There's something I didn't think possible: Using teammates at 3 infield positions. With that logjam, I figured I had to use them somehow. Of course, I drafted pitching seasons early and had to do what I could with those hitters later. But that is some clever drafting you did there, njbigwig.

After reviewing the rules for this version, I first noticed that there was no salary restriction on player nominated. Right up my alley. I always look for a low salaried option that will saddle owners late to that particular party with chunks of wasted salary. Additional benefit is that I feel it necessary to get an early pick in round 1 in case there are any pariahs (other than my nominee) to deal with immediately. Interesting that teammates of nominated players could not be used and a switch to 9 hitters and 7 pitchers but not a major influence. My first nominee was Gus Weyhing but I reconsidered because I am not a good enough manager to handle even 50 ish crappy innings effectively and certainly not good enough to milk anyone for 493 innings if I took the good one and burned Seward for the rest of the league and frankly that optioned never occurred to me. Furthermore, right after I posted the pick, schwarze expressed interest in Gus. If I found a different player to nominate I could appease him and also consider a Weyhing/Seward combo if he took him and if the 1888 version slipped to me. Doing extra research I found Jack Powell was eligible and had a perfectly usable 30 inning season that I have used before fairly often in lower cap leagues. He wasn't all that effective even in low caps for me but maybe I can finesse better performance this time around.

Round 1 - The 853k salary for 1905 Powell only positioned my 7th in the first round. Absolutely only focused on Gus at that point. The 2 cheap Weyhings that were available after Schwarze took the third for his nominee year went right away. Even more urgent to focus only on Gus. I was prepared to take one of the 5 million-ish Phillies years for the hitting teammate options. but when 1888 Gus Weyhing fell to me I did not hesitate to save any wasted salary and also consider an unlikely scenario in which I could squeeze in Ed Seward. To the back (but not all the way back) of the bus I go.

Round 2 - Whether or not I would be able to fit in Seward, I needed to hope that one of the Young or Adams good years would still be available. Surprised to see 1908 Cy Young there for me and I took him without even realizing there would be an accompanying Elmer Steele teammate option. Right now Plan A (for Alaska and Seward's Folly) gave me 1595 IP of .97 WHIP and 0.07 HR/9. $60 million spent with 60 to go on 20 players (including a complete offense and landmine dodging). Needed to keep Plan B very much in mind. (No real plan B yet but how well do any plans work in this draft? Not usually well for me, anyhow)

Round 3 - Still looking at Adams and Lolich as players who need to be addressed. Adams still had some very usable 3rd starter years but Lolich has nothing I wanted. I really expected a Lolich run right about now and took 1966 Lolich and bit a $3.8 million bullet and felt lucky to do so. The run didn't materialize like I had thought but no regrets here.

Round 4 - Earlier in the round, schwarze commented that "Every time I make an argument for a different player, I keep coming back to this guy...". He took his Babe Adams and my focus narrowed on what might be left here. This would essentially be my moment of truth for either abandoning Plan A altogether or not. With his better years gone I was very happy to see the 1916 Babe Adams at $1mm available and that conundrum was over. 5 pitchers down, only about $4.8mm wasted salary and Plan A was still alive.

Round 5 - With Doyle and Wickman the only pitchers left, I needed to get some decent full-time hitters on board. 1960 Ernie Banks (love the Topps card) was still on the board as a full-time SS and the pitcher's union gives thumbs up to his A/B fielding. Here's looking at you, Lolich.

Round 6 - I looked at Doyle similarly to Lolich but much milder. Several inexpensive seasons for Doyle but somebody was going to get stuck with a higher priced borderline option so I took 1983 Alexander and his super cheap 319k season. Comes along with a potential Wynegar catching option to supplement whatever happens down the road at that position.

Round 7 - Had been looking at the 1924 Myatt since the beginning of the draft. I jumped on him here. Excellent and affordable teammate options (on the hitting side).

Round 8 - Still focusing on salary dump options, I punted 1988 Tony Phillips at under a million. Probalby could have put more thought into how to use Tony but at under $1mm it was time to clear the hurdle.

Round 9 - Been waiting patiently as Williams after Williams get taken. Really nervous about missing that boat totally but 1955 Teddy Ballgame was there and he fit well. One of his best production seasons and only have to pay for usable at bats.

Round 10. Had been looking at 2000 Wickman as the one I wanted for a couple of rounds now. Love the big Manny and this is one of the cheap Wickmans. Pitching portion of the draft was complete.

Round 11 - Joe Kuhel was a very interesting selection. although overpriced everywhere. He did have some teammate options like 1935 Buddy Myer still available but I was not sure I could roster that. Also, I was still thinking there needs to be some kind of Plan B so the 1942 Kuhel offered one of his lowest remaining salary seasons. It also offered 180 IP of Ted Lyons as a handkerchief and fishing wire parachute in case the Plan A zeppelin hit electric wires.
Also, another couple of teammates were invited to training camp: P - Johnny Rigney and OF - Taffy Wright.

Round 12 - At this point, I needed to make Carew at 1st, full time Maz at second (hooray for fielding) and a full time Ramirez at 3rd which seemed doable,
Went with 1983 Carew and his .339 average and good fielding. Only 536 PA/162 but there is Kuhel overlap to fill in.

Right after this pick barracuda3 commented that he had been following everyone's selections and had a feeling my team was up to something. Yes, I was still trying Plan A at that point but did not know who the other players might be. Very curious to see how many free agents he correctly identified,

Round 13 - At this point Lonnie Smith was the only wild card. Liked the .321 batting average version. Maybe I could get the decent Tom Herr to help with the eventual Maz's weak bat.

Round 14 - Pretty much the only one who needed Ramirez and Maz. Still 3 very similar and usable Ramirez's with potential teammate appeal. Decided on 2008 Ramirez which allowed me to bring in Rich Harden and Mikah Hoffpauir for tryouts as well.

Round 15 - Left with 1967 Mazeroski. 679 PA which will work at the bottom of the order. B/A fielding and possible Clemente option. At this point I am still not committed as to how my team will acutally fill out.

I used $ 78,223 on nominated players and had about $ 41,777 available for 9 free agents. Those that made the team were:

1888 Ed Seward - $23.86 million but worth it
1924 Tris Speaker - only $5,720k and a reasonable CF
1942 Taffy Wright - platoon OF with good numbers
1924 Riggs Stephenson - 288 PA - .371 BA. eligible at 2b if I want to downgrade fielding some time
1924 Johnny Rigney - only other FA pitcher\
2008 Mikah Hoffpauir - good PH option
2000 Einer Diaz - nice fit for missing PAs needed at C and A-/A+/A
1924 Elmer Yoder - 3b - who saw that coming?
1942 Bill Mueller - OF ditto!

One final note. There was some discussion about low OBP players not doing well on WIS which I fully agree with. However, in this league both Cy Young and Babe Adams had excellent control and I think walks will be minimized. So I favored high batting average when I could. Looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. Long live the matrix!!

Posted by redcped on 1/21/2019 4:37:00 PM (view original):
There's something I didn't think possible: Using teammates at 3 infield positions. With that logjam, I figured I had to use them somehow. Of course, I drafted pitching seasons early and had to do what I could with those hitters later. But that is some clever drafting you did there, njbigwig.

I like my three infield teammates better...

2B - '36 Gehringer
3B - '85 Brett
SS - '32 Cronin

I'm surrounded by visionaries, alas.

Posted by schwarze on 1/21/2019 5:09:00 PM (view original):

Posted by redcped on 1/21/2019 4:37:00 PM (view original):
There's something I didn't think possible: Using teammates at 3 infield positions. With that logjam, I figured I had to use them somehow. Of course, I drafted pitching seasons early and had to do what I could with those hitters later. But that is some clever drafting you did there, njbigwig.

I like my three infield teammates better...

2B - '36 Gehringer
3B - '85 Brett
SS - '32 Cronin

In my defense Schwarze, you didn't have to dodge a Weyhing. LOL Nothing wrong with

1B - 2002 Jim Thome
2B - 1935 Buddy Myer
3B - 1980 Mike Schmidt

Posted by calhoop on 1/22/2019 1:23:00 AM (view original):
After reviewing the rules for this version, I first noticed that there was no salary restriction on player nominated. Right up my alley. I always look for a low salaried option that will saddle owners late to that particular party with chunks of wasted salary. Additional benefit is that I feel it necessary to get an early pick in round 1 in case there are any pariahs (other than my nominee) to deal with immediately. Interesting that teammates of nominated players could not be used and a switch to 9 hitters and 7 pitchers but not a major influence. My first nominee was Gus Weyhing but I reconsidered because I am not a good enough manager to handle even 50 ish crappy innings effectively and certainly not good enough to milk anyone for 493 innings if I took the good one and burned Seward for the rest of the league and frankly that optioned never occurred to me. Furthermore, right after I posted the pick, schwarze expressed interest in Gus. If I found a different player to nominate I could appease him and also consider a Weyhing/Seward combo if he took him and if the 1888 version slipped to me. Doing extra research I found Jack Powell was eligible and had a perfectly usable 30 inning season that I have used before fairly often in lower cap leagues. He wasn't all that effective even in low caps for me but maybe I can finesse better performance this time around.

Round 1 - The 853k salary for 1905 Powell only positioned my 7th in the first round. Absolutely only focused on Gus at that point. The 2 cheap Weyhings that were available after Schwarze took the third for his nominee year went right away. Even more urgent to focus only on Gus. I was prepared to take one of the 5 million-ish Phillies years for the hitting teammate options. but when 1888 Gus Weyhing fell to me I did not hesitate to save any wasted salary and also consider an unlikely scenario in which I could squeeze in Ed Seward. To the back (but not all the way back) of the bus I go.

Round 2 - Whether or not I would be able to fit in Seward, I needed to hope that one of the Young or Adams good years would still be available. Surprised to see 1908 Cy Young there for me and I took him without even realizing there would be an accompanying Elmer Steele teammate option. Right now Plan A (for Alaska and Seward's Folly) gave me 1595 IP of .97 WHIP and 0.07 HR/9. $60 million spent with 60 to go on 20 players (including a complete offense and landmine dodging). Needed to keep Plan B very much in mind. (No real plan B yet but how well do any plans work in this draft? Not usually well for me, anyhow)

Round 3 - Still looking at Adams and Lolich as players who need to be addressed. Adams still had some very usable 3rd starter years but Lolich has nothing I wanted. I really expected a Lolich run right about now and took 1966 Lolich and bit a $3.8 million bullet and felt lucky to do so. The run didn't materialize like I had thought but no regrets here.

Round 4 - Earlier in the round, schwarze commented that "Every time I make an argument for a different player, I keep coming back to this guy...". He took his Babe Adams and my focus narrowed on what might be left here. This would essentially be my moment of truth for either abandoning Plan A altogether or not. With his better years gone I was very happy to see the 1916 Babe Adams at $1mm available and that conundrum was over. 5 pitchers down, only about $4.8mm wasted salary and Plan A was still alive.

Round 5 - With Doyle and Wickman the only pitchers left, I needed to get some decent full-time hitters on board. 1960 Ernie Banks (love the Topps card) was still on the board as a full-time SS and the pitcher's union gives thumbs up to his A/B fielding. Here's looking at you, Lolich.

Round 6 - I looked at Doyle similarly to Lolich but much milder. Several inexpensive seasons for Doyle but somebody was going to get stuck with a higher priced borderline option so I took 1983 Alexander and his super cheap 319k season. Comes along with a potential Wynegar catching option to supplement whatever happens down the road at that position.

Round 7 - Had been looking at the 1924 Myatt since the beginning of the draft. I jumped on him here. Excellent and affordable teammate options (on the hitting side).

Round 8 - Still focusing on salary dump options, I punted 1988 Tony Phillips at under a million. Probalby could have put more thought into how to use Tony but at under $1mm it was time to clear the hurdle.

Round 9 - Been waiting patiently as Williams after Williams get taken. Really nervous about missing that boat totally but 1955 Teddy Ballgame was there and he fit well. One of his best production seasons and only have to pay for usable at bats.

Round 10. Had been looking at 2000 Wickman as the one I wanted for a couple of rounds now. Love the big Manny and this is one of the cheap Wickmans. Pitching portion of the draft was complete.

Round 11 - Joe Kuhel was a very interesting selection. although overpriced everywhere. He did have some teammate options like 1935 Buddy Myer still available but I was not sure I could roster that. Also, I was still thinking there needs to be some kind of Plan B so the 1942 Kuhel offered one of his lowest remaining salary seasons. It also offered 180 IP of Ted Lyons as a handkerchief and fishing wire parachute in case the Plan A zeppelin hit electric wires.
Also, another couple of teammates were invited to training camp: P - Johnny Rigney and OF - Taffy Wright.

Round 12 - At this point, I needed to make Carew at 1st, full time Maz at second (hooray for fielding) and a full time Ramirez at 3rd which seemed doable,
Went with 1983 Carew and his .339 average and good fielding. Only 536 PA/162 but there is Kuhel overlap to fill in.

Right after this pick barracuda3 commented that he had been following everyone's selections and had a feeling my team was up to something. Yes, I was still trying Plan A at that point but did not know who the other players might be. Very curious to see how many free agents he correctly identified,

Round 13 - At this point Lonnie Smith was the only wild card. Liked the .321 batting average version. Maybe I could get the decent Tom Herr to help with the eventual Maz's weak bat.

Round 14 - Pretty much the only one who needed Ramirez and Maz. Still 3 very similar and usable Ramirez's with potential teammate appeal. Decided on 2008 Ramirez which allowed me to bring in Rich Harden and Mikah Hoffpauir for tryouts as well.

Round 15 - Left with 1967 Mazeroski. 679 PA which will work at the bottom of the order. B/A fielding and possible Clemente option. At this point I am still not committed as to how my team will acutally fill out.

I used $ 78,223 on nominated players and had about $ 41,777 available for 9 free agents. Those that made the team were:

1888 Ed Seward - $23.86 million but worth it
1924 Tris Speaker - only $5,720k and a reasonable CF
1942 Taffy Wright - platoon OF with good numbers
1924 Riggs Stephenson - 288 PA - .371 BA. eligible at 2b if I want to downgrade fielding some time
1924 Johnny Rigney - only other FA pitcher\
2008 Mikah Hoffpauir - good PH option
2000 Einer Diaz - nice fit for missing PAs needed at C and A-/A+/A
1924 Elmer Yoder - 3b - who saw that coming?
1942 Bill Mueller - OF ditto!

One final note. There was some discussion about low OBP players not doing well on WIS which I fully agree with. However, in this league both Cy Young and Babe Adams had excellent control and I think walks will be minimized. So I favored high batting average when I could. Looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. Long live the matrix!!

Quote post by calhoop on 1/22/2019 1:23:00 AM:

Right after this pick barracuda3 commented that he had been following everyone's selections and had a feeling my team was up to something. Yes, I was still trying Plan A at that point but did not know who the other players might be. Very curious to see how many free agents he correctly identified,


To be honest, once I figured out what my team was going to look like I didn't finish filling out everyone's rosters. At the beginning of the 13th round I had you taking Speaker, Manny, Kaline, Seward, Eck, Steele and three scrubs. However, I knew you still needed ~250 PAs at catcher, so I would've replaced Kaline with Lonnie Smith once I saw that pick. But overall I wasn't very close.

I just want to go on the record as saying it's highly unfair with y'all and your long-range planning.

Round 1: Knew I was going to use Phillips at 2B, and there was a lot of ABs at 1B without using Carew....figured I'd get a low AB version with good numbers.

Round 2: Figured I should get some cheap decent innings, and make sure I didn't wind up with a bad Cy.

Round 3: I was going to have to spend some coin on Gus...might as well get the one with the not-indecent ERC#.

Round 4: I was at work. I found a cheap Lonnie Smith with decent stats, plus the ability to get a Bonds? Sold....except that Bonds left in '92, and I got the '93 Smith from the Pirates. I did get Jay Bell to play SS though...

Round 5: Cheap Myatt with decent stats. (Is this a running theme yet?)

Round 6: Cheapest Banks left IIRC. Wasn't thrilled, but really didn't want to get stuck with anything more expensive.

Round 7: I found a bad Wickman season that gave me Jeter (who I didn't use) and Rivera (who I did).

Round 8: I wanted the '72 Lolich, but he went before I could grab him. Instead I took the '71 version - which gave me Freehan.

Round 9: Decent partial season from Ramirez that I can use as a platoon. Best I can hope for here.

Round 10: I got a good Williams season on the cheap. Smith makes a great platoon partner.

Round 11: Oof. Powell isn't TERRIBLE, I guess, and he did get me Jesse Burkett (plus jetsam Childs), but....

Round 12: Every team needs a Long B, I suppose. Alexander is it for me...but he also got me the big half of my 3B platoon (Rance Mulliniks).

Round 13: Cheapest Kuhel available. Big half of the platoon with Ernie.

Round 14: Complete waste of space in Mazeroski. He's my designated PR, I guess...plus he gets me a decent reliever in Veale and some flotsam in Brand.

Round 15: Adams was an afterthought, but he gave me my CF (Max Carey).

My extra 9 are one excellent reliever, one good one, starting SS, C, two OF, the big half of a 3B platoon, and two filler guys.