is it worth the increase in HR allowed though? how many HR are Witt and Drysdale going to give up making every start in Coors compared with Cy Young or fill-in-the-blank deadball guy who gave up 2 HR in 300 IP?

to be clear if I'm wagering on whose team is more successful here I'm not picking mine! but it seems like the HR rate difference would be really significant in some of these cases.

Posted by Jtpsops on 8/14/2018 2:09:00 PM (view original):
It's not about strikeouts. Modern pitchers improve the defense of deadball fielders because of the era they come from. The deadball fielders will have an improved fielding % on balls in play behind modern pitchers.

OK, this doesn't make sense to me. How is the year attached to the codebits going to impact the play of the fielders behind him? Aren't the outcomes tied to the resolution of the pitcher-batter relationship? Are you saying that if I have two pitchers with identical normalized statistics but one happened to play in 1910 and the other in 2010 that the sim treats the defense behind them differently? Dang, I definitely missed that memo if it's true.

Posted by schwarze on 8/14/2018 2:23:00 PM (view original):
Wow, I see 1915 was a popular choice. Looking forward to seeing a summary of all the selections.

Will be starting to share these over the next week.

Posted by redcped on 8/14/2018 2:31:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Jtpsops on 8/14/2018 2:09:00 PM (view original):
It's not about strikeouts. Modern pitchers improve the defense of deadball fielders because of the era they come from. The deadball fielders will have an improved fielding % on balls in play behind modern pitchers.

OK, this doesn't make sense to me. How is the year attached to the codebits going to impact the play of the fielders behind him? Aren't the outcomes tied to the resolution of the pitcher-batter relationship? Are you saying that if I have two pitchers with identical normalized statistics but one happened to play in 1910 and the other in 2010 that the sim treats the defense behind them differently? Dang, I definitely missed that memo if it's true.

The result of a ball in play is dependent on the hitter / pitcher stats as well as the (weighted) raw and normalized defensive stats of the fielder, pitcher, and hitter.

Posted by newarkwilder on 8/14/2018 2:28:00 PM (view original):
is it worth the increase in HR allowed though? how many HR are Witt and Drysdale going to give up making every start in Coors compared with Cy Young or fill-in-the-blank deadball guy who gave up 2 HR in 300 IP?

to be clear if I'm wagering on whose team is more successful here I'm not picking mine! but it seems like the HR rate difference would be really significant in some of these cases.

This is why I chose Coors for this theme rather than Mile High. It makes the choice less clear, to me at least.

Posted by newarkwilder on 8/14/2018 2:28:00 PM (view original):
is it worth the increase in HR allowed though? how many HR are Witt and Drysdale going to give up making every start in Coors compared with Cy Young or fill-in-the-blank deadball guy who gave up 2 HR in 300 IP?

to be clear if I'm wagering on whose team is more successful here I'm not picking mine! but it seems like the HR rate difference would be really significant in some of these cases.

Depends. A higher HR rate can definitely hurt. But homers overall are a small percentage of hits/balls in play. If my defenders average 10-20 fewer errors than another team's, per position, that can significantly reduce the number of pitches needed per game or scoring chances for the other team (or increase those totals on the other side).

I think the main problem is weighing the average amount of incremental runs you give up via a HR vs an error or - play, multiplied by the frequency of these events.

65m – Decades of Decadence
This was the first team I built and I really don’t remember it. Low cap leagues always mean steals and speed. And platoons, because you don’t want to waste 200k on a guy who won’t play. Get switch hitters where there aren’t platoons. Modern triples hitters are good, and deadball ones are bad, since they usually don’t hit triples like they should. Given all that I knew my 25^th man would be someone who played in a –HR park that was good for speed.

After that, I used the usual approach. Build the rotation, draft an offense, draft a bullpen, find it’s too expensive, cut the hitters down a bit.

I figured that my 3 decades would be the 70s and 90s and a deadball decade, plus some other filler. I started by looking for interesting hitters and I found a bunch, most of whom I didn’t end up using (Mike Kingery 94, who I did, but also Lance Johnson 93, Templeton 77, Gene Richards 81, Arky 37, etc). I ended up with Willie McGee as my 25^th man to give me Busch Stadium. I don’t feel particularly good about this team but that might just be because I don’t remember them.

90m – Coors, thE banquEt bEEr
How many innings? That’s the big question. I really don’t know. I’ve got 1512. I hope it’s enough. If I had to guess, I’d say it isn’t.

I wasn’t a big fan of this theme. Maybe that’s harsh. I’m curious how it will play out. It just wasn’t exciting to build. I’m just hoping to survive without getting my chances wrecked by this league. I suspect that the people who win this league will be those who are smart enough to estimate the pitches needed accurately.

How many D+/D+ guys are there, anyway? Not that many. And I didn’t really want to play anyone much worse than the “best” they could be. There were 42 guys rated D+/D+ at 2B, 29 at SS and 38 at 3B. And a lot of the 3Bs were rated at other positions that ruled them out.

Generally, I wanted hitters with speed, high AVG and not necessarily a lot of walks. I want the ball in play so we can get more errors. I wasn’t too worried about pitchers who allowed walks or homers because I figured everyone would have the same idea (and most of the D+/D+ guys are deadball hitters anyway, by nature of how baseball used to be played.) I wanted old time hitters to generate more errors from the opposing fielders.

I built a pitching staff with a LOT of Ks and another with relatively few. I calculated the pitches each could throw. The high K pitchers could throw about 300 less pitches despite having almost 90 less innings. I thought the high-K pitchers could prevent some errors. But in the end I was too tempted by the low K pitchers.

100m – Beltran for the HoF
Did you know that if I search for "Frisch" in my google docs, where I've kept all my roster building notes for the last few years, that pretty much every WISC comes up? I've been obsessed with him forever. Did you know that we ran something similar in the 2015 WISC? I went with Chipper Jones that time and made it to the LCS. Cesar Cedeno beat Rickey Henderson in my league’s World Series. There were TWO good Cedeno teams in that league. And a Willie McGee team won 99 games. But since then, speed has gotten more expensive. Or should I say, Frisch and McGee have gotten more expensive?
I tried building a Frisch team first. I liked them a lot. It had six Frisches. But I would have been relying on the sim loving speedy switch hitters, because his raw numbers were underwhelming for the price.

So then I tried Carlos Beltran. Speed? Check. Switch hitter? Check. Played with some good SPs? Sorta. Beltran had the benefit of some bench seasons so I could still get 8 Beltrans despite him being an outfielder. Beltran08 is playing out of position at 1B. The other positions are filled by Jose Offerman (fast switch hitter), Jose Reyes (ditto), Paul LoDuca (whose noodle arm will likely be a problem), and David Wright, who is fast for a 3B but will probably underperform since he’s a RH power hitter. I do worry about Beltran losing his HRs to low-HR pitchers and AT&T park, but I think he can hit triples. The rotation is fronted by Matt Cain, Masahiro Tanaka and Johan Santana.

I did try a Cedeno team but the OBP was very low and I couldn’t spend all the money. I tried a Max Carey team but they had no relievers. I would have loved to see how a Chipper team looked but I ran out of time. I also wanted to look at Kershaw but didn’t get a chance. I really like the Beltran team. I probably like them too much. Beltran is one of my all-time favorite players IRL and that never ends well.

110m – We all played in 1913
This was a fun theme. I knew right away that I’d be going deadball pitchers and hoping for a combination of good deadball and 1920s hitters. I do wish I’d had more time to see what a modern team might look like but I couldn’t even conceive of a good starting point.

A key point here is that you really only need players who played +/- 12 to 15 seasons from your base year – going 25 seasons in one direction would be nuts. I figured that it would be relatively easy to find players who stuck around forever to round out the fringes, and the bigger issue would be those middle years.

For my deadball-ish teams I always start with the infield (2B/3B/SS) since those are hard places to find competent fielders who can hit. Then the bullpen comes next since there aren’t a ton of different years with great RPs. (The war years, 1915 and 1918, are loaded with them, but the rest can be tough.)
My first draft was 1908 and I really liked that team, even though a ton of good players started in 1909. I thought I was done on the first try but I was using an ineligible player (Chief Myers) so I just decided to try a different year.

Using 1913 let me keep my core infield (Honus and Collins who could play a bunch of different years, and Art Devlin as a cheap 3B). I got Babe ’24, McQuillan ’07, Caldwell ’19, Quinn ’18, Falkenberg ’15 and Weilman ’12 to man the bullpen. I kept 3-Finger ’04 and Walsh ’09 and decided to run my new favorite rotation, a pair of tandems. Reb Russell ’16 filled a season that I didn’t have anyone for, and after a ton of searching I settled on Vean Gregg as my 4^th. That gives me lefty/righty pairs for both tandems. I got some long-time hitters to stretch the seasons (Cobb ’27, Schang ’26, Cy Williams ’25) and rounded out the outfield with Max Carey. Smokey Joe Wood in the outfield was a sneaky way to fill 1921 and get a platoon partner for Cy. I really had a heck of a time finding a 1B (always forget the deadball years don’t have many good ones) so I decided to pay up for Speaker ’14 and his great range. I like this team and I’ll be sad if they don’t do well.

130m – Too Rich to Shop at Target
Platoons. Like everyone is probably doing. Which means a tandem rotation. I looked at good pitchers in the 200-300 IP range who hadn’t had their prices inflated too much. The ever-popular Bill Bernhard pairs with Jack Pfiester, and with Garland Braxton a slam dunk for the other spot, I ultimately settled on Pete Alexander to be the 4^th. Then I drafted Kershaw’s crazy 149ip season for the bullpen. I filled out the bullpen with elite modern relievers (Chad Green, Kenley Jansen, Mike Adams) whose prices haven’t had a chance to go up too much, and a couple of setup B guys in Albers and Rigney.

With only 10 pitchers I had enough bats for 6 platoons. Infield spots are typically the hardest to fill, so I’ve just got Chipper, Luis Castillo and Hughie Jennings for 3B/2B/SS. Then I’ve got expensive Billy Hamilton and Cobb seasons paired with RH bats at the top of the order. Did I really draft Bill Joyce at 1B? That will be an adventure. But this was destined to be a Target Field type of team from the start. We’ll live (or die) by our pitching.

255m – Messing up two teams at once
This was another fun one. I built the two teams together. I like the 110m team a lot so I really hope I get to play them. I’m not great at 255m teams. Combine that with a team that is probably built too heavily on the 110m side and it might be a recipe for disaster.

I literally started with Tip O’Neill since I know he has a good platoon season and a monster season for 255m.

After that I knew the pitching would be the hardest thing to figure out. Kershaw’s crazy 149ip season worked at 255 and he had some usable seasons for 110m. Pedro had seasons for both caps. Ed Walsh could be a reliever at 110. Koufax had seasons for both caps. Maddux95 was worth the cost and I used one of his 2006 seasons as a setup B on the cheap side. Then I just had to fill out the relievers. Lots of relievers have an elite year and a pretty good year so that was easy enough.

I figured that with no DH I could still afford at least a couple of the players whose prices got mega-inflated. Cobb and Ruth had good platoon seasons for the 110m league. Lajoie had a solid season for the 110s and his crazy expensive year. At SS I decided to go with Lou Boudreau for the glove and the better 110m season (Honus and Jennings didn’t have great 110m years). I went with Roger Connor at 1B and George Brett at 3B to give me four A+ range infielders for the 255m league. Defense is the one thing that doesn’t really change when you change the cap. I just hope he hits enough. When it was all done I had about 10mil left on the 255m side. I could have upgraded Cobb or Ruth to their monster year. Ruth seemed the better impact guy so now I have Ruth23 as my #3 hitter on that team.

Other than the fact that I probably wouldn’t count on Koufax in a 255m league, even in Target Field, this doesn’t look that different than a regular 255m team. Whether that’s good or bad I’m not sure.

65M - Decades
.260/.320/.410
1,457/1.25/3.02 with mop ups

Went with switch-hitting speed and even though the 80s were the speed decade, I found the 90s had a better combo at this level of $/PA. Greg Jeffries, Bobby Bonilla and Howard Johnson key the group with a '94 Vince Coleman. There's one switch hitting catcher at $6500/PA or below with an A+++ arm worth his salt and that made that decision easy.
Used the 00's and 20's for pitching since those seem to be the best decades.
It's easy to skimp on PA and IP in low cap leagues. I just made sure I was safe here. Playing for .500 and hoping my other teams carry me to round 2.


90MM - D in Coors

*sigh*


100MM - Clone
.301/.375/.502
1,482 / 1.01 / 2.58

I really liked looking into this theme. I built a Chipper team and a Maddux team right away and then spent the rest of the time trying to build something better. I tried to find good switch hitting infielders like Ozzie, or Alomar, Frisch, Schoendiest but couldn't really make the pitching work on anyone. I looked at other pitchers and really wanted to go with Kershaw but didn't really like the hitting. I thought the Maddux pick would be really popular and I looked to go with something else, but in the end his team was just too good to pass up.
For pitching it was the 4 best Maddux players aside from '94 and '95 and Smoltz. I'm guessing we will see this rotation a lot. Snuck in Kuo, Dennis Rasmussen, and Airplane's Pedro Borbon.
I almost never like to play in positive HR parks but I figured this was the way to go if I had Maddux's low HR totals to work with. Javy Lopez, Ethier, ManRam, Chipper and Andres Galarraga will try to go yard. For the third OF I've got some strangely awesome combination of Davy Lopes, Rafael Furcal and Jerry Mumphrey - three people who have never been in my kitchen.
This was my favorite theme because I thought it required the most thought.


110MM - 1910
.331/.390/.468
1,450 / .97 / 1.56

Ok so thought this was a DH league until ten minutes before the deadline. That was fun.
Definitely wanted deadball era to go 00s pitching and 20's hitting. Very similar to others. Didn't really entertain anything else.
All familiar cookies at this level - Eddie Collins, Honus Wagner, Frank Baker, Heinie Zimmerman, Joe Jackson. Put them in a -HR/+2B park and let them rip.
Similar strategy for pitching. Don't give up the long ball and have enough IP not to get into trouble.
Playing it safe here and hoping other teams make mistakes.


130MM - No one under $2M
.355/.413/.510
1,568 / .94 / 1.66

Generally looked at making sure my infield were all full timers and could just put them in and leave them. At this level, Cecil Travis, Frank Baker, and Charlie Hickman are guys I use a lot. Plugged in Daniel Murphy to play with Bob Johnson at 2B, as I won a D.E.A.L. season with those two. Heine Peitz is far and away the most underpriced A+ catcher and he's there. Tuck Turner and Roy Cullenbine and their hideous defense will DH. Excited to use the '54 Bill Skowron for the first time to see what he can do.
Used the '64 Horlen and '92 Maddux to bump up the defense a little bit but the other starters are dead ballers. My bullpen has given up 3 RL home runs.
Again, minus for HR and positive for dbls and triples. Don't give up the long ball and make sure you have enough innings.

255MM - Anything goes
.393/.458/.610
1,621 / .79 / 1.34

I've played in everyone of these tournaments and have made the top 25 maybe 3 times. I couldn't care less what the next team looks like just get into round 2 at any cost.
High average with insane defensive range for batters. I didn't platoon, I figured there's always something lost there and too much to manage with 5 other teams to deal with. My starting 8 cost $132MM without a Ruth, Gehrig or Bonds. Ted Williams and Cesar Cedeno will pinch hit for the pitcher every possible chance. If there was a -5 park for HR I'd be in it.
Pete Alexander and Ed Walsh will rotate. Pedro's best season will spot start at home only and put in some Long A. Bullpen is mostly post 1967 to help with defense and even though they've given up a combined 9 RL home runs, we're still talking Gagne, Niggeling, Soriano, Carlos, Chamberlain. I think Norm Charlton will be my 4th Starter for the 110 team but hey, why not.

I look forward to playing this every year so big shout out to ozomatli for continuing schwarze's tradition.

Seems like there are going to be a lot of Braves-centric teams in the $100M theme, between Maddux, Smoltz and Chipper

Posted by Jtpsops on 8/15/2018 4:20:00 PM (view original):
Seems like there are going to be a lot of Braves-centric teams in the $100M theme, between Maddux, Smoltz and Chipper

A few names don’t provide a clue, but 7 of the teams in 3C are one of those three for sure. 3 Maddux, 2 Chipper, 2 Smoltz.

$65M - Four Sixers and a Tallboy

Deadball and 90's for the majority of my pitching, with Glade, Donahue, and Sparks making up a 3-man rotation. Used the 20's and 70's to get the meat of my lineup, highlighted by Hornsby and Simmons. Enos Slaughter as my wild card. Biggest concern (other than being horrible at drafting WISC teams) is player fatigue.

5,533 PA / .279 AVG / .340 OBP / .744 OPS
1,359 IP/ 2.69 ERA / .257 OAV / 1.19 WHIP

$90M - Pylons for Hire

Drafted pitching to try to limit HR's but in hindsight should have looked for low contact. Anything in play will likely find a hole. That being said, I did not chase power hitters to maximize Coors, but instead focused on players with good ability to make contact. There were a few exceptions as some HR's will likely be needed to keep pace with owners who are adept at this game. I feel like I may have drafted too many innings out of fear. Either way, outside of one progressive league, this annual event is the only time I play SLB so it really is about having fun.

6,053 PA / .303 AVG / .397 OBP / .867 OPS
1,866 IP / 2.41 ERA / .245 OAV / 1.08 WHIP

$100M - Mr. Henke the Christmas Poo

Being Canadian, I am compelled to attempt a Blue Jays or Expos based team each year. This year is no different. I almost went with a Pete Rose team, I really wanted to do one last year but could not quite get the fit I wanted. I will eventually do one with him at the center when the time is right. I went with Tom Henke as he covered the greatest Jays teams ever plus late career moves allowed me to tap into a strong Rangers team. I expect it to pale in comparison to owners who really take the time to study every angle, but the law of averages dictates that at some point I will break through with a Canadian flare!

5,870 PA / .275 AVG / .340 OBP / .796 OPS
1,668 IP / 2.95 ERA / .227 OAV / 1.13 WHIP

$110M - 1991 - Grunge Awakens

My strat-o-matic team with my college friends won the World Series in 1991. Those were the good old days of dice and flipping through fielding charts. It was WIS before the internet and were some of the best weekends of my life. To honour this team, I used 1991 as my base year. There was a lot of mixing to get the right seasons of each player, but I was generally happy with the team. If I can get the dice going on this gang, I hope they can compete with the top dogs in this championship. If not, I will just order a jumbo Highway poutine like the good old days and wallow in sorrow over the days gone by.

6,029 PA / .308 AVG / .377 OBP / .872 OPS
1,634 IP / 2.65 ERA / .236 OAV / 1.12 WHIP

$130M - Put Me In Coach!

Obviously looking at some platoons to make this theme work. I have tried platoons in past championships thinking I may be able to outwit my enemies. It did not work but at least I wasn't completely in the dark. Very low HR totals, but I feel pretty good about the mix of speed, defence, and pitching.

6,044 PA / .309 AVG / .389 OBP / .860 OPS
1,823 IP / 1.81 ERA / .210 OAV / 0.94 WHIP

$255M - My Twin Got the Better Genes

Like most, how do you collect the GOAT's while preparing to field a cheaper version in Round 2? For me, it should be easy. Round 2 is a mythical land far from reality so no real study required. Just kidding! I am an eternal optimist, so there was some work here in the off chance my long shots finally pay out. I found players that were great now, with cheaper good seasons to choose from later. I believe the first round will be fairly even with so many similar players in this theme, but you never know. I am always intrigued how the same Ruth has a .213 AVG with 20 HR with one team and a .330 AVG with 46 HR for another.

7,424 PA / .346 AVG / .444 OBP / 1.034 OPS
2,402 IP / 1.84 ERA / .212 OAV / 0.94 WHIP

All said, I should finish somewhere in the 60's overall if regular form holds true. I genuinely do take time and often build multiple teams, but I have yet to find the real in-depth stats that put teams over the edge. That's why the same guys end up doing so well and kudos to their hard work and dedication. For me, when I finally get to round 2, I can fire up some Sinatra because I will surely do it "My Way". Good luck everybody!

I am sharing these notes so that everyone can learn the way NOT to put together your teams. Trust me. As someone who has finished at the bottom virtually every tournament, I know how to screw things up. However, as npg just said, it is all about having fun. The second round is a myth. Never seen it. Never will. Without further ado:

65 Mil Decades

"I Really Hate This Team"

Went to the 90's for cheap speed (Coleman and Raines) and reasonable O (Caminiti and Morris). Thought, like some others that the 50's provided value SP so I loaded up with Erskine, Maglie, Labine and Kinder. Figured that other people would be going the speed route as well. so a strong armed C was a must. Hello Butch Wynegar. The rest of the 70's were half of my feeble bench. Found good bullpen options in the Oughts with Maddox, McQuillan and Bailey. Rest of that decade also gave me some reasonable scrubs like Done Bush, O'Neill and Warren Miller.

Overall, I have never played at a cap this low and never will again. I know all of the winners have strategies and formulas and know who should be taken at low caps. I don't. This is totally a crapshoot and I will be lucky to win 70 games.


90 Mil

"Manos De Piedra"

I also decided against a HR team in Coors and went with a high contact, high OBP lineup that has a minimal bench. Guys like Duffy, Keeler, Molitor and McIntyre will play every day. Mostly all of my guys are doubles guys with a bit of speed to maybe take the extra base on the noodle arms in the OF. Pitching I went with 3 deadball guys to lower the long ball damage and loaded up on a stud bullpen with usual suspects like Maddox, Devine, Warren etc. Very worried about the IP with just under 1500. If we can get to the bullpen, we should be ok. Going to hope for 82-80

100 Mil
"Manny Being Manny"

I spent more time on this team than any other. Tried dozens of permutations with many of the usual suspects Maddox, Clemens, Beltran, Smoltz, Chipper, Frank Robinson, Cedeno you name it. I tried it. Thought I had good rosters with Merv Rettemundt and Omar Daal but the more I chewed on it, the less satisfying it was. Kind of like a grisly, tired old piece of steak that has been in the fridge too long. With a higher cap, the options would have been much less difficult. Thinking outside of the box, I decided to punt defense and try to bludgeon everyone into submission. Ergo Manny! He will man 1st and the OF slots. The 95 and 99 Indians provide the rest of the infield and the bench. The 2002 and 2004 Red Sox give me Pedro, Schilling, Lowe and the 2010 Dodgers team provides the bullpen Jansen, Kuo and Lilly. What can possibly go wrong? Oh yes that stupid defense thing. Prediction 75 wins


110 Mil

"1910 Fruitgum Company"

This was the first squad I put together and was the easiest. Once I decided that I wanted to have an incarnation of Addie Joss on my roster, that thinned the herd and made 1910 my go to year. I loaded up on the deadball kings: Joss, Reulbach, Brown, Ford, Vaughn etc. Offense was no problem. Contact hitters all the way: Cobb, Wagner, Lajoie, Joe Jackson, Speaker, Eddie Collins, Homerun Baker etc. With a .340 .404 line we should make life miserable for other teams pitching staffs. Again concerned about low IP, only 1425 but it is what it is. Feel pretty good about this squad and am hoping (do I dare say it) for maybe a playoff berth. Lets go with 90 wins.


130 Mil

"Damn The Torpedos! Full Speed Ahead!"

Anyone without an A+ arm catcher is going to hate playing me. Speed, speed and more speed. With Henderson, Raines, Dilone, R Alomar and Larkin and their +460 SB, we will have some fun. Again going a bit lean on SP but we have another stud bullpen with Kimbrel, Uehara, Wagner, Miller, Adams etc. Playing, like almost all of my teams, in Dodger Stadium, to try and lessen the carnage, I hope my 1469 IP is adequate. Wont win a lot but I will steal me some bases. Prediction: 68 wins

255 Mil

"Gentlemen Start Your Engines"

Again, like npg, the second is a myth. I almost never play 255 mil caps so to me its all Monopoly money. All of the usual suspects are here: Ruth, Hornsby, Foxx, Kelly, Cobb etc. I did learn from last year's big cap league to get more innings. Upped it to over 2100 IP this time, I hope that is enough. Usual choices for pitching staff: Joss, Maddox, Pete, Pedro, Koufax blah blah blah. I truly think that anyone with less than 2000 IP is going to be gassed by the All Star break. Never know how these big caps will turn out but I am going to predict 80 wins.

I thought about using Manny for the $100M theme. I looked back and several years ago there was a similar theme. I scoured the roster building thread for that year and two of the better owners (I forget who now) used Cabrera and Manny with success.

Roster Selection Strategies--The Speed Version
So, as the last minute replacement guy--I had my first experiment at building six teams in 72 hours or less. Not recommended. But, there were a couple pluses...didn't have to buy a GC (although I offered--unsuccessfully--to trade that privilege for 25 bonus points) AND a couple helpful owners had already posted strategies so I could crib a little bit. Also, it's not like this is my first rodeo. I came in 17th once (yes, that was back in 2010--when we still used wooden bats and there were five balls to a walk). On the plus side, at least this is fresh in my memory.

65 million (Cheap Speed). So, speed is my go to for low caps--took the 1980s which got me Vince, Lonnie, the immortal Ron LeFlore and Butch Wynegar's arm. 1900s for pitching--wow, that $/IP search function is way helpful when you are in a hurry. Then I added Trea Turner and Eduardo Nunez in the infield and some modern bullpen guys....and then I re-read the rules. Crud. OK...reloaded with Maury Wills and Joe Foy and a ton of random low IP bullpen guys. We should steal a lot of bases (um, if we ever get on base).
Hitting Totals: 262/345/364, 379 SB
Pitching Totals: 1360 IP, 1.05 WHIP, .234 OAV

90 million (Not My Fault). Didn't have the time or energy to build all six and this one seemed like a bear so I basically stole SNIX's team with a couple minor tweaks. That basically guarantees it will be my best team. Fortunately, SNIX read the strategy thread and had already smartly paired up old-time pitchers with modern fielders to reduce errors. So that'll be...wait, what's that now? Uh oh.
Hitting Totals: 309/380/491, 191 HR
Pitching Totals: 1552.7 IP, 1.02 WHIP, .215 OAV

100 million (Oh, Rickey You're So Fine). Tried Smoltz and Maddux first but wasn't in love with them. Then built a great Rickey team with Lowe/Pedro/Norris and great hitting. And then remembered this was 100 mil, not 110. Sigh. Sunk costs played a large part in keeping the team but had to downgrade Norris to McCatty, weaken the pen, and dump the 93 Jays. Then, I had my 100 mil team but no backup catcher. So, retooled again. Ended up with the 81, 90 and partial 89 Rickeys in the OF--with a bunch of scrub Rickeys (1997, 2000, 2002, 2003) on the bench. That gets me 2000 Piazza, 89 McGwire, 2000 Alfonzo, 2002 Nomar and 89 Lansford, which doesn't suck (and Todd Greene as backup catcher!). Rotation of 02 Pedro and Lowe, 81 McCatty and 2003 Kevin Brown. Pen is ok...if we have enough innings.
Hitting Totals: 299/391/483, 284 SBs
Pitching Totals: 1371 IP, 1.01 WHIP, .211 OAV

110 million ((19)86 This Garbage) Apparently, everyone else went deadball, but not this guy. I picked 86 because some old pitchers are ending while some youngsters appear. This gets me 97 Maddux, 05 Clemens, 77 Seaver and 80 Reuss in the rotation--with a decent pen that includes Reardon, Gossage, Eck and 92 Rasmussen. Tried to go for speed and OBP but only partially succeeded (especially when I tried to sneak an illegal Tenace in there). Jack Clark, Franco, Boggs and Yount in the IF with 75 Carter behind the plate and a Bonds, McGee, Raines outfield that should at least swipe some bags.
Hitting Totals: 317/413/485 146 HR, 200 SB
Pitching Totals: 1379 IP, 0.96, .209 OAV

130 million (Everybody Plays) Getting a little slaphappy at this point so just started throwing some ERC# and switchhitters at this problem set. Bernhard, Kershaw, 02 Pedro and 64 Horlen in the rotation. Tried to stretch out the pen to limit the bench usages. 3 platoons on offense (catcher, of, dh) plus supersub Keppinger. My infield is made up guys that I don't often use but that are supposedly good at this cap (Collins, Baker, Connor, H.Davis) I'm pretty confident that I'll muck it up.
Hitting Totals: 332/430/495
Pitching Totals: 1406 IP, 0.88 WHIP .190 OAV

255 million (Houston, We Have a Problem) Ok, the team name doesn't make much sense--but my 8 year old wanted a team named that. So there you go. Like tridentric and others...I have no chance at sniffing round 2 (unless there's a once every 8 years thing going on) so I just focused on stacking this team. Yes, Mike, I did check to make sure that technically I could, if the circumstances were right (and maybe WifS does a downward price adjustment) field a competent 110 million team. But that is, for the most part, completely irrelevant. Familiar names here--Kelly, Foxx, Chipper, Hornsby, Honus, Mantle, Cobb, Heilman--with Frisch, Dietz and Ted waiting to jump in for round 2. 10 Walsh, 09 Brown, 95 Maddux and 00 Pedro for the rotation with Adams, Rivera, Hoffman and Nehf in the pen and Tiny Bonham and Horlen waiting in the wings.
Hitting Totals: 371/458/607, 260 HR
Pitching Totals: 2152 IP, 0.84 WHIP, .194 OAV