Just for posterity, here are my thoughts on my draft and how my team shakes out heading into the season:
DRAFT THOUGHTS:
1st Round: SP Walter Johnson
2nd Round: SP Dazzy Vance
Essentially, these were pick 1A and 1B as I was definitely going to have the top pick in Rd 2 after the first 3 picks went. I had Ruth, Hornsby and Gehrig as the top 3 overall. Initially, my cheat sheet rated Walter Johnson and Dolf Luque as the top 2 pitchers but it was actually 1925 Johnson due to his superior hitting abilities (I use $/IP as a first cut at "quality"). After realizing the issue with pitcher hitting, I dove back in and settled on Johnson and Vance. With Johnson, I liked his (more expensive) 1924 season enough that I could take that and decide later whether to go with '24 or '25. And Vance I had as just a superior pitcher to Luque, who had slightly more innings and slightly better hitting.
I also briefly considered Garland Braxton (best ERC# of any SP, but "only" 230 IP) and George Sisler (as the top hitter, but just not good enough). I ultimately decided without one of the top 3 hitters I was going to have to have the best pitching/defense so I started with the top 2 pitchers.
3rd Round: OF Tris Speaker
I actually had Dolf Luque still as the top player on my board and almost went with him but decided to grab a hitter just for balance and optionality later on. I agree with schwarze that OF is deep but Speaker was an elite combination of hitting production, defense, and at-bats. He actually had a couple different seasons I was considering so I took his most expensive for the optionality later on, but I did end up keeping that top salary season.
4th Round: SP Dolf Luque
I may be missing something but I think Luque is arguably the 2nd-best pitcher in this decade. He threw 339 innings, his ERC# was 6th-best and the only guys ahead of him were two Dazzy Vance seasons and three guys who threw 277, 230, and 225 IP. So I was very happy to grab him here, though I did also consider Ty Cobb and Frankie Frisch as well. Naturally, they went with the next two picks.
5th Round: 2B Eddie Collins
Cobb, Frisch, and Collins were my top 3 hitters I looked at in the 4th Round, so I hoped one would fall to me here and luckily after Cobb and Frisch went, Collins did slip to me. 2B is actually very deep in the 20s when you only have to go 4 deep. You have obviously Hornsby at the top, but then Collins, Frisch, and Lazzeri are all really good as well, with Grantham, Gehringer, and a couple others as well.
However, I saw that schwarze took Frisch after taking Hornsby which meant he was going to play him at 3B or SS so that shrunk the pool a bit and made Collins even more attractive. I thought about Travis Jackson as SS is thinner, but felt he just wasn't good enough to warrant going ahead of Collins.
6th Round: OF Paul Waner
I really struggled with this pick. There were just so many OF left, and all were pretty close with your pick of defense, offense, combination, whatever. I really looked hard at SS Dave Bancroft but again just didn't think he was quite a good enough hitter. I finally opted for Paul Waner who wasn't the best hitter or best fielder but was the best combination. He also has good 1B fielding ratings which gives some more optionality (which I will probably end up using! more on that later). I also looked hard at Lefty O'Doul (better hitter, worse fielder) and Bancroft.
7th Round: 3B Pie Traynor
Of course, schwarze snuck a few hundred thousand $ under me for the first time and snaked Bancroft with the first pick of the round. Ugh. I now knew I needed Charlie Hollocher at SS since I wanted a very good fielder there but I was deciding between his most expensive season and his lower-PA season with the A+ range. I wanted to take the most expensive season and decide later, but that put me JUST above schwarze and I didn't want that so I went with Pie Traynor who got me just $7,000 below schwarze and had the best defense of any reasonably hitting 3B, which is the shallowest position in the 1920s.
Looking back, this was probably a reach/overreaction. Traynor ended up as my worst hitter and I may even platoon him, which is not a good look for my 7th pick. But the range is great and I need great defense so we'll see.
8th Round: SS Charlie Hollocher
3dayrotation still needed a SS so I couldn't wait on Hollocher as I had no other option I liked. The question was which season to take. I decided to go with his 389 PA, but A+ range 1920 season and forego the option for his slightly-worse quality but full-PA season with A- range. I decided to pair the left-handed hitting Hollocher with righty Doc Farrell who has a great-hitting 168 PA season and some reasonable SS defense (D/B+) in a nice little platoon. Locking in Hollocher did cost me the top reliever on the board in Al Grabowski--and I probably could have waited on Hollocher--but with my strategy I couldn't afford to risk losing him.
9th Round: RP Hal Haid
Time to lock in some reliever innings. I don't spend much time in the 1920s so it was fun to choose constantly between 300 innings or like 40 innings, with little in between. Haid at least had 50 IP, so he'll be (one of) my closer(s).
10th Round: OF Goose Goslin
At this point, I was starting to realize that I had no power, everyone else had a bunch, and I wasn't likely to be able to catch up. Goslin was the best hitting option on the board (his 1928 season with 556 PA but D+/C+ defense) and also had a full 709 PA season with slightly worse hitting but better fielding (C/A-). I drafted the latter season as it was more expensive but knew I was very likely to take 1928, which I ultimately did.
11th Round: RP Les Howe
12th Round: RP Dennis Burns
13th Round: SP Red Faber
The run on relievers continued. Starting with Al Grabowski (3rd pick of the 8th round), 10 of the next 15 picks were RP, including 6 in a row at the end of that streak (which ended with my pick of Burns). That shifted things so that the next best remaining pitchers were actually starters and so the reliever run was immediately followed by 5 straight SP, of which Faber was the 4th one taken. I had my eye on Faber or Lucas, so once Lucas went right ahead of me, I moved on Faber quickly.
14th Round: League Park II
I've now decided I need a minus-HR park and the question is whether to go pure pitcher's park in Griffith Stadium (-2/-2 for HR but also 0/-1/+1 for 1B/2B/3B) or non-HR hitters park in League Park II (-2/-2 for HR but +2/+3/0 for 1B/2B/3B). Speaker is a fantastic doubles hitter and Traynor, Collins, Goslin, and Waner are all very good doubles guys as well. If I could lock in League Park, I could really go all-in on my other hitters, but if I lost out on it, those would be wasted picks. I was certain that 3dayrotation and jonstephen25 wouldn't neuter Ruth or Gehrig by taking a -2 HR park, but at the time schwarze had Hornsby (25 HR), Frisch, Sisler, Joe Jackson, and Bancroft--all pretty low HR guys. He had drafted Ken Williams but even he only had 29 HR. Ultimately, I didn't have anyone else I really loved and liked the idea of putting together a doubles team, so I locked in the ballpark.
15th Round: SS Doc Farrell
At this point, nearly all the important PA/IP are either locked in, or I have so many options I coudln't even choose (this was a Catcher and 1B). So I figured I needed to lock up the only option I had to platoon with Hollocher at SS.
16th Round: C Gabby Hartnett
I had Hargrave and Hartnett as my top two remaining catchers, as both had good hitting, good doubles, and good arms. When schwarze took Hargrave, I jumped on Hartnett.
17th Round: 3B/SS Jimmy *****
I finally had some time to dive in on some research and ended up really liking Jimmy ***** 1929 season. His primary position is at SS, but he was a better fielder at 3B (D/A+) with the best range factor of any 3B season with .800+ OPS (except for his own 1925 season). Jimmie Foxx and Hornsby were the only other 3B without terrible fielding to have .900+ OPS. Traynor was my worst hitter and needed at least some support for rest, so I went with *****. More on my 3B combo to come, but I'm optimistic they can be a good tag team.
18th Round: RP Guy Morton
19th Round: SS Joe Sewell
20th Round: C Earl Smith
21st Round: 1B Lew Fonseca
Morton (RP innings), Sewell (backup SS at-bats), and Smith (my platoon partner for Hartnett) all filled some holes. I finally needed to grab a 1B and went with Fonseca for his A-/A- defense and solid hitting over some more offense-first options. I figured I could always grab a better hitting OF and slide Waner to 1B if I wanted more offense, and I may just end up doing some of that.
22nd Round: RP Tim McNamara
23rd Round: OF Babe Herman
24th Round: OF Baby Doll Jacobson
25th Round: C Johnny Bassler
Herman was my elite bat off the bench, but he's actually so good I might end up playing him some over Fonseca (sliding Waner over to 1B), though his D/D+ defense isn't great. Baby Doll Jacobson is my OF defensive replacement as I chose his A+ range season, plus he has very good doubles numbers and his name is just too good to pass up. Bassler gives me some insurance at catcher as Hartnett and Smith are a tad light on at-bats and it's not a position you can easily slide someone into. Plus, he's a lefty so can platoon with Hartnett when Smith needs a breather.
26th Round: SP Elam Vangilder
I needed one innings eater and Vangilder is a pretty decent pitcher and a very good hitting pitcher. I have no idea if that's useful or if it is if I can even find a way to use it, but worst case, he'll just soak up low-leverage innings for me.
ANALYSIS:
After taking some time post-draft to look at my team, I'm pretty happy with how things ended up, though I think it's an uphill battle with my lack of offense.
Given I went with a no-HR, all-doubles, pitching-and-defense team, I think things ended up with a pretty good balance. At the infield spots, my main starters are all B- or better at both fielding and range. At SS, Hollocher is actually a very close hitter compared to Jackson and Bancroft, the top two SS options. His OPS is slightly worse but his OBP is better than both and is not just more important than SLG overall but especially for me. The downside is you get just 389 PA, but while Farrell isn't as good of a defender (D/B+), he is BY FAR the best hitting SS option. At .970 OPS#, the only other SS options within 100 points of him are Joe Sewell (my 3rd string SS!) and Les Bell, who has just 64 PA. Frankie Frisch at .851 is next and that season wasn't even drafted! I think Hollocher/Farrell/Sewell will come very close to Jackson/Bancroft in total production, if not exceed it.
At 3B, the hitting options are very limited. For 3B seasons with at least C- range, only Hornsby and Foxx have better hitting seasons than *****. Limiting to A- range or better, you get one Foxx season (.948 OPS#, not used), ***** (.926), Frisch (.846, 80 points below *****) and then Traynor (.818). Traynor is the best hitting option of elite 3B defenders and ***** is the best hitting options of decent 3B defenders. Foxx and Frisch were long gone anyway (and Hornsby doesn't count as he's being played as a 2B) so the only real comparisons are Freddy Lindstrom and Pinky Whitney, but both are just slightly better hitters than Traynor but with B or B+ range, not A+. They are better feilders than ***** with B or A- fielding, but again worse range and much worse hitting.
At 2B, Collins doesn't have the elite range but with B/B+ defense he is very solid at both and his .919 OPS# far outpaces any other decent fielding option (non-Hornsby division). Lazzeri, Grantham, and Gehringer are all in the same range or slightly better as hitters but you're sacrificing fielding and/or range.
At 1B, the best OPS# of players with at least a B- in both fielding and range outside of Lou Gehrig are Paul Waner and Lew Fonseca, both on my roster. They are both (.979 for Waner, .934 for Fonseca) well ahead of Bill Terry, the next best option.
So in the infield, I feel good about my defense and all of them can hit very well plus I have some great hitting options (with worse fielding) to back them up if needed (*****, Farrell, Sewell, Waner).
In my outfield, I placed more of a premium on hitting than defense, so I don't have an elite A-range OF. Speaker at B/B+ will be my everyday CF, with Waner (B/B), Goose Goslin (D+/C+), and Babe Herman (D/D+) flanking him. However, they are all great hitters and great non-HR hitters at that and I'm hoping that IF defense is more important than OF defense, especially the corner OF spots where I may start Goslin and Herman against RHP. Baby Doll is a good defensive replacement (B+/A+) but I'm not even sure that the sim can correctly have him replace Goslin in the lineup, but put Jacobson in CF and slide Speaker over to a corner spot, which is what it should do.
My pitching has to be my advantage at least in my division and I think Vance, Johnson, and Luque are easily the best rotation in the division. But are they the best by a big enough margin? schwarze has three pretty good starters as well but all are in the 250 IP range and his bullpen is quite weak. The other two teams focused more on offense (especially 3dayrotation) so I will need to claw back some edge there. My relievers aren't great but nobody's are really. I have 3 very good ones, but they total just 111 innings. Luckily, though, my top 3 starters total 957, so that's 1,168 innings by those 6 guys.
Overall, I felt I was at a disadvantage without Ruth, Gehrig or Sisler, so my formula to win ended up as:
- Get the best pitching in the division
- Get elite infield defense (especially range) and decent outfield defense
- Maximize offensive output by combining elite 2-way players (Speaker, Collins, Waner), elite-hitting but low-PA platoon options (Farrell, Smith) and very good hitting bench players to both give optionality for more offense (at the expense of defense) and allow for platoons/pinch-hitting/double switches to maximize at-bats by elite hitters.
- Use my ballpark to both tailor it to my hitters and neutralize the hitters of my division rivals.
We'll see if it's enough!