One of my favorite parts of these drafts... Reading others' draft strategies. What went right, what went wrong.

Part 1

When juice announced the format for this round, I was excited to start building teams. With only 4 leagues and roughly 160 or so teams to build, it wasn't going to be an overwhelming undertaking (like some of the earlier rounds), as long as I started early. The free agent draft added a bit of complexity to building rosters. What I usually did was to put the best free agents onto the roster, unless there was a clear #1 and #2 team choice. I knew I could easily change the free agent once the draft started and things became clearer. Also, since I didn't know (for sure) which teams were going to drafted or which weren't (as I built them), I just assumed a team like the 61-62 Reds would roster Norm Cash and that would leave the 61-62 Yankees to pick a different hitter. Only after I built all the rosters and applied my formulas, did I see that the 61-62 Reds would probably not get selected (oops). I did not change the rosters after my rankings, so I still had a player other than Cash on the 61-62 Yankees (I had Aaron, although Gentile was selected).

My general ranking methodology is the same as has been used in previous juice tournaments. After building the rosters, I assign a "usage percentage" to the offense and defense (each position must add up to 100%), then apply the percentages to their normalized stats, to get an overall team AVG#, OBP#, SLG#, OPS#. I also take the best 1450 or so innings, apply the usage percentage to get the overall team OAV#, WHIP#, HR/9# and ERC#. Once I have this for every team in the league, I calculate the league average and standard deviation (for OPS# and ERC#) and then figure out how many standard deviations above or below each team is. Adding these together gives me one numerical measure for each team. I then modify this number to incoirporate defense, which is more art than science. I do tend to overweight defense. Anyway, the last step after sorting all the league's teams from best to worst, I then re-calculate the average and standard deviation for just the top 24 teams (which could slightly alter the rankings).

Part 2

I was fortunate enough to have two of the top 8 picks (#2, #4), but then didn't have a pick for quite a while (7th round). Because I have 13 teams, my drafting strategy is different than if I only had a few teams. My goal is to get as many teams into the next round as possible, so I may have passed on a team I have ranked higher, in order to maybe get more teams to advance.

After reviewing my initial rakings, I noticed that League #4 have three teams WAY better than any other teams in terms of their standard deviation score. All three 2020's Dodgers teams with scores of +3.0, +2.9 and +2.0. No other team in any of the leagues were even remotely close to that level of dominance. So it should be clear that I grab one of those teams, right?

Not so fast. First, I'm not married to my rankings. These Dodgers teams are ranked highly because their pitching scores are off the charts. That's because all those short-inning relievers have awesome stats, so there is no dead weight pitching on the team (like most of the other teams). You know how I feel about short-inning modern closers. These kind of teams will drive me nuts. Because there are hardly any 200-inning SPs, you pretty much have to use every single pitching slot to even get to 1450 innings.

Another thing that I noticed is that League 1 only has 4 teams that are unique to their 2-year timeframe, meaning that their free agent option isn't dependent on other teams. As a comparison, League 4 has 16 of these teams. I figure I can get a League 4 team that is decent but that I actually like, where my FA choices won't be dependent on another team (like in League 1). These 2 reasons are why I didn't select one of those Dodgers teams. Clearly, footballmm11 must be using a similar methodology of rating teams, because he used his first two Top 8 picks on those teams. I'm sure he'll probably win 100+ games with those teams.

I mentioned that League 1 only has four teams that can pick their free agent right away... two of those teams I have ranked #1 and #2, the two early 1900's Pirates teams. I will take whichever team pedrocerrano doesn't take, although I figured he'd go with 1901-02 to get Lajoie and I was correct. I will go into more detail on my next post.

For my next Top 8 selection, I was taking either the '26-27 Yankees (League 2) or the '53-54 Indians (League 3). Although I knew the Yankees probably wouldn't be ranked #1 in League 2 (by the end of the draft) because the free agent uncertainty made it likely a different team would jump them, but they were a safe pick that would certainly be in the top 3. The '53-54 Indians were in a 2-season group consisting of 3 teams, and I didn't like that uncertainty - not as a top 8 pick, at least. So I went with the 26-27 Yankees. I will provide more details in my next post.

League 1, Pick #2
Team Selection: 1902-03 Pittsburgh Pirates
Free Agents: 1902 Ed Delahanty, 1902 Bill Bernhard

I'm not a huge risk-taker, so all of my early picks were teams with free-agent certainty. League 1 has the narrowest difference between the 1st and 24th ranked teams, which should mean I should target this league last. But those rankings are based on way too much free agent uncertainty. For example, I had the 1911-12 Cubs ranked as the highest team left (12th) when I selected 15th and 19th, yet I passed on them b/c the other two 1911-12 teams hadn't been taken yet. But I had '11 Cobb on that roster, and I wouldn't have gotten '11 Cobb had I taken them that early ('11-12 A's and '11-12 Giants when 20th and 23rd... man, thejuice6 got screwed as he only had to fade the 24th pick to get '11 Cobb).

Anyway, when this theme was first announced, I had a feeling I would be taking one of these two Pirates teams early. I've always had good luck with the early 1900's Pirates teams. Although I don't get to use '01 Lajoie, I really like free agent 1902 Ed Delahanty (.376, .453, 590) plus '03 Claude Ritchey (.287, .360, .381) is perfectly fine at 2B. This team is one of a very few teams ranked above league average in offense, defense and pitching. I should mention that '03 Deacon Phillippe played on my round 4 Pirates team and finished with 26-12 record, 3.52 ERA and was 2nd in Cy Young. And Honus Wagner hit .313 with 104 RBIs and had 26 + plays.

Outlook: This team should finish the season with a top 4-5 offense. An above average pitching staff coupled with above average defense should get them into the top 6-7 in pitching. And that combination is usually good enough to get to at least 90 wins.

League 1, Pick #15
Team Selection: 1905-06 New York Giants
Free Agents: 1906 Nap Lajoie, 1905 Cy Young

This was a long wait between picks for me. And pretty much all the teams I had ranked highly all got taken, including the 1905-06 Cubs. That's when I noticed that the other two teams in the four-team '1905-06 grouping were ranked last and 2nd-to-last in League 1, so I re-adjusted the free agent assumptions for this team and realized this was the safest pick remaining. I didn't say they were the best team remaining. My numbers actually had the '10-11 Giants as the best team (selected 3 picks later), but their defense is terrible. Their pitching rankings were based on only 5 pitchers being used and I knew that would be problematic in a non-DH league. I'm sure footballmm11 will get 92 wins from them.

So, I started building this roster with '06 Lajoie (.355, .392, .465, A+++ range) although I strongly considered OF '05 George Stone and playing Sammy Strang at 2B (he's playing OF now). But the math showed the team was better with Lajoie. This selection is another example of me using a team that I have had previous success with. My 1905 Giants team from round 4 won 101 games and is currently playing in the World Series now. For that team, '05 Mike Donlin hit .332 and scored 142 runs. Dan McGann drove in 100 runs and Christy Mathewson went 35-14, 2.58 ERA. Even Hooks Wiltse went 14-7, with a 3.50 ERA.

Outlook: Despite having '05 Mathewson and '05 Cy Young, I have this team's pitching as slightly below average in this mostly deadball-pitching league. But the offense is strong and the defense is good enough. My unadjusted numbers has this team only ranked 14th in the league, but once I update my rankings with the actual free agents selected for each team, I have a feeling this team will move up into the top 12. I do think they have a better than 50/50 chance of having a record good enough to advance to Round 6. That probably means at least 83 wins.

League 1, Pick #19
Team Selection: 1913-14 Philadelphia Athletics
Free Agents: 1914 Tris Speaker, 1913 Walter Johnson

I went to bed with my turn only one pick away. The aforementioned '10-11 Giants were still available and I was resigned to the fact that I would probably have to take them if footballmm11 didn't. When I got up, I saw that he took them and I really didn't have a plan for a backup team yet. After running some errands in the morning, I finally had a chance to review the teams. Because of the uncertainty with all the 1911-12 teams (all still available), I passed on those teams even though the team selected last would get '11 Cobb and probably jump ahead of my selection (which is exactly what happened).

I quickly narrowed my choices down to two teams... the 1907-08 Cubs and the 1913-14 Athletics. The Cubs were ranked way higher than the A's in my unadjusted rankings. The Cubs were all about pitching... not only were their pitchers really good (and deep), but I would be adding '08 Joss (I determined that it was doubtful anybody would draft the '08 Pirates). The downside is that the FA hitter they would have to add is '08 Sam Crawford (they needed a 1B/OF combo). I mean, he's decent, but he's not a difference maker. This team might lead the league in pitching (barely) while finishing dead last in offense (easily) and lose 95 games, most by the scores of 2-0 and 3-1. I just couldn't stomach that.... .I've already had enough seasons with the '64 White Sox.

So I went with the 1913-14 A's. This team can start six batters with OBP of .370 or better, including three over .400. Also, there are six batters who hit lefty or switch hit. They have three fielders with A+++ range. Besides stud FA, Walter Johnson, they have three pitchers with whips of under 1.15. The tough decision was the free agent hitter. I strongly considered 1914 Benny Kauff, but I wanted the A+++ range from '14 Speaker. Those 25 + plays in centerfield will certainly help a weak pitching staff.

Outlook: My unadjusted numbers has this team ranked 19th in league 1. So why not use this team to test my theory that a team with very good defense can make below average pitching better than it should be. Coupled with an above average offense and 1-run game luck, maybe this team might just get to .500.

League 2, Pick #1
Team Selection: 1926-27 New York Yankees
Free Agents: 1927 Rogers Hornsby, 1927 Ted Lyons

Since this was the last of my two high draft picks, I had to get a sure thing. I could have taken the '21-22 Dodgers, but that team isn't fun to play (even if it does win 100 games). This game is supposed to be fun. I need to get a team with a stud Ruth & stud Gehrig seasons. And of course, the '27 Yanks not only have those two guys, but some other very good hitters plus a pretty decent pitching staff (relative to the era). So the question is do I take the '26-27 Yankees or the '27-28 Yankees? 1927-28 surely gets me a better pitching FA with '28 Vance or '28 Braxton, but I couldn't count on getting Hornsby ('27-28 badly needs a 2B or 3B) and I'll probably end up with Pie Traynor if a team like the '27-28 Cardinals get taken (I had them 24th on my initial rankings).

Anyway, you already know that I am risk-averse (I'm an Actuary, so what can I say). I went with the FA certainty. '27 Hornsby (.361, .448, .586) batting between Gehrig and Ruth, with Combs (.356, .414, 511) leading off, will be devastating for opposing pitchers. Ted Lyons isn't going to put the fear of God into opposing lineups, but he's got 326 innings and with this offense behind him, he should win 25 games.

Outlook: Sadly, this team drops to #3 in the League 2 rankings. pedrocerrano gambled (and won) with the '27-28 Yankees and added '28 Hornsby and '28 Braxton so his team will easily win 100 games. And I had whichever team between the '42-43 Yankees and '42-43 Cardinals got picked 2nd would also jump ahead of my 26-27 Yankees. After SteveIzzy took the '42-43 Yankees with pick #2, redcped didn't hesitate to grab his '42-43 Cardinals, adding Ted Williams and Whit Wyatt. Thankfully, both of those teams are in the American League, so I do think my '26-27 Yankees can win 94-95 games.

League 2, Pick #12
Team Selection: 1944-45 St. Louis Cardinals
Free Agents: 1945 Snuffy Stirnweiss, 1945 Hal Newhouser

Right after redcped grabbed the '42-43 Cardinals (at pick #5) and barracuda3 grabbed the '43-44 Cardinals (at pick #6), I set my sites on the '44-45 Cardinals but had to wait for a lot of picks to be made. When pedrocerrano was due up at pick #9, I offered him a trade (it was still in trade period), but he didn't see my site-mail before making his selection (I wonder if he would have picked a different team in league 3, by moving up 3 spots). Somehow, I faded two more picks and the '44-45 Cardinals made it to me, although by the time it was one pick away, I had a backup team ready to go ('39-40 Reds).

The reason I like the Cardinals here is because of their pitching. My numbers have this pitching staff in the top 7 in the league, and combined with a top 2 defense, I think you'll probably see the pitching finish in the top 4 or 5 in the league. The offense is pretty uninspiring, and will probably finish in the bottom third of the league. You may also have noticed that I went with Hal Newhouser instead of Roger Wolff, even though Wolff has a better ERC#. I was 100% biased by the fact that '45 Newhouser went 28-10, 4.13 (3rd in Cy Young) in round 4 while my '45 Roger Wolff was just mediocre for my Twins team. Plus, with all the Ruth/Gehrig teams in this league, a lefty SP with low HRs is way more preferable than a RHP who does give up HRs.

Outlook: A team drafted 12th (out of 24) should probably finish around .500, but my unadjusted rankings have this team ranked 7th in league 2. I think given average 1-run luck, this team could win 86-87 games, but the margin of error is so small, a bad 1-run record could derail their round 6 chances. I originally threw this team into pedrocerrano's '27-28 Yankees division, because I hatched this devious plan that would weaken his team.

League 2, Pick #17
Team Selection: 1927-28 New York Giants
Free Agents: 1927 Paul Waner, 1928 Dazzy Vance

There were no slam dunk picks at this point in the draft. I liked all three 1941-42 teams, but only if I could pick the third team since that would guarantee me '41 Ted Williams and '41 Elmer Riddle, which were massive upgrades over the next best free agents. So I hatched this devious plan. I would draft the '27-28 Giants with this pick, and then grab the '27-28 Cardinals with pick #20 (my unadjusted ranking had the 27-28 Cardinals around 24th, so not really a stretch). I would grab '28 Hornsby with my Cardinals team denying him to pedrocerrano's '27-28 Yankees team. My two '27-28 teams would also snatch up the two best available SPs, Vance and Braxton, so he would have to take '27 Lyons (same as my 26-27 Yankees team, but I would have Hornsby and he would have Traynor or play somebody out of position at 3B). So this '27-28 Giants selection was step #1 in this process.

FYI - I also have this team ranked the highest of the available non 1941-42 teams (a click ahead of the '31-32 A's who I also considered), so I was probably taking this team anyway. This team has a top 7 offense (#1 batting average), above average defense but in the bottom 5 in pitching. But of the other teams ranked poorly at pitching, most also have poor defenses, so it's my hope a good defense will move this pitching from bottom 5 into just below average.

Outlook: I'm not going to fool myself into thinking this team will finish over .500. I haven't updated all the free agents yet, but this team is currently at 14th (which is still better than their pick-17 draft spot). I expect to blow lots of leads, since there really isn't a pitcher on the staff (other than Vance) that I feel good about. We'll score runs, we'll give up runs. Whomever bats last will win. 75 wins is probably a realistic expectation.

League 2, Pick #20
Team Selection: 1941-42 Brooklyn Dodgers
Free Agents: 1941 Ted Williams, 1941 Elmer Riddle

This was my text message to njbiwig (who is friends with pedrocerrano) at 10:08 am on Friday. "Unless something goofy happens in the next few picks, gonna snipe 28 Hornsby to keep him from joining Pedro's 27-28 Yankees". Then at 2:04 pm, I texted "Remember how I said 'unless something goofy happens', well it just did. The exact thing I was hoping for but never expected. It looks like Pedro might get a reprieve."

When I picked at 17, all three '41-42 teams were still available. The *only* way I don't take the 27-28 Cardinals (with FA '28 Hornsby) is if two 1941-42 teams get picked at 18 and 19, leaving me with the third team and '41 Ted Williams at pick 20. And that's exactly what happened.

So instead of a "throwaway team" with pick 20, I now have a shot at a top 6 team in League 2. I can't play the "Screw your Neighbor" card when I have a shot at advancing to round 6 and possibly have a shot at making the playoffs.

Outlook: This team has above average pitching, above average defense and now with '41 Ted Williams, is league average offensively. That's a formula for at last 85-86 wins. FYI - the picks of '41-42 Yankees and '41-42 Cardinals weren't bad picks - those teams are still ranked ahead of where they were drafted.

League 3, Pick #7
Team Selection: 1960-61 New York Yankees
Free Agents: 1961 Norm Cash, 1960 Dick Donovan

The team I really wanted in this league was the '53-54 Indians but pedrocerrano grabbed them with pick #4. Once they got selected, I really wanted to trade down from pick #7. There were a number of choices I would be equally happy with and I get maybe get something better somewhere else. My highest ranking team available was the '71-72 A's (assuming I could add Joe Morgan), but there was another 71-72 team (Pirates) that I had as a potential top 24 pick. I couldn't stomach playing Dick Green at 2B cause this team's offense is pretty bad. The pitching is very good, albeit a bit HR prone.

Anyway, I passed on the A's and my choices were down to the '60-61 Yankees and the '72-73 Reds. Both teams have Free Agent certainty so it really came down to preference. I decided on the Yankees because of FA Norm Cash. The top of the batting order is going to be strong with Mantle, Maris, Cash and the catching. I'm moving 1B Bill Skowron (B-/A) to play 3B. Bobby Richardson (.264/.294/.310) should end up being the worst offensive player in the league with Tony Kubek (.276/.312/.399) not far behind. But at least they can field.

Outlook: Despite the solid defense from the middle infielders, this is my worst defensive team in the tournament. Good hitting + bad pitching + bad defense isn't the type of team I usually draft. In fact, why the hell did I take this team? I should have taken the '71-72 A's. Of course, redcped happily grabbed the A's on the very next pick, causing me to have instant regret. Even though my unadjusted rankings has this team ranked 7th, I'm not too confident. Generally speaking, I tend to overrate my teams - but not this time. I don't think team won't make it to .500. Feels like a 79-83 team to me.

League 3, Pick #14
Team Selection: 1972-73 Cincinnati Reds
Free Agents: 1973 Darrell Evans, 1972 Don Sutton

After my disappointing selection at pick 7, at least I feel a bit better with pick 14, since I almost took this team at pick 7. In my head, I will just reverse the expectations. When my pick came up here, I actually had the '53-54 Dodgers slightly ahead of these Reds, but the Reds have Free Agent certainty, and the '53-54 Dodgers ranking was based on them getting '53 Spahn, which was not guaranteed (I have the 53-54 Yankees ranked 25th, so they were in play).

I am happy getting the Reds this late. Their defense is a top 5 defense and with the addition of '72 Sutton, their pitching is slightly above average (and they actually have some useful bullpen pieces). I had a tough call in selecting the hitting free agent. There wasn't an obvious upgrade at SS (sorry, I'm not using Chris Speier as my FA hitter). I actually changed my free agent from '72 Bobby Murcer to '73 Darrell Evans at 3B as I was writing this, b/c I'd rather roll with Carbo/Scheinblum at OF than with Driessen/Menke at 3B. The OF defense get downgraded a bit, but the defense at 3B is upgraded.

Outlook: This is a team that doesn't have many weaknesses. The hitting is average, but I can start as many as 6 lefty or switch-hitting batters, so maybe they finish slightly above average. Combined with slightly above-average pitching, I feel like this team could win 87-88 games.

League 3, Pick #19
Team Selection: 1953-54 Brooklyn Dodgers
Free Agents: 1954 Willie Mays, 1953 Warren Spahn

OK - this was my biggest gamble and it paid off. I had this team rated pretty high, but previously passed on them b/c I wasn't certain I'd get '53 Spahn. Now with only 5 picks left after this pick, there was a decent chance nobody would draft another '53-54 team (my numbers showed nine undrafted teams ranked ahead of the '53-54 Yankees). So I figured, what the heck... let's gamble. If somebody grabbed the '53-54 Yankees (adding Spahn and Mays), I would have taken one of the Robin Roberts seasons and '54 Ted Williams. That would have actually screwed pedrocerrano's '53-54 Indians team out of one of the two hitting studs.

Anyway, this team is going to rake on offense with Campanella, J.Robinson, Reese, Hodges, Snider, Mays. The worst starting batter has .798 OPS. With Willie Mays A+++ range patrolling the OF, the defense has been upgraded to nearly league average. Their pitching... well, there's a reason this team lasted this long.

Jeopardy Answer. This pitcher threw 92 innings, had a 1.38 whip yet saved 24 games for the 54 Dodgers.
Jeopardy Question: Who is Jim Hughes?

Outlook: Warren Spahn has a legit shot to win 30 games but probably won't b/c the bullpen will blow many of his leads. With a league best offense and nearly a league worst pitching, you'd expect maybe a .500 season, but the standard deviation for this team's hitting is +1.8 while the same measure for their pitching is only -1.1, so I am going to overestimate and predict 85 wins.

League 4, Pick #9
Team Selection: 2004-05 St. Louis Cardinals
Free Agents: 2004 Barry Bonds, 2004 Randy Johnson

When I passed on the 2020's Dodgers teams, this is the team I had my eye on. I have them ranked 5th overall, behind the three 2020's Dodgers teams and the 2019-20 Astros. Yes, their starting pitching is suspect, so I figured there was a decent chance they'd slip to pick #9. A few of the strong 1990's Braves/Maddux teams got taken as well as the 15-16 Cubs (which I would've taken had my Cardinals not been available).

Adding a $22 million Bonds to a core of Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds, L.Walker means there will some runs being scored. Having A+ ranges at 1B (Pujols), 3B (Rolen) and SS (Edmonds), plus A/A- at 2B (Grudzielanek) will hopefully help out the pitching staff. In fact, the defense on this team rates to be the best in the league. The pitching will ride on the backs of Randy Johnson and Chris Carpenter. The bullpen has five pitchers (300 combined innings) with whips at 1.07 or better. Any wins I get from Matt Morris, Woody Williams or Mark Mulder will be a bonus.

Outlook: I really am excited about this team. This team probably has the best relief pitching (and best defense) of any of my teams in this round and you know what that means... an 11-24 record in 1-run games. Seriously though, I think this team can win 90 games with just average luck in close games.

OVERALL COMMENTS
To start out, I built a rough value system for each team. From there, I made incremental refinements to try and be more precise. This is an interesting setup by juice and the more I dug in, the more refinements were necessary. Most of these, of course, stem from the free agents, which add an interesting wrinkle (or really, wrinkles, I should say). My initial valuation was just based on each team's top 8 (or 9, for League 4) hitters, partial value for the top few bench hitters, and the top few starters and relievers.

My first refinement was adding in free agents. I did this simply by having a "max" and "min" for each team, where max was if you got 1st pick and min is if you got the last pick among all the teams for those years. Obviously, max = min for years with just one option, but for years with multiple options it could be a big swing whether you get 1st pick or not.

Next, I had to deal with the pitching valuation since just using the top X pitchers is very different in 1920 vs 2020. I was able to get a reasonable expectation of the "best" 1450 innings for each team. This helped a lot, especially for the early-era teams. This did, however, introduce a new issue which was that for modern teams, the best 1450 innings often included about 20 pitchers! More on this later.

Next up I took a stab at slotting "expected" FAs for each team. To do this, I had to take a guess at which 24 teams would be picked in each league. Then, I ranked each team within each year-group. The best team got the last pick *of the projected top-24 teams that would be selected*. Obviously, the last selected team got 1st pick. This was key for a handful of teams, but even more important was how variable this is. This will require constant management throughout each draft as well as a willingness to gamble as you can't know which teams will be taken later after you pick.

At this point, I am just adding the free agent values to the team values, but I know that means there's extra PA/IP being counted. I decide to go in an manually build each (relevant) team. I didn't do this in a super detailed way, but enough to get the valuation mostly correct. This solved two issues at once. First, each team got the same number of PA (with League 4 getting more with the DH) and the same number of innings. So, if I projected you'd get a 300-inning FA pitcher, the rest of your team only had to contribute 1150 innings. Same for hitters. The second benefit was on the hitting side to remove "fluff" for each team. What I mean by that is the teams that had 4 good outfielders but could only play 3. Or teams where the best free agents didn't fit well. Or the other one that came up was the "complete" teams were hurt--for instance the 1931 Yankees have 8 very good starters so while a free agent upgrades them, it's not as much as other teams that had a hole in their lineup.

Building the League 4 teams was interesting in two ways. For one, the presence of the DH both helped and hurt. On the plus side, there was room for deeper teams to put all their players and it was also easier to slot in the best free agent, as you could always slide them (or someone else) to DH. On the negative side, some teams just couldn't fill all the at-bats and you end up just putting fillers in there. The other is the usual roster spot issue. With both PA and IP being spread around to more players, roster spots become more precious. If you used all 13 pitching spots, that's only 12 hitting spots AND you need a DH. Backup catcher is almost for sure your 10th spot and so now you have just two bench spots to backup your other 8 hitters.

The free agents made this a lot of fun. In addition to the guessing of how many teams would be picked and thus what order you'd pick your FAs in, there was also the interesting trap where whichever team was picked first in a year-group would be a worse pick than the next team, but obviously there's no way around that! 1911-12 was a good example of this. I had all 3 teams (Giants, A's, and Cubs) as draftable and relatively close in value. However, the top FA tandem was a monster Cobb (his $21m 1911) and Walter Johnson ($19m 1912). Runner-up wasn't too bad but still quite a drop off, with a $11.8m Tris Speaker and $15m Joe Wood. And whoever had to go first got a $10m Cobb and $10.9m Joe Wood. That was enough to where whoever was picked 1st, I had in the bottom half of the top-24 League 1 teams, whoever was picked 2nd would be right in the middle, but whoever was picked 3rd would be a top 5 pick!

to be continued...