Pick	AnchorYr	AnchorFr	Twist?	TwistYr	TwistFr	Teammate
Clayton Kershaw	2012	LAD	no
Caleb Thielbar	2013	MIN	no
Luis Gonzalez	2004	ARI	yes	2001	ARI	SP Randy Johnson
Todd Jones	2003	COL	yes	1994	HOU	1B Jeff Bagwell
Reggie Smith	1967	BOS	yes	1969	BOS	SS Rico Petrocelli
Chris Young	2014	SEA	yes	2007	SDP	P Jake Peavy
Bob Leee	1964	ANA	no
Jose Hernandez	2006	PIT	yes	2004	LAD	3B Adrian Beltre
Ruben Sierra	1997	TOR	yes	2000	TEX	C Ivan Rodriguez
Stan Javier	1994	OAK	yes	2001	SEA	P Arthur Rhodes
Scooter Gennett	2017	CIN	no
Charlie Kerfeld	1986	HOU	no
Jeff Juden	1997	WSN	yes	1994	PHI	C Darren Daulton
Juan Lagares	2018	NYM	no
Zach Eflin	2018	PHI	no
Dave Leonhard	1968	BAL	yes	1970	BAL	OF Merv Rettemund

drafted player	drafted from	new team	teammate
pedro martinez	1997 expos	kept
C.Santana	2018 Phillies	kept
S.Turner	2017 Reds	kept
L.Morrison	2014 Mariners	kept
D.Mastroianni	2013 Twins	kept
T.Womack	2003 Rockies	kept
M.Belanger	1968 Orioles	kept
J.Piersall	1964 Angels	1957 RedSox	Ted Williams
E.Howard	1967 RedSox	1958 Yankees	Mickey Mantle
A.Ashby	1986 Astros	1980 Astros	J.R. Richard
R.Sierra	1994 A's	1997 BlueJays	Roger Clemens
O.Nixon	1997 BlueJays	1999 Braves	Kevin Millwood
C.Baerga	2004 Diamondbacks	2002 RedSox	Derek Lowe
A.Cabrera	2018 Mets	2009 Indians	Victor Martinez
N.Punto	2012 Dodgers	2013 Dodgers	Clayton Kershaw
O.Perez	2006 Pirates	2018 Indians	Trevor Bauer

I totally misinterpreted the rules on the first pick. I thought the players chosen on the teams picked were also exclusive. Whoops!

Pick	Twist Year	Teammate
Terry Steinbach	N/A
Joey Votto	N/A
Joe Randa	2000	Johnny Damon
Austin Jackson	2011	Justin Verlander
Merv Rettenmund	1975	Joe Morgan
Gabe Kapler	2006	Jonathan Papelbon
Jesus Sucre	2018	Blake Snell
Lenny Green	N/A
Jerry Gil	N/A
Jerry Adair	N/A
Jake Arrieta	2015	Hector Rondon
Josh Beckett	2011	Jacoby Ellsbury
Mike Timlin	2003	Nomar Garciapara
Ugueth Urbina	2002	Derek Lowe
Anthony Swarzak	N/A
Julio Solano	N/A

A little light hitting in the 7/8 holes (not to mention my terrible pinch hitting), but the 3 center fielders in the outfield and 5 aces in the starting lineup I think more than make up for it.

Definitely did quite a bit of shuffling throughout the draft trying to nail down my starting staff and 3B/SS positions. In the end, very happy with who I ended up with. Here are some "almost" highlights.

Didn't make the cut:
C - Pudge Rodriguez (via Gape Kapler)
3B - Miguel Cabrera (via Austin Jackson)
SS - Alex Rodriguez (via Mike Timlin)
OF - Jermaine Dye (via Joe Randa)
SP - Max Scherzer (via Austin Jackson)

Waited 1 round too many:
RP - Glen Perkins
RP - Mike Gonzalez
C - Elston Howard

Ran out of money:
SP - Lee Stange

Biggest Mistake:
OF - Gape Kapler (although missing to end up with Jonathan Papelbon's best season isn't that bad...)

When I try to post my team, it doesn't recognize my tab breaks. I am using Word. Any suggestions?

Posted by firesalt on 7/24/2020 10:36:00 AM (view original):
When I try to post my team, it doesn't recognize my tab breaks. I am using Word. Any suggestions?

Try Excel and just insert the table.

I realized before the draft started that I would be needing to draft at least 7 usable twist players with a strong teammate, so that's what I focused on. Add that to my initial nomination and two good teammate-only twists, that gets me to 17 players. The last 6 picks were mostly garbage "must-use-that-season" guys, reserved for pinch hitters and backups. The drafted/twisted player is listed in red and his teammate is in blue. (My 17 key players are in bold)

Nomination - Steve Ontiveros (1994 A's)
I had no real strategy here. Just wanted to pick early during the draft and this got it done/
.
Round 1 - Kenley Jansen (2012 LAD) + Zach Greinke (twisted to 2015 Dodgers)
Had I spent more time researching up front, I would have take Roberto Alomar here, but live and learn. The nice thing about this pick is I had many choices of years to twist. I kept switching between 2016 (Kershaw) and 2015. I think 2016 is better but I wanted a few more innings.
.
Round 2 - Jose Reyes (2018 NYM) + David Wright (twisted to 2008 Mets)
I missed Alomar but wanted to lock up two infielders early, and this pick did it. Flexibility is the key and I could have switched in Carlos Beltran for Wright had I decided to go for one of the Jose Bautista seasons.
.
Round 3 - Frank Robinson (1968 Bal) + Mike Cuellar (twisted to 1969 Orioles)
I gambled that this pick would make it to me in round 3. Cuellar is stud SP #2 (behind Greinke). Robinson also has 1B eligibility which means more flexibility.
.
Round 4 - Steve Reed (2003 Col) & Barry Bonds (twisted to 1998 Giants)
There are a ton of RPs that I could twist, so it was a matter of finding a great teammate that synced up. I hated using my Rockies pick this early as there are a lot of options to choose from. But I like Bonds a lot. Also, nothing wrong with a RP with 0.90 whip.
.
Round 5 - Ryan Pressly (13 Min) & Justin Verlander (twisted to 2019 Astros)
I have to say that I haven't really followed modern baseball too much and really didn't know much about Pressly. But when I looked up his stats and his teammates, I couldn't believe he wasn't taken already. Another RP with 0.90 whip with Verlander or Cole as teammates. Easy choice.
.
Round 6 - Dave Smith (1986 Hou) & Don Sutton (twisted to 1981 Astros)
I really wanted Chris Young (+Jake Peavy) this round as that would have made 2016 Kershaw/Jansen fit (with the innings consideration). But footballmm11 took Young a few picks before me. Honestly, I've had my eye on Dave Smith and the '81 Astros since the draft started. I just kept finding reasons to take somebody else instead. Not any more. This was really the last player I pegged from the beginning that was still left. Need to do some more research after this pick. but the good news is that I have my rotation (Cuellar, Verlander, Greinke, Sutton) and a solid bullpen (Ontiveros, D.Smith, S.Reed, Jansen, Pressly).
.
Round 7 - Lee Thomas (1964 LAA) & Joe Torre (twisted to 1966 Braves)
The pitching was set, but I still needed a C, 1B, 2B and OF. I have 3 twist picks left. I found my 2B/OF combo and almost took him this round, but after reviewing what others had, I figured (correctly) that I could wait on that pick. I focused on catcher and there wasn't much left. I found 1966 Torre that came along with a cheap twisted Lee Thomas. Done.
.
Round 8 - Mike Andrews (1967 Bos) & Carl Yastrzemski (twisted to 1968 Red Sox)
I know Mike Andrews isn't anything special (.368 obp), but he brings a pretty good hitter in Yaz, and he saves me salary as I'm really not sure how everything is going to play out salary cap wise.
.
Round 9 - F.P. Santangelo (1997 Mon) & Jason Giambi (twisted to 2001 A's)
I needed a stud 1B or OF and this was the best available. This pretty much completes my main team. The rest of the players, I need to use the drafted season.
.
Round 10 - Luis Castillo (2017 Reds)
At this point, I am simply looking for the best player available that could possibly help me somewhere. I will still under the impression I was taking 2016 Kershaw (instead of 2015 Greinke) so I need a few good innings. Castillo's 89 innings of 1.07 whip was the best left. I later decided I didn't want to rely on these innings and switched to 2015 Greinke.
.
Round 11 - Michael Saunders (2014 Mariners)
I was a little light on OF plate appearances.
.
Round 12 - Chris Snyder (2004 D'backs)
Needed a backup C. He was the best left.
.
Round 13 - Juan Samuel (1997 Blue Jays)
Needed a backup infielder
.
Round 14 - Pedro Florimon (2018 Phillies)
Cheap scrub
.
Round 15 - Sean Casey (2006 Pirates)
Since I knew I was the only person who needed a 2006 Pirate, I knew Casey was the guy (once I figured out that I could afford him). He's my best pinch hitter (.296 avg / .377 obp).

Overall:
I don't think my team is that great. Hard to compare to other teams though. Removing the scrubs and even removing Castillo, here are my team totals...
Hitting: 5422 PA, .304 avg, .407 obp, .527 slug, average fielding (B/B-), $55.5 million
Pitching: 1407 IP, .196 oav, 0.93 whip, 0.71 hr9, $55.0 million

2006 Freddy Sanchez

Not Twisted
2012 AJ Ellis
2018 Zack Wheeler
1997 Kelvim Escobar
1968 Moe Drabowsky
2003 Brian Fuentes
2013 Jared Burton

Twisted Billy Hamilton to 2016 to get '16 Joey Votto
Twisted Mike Lansing to 1999 to get '99 Larry Walker
Twisted George Scott to 1979 to get '79 George Brett
Twisted Chris Taylor to 2017 to get '17 Kenley Jansen
Twisted Brent Mayne to 2001 to get '01 Juan Pierre
Twisted Asdrubal Cabrera to 1999 to get '99 Michael Brantley
Twisted Dennis Eckersley to 1990 to get '90 Dave Stewart
Twisted Ken McBride to 1963 to get '63 Dean Chance
Twisted Nolan Ryan to 1991 to get '91 Jim Poole

2013 Twins Joe Mauer 2018 Mets Matt Harvey 2003 Rockies Denny Neagle 1997 Braves Greg Maddux 2006 Pirates Jose Bautista 2018 Mets Jacob deGrom 1994 A's Steve Karsay 2001 Indians Roberto Alomar 1997 Expos Salomon Torres 1996 Mariners Alex Rodriquez 2004 Dbacks Shea Hillenbrand 2002 Red Sox Pedro Martinez 1967 Red Sox George Thomas 1970 Red Sox Carl Yastrzemski 1997 Blue Jays Orlando Merced 2001 Astros Lance Berkman 1968 Orioles Paul Blair 1969 Orioles Mike Cuellar 2012 Dodgers Juan Uribe 2015 Dodgers Clayton Kershaw 1986 Astros Matt Keough 1964 Angels Bo Belinsky 2018 Phillies Andrew Knapp 2017 Reds Jose Peraza 2014 Mariners Cole Gillespie

Posted by footballmm11 on 7/24/2020 8:42:00 AM (view original):

Pick	AnchorYr	AnchorFr	Twist?	TwistYr	TwistFr	Teammate
Clayton Kershaw	2012	LAD	no
Caleb Thielbar	2013	MIN	no
Luis Gonzalez	2004	ARI	yes	2001	ARI	SP Randy Johnson
Todd Jones	2003	COL	yes	1994	HOU	1B Jeff Bagwell
Reggie Smith	1967	BOS	yes	1969	BOS	SS Rico Petrocelli
Chris Young	2014	SEA	yes	2007	SDP	P Jake Peavy
Bob Leee	1964	ANA	no
Jose Hernandez	2006	PIT	yes	2004	LAD	3B Adrian Beltre
Ruben Sierra	1997	TOR	yes	2000	TEX	C Ivan Rodriguez
Stan Javier	1994	OAK	yes	2001	SEA	P Arthur Rhodes
Scooter Gennett	2017	CIN	no
Charlie Kerfeld	1986	HOU	no
Jeff Juden	1997	WSN	yes	1994	PHI	C Darren Daulton
Juan Lagares	2018	NYM	no
Zach Eflin	2018	PHI	no
Dave Leonhard	1968	BAL	yes	1970	BAL	OF Merv Rettemund

I admittedly felt lost for the first few rounds. Part of that was just being a new theme that I was unfamiliar with (teammates/twists/etc.), part of it was being a capped league, and part of it was I started a draft league that just happened to fill and start right around the same time so I was preoccupied with running that.

Initial Pick: 2012 LAD Clayton Kershaw (P)
When in doubt, I usually just pick a Dodgers season of some sort. The only things I looked for were: (a) teams where the top player was a good bit better than the rest of his teammates and (b) no inflation. I settled on 2012 Kershaw.

Pick 1: 2013 MIN Caleb Thielbar (P)
I was admittedly unprepared and still a bit lost as to strategy. Was this going to play more like an uncapped league, where getting to $120m was going to be hard? Or more like a true cap league where there would be plenty of options? Uncapped leagues are more about just accumulating as much pure value as possible, while capped leagues are more about efficient spending and getting pieces that fit together with each other, your park, etc.

So I went with about the most flexible thing you could find: a cheap reliever who didn't require a twist. I knew "anchor" players were going to be much harder to find value in, low-inning but high-quality relievers can fit pretty much anywhere, and going with a low salary let me essentially kick the can down the road, giving me time to prep while still picking early the next round.

Pick 2: 2004 ARI Luis Gonzalez (OF) -> twist to 2001 ARI and pair with Randy Johnson (P)
I still didn't have a great handle on things or a great way to look up teammates, so I just went hunting for good twist players and then searching to see if they had a good teammate. This one popped out pretty quickly and I grabbed it despite the big salaries.

Pick 3: 2003 COL Todd Jones (P) -> twist to 1994 HOU and pair with Jeff Bagwell (1B)
I finally had my "teammates" spreadsheet created so I could more easily find what I was looking for. Mostly just wanted both a twist and a teammate who were good. Jones gives me a quality reliever and Bagwell is a monster in 94.

Pick 4: 1967 BOS Reggie Smith (OF) -> twist to 1969 BOS and pair with Rico Petrocelli (SS)
Needed a SS and figured I was going to need to use a teammate pick on one. Smith has a nice 1969 season as well.

Pick 5: 2014 SEA Chris Young (P) -> twist to 2007 SDP and pair with Jake Peavy (P)
I had debated this duo last round but passed on them because SS is harder to find and I had just completed a Padres quick draft league where I got both 07 Young and Peavy. But what do they say, you can never have too much of a good thing?

Pick 6: 1964 ANA Bob Lee (P)
Wanted to save some twists for later on and had my eye on Lee as one of the best anchor players for a while. Judging by pedrocerrano's comments, I took him just in time.

Pick 7: 2006 PIT Jose Hernandez (2B/UT) -> twist to 2004 LAD and pair with Adrian Beltre (3B)
Still need 3B and C. 2004 Beltre is still out there and Hernandez provides plenty of flexibility. He can play nearly every position as part of a platoon or just be a utility man. I ended up using him as the RH half of my 2B platoon.

Pick 8: 1997 TOR Ruben Sierra (DH) -> twist to 2000 TEX and pair with Ivan Rodriguez (C)
Only 389 PA, but the best catcher left on the market. Sierra isn't good but he's super cheap (just a hair over $200k) and can always use that in a cap league. I'm starting to realize I don't have a lot of money left!

Pick 9: 1994 OAK Stan Javier (OF) -> twist to 2001 SEA and pair with Arthur Rhodes (P)
Needed some OF and RP without too much salary. I initially had penciled in Joel Pineiro here but when I got to my last pick, I was slightly over the cap and switching to Rhodes dropped just enough salary. He's just as good, just a few less innings, so not a big deal.

Pick 10: 2017 CIN Scooter Gennett (2B/UT)
I needed a 2B, wanted to save my last couple twists, and he fit nicely with Hernandez both in handedness and plate appearances. Neither one can range worth a lick, but they can both field and hit okay.

Pick 11: 1986 HOU Charlie Kerfeld (P)
Best reliever for an anchor player still left for me.

Pick 12: 1996 MON Jeff Juden (P) -> twist to 1994 PHI and pair with Darren Daulton (C)
Needed another half to my catcher platoon. Daulton has a few too many PA, but he's lefty and can hit well enough to use those PA as a pinch-hitter or spare 1B/OF if needed.

Pick 13: 2018 NYM Juan Lagares (OF)
Running out of money, looking for any cheap value I can find. Lagares can hit a little bit, field a little bit, and run a little bit. Cool.

Pick 14: 2018 PHI Zach Eflin (P)
Pick 15: 1968 BAL Dave Leonhard (P) -> twist to 1970 BAL and pair with Merv Rettemund (OF)
I should have started doing this WAY sooner but finally with my last two picks I planned out my team. I needed two things: (1) a part-time OF to pair with Stan Javier and (2) enough mop-up innings to keep the ship afloat.

I looked at a couple other OF options, but Rettemund was nearly perfect. He had just enough PA, enough pop in the bat, and as a nice bonus some pretty good defense. That last part was nice since I can stick him in CF if Reggie Smith's D/A defense leads to too many errors for me to stomach. Luckily there was one 1968 BAL player left who played in 1970 and had a cheap season left. Leonhard's 29 innings will be purely mop-up.

That left just 2018 PHI and Zach Eflin has over 100 not-terrible innings. He put me slightly over the cap, but the drop off to the next PHI pitcher was huge in both innings and quality, so I was able to just do the aforementioned swap from Pineiro to Rhodes and get under.

----------------------

I honestly have no idea how this team will do.

Positives:
- I spent efficiently: Not too many PA or IP that would be wasted. Not too much inflation (Bagwell cost me some but that's mostly it).
- My lineup fits together pretty well: I don't have a pure leadoff hitter, but plenty of guys who can fake it there. Bagwell and Gonzalez give me a nice L/R tag team and the rest of my lineup is pretty solid without a big hole.
- I like my starting pitching: I tend to go more bullpen-heavy but I ended up with 4 really good starters so that will be nice to enjoy for once.

Negatives:
- My team doesn't fit Dodger Stadium all that great: I have a little more doubles and HR power than is probably ideal and not enough batting average.
- Some of my defense is shaky: As mentioned my 2B both have D- range. In my OF, all my guys either have C or worse fielding OR C or worse range, so my CF options are R. Smith (D/A), Rettenmund (C/A-), or Javier (A/C). Luckily everywhere else should be solid to good.

Should be fun, thanks bheid!

Thanks for the advice, asdlfef, but I am not proficient at Excel, so I will copy schwarze’s format.

Anchor: 1997 Roger Clemens
I thought pitching would be of supreme importance, so I chose a pitcher first. That was my first of many errors. Good pitching was available all throughout this draft. If I had it to do over, I would have taken a catcher, who also would have given me earlier draft picks in every round of the draft. My philosophy was to get at least 6 twists where I could start both players. Three more single twists give me 15 good starters, plus my anchor pitcher, for a total of 16. Well, that didn’t work out too well. I ended up with only 4 “double” twists, reducing my viable starters to 14. That required me to get an extra SP and use him as a RP, and find at least one viable starter from my untwisted platers. I wanted to draft cheap players, mostly to stay in the middle of each draft round, which was the most I could hope for after taking Clemens, but it turns out, this became more valuable for the variety of choices I would have. If the draft season in less than $1M, I can choose to not twist the player and draft a new twist in a later pick. I didn’t think of this initially, because I didn’t think I would make multiple mistakes in my first 9 picks.

1. 03 Larry Walker. Twisted to 01 Todd Helton
Schwarze is right about there being a lot of good Rockies options, but I thought none were as good as Walker and Helton. Ironically, for much of the draft, I thought I was going to have to take Castilla instead of Helton, but in the end I felt better to have his power playing out of position (I am hiding him in RF), than to sacrifice on offense with a weaker OF and 3B. My lack of experience shows here, as I don’t know how bad Helton will be in RF. I am guessing errors plus minus plays will be in the 15-20 range. With all modern pitching, I can get away with some defensive compromise that I can’t if there are a lot of deadball pitchers in the league. But if I miscalculated here, I have a plan B.

I almost took Elston Howard here, but changed my mind at the last minute. That’s twice I failed to get a catcher. Wonder if that’s gonna come back to haunt me?

2. 17 Devin Mesoraco. Twisted to 18 Jacob deGrom
By this time, I see all the great pitching available, but none greater than deGrom, who can be my stopper. I only saw one good twist to get him, so I snagged him before someone else could.

3. 97 Andy Stankiewicz. Twisted to 94 Craig Biggio
Instead of drafting a player I can twist to a usable season, I fell prey to the temptation to get a stud 1B in the 1994 Jeff Bagwell, As you can see, that is not how it worked out. I already have a 1B (this is where I started thinking about taking Castilla instead of Helton), but more importantly, I couldn’t fit his salary under my cap. I am glad to get a great Biggio season that fits well with my stadium, but I surrendered too high a pick for a twist that yields only a single starter. This was a mistake, but one that was not too costly.

4. 06 Roberto Hernandez
Lots of options here. A decent, affordable Bonds? 02 Beltran? 03 Javy Lopez? But only one season gets me 2 viable starters. 1992 pairs a below average RP season with either Frank Thomas (another 1B?) or Robin Ventura (which forces Helton over Castilla as Walker’s twist), or even a so-so Tim Raines season. Alas, salary cap woes force me to not twist Hernandez and I waste a 4^th round pick on a mop up guy. This is the 3^rd time I have chosen not to take a C, when one was in my grasp.

5. 04 Brian Bruney. Twisted to 07 Alex Rodriguez
I wanted to get Karsay and twist him to Roberto Alomar, but calhoop got him in round 4. Oh, how I wish I had taken Karsay instead of Hernandez in round 4. This left me longing for Bruney, to pair him with Mariano Rivera’s best season. I must land a stud closer before they are all gone. Well, that wouldn’t work because I will later need the twist to get someone with more IP (i.e., a SP to work in the pen). Still no closer, but I figure, a good SP can be a closer, so I am not nervous about it. For a while, Bruney was my second consecutive untwisted scrub to waste an early pick on, until I decided to stick with Helton, leaving 3B open for 07 A-Rod.

6. 68 Eddie Watt. Twisted to 69 Mike Cuellar
At first, I thought I would get 200 good RP innings from this twist, but now I realize that is not enough. Enter Mike Cuellar, who gives me nearly 300 innings of better pitching. What was I thinking in the first place? Oh yeah, I was thinking I would get two viable starters. Now I only get one, but he gives me more than the two I was going to go with, so it’s not really a problem.

7. 86 Kevin Bass
Doing my math and knowing I need to grab an untwisted starter, I watch two of the best ones go off the board and realize I need to strike now. I can take either Steinbach or Bass, and I go with Bass, who I think will give me more production. Now I have shunned a C four times.

8. 64 Barry Latman. Twisted to 58 Sherm Lollar
Here’s where I get my closer and my C. Problem is, he’s not a very good C. B+ arm I think will be sufficient. Paying for Steinbach’s A+ arm was a luxury I didn’t think I could afford. Lollar is a liability on offense, and mediocre on D, but this is what I am left with at C this late int eh draft, and with a dire need to draft a twistable starter. Latman is a candidate for fireman of the year, so I am satisfied with not having Rivera on my roster.

9. 18 Adrian Gonzalez. Twisted to 15 Clayton Kershaw
I was so excited to get Gonzalez so I could twist him to 2011 and add Ellsbury. It gave me the added luxury of choosing Pedroia if I didn’t need an OF as badly as a 2B. With the errors I have been making, I really need versatility. Well, this was probably the most painful change I made in the entire draft. I only have three twisted starters, and my goal was 6, so I don’t think I can afford to twist a guy to a bench role just to get Kershaw, so I ultimately decide to use 2015 to land the best Kershaw season (combining IP with production). I desperately need IP. I end up with a far, far inferior season from Gonzalez, but he will be my starter at 1B. This is where my plan B for 1B comes in. I needed a 1B with good D. His strong fielding will hopefully cover Helton’s weak glove and range in RF, who gets a serious deduction for playing out of position. If Helton is bad enough, I can swap these players and be average at both positions. I wanted A+ at 1B, but that was not available, so I settled with A-/A-.

10. 14 Joe Beimel. Twisted to 10 Troy Tulowitzki
I had my plan worked out. I will draft Brosius, twist him to ’98 and play him at 3B with Jeter at SS. Surely, no one else will feel good about having Brosius as their starting 3B, so he will be available, right? Apparently, bheid was thinking like mem and grabbed Brosius in round 8, putting my team in red alert. I realize I won’t get a good SS using a twisted starter (I can’t stomach the idea of starting ’58 Aparicio over Lollar, even though I can still score a good I-Rod season), so I go for a solid hitting defensive demi-god in Troy Tulowitzki. Funny, I’ve always wanted to use him, but never have had him on one of my teams until now. His D is going to make my pitching so much better, I am determined to stick with him, no matter what cap issues come up later.

11. 13 Kevin Correia. Twisted to 03 Jason Schmidt
This went against my philosophy of getting cheap draft picks. Correia is too expensive not to twist, and I wanted to not twist him several times as I worked out different iterations of my team. I got him because I wanted Barry Bonds, but alas, I can’t get Bonds under the cap, so I go with a ow inning SP who will become a high inning RP for me.

12. 67 Dan Osinski
I’m desperate for more IP. At this time, I don’t plan on using Gonzalez to get Kershaw. I’m slowly accepting what I thought was impossible at the beginning of the draft: that I will not have Kershaw on my team. Only one high quality high IP SP is left, and I hold my breath, hoping he falls to me, which he does. Osinski gives me 64 Dean Chance. But once I decide for 15 Kershaw, I no longer need this draft pick. The silver lining is that ’67 Osinski gives me LR innings that are not totally embarrassing, so I can pretend he is filling a necessary place on my roster as an untwisted player.

13. 94 Mark Acre
I have only one roster spot open for a P, and I don’t want to use it because my Pas are low, especially at SS and OF. But the cheapest ‘94 Athletics hitter is $2M, and that is too much for a scrub, so I take a mop up guy who is just a little over $1M. Now I really wonder I fI should have grabbed Steinbach earlier.

14. 12 Luis Cruz
Desperate for SS PA’s, I am surprised to find one with the right number of PA’s, plays great D, and is not an awful hitter. I never thought in a million years that my Dodger player would go untwisted, but it is what it is. Now is where I see the value in using Gonzalez to get Kershaw.

15. 18 Aaron Altherr
Funny problem. I only have 2 guys on my roster who play any games at OF. I need three just to be able to enter the league. Four teams have not yet selected a Phillies player, and only two who have played OF remain. I hold my breath, and luckily, Altherr is there when I pick last. Problem is, he is too bad to use, so I will use Cruz to fill in for Walker when he is not filling in for Tulowitzki.

The draft went nothing like I thought it would, and I made numerous mistakes. Yet I feel I have a good team that can compete. We’ll see.

This was a very different draft in that I had no way to research all the possibilities before the draft started. Therefore, I ended up researching a couple of teams per day and didn’t really finish until we were in round 12. The only general strategy was not to waste salary. Initially, the plan was to find twists where both players were good, then use the later rounds to fill the non-twist spots with usable players. My draft ended up falling into 3 phases:
Initial Selection: 67 Yastrzemski – Yaz has always preformed well for me and gives me Fenway as my stadium (offense is always more fun).
Phase 1 (Picks 1 – 5): following my initial strategy (and trying to build a team for Fenway), I was focused on getting hitters to fill in my batting order and adding a couple of starters.
1 – Chris Carpenter w Albert Pujols
2 – Rickey Henderson w Mike Norris
3 – Hanley Ramirez w Kiko Calero
4 – Danny Bautista w Tony Phillips
5 – David Segui w Melvin Mora

These picks gave me my leadoff hitter (Henderson); #2 (Phillips); #3 (Yaz); cleanup (Pujols); #5 (Ramirez); and #6 (Mora) in my batting order as well as 2 SPs: Carpenter and Norris; 1 RP: Calero; and 2 PHs (Bautista and Segui).

Phase 2 (Picks 6 -11): at this point I realized two things: the first was that there was not much talent available with the non-twist players and the second was that I could still afford another good bat. I was planning to take Don Buford as my third OF and #7 hitter and get Cuellar as my third SP but now changed strategies to focus on good non-twist players. I was targeting Bob Lee as my next pick; his 137 IP and 1.98 ERC# were the best value available. However, after waiting almost 2 days between picks, footballmm11 took him right before me. Four of my next six picks were usable Ps with the two twists getting me 2 more SPs.

6 – Seranthony Dominguez
7 – Glen Perkins
8 – Curt Motton w Mike Cuellar
9 – Tom Wilhelmson
10 – Fred Newman
11 – Damaso Marte w Esteban Loaiza

These picks essentially completed my pitching staff; 5 SPs and 5 RPs w 1525 IPs. Generally pleased with the staff although it lacks a real ace (tough to find without paying bigger premiums).

Phase 3 (Picks 12-15): I now needed to find my third OF and C, enough PAs for reserves (C and MI), and figure out my actual cap situation. Ideally, I also wanted one more P since the 1525 IPs might be a little light for Fenway in this league. Throughout phase 2, I started targeting Larry Walker as the OFer. The 03 Rockies offered multiple options both in the version of Walker and how to get there and a Larry Walker/Jay Payton platoon was looking good. However, catcher was a different matter. Since it took so long to complete my research, I was now left with just 4 teams (03 COL, 86 HOU, 17 CINC, 18 NYM) from which to find a C.

I now realized it was going to be very difficult to fill the remaining holes with quality players and stay under the cap with only 6 spots left. In researching the available catching options, there were no quality players with enough PAs so I needed to use 2 of those spots on catchers. One option was the 93 Chris Hoiles which would require using Mesoraco or Plewicky from the 18 NYM as the second catcher. However, the disadvantage of this option was that neither Mesoraco or Plewicky are any good and I would need 150 PAs from them. It also meant using Glenn Davis to get Hoiles and the 93 Davis can’t hit and can’t backup at MI. Then I found the 79 Brian Downing. Downing is not as good as Hoiles but is cheaper and has enough PAs that I might not be locked into Mesoraco/Plewisky. I find I can use Ben Petrick to get the extra PAs at C and it gets me a better Larry Walker. Getting to Downing also uses Dickie Thon who as a decent bat and qualifies at 2B/SS filling my MI need. However, I will need to find an OF from the 18 NYM or 17 CINC to platoon with Walker. There are some options, but Brandon Nimmo is clearly the best. It leaves me the ability to select a usable P (Wandy Peralta) from the Reds to complete my team. This option fills all the holes and fits under the cap. I now only have to decide in what order to select them.

I chose wrong. After getting Petrick/Walker, I probably should have taken Thon/Downing but instead took Nimmo. My reasoning was that only one other person needed to select from both the 86 Astros and the 86 Mets. I figured Nimmo was more attractive than thon, so I took him. Of course, moses_k proceeds to take Thon the next round. I now have to scramble to find other options. I find two: the 75 Sanguillen using the 86 Craig Reynolds or the 14 Posey using the 17 Adam Duvall. The Sanguillen option leaves me possibly short of PAs at C and for PH while the Posey option leaves me with no reserves at 2B/SS/3B and a lousy Jeff Calhoun as my last P. I choose the Sanguillen option. We’ll see.

Hitting: .328/.424/.531
Pitching: WHIP 1.06; ERC 2.24; OAV .214; HR/9 .43

04 ARIZ	Danny Bautista	93 DET	Tony Phillips
68 BALT	Curt Motton	69 BALT	Mike Cuellar
67 BOS	Carl Yastrzemski
17 CINC	Wandy Peralta
03 COL	Ben Petrick	99 COL	Larry Walker
86 HOU	Craig Reynolds	75 PITT	Manny Sanguillen
64 LAA	Fred Newman
12 LAD	Hanley Ramirez	99 FLA	Kiko Calero
13 MIN	Glen Perkins
97 MONT	David Segui	04 BALT	Melvin Mora
18 NYM	Brandon Nimmo
94 OAK	Rickey Henderson	80 OAK	Mike Norris
18 PHIL	Seranthony Dominguez
06 PIT	Damaso Marte	03 CWS	Esteban Loaiza
14 SEA	Tom Wilhelmson
97 TOR	Chris Carpenter	09 STL	Albert Pujols

TEAM	PLAYER	TWIST	SALARY	TEAMMATE	SALARY
2018 Philadelphia Phillies	Roman Quinn		$935,816
2018 New York Mets	Jose Bautista	2011 Toronto Blue Jays	$10,036,321	Mike McCoy	$1,180,226
2017 Cincinnati Reds	Eugenio Suarez		$4,644,632
2014 Seattle Mariners	Dominic Leone		$1,787,092
2013 Minnesota Twins	Jamie Carroll	2011 Los Angeles Dodgers	$2,768,430	Clayton Kershaw	$8,874,295
2012 Los Angeles Dodgers	Joe Blanton	2015 Pittsburgh Pirates	$1,233,413	Andrew McCutchen	$6,339,547
2006 Pittsburgh Pirates	Jason Bay		$5,753,143
2004 Arizona Diamondbacks	Jeff Fassero	1992 Montreal Expos	$2,372,826	Dennis Martinez	$7,349,072
2003 Colorado Rockies	Todd Helton		$8,984,666
1997 Toronto Blue Jays	Charlie O'Brien		$2,210,813
1997 Montreal Expos	Omar Dahl	1993 Los Angeles Dodgers	$402,207	Mike Piazza	$6,549,699
1994 Oakland Athletics	Mike Aldrete	1996 New York Yankees	$473,143	Mariano Rivera	$5,699,712
1986 Houston Astros	Davey Lopes	1973 Los Angeles Dodgers	$5,243,079	Don Sutton	$8,755,325
1968 Baltimore Orioles	Jim Hardin		$6,309,574
1967 Boston Red Sox	Bucky Brandon	1972 Philadelphia Phillies	$1,828,810	Steve Carlton	$13,925,133
1964 Los Angeles Angels	Albie Pearson	1960 Baltimore Orioles	$497,246	Ron Hansen	$5,405,989
			$55,481,211		$64,078,998
				$119,560,209

I came up with this idea based on the Player 16X16 Leagues. Thought it would be something different and present a slightly different challenge.
I don't think it is as difficult and there is definitely some tweaking that could be done to make it tougher. With this being the first version I wanted to keep it fairly simple and not very restrictive. If I do it again I will make some modifications.

Nominated Team/Player: 2018 Phillies/Aaron Nola
He's been a good pitcher for me in every league I've used him in and he's not expensive. This will keep me towards the top of the draft although with this league being new I don't know if that is really that important.

R1. 64 Angels Dick Simpson + Bob Gibson
I went into the draft thinking Starting Pitching would be extremely important and probably in short supply. I was wrong about the supply side. I still couldn't pass up the chance to land Gibson. Simpson won't play a significant role for me but he got me my Ace.

R2. 03 Rockies Brent Butler + Larry Walker
Well, it didn't take me long to make a mistake pick. Again Butler will play the bench and this pick only gets me 1 good player. I suddenly realize that I can't keep picking scrubs just to get 1 good player. Some of my picks are going to have to play.

R3. 13 Twins Justin Morneau + Joe Mauer
Feeling the weight of two single player picks and possibly two wasted Twists since I only got 1 player each I went with Morneau to fill my 1B and C spot by adding Mauer. I had hoped Elston Howard would fall to me but 3dayrotation quickly took care of that in the 1st round. Scanning the available catchers that were left even though it was only the 3rd round I didn't want to go too long without tying up a good catcher.

R4. 14 Mariners Fernando Rodney + Jake McGee
Maybe went too early with this pick but I have nothing for the bullpen yet and this Twist gives me 2 good RP.

R5. 06 Dodgers Paul Maholm = Clayton Kershaw
At this point in the draft I finally researched all of the teams and almost every player. I decided that even though there were tons of quality starting pitching I wanted another one to have 3 top guns. Maholm becomes another wasted pick twisting him to 2014 but it got me Kershaw.

R6. 17 Reds Raisel Iglesias
Not a top notch reliever but he's usable and saves me a Twist for later.

R7. 12 Dodgers Dee Gordon = Giancarlo Stanton
This is where I started to flip-flop some picks. I wanted Gordon to Twist to his 2015 stud season and I was going to add Carter Capps for another short-term reliever but also saw that I could get a stud OF in Stanton. I'm not crazy about right-handed homerun hitters as they always seem to under-perform and I've never used Stanton before but figured I could go either way with his Twist depending on what happens going forward.

R8. 94 A's Scott Brosius = Derek Jeter
This was a, better get a half-way decent 3B before I run out of options pick. My original intent was to go after Dickie Thon for SS and possibly land Davey Johnson from the O's and Twist him to get Mike Schmidt, but I started to look at my Salary and thought it was going to get to high for that to be a reality. On top of that I was thinking Curt Blefary from the O's would allow me to Twist to Vida Blue and give me 4 legit Aces in the rotation. With the surging salary of those options looming I went with the cheaper option here. Brosius has an average glove with 'A" range and a decent bat. I'm just hope I'm not getting too right-handed especially adding Jeter to that aspect as well. But now I've got my infield covered.

R9. 18 Mets Hansel Robles = Mike Trout
Robles gives me a usable arm in the bullpen and adding Trout can only be good right? Quality defense for center-field and another good, arrgh, right-handed power bat. Hey, how bad of an outfiled can it be with Walker, Trout, and Stanton?

R10. 86 Astros Aurilio Lopez
Same here as Robles, a useable arm. Nothing special but can eat some ininngs.

R11. 68 Orioles Andy Etchebarren = Mike Cuellar
At this point I realized I wouldn't be able to fit Vida Blue under the cap. With only having 1 Twist left and needing to accomplish 2 things yet, one being get a 4th Starter and two a decent backup catcher I figured it was time to kill the bird. Cuellar was a cheaper option than Blue and Etchebarren filled a bench spot for catcher.

R12. 04 Diamondbacks Greg Aquino
Just grabbing the best pitcher left from the teams I have left.

R13, 14, 15, Jones, Brito, McGuire all fill in bench players.

My team numbers with the scrubs are;
.305BA, .382OBP, 242HR, B-C+ Fielding $59.4M
1470IP, .201OAV, 0.97WHIP, 2.26BB/9, 0.55HR/9 $60.5M
I feel good about my starters, not so good about my bullpen or lineup. I wish I would have went after hitters more. They've got power but my OBP is lower than I like. We'll see how it plays out.
After the draft was complete I felt the hitters were in short supply more than the starting pitchers were.

Some of the Players and Twists that were part of my original plans that didn't happen, not mentioned above:
Jim Landis twist to get Joe Horlen
Paul Blair twist to get Ron Guidry
Charlie O'Brien twist to get Greg Maddux
Soloman Torres to get Pedro Martinez
Ruben Sierra to get Mariano Rivera

2014 Mariners - Felix - Great choice for an Ace, Safeco will allow me to go quality over quantity in PA's/IP, only useable teammates Cano and a couple RP's. My choice was either him or the stud Kevin Brown. Brown would have left me 1 spot lower in the draft order, plus stud Sheffield would be an easy pick for someone without using a twist.

64 Angels E Kirkpatrick - Twist to 1972, teammate Roger Nelson. I wanted the stud IP at relatively low salary. I decided very early not to spend too much at C, since they never seem to sim well for me. 20/20 says I could have gotten Nelson later.

18 Mets Jeff McNeil - Twist to 2019, teammate Jacob Degrom. Gives me a starter at 3B or 2B, and another stud SP.

97 Expos Steve Kline - Twist to 2004, teammate Edmonds. I saw plenty of teammate options between Pujols/Edmonds/Rolen/Drew. Eventually settled on the CF.

86 Houston Danny Darwin - Twist to 1997, teammate Bonds. I saw several useable Darwin seasons. I wish I checked for a good Darwin AND a great teammate. Yeah, Darwin is basically a long guy. But a near 40/40 OF for relatively cheap? Sure.

12 dodgers Scott Van Slyke - Twist to 2015, teammate Grienke. I needed one more stud SP, and immediately found a cheap way to get Kershaw. It wasn't until I saw my total salary that I realized I could upgrade to Grienke.

06 Pirates Ronny Paulino - Twist to 2009, teammate H Ramirez. I wanted to pick my SS now. Hanley was the best I could find, even if it took a meh platoon C to do it. There was a way to get to Barry larkin as well, but I wanted the extra power.

97 Jays Woody Williams - Twist to 2001, teammate Pujols. I was looking for a 2B, but did not see anyone I really liked. Thankfully, McNeil can move to 2B, and found Pujols at 3B. Another MVP bat, this time with A+ range. Plus, an excellent bullpen guy.

04 Diamondbacks Quinton McCracken - Twist to 1997, teammate Walker. I reaslized I was about to have a ton of $$$ left if I did not go after a couple more stud hitters. Did not see any stud RP to go after. The best available via tiwst were Helton and Walker. The most expensive Helton had 2-3 routes to get there. I could get to Walker by using an Arizona pick instead of Colorado. Plus, McCracken is at least a useable 4th OF. Easy choice.

03 rockies Jose Jimenez - Twist to 2000, teammate Helton. The last stud hitter I needed, Jimenez and Petrick were both available. Jimenez at least gives me a useable RP, maybe SUB? More useful to me at this point than a third C.

13 Twins Casey Fien. Lineup set. Rotation set. Just looking for best RP and bench at this point. Bigger priority quality RP.

68 O's W Bunker. Same reason as Fien. Looking for acceptable setup guys for the bullpen.

18 Phils Scott Kingery. Wasn't impressed by any RP's. Needed bench PA's at 2B and SS. Kingery takes care of both for relatively cheap.

17 Reds A Alcantara?. Only need 2 pitchers. Good time to get a mopup guy for SS to rest Ramirez once in awhile. Probably will never start.

67 Red Sox, 94 A's Lee Stange, Carlos Reyes. Stange had the best WHIP of anyone left, plus SP innings. Will start plenty when a fifth SP is needed, or to rest one of the elite 4. Reyes is just available to pitch meaningless innings. Hopefully nothing more.