I made a spreadsheet with the franchises in the first column.  As I filled in the years (s and, at least initially, alternate usable years) and players, I would sort by the YEAR.  This put the franchises that I needed to use at the bottom, and showed gaps where years needed to be filled.  Here is the spreadsheet before the last two days:

 

TEAM	YEAR	PLAYER	ALT YEAR
13. Pirates	1962	Face
19. White Sox	1963	Peters	1963
14. Rangers / Senators	1964	Roebuck
5. Cardinals	1965	Jaster
1. Angels	1966	Reichardt
17. Tigers	1967	Kaline
9. Indians	1968	Sims
22. Expos (1969 - )	1969	Staub
16. Reds	1970	Perez
4. Braves	1971	Aaron
3. Athletics	1972	Epstein
10. Mets	1973	Seaver	1977
	1974
12. Phillies	1975	Bowa
20. Yankees	1976	G. Jackson
23. Padres (1969 - )	1977	Rader
18. Twins	1978	Morales
6. Cubs	1979	Vail
7. Dodgers	1980	Reuss
24. Royals (1969 - )	1981	Gura
11. Orioles	1982	Boddicker
8. Giants	1983	Lavelle
	1984
2. Astros / Colt 45's	1985	Doran
25. Blue Jays (1977 - )	1986	Henke
15. Red Sox
21. Brewers / Pilots (1969 - )
26. Mariners (1977 - )

I started (like most people) with pitching, and I wanted to make sure my top two starters had at least TWO usable seasons, for flexibility's sake.  Seaver dropped to me with three or four seasons (and two different teams), and Peters covered two ace seasons in the 60's.  I also tried to draft early from expansion teams, because I was concerned about the depth of talent from 1969 on, and 1977 on.  So when Gura dropped to me with two of the best Royal pitching performances in the target years, I had to take him.  Aaron in the 4th was a no-brainer anchor for the offense, and LeGrand'Orange filled the need for a LH EXPO power bat behind Aaron.

My main switcheroo came with the selection of Boddicker and his 160 good innings in 1983.  I just couldn't seem to find a way to make that volume of innings fit underneath the cap, given all the other considerations.  I suppose I could've just drafted four or five scrub pitchers, but that seemed a waste, so  I ended up using a $300K Boddicker season in 1982, and breaking up the innings among several other pitchers.

If this theme ever catches on (and i hope it does), i'd suggest a TRADE day after the 20th pick or so, and give some people a chance to TRADE for some key pieces that were picked right before them, or correct an error by overpaying in a trade, or change strategies.  I think it would be really big strategic opportunity for everyone to make a minor course correction.  For example, once we were far along in the draft, I would've LOVED Cliff Johnson to fill several needs, and I likely would've traded someone I drafted two or three rounds ahead to get him.

todd - You weren't going to get Cliff Johnson. I love his '77 season far too much. However, I do love having the option of making trades.

When I saw I was picking 15th, my eye immediately zeroed in on Gaylord Perry. 356 very good IP in '72, and the flexibility to move to the Rangers in '75 if worse came to worst. I was very happy when he fell to me. 

I was really hoping Raines would fall to me in the 2nd, but when he didn't, taking care of my Padre with Gwynn made a lot of sense. Ripken was the SS I wanted, and in the 3rd I was happy to grab him...and then Eichhorn in the 4th was probably a stretch, but it took care of my Blue Jay/Mariner problem with 157 great IP. 

After that I knew I needed to catch up on SP, so I started grabbing willy-nilly. Hughes was a no-brainer for me, then I debated on Farrell for a while. I love platooning catchers almost more than life itself, and the guy I had my eye on was Mark Bailey (who was not drafted). However, Farrell just made too much sense, and then Saberhagen in the next round. 

It was around that point that I actually started building a complete roster and drafting from there. Andrews was by far the best 2B available for my needs. I hated taking House there (I really wanted Burroughs), but he was about the only decent LH reliever with a good number of innings. I debated between Lezcano and Bando, but I knew I my backup plan at 3B was likely to not be targeted (Grabarkewitz), so I went with the big Sixto season (and was upset when Bando went a couple picks later).

I just needed to fill holes there. Dalrymple made too much sense as the big-half platoon C (I had both '62 and '66 available), and then I grabbed Grabarkewitz just to make sure (I figured he would fall another couple rounds, but I couldn't afford to be wrong). Cliff Johnson was probably a stretch in the 13th, but he fit my roster far too well. Then I filled key reserve spots before drafting my last two starters (Fairly and Floyd Robinson). 

My main regret was not finding one more good-hitting catcher. I had Jack Hiatt on a lot of rosters, but had to shuttle him off in favor of '71 Kingman. 

Until I'm gainfully employed again, I'm not likely to be playing any more leagues...but I really hope this league (or another one like it) catches on. 

To answer a question schwarze posed in the draft thread at some point, we did have a 5 win penalty assessed. Chisock unfortunately had two Cardinals and had to replace one with a Reds player

Posted by toddcommish on 12/18/2015 2:51:00 PM (view original):
I made a spreadsheet with the franchises in the first column.  As I filled in the years (s and, at least initially, alternate usable years) and players, I would sort by the YEAR.  This put the franchises that I needed to use at the bottom, and showed gaps where years needed to be filled.  Here is the spreadsheet before the last two days:

 

TEAM	YEAR	PLAYER	ALT YEAR
13. Pirates	1962	Face
19. White Sox	1963	Peters	1963
14. Rangers / Senators	1964	Roebuck
5. Cardinals	1965	Jaster
1. Angels	1966	Reichardt
17. Tigers	1967	Kaline
9. Indians	1968	Sims
22. Expos (1969 - )	1969	Staub
16. Reds	1970	Perez
4. Braves	1971	Aaron
3. Athletics	1972	Epstein
10. Mets	1973	Seaver	1977
	1974
12. Phillies	1975	Bowa
20. Yankees	1976	G. Jackson
23. Padres (1969 - )	1977	Rader
18. Twins	1978	Morales
6. Cubs	1979	Vail
7. Dodgers	1980	Reuss
24. Royals (1969 - )	1981	Gura
11. Orioles	1982	Boddicker
8. Giants	1983	Lavelle
	1984
2. Astros / Colt 45's	1985	Doran
25. Blue Jays (1977 - )	1986	Henke
15. Red Sox
21. Brewers / Pilots (1969 - )
26. Mariners (1977 - )

My spreadsheet was very similar to Todd's, only I had a separate column for teams available to draft from.

I didn't have a real strategy going in. I tend to look for hitting value with OBP+/OPS+, and pitching with WHIP+. Some thoughts through the process:

Clemens - Simply put, I screwed this one up. I was deciding between Clemens and Sutton. I picked Clemens because I liked the possibilities as a Red Sox and a Blue Jay. When I read the rules a tenth time the next day, and remembered the 1969-1986 rule, I swore alot. '86 Red Sox it is!
Bunning - 300+ IP, WHIP of 1, less than $10 million, on a team where there weren't a ton of stud players? Sure.
Freehan - Maybe early, but I liked the idea of snagging an everyday C with great OBP+/OPS+ AND an A arm. $6ish million seemed like a great value as well.
Wynn - Was deciding between Wynn and Singleton. Went with power/speed vs power/Switch-hitter. The useable CF range helped, too.
Madlock - I liked his flexibility of Cubs and Pirates years
Fisher - I'm pretty sure I just went with the starter with the best WHIP at this point. I was afraid I needed to pick up some more innings here.
Randolph - Not much power at 2B, so I went with the best guy available to be my leadoff hitter. Liked his OBP and SB. I had him scoped for a couple rounds at this point.
Leonard - I had really 2 1/2 SP's at this point, thought I should snag my third starter now. Liked his value on a relatively weak team to find players. hopefully his 124 WHIP+ is more omportant than his "only" 1.11 WHIP.
Causey - Was the best OBP/OPS regular available at SS, was looking at him for a few rounds at this point. No power, no speed. good doubles hitter. Put him low in the order and forget about him.
Burroughs - LOVED his OBP+/OPS+ for around $5 million. A perfect guy to put in the middle of the lineup.
Stoddard - It was time to snag a reliever, he took care of one great value RP and took care of the SEA requirement. Was looking at a MIL guy as well around this spot (Ladd, maybe?)
Cepeda - Was the closest thing to a stud 1B left available, hoping Burroughs/Wynn/Cepeda will make a good 3/4/5 trio
Buford - Only needed one OF to fill my starting lineup. I think it was here that I also noticed I had 6 RHB's and 1 LHB. Buford can do a little bit of everything, and is a switch-hitter.
Brewer - Absolutely had to find effective relief pitching. Brewer was my best first choice.
Fowler - And Fowler was my best second choice

I went Olympic Stadium mostly to help the pitching a little bit, to accentuate my few doubles machines in the lineup, and HR's suppressed more for LH's than RH's, an advantage with my lineup. The rest of my picks revolved around trying to gain some type of roster flexibility (Webster Jays/Expos, Ferrer 74/75), trying to balance my hitters with some LHB's and switch-hitters on the bench, and finding solid RP. Rostering the oldest man that ever lived, Danny Darwin, was an added bonus.