Team Building Strategies - Page 2 - WIS Championship

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70 mil--Speedy Stonehands

I'm not an owner who pays much attention to defense (which is probably why I never do well in this tournament) so this theme didn't bother me. I always go with speed at the low cap and this team was no exception with 455 RL SBs. HoJo of course at SS plus an Alomar I've used before. Brock, Cedeno and LeFlore steal a ton of bases...hopefully they will get on base plus a cheap Edgar to help knock them in. 82 Wathan was an A+ arm with 35+ SBs to boot. I seemed to miss the boat with the low cost pitching cookies, going instead with a 5-man rotation of high-K (relatively) guys. All are modern so we're vulnerable to the long ball so I decided to play at Target Field. I think we're going to give up too many runs to compete though, after reading other descriptions.

Hitting: 293/376/421, 455 SBs
Pitching: 1299 IP, 1.14, .241, 123 HR

80 mil--From Alomar to Zinn

Started with pitching--wanted four starters in the 7 mil range so ended up with 64 Horlen (who I love), 10 Lee, 09 Morgan and 80 Sutton. Quiz and Urbina filled some odd letters in the bullpen and Art Nehf gives quality innings. Went the speed route again on offense with 89 HoJo leading the way again. Sorry, Addie. Carter, Boggs and Dilone were popular B-D choices. Added Raines, Fain, Alomar again and Ellsbury for even more speed and OBP.

Hitting: 300/383/425, 306 SBs
Pitching: 1329 IP, 1.01, .218, 81 HR

90 mil--02 Red Sox, 92 Cubs, 98 Marlins

I knew right away that I wanted the 02 Red Sox for my good team. Gives two top end starters with Pedro and Lowe plus good seasons from Wakefield, Manny and Nomar. Had the popular 10 M's and 98 Rockies with them but wasn't crazy about the bullpens or the catchers. So I poked around some more, remembering that the 98 Marlins could use full season Piazza and Sheff plus a usable Todd Zeile at 3rd and couple decent bullpen options. That left me gaps at 1b/2b and the rest of the rotation so after poking around, the 92 Cubs seemed to work with a great Maddux plus Grace and Sandberg. So, I have a lineup of Piazza, Grace, Sandberg, Zeile, Nomar, Manny, Sheff and Cliff Floyd. Pedro, Lowe and Maddux are strong 1-3 although Frank Castillo is my 4th starter (ugh). Bullpen is only fair.

Hitting: 290/364/484, 203 HR, 84 SB
Pitching: 1356 IP, 1.07, .217, 92 HR

100 mil--Greg Colbrunn

Tried the popular choices--Chipper, Rickey, etc.--right off the bat but wasn't sold on them so started looking for low-salary journeymen with links to some good teams. Had a great Jose Vizcaino team built until I realized this was a DH league. Sigh. Then I found Colbrunn. Need pitching--he gives you 96 Brown, 97 Maddux, 01 Unit and 92 El Presidente plus strong bullpen pieces with Nen, Rojas, Kim and Rafael Soriano. My catchers are weak--although Damian Miller has an A arm--and I have to use 96 Colbrunn, but the rest of the lineup is strong with 03 Edgar at DH, 92 DeShields at 2b, 98 Vinny at 3b, 97 Blauser at SS and an OF of Walker, Sheff and Ichiro. If nothing else, it's an entertaining experiment.

Hitting: 304/380/492, 216 HR, 131 SB
Pitching: 1389 IP, 0.99, .210, 72 HR

110 mil--Beantown Giants

I didn't really put much effort into this team--and didn't even pick Hornsby, which was a poor oversight. Good rotation of Pedro, Lowe, Dutch and Christy with the great Giant arms in the pen. A lot of power in the lineup--which will probably be defeated by the wealth of deadball arms. Dietz, McCovey, Kent, Nomar, Boggs, Ott, Kevin Mitchell and 19 Ruth. The dual franchise team killed me last year--hoping not to repeat that fate this season.

Hitting: 314/419/551, 232 HR
Pitching: 1433 IP, 0.88, .190, 44 HR

120 mil--Puzzle Wrapped in an Enigma

Man, what a pain in the *** this theme was. Again, I had a what I thought was a good team put together, went to enter it and thought "why is there a DH slot in my lineup"? Sigh. Back to the drawing board. The pitching was easier here--08 Joss, 98 Maddux, 00 Pedro and 14 Kershaw makes a strong rotation with 50 Hearn, 40 Bonham and Cisco Carlos in the 'pen. Not sure that's quite enough quality innings. The hitting drove me crazy--I knew I didn't want to platoon infielders so I have 97 Piazza, 2011 Miggy, 36 Gehringer and 87 Ozzie. 1898 John McGraw was a good option for that PA bracket. OF is a platoon mess of Bonds, Cullenbine, Kaline and a couple of Williamses. Alex McKinnon (who?) and 08 Buck Herzog will get some PT.

Hitting: 332/439/512, 183 HR, 172 SB
Pitching: 1494 IP, 0.97, .211, 75 HR

8/2/2015 11:04 PM (edited)

thehuseman

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$70 Mil - Hitmen Can't Field: For the most part, I tried finding value with players with good glove, no range defense. The only exception was I wanted one guy with good range to play CF. I try to balance the team, with the best OPS+ I can find without depending on HR's, and at least a couple guys with speed. I started with platoon guys, but quickly realized that wouldn't work well, so I did get mostly everyday guys. (I did accidentally find '71 Kaline, great OPS+, not a ton of power, 500 PA's. I have him on this team and the $80 mil, curious to see how he works out). '07 Hartsel and '78 Burroughs should keep the #2/3 spots in the lineup all season, and '94 Lange takes a spot at the bottom of the order, with plenty of PA's to play CF and be my main speed threat. I have always done well with '82 Smalley as a cheap SS with some power and good glove who can play most every day. The remaining lineup spots will require some micromanaging. I like the top 4 of my rotation, with '92 Tewksbury, '24 Collins, '26 Alexander and '11 Steele all having good WHIP+ and relatively low HR/9. '23 Piercy gives me innings at the 5th SP spot, should be a long guy if I make the playoffs. I went cheap with the bullpen, but do have McCabe and '06 Maddux to try and hold all leads.

5616 PA's, .281/.388/.394, 80 HRs, 164 SBs; 1392 IP, 1.16 WHIP, 0.34 HR/9

$80 Mil - Hitmen ABC's: I went with many guys who have done well for me in the past, with '85 Gore, '09 Zobrist, '14 Lennox, '08 Bresnahan, '82 Smalley again, '08 Joss, and '20 Adams. I went with '89 Raines as a guy who can be my #2 hitter and be my second steals threat, even if it meant no Manny. Again, no real HR threats outside of Zobrist, but I did manage to maintain 8 regulars and a relatively cheap bench, with a little bit of OBP and speed when needed. '27 Hoyt fit in perfectly as my #3, and went with a slew of sub-$2 million RPs with value at WHIP+ and HR/9 to fill my innings.

5748 PA's, .281/.385/.423, 108 HRs, 223 SBs; 1393 IP, 1.06 WHIP, 0.27 HR/9

$90 Mil - 75 Reds, 96 Jays, 10 M's: I spent the most time between this team and the Clone team. First, I wanted to find an Ugly with a couple studs. My first choice was a DBacks team with a stud R Johnson and Finley. I just couldn't really find the perfect combo of Good/Bad to go with it, my almost final attempt had an 80's Dodger team with Guerrero and Hershiser, and a Red Sox team with Tom Gordon (ugh) as the ace. When I blew up everything, I found the '10 Mariners had 2 aces (Lee, Felix) and a very good Ichiro. Knowing I needed a ton of hitting, went right to the Big Red Machine years, finally settling on '75. 6 of my starters were easily covered with Rose, Griffey, Morgan, Bench, Foster, and Perez. Needing 2 more SP's, I think I literally did a search from '69 to'14 of SPs ranked by WHIP+, and the first Ugly that had two listed was the '96 Jays (Hentgen, Guzman), and had some much needed bullpen help. I used Concepcion and Otis Nixon to fill holes at SS and CF with cheap speed (ichiro was suddenly too expensive), and Fister gave me a tolerable #5 while helping get the SEA part of the roster to 20 mil.

Now that I look at it, I wonder if the pitching will be a problem on this team.

5787 PA's. .287/.371/.427, 127 HR's, 208 SB's; 1480 IP, 1.16 WHIP

$100 Mil - Chipper Clones of Larry Jones: I went very wrong with this one originally, looking for utility guys with low PA seasons and can fill a lineup spot or two. Settled on Counsell originally. Stud pitching,great middle of the lineup, poor 7-9 spots, and alot of wasted PA's. Due the search for my Good/Bad/Ugly team, I decided I'd try to find someone from the '97 Braves team because of their stud pitching, Chipper, and Javy. After the utility guys didn't work, enter Chipper Jones. Once I noticed he can fill 4 lineup spots, it got much easier. The '97, '00, and '02 versions give me everyday power/OPS at 3B, OF, and DH. Kenny Lofton gives me a good leadoff hitter. '02 Sheffield gives me value in the middle of the lineup. Galarraga gives me a relatively cheap useable 1B. The '00 Furcal/Veras combo give me cheap speed at 2B and, when Chipper '96 needs a breather, SS. I got my lineup. I got my stud staff of Maddux/Neagle/Glavine '97 and Millwood '02. I've got plenty of great bullpen guys. With a little cash leftover, I subbed '97 Blauser for '96 Chipper at SS. Maybe it will work. Maybe I should've upgraded a SP. I will see.

6689 PA's, .304/.389/.486, 222 HRs, 167 SBs; 1488 IP, 1.11 WHIP

$110 Million - Indian Red Sox: This one was easy for me to determine my two teams. I'm not that creative, so the team with Addie Joss has to be #1, and my hometown team has over 100 years of players to work with. I've had success with '02 Bernard and '14 Leonard in the past, so the only new addition to my rotation is '86 Clemens. With $110 million, I thought I could put anyone in my lineup. Turns out, I had to go with OPS+ value guys in several spots. '10 Speaker is a value guy in the leadoff spot, now as much speed as I'd like. '10 Nap at #2, '68 Yaz at #3, and '40 Jimmie foxx at #5/6 are my luxury buys. '44 Johnson, '07 Flick, '54 Rosen, '41 Cronin are my value buys. I filled my bullpen with a bunch of <3 Mill relievers, and my team was all set. Somehow, no Pedro, no Teddy Ballgame.

6329 PA's, .311/.403/.478, 156 HRs, 155 SB's; 1506 IP, 0.92 WHIP, 0.32 HR/9

$120 Million - Puzzled Hitmen: I'm not really sure what my plan was, other than find value and balance as much as I could, using OBP+ and OPS+ as my guide. Because of the balance, the lineup is pretty much based on higher PA's = higher in the order. '91 Hamilton, '85 Gore, '75 Morgan and '05 Wagner give me plenty of OPS and plenty of speed while not relying on HRs. The bottom 5 spots give me a little more HR power and much less speed, but still excel at OBP+ and OPS+. I think it was more of the same with the pitching. '08 Joss, and find the best values I can at each IP bracket using WHIP+ and HR/9 as my guide. I've got a rotation of Joss, '45 Wolff, '28 Braxton and '75 Perry. The relief corps is pretty stacked, 2 mopup guys to free up cash elsewhere. so far, even at 0-1, I like this team.

6343 PA's, .336/.440/.500, 132 HRs, 390 SB's; 1526 IP, 0.98 WHIP, 0.29 HR/9

8/3/2015 12:21 PM

jw183003ou

Posts: 61 (0)

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$70m – Out of Range 2015

Not much to share here. This team was cookie cutter (Joss, Raines, Hojo, Summers…), plus I normally choose D level range for my $70m teams anyway, so this was my quickest team to put together. The name comes from a very similar team I used for the $60m theme in last year’s tourney (it was my only World Series winning team). Since most owners will likely have similar teams, success or not will depend on how diligent I am with daily management (my IP and PA are lower than normally needed, though Petco should relieve that somewhat). I just hope I haven’t missed any obvious strategies with this theme in my haste.

$80- Next Time Won’t You Sing With Me

For me, this theme wasn’t as easy as the $70m, because once I filled the team with my favorites, I struggled to find quality with the remaining alphabet. That caused me to mix it up a bit, but this team still looks like your run-of-the-mill open league team. My toughest decision was 3B. I wanted Boggs, but ultimately went with Ontiveros due to more choices at “B”. The other tough decision was letting ’75 Carter loose at catcher in favor of an Inge/Wooten combo due to lack of worthy “I” choices. When all was said and done the only notable players that I’ve never used before are the Inge/Wooten catcher combo and my Eric Erickson, Jack Quinn, Max Lanier middle relievers. I’m very surprised there were not more Zobrists selected. I would have guessed over 75.

I’m hoping Crosley field +1/+1hr will boost Cravath, Zobrist, and Berkman a bit while still preserving my pitching.

This $80m pitching staff is very similar to my $70m staff so it either bodes real well for my $70m team or “spells” disaster for this one.

$90 – 10 Mariners Catch 96 Brave Marlins

This is the theme where I’m most interested in seeing how the other owners put together teams. I struggled with finding a “Good” team to go with what I determined (probably incorrectly) to be the obvious Bad and Ugly choices (96 Marlins and 10 Mariners…The M&Ms).

I spent more time with this theme than any other, specifically with choosing the “Good” team. My first mistake was beginning with Good teams and then trying to slot in missing players with Bad and Ugly teams. I started with the 85 Cards and pretty much tried every team at the top of the most chosen list that Schwarze published. No matter which Good team I chose, I always ended up with the 96 / 10 M&Ms for the Bad and Ugly. I wanted 04 Big Unit or 72 Carlton but the rest of those Ugly rosters were impossibly ugly for me (Many owners didn’t seem to have the same problem though, so again, I can’t wait to see those rosters). This is when I decided to lock in the M&Ms and find the best “Good” team that fills in the problem spots left over. That meant 1 - 2 starters, 2 relievers, 3B, and possibly OF.

It came down to the 2002 Redsox, 98 and 01 Yanks, and 96 Braves (several owners used ’97 and ’98 Braves instead which makes me nervous). Other teams fit the bill, but I couldn’t get under the salary cap and still include key players. 2002 Pedro and Lowe didn’t leave me enough IPs (more on those two later!), 98 and 01 Yanks came close but ultimately I went with the 96 Braves for their two stud pitchers (Smoltz and Maddux). That also allowed me to use the 1.86 whip 103IP version of Cliff Lee instead of the 2.25 / 212IP version. In hindsight, I think I screwed up because I totally overlooked the 69 Orioles. Brooks Robinson, Don Buford, Cuellar, McNally and 2 relievers from that team would have fit perfectly. Instead, I actually ended up spending more in salary on the 96 Marlins than the 96 Braves. Oh well. At least Petco should moderate things, but I have the least confidence in this squad.

$100 – The Henderson Sextuplets

Rickey Henderson immediately popped in my head when I read the theme title, before I even read the description. I built a few Rickey teams, chose the one I liked best and never looked back. I honestly didn’t consider anyone else. It was hard to pass up on 93 Olerud and Molitor. McGwire and Nomar had to be skipped also to fit the cap. Even after looking at all the other owner choices, I still would choose Rickey (I hope I feel the same after the season!) A few cool things I realized while building this team.

- I didn’t even know Rickey was on three of the six teams I used. 93 WS winning Blue Jays, 02 Redsox (Lowe and Pedro), 03 Dodgers.

- The 89 A’s bullpen was filthy.

- The DH here is huge especially for Mike Norris who never had a hit in his career. I used him in an open league once and I think he was something like 0 for 75!

- Ricky Henderson’s 1,406 career stolen bases are 468 more than Lou Brock, who has the second highest total in MLB history. Only 25 post 1910 players have more career stolen bases than the 468 difference! Those are Jerry Rice numbers.

$110 – Yankees and Indians

The Yankees were a definite from the start because I always try to roster a Babe Ruth on higher salary leagues. I matched the Yankees with White Sox, Phillies, and Dodger teams but the Indians teams sim’d slightly better. So once again, Joss prevailed. It’s amazing how few offensive studs have played for the White Sox over the last 114 years (guess you could say the same about the other Chicago club)! With about $55m to spend on pitching, it’s hard to not like the results. ’10 Russ Ford and ’68 Tiant will do fine matched with Joss. I think the final results of this team will depend on how the Cleveland open league cookies Alomar, Vizquel, and Segui perform against the best pitchers in history. I’m a bit nervous. I chose Jacobs field over the others, but I honestly don’t remember why.

$120 – Chub Rod Johnson Dickey Blue

This theme took me out of my comfort zone. Using players from eras that I rarely use (1940 – 70) and PA and IP values that I rarely use (750+, 200 – 400PA and multiple 100 – 200 IP) was difficult more me. First I have to thank mpitt76 for sending a note a couple of weeks back about checking for errors. I checked and I found one. While addressing the error, one thing led to another, and my ENTIRE team was different except for ’08 Joss, ’95 Maddux, ’38 Dizzy Dean, and 1888 Chamberlain who all immediately scream at you no matter how you sort your searches.

My original team had a lot of L/R combos so I could platoon, but I didn’t like the players. I threw that out the window for all lefties and switch hitters, except for two bench guys. Lefty pitchers be damned!

Toward the end I was getting a bit frustrated and was nearing the Sunday deadline so ended up with some aspects that are out of character for me: Subpar fielding for a $120m league and no A/A+ CS catcher. Bottom line, I have a weird and uncomfortable lineup that will need constant tweaking.

8/3/2015 7:15 PM

jmissirlis

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I have no idea how I logged in as Staff. Anyway, the last post is me. Good luck all.

8/3/2015 7:35 PM

schwarze

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I was really hoping to hear from brianjw in this thread.

8/5/2015 10:54 AM

slainte

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Posted by schwarze on 8/5/2015 10:54:00 AM (view original):
I was really hoping to hear from brianjw in this thread.

Yes, my notepad is ready!

8/6/2015 12:53 AM

bardin

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Well, I'm not brianjw, but I do have some comments about my teams:

70Mil Unslugging Sluggardly Sluggards

For the hitters, I had four goals, 1). Find bargains (duh), 2). Have some speed, but not too much (I guessed there would be lots of A+ catchers), 3). Grab the ’74 Tenace as my catcher for his really, really cheap power and A+ arm, and 4). Platoon at 1B and at least one OF spot. I also could not abide by any D- fielding or range, although some D-s are of course worse than others. But I was able to find plenty of D+ range OFs that I considered bargains. In fact, everyone on my team is a D+ range except for Hojo at 3B (who I just couldn’t pass up for his power and speed and cheapness), and my middle infield of Kid Elberfeld and Miller Huggins, both of whom are A range, but D+ fielding. I think the errors will be within reasonable tolerances.

For the pitching, there were no restrictions of course, so I just tried to grab the normalized best pitching staff I could for this price, keeping the homers to a minimum. The ’72 Steve Kline and ’07 Tully Sparks seem to work well for this level, but I see that many owners were able to get some cheap deadball pitching with better raw numbers than I have. I guess we shall see if normalization or deadball raw numbers gets better results. One other thing I felt was that I didn’t want to short myself to ridiculously on innings; I think the hitting will be better than everyone thinks, so I probably have more innings than most.

I expect this team to be in playoff contention and maybe make it with an 86-76 record.

Hitters: 5167 PA, .268 AVG, .387 OBP, .432 SLG 144 HR, 138/106 SB/CS
Pitchers: 1399 IP, 2.38 ERA 1.08 WHIP, .232 OAV, 0.37 HR/9

80Mil Abercrombie Benjamin Christopher

I had similar goals for this team that I did for the 70Mil team, even including the ’74 Tenace! The platoon 1B allowed me to use one of my favorite cookes, the ’90 Jake Virtue, as part of the platoon, which is nice because ‘V’ is not the easiest letter to fill. Same with Elmer Flick in the OF. One cool thing about WISC is that you get to admire some players of the past who were not necessarily hall-of-famers… but they were pretty damn good players. Elmer Flick is definitely one of those guys; had many good years which was even more impressive in the ‘00s.

For pitching, I tried Joss but sorry… I just wasn’t comfortable with how the rest of the pitching looked. So my team is anchored around the ’33 Carl Hubbell, another one of my favorites, and ‘H’ isn’t that easy to fill either. This team didn’t take too long to build. I focused on my favorite bargains (in my opinion) and filled in the rest.

I expect this team to be pretty boring, but grind their way to the playoffs with an 89-73 record.

Hitters: 5176 PA, .290 AVG, .382 OBP, .449 SLG 115 HR, 167/149 SB/CS
Pitchers: 1414 IP, 2.15 ERA 1.04 WHIP, .235 OAV, 0.32 HR/9

90Mil Redsox-Cubs-Marlins of 02-92-98

This was the second hardest theme for me. I started with the ’64 Dodgers with Koufax and Drysdale… thought they would be a great “bad” team… until I realized that the theme is 1966 thru 2014, so ugh, that was out. I tentatively wanted to go with the ’02 RedSox as my “good” team due to the 2 stud starters of Pedro and Lowe, plus Wakefield is pretty good, and there are a couple decent relievers too. And the hitting on this team is very solid, including Nomar at SS, never an easy position to fill. But before I committed to them, I had to find that ugly team. I tried the ’72 Phillies with Carlton, but… that is absolutely all they have, and I didn’t want to sacrifice 5mil of crap just to use that one stud pitcher. There really weren’t too many “ugly” teams so for me, the choice came down to the ’98 Marlins or the ’10 Mariners. The ’98 Marlins had a stud catcher and a stud OF to use, plus I was able to cobble together a decent 3-man 3B platoon as well (with Dave Berg, Todd Zeile, and Bobby Bonilla), which is always nice for roster construction. Additionally, the ’98 Marlins had two decent relievers; not great; but very useable, so that was about 150 innings of contribution. The ’10 Mariners had Felix and Cliff Lee… and that was it. Ok, Ichiro, but I didn’t like his value… at all. Still, two good starters is tough to pass up. It would mean that I couldn’t use the ’02 RedSox. So tentatively, I had the ’02 RedSox and ’98 Marlins. If I could just find that “bad” team to match things up, then I thought I would be pretty happy with the results. One other owner went down this very path, and came up with the exact same matching team I did: the ’92 Cubs. I needed a 1B, a 2B, a good SP, and a closer. The Cubs had Mark Grace, Ryne Sandberg, Greg Maddux, and Dennis Rasmussen to fill those spots. I needed one more SP so I chose Mike Morgan to be my 4th starter.

I’m pretty happy with this team. Perhaps 91-71 = playoffs.

Hitters: 5343 PA, .305 AVG, .385 OBP, .508 SLG 197 HR, 73/28 SB/CS
Pitchers: 1398 IP, 2.83 ERA 1.09 WHIP, .222 OAV, 0.57 HR/9

100Mil Miggy and his Peeps
This was the toughest theme for me. I tried to find a player that would encompass lots of good pitchers. The best one I found was Orlando Cepeda, who was a teammate of the ’66 Marichal, the ’68 Gibson, and the ’72 Catfish Hunter. But I had two major problems: Cepeda was clogging up my 1B and his defense in the OF was terrible, and also, there was absolutely no other pitching to speak of from anywhere else.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I learned quickly that the cloned player himself needed to be someone who either had lots of terrible 200K years, or someone who was a stud but could play multiple positions. I tried Jim Leyritz but his teammates were terrible. I tried Mike Stanley who had some good years at C and 1B but was terrible in the OF, and also didn’t have enough good pitching teammates. Ok, of course I looked long and hard at Chipper Jones, but the problem is that you can only use Maddux once and the other pitchers weren’t that terrific (although some of course are pretty good). I tried ManRam which gives access to the RedSox ’02 year, and some good hitting in Cleveland, but the pitching from Cleveland was non-existent. There just wasn’t enough to make me even close to comfortable.
Finally, I tried what apparently is not a very popular choice, but Miguel Cabrera had one great year in the OF (2004, with acceptable defense), a great year at 3B (2007, again with acceptable defense), a great year at 1B in 2011, and a great year in 2013 but with terrible defense, so that was his DH year. He also had a decent platoon season in 2003 in the OF. So that’s 2 OF, 1 3B, 1 1B, and 1 DH years. A pretty good spread for the clone. From those 5 years, I had a couple great choices at C (I chose Victor Martinez in 2011), Hanley Ramirez at SS (great year), Luis Castillo at 2B (just ok), and Juan Pierre to play CF (his best year), and Cody Ross could fill that last OF platoon. The hitting looked really good.

For the pitching, I was able to use Verlander from 2011 and Scherzer from 2013, who are my two best starters. Also, Doug Fister from 2011 is very solid. The Marlins contributed a closer in Armando Benitez in ’03 and two excellent relievers in Spooneybarger and Urbina in ’04, plus Detroit had three solid relievers in ’13. It all sort of came together. Just needed to fill in with Anibal Sanchez as my 4th starter… ok, and A.J. Burnett as my 5th starter. But they aren’t bad. I’m hopeful the pitching will be good enough. I think it will because I just don’t think there was a particularly better combination out there.

Still, I’m worried. This team could very well go 80-82 and miss the playoffs.

Hitters: 6096 PA, .321 AVG, .392 OBP, .515 SLG 222 HR, 132/63 SB/CS
Pitchers: 1409 IP, 2.63 ERA 1.03 WHIP, .207 OAV, 0.61 HR/9

110Mil That’s A Giant Philly

This was the easiest theme for me. The Giants were an easy choice. Love that Toney/Schupp/Nehf/Hearn combo along with Christy Mathewson. That is great pitching, plus a great distribution of roster spots. The Giants also have Hornsby at 2B for one great year, and Ott is a good 3B too. Barry Bonds also, but he would be too expensive. I really like the ’10 Snodgrass, he is always money for me, and Chief Meyers at C is pretty awesome too. For the other team, I went with the Phillies who also have some of my favorite cookies in Cravath and Kruk, plus the ’15 Pete Alexander is great. Finished this team in a day. The promptly started the season 0-6, uh oh…
I’m still reasonably confident in this team and think they’ll go 88-74, possibly making the playoffs.

Hitters: 5516 PA, .328 AVG, .421 OBP, .506 SLG 133 HR, 149/156 SB/CS
Pitchers: 1471 IP, 1.49 ERA 0.86 WHIP, .195 OAV, 0.17 HR/9

120Mil Order Good, Chaos Bad

This theme was probably the most fun for me. I like platoons and mixing and matching my roster, so this theme was right up my alley.
For the hitting, Wade Boggs seemed to be the best option for the over 750 slot, and then the ’50 Eddie Stanky for the 700-749 slot. This filled two hard-to-fill positions and was especially happy to not have to worry about the 50s. One of my other favorites in this game is the ’90 Swartwood. I am not a fan of any of the 1894 hitters; their normalization is terrible. Then it was just a matter of filling up the rest of the roster with lots of part-timers. Who would have thought that Fred Carroll and Yasmani Grandal would be a cool C platoon? How about a Gus Suhr/Bill Herman platoon at 1B? Weird, but somehow, those options worked out. I have about 5 OFs to fill 3 spots, and the ’06 Sammy Strang to fill in anywhere (although badly, so he’ll mostly DH).

For pitching: Addie Joss, duh. I decided to go with Pedro for the low 200 innings, and then the ’98 Maddux for the higher 200 innings. I probably should have gone with the ’95 Maddux and the ’85 Tudor instead, but… oh well. Kershaw seems to be the best option for the high 100 innings. Elton Chamberlain is really by far the best option for the low 100 innings. After that, just a mix and match of options. I chose 1920 to be the decade for my mopup pitcher.

I think this could be my best team: 93-69, playoffs.

Hitters: 6160 PA, .320 AVG, .433 OBP, .480 SLG 129 HR, 188/157 SB/CS
Pitchers: 1515 IP, 1.73 ERA 0.87 WHIP, .195 OAV, 0.34 HR/9

8/7/2015 9:40 PM

schwarze

Posts: 44817 (1)

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Geat writeup bardin. I hope others will contribute, even though we're a week into the season.

My favorite line... "Finished this team in a day. The promptly started the season 0-6, uh oh… "

8/8/2015 10:56 AM

markeking

Posts: 2318 (1)

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Veteran

I enjoy reading all of your strategies. It hardly seems fair that I repay that enjoyment by making your suffer through mine. But life is not fair. Teams are listed in the order I created them.

$70M “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game”   Current Record 13-14 (3d Place, 3 games out of the WC)
Offense: .266/.373/.389    290/368 SB
Pitching: 2.31/1.06/.239 (ERA/WHIP/OAV)    0.17 HR/9    1350 IP (excluding mop up)

I only play low cap leagues in this tourney. Over the years, I’ve learned a few tricks (pitcher friendly park; high OBA; lots of high percentage stolen bases; deadball starters). I employed all of them here. A rotation of 05 Joss, 09 Summers, 04 Hahn with 07 Johnson as the swing man. A bullpen anchored by 06 Maddux and 24 Adams. On offense, Henderson, Raines, Nixon, Boggs, Ruth, Morgan, Furcal and Tenace. Even with the fielding restrictions, this team didn’t take long to put together. I tended to take bad range over bad fielding. I don’t know if it was wise but I HATE seeing 4-5 errors a game. If I played more low caps I’d have known most of my choices are cookies. Thanks to Jeff’s tables, now I know. It may not be original but it is accomplishing my goal... don’t let this team kill my chances for Rd 2. If I don’t advance, it won’t be because of this team.

$80M “X does not mark the spot”   Current Record 13-14 (3d Place, 2 games out of the WC)
Offense: .293/.393/.442    319/393 SB
Pitching: 2.30/1.06/.228 (ERA/WHIP/OAV)    0.18 HR/9    1355 IP (excluding mop up)

These days I don’t play many $80M leagues either. So I mostly wanted to play it safe with this choice as well. Imagine my feelings when it bounded out of the gate with one win in its first 9 games. Since then its gone 12-6 to claw most of the way back to .500. I started out with a lot of the usual suspects but slowly traded in the SP until I may have created a team that will never really contend. On offense I have Coleman, Henderson, Raines, Weiss, Zobrist to give me speed and OBA. Because I wanted Raines I had to sacrifice Ruth (a mistake I think). In the heart of the order I have great OPS (at reasonable prices) with Foxx (C), Edgar Martinez (1B) and Thome (3B). Only Thome and Zobrist have disappointed so far. My starting staff is ’88 Ewing, ’15 Benz, 09 Pelty and 09 Krause. Only Krause and Benz have satisfied. So far, Pelty is a disaster. Mostly effective no-names in the pen with Quantrill and Latman the only standouts. Statistically, this staff is no better than the one on the $70M club (even if it is a little more expensive). If I had a do-over I’d add Ruth, subtract Thome for Boggs, and beef up the rotation. Absent a do-over, I’ll be satisfied it this club treads water till the end.

$110M “PhillieGiants”   Current Record 16-11 (1st Place)
Offense: .301/.405/.514    123/197 SB      213 HR
Pitching: 1.49/0.86/.193 (ERA/WHIP/OAV)    0.23 HR/9    1455 IP (excluding mop up)

Like a lot of other writers, I knew I wanted to use the Giants. I’ve been in a lot of dual franchise leagues and feel pretty comfortable in this format (albeit at higher caps). The Giants offer Big Six, Toney and other great bullpen arms plus access to (relatively low priced) Bonds and Hornsby on offense. With that start, I immediately wanted the Red Sox to pair with them. Lots of great pitching along with Williams, Ruth and Boggs on offense. I thought it would build itself and it did, only at about a $122 million cap. As I trimmed here and there I ran into the familiar problem that I either had to have less effective pitching or offense than I wanted. I built and re-built it. Then one evening it suddenly occurred to me that the Phillies fit great with the Giants at this cap level. Alexander, McQuillan, Cormier and Wagner could pitch. Abreu (one of my all time favorites), Gravath and Magee (at SS no less) rounded out the offense. I added McCovey and Dietz from the Giants and this one really did build itself. To make the cap work (and get enough Phillie salary) I had to have Dave Hollins at 3B. He has disappointed even my modest expectations but he hits 8^th and does little harm. Overall, I’m very pleased with this team. The league is very competitive so it may not make the playoffs but I like its chances overall.

$100M “We’re Manny-rific!!”   Current Record 20-7 (1st Place)
Offense: .309/.409/.524    97/131 SB      248 HR
Pitching: 2.82/1.08/.219 (ERA/WHIP/OAV)    0.62 HR/9    1446 IP (excluding mop up)

I like clone themes (although I’m not particularly good at them) and I really enjoyed the challenge of this team. I tried most of the most popular combinations except for the bench guys which frankly never occurred to me. My first thought was Kenny Lofton. I liked the pitching I got with him along with the speed and defense. But the more I looked the more I worried it just wouldn’t score enough. Plus I had to use the Atlanta Lofton and his SB percentage that year was horrible. So moving on.... I next thought of Chipper. I build a good team with him and all the Atlanta pitching over the years. I had lots of Chippers (1B, 3B, SS, DH, OF, OF, OF) but the more I looked at this one, the more I worried the offense might not work over the long season. Chipper had a lot of injuries over the years and a lot of the positions would require extensive coverage from bench players. Also, Chipper’s OBA over some of the seasons was only good (not great). So moving on... I tried Manny Ramirez, mostly to prove to myself it couldn’t work. Not surprisingly, I was wrong. It seemed to work fine. 02 got me Pedro and Lowe, 10 got me Kershaw, Kuroda, Kuo and Jansen. 07 got me the Boston bullpen. Even 95 Cleveland got me my swing man (Clark) and Jose Mesa. The pitching staff seemed to work. On offense, there were a lot of affordable Mannys. 99, 02 and 07 are my OF. 95 is my DH and 10 is my swing Man(ny). I filled out the lineup with 99 Alomar and Vizquel, 95 Thome, 07 Ortiz (for 1b) and 07 Varitek to catch. The offense is quite good. True the defense is atrocious but I’m hoping it won’t matter greatly. So far so good, but even I can see this team is playing over its head. Still it has a 6 game lead. It might work (or not). Time will tell.

$90M “75reds/96marlins/10mariners”  Current Record 18-9 (1st Place)
Offense: .290/.383/.436    174/223 SB      135 HR
Pitching: 2.62/1.06/.226 (ERA/WHIP/OAV)    0.61 HR/9    1431 IP (excluding mop up)

    I started this team exactly one week before the final deadline. As I thought about it, it seemed to me that the Ugly squad would be the hardest of the three teams to find. Teams that bad generally don’t have enough talent to fill out the roster requirements. I spent the first few nights looking through every season from 1966 through 2014 on BR.com. Of all the ugly teams I zeroed in on the 2010 Mariners (for Hernandez, Lee, good bullpen arms, Ichiro and Figgins) and the 98 Marlins (full seasons of Sheffield, Piazza, Renteria and bullpen arms). I know that some people took the D-Backs for RJ and the Phillies for Carlton. I salute you. I wasn’t smart enough to see how to use them effectively.

   Then I started on the Bad teams. Of the ones I identified, several stood out. The 73 Braves had great hitting (Aaron, Johnson, Evans …) but no pitching. The 95 Orioles had a good mix of both (Mussina, Brown, Hoiles and Palmeiro). I was surprised they weren't used more. Then I looked at the 92 Cubs (a popular choice) with a great Maddux, Grace and Sandberg. Finally I liked the 96 Marlins with a great Kevin Brown, Nen, Sheffield and other useful parts.

    For the good teams I narrowed it to the 1975-76 Reds, 99 Indians (great hitting but no pitching), 85 Cards (Tudor plus hitting and speed) and the 81 Astros with their great pitching staff but lamentable hitting. I saw the 69 Orioles but felt like the Astros pitching was better if I was going in that direction.

With the pieces identified, it was time to put them together. It seemed clear if I started with the 98 Marlins as the Ugly team, I needed to use the 81 Astros for its pitching. The third team I found for them was the 73 Braves to fill out the lineup. It was a really good team but light on pitching and short on PAs. So I left that behind and started working with the 2010 Mariners. For a long time, I wanted to pair them with the 99 Indians offense and the pitching on the 95 Orioles. It was a really solid team. But the more I looked, the SP was missing a bona fide ace, the bullpen was below average and the fifth starter was pretty bad. I slid in the 92 Cubs and that seemed better. But Grace seemed a little light for a 1B and Sandberg’s OBA and salary were problematic. So I decided to go with the 96 Marlins and Kevin Brown. I also got Nen for the bullpen and Sheffield and Conine gave me good hitting for a relatively modest salaries. Then I focused on the Good team. The 99 Indians provided no pitching at all. More and more that seemed a problem. On reflection, the 75 Reds seemed exactly right. Nolan and Gullett helped the pitching staff and the Reds offered some good bullpen arms too. Of course Morgan, Rose, Bench and Foster set up the offense.

To come under the cap, I dropped Foster for Griffey Sr. Then Ichiro had to go (big salary, no power, questionable OBA) in favor of the economical Figgins (who plays out of position). It took the entire week to put it all together but I liked the end result. I’m not saying it’s the best possible combination but it’s the best I could do. It was a fun challenge. So I’m a winner regardless of the final record. Or at least that’s what I tell myself when my testosterone is critically low.

$120M “Befuddled Cavaliers”  Current Record 12-15 (3d Place, 2 games back in the WC race)
Offense: .311/.420/.523   145/233 SB      197 HR
Pitching: 1.68/0.88/.201 (ERA/WHIP/OAV)    0.291 HR/9    1533 IP (excluding mop up)

I started on this one at the last minute, almost literally. I tried putting it together late on the last night of the deadline after returning home from a vacation. Turns out, that’s suboptimal. I did the pitching first. It turned out pretty well. I completely forgot about Chamberlain but otherwise the lack of time didn’t hurt much. I’ve got Joss, Maddux, Baldwin and Harvey as SP. The pen contains Rivera, Burke, Blue, Bonham and Adams. Not fabulously original, but solid enough given the time I put in. For offense, I made some questionable choices. First, no Ruth or Boggs. At the last minute I moved Boggs out of the 750+ slot in favor of a much cheaper Pete Rose. I saved some money but Rose has been a big disappointment. Somehow I ended up with Glenn Myatt as my main catcher (not sure of the reasoning on that one). With those deficiencies, the offense is better than I have any right to expect. The team is limping along in the middle of the pack. It’s a missed opportunity. If I had allotted enough time to this team, I think it could have been pretty good. C’est la vie.

This is probably way too long but I’m too lazy to edit it. As always, kudos to Jeff for putting together a fantastic tourney with challenging themes and a strong field. If things turn out like they usually do, his hard work will likely result in a finish for me between 40 and 52. Its hard to go through life mediocre but even harder when someone concocts a test every year that confirms it. So thanks for that Jeff!

8/12/2015 1:38 AM

schwarze

Posts: 44817 (1)

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Great job markeking. It's not too late for others to still contribute.

8/12/2015 9:23 AM

EasyE7273

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Prospect

Ok, you asked for it...

I am going to try and take a crack at this but would not recommend trying this at home (as my record in the SIM is less than desirable). I realize that I do not belong with the group of owners that I am playing against in this tournament but it allows the common sim player to go up against the best and learn from them. I do enjoy the fact that this tournament takes me out of my comfort zone and utilize players I would never even think of using.

I'll preface my commentary by stating that I am down to playing in one theme league (Exclusive Ownership) that is usually around $100M cap. Other than that, I'll give the WIS Championship a shot on occasion and usually be eliminated by the all-star break. I am also a procrastinator and started each of my teams at the last minute which is never a good idea.

$70M (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) Pac Bell Park

Built my pitching staff first and ended up with only 1190 IP along with a 1.02 WHIP and .206 OAV. I was hoping that with the 10% bump the approximate 1300 innings would be enough. Decided to go with a 5 man rotation (what was I thinking?) featuring 1902 McGinnity and 2013 Strasburg. We will see how it goes.

I decided that I was going to go with poor fielders with excellent range in the starting lineup as I had some experience going this route before and never had used players with the opposite attributes. My hitter totals are kind of weak (4654 PA, .270 BA, .348 OBP, .726 OPS). Went with 1922 Cy Perkins at catcher to get the A+ arm I thought was needed. Lineup mostly features guys from 1920’s and earlier, nothing spectacular.

I made some terrible errors in my thought process and I do not believe I have enough PA or IP to get through the regular season without some major hits to the pitching staff. Team record currently stands at 14-13 which projects to 84 wins at this point. I think we’ll finish well below that due to some poor draft decisions.

$80M (Receipe for Disaster) Pac Bell Park

Ironically, I built this team relatively quickly. Again, I chose to build the pitching staff first and only drafted 1273 IP with a 0.96 WHIP and .204 OAV. For some reason I went with a five man rotation again and none have 200 IP/162. Took ’88 Eck to hold down the fort in the bullpen. There is a mix of old time and modern day pitchers. I simply tried to take a value approach here and there are no remarkable pitchers or superstars, just a bunch of guys I hope can get it done.

I somehow got sucked into thinking it would be a good idea to go with similar type players as in the $70M theme and would up selecting a lot of poor fielders with excellent range. Our lineup may short some plate appearances with hitter totals of 4843 PA, .269 BA, .358 OBP, and .744 OPS. This is not an improvement over the $70M cap team. I went with ’77 Tenace at catcher for the arm. Spread the cap money available amongst the 8 spots so there are no superstars. I went with ’75 Billy North and ’89 Roberto Alomar as table setters and so far, they have performed well for me.

As is the case with the $70M cap team, I’ve probably made some unfortunate decisions as to the number of PA and IP I chose to utilize and the fatigue factor will increase as the season progresses. At this point, we are 15-12 which would project to 90 wins at this pace. To me, that is a pipe dream as there is so much more of the season to play. I’d be happy with a .500 record in the end.

$90M (‘69BAL/’89PIT/’77NYM) Memorial Stadium

I had some difficulty with building this team and it was the last one I put together – on the final day of the deadline to have all six teams complete. I really was unsure as how to approach it. I started by trying to find a “good” team to fill most positions and figured I’d back fill the rest but I was not happy with anything I tried. I flip flopped and decided to start with the “ugly” team and work forward.

I never saw most of the teams that many owners chose, just did not have the time as I waited until the last minute. Once I hit on something, I went with it.

The ’77 Mets gave me just enough to get to the $20M minimum per team. Seaver cost over $9M so it isn’t hard to find another $11M of players to get it done. I took Mazzilli and Stearns and a couple of bench players and I was done. I was very happy with getting a catcher with the “bad” team along with a top SP.

Once I selected the ’77 Mets, the next thought was to find a compatible “bad” team. I looked at the ’86 Cardinals and ’97 Expos but ultimately decided on the ’89 Pirates. The Pirates provided some pitching I desperately needed in Drabek and Smiley in the rotation along with Kipper and Landrum in the bullpen. I added Bonds, Bonilla, and Van Slyke (not great but all three were good enough for me) along with a couple of more bench players.

I felt OK at this point knowing that I needed a team with some arms to get me through but I feared I would not be able to get my 1B, 2B, and SS on one team. It was late at night and close to deadline time. Quickly glanced at several teams (’81 Cards, ’85 Cards, ’73 Dodgers) and none were a good fit. Had a flashback – why not use one of the Orioles teams that I had researched while drafting my clone team. Voila, found that the ’69 Orioles worked best for me and was able to get Boog Powell at 1B, Davey Johnson at 2B, and Belanger at SS. Not too bad. Also grabbed Palmer and Cuellar and two bullpen arms and we were done.

I went a little overboard drafting 1513 IP to go with a 1.06 WHIP and .213 OAV. I considered these numbers to be acceptable at this cap. We are a little short with only 4813 PA for the batters along with only .262 BA, .343 OBP, and .746 OPS. I was not thrilled with the hitting for the team but it was late and I was done.

Team record of 13-14 projects to 78 wins. That is probably close to where this team will wind up. One of my biggest regrets was not spending more time researching for this theme and it will come back to bite me.

$100M (Paul Blair & Co.) Yankee Stadium III

I’m not going to lie to you, I went with an unconventional choice here. I looked at a few typical players – Rickey, Lofton, etc., but never really liked what I put together. It came down to Willie McGee and Paul Blair. In the end, I had to go with the better pitching so I took Blair. McGee offered some really good choices but I could not make it work the way I wanted.

Blair gave me the range I wanted in the OF and I took another two versions (one for DH and one for the bench). The latter two happened to be two seasons with the Yankees (’77 & ’78) which enabled me to match up well with the Orioles pitching.

I have nine O’s on the pitching staff and only ’78 Guidry makes it from the Yanks. Four man rotation of McNally, Cuellar, Guidry, and Hardin brings quality innings and I was able to fill the bullpen with decent enough arms. 1504 IP with a WHIP of 0.97 and .200 OAV is very solid.

I did compromise on my lineup again with this theme. I would have liked some better fielders but did not have enough funds. Settled for Nettles over Brooks at 3B. Was thrilled to get Munson at catcher. Hitter totals are a bit light at .282 BA, .338 OBP, and .762 OPS with 5439 PA. I did not get much value here, overpaid for low numbers.

Ironically, we are at 16-11 thus far which projects to 96 wins. It just goes to show you that fast starts do not necessarily mean a good overall record but with this staff, I feel fairly confident that we will compete for a playoff spot.

$110M (Red Birds & White Sox) Comiskey Park I

I found this team enjoyable – it required a lot less thought on my part! I seem to gravitate to White Sox players when I draft for whatever reason (I like using Horlen, Peters, and Doc White in my rotations). I only tried one or two teams before deciding on the Cardinals as my other choice. This cap level allows you to use some high end players but you still need to trim here and there. I was able to get all A+ range fielders which came at a cost of losing some pop but I prefer this way more often than not.

As usual, I selected the pitching staff first and batters last. Took ’85 Tudor and three White Sox noted above and threw ’89 DeLeon into the mix. Five Chi Sox make out the bullpen including Wilhelm and Carlos. Team pitching stats of 1569 IP, 0.94 WHIP, and .198 OAV are solid.

Choosing so many White Sox for the pitching staff compelled me to lean towards Cardinals for hitters as McGee, Rolen, and Pujols eat up some major cash and filled in with some lower cost White Sox players to balance out the lineup. Hitters numbers of .303 BA, .371 OBP, and .814 OPS are fairly strong at this cap level although Rolen and McCarver have been complete busts thus far.

This team is 16-11 to start the season, on pace for 96 victories. That would be nice but probably not realistic. I am thinking more like low-to-mid 80’s.

$120M (Decade of Decadence) – PNC Park

Wow, very well thought out theme from schwarze. Definitely out of my comfort zone as I tend to go with the typical 600+ PA and 200 IP guys with little to no bench. I really have no idea how this team will work out.

Once again, I built the pitching staff first. Like many I took 1908 Joss, 1888 Chamberlain, and 2014 Kershaw. Really wanted to fit Pedro but was unable to do so – had to settle for 2003 Jason Schmidt and ’68 McNally. Bullpen features ’77 Bruce Sutter and ’99 Billy Wagner. Pitching numbers came in at 1546 IP, 0.85 WHIP, and .184 OAV. Hoping this translates to some good SIM numbers at this cap level.

Hitting totals of .293 BA, .377 OBP, and .832 OPS appear to be a bit soft for this cap but I normally sacrifice the bat for the glove and this time was no different. Not sure why but I chose ’93 Dykstra as my 750+ hitter. I wanted a leadoff type for the first spot know I would have to platoon later down the lineup. Funny thing was that I forgot about the DH as I was building the lineup so my last two spots happen to go to 2008 Jim Edmonds and 1957 Woodie Held – made a lefty/right platoon for DH. Took 1885 Cap Anson at 1B, love using him a lot and was able to get him in at this cap. I squeezed 1987 Rickey and his 440 PA into the lineup. He will need to sit a lot but should produce nicely.

Another 16-11 record on pace for 96 wins. Again, probably overachieving at this point but will take it. I could see this team winning 90 or losing 90, no idea what will happen really.

So, there you have it. Some crazy thoughts and lack of time on some teams, will see how things go. Being ranked #76 brings low expectations but some dreams as well. Would like to finish in Top 50. Thanks again to Jeff for running such a interesting event, I cannot imagine the work that goes into this. I do not want to forget all the commissioners helping to check rosters and what not. It sure is a big chore. Good luck to everyone, I am glad to be a part of this.

8/12/2015 1:37 PM

schwarze

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Thanks EasyE... It's always fun to hear differing strategies.

8/12/2015 1:52 PM

brianjw

Posts: 1260 (0)

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Veteran

I've been away from my computer for a bit, and I couldn't bring myself to type this on a phone, but it looks like these are still tricking in...

70M - Aqua Profunda (Safeco)

This was fairly straightforward. My base $70M team has players who mostly meet the constraints, D/A fielders at 1B, 3B and CF (a little worse at 1B actually), 91 Ozzie (an A/D fielder) at SS, and whatever works at LF/RF/C. So it didn't need much tinkering to get it to work.

The trick was the pitching. At first, I thought I'd be looking for Ks to make up for the fielding. Then I remembered I wasn't changing the fielding that much anyway. And in any case, when I looked how much I had to pay per K, and the amount that was really worth in terms of runs, it didn't seem worth much. I ended up with more like 3 K/9, whereas I'd often be around 2 K/9 with all the deadballers. But otherwise it was the usual collection of good value 100-150 IP/162 pitchers in all sorts of combos.

I didn't take enough PA or IP, so my RL rate stats look better than they really are. But the team is doing fine anyway, with just a little juggling needed.

Hitting: 5404 PA, .294/.405/.408
Pitching: 1260 IP (aaargh), 1.01 WHIP, 24 HR

80M - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

My base 80M squad does ok on lexical diversity, except for all the S's. So that was the main challenge. I looked at what the 2nd best options would look like for all of them, and found suitable replacements in most cases. I ended up keeping Wally Schang, because he platoons nicely with Earl Averill, and I didn't have any other A's.

I didn't make much effort to fill out the alphabet. I figured as long as I had the hitters/pitchers I wanted, I could always find RPs or PHs to get the odd letters. And I didn't care too much if I paid 600K for a player worth 450K; taking the wrong regular is much worse than that. The only exception was taking Zobrist - a good 2B who won't get in the way was too good to pass up. I don't know how or why I ended up with a scrub for 'R'; I would have guessed that would be players I wanted to use with 'R'.

Hitters: 5362 PA (not enough), .305/.409/.457
Pitchers: 1331 IP (bit short), 0.99 WHIP, 38 HR

90M - Colorado 06, Sox 02, Mets 77 (Shea)

I started with the Ugly team. With so few teams to choose from, I thought the challenge would be finding 5 infielders (including C) that I could live with. And I wanted an Ugly team who gave me 2 of those 5 spots, plus a pitcher. The 77 Mets were the only option that worked, with Seaver plus a 3B and a C. I probably shouldn't have been so fussy; I could have taken just 1 of those 5 spots.

Then, guessing there would be lots of Bad teams, I looked for a Good team to fit. I was thinking I'd take a very hitting heavy Bad team, so Good needed to help with pitching. And it needed to keep moving towards those 5 spots. I ended up thinking the 02 Sox were the best, though in retrospect the 01 Mariners might have been a better pick. But I couldn't pass up Pedro, Lowe and Nomar, plus a couple of decent outfielders in Damon and (if you can stomach the fielding) Manny. Wakefield looked like he'd be a good inning-eater too, but hasn't worked so far.

So now it was time to find a Bad team that provided a 1B, 2B and another OF. I guessed there would be a Colorado team that did that, and met the wins requirement, and the 06 Rox worked. I didn't even look at their pitching at first, but it turned out they had a couple of useful RP.

All 8 starters are really good, and Seaver/Lowe/Pedro is an awesome rotation. But whoa boy is this bullpen a worry. I'll be surprised if my bullpen ERA is under 5 for the season. The plan is that I lead after 5, and Sparky does dumb things when losing, so I get to feast on other team's bad pitchers, while my 'firemen' turn up with kerosene cans...

Hitters: 5503 PA, .294/.379/.470 (worst line of all 6 teams!)
Pitchers: 1359 IP, 1.08 WHIP, 102 HR (also worst line - my 70M team would crush this team)

100M - Cowboy Merv (Riverfront)

Why didn't I go with Lonesome Cowboy Merv for the team name? I'll never know. But at least he's the right clone.

I went through lots of the standard options: Raines, Rickey, Lofton, McGee, etc. Basically, all the speedy, decent OBP, decent glove OFs. And none would work. So I started looking at PHs, who would give me lots of years to choose from. And I in particular looked at PHs on great teams. And there is only one player on both the Earl Weaver O's, and the Big Red Machine. He's a running back out of Ball State, drafted in the 19th round by the Cowboys, but happily didn't actually pan out as a footballer: Merv Rettenmund.

But despite those 2 great teams he was on, that's not why he works for this theme. I noticed after a while that every one of those obvious choice OFs didn't work because they never had a good C to pair up with. And Merv ended his career with 2 seasons in San Diego. And that gave me one more pitcher (Randy Jones), plus a not quite washed up Gene Tenace. And that's when I knew this was the team I wanted. At least in my league, basically 21 teams have catchers who either can't hit, or are being run over by all the Rickeys, Loftons etc. The exceptions are one team with a LoDuca who is over his head, one Smokey Burgess (and I wasn't going to play a 50s team), and Tenace. So far, he's been exactly what I signed up for - Mendoza line hitting, walks a plenty, and acceptable CS rate. Perfect.

Hitters: 6045 PA, .291/.397/.444
Pitchers: 1444 IP, WHIP 1.00, 81 HR (this team also loses to my 70M team in a no DH league)

110M - New York Red Sox (Polo Grounds)

I messed this up. I didn't read the salary requirements properly, and put together a standard Cleveland Giants team. And then I had to scramble. But the Red Sox have enough acceptable hitters (Boggs, Doerr, Williams, Schang), plus Pedro and Dutch Leonard to make the salaries work. So it was fine.

I'm using only LH starters on maximally short leashes, then Pedro/Mathewson in the old-fashioned Superman Long A role. (Which doesn't work like it used to, but is still worth it for platooning.) And it's doing fine so far.

Hitters: .325/.422/.477
Pitchers: 1447 IP, 0.83 WHIP, 35 HR (half due to Pedro!)

120M - Pedestrian at Best (Polo Grounds)

This team has scuffled so far, at 14-16, and I'm not sure why. I'm not sure what I would do differently.

On hitting, I started by taking best available for the big PA roles, since you don't want to waste them. This included taking a slight value pick, 1886 Jim O'Rourke, as C with 650 PAs. I didn't want to platoon there, because low PA Cs with good arms are so pricey. And although I don't like having an SS with this many PAs, I took the 87 Ozzie because he's just the best. After that, it was basically platoons at every spot, and it all fell together reasonably smoothly. I used 2010 Coco Crisp as a combo starter against LHP and defensive sub, except I didn't understand how defensive subs in the OF work, and this hasn't exactly worked out. (I thought I could slide my CF into a corner, and put a sub in at CF, like the Royals sometimes do in real life, but that hasn't worked.)

On the pitching, Chamberlain and Joss were obvious, even if Joss is a few more IP than ideal for the theme. I took Randy Johnson to tandem with Joss, and Maddux to tandem with Kershaw. The theory was to always use lefty-headed tandems in themes that encourage platoons. But it hasn't worked to date. Despite coming in against the other team's 'vs LHP' lineup, my Joss has been one of the weakest in the league. I needed to save some $$ and so have some weak link long relief from the mid-century decades - Dizzy Dean, Boom-Boom Beck and Willie Ramsdell. After 30 games, they've combined for 36.2 IP, and 5 losses. That serves me right for trying to scrimp too much I guess.

Hitters: 6196 PA, .311/.426/.455
Pitchers: 1532 IP, 0.86 WHIP, 49 HR

8/12/2015 10:01 PM

schwarze

Posts: 44817 (1)

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The master has spoken.... Thanks brianjw....

8/13/2015 8:25 AM

ozomatli

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The comment about the catchers in the 100M league is very perceptive. I'm one of those 21. May be a big part of why I feel my team is underperforming. Great insight, Brian.

8/13/2015 1:59 PM

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