Team Building Process - After the fact comments - Page 2 - WIS Championship

Posts: 5084 (0)

Hall of Famer

516 10 1 14 16 90

Prospect

****, I’ve only read one page of these thought processes, and NOBODY thinks the same way I do, and most of the people who have posted are the favorites. Sigh.

My pessimistic goal for this season is to NOT drop in the rankings for next season’s tournament.

$70M – 2005 Sox of White – As I started the investigation process, it quickly became apparent that the $35M threshold for the cornerstone team was going to be the major problem. For some reason, I fixated on finding a team with three or four SP with salaries that were $70M friendly, hoping to take up about half of the $35M requirement right there. It turned out that the 2005 White Sox was one of the only teams with sufficient SP to meet that (admittedly random) criteria. Throw in a nicely priced Jermaine Dye and voila! A .500 team at best!

$80M – License to Suck 0070 – With the bounty of pitching choices, the 00’s made the most sense (it looks like over half of the league used either 1900 or 2000 for pitching). I started building offenses with the 90’s but quickly lost interest in the steroid era normalization. The 80’s had some interesting options, but I ended up building two fairly close teams in the 60’s and 70’s. I hadn’t used many people from the 70’s before, so I took them on a whim and went slugger-heavy in Miller Park for a modern take on Harvey’s Wallbangers.

$90M – How do I glove thee? – Not sure how many people noticed this, but the rules allow you to fill your team with A-armed good-hitting catchers with mediocre secondary fielding ratings, most of whom are actually bargain priced for their offensive production compared to their A/B+ and B/A+ brethren. I know sgsmith stocked his “Catchers in Theory” team with several of them. I only used a few (Foxx, Farrell, Sandoval, Leyritz), but only Foxx and Farrell will see much time. I also sought out good fielding pitchers reasoning that any ball that is hit will be caught by someone. It might work, it might fail miserably.

$100M – LowLeftCueSanta – I do a lot of things bass-ackward with little or no true knowledge of the sim mechanics. Here I just set some criteria for good starting pitching for $100M level, ended up with 30-40 names, and began combing through the position players and relief pitchers for the best fitting groups. Santana brought along good relief pitching. Cuellar, Grove, and Lowe brought the offense. It looks like everyone else stocked Pedro and Maddux, but I see some Santanas, Cuellars, and Groves as well. Nobody else has picked Lowe that I can see (Nomar and Manny rode in his car), so we’ll see if there is a bizarro method to my madness.

$110M – The Leiter Side of Baseball 88-05 – Another bass-ackward build. I ran some target players for this level, and tried to find common threads among their teammates. I fiddled around with Mike Stanton (who someone else picked) and Nomar before settling on Leiter. This one has the potential to be a disastrous choice. I’m seeing a lot of frequent champions that chose Ruth, Lajoie, and other old-timers, leading me to think my modern era choice might be FUBAR. Last year, I had four playoff teams and one absolutely horrible team that effectively kept me from the second round (the 0-4 first-round playoff record certainly didn’t help). I’m hoping that this team can climb above 70 wins.

[EDIT: OK, I compared my guys to Bardin's Collins 15-28 team, and I might not be as bad as I thought. .319/.434/.539 Hitters and .201 oav/0.98 whip/2.18 era]

$120M – First one to ten runs wins – The most straightforward build, especially when you consider that there are only 25 full-time guys who hit over .400. I deliberately avoided the power guys and went to a singles/doubles heavy lineup and stuck them in League Park II. Based on the pitching/fielding combo, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this team total exceed 1000 runs scored and 1000 runs given up. I don’t have a good feeling about this particular club. I don’t think I spent enough time evaluating the strengths and weaknesses for the park. I have to hope I get good seasons from Addie, Pete, and Matty, I’ve had mixed luck with all three.

8/2/2011 5:41 PM (edited)

besterateam

Posts: 576 (0)

Hall of Famer

489 1 2 2 8

Rookie

I was thinking no one could possible have a better team than 1914 red sox/1927 senators tris speaker..You get babe ruth, walter johnson, dutch leonard, ernie shore...ect.. Not sure how you could pass him up after looking at a roster with those guys..Will post my team building process later.

8/2/2011 5:33 PM

just4me

Posts: 4769 (0)

Hall of Famer

935 1 4 2 2

Hall of Famer

$70m Single Season Half Team: 1902 Chicago Orphans

I love any cap below $80m and this is always my favorite league in the WISC (since I've never made it to round 2 to play I the $60m league), and normally one I do very well in and draft very quickly with little thought or effort. Not this time. I easily went through some 20+ teams and various strategies and I still never found anything I liked. I wanted a team that was just a few pieces away from being a good/great team and focused on those that I used/looked at for the last two WISC $90m theme. Started with the '96 Marlins, then the '02 Blues, etc... Every team I built was exactly what I hoped for, except they all had a salary between $70-71m. Most of them were only above cap by $80-90,000. SO FRUSTRATING! I then started looking at great teams hoping to use their strong cores and would fill in with the weaker players and I pugged in the 2001 Mariners, the '06 Cubs, '02 Pirates, '69 O's, etc... I really, really, liked the '06 Cubs, but again finished with a salary of just over $70m. I then went back to looking at seasons I knew had players I like at this cap, so I went to '02, '07, '11, '14, '81, '96, and '06. I tried a couple of teams from each season. I really liked the '02 and '07 Cubs teams and after going back and forth several times settled on the '02 version as I feel like the offense is more along the lines of what I look for. This is the first time I'm not confident in my team at this cap, but in any case, it's the first time I struggled with this cap and I had alot of fun putting this team together. Ironically, I ended up where I started out and am using the team I used in last year's $90m theme (one of my better teams in last years tourney).

.284/.348/.375 with a strong balance of BBs, HRs, speed, AVG, and defense to go with a pitching line of .249/1.18/2.40 in 1,265 IP in the fairly neutral West Side Grounds.

$80m Two Decades: 1900 & 1980

I decided this year I'd try harder to win. I tend to experiment and try new players and strategies in all of my teams and leagues, and in the past have done that here in the WISC as well. Usually building 2-3 teams to win and then taking big risks on the other 3-4. I tried really hard to build teams that could win as opposed to those that are just fun. This was a key league in that plan. I really wanted to build a team with a cheap pitching staff from the 1980's with an explosive offense from the 1880's, but felt that that would be one of those risky teams I normally build. So I decided to instead try to take two decades that have a large number of cookies and fill my team with them. So I took 1900 pitchers and 1980 hitters. Fill in the blanks there.... I don't really care about this team and I don't like it, but it should be competitive.

.281/.373/.439 with 140 HRs and 300 SB. Pitching line of .200/0.88/1.52 with over 1,300 IP and less than 10 HRs allowed in Wrigley.

$90m Pitching & Defense

I just threw this one together... I built my pitching staff first, and with the minimum salary requirement that wasn't hard at all as I basically just drafted the best pitchers available. I figured PA would be hard to come by in this league so I drafted a little short across the board and took the best hitter at each position I could find to fit under the cap. And then I took the most offense oriented stadium I could find to help my hitters out knowing that with the pitchers and the defense there aren't going to be runs scored anywhere.

.256/.350/.365 from my hitters with 120 SB and 85 HRs in Hilltop. .205/0.95/2.14 with 1,350 IP.

$100m 4-SP & Teammates (Pedro Martinez, John Tudor, Tom Seaver, & Waite Hoyt)

Initially started wanting to use Maddux and Pedro, but I just didn't like the teammate options that Maddux offered, so I went with a pitcher I knew had teammates I could use, and that'd where Tudor came in. I wanted to have two great pitchers, one good pitcher, and then the 4th to just be a decent innings eater. I already knew I wanted to use Waite Hoyt as the innings eater as he gave me access to the great Yankee lineups of the late '20's. I'm using Ruth and Lazzeri. I wanted the 2000 Pedro, but I just couldn't make his teammates work, so I looked at both the '99 and '02 versions, and liked how the '99 Pedro fit my team better, so thanks to him I get Nomar and a strong bullpen. John Tudor gave me Willie McGee and Jack Clark. I still needed a catcher, and OF, and a 3B, and needed a good pitcher, so I started looking for good catchers with good 3B teammates and found the '77 Seaver. That filled my lineup with George Foster, Johnny Bench, and Pete Rose. Overall I like this team. Very strong offense with a good to strong pitching staff.

Hitters: .318/.391/.532 with 220 HRs and 275 2Bs in Fenway. Pitchers: .230/1.12/3.04 78 HRs in 1,390 IP.

$110m Veteran Player 2-Team Twist (Tris Speaker '14 & '27)

I only really looked at two options. Tris Speaker and Howie Shanks. I wanted to use both Walter Johnson and Babe Ruth and these were the two options I felt I could make something work with. The pitching staff is great with Johnson, Joe Wood, Coveleski, Dutch Leonard, and Ernie Shore... The offense is strong from top to bottom and should score some runs with Gardner, Speaker, Ruth, Goslin, Rigney and Ruel. After I settled on this team, I then looked at a a few other options, I really liked several of them: Tom Goodwin (Pedro, Hershiser, Maddux), Jaime Moyer (Pedro & Maddux)...

I figured this would be the most common player/season combo chosen, and I couldn't pass it up, even though I liked the defense options Howie Shanks gave me. In the end this combo gives me .305/.393/.442 line for my hitters with 280 2Bs and great HR/100# in Fenway. With a .201/0.97/1.66 line with 1550 IP and only 14 HRs allowed.

$120m Let's Get Some Hits

This is where I took my risk. This was the first team I built and I built this team in mere minutes before I then sat on it and looked at other options for a long time; making this the last team I entered. In the end, this team will certainly be tons of fun, but I don't know if they'll be a winner. I built another team that I liked much better from a competitive perspective and my brother used that one as the core of his team for this league. I didn't draft a DH, and am just using my sub-$300k scrubs as a DH platoon. I spent very little on pitching and invested more than $75m on my eight hitters. I didn't entirely skimp on pitching, however, as I have a staff anchored by '15 Alexander and supported by '02 Pedro and '87 Conway. With my offense, I figure those three should allow me to win most of their starts in a 1/2a/3a/1/2b/3b rotation and then my 3a/b combo of Fifield and Pape probably won't win much, but will keep me from running into fatigue. I took a lot of risks with this team, but if it all plays out the way I hope it can, this team could win alot of games. Or it could be a complete bust... in any case, This and my $70m team will be the two I enjoy the most.

My .400 hitters are '22 Hornsby & '41 Williams.
My .350 hitters are '08 Wagner, '10 Cobb, '86 Brouthers, and '31 Ruth
offense rounded off with '35 Foxx and '95 Boggs.

Overall lines of .363/.455/.595 with 214 HRs, 320 2Bs, and 90 3Bs in Coors for my hitters with 5,800 PA and .235/1.13/2.70 with 41 HRs allowed in 1,470 IP.

8/2/2011 9:20 PM (edited)

bardin

Posts: 284 (0)

Hall of Famer

335 20

Prospect

It seems like lots of the comments for the 70mil and 80mil teams go something like this: I decided to go with team XXX because Ed Walsh '10 is really good and I could team him up with Pete Alexander '15. Meanwhile for my hitters, I thought Babe Ruth '27 would fit really well in this salary cap, and I could get the '27 Lou Gehrig too...

Wow, what am I missing???

8/2/2011 6:05 PM

mensu1954

Posts: 12000 (8)

Hall of Famer

2384 3 4

Hall of Famer

You won't have to worry about that when I do my writeup! My 70M team is horrible.

8/2/2011 6:43 PM

newarkwilder

Posts: 1072 (0)

Hall of Famer

1130 1 75 4 109

Prospect

the bad choices at SS were the only reason I didn't use Collins for my twist guy. maybe a mistake, we'll see.

8/2/2011 7:43 PM

just4me

Posts: 4769 (0)

Hall of Famer

935 1 4 2 2

Hall of Famer

I like the 2010 Mariners at $70m, can't believe they didn't even cross my mind. I've used them for two other leagues and did well both times.

8/2/2011 8:13 PM

Jtpsops

Posts: 15509 (0)

Hall of Famer

744 1 2 2 144

Prospect

Posted by just4me on 8/2/2011 8:13:00 PM (view original):
I like the 2010 Mariners at $70m, can't believe they didn't even cross my mind. I've used them for two other leagues and did well both times.

Very glad to hear it!

8/2/2011 8:27 PM

alleyviper

Posts: 1371 (0)

Hall of Famer

297 1 1 179

Pro

Posted by newarkwilder on 8/2/2011 7:43:00 PM (view original):
the bad choices at SS were the only reason I didn't use Collins for my twist guy. maybe a mistake, we'll see.

I'm just playing '31 Max Bishop at SS.

8/2/2011 8:42 PM

cubbies84

Posts: 421 (0)

Hall of Famer

474 4 4 11 1 2

Prospect

$70mil
i thought about using an 80's Astros team but darthaudible had to be a jerk to me and take them, so then for some lazy reason i focused on 2010, i looked at the Rangers, Phillies, Mariners and Cardinals....I settled on the cardinals because I thouroughly hate them and i hate the $70 mil cap so i figured it was a perfect marriage, we'll see if carpenter whines about the shiny baseballs or not.....

$80mil decided i would be using enough deadballers in the other themes so i decided to go with 60's pitching with terrible tom seaver and sir walks alot joe horlon, never used sonny siebert before so that should interesting.....decided to go super cookie with my 80's hitting with raines, dilone etc, figuring the astrodome should be the perfect place for this mismatched crew.

$90mil im all about defense, i usually go as high as c- for most of my usual choices, so this was definitely a newer search for me.....went with joss ol pete and hendrix on the mound, and splurged on a high walk rickey henderson, chose petco cause it seemed like an absurd choice to try and have 19 inning 0-0 games, should be fun!

$100mil seemed like all the deadballer superstars had lousy hitting teammates, dutch leonard was my only oldie so i could get high innings in the bullpen with mays and shore, thought about 85 tudor and 86 clemens but decided against it...chose 34 mel harder (this is gonna cost me) 43 mort cooper whos not terrible and got me a cheap 3b and ended with 96 kevin brown who got me a cheap helling and rob nenn...dont hate it, dont love it....

$110mil came down to speaker and collins for me as well, seemed like a no brainer-- went with 1915 speaker which opened up the goodie room, we'll see how they hold in fenway park

$120mil definitely dont have enough innings, this one will cost me for sure....got the old timey pete joss and ciccotte, thin bullpen UGLY......went to PNC which shouldnt do me any favors, but my team didnt have any real HR power with underperforming hornsby and schlubs like piazza and chuck klein anyway, hoping guys like medwick hit enough doubles to keep me in some games....

a real learning experience this season, i get lazy in my selections which will cost me in the end.

8/2/2011 8:51 PM (edited)

profcake

Posts: 2224 (0)

Hall of Famer

170

Pro

$70M

It seems like in lower lever caps, speed is king. With that idea, I went looking in the 80's. Came up with the '89 A's. Great team with lots of speed, great bullpen and OK starting pitching. I was able to load up on the cookies with '89 Howard Johnson, Tim Raines and Carney Lansford.

Hitting line (With Scrubs) .273 .375 .425 212 SB's 59 CS's
Pitching line (With Scrubs) 1318 IP's OAV .234 WHIP 1.16 HR's 80

Hopeful win total 90+

Overall pretty satisfied with the team. Not blown away but pretty content with the team.

$80M

I went with probably the most common combination of 1900's pitching and 1980's hitting. Pretty common team with little or no creativity. Load up on the speed cookies and deadball pitchers. My bread and butter of WiS. This team is almost identical to my OL teams. I don't play a lot of OL's, I usually just enter one when I need more reward points. I have had a lot of success with them tough. 20+ OL teams with 10 WS and 5 TOC championships. Hoping for the same success.

Hitting line (with scubs) .293 .362 .409 452 SB's 103 CS's
Pitching line(with scrubs) 1381 IP's OAV .218 WHIP 0.99 HR's 18

Hopeful win total 95+

Overall I am really happy with the team. Should be my strongest team of the WiSC.

$90M

I really hate defensive and range in the sim right now. I think it is way over priced for the results that you get. Because of that I tried to skirt the rules as much as possible. With that in mind, I bought back the old time cookies of Caruthers and Ruth to pitch and hit 3rd for me. All of my other position players meet the defensive requirement by having catcher as a secondary position with an arm of A- or better. (Expect for SS, which there was no great options). Because of this I believe my offensive should be significantly better then the average team.

Hitting line (with scrubs and pitchers) .278 .375 .395 SB set to 0
Pitching line (with scrubs) IP's 1370 OAV .206 WHIP 0.98 HR's 21

Hopeful win total 90+

The theme requirements really limited your options in this league. Within those requirements, I think I did the best I could. I don't think that will necessarily will mean the team will be an elite team though. I expect a lot of parity in this theme.

$100M

By far the toughest team to build in my opinion. I always felt I could get a slightly better team out there. I am sure a lot of people felt the same way. I ended up putting together a team that looks like it might be subpar. I tried to get a balanced team with speed and power and I think it backfired. I got speed from the '85 cards and power from the '31 yankees.

Hitting line (with scrubs) .323 .400 .501 195 SB's 72 CS's
Pitching line (with scrubs) IP's 1488 OAV .222 WHIP 1.12 HR's 62

Hopeful win total 75+

I was never really satisfied with this team. I just hope it doesn't bomb on me.

$110M

I felt that deadball pitching with live by hitting was the way to go. I think a lot of people felt the same way. I wanted to get the Babe on my team as well. I came up with the common teams of 1914 Red Sox and the 1932 Yankees with Ruth as my player. Lots of pitching from the Sox and lots of hitting from the Yankees. Came up with a team, but felt like I wanted to use a different year then '32 Ruth. With that in mind I looked around for a player that was also on both teams. Came up with Herb Pennock on the '15 Sox and the '32 Yankees.

Hitting line (with scrubs) .331 .419 .532 SB set to 0
Pitching line (with scrubs) IP's 1481 OAV .212 WHIP 1.09 HR's 29

Hopeful win total 85+

It seems like a lot of people came up with some great teams that look very similar. I think that deadball pitching with live ball hitting was the way to go. I think that any team that went that route should be around the 85+ win mark. I think the other teams are going to be looking back with regrets.

$120M

I really don't know what I am doing in higher level caps. All I know is don't skimp out on IP's. And deadball pitchers are good. And Joss is good. Hopefully I got that right with 1538 IP's. Other then that, I feel like I built a team with no direction then feels like it is really really really average. Which means it will probably suck. Oh well.

Hitting line (with scrubs) .351 .439 .578 SB set to 0
Pitching line (with scrubs) IP's 1538 OAV .209 WHIP 0.95 HR's 20

Hopeful win total 82

Did I mention that I felt this team was very very average. Pretty much how I feel about this team.

8/2/2011 10:06 PM (edited)

tjefferson

Posts: 590 (0)

Hall of Famer

172 1 71

Rookie

$70m Single Season Half Team (Half of the 1909 Tigers)

I *hated* building this team. Earliest ideas revolved around finding a modern team with cookie OBP hitters and filling in the pitching, but there wasn't a good year/team combo there. Came close with the 1995 Mariners and Dodgers, but couldn't make the cap fit. After that, I started messing around with some of the teams that I remembered others using in similar themes, but those were mostly at mid caps and couldn't find one that worked with this cap. After that I moved onto balanced deadball teams, but finding a team with $35m of usable players that weren't too good was almost impossible.

Then, a day before the deadline and with no idea where I was going, I got an idea from $100m builds that included 1909 Ed Summers. Surprisingly, even though 1909 Ty Cobb is over a $7 million player, it was actually a workable shell due to cheap pitching and a strong cheap SS in Donie Bush. I backfilled it in with more cheap OBP guys with okay fielding from 1909 and a bunch of decent deadball relief pitching and, well, it was better than anything else I had come up with. I'm a little concerned about fatigue, and outside of Cobb there's no power at all anywhere. Then again, it's a restrictive $70m theme so every team is gonna suck somewhere.

$80m Two Decades (Aughts and Eights)

This one, at least, was a pretty easy construction for me. It's an Astrodome speed/OBP/pitching team with all your favorite 1900s pitching cookies. I figured the latter was so mandatory that not only did I have to do it, but I needed to use speed guys to counter it on the hitting side. And now many of the tournament favorites did the exact opposite...

$90m Pitching and Defense (She's So Mile High)

A buddy had a lot of success recently in a league with an extreme doubles/triples team in Mile High. Like everyone else, I really couldn't find a suitable angle here at all other than walk machines - the financial restrictions and the price of defense really is limiting - so I just went with triples (and secondarily doubles) in Mile High since a lot of the 3-4 3B# triples guys also had qualifying defense. I was able to fit in enough of those guys that if my theory is right and the park overrides everyone else's range and pitching, this might be the edge I was looking for. And worst case, it's not really all that much worse in terms of overall hitting than the balanced mocks I did. Fun note: I have the same rotation here and at $80m: 08 Addie, 06 Sparks, 09 Summers.

$100m Four Starting Pitchers (House of Tudor/Pedro/Dutch/Brown)

Yeah, so I totally submitted an illegal build here. Luckily I had an inferior backup build ready to go! The fun parts here are that I'm playing 1906 Frank Chance out of position at second, and the backup build forced me to wreck my strategy to use cookie Ed Summers wherever possible.

$110m Veteran Two Team Twist (1914 Tris with a Side of 28 A's)

I wasn't kidding in the theme thread - this team took me about twenty minutes, although if I'm being honest I made a slight adjustment later that took about five. My immediate thought here was to those second Connie Mack championship era White Elephants that carried three deadball-era superstar players as player/coaches: Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and Eddie Collins. Not only do you get premium player selection, but you get deadball pitching! Using one gets you all three, obviously, plus Jimmie Foxx and some others from the A's, and their earlier teammates. Cobb doesn't really get you any great twists for this cap, but 1915 Collins and 1914-15 Speaker easily blow away any other player selection in the theme IMO. Speaker gets you Babe Ruth, which was more or less game over on the decision, plus premium deadball pitchers like Joe Wood and Dutch Leonard. Even so, access to Ed Walsh and Shoeless Joe was a bit tempting with Eddie. The later modification was that I decided to play Max Bishop out of position at short with Eddie Collins at second after initially using a different alignment, which required the better Max Bishop fielding year of 1931. The lineup is kinda fun just to read: Collins, Foxx, Cobb, Ruth, Speaker, Cochrane, Gardner, Bishop.

Obviously I'm far from the only person who used Tris, and it looks many of those who didn't use Eddie or Tris used someone else on the 1914 or 1915 Sox. I'm finding it interesting to read that others twisted Speaker to the Sens and not the Athletics. Didn't even consider that.

$120m Let's Get Some Hits (Palace Intrigue)

Doubles team in the Palace of the Fans ended up working out almost perfectly before even considering the average restrictions, so I just stuck with that. I did similar builds in both rounds last year and it worked well then; I can nuke everyone else's homers with park and deadball pitching, and they can't nuke my XBHs quite so easily. It's round one, not really the time to get complicated, KISS theory and all.

8/4/2011 10:08 PM (edited)

odalisgagne

Posts: 11879 (0)

Hall of Famer

1397 7 7

Veteran

Wow...I feel like an a** with my modern day 110 mil twist team...which I absolutely loved coming in. Let's start with that...

110 mil (Quantrillphenia). I really really wanted as many modern stud pitchers (Clemens, Unit, Maddux, Pedro, Kevin Brown) as possible. Had a Rey Sanchez team all built with Maddux' 92 Cubs and the 05 Yankees but I couldn't work around Sanchez' 2 mil salary. But then I found Paul Quantrill who has a crappy season with the 05 Yanks plus access to the 92 Red Sox. So that gives me Unit, Brown AND Clemens in the rotation plus Reardon, Flash and Rivera in the pen. A lineup that absolutely kills the ball (324/419/570) starring Giambi, A-Rod, Boggs, Burks and Sheff. Still have high hopes.

100 mil (Cliff Lee/Santana/Tiny Bonham/John Smoltz). Tried really hard to get a Maddux on this team but didn't like his 95 teammates. Also tinkered with 03 Jason Schmidt to get the huge Bonds season or 48 Brecheen to get Musial but this team provided the best balance. All four starters have WHIPS of 0.99 or 1 plus Santana gets me Liriano and Lee gets me Feliz and O'Day. Bonham gets me Joe D, Keller and Joe Gordon. Smoltz get me Chipper (to play SS) and Wohlers while Santana gets me Mauer and Morneau. Michael Young and Josh Hamilton round out the lineup. I like this team too (313/390/509 for bats, 1429 IP with a WHIP of 1.00

80 mil. Surprise, surprise. 1900s pitching and 1980s hitting. 467 SBs in the lineup. Not the most original idea, but I feel better that everyone else thought of this one too. Made sure I had the strong-armed Butch Wynegar behind the dish.

70 mil. Man, this one took me forever. Discarded the 2010 Rangers (good pitching but hitters just too expensive) and the 70 Orioles and Twins. Finally settled on the 2005 Astros. Power is cheap so guys like Dunn/Gomes and Aramis Ramirez fit nicely for Minute Maid Park. Astros give me 3 good starters in Clemens, Pettitte and Oswalt plus a mediocre Tom Glavine and an OK bullpen. Way short of PAs so hope these guys play well fatigued (and not too many guys play in HR-minus ballparks).

120 mil. Wasn't sure what to do with this so I went big with my .400 hitters...taking 41 Ted Williams and Hornsby. The rest of the lineup was just looking for value, including 70 Dietz plus Boggs, Lefty and 95 Edgar. Only 1444 IP...which is probably going to be a problem. Playing at Weeghman Park because, hey, I liked the name.

90 mil. Wow, do I hate this theme. No f'ing idea what I'm doing here. Got the best staff I could for 45,001,000...focusing on low walk guys (Tiny Bonham, yet again). My lineup is a disaster...did use the catcher rule to get Foxx to play 1B. But Khalil Greene is my shortstop. That says it all. Be happy to win 70 games.

8/2/2011 10:52 PM

bigsteve12

Posts: 1168 (0)

Hall of Famer

392 1 62

Prospect

Team Building Process

70M
2010 Tampa Bay Rays

Total IP: 1285 (all usable innings)
Total PA: 4958 (including backups)

When I saw this theme, I said, “****, here is my potential 110 loss team.” First off, I haven’t spent much time on this side of the site since I started playing HBD. Secondly, when I was playing more, it was never at this cap, unless it was WISC. So I figured that I better find some pitching so that I have a prayer in not losing more than 85 games. With that, I set out to find a team with at least 2 capable starting pitchers and built in bullpen pieces. I quickly thought of the 2010 San Diego Padres. Big pitchers park, loads of quality in the bullpen and at least 2 usable starting pitchers. Plus Adrian and some cheap serviceable parts, I thought I had the foundation…then I added up their cost and realized I wasn’t gonna make $35 mil. Eventually turned to the 2010 Rays…they gave me similar results in the pen, with better SP, and quality position players in Longoria and Crawford. Ended going with mostly platoons and supplemented the pitching in partial season Cliff Lee and Daniel Hudson. Also added Ryan Madson for the pen and Trevor Cahill as a quality arm for this cap. All in all, I think the pitching is good enough to keep this team from being my undoing.

Hitting stat line (including all backups)
4958 PA, .287 AVG, .349 OBP, .441 SLG, $35.5 million

Pitching (excluding <300K)
SP: Price, Garza, Cahill, Niemann…likely will spot start Lee or Hudson to rest the others
RP: Madson, Soriano, Choate, Balfour, Flores, Putz

1285 IP, 3.25 ERA, .226 OAV, 1.14 WHIP, 0.90 HR/9, $34.4 million

80M
"21^st Century Z-Cavaricci’s (1980s H, 2000s P)"

Total IP: 1410 (1329 good innings)
Total PA: 5587 (including backups)

Again, another cap I don’t have lots of experience with, but certainly more than the $70 mil cap. I didn’t spend too much time making a decision here, knowing I wanted a solid bullpen and knowing the 2000s offered lots of choices there. Unfortunately, it looks like I completely missed the boat on which decade to pair them up with, which based on early reports should have been the 1880s or 1900s. Ugh.

Back to my story..lol..I figured the 2000s offered me the chance to build a quality staff at a price that would let me have some semblance of an offense. Grabbed a couple less expensive fav’s in ’02 Lowe and ’05 Pedro, added some cheaper but hopefully capable 2010 guys in Cain and Price, then filled it out with a cheap innings starter in ’10 Lilly. Went with the low oav/whip guys in the pen, ’04 Calero, ’05 Farns, ’08 Wagner, ’07 Steet, and took ’08 Capps who sacrifices some oav but is a low BB guy.

On offense, figured this would be another small ball cap for me, so that’s pretty well what I went with. Adding guys like Molitor, Gwynn, Franco, Peters, and May. Grabbed a little pop with Hrbek and some speed with Collins.

Hitting stat line (excluding <300K players)
5587 PA, .293 AVG, .353 OBP, .388 SLG, B/C fielding, $37.5 million

Pitching stat line (excluding <300K)
1329IP, 2.90 ERA, .213 OAV, 1.02 WHIP, 0.87 HR/9, $41.6 million

90M
"Glove May Fit, But We Can’t Hit"

Total IP: 1323 (1265 good innings)
Total PA: 4933 (including backups)

No clue what to do here, except load up on pitching and try to win a lot of 1-0, 2-1 ball games. Can’t imagine anyone will have much offense here and that what they do have will mostly be stymied by the defense. Sacrificed some PA’s to get better pitching, but figuring that we won’t score much that we can get by. Elected to go with just 3 starters here, in Joss, Maddux, and Koufax. Usually don’t like the way Koufax plays out, but under these restrictions I thought he may play out better. Added to that Chamberlain and ’01 Pedro to eat up any spot starts or long relief I may need. Rounded it out with more low oav/whip guys in partial ’10 Oswalt, Babe Adams, Henke, and Pena. I expect this pitching staff to be dominant. And well…..

They better be because the offense is brutal. Mixing and matching platoons of gloves just didn’t find me making anything worthwhile. Though I did end up with 3 20+ Hr guys who hopefully will be the difference for me on offense.

Hitting stat line (including <300K players)
4933 PA, .269 AVG, .327 OBP, .394 SLG, A-/A- fielding, $39.4 million

Pitching stat line (excluding <300K)
1265 IP, 1.69 ERA, .193 OAV, 0.86 WHIP, 0.38 HR/9, $50.1 million

100M
"Tom Adds a Mad Garcia"

Total IP: 1500 (1379 good innings)
Total PA: 5874

A league that I thought would be much easier than the “Hard” description. I started out knowing that I was going to put a Maddux on this team and I really thought I could add a Pedro. I actually thought I had it pulled off by using the ’02 Lowe and getting Pedro as a throw in, til I was reminded that all SPs outside the designated 4 had to have less than 150IP. So I scrapped it and started over…eventually settling on the greatness of ’94 Maddux (better teammates than ’95), ’08 Joss (he speaks for himself..just took his cheapest teammates), ’01 Garcia (like others, I knew this bullpen would be what I needed), and then I found ’77 Seaver to fill in the position gaps I had on offense.

Also, by this point, it has become evident that I’m going to err on the side of better pitching this year. I used Schwarze’s write up as a format so I’d have something to go off and also to see how my numbers looked against his. Kinda where I’ve figured out that I’m leaning towards pitching and away from gaudy offense.

Hitting stat line (excluding <300K players)
5692 PA, .300 AVG, .353 OBP, .438 SLG, B+/B- fielding, $46.5 million

Pitching stat line (excluding <300K)
1379 IP, 2.08 ERA, .208 OAV, 0.95 WHIP, 0.40 HR/9, $51.1 million

110M
"’88 Jose Canseco"

Total IP: 1464 (all good innings)
Total PA: 5776

I looked at Pedro, Nomar, Maddux, Rickey, Rose, Lofton, before finally settling on the original juicer. I don’t know the 1900s-1920s as well as I should and that looks like it may bite me in this theme based on some early write ups. Again here I was looking to be able to build a team that had lots of quality arms in the pen and Canseco obviously got me some Oakland arms and his cup of coffee in the Bronx got me Mariano plus all my SP. First team I finished that looked like they might score more than 3 runs a game…featuring, Tino’s 44 HR, ’06 Jeter, ’94 O’Neill, ’93 Phillips, ’02 Bernie, and a decent avg/obp guy in Lansford. Got some decent PH options in Spencer and a small sample ’93 McGwire.

Hitting stat line (excluding <300K players)
5657 PA, .322 AVG, .405 OBP, .513 SLG, B+/C+ fielding, $57.1million

Pitching stat line (excluding <300K)
1464 IP, 2.28 ERA, .208 OAV, 1.03 WHIP, 0.49 HR/9, $52.1 million

120M
"’Inflated Average, Inc."

Total IP: 1468 (1436 good innings)
Total PA: 6097

This league really gave me fits. I decided right away that pitching would likely be the key here and that was where I wanted to invest my cash. However, this also proved to be the big stumbling block, as I had a hard time saving enough money to build an offense that met the requirements and still fit under the cap. I ended up with 3 pitchers (Joss, Maddux, Tiant) who have traditionally been good, innings eaters and 1 SP (Price) who is gonna get shelled. To counter act Price’s badness (at this cap, in this theme) I made sure I got bullpen help to close out the games started by the other 3…adding ’09 Adams, ’10 Kuo, ’18 Toney, ’10 Bailey, ’24 Adams. Hopefully those guys will help us close out the big 3’s starts enough times to get the job done.

Figured that that offense would be playing small ball with the cost of my pitching and not wanting to pay for homers in a league with built in offensive help.

Hitting stat line
6097 PA, .363 AVG, .423 OBP, .534 SLG, B-/C+ fielding, $64.4 million

Pitching stat line (excluding <300K)
1436 IP, 1.65 ERA, .191 OAV, 0.88 WHIP, 0.36 HR/9, $55.2 million

8/2/2011 11:37 PM

mensu1954

Posts: 12000 (8)

Hall of Famer

2384 3 4

Hall of Famer

70M 1972 Yankees (What Was I thinking?)

If this bunch doesn’t have the worst record of all my teams, I will be totally shocked. The lineup is very weak with Munson, Yaz, Johnny Briggs, and Ken Singleton the only decent full timers and they aren’t that good.

Starting pitching is slightly below average for the cap with Stottlemyre, Fritz Peterson, Steve Kline, and 4^th spot pretty solid with a tandem of Kaat and Doyle Alexander.

The bullpen is pretty decent with Sparky Lyle, Lindy McDaniel, Grant Jackson, Doug Rau, and Steve Busby.

5563 PA .262 .331 .373

1361 IP .237 1.13 66 HRA

My only hope is I shouldn’t run into fatigue problems.

80M Turn of the Centuries-1900’s and 2000’s

A little different than most by using 2000’s offense. Plenty of platoons with Lyle Overbay, Luis Castillo, and Brian Giles the only full time players. My SS position is A+/A-, so I’m happy there.

Starting Pitching is anchored by ‘03 Joss…with Tully Sparks, Joe McGinnity, and Roy Patterson filling out the rest of the rotation.

The bullpen consists of Babe Adams, Elmer Steele, Lucky Wright, Earl Moore, and Jack Powell.

5501 PA .296 .371 .412

1380 IP .219 0.95 9 HRA 212 BB

90M No Offense Blues

Pretty much in the same boat as everyone else here. No stud hitting…just hoping my doubles hitters do ok in the Polo Grounds.

5567 PA .284 .345 .393

1360 IP .210 0.89 14 HRA 183 BB

100M Tudor-Horlen-Maddux-Drabek

This team may not be as good as I hope, but I like it. Javy Lopez and Eddie Perez man the plate. Galarraga at 1B, Herr at 2B, Chipper at 3B, and the Wizard at SS should be ok. The OF has McGee, Van Slyke, and Barry Bonds.

I chose modern day pitching because early century infield defense leaves much to be desired…at least for my tastes.

I’m a little worried about the bullpen. Don McMahon, Wilhelm, Zane Smith, and Cisco Carlos are the main guys there…it could be ugly.

5672 PA .303 .376 .488 229 SB 197 HR

1402 IP .210 0.98 71 HRA 319 BB

110M Mariano Rivera ‘95 + ‘05 = A Big Mess

I looked at the obvious choices like Speaker, but I really like the ‘05 Yankees. I went a little light at catcher. Donnie Baseball is at 1B, Cano at 2B, Boggs at 3B, and Tony Fernandez at SS. Williams, Sheffield, and O’Neill make up the OF.

The starting pitching is not great, but Big Unit and Kevin Brown should be ok, with Conehead and Pettitte throwing BP. The bullpen has Rivera, Gordon, Wetteland, Howe, Steve Karsay and BlackJack McDowell being the main guys.

5734 PA .322 .391 .502 186 HR

1481 IP .206 0.96 75 HRA 334 BB

120M Hard Hat Special

Went the cheaper way with my full time .400 guys…Ed Delahanty and Jesse Burkett. Nothing special about the rest of the lineup, Gwynn. Eddie Collins, Joe Jackson, and Sisler are some of the more familiar names.

The starting staff is made up of Joss, Brown, and Bernhard. The bullpen isn’t very good for this cap with Fingers, Sutter, and Toney.

6480 PA .352 .415 .483 252 SB

1546 IP .199 0.85 25 HRA 228 BB

8/3/2011 1:45 AM (edited)

Forums

Team Building Process - After the fact comments Topic

Search Criteria