The biggest mistake I made during this draft occurred in round 3.  I was picking third and was all set to grab 49 Gumbert (420K) to continue to load up on the cheap versions of the pitchers (as I already had a cheap Fitzsimmons and Luque).  But when mpitt76 grabbed his Johnson, I panicked and didn't want to be stuck holding a weak Johnson, so I grabbed mine too.  That started the "Grab your Johnson" run.

The fact is that I didn't need a studly Johnson.  I already had 1000+ IPs of sub 1.00 whip SPs with my teammates (M.Brown, Overall, Hubbell). 

So as a result, I am stuck with about $20 million in dead salary.  njbigwig was the only person who showed restraint, and as a result, he has only about $8 million in dead money.

I could put together a solid roster of teammates, who I am NOT using.  Here is an example of who I could roster, but am not...

C: Glen Myatt  .342, .402, .518
1B: Jimmie Foxx  .300, .412, .505
2B: Frankie Frisch  .334, .397, .484
3B: Billy Herman  .330, .398, .417
SS: Joe Sewell, ..316, .388, .429
OF: Tris Speaker .344, .432, .510
OF: Chick Hafey .338, .394, .632
OF: Taylor Douthit  .336, .416, .471

SP: Carl Hubbell, 329 IP, 0.98 whip, 0.17 hr/9
SP: Orvall Overall  302 IP, 1.00 whip, 0.03 hr/9
SP: Whit Wyatt 192 IP, 1.01 whip, 0.25 hr/9

Here is who I am using (teammates highlighted in red)

C: 1940 Frankie Hayes  .308, .389, .477  (Moses)
1B: 1955 Stan Musial  .319, .408, .566  (Schoendienst)
2B: 1955 Red Schoendienst  .268, .335, .376
3B: 1928 Willie Kamm  .308, .391, .411  (Faber)
SS: 1941 Joe Cronin  .311, .406, .508
OF: 1941 Ted Williams .406, .551, .735  (Cronin)
OF: 1924 Charlie Jamieson .359, .407, .458
OF: 1940 Wally Moses .309, .396, .469
OF: 1913 Bill Holden  .302, .393, .396 C/A+  (Chase)

SP: 1910 Walter Johnson  397 IP, 0.91 whip, 0.02 hr/9
SP: 1909 Mordecai Brown  363 IP, 0.87 whip, 0.03 hr/9  (Schulte)
SP: 1909 Ed Reulbach  279 IP, 1.05 whip, 0.03 hr/9  (Schulte)
RP: 1941 Harry Gumbert  153 IP, 1.17 whip, 0.44 hr/9
RP: 1933 Dolf Luque  86 IP, 1.17 whip, 0.45 hr/9
RP: 1909 Irv Higginbotham  95 IP, 1.02 whip, 0.00 hr/9  (Schulte)
RP: 1929 Al Grabowski  54 IP, 1.04 whip, 0.00 hr/9 (Haines)

Totals for these players:

Batting:  5289 PA, .322, .410, .494, $49.8 million
Pitching: 1427 IP, 0.98 whip, 0.09 hr/9, $50,3 million

FYI - I strongly considered taking the $7.8 million version of Trucks (279 IP with 1.21 whip) and made him my SP#3, thus releasing Ed Reulbach and upgrading the offense with the extra $6.4 million.  I could have eaten Schoendienst's salary (i.e., benched him) and added Frisch.  I would've had enough left to updgrade W.Kamm to B.Herman (slight upgrade).  But I really wanted the three stud pitchers.

I also had a roster without '41 Williams.  I upgraded Reulbach to '33 Hubbell, used Glen Myatt at catcher with a .340+ hitting Earl Smith as a platoon.  And that also allowed me to add a .340+ hitting 2B, Riggs Stephenson for 300 PA but his defense at 2B is awful and I had too many SP innings.  Plus, I don't think I've ever used the .406 Williams before

One quick question- can we use any stadium? Personally, I think it should have been used in our time frame

I should have specified "within the time frame" but I didn't, and I don't like changing the rule after the fact.

Wow...am I in trouble....totally missed the boat on cheap pitchers...so I have roughly 13 mil from Gumbert, Faber and Trucks that I'll never use.

I do have the best Johnson at SP1 and 46 Newhouser was a good add at SP2 (debated between him and 36 Hubbell) but then I have 47 Dickson and 27 Luque after that.  Ugh.  Some decent arms in the pen with 10 Pfeister, 40 Fitzsimmons and 40 Tot Pessnell but no studs...34 Haines might get a few guys out.  Take out the deadweight and I have 1579 IP at 1.07 WHIP.  Don't think that's gonna be good enough.

Keeping 36 Mancuso as my catcher...he was the best one and he got me 36 Ott for the OF.  The 15 Chase is serviceable but I wanted to upgrade--originally had 29 Fonseca but couldn't afford him so gonna use 46 Greenberg.  Got a good part-time Red--and added 46 Doerr (thx, Wally Moses).  32 Cronin and 46 Kell will work on the left side of the IF.  Wanted 3 upgrade OFs but had to keep 10 Schulte (who got me Pfeister) so added Ott and 46 Cullenbine.  Tried to work 46 Williams in there but couldn't afford it.  Hitting total is 292/373/475.  Also probably not good enough.

First I must say I love Schwarze's drafts - this one was a challenge.  Lots of innings and lots of salary.  I just tried to collect lots of team-mate options so that I would have greater flexibility as the draft went on.  Not deciding on a Johnson until to the end was a great help because I knew I could use a "serviceable" Johnson or dump him.  Greatest challenge towards the end was trying to get a usable SS or 3B in Cronin or Kell so that I could use an extra team-mate.  Not ideal but got a good fielding Kell that will work.  I have $8M in garbage time players - did a good job minimizing that however settled for some of the adequate pitching that was available.  Very happy with the batters that I ended up with that should offset the pitching.

 

Who I am using  (Normalized stats)

Hitters - $63.9M

  C - 1935 Jimmie Foxx   336 - 448 - 626  (Moses)
1B - 1937 Johnny Mize  359 - 425 - 595  ( Haines)
2B - 1915 Eddie Collins  340 - 463 - 466  (Faber)
SS - 1937 Dick Bartell  301 - 366 - 469  (Fitzsimmons)
3B - 1945 George Kell 275 - 308 - 375  
OF - 1935 Wally Moses 315 - 364 - 436  (Platoon)
OF - 1918 Frank Schulte  293 - 409 - 394  (Platoon)
OF - 1946 Stan Musial  369 - 434 - 600  (Dickson)
OF - 1937 Joe Medwick 369 - 413 - 641  (Haines)

Who I am using  (Normalized stats)

Pitchers - $55.8M

SP - 1915 Red Faber  316 IP,  1.25 WHIP,  .16 HR/9.
SP - 1925 Dolf Luque  309 IP,  1.12 WHIP,  .24 HR/9.
SP - 1914 Eddie Cicotte  284 IP,  1.14 WHIP,  .00 HR/9.  (Chase)
SP - 1937 Cliff Melton  265 IP,  1.08 WHIP,  .37 HR/9.  (Fitzsimmons)
SP - 1925 Walter Johnson  246 IP,  1.21 WHIP,  .34 HR/9.    (BIG BAT)
RP - 1946 Murry Dickson  192 IP,  1.17 WHIP,  .47 HR/9.
RP - 1915 Ed Walsh  29 IP,  1.00 WHIP,  .00 HR/9.  (Faber)

I panicked and went for the last usable Johnson early.  On;y njbigwig didin't have his and felt he would grab him becausehe had salary cap room to grab him.  I originally was going to use 5 of my available buddies on starting position players and then the other four on pitching.  I even had my 60 million on players and 60 million on pitching.  I thought there would be more even distribution of drafting between players and pitchers.   I was wrong.  it was heavier than I have seen (at least perceived) than the other drafts on overall pitching.  There was not enough cheap pitching left to draft at the end.  I have over 30 million of unusable pithcing that I will need to play.

My goal is not to have the worst record in the league.  Very unsatisfying.  Congratulations to others on successful drafting.  Live and learn.

When I chose 1920 C. Jamieson my intention was to use four and maybe five of his Indian team mates (Coveleski, Speaker, Chapman, O'Neill and maybe Duster Mails).  I ended up  being able to use only C Steve O'Neill.

I chose 1910 Hal Chase in the first round because I wanted 1910 Russ Ford who has always been a stud starter for me.  I probably could have waited and still taken him later.

I took Fitzsimmons in the 2nd because I wanted Mel Ott and had a crazy pipe dream about Bill Terry.  In the the 3rd it was the epic Big Johnson pull.  I took 1920 Johnson because he was a decent long reliever for me in a couple other progressives. in the 4th I chose 1905 Schulte to acquire Reulbach and Frank Chance since I had given up on Bill Terry.   In the 5th I chose terrible hitting, above average fielding George Kell in order to get Joe Berry who will be my closer.  I was thinking I would bench Kell and use Cronin at 3B and Chapman at SS.  In the 6th round I decided to take 1927 Jesse Haines as my 3rd starter and obtain OF Hafey.  Big Mistake.

After that my draft position plummeted,  all strategy went out the window and I made a mad dash to try and get the cheapest pitchers I could before getting stuck with some humungous salaries.  There were no 3B Cronins left forcing me to use George Kell,  a crummy Red Schoendienst and a decent hitting iron glove Joe Cronin as my infield.

I should have paid more attention to the players and years chosen by other owners. I didn't pay much attention until the draft was underway.  I really didn't notice how many expensive really rotten pitchers there were.  If I could have chosen a couple below $1M pitchers instead of $5M+ pitchers I will be forced to use I could used  1920 Tris Speaker and 1930 Bill Terry (maybe).

My first mistake was the year of player that I chose.  In 1920, Red Faber had some good teammates and that's what I focused on.  It wasn't until about a third of the way in that I realized I was going to have to start him. lol.  Next I realized that while I thought I had a lot of money left, at $2-3 million a pop for remaining players, it was going to add up fast.  So than started the scramble.  Get the cheapest players I can.  squeezed under the cap, didn't have any money left for a closer though so it's going to be my little johnson holding everyone at bay.  Hope I hit well.

C  Ray Schalk           .270, .362, .348 (Faber)
1b Jimmie Foxx         .349, .462, .704 (Cronin)
2b Eddie Collins         .372, .438, .493 (Faber)
3b George Kell           .311, .379, .423
ss Joe Cronin            .325, .428, .536
of  Joe Jackson         .382. .445, .589 (Faber)
of  Babe Herman        .393. .455, .678 (Luque)
of  Happy Felsch        .338, .384, .540 (Faber)

start to get queasy when I look at my pitching.  Maybe I'll be able to stomach them tomorrow.