with my hitting yet, but with 5 selections left, I should be able to cover everything.
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Round 4.03
Dennis Eckersley (1988, 1989, 1990, 1992)
This pick came quickly after the Gagne selection. I was walking out the door to go to dinner with my grieving stepmother, when calhoop texted me to let me know I was up again. I didn't want to hold things up and never really researched anybody else, so I quickly responded "Give me Eckersley". Of course, ronthegenius was right on mark when he said... "Makes his blown saves even more entertaining". And happyhours accurately captured my feelings when he posted "I assume your thought was. If this **** don't work, nothing will". If my bullpen is not at least average in holding late leads, my head will explode.
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Round 5.22
Paul Waner (1926, 1927, 1928, 1934, 1936)
Since I had zero hitters at this point, I figured I'd better get a player who has 5 good seasons. Paul Waner qualifies and is even a good fielder (A/B) at 1B. I strongly considered Bernie Williams here (everybody knows I love switch hitters), but I knew I would be playing in a negative HR park since there will be many deadball pitchers in this league. As it turns out, I am only starting 4 Paul Waners (you'll soon find out why). The 1926 season (.336/.407/.526) didn't make the cut. In his other four seasons, he hit .362 or better in each.
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Round 6.03
Lou Boudreau (1943, 1944, 1947, 1948)
With four rounds to go, I still needed C, 2B, 3B, SS. If I was willing to go with about 1550 effective innings (only counting Silver King for 550), I could easily fill these four positions with whatever studs are left. But I wanted some flexibility in case I wanted to add one more pitcher. Everybody is aware that his 1948 season is one of the best SS seasons in the sim, but his 1944 season has catcher eligibility and he's not terrible defensively (D/A/B). Also, if I need to, I can start his 1947 season (A/A) out of position at 2B or 3B. This was a key pick for me.
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Round 7.22
Rod Carew (1974, 1975, 1977)
I'm pretty sure I'm going to draft another pitcher which means.... Given the choice of starting '44 Boudreau at catcher or '47 Boudreau out of position at 2B, I decided on his '44 season at catcher. So my last three picks will be 2B, 3B and P. There are a number of full-time 3B I can get with my last pick and most pitchers with 3 great seasons are already gone, so I decided to pick my 2B here. Rod Carew was my favorite player growing up as a kid, so he was the obvious pick for me. I can play his '77 season at 1B, removing one of Paul Waner's seasons from the starting lineup. I highlighted both 1974 and 1975 b/c I'm not sure which year I will use as my 2B. They are very similar. One could be used at DH, in case Paul Waner's 1936 season doesn't normalize well.
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Round 8.03
Ferdie Schupp (1916, 1917)
Thru 8 rounds, all my pitchers are right handed, so I was only drafting a LHP here. Players in consideration were Hong-Chih Kuo, Dutch Leonard and Ron Guidry. I was very close to taking Guidry in order to start him against lefty-dominant teams, but I didn't like his 2nd best season. With Schupp, his 1916 season is very strong and if I need to start a lefty, his 1917 season comes with a 1.00 whip, .209 oav and 0.23 hr/9... At the very least, I have a decent mopup pitcher. Love my pitching staff. Not sure if my team can score enough runs though.
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Round 9.22
Frank Baker (1912)
This is the guy I was looking at when I made the decision to wait on 3B until round 9. Even if Al Rosen was still on the board, I would've passed. I also considered Ken Caminiti or Ron Santo as fallback options if Baker got taken. But since I am playing in a negative HR park, I wanted to avoid HR hitters.

Final Recap
Considering the amount of time I spent thinking about this draft, I am satisfied with the roster. I have very little wasted salary... one extra P.Waner (1926), two extra (1943, 1947) Lou Boudreaus and one extra (1974?) Rod Carew. But I will need a few PA's from these guys to keep my regulars fresh. My pitching should be among the best in the league.

Batting (9 regular starters): 6361 PA, .363 AVG, .433 OBP, .527 SLG $82.1 million
Pitching (Best 1550 IPs): 1.65 ERA, 0.189 OAV, 0.86 WHIP, 1.6 BB/9, 0.29 HR/9 $79.3 million
Effective salary $161.4 million

Starting Lineup:
'34 Waner .362 / .429 / .539
'36 Waner .373 / .446 / .520
'77 Carew .388 / .449 / .570
'48 Boudreau .355 / .453 / .534
'28 Waner .370 / .446 / .547
'27 Waner .380 / .437 / 549
'75 Carew .359 / .421 / .497 (or '74 Carew .364 / .433 / .446)
'44 Boudreau .327 / .406 / .437
'12 Baker .347 / .404 / .541

Pitching
SP1: '88 King .197 oav, 0.88 whip
SP2A: '67 Horlen .203 oav, 0.95 whip
SP2B: '64 Horlen .190 oav, 0.94 whip
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LongA: '16 Schupp .167 oav, 0.83 whip
SetupB: '92 Eckersley .211 oav, 0.91 whip
SetupB: '88 Eckersley .198 oav, 0.87 whip
SetupB: '02 Gagne .189 oav, 0.87 whip
SetupB: '04 Gagne .181 oav, 0.91 whip
SetupA: '90 Eckersley .160 oav, 0.62 whip
SetupA: '83 Gagne .133 oav, 0.69 whip
SetupA: '89 Eckersley .162 oav, 0.61 whip

Mopup: '17 Schupp .209 oav, 1.00 whip

After the random draw of 23, I ended up choosing position 15. I was hoping to have a stud pitcher like Maddux, Mathewson, or Alexander fall to me. It didn’t happen so I went with an alternative strategy.

Round 1 - 1 player. Scouring the history of various leagues including the last 6 or 7 DEP leagues Tip O’Neal finished in the top five or six in hitting. Not near his .435 average but on top of the competition. He really had only one desirable season so I grabbed him.

Round 2 - 2 players. My recent experience using the 1922 George Sisler was very positive with him batting near .400 for me. With his 1920 .400 season I now had 3 batters with real life averages over .400. I now had a dh, LF, and 1b.

Round 3 - 3 players. Trying to layout the rest of the draft I didn’t want a lot of extra baggage in position players. So if I could fill two positions and a backup for each of these positions it would be great. Joe Torre filled this need nicely. His 1971 Cardinal 3b year is a desirable starter. His 1964 catching year for the Braves is also desirable. And his 1970 Cardinal year provides a backup for C, 3b, and 1b.

Round 4 - 4 players. I needed to address my starting pitching. I narrowed it down to three pitchers which would cover my 900 - 1050 IP. These three pitchers provided solid numbers Kevin Brown, Don Sutton, and Carl Hubbel. I went with Sutton. He had his very solid 1972 season as well as three solid other seasons. At this point I wasn’t sure if I would wait to draft one more super starter later on.

Round 5 - 5 players. In my way of thinking I had to draft a reliever here. No other position could offer 5 quality players. I found 14 different pitchers who met that condition. Originally I wanted Joe Nathan but someone took him the round before. I chose Zack Britton. He not only qualified but was left handed. With Sutton being right handed, I needed 5 lefties in the bullpen to offset this.

Round 6 - 4 players. Do I go with a nine pitcher bullpen? I never have done that before. But Wade Davis and Greg Holland were still there. I almost took him one of them the prior round and they brought along Kaufman stadium for my 3 .400 hitters and a .360 hitting Torre. I went with Davis. But now I had a pretty formidable pitching staff. Do I really want to use Kaufman stadium?

Round 7 - 3 players. If I was switching to a pitching oriented team I better get some defense.I looked at Bernie Williams and Duke Snider. Hitting home runs really wasn’t my thing with this team in a dead ball league so I grabbed a switch hitting good fielding good hitting Williams.

Round 8 - 2 players. I now had every position covered except middle infield. With these last two rounds I needed three players to cover those spots including backup. I had been looking at Eddie Collins as my second baseman but he was nabbed earlier in the prior round. Red Schoendist has historically been one of my favorite players. His good defense and good switch hitting has always worked for me. His 1953 season will be starting for me at second. His 1949 season will provide backup at 2b, SS, and 3b. He will be my late inning defensive replacement at third.

Round 9 - 1 player. Who was I grabbing for my SS. Again I perused the historical teams I had access to. Two players stood out as defensive whizzes. Not surprisingly Ozzie Smith. He was taken about five picks ahead of my pick. Surprisingly another player I had watched here in Texas the last few years Elvis Andrus. He averaged over 300 putouts and 580 assists with 25 errors. But in each league I looked at he had over 30+ plays and zero - plays. He only bats about .250 but I can live with.

I decided to go with Busch Stadium. It is not as drastic as Kaufman Stadium.

Lineup
Sisler 1922 DH. .420 BA
Sisler 1920. 1b. .407 BA
Oneal 1887 LF. .435 BA
Torre. 1971 3b. .363 BA
Williams 1999 CF .342 BA
Williams 2002 RF .333 BA
Schoendist 1953 2b .342 BA
Torre 1964 C. .321 BA
Andrus. 2017 SS .297 BA

Bench
Torre 1970. C,3b1b. .325 BA
Williams 1998 Of. .339 BA
Schoendist 1949 2b,SS, 3b.297 BA

Starters
Sutton 1972. 285 ip 2.08 era
Sutton 1973. 258 ip 2.42 era
Sutton 1975. 255 ip 2.87 era
Sutton 1981. 234 ip 2.61 era

Relievers
Britton 2016. 67 ip 0.54 era
Britton 2014. 76 ip 1.65 era
Britton 2020. 51 ip. 1.89 era
Britton 2019. 61 ip. 1.91 era
Britton 2015. 65 ip. 1.92 era
Davis. 2015. 67 ip. 0.94 era
Davis 2016. 43 ip. 1.87 era
Davis. 2017. 72 ip. 1.00 era
Davis 2012. 70 ip. 2.43 era

Great owners in this league, all of whom know what they are doing and several of which threw wrenches into my works!

Round One: My fav, Ed Walsh 08. I am comfortable with the 495 IP leading a staff. But it was a long time to wait for the next pick....
Round Two: My immediate thoughts were: Schwarze has lots of right handed pitching, and so do rmarksduke and midnight. Go for the biggest left handed duo for the buck and put guys on base. Billy Hamilton. Lots of speed and range in the OF. Didnt like the wait until the bottom of the next round. I guess we will see if was too penal or not but it felt unnecessary to me.
Round Three: Probably should have gone with an OF/1b combo here with power. Went with my old friend '85 Roger Connor, who always succeeds at this level cap, and the 86 and 90 versions help with DH. The switch hitting helps too, but no slugging to speak of yet.
Round Four: I was going to go with Mariano but mpitt76 took him, and with Gagne gone, it had to be a reliever here. I have better luck with more versions of Kimbrel at this cap than Eck, so Kimbrel it was. This closed out my right handed RP needs.
Round 5: Love lefty relievers and got scooped on Jake McGee. Dont love Zack Britton though, but at this spot bullpen was too important, especially after schwarze took Paul Waner and made half his lineup lefty...
Round 6: Here is where I got too cute. Polanco can man 2B, SS, and 3B positions. Singles hitter though. I got lazy and tried to kill three birds with one stone, and left myself with great D but incredibly light hitting. This was made all the more painful by guys taken right after mine, McGraw and Boudreau.
Round 7: Decided to take Eddie "No Homers" Plank. Was gonna go with a good hitting catcher here and maybe grab a 500 IP dead baller with the last pick, but made the decision that since I am going with the all-defense team i might as well take the defensive catcher last and take Plank with these picks. the 09 Plank can spot start as well, so I thought it was good value.
Round 8: Was very glad to grab Joe Kelley here. Solved some of my offense issues and i have options with the other two Connors and the other Kelley at DH. Deepens my bench as well, cause they can pinch hit for any of the Polancos, and my bench Polanco can come in as a defensive replacement.
Round 9: Just grabbed the best defensive catcher left with more than 600 ABs and an A+ arm. Hello Mr. Irrelevant, Elston Howard.

Congrats to calhoop for doing such an outstanding job of organizing and carrying out the draft.

Round 1.14 -- 1995 Greg Maddux
I was hoping for a top-of-the-line deadball pitcher with 340-plus innings (Walsh, Johnson, Joss, Alexander or Mathewson), but none were available by the time I picked. I still wanted a legitimate #1 starter, and my two best options seemed to be Maddux or Pedro. After going back and forth for way too long, I finally settled on Maddux.

Round 2.11 -- 1946 & '48 Stan Musial
The idea was to select a high-impact offensive player who would make 160 starts and bat in the middle of the order. With my pick approaching, I narrowed my choices down to Ed Delahanty, George Sisler, Harry Heilmann and Musial. As it turned out, Delahanty and Sisler were taken with the two picks just before mine. I took Musial over Heilmann largely on the strength of his edge in defense and his monster 1948 season.

Round 3.11 -- 1910, '11 & '14 Russ Ford
I was pleased that Ford was still available at this stage, even though his 1911 season will be a non-factor. Ford's '10 season (322 IP, 1.65 ERA, 0.88 WHIP) is just a notch below the elite deadball starters, and his '14 campaign (266 IP, 1.82 ERA, 0.94 WHIP) is likely to be a more-than-adequate addition to my starting rotation.

Round 4.14 -- 2006, '07, '08 & '14 Jonathan Papelbon
Much to my surprise, Heilmann remained available, and I was anxious to take him with this pick. However, relief pitchers were taken with eight of the first 13 picks in round 4, and I began to worry about missing out on a reliever with a bunch of quality seasons. So I took Papelbon and passed on Heilmann yet again.

Round 5.11 -- 1921, '23, '24, '27 & '30 Harry Heilmann
Well, look who's still around in the middle of the fifth round! I finally was able to add Heilmann, a player I almost took as early as round 2. Considering that he batted above .390 four different times -- I only used three of those four seasons -- I'm not sure why he lasted as long as he did.

Round 6.14 -- 1946, '50, '51 & '53 Johnny Pesky
Pesky provides plenty of versatility; he will start at second base, third base and shortstop. In all three of those seasons, he hit above .300 and had an on-base percentage over .400. The downside is that he offers no power at all -- he totaled just six homers in those three seasons combined -- and his defense at second base (C/C-) is a concern.

Round 7.11 -- 1915, '18 & '19 Fred Toney
I wanted to add a pitcher with a top-notch season as a reliever as well as at least one decent season as a starter. The two players I considered with this choice were Toney and Ferdie Schupp. I settled on Toney because his great 1918 campaign (112 IP, 1.69 ERA, 0.73 WHIP) is complemented by a pair of 200-innings-plus seasons in which his ERA was below 2.00. Schupp only offered one such season.

Round 8.14 -- 1930 and '37 Gabby Hartnett
I obviously needed a catcher, and the key to this pick was Hartnett's 1930 season in which he hit 37 home runs. Prior to this selection, Musial's '48 season was the only one I had in which a player hit more than 19 homers.

Round 9.11 -- 1968 Luis Tiant
This turned out to be my most difficult pick of the entire draft. The addition of Tiant, a starter with a $12.3 million salary, clearly strengthens my rotation and allows me to use Toney's 1915 and '19 seasons in what has become a crowded bullpen. That said, I almost picked second baseman Chase Utley instead of Tiant. Utley's 2007 season is superior to Pesky's '51 season in every way -- especially in terms of OPS and defense. But I couldn't shake the feeling that my team would be better served with 40 or so starts from Tiant.

Summary
The pitching should be strong. The offense is a little bit short of power, but seven starters have a batting average of at least .335 and five have an average of at least .365. The defense will be poor at three different positions (1b, 2b and RF). Is the leaky defense enough of an issue that it could ruin the team's season? I'm about to find out.

Diamonds of the 21st Century

Pre-draft strategy:
While the actual salaries will be inflated with lots of excess PA/IP, this league still should play effectively like a very high cap. The replacement-level should be enormous, especially on the pitching side where you can fill in hundreds of innings with a single pick.

I essentially thought about 3 types of pitchers--big-inning deadballers, normal-inning starters, and low-inning relievers. For hitters, again 3 main buckets--infield (SS/2B/3B), outfield (OF/1B/DH), and catcher.

I saw two main buckets of strategies. (1) Get a bunch of innings with one pick. This would allow me to get one or two reliever picks without worrying about innings. Then I could spend 5 or 6 picks on hitters, allowing me to split up the IF and OF buckets. This would be especially helpful with the IF where there just aren't a lot of guys with good enough seasons who play 2B/3B and SS. (2) Fill the hitters with just 3 or 4 picks. To do this, will likely need one hitter to cover SS/2B/3B, one catcher, and then two guys to split the OF/1B/DH (probably one more defense/speed to handle CF and the other more of a basher to handle DH/1B/corner OF type spots.

I felt there would be the ability to get a ton of "replacement" level innings even in Round 9, so I didn't worry too much about filling up my innings. The middle rounds definitely provided opportunities mostly for relievers and the OF/1B/DH bucket.

Draft Slot: 18th
I didn't put too much thought into this. As expected, most owners went to the extremes and were filling in with the highest or lowest draft spot remaining. I did the same and chose lower so I'd have a higher pick in Round 5, in case that mattered.

Pick 1.18: P Pedro Martinez
When it got to me, I had yet to do any research. It felt that in the 1st Round, the priority should be the elite of the elite. Obviously, most of those guys went--the Ruths, Bondses, Silver Kings. Positionally, catcher and SS are going to be the hardest to fill, followed by 2B and 3B, so ideally could grab one of those. Or on the pitching side, if you can get an elite pitcher with tons of innings, that should let you fill out your staff with high-value relievers.

All that said, the absolute best per-inning pitcher in the WIS database with over 100 IP is Pedro. On the hitter's side, Hugh Duffy's monster season was intriguing as was getting Jimmie Foxx to play catcher. But ultimately, getting Pedro was too good to pass up. Duffy, did go with the very next pick. [Post note: When I did finish my research, I actually had Pedro as the #2 pitcher overall in the "1-clone" bucket, after Silver King, so happy he was there for me.]

Pick 2.8: P Clayton Kershaw
Still hadn't done my research but was hoping Foxx would fall. He's almost the perfect 2-clone player, getting to play his 1935 season at catcher (and you don't need a backup, he's got 706 PA) and his 1932 season at 1B (and bonus flexibility at 3B, he's D/D there). Unfortunately, he went 3 picks before me. Was also eyeing Mantle, but he went right before. When it got to my pick, I dug in a little deeper and focused on Musial, Dimaggio, or Mays. I didn't want to take an OF, ideally, but those guys are elite enough. I especially liked Musial as a lefty who could play 1B and CF.

But coming back to the pitching side, Kershaw stuck out. Like Pedro, the volume isn't there, but outside of under-100 IP relievers, Kershaw is the best there is remaining. He offers a bit of flexibility as well--I hope to take his 2016 season with 149 IP but can flip to his 2013 or 2015 seasons if I need some more innings.

Pick 3.8: OF Al Simmons
This was a very difficult decision for me. I wanted to grab two elite relievers, but ideally do so in rounds 4 and 5. I was debting between Kimbrel, Rivera, and Gagne. Gagne had the 3 elite seasons, so he was my top choice if I went this route. Nobody had taken any relievers yet though, so I thought I could wait. [Post note: Schwarze took Gagne. I think I made out okay but would I have been better off with Gagne here and then an OF instead of Hendriks later on?]

I had now finished my research and so was feeling a bit better about my pool. I was looking at two different pools--1B/OF and IF. Pujols was intriguing--he doesn't really play OF but I think his very good 1B ratings would play in the OF corners. He also has a reasonable 3B season, though it's not one of his best hitting seasons. Larry Walker was on my list, but he went just ahead. Al Simmons has some very nice seasons and can play CF but still has the elite hitting to play in the corners.

In the MIF, it was A-Rod, Tulo, Mike Schmidt, and Joe Morgan. A-Rod of course has ratings at 3B as well, while Tulo's SS defense can play anywhere. It's really hard to take a 3B or 2B in a clone league. In this league especially, I felt there's too much talent to take the hit of playing a 2B/3B out of position at SS. So that forces you to likely spend two additional picks on a SS and a C. I thought a bit about Lou Boudreau but he doesn't really help a ton here...his 2nd-best season is basically replacement-level and his 3rd/4th-best seasons aren't good enough to handle 2B or 3B.

I felt I could wait on the relievers and while SS was a little shallower, it did have less of a drop-off, so I went with Simmons.

Pick 4.18: P Aroldis Chapman
I felt okay about my 3rd-round pick for the rest of the round. Pujols and A-Rod went. Rivera and Gagne went, but that was it for relievers. Then the 4th round started and relievers started flying off the board. Nine relievers--Kimbrel, Eckersley, Miller, Wagner, Nathan, Jansen, Wilhelm, Papelbon, and Gossage--went ahead of me. Luckily, a couple survived. It came down to Chapman and Koji Uehara. Given Chapman was a lefty, that gave him the tiebreaker. Now I can take a right reliever in one of the next couple rounds and I'll have great right/left balance with Pedro/Kershaw and Chapman/RHP reliever.

Pick 5.8: SS Troy Tulowitzki
I'm now starting to plan out my last few picks with a little more clarity. I have 7 pitchers, so 6 slots remaining. I can go 5th and 9th rounds (5+1) or 6th and 8th (4+2). Assuming I get about 200-300 innings from my reliever pick, that will leave me needing about 400-500 innings at a minimum from my last pitching pick. That's easier to do if I can get two pitchers to pair up. Otherwise, I'll need to take someone like Charlie Ferguson in the final round.

On the flip side, three of my picks will be hitters and I likely need an IF (2B/3B/SS), a 1B/DH (also spell Simmons in the OF a bit), and a C. Catcher will be one of the final 2 picks and like the pitching spot, it'll be easier to cover the needed at-bats with two clones instead of just one. My 7th round pick will almost for sure be my 1B/DH. And that means this pick and my next one need to cover a reliever and a shortstop/infielder.

I went back and forth a million times. In fact, I went to bed two picks away and had already loaded Liam Hendriks into my draft center. He has three fantastic seasons and with pretty good volume as well. His 4th and 5th best seasons aren't as great, but do provide another 120 innings. That had given him the edge over Uehara.

I had been looking at three guys for the infield spot--Tulo, Eddie Collins, and Schmidt. Tulo has one elite season (just 375 PA) and the rest of his seasons are very good both hitting and fielding. The downsides are that he's right-handed and relies more on power (which won't play as well in this league with all the deadballers). Collins is left-handed and a better hitter who relies less on power. The problem is he'll be a huge liability at SS (he does have a D/D season there) and then likely struggle at 3B as well. Still, the hitting benefits would be sizable as he's better overall and a better fit (both lefty and non-power) for my lineup and this league. Schmidt is a monster hitter, but he's righty and relies even more on power than Tulo. He has ratings at SS but even worse than Collins.

When I woke up in the morning, I instead talked myself into Tulo. I really just didn't like the other options I had to fill out my IF. It also gave me at least the option to use my 2-clone 8th round pick on a pitcher if I wanted. I really hope I don't fall off too far from Hendriks/Uehara. There's a looooong wait to my next pick.

Pick 6.18: P Liam Hendriks
I knew almost for sure I wanted a pitcher here. Hendriks, who I had been considering for a few rounds was still on the board. I also looked at Corbin Burnes, Josh Hader, and Troy Percival. On the hitting side, nothing really stood out. If I could have gotten a player who could have pulled catching duty as well as given me some 1B/DH/OF at-bats, that could have been intriguing but Cap Anson's 2nd and lower years just aren't good enough and Napoli doesn't really have enough value or at-bats either. Plus, I want a lefty hitter given Simmons and Tulo both bat righty.

Strategically, at this point, I will likely take two pitchers, one here and then one in the final two rounds. The number of innings I get here will dictate what I can do with my last pitcher pick. Hendriks has 289 innings across his top 4 seaons, though 65 of those aren't elite level. Still, that gets me to 1088. I should have the option to go with two shorter-inning pitchers in Round 8 (like Joe Wood or maybe Shane Bieber if I want to cut it close) or possibly someone like Toad Ramsey with a good reliever year and a big inning starter year. Hendriks it is.

Pick 7.8: 1B Jason Giambi
I have 11 pitcher seasons, so I cannot take a pitcher here. I'm fully set at 2.5 OF positions (Simmons will need a little help with at-bats) and SS, plus likely set at 2B and 3B with Tulo. That means I need a 1B, C, and DH...plus hopefully someone who can help in the OF a bit. And I definitely prefer a lefty.

That last part is troublesome because the best bats available to me are mostly right-handed. Mark McGwire got a long look as did Bagwell. I looked again at Cap Anson but still can't stomach using more than his top season. He's an ideal candidate for Round 9 if I still need my catcher.

Shifting to lefties, the top candidates are Juan Soto, Duke Snider, Willie McCovey, and Giambi. I liked that Giambi had relatively high batting averages, good defensive numbers at 1B that could also hold their own in the OF, and three high-level seasons. He'll be our full-time 1B and DH and will likely play his 3rd season in RF against righties, to get all 3 Giambi's left-handed bats in the lineup and save some of Simmons at-bats.

Pick 8.18: P Shane Bieber
Now it's decision time. Option 1 is to take my catcher here, where I can get two versions to cover the necessary PA. Napoli, Javy Lopez, Buck Ewing all in play here, among others. I prefer Napoli of the group, but I also prefer taking a lefty or switch-hitter. My options are more limited there especially after Bill Dickey went. Of the lefties, though, there are a few that could handle the full load if I can grab them in Round 9--Duke Farrell, Darrell Porter, etc. Or I can always take a righty like Campanella if needed. I even considered taking Javy Lopez's 495 PA and just trying to stretch it as much as possible with Tulo soaking up blowouts behind the plate. If I went this option, I would need to get 400+ innings from a single pitcher. I liked Scott Stratton in this case, but had a few other options like Charlie Ferguson or Toad Ramsey if needed.

Option 2 was to take a pitcher here to improve the quality of my innings, then take a full-time catcher in Round 9. I also had the option to get a few more innings out of Kershaw if needed. My main considerations here were Shane Bieber and Toad Ramsey. Bieber has the fantastic 200+ IP 2020 season plus another reasonable 200+ IP to get me over 1500 total. Ramsey has the 700 IP season with a 2.35 ERC# plus a really good 115 IP season. I definitely wouldn't have issues with innings in this case.

I ultimately decided to roll the dice on Bieber. I was hoping to get Porter in Round 9 (679 PA), who wasn't that much of a downgrade from Napoli/Lopez. And while Ramsey had more innings, Bieber had more elite innings. If I can get to the playoffs, I have 1232 IP with 1.88 ERC# or better.

Pick 9.8: C Darrell Porter
Porter made it back to me. He's my one hitter without much power but he has 679 PA, an A+ arm, and a .418 OBP#. Plus he gives me another lefty to balance the lineup a bit.

Ballpark: Fenway Park (Pedro)
I know I'll have one of the more slugging-heavy lineups, but I also have all modern pitchers (from 2000 or later) so giving up home runs could be an issue. Fenway has the +4 for 2B and is neutral on HR (+1 for LF so Simmons and Tulo get a little bump!). Hopefully my 1511 IP can hold up, I think they will.

Lineup:
LF 31 Simmons
1B 00 Giambi
CF 30 Simmons
RF 01 Giambi/27 Simmons
3B 14 Tulo
DH 02 Giambi
2B 10 Tulo
SS 11 Tulo
C 79 Porter

Pitching staff:
Starters = 00 Pedro, 14 Kershaw, 20 Bieber
Long A = 16 Kershaw
Relievers = four Chapmans and four Hendrikses
Long B/Mop = 21 Bieber

Post-draft recap:
Based on my analysis, I felt most people dipped too far below the league replacement level, especially for hitters. That means I'm probably wrong, lol. My biggest risk, by far, is my reliance on more modern players--if my hitters are neutered by deadballers, we could be in big trouble. Except for Porter, by hitters are mostly high-average and high-OBP, so hopefully that helps mitigate the issues some, but I'm definitely worried. Fenway was also chosen with that in mind.

I'm also a bit worried about playing Tulo out of position at 2B and 3B. I'm in fatguyrd's clones progressive, so have some experience there, but I don't have a great feel. Tulo does have fantastic defensive ratings at SS, so hopefully he does fine. I'm also playing Giambi's A/A- 1B season in RF against righties, so we'll see how that goes. I have done that quite a bit (1B in the OF) in Schwarze's Quick Draft leagues. If not, I can always put one of my Tulos out there.

My pitching staff should be one of the best in the league. As I mentioned above I have 1232 IP at 1.88 ERC# or better and my other 280 or so IP are under 3.00 ERC# as well. All are modern pitchers so HR could be a bit of an issue but there's also a lot of owners who shied away from big boppers, so I think my guys should be fine.

Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic. I feel very good about my team based on my analysis so my biggest risks are that my players just aren't as effective at this high of a cap or against these types of players (e.g. deadballers, etc.).

Fun draft and can't wait to see how this one shakes out and what the next version might be!

I knew I wanted pitching early. I got Joss, then a pair of Frank Smiths after that. I wanted bats that can play multiple positions. I have been wanting to try Pujols for awhile in something like this, so why not here. He can play 1B, 3B, OF and DH. Chuck Klein is a favorite of mine, and supplied me with several great offensive seasons, and a Phillie to use Baker Bowl. These two characters hit doubles and homers. With the possibility of a 3 man staff I need oodles of RP. I used the 5 and 4 to get Jake McGee and Sergio Romo. Should be a solid back end.
I was looking at an OF with A+ range that could catch or play IF, or an IF that could catch. Boudreau didn't make it to me. I passed on the OF for other needs. I looked at Schoendienst for my middle IF, but Red never hits well for me. I opted for 3 versions of Mark Loretta. Can play 2nd, SS, 1B and 3rd. His '04 should do well, and his SS play will have to do. I like Hoiles to catch, although I could have reached higher. Doc White was still on the board, so I got myself a lefty to start or relieve...No idea if Albert and Klein will hit well enough. They could...

I wanted my pitching early, mainly to get maximum offense in Rounds 3 and 4. I like having 6 Pujols and Klein in every lineup...

1511 innings in a high cap league, playing home games in Fenway? You have more balls than I do.

and probably less brains too, lol

fingers crossed we can avoid the pitching death spiral

I love clones and I love drafts so I was all over this concept as soon as calhoop posted it.
I ended up with one of the top picks and chose to pick as low as I could in the first round (pick #23) thinking it would be an advantage to have an early pick in Round 5 (it wasn't).
As my #23 pick approached in the first round I had two distinct strategies in mind. First, there was the one I should have taken (but didn't) of taking Ty Cobb (1911) and then filling out the outfield on the flip side of 3day's end picks with Ed Delahanty (or Tris Speaker as second resort). That would have been sweet. The other strategy (the one the won the coin flip) was to go with the top modern starting pitcher available (deemed to be Arrieta) and then taking Jacob deGrom or Clayton Kershaw in round 2. They both ended up available (as 3day correctly snapped up the Cobb I ignored) and I went with deGrom, mainly for his superior 2021 season in relief.
Having gone the pitcher route I was determined to keep going that way in Round 3. I was hoping for Babe Adams (the trifecta of 1919 starting, 1909 long relief, and 1924 closing) but calhoop ended that dream. Randy Johnson was plan B but then he went near the end of round 2 and I was resigned to go with the plan C of Roger Clemens. Then I logged onto to make my pick and realized 3day took Clemens with the pick before mine. Damn. Do I go with Kevin Brown (1996&1998 and the third option didn't enthuse me) or I was thinking Mike Schmidt? In the end I stayed with pitching but abandoned the modern pitching staff I was building and took Chief Bender (two good starting pitching seasons and one decent long relief/mop-up season).
It's a long time from the start of Round 3 to the end of Round 4 and every relief pitcher I had high hopes for seemed to get taken. About the only one left I was happy taking 4 versions of was Rob Nen. I was going to take him but then talked myself into believing he could last to round 6. I was getting cold feet about not taking any batters and decided to go with Hank Aaron as I really like his 1955 season at second base, his 71 and 73 seasons at first/DH and grabbing one or two of his seasons for the outfield. In fact, the internal debate was about taking four Aarons in round 4 or risking him getting by 3day and taking 5 versions of him in Round 5. Of course, pedro made that all moot by taking Aaron with the pick before mine. Damn again. Panic set in now and I couldn't make up my mind about either taking Mike Schmidt or Ken Williams. So instead I took Joe Morgan (I know, I can't explain it either). I didn't really need 4 of him but figured I could cobble enough at bats together to fill the second base position I was now deleting Hank Aaron out of and maybe play him out of position somewhere else.
Now I knew I wanted to use round 5 to grab someone who could fill my outfield spots and maybe first and DH as well. I love Ken Williams but he didn't have any eligibility at first. I looked at Heilman and Medwick as well but wasn't convinced on their defense. I love Cy Williams but worried about his relatively low average. Out of the blue I came across Ken Griffey Jr. on a search for outfielders that can play first. And hey, his numbers looked really good at a cursory glance - 5 seasons of .600+ slugging, decent speed, and good defense. So I grabbed him and then remembered he has always underperformed massively for me (and everyone else) in the past. What the hell was I thinking? Oh well, I could grab Nen in round 6 and figure something out with the last few rounds. And...pedro takes Nen with the very next pick after Griffey. Damn.
OK, what to do? I decided it would have to be Mike Schmidt if he got back to me. I agonized over the next 35 picks and Schmidt didn't go so I started to feel there was a chance. And then ledfoot took him. But at least it wasn't with the pick right before mine this time. Still, damn.
I decided to finish off my pitching with George McQuillan. I didn't need 4 of him but he does bring in one excellent season I could use as a closer and one good season as a starter that would free up 2018 degrom to join his 2021 clone in the bullpen. I now needed to finish the catcher, third base and shortstop positions with my final three picks. There were lots of good catchers available. I debated between Bench and IRod and decided to go with Jocko Milligan instead. His 1889 season is, of course, one of the best hitting seasons available but I've also done well with his 1891 season in the past.
As the last two rounds began I had Ken Caminiti penciled in at third base (1996 and a filler season to help with a few at bats) and Elvis Andrus at shortstop. Mllama has seen him so much in DEP and DEAL because I used him there in every opportunity I could. I find he leads the league in defense every time and can hit some doubles and the odd homer as well. But as I started to look closer at my roster (and really lament the decision to forgo Cobb and Delahanty at the start) I decided to lean into the power of Griffey and the low hr/9 of Bender and McQuillan and put this team in a homer park. In fact, in my head I penciled in 2015 Josh Donaldson at third (best Blue Jays trade ever) and was going to use his Yankee season to grab Yankee III. Fortunately, I'm not quite as stupid as I look and realized at the last second that Donaldson is still a few weeks away from having an eligible Yankee season. Don't know how I almost screwed that up. Anyways, it looks like Caminiti it is. But wait. What about Al Rosen? He's still available and like Griffey, looks alluring from afar. Sure, why not tempt the sim gods and go with perennial underachiever Rosen. And then, hey, why not keep that train rolling and go with Banks at shortstop? He must have improved since the last time I tried him in mars2010's Twist w/ a hero theme where he ended up with more errors than hits I think? Right? Right??
I should have called the team Underachiever Believer.
They're playing in the Kingdome.

This is why I play in themes like this... to read hilarious strategy writeups. Nice job Ron.

My draft went pretty smoothly. I was hoping for a big bat in round 1. I was surprised to see Bonds still there at 8. Big bat, check.

I also had already decided that I'd grab my pitching in the middle or later rounds. I wanted to focus on offense. And getting the infield locked up as early as possible was a priority. Lastly, I'm a Tigers and Marlins fan. And for this league, we were gonna play in Tiger Stadium. So had to grab at least one Tiger. Plus, I like home runs. I know I know. Lots of dead ball pitchers here. Bad plan. But, I like what I like. So screw it. Tiger Stadium and homers it is from the start.

Round 2. Just planning to take what I thought was the best available guy here. Two Say Hey Kids and A+ range fits the bill. Outfield set. The third outfield spot will get filled by a SS or 2basemen. Possibly will play 1b too out of position. Not concerned about drafting an actual first baseman.

Round 3. Was looking at a few options here. But was focused on filling SS. And wanted multiple position availability if possible. Arod seemed perfect. SS, 3b, and either LF or 1b are now covered.

Round 4. 100% planning to grab my bullpen here. Was looking at Gange and Eck of course. But they went quickly. Then comparing everyone else, settled on Nathan since he does alright in #hr/9 for a modern reliever and I'll be stubbornly and happily playing in Tiger Stadium. Oh, meant to mention, that's where my username originates. Tiger Stadium was on the corner of Michigan Ave and Trumbull Ave. Anyway, Nathan was there in round 4, so he's our guy.

Round 5. Was originally thinking pitching here before the draft started. But I was seeing decent dead ball guys with high inning counts still available, so decided to wait on the starting rotation again. Instead, let's fill up the hitting. I also wanted an actual second basemen. I'm familiar with the out of position rules. But, one line always scares me away in the forum posts. Admin mentions that double plays take a hit for out of position players. I haven't seen anything concrete on what that penalty is. So I like to avoid out of position at SS and 2b. Anyone have any insight there? Well, back to round 4. Knowing I'm grabbing a second basemen here, Gehringer was the obvious choice for five seasons. He'll start at 2b and in LF. Gets me two more left handed bats in the lineup. And gives me a tiny bit of balance to my other mostly power hitters. Plus those other three Gehringers can back up everywhere else. Arod tentatively at 1b now. Offense set, just need a catcher.

Round 6. Better grab some starters finally. Settled on Bob Caruthers, who was there when my pick came. Also was looking at Charlie Ferguson. Decided to stick with Caruthers. I like the 450 IP at $42500 $/IP season. Then a solid 700 inning season too.

Round 7. Catcher time. Needed defense and an A + arm for sure, and I like power, so grabbed Ivan Rodriguez. Plus he has that great short PA season that can be the main starter, and then he can back himself up. And we get the added bonus of an ex- Marlin and Tiger. Long live the 97 Marlins!

Round 8. Let's fix one of the currently planned out of position planned sports, either 1b or LF. This choice was obvious. I wanted that Norm Cash season throughout the draft. Dude was Babe Ruth for a year. Unbelievable season. And another left handed bat to help balance out Arod, Irod, and Mays. Just couldn't justify grabbing it any earlier. I had to wait through the serpentine draft wrapping all the way back. I was hoping he'd still be there. He was. Norm!

Round 9. Grab another starter. In this round, lots of folks on my draft list were taken before my turn. Dutch Leonard and Luis Tiant in particular. So went with Joe Wood. Solid season. Should be just fine in Tiger Stadium.

Fun draft and great league idea. Thanks, Commish! And good luck y'all!

Trumbull,

Did you not consider using Caruthers' .357 season in the OF?

Probably should have. Oops. But Gehringer will be fine out there.

Hole in the Glove Gang
This is only my 2^nd ever write up so here goes nothing. Prior to the draft, I was hoping I’d get one of the first few picks for draft selection so I could pick in the end of the first round as it looked like that would be an advantage. I ended up being 17 and I don’t think that was a huge advantage as my 3^rd round list was destroyed anyway.

Round 1.17 – Mordecai Brown
I had a list and, while the best pitchers were gone, there were still some good hitters. I didn’t want an OF but I didn’t think Cobb would fall to me. I seriously wrote in Cobb’s name three times before deleting it. I finally went with Brown as I figured pitching was more important in round 1. I regret that decision now as my team would be better with Cobb as the CF and there were some good pitchers in the later rounds.

Round 2.8 – Honus Wagner
I was aiming for non-OF position players or possibly an OF who had a top two season as a non-OF. TheJuice made my decision a little easier by taking Mantle off the board. At that point, I had zoned in on Wagner. His SS season is one of the best and his 2^nd best season had excellent range at 2B with a D glove. He could move to 3B if a really good 2B dropped but really, how many really good 2B are there in the SIM? I was happy at this point, especially considering how many good OF there still were. I was confident that I would have some of my top OF options available in round 3.

Round 3.8 – Eddie Cicotte
I was so, so wrong. OF was way more popular that I thought it would be in round 2. By the time EJ took Hamilton at the end of round 2, I knew I was in trouble. Then, it looked like Al Simmons would drop to me as my whole plan before the draft was to take an OF in round 3 that could play all three OF positions. That would give me a lot of flexibility for the 2^nd part of the draft and I really, really, REALLY wanted Simmonds there. He was there with just one pick away and then FootballMM had a LONG pause for drama before shattering my draft board and picking Simmons. Then, he had the nerve to only give me 30 minutes to pick (He actually gave me an hour but I didn’t carry the one and thought I only had ½ hour). I had already put in the three Simmons and I didn’t have a plan B. I ended up scrambling and trying to decide between Harry Heilmann, Sam Thompson, Joe Kelley, Eddie Cicotte and Russ Ford. I didn’t take the OFs because of their fielding (or lack thereof) so, although I did NOT plan on taking pitching in round 3, I angrily went with Cicotte over Ford because, while Ford had the better season, I liked Cicotte’s top 2 over Ford’s and he had a more usable 3^rd season. Since FootballMM destroyed my draft, I threw a little fit and didn’t look at the draft board until it was almost my time to pick in round 4. What would be the use since my draft was OVER!!! On a side note, I felt sooooo much better when I found out he agonized over the pick and was so close to picking several others instead and that he actually REGRETTED the pick!! Oh yeah, that really helped….

Round 4.17 – Goose Gossage
I felt a tad better and had gotten at least half of my righteous anger out of my system by mid-day when I saw my favorite OF left were still there. I hadn’t forgiven FootballMM yet but things were looking a little rosier. By the time it was my turn to pick, I took a gamble that the OF would still be there and I targeted relief pitchers. I had it narrowed it down to Gossage and Zach Britton and actually wrote Britton’s name in twice before ultimately picking Gossage because of the extra innings. I figured if I didn’t pick another pitcher, I would be OK. I wanted Thompson and/or Heilmann to drop to me (Kelley had dropped to a 3^rd choice) and most of the one’s picking after me were OK in the OF. Since He Whose Name Shall Never Be Mentioned in My House already had Simmons, I figured there was no way he would take either of those two. And I was REALLY hoping he had his heart set on Gossage…..
Round 5.8 – Sam Thompson
OK – So I had my two favorite hitting OF left. It was down to Thompson or Heilmann. I never thought I would write these words but I took Thompson because his fielding was better. I also preferred a lefty since my middle infield was right handed. He has three really good hitting seasons and I only needed RF, LF and DH. He also puts the Baker Bowl in play and I like that stadium for a team full of deadball hitters and pitchers. OK, things are starting to look up.

Round 6.17 – Mike Schmidt
At this point, I needed 1B, 3B, CF, C and a LHP. For those scoring at home, I needed five positions out of four picks so I needed to double up somewhere. I considered Rod Carew here but I’d have to move Wagner’s 2^nd best season to 3B and I didn’t like his bat there. I also looked at Jimmy Sheckard as he had a CF season and one I could use at 3B. I ended up going with Schmidt as I needed at least one fielder with a Fielding Percentage grade higher than C, I could use at least one HR hitter and my new arch nemesis still needed a 3B (the joke was on me as he had already drafted Tulo to play there). So basically, I took away all my flexibility as taking Schmidt meant Carew and Sheckard were off the table.

Round 7.8 – Cap Anson
There were several good CF still available and I really wanted either Ferdie Schupp or Dutch Leonard. I still needed someone to handle multiple positions and there weren’t many that could cover two of the following: C, 1B, LHP, CF. Cap Anson and his D- fielding position was the obvious one left (to me at least) as he’s a top hitting catchers who, by the way, has somewhere between 80 – 100 passed balls a season. His 2^nd best season is at 1B where he has a D+ fielding grade with good range and a decent bat. If he had been taken, I have no idea what I would have done (probably give up taking another pitcher). By taking Anson, I gave up hope of getting Schupp or Leonard.

Round 8.17 – Dutch Leonard
I never expected Leonard to fall this far but I happily took him. I will use him as a long reliever and sometime starter. If I make the playoffs, he’ll be one of my top two starters. This was my luckiest pick of the draft and, while I wanted a CF and a backup OF as a defensive sub, I could not pass up Leonard here.

Round 9.8 – Cy Seymour
I was pretty happy to get Cy here even though I’d rather have better fielding percentage and range at CF, especially considering the corner OF positions were statues with gloves of iron. He also put the Palace of the Fans in play but, because of Schmidt, I went with the Baker Bowl.

Summary
My hitting is good, my pitching is solid and my fielding is horrendous. The range is good in the IF but the OF is bad. Also, since I took Leonard over Seymour in round 8, I don’t have a defensive replacement in the OF with range above D-. I have zero chance of a pitching death spiral with 2144 innings with only 484 of them being subpar. With this team at the Baker Bowl, I could lead the league in Runs, AVE and errors. I also have the Passed Balls lead locked up. Using Anson is like giving up 100+ extra SB a season. His bat might make it worth it though.

Good luck (almost) all!