I will do my draft writeup in this thread. I doubt anybody outside of this draft cares. I invite zephyr and toysboys to comment on their draft.

Curt Welch

I agree that no one outside this draft cares, but I'm really interested. I'll do one too.

When juice opened this up to allow having a second team, I was going to take Chicago, but all the Chicago spots were taken, so I decided I'd take the 33% chance of winning the Silver King lottery. Sadly, that did not happen, so we'll do the best we can. I am picking 2nd in each round of a 3-person draft.

Round #1
After Silver King, there was no pitchers I wanted this early. I figured I would get two of Hornsby, O'Neill, Musial or Sisler. I was hoping to get both Hornsby and O'Neill but Rogers Hornsby plays the infield so that's who I grabbed first. Not surprisingly, Tip O'Neill was taken, along with Dave Davenport.

Round #2
I love Stan Musial. He's a top 10 player of all-time. He's got a bunch of usable seasons, but I decided there would be too much deadball pitching, and chose George Sisler over one of Musial's sub-20 HR seasons. No chance Musial comes back, right?

Round #3
No chance. Musial & Medwick got taken. This is where I let my sim-love of a player overrule my brain. Clearly, Elton Chamberlain or Eddie Plank should have been the pick here. I could've taken Frankie Frisch in the next round or two. I mean, I don't even need a 2B with Hornsby locked up. But I love the switch hitting A+ range and I planned all along to play Hornsby's 1921 season at 3B. One of those two pitchers should make it back to me.

Round #4
Nope. toysboys crushes my soul and takes both pitchers. OK, now let's go to the extreme. I know I can get reasonably decent SP later, let's grab some more offense. Ken Williams is another favorite of mine.

Round #5
Schoendienst and Manush get picked. I almost picked Jim Hearn here, but really wanted George Stone to keep up the high-average hitters. He normalizes well and can play CF. Five rounds, five really good offensive players, including 75% of my infield (shortstop is a wasteland).

Round #6
Caruthers and Burkett get taken. There just aren't a lot of great long relievers, so I quickly grab Jim Hearn here. Also looking at Jocko Milligan.

Round #7
Marty Marion and Jocko Milligan are off the board. I told you shortstop is a wasteland. Marion can't hit a lick but is one of the few shortstops that can field. I would have strongly considered Milligan at this pick had he lasted. Time to get some starting pitching. Both Harry Brecheen and Mort Cooper are left. I go with Brecheen.

Round #8
toysboys grabs Cooper and Howie Pollet. I have to take Kid Nichols now (he was a guy I was targeting once I decided to go heavy on offense early int he draft). I am hoping Barney Pelty makes it back to me.

Round #9
Damn it! zephyr take Sothoron and Pelty. Since there is no difference in the remaining SPs that I can take (Hudson, Raymond, Karger, Stivetts), I will start loading up on my bullpen. Stu Miller is the guy.

Round #10
toysboys (5 pitchers and 3 hitters) starts filling in his offense by taking Mize and McGraw. I grab a good lefty, Al Grabowski.

Round #11
I may have made a mistake here. I take Carl Weilman, the best lefty RP left. I probably should have taken Bobby Wallace. He's an ok hitter, but has that A+++ range. toysboys takes Wallace and catcher Wally Schang.

Round #12
Well, there is no reason to take a shortstop anytime soon. Once Jocko Milligan went, I decided to wait and piece together a 3-4 player catching tandem. Wally Schang was going to be part of that. Since my two opponents both have part-time shortstops, I need to start building this tandem now. I grab near-.400 hitter, Don Padgett.

Round #13
Ripper Collins and Jimmy Brown got taken. I like Collins a lot and would've taken him if we had a DH, but Sisler is already slotted at 1B. Not sure that picking pitcher Red Munger was a wise pick here. He's similar to Howie Pollet, but just as good, statistically. I should've grabbed OB-machine Johnny Schulte, who went on the next pick.

Round #14
I decided to grab catcher #2, Bill Delancey. He's another lefty-bat with a .979 OPS. I still need at least one more catcher.

Round #15
I still need more SP, and zephyr just grabbed Bugs Raymond. So it's between Karger and Hudson. Hudson is rated better, but Karger has a better Performance History, so I go with Ed Karger.

Round #16
At this point in the draft, hardly anybody is taking anybody that I want. I've filled in the remainder of my roster, and just have to decide on the roder in which to take these players to maximize the chances of getting everybody I want. Time to get my starting SS, Vern Stephens. Nothing to see here.

Round #17
When I do a sort on best pitchers left, most of the remaining RPs are now ranked below Nat Hudson. Since I still need a few starting innings, why not grab a guy with 400 IPs.

Round #18
In past drafts like this, I end up waiting too long on some short-PA stud, and miss out. Not this time. Let's get a nice spot starter (.367 avg) and defensive replacement (A+ range) at SS, Les Bell.

Rounds #19, 20, 23
I still need a third starting OF to go along with Ken Williams and George Stone. I like three guys, Harry Rice, Johnny Hopp & Roy Cullenbine. I take Hopp first due to his fielding, then take Rice (who has only 445 PA but a 1.018 OPS. Then I grab Cullenbine a few rounds later.

Rounds #21, 24
The other two pieces to my catching tandem are selected, Roger Bresnahan (.333 avg, A+ arm) and Joe Schultz (.386 avg, .485 obp).

Round #22
I wanted one more pitcher to get me up to ten. So I grab another lefty, Joe Ostroswki. I have a total of 1841 innings, so he won't pitch much.

Round #25
I was debating between Whitey Kurowski and Harlond Clift for a backup to Hornsby at 3B. toysboys picked Kurowski in round 21, make my decision easy. I can rest Frisch, move Hornsby to 2B or I can use Clift as a defensive replacement at 3B.

Fairly happy with my team, but I'm sure everybody feels that way. Lots of really great players. No idea if this team will win more games than it loses.

BATTERS
C: Delaney (L), Padgett (L), Bresnahan (R), Schultz (R) --> combined stats .355, .432, .535
1B: Sisler (L) .420, .467, 594
2B: Frisch (S) .337, .387, .472
3B: Hornsby (R) .397, .458, .639
SS: Stephens (R) .289, .352, .473 & L.Bell (R) .373, .467, .451
OF: K.Williams (L) .357, .439, .623
OF: Stone (L) .358, .417, .501
OF: H.Rice (L) .359, .450, ..568 & Cullenbine (S) .317, .452, .465
Def at OF: Hopp (L) .336, .404, .499
TOTAL HITTING --> .349, .424, .537

PITCHERS
Nat Hudson (R) 400 ip, .219 oav, 1.03 whip, 1.6 bb.9, 0.22 hr/9
Kid Nichols (R) 334 ip, .222 oav, 1.00 whip, 1.4 bb/9, 0.09 hr/9
Ed Karger (L) 333 ip, .223 oav, 1.03 whip, 1.9 bb/9, 0.06 hr/9
Harry Brecheen (L) 246 ip, .222 oav, 1.04 whip, 1.9 bb/9, 0.23 hr/9

Jim Hearn (R) 141 ip, .182 oav, 0.96 whip, 3.0 bb.9, 0.60 hr/9
Stu Miller (R) 93 ip, .197 oav, 1.01 whip, 2.7 bb/9, 0.31 hr/9
Al Grabowski (L) 54 ip, .227 oav, 1.04 whip, 1.4 bb/9, 0.00 hr/9
Carl Weilman (L) 51 ip, .227 oav, 0.93 whip, 0.6 bb/9, 0.00 hr/9
Red Munger (R) 128 ip, .212 oav, 1.10 whip, 3.0 bb/9, 0.15 hr/9
Joe Ostrowski (L) 61 ip, .251 oav, 1.12 whip, 1.1 bb/9, 0.31 hr/9
TOTAL PITCHING --> 1841 ip, .218 oav, 1.02 whip, 1.9 bb/9, 0.19 hr/9

I had no strategy coming into this. Much of it was dependent upon who got the first pick (aka who got Silver King). My strategy evolved during the draft.

Round	.	.	.	Zephyr1949	.	.	.	schwarze	.	.	.	toysboys
1				King, Silver				Hornsby, Rogers				Davenport, Dave

Silver King is the obvious #1 pick here. But there is a very dark side to having King as I've used him in other leagues. He makes defenses worse. According to BBR, the average fielding % in 1888 was .919. So his ERA will look nice, but his RA/9 is gonna suck. You really need to have good fielders to go with the King, which limits some of your player pool. Good for Zephyr for choosing good, modern fielders to compliment the King. Rogers seemed like an easy pick for schwarze as he's miles ahead of any other 2B or any other 3B or SS (wherever he uses him). Davenport is the 2nd best pitcher here. And he's really not worthy of a #1 pick as he's not that great, but he does have a lot of innings in a what I think is a shallow pitching pool. One thing to remember is that this draft only goes to 1954, so there aren't a lot of relief pitchers.

2

Musial, Stan

Sisler, George

O'Neill, Tip

Tip O'Neill is easily the best offensive piece on the board so no way I'm passing him up. He's better than any P I could grab here. Sisler and Musial gone. I kinda thought schwarze would take Musial next, but he must have his reasons. Maybe the plethora of deadball pitchers in this league scared him from taking a guy with HR power.

3

Medwick, Joe

Frisch, Frankie

Chamberlain, Elton

Medwick can mash. I know Frisch is a schwarze favorite since he's a switch hitter. However, he's now drafted two 2B, and it's a shallow pool. I took Ice Box since he was far and away the best quality P on the board. I'll use him as my setup man.

4

Schoendienst, Red

Williams, Ken

Plank, Eddie

Hmm, schwarze is not taking pitchers....guess more for me. Plank is the next best SP. Yep, schwarze takes Ken Williams. Another 2B! Ok, I'm getting screwed out of a good 2B.

5

Manush, Heinie

Stone, George

Caruthers, Bob

Zephyr takes another OF, he's got a lot of bats, but he's already got the King so it makes sense. George Stone! Is schwarze punting pitching?? Even though there are a lot of good OF, I wasn't planning on taking one yet. But there are only 2 more elite OF left. I take Caruthers. I'm not sure if I'm taking him as and OF or a P quite yet. He would actually suck as a P because his ERA would be near the bottom of the league and since he's 19th century, his RA/9 would suck, especially with my 19th century offensive pieces who can't catch already. However, it would be really nice to have a guy who rakes in the 9th spot. I don't know if schwarze or zephyr were considering having him pitcher either, but this somewhat blocks them from grabbing him and pitching him against me. Either way, I could really use him in the OF, which is probably what I'm thinking at this point.

6

Marion, Marty

Hearn, Jim

Burkett, Jesse

Burkett is the other big bat that I need. He has an almost .400 batting average. I'd say all other available OF are a notch below Caruthers and Burkett. But I also didn't think I'd fill all 3 OF spots before any other spot in my lineup. Schwarze takes Hearn and his love/hate relationship with him. I'm a bit surprised he doesn't take a 200 IP pitcher here but takes what I assume is his setup man. Marty Marion? Seems a bit early, but he does have an excellent glove.

7

Milligan, Jocko

Brecheen, Harry

Cooper, Mort

Jocko is a great pick here. I saw that he was by far the best C, but he's only half a catcher, so that limits his value IMO. Brecheen goes, ok, so now schwarze takes his first SP. I'm a little steamed over losing out on a 2B, and I have an opportunity here to block zephyr and especially schwarze from assembling a great pitching staff while at the same time bolstering mine. I only have 3 (maybe 4) pitchers at this point and a little over 800 innings so it's not like I couldn't use these guys. So here we go, I take Mort Cooper with a ERC# slightly over 2. The rest of the SPs have ERC# of 2.20 or worse range so there is a significant drop. Cooper will be my 3rd SP in my 3 SP rotation. Zephyr and schwarze might have better defenses, but I'll have better pitching.

8

Sothoron, Alan

Nichols, Kid

Pollet, Howie

Pollet is the other setup A compliment to Chamberlain. I'm at around 1200 innings now and my pitching staff is mostly set except for some short relievers and a Long A type. There aren't many good RP types left either. Caruthers is now less likely to be a pitcher on my team. Schwarze and zephyr may be having their "oh sh$t" moment now and both grab starting pitching.

9

Pelty, Barney

Miller, Stu

Mize, Johnny

More pitching for zephyr and schwarze. I'm a bit surprised zephyr didn't go the Nat Hudson route to have a 2 man rotation, but maybe he thought one 19th century pitcher was enough. Schwarze takes what I would consider the last best RP available. I might have taken Miller if he didn't. Mize is the best hitter available. I'm not sure at this point if zephyr is going to use Musial at 1B or OF, so I take Mize since I don't want the 3rd best 1B. Mize is the only "modernish" starter on my team. And while he does have 28 HR, he also has a lot of 2B and 3B as well. He'll bat cleanup for me.

10

McCabe, Tim

Grabowski, Al

McGraw, John

There are three 3B that I found to be somewhat equal so I didn't see a rush to take one. However, it's hard to beat a .500 obp even if his defense is bad. This is where I'm sensing on a direction for my team. 19th century hitters and "modernish" pitchers. I've done that format in the juice tourney and the fielders normalize pretty well. So I guess that if I'm finding old school hitters who can't field, I need to make sure not to draft old school pitchers. Well, my pitching staff is mostly done now. 700 innings will come from 1915, when the average fielding % was .962. Cooper and his almost 300 innings is from 1942, when the league average fielding % was .972. So this will allow me to draft more 19th century hitters. Schwarze and zephyr are likely starved for RPs now and grab a couple of them.

11

Tuero, Oscar

Weilman, Carl

Wallace, Bobby

A couple of more RPs taken. Zephyr already has Marion and I think schwarze might be using one of his 2B out of position at SS, so maybe the other teams are already set at this position. But Wallace is too good to pass up just in case. He's head and shoulders better than the rest of the SS available and I'd be really bummed if I didn't draft him here and someone else took him.

12

Collins, Ripper

Padgett, Don

Schang, Wally

The only spots I have left is 2B and C. The other guys are set at 2B, and what's left is nothing good. So I look for a catcher. I have a feeling there will be a lot of SB in this league since there were a lot of SB in the 19th century and dead-ball era. So I sort by arms and then PA and OPS#. No one really sticks out but Schang has an A arm, good (not great) bat and is a switch hitter. He's only half a catcher, so I'll need to grab another one (maybe 2 more) later on. Schwarze is on the same page as me and take Padgett. Zephyr takes the 3rd best 1st baseman whose not bad. I just preferred Mize.

13

Brown, Jimmy

Munger, Red

Schulte, Johnny

Since I know I won't be carrying a lot of pitchers, I have room for 3 catchers. I'd rather carry 3 good catchers and lose a roster spot over a 2nd mediocre catcher and an extra pinch hitter/defensive replacement/pinch-runner. So I go with Schulte and I'll need to draft a 3rd catcher, of where there are plenty to choose from.

14

Raymond, Bugs

Delancy, Bill

Robinson, Yank

Well I gotta grab a 2B at some point. The choices were all bad. Yank gets on base which according to moneyball is the most important thing. He has no power, no defense but hey I'm still hoping for some normalization from a guy from 1887. I'll need to grab a defensive replacement or alternate 2B just so they can battle for the position.

5

Haid, Hal

Karger, Ed

Fisher, Bob

And.....here's the defensive replacement/alternate 2B. He's only got 350 PA, so I'll likely platoon them so I can get a feel of who's doing better. Sometimes guys just under/over perform for no reason and maybe one of them will do.....not so badly.

16

Snyder, Frank

Stephens, Vern

Neale, Joe

The most important things I need now are RPs to compliment the 1200 innings I already drafted. Neale is the best RP available.

17

Powell, Jack

Hudson, Nat

Hoff, Chet

Hoff's whip is one of the highest on my team, but he's allowed 0 HR. Surprised Hudson went this late.

18

Cooney, Jimmy

Bell, Les

McCarthy, Tommy

I took McCarthy for a few reasons. He will hit LHP to rest Caruthers vs lefties. Also, he can play some 3B since McGraw is only 518 PA. So too birds, one stone.

19

Jacobson, Baby Doll

Hopp, Johnny

Stivetts Jack

This is actually a bad pick on my end. I'm looking for a 200 IP guy to pitch long relief. There were lots of guys in this space with relatively similar ERC#. However, I should not have chosen the guy from 1889 due to normalization issues. Realistically, he'll only get maybe 100 innings, and some of that in garbage time, so I don't think the impact will be too much.

20

Lanier, Max

Rice, Harry

Lary, Lyn

My backup SS and defensive replacement.

21

Niggeling, Johnny

Bresnahan, Roger

Kurowski, Whitey

My backup 3B and defensive replacement. He'll actually bat vs LHP since McGraw has less PA and is left-handed. He's a better defensive upgrade as well. I was actually looking to take Bresnahan as my 3rd catcher, but there are other options that are almost equally as good.

22

McManus, Marty

Ostrowski, Joe

Severeid, Hank

My 3rd catcher. All my catchers start with the letter "S". I also now have a LH, RH and switch hitting catchers.

23

Bottomley, Jim

Cullenbine, Roy

Biscan, Frank

Low-IP / high-leverage P. I'm a little surprised schwarze hadn't already taken him. Cullenbine is definitely a schwarze-type player and I was looking at him as well. But the truth is that there are a ton of good OF in this draft and I'm not sure where he'd fit.

24

Slaughter, Enos

Schultz, Joe

Ferrick, Tom

Another low IP / high-leverage RP. Ferrick and Biscan are luxury picks in that I don't really need them, but they are slightly better than some of my other RPs even if in low quantities.

25

Wright, Rasty

Clift, Harlond

Welch, Curt

All I need now is a speedy outfielder who can play defense and backup at other positions. Welch checks all of those boxes. He's one I like to use in lower cap leagues due to his extreme range.

Lineup:

3B John McGraw / Whitey Kurowski
RF Tip O'Neill
CF Jesse Burkett
1B Johnny Mize
LF Bob Caruthers / Tommy McCarthy
C Johnny Schulze / Wally Schang / Hank Severeid
SS Bobby Wallace
2B Yank Robinson / Bob Fisher

SP Dave Davenport
SP Eddie Plank
SP Mort Cooper
Long A Jack Stivetts
Setup A Elton Chamberlain
Setup A Howie Pollet
Setup B Chet Hoff
Setup B Joe Neale
Closer A Joe Biscan
Closer B Tom Ferrick

I'm going all-in on the old school hitters and modern-ish pitchers. With the exception of Jocko Milligan, I got all of the top hitters from 1885-1901. My obp is ridiculous. My homerun power is negligible. I figured this league will be filled with deadball, homerun-suppressing pitchers anyways. My defense is terrible but I'm hoping normalization will dampen the impact. I do have key backups at 2B, 3B, and SS in case the defense is just too horrible. I'm playing at Sportsmans Park II.

Updated my writeup to include stats.

I love reading these writings! It just reminds me why i finish toward the bottom most of the time. Don’t type well enough anymore but also don’t really have much of a plan, just sort of go with the flow of the draft, I have a problem with picking some of my favorite players. I still enjoy picking my teams but I’ am still a pencil and paper guy. Hope you both do well,,i picked St. Louis because i spent the first 60 years of my life in Lincoln nebraska and the Cards and Kansas City were our closest teams. And my son lives in St. Louis area,so i still can go the their games when i visit him. Thanks for a fun draft!