For the $120M theme, I ran my team against itself in a bunch of different parks, and I was shocked at how many extra pitches per game were needed in the hitters parks. Even with star pitchers going all the time, it was usually over 150 pitches/game. For comparison, in Safeco it was under 130 pitches/game. My guess is that between the DH, the high averages and the hitters' parks, we will need over 1500 IP to get by.

I drafted 1706 innings for the 120m theme. The theme dictates that every team has a hitting team and on top of it, a hitters park and a DH. Whatif you get a bunch of owners in your league that go to Coors or worse in your division. That alone forced me to be cautious. All it takes is for a couple of games early in the season that are out of control and just decimates your pitching staff and then you are screwed. Maybe you guys can get away with the innings that you took, I didn't want to take the chance. You guys make the 2nd round every year, I've only made it there once, so I'm gonna say I got a little too cautious. This theme was really tough.

This is my first time playing the WISC so my expectations are pretty low. With that said, here we go:

$70 mil – 1978 Yankees
With a cap of $80mil or lower I like to have at least one if not two “stud” starting pitchers. With this theme it was nearly impossible to find a squad that had two. So I started looking at the usual suspects for my lead pitcher – Mike Scott, Pedro, Tiant, Gooden, and finally Guidry. When I started putting a team in around Guidry, the pieces seemed to fit better than any other pitcher I chose. I’m a little worried about the bullpen but at this cap and with the theme I guess you have to make some concessions. 

$80 mil – 1990s pitchers and 2000s hitters (2090: A WISC Odyssey)
I generally build my team starting with the pitching staff. So I made a list of my favorite starting and relief pitchers to see which decades they fell into. I decided on 97 Pedro, who has been my go to guy of late, and 94 Cone, who has always performed well for me at $80mil, to lead my staff. After my staff was built I did the same thing with my hitters. I made a list and chose my decade. I have some speed guys (Figgins, Furcal, McLemore) and some cost effective run producers (Berman, Chipper, VMartinez). No real strategy beyond that. This team, more than any of the others, most closely resembles a typical team for me. 

$90 mil – pitching and defense
(Flick it & Pick It) This was the last team I built and also the most challenging. I don’t worry a whole lot usually about defense (range in particular). Again, I started with the arms. I built my $45 mil staff led by Pedro and Tiant. The offense was much more challenging. I ended up using almost no one I’d ever used before. In fact, I made 2 mistakes with my first team. I confused my +’s and –‘s and ended up with 2 illegal players. I fixed the issue and have no idea at all how this team will perform.

$100 mil – Doc Gooden, Mike Scott, Mike Moore, and CC Sabathia (cc: Doc, Mike & Mike)
I know a lot of people said this was the most challenging team to build. This was the first and easiest of my teams. That probably says more about me than anything else. I filled several notebook pages with all of the starting pitchers I use and their teammates. Then it became like a jigsaw puzzle. I was able to find enough usable players from the 85 Mets and 86 Astros to use Gooden and Scott. Mike Moore is usually decent and he gave me access to Rickey and Eck. CC gave me Mo and some offense in Jeter, Cano, and Teixeira. 

$110 mil – 82&95 Dave Winfield
Twist leagues are my favorite leagues. I have had success in the past few years with 80’s and 90’s Yankees teams and 90’s Indians teams. After trying several different players I settled on Big Dave Winfield. The 82 Yankees gave me Guidry (again), Gossage, Mazzilli, Wynegar, and Randolph. The 95 Indians gave me Hershiser, DMartinez, Lofton, Belle, Thome, and Eddie Murray. I’ve been better at $80 mil than higher cap twists so we’ll see. 

$120 mil – Louisville Sluggers
I don’t have much to say here. I tried to build as good a pitching staff as possible as they will certainly be tested (more likely pounded). I went with 97 Pedro and Tiant, my dynamic duo. Hopefully the low OAV will keep me in games. I tried to mix lefty, righty, and switch hitters into the line-up. I got to use Rogers Hornsby who is not really cost effective at lower caps. 

Overall I stayed pretty true to the types of teams and players I like to use. How that will translate in this competition I have no idea. It should be fun either way.

70M - Pitching, Pitching, Pitching...I found the best pitching teams of all time and tried to make them work.  I settled on the '79 Orioles.

80M - Deadball pitching I think is a given.  Then for the hitters I tried to find an era with good defense and high AVG+ hitters

90M - Man, I hated this one...I did the Caruthers/Ruth thing with a good bullpen.  Best AVG+ I could find for the hitters.  I was thinking about an All-Range team but decided against it.

100M - Loved this theme.  Went right to Camnitz with Babe Adams and Honus Wagner.  John Tudor also was a given for me.  Bernhard I always thought was undervalued and I made Kevin Brown fit.  I tried the 30s Yankee SP thing but to use two 10M hitters didn't make a lot of sense to me.  Stick with the best SP you can get and make the hitting work.

110M - Looked at Mike Stanton with the Braves and Yankees.  Looked at Eddie Collins with the A's and '27A's.  Looked at Pennock as well.  Went with Eddie Collins because I it gave me the best balance.

120M - struggled with this one because I always play the Pitching teams.  Went with stellar defense while keeping with the theme.  Tried like hell to get a good pitching staff and playing in the most friendly pitchers park.  A+++ in center field.

Posted by ncmusician_7 on 8/4/2011 5:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Jtpsops on 8/4/2011 2:56:00 PM (view original):

Posted by ncmusician_7 on 8/4/2011 12:28:00 PM (view original):
Compare the 83 and 75 Gary Carter.  That's a good example of the "catcher loophole".

Doesn't necessarily help the argument.  Clearly '75 is the bigger bargain, but '83 Carter also has multiple positions, and his defense (though not a big deal in a catcher) is significantly better, which accounts for the price increase.  That doesn't mean you're not paying for his arm in the '75 version.

The correct comparison would be, are you paying the same for '75 Carter as you would be for a similar OF with no Catcher ranking. Or a similar catcher with a weak arm.

83 Carter's defense isn't significantly better.  As long as the catcher fielding grade isn't D-, it's basically meaningless (just like 1B fielding grades are basically meaningless).

I agree it's meaningless, but I will still bet you WIS prices an A/A/A catcher significantly higher than a D/D/A catcher.

Posted by schwarze on 8/4/2011 6:27:00 PM (view original):
I hope you're right.  I only have 1431 good innings (plus 90 IP of mopup).  Was a DH is use in the aforementioned league? 

No...that's another reason I bumped up a few more IP.

I generally hate playing with guys below 100% at all.  I usually only skimp on PAs or IP when a theme basically requires it, like a low cap or the 90m theme here.  

I went with ~1,520 IP per team in schwarze's franchise tourney and my pitchers were comfortable all season.  I could have cut back a little but I'm pretty happy with the results.  

The 120M league I'm in has only 1 Coors Field team. 

70 Mil- 1915 Chicago White Sox

     I typically don't play leagues under the cap of 80Mil so therefore I believe this is going to be a long season. Believing most people would take modern teams with good power I ended up taking a team from the early 1900s with decent ERC+ numbers and hr/9. I ended up coming across the 1915 Chicago White Sox which gave me some decent pitchers: Eddie Cicotte, Reb Russell, and Joe Benz. I really liked their hitting with Joe Jackson, a short season of Eddie Murphy (not the actor), and Buck Weaver. Adding a decent Cy Williams and Hal Chase who both have power could compliment well. With 4 hitters having over 10 triples I was even lucky enough to have Comiskey Park (I) as my ballpark.

Prediction: 84-78

Hitting: PA 5254 .285/.349/.389
Pitching: 1308 IP .245 OAV, 1.11 WHIP, 2.50 ERA, 11 HR allowed

80 Mil- 1900 & 1990

     I didn't even think twice about the pitching. The 1900-1909 seemed the best with Joss, Noodles Hahn of 1904, and rounding out the rotation will be Jack Pfiester. A fairly deep bullpen of 8 guys with 5 over 60innings should keep me clear of any fatigue. The hitters was a toss up between 1980s and 1990s, but in the end I loved the 1990s. I went with a fairly common strategy with a bunch of speedy runners and a good amount of "cookies".

Prediction: 88-64

Hitting: PA 5633, .297/.368/.407
Pitching:  1352 IP, .214 OAV, .95 WHIP, 1.66 ERA, 10 HR allowed

90 Mil- No Glove, No Love

     Not much of a hitting strategy here. Just a few speedy hitters and skimped a bit on the PA's to get some better hitters. Hopefully no fatigue problems here, but I worry about fatigue with every team I make. Pitching I went with Joss again, much like a lot of people I believe. Dutch Leonard being a number 2, and somehow I ended up with Jack Pfiester. Hopefully he does well or I'll be kicking myself otherwise. Since I was a bit short on the 3 starters IP i have Art Nehf and Cy Morgan each with over 100 IP in the bullpen and an occasional spot start. Milacki and Cisco Carlos will be closing games and possible spot starters in the playoffs (Which I probably won't be making).

Prediction- 92-60 I can Hope

Hitting: PA 5184, .300/.360/.393
Pitching: 1315 IP, .197 OAV, .90 WHIP, 1.38 ERA, 13 HR allowed

100Mil- Don Greg Tudor Peavy

     This was by far the toughest team to build. The 70mil was tough but I seemed somewhat happy with it when I was done. This team will be my worst, and most likely will keep me from making the top 24. I looked at combinations that pretty much everyone has said but couldn't seem to be happy or under the $$ with any of them. I decided Tudor would be great so I could get the 1B, 2B, SS, and CF out of the way. Sutton gave me great Bullpen guys, with a couple of decent OF's. Maddux gave me the 3B, and C. Then Peavy gave me a few more relievers and a bench player. Overall this team will be lucky to have a .400 win %. My favorite part of this team is that they will be playing in Petco.

Prediction: 62-100

Hitting: PA 5429, .302/.363/.461
Pitching: 1415 IP, .207 OAV, .99 WHIP, 2.27 ERA, 73 HR allowed

110Mil- 1914/1927 Speaker

     This was one of the easier teams to build. I came across Speaker early on and loved the teammates. Collins didn't seem to give me the pitching I wanted. With Speaker, I could use Walter johnson, Stan Coveleski, and Dutch Leonard being my #3. A pretty deep pen with 3 guys over 100 innings and 2 other over 60 IP. I was very pleased with the staff I could create. The hitting to me seems fantastic. Having Goose Goslin, Babe Ruth, Tris Speaker.. The rest of the lineup all but 1 hit over .310. This may be too good to be true.

Prediction: 96-66 WS Losers

Hitting: PA 5884, .329/.417/.477
Pitching: 1560 IP, .202 OAV, .96 WHIP, 1.62 ERA, 29 HRA

120Mil- POTF

     This was the easiest team to build behind the 80Mil team. I generally play pretty well in higher cap leagues. My only WS win in last years tournament was in the highest cap league. So I feel confident in this team. I may have went a little short on the IP but I am pretty sure they'll be fine. My starters are Pete Alexander 1915 (The Beast), Addie Joss again, and 1994 Greg Maddux. I wanted either a maddux or pedro on my team and felt most confident with this Maddux because of his great hr/9 + and a decent amount of innings. A seven man bullpen with Milacki in there should keep me out of the Red in fatigue. The hitters I thought Sam Thompson would be the best choice with his ridiculous amounts of triples, and Hughie Jennings a good fielder who always performs great for me at high caps. I wanted 1 big home run hitter so I also put a Babe Ruth on my team. This team should probably be my best team, unlucky enough I have Ballantine in my division so I'm already playing for 2nd place.

Prediction- 100-62 WS Champs

Hitting: PA 6140, .361/.432/.500
Pitching: 1463 IP, .196 OAV, .87 WHIP, 1.39 ERA, 20 HRA

70M – 1914 Boston (AL)

 

I figured deadball pitchers would the norm for the lower caps, and I would no choice but to follow this strategy. I had recently used 1914 Dutch Leonard in a 60 mil Albatross League and was very pleased with the results so I decided to look at the 1914 Red Sox. I managed to get both Leonard and Speaker on board. (In my league, ballantine also has the 14 Sox but is using neither Leonard nor Speaker. Hmm…)

 

80M – Ronald Woodrow Wilson Reagan

 

Once again I went with deadballers (1910s) for my staff. Since I figured many others would do the same, I went a speed team from the 1980s while avoiding power. This is a complete departure from my usual habits. I often struggle with scoring runs and it seems when I do have success my offense is based on power and walks.

 

90M – We can’t answer that

 

Went with all deadballers in the rotation. Otherwise, just a theme I stumbled through. I’m sure it will get clobbered.

 

100M – Leonard Tudor & Pedro Drabek

 

I went with 14 Leonard, 85 Tudor, 00 Pedro, and 90 Drabek. (I’m surprised anyone else used Drabek) I also considered 2005 Peavy.

 

110M – Spanky’s WhiteCard Gang 85/95

 

I decided to check my favorite player, Mike LaValliere, for this theme and I am pleased with how it came out. It’s amazing who all played for the White Sox that year.

 

120M – Movin’ on down

 

If this were a stand alone league I would never have joined it. It just doesn’t excite me at all. I read schwarze’s caution about IP, but I had no clue how many innings to shoot for, and no idea how to calculate it. I have 1490 IP in Jefferson Street, so I figure I’m toast.

 

Overall, I’m just hoping to beat my seed (70).

This is my 1st champs tournament, so I am not sure how my teams or strategies will work out, but he's a brief glimpse inside the madness.  


70M - "2008 Chicago Cubs" - as a die hard cubs fan, this was an easy pick.  I wanted to do a modern team, and 08 Cubs gave me a lot of great cheap options.  I am hopeful of what this team will do.  

80M - "1900 hitters & 1990 pitchers" - my strategy for this theme was to grab hitters that played in pitcher dominant eras, and vice versa.  I am hoping that my pitching will be able to over power other offenses, and win a lot of close games.

90M - This is easily my least favorite team as I rarely care about defense.  spending/wasting so much money on defense was hard to do.  That said I decided to try and win it with pitching.  With 1300 IP's with a 2.11 ERA - .196 OAV - 0.95 WHIP, I am hopeful of what this team can do.

100M - Going into the tournament this was one of my favorite themes.  I went with my favorite duo of Maddux and Pedro (they are represented together in 5 of my 6 teams), and built a good core of teammates.  Adding Lefty Grove also brought me Gehrig, Ruth, Dickey, and Lazzeri, while finalizing my rotation with Mike Moore of Oakland gave me the best leadoff hitter in baseball behind Rickey Henderson, as well as a very solid bullpen behind Eck, Plunk, and Burns.

110M - Tom Goodwin - Instantly I had the plan of trying to find a link to get Pedro and Maddux on my rotation (go figure), and although there were a few options, I likedTom Goodwin the best.  The 93 dodgers gave me solid outfielders in Butler and Strawberry, great starting pitching in Pedro, Hershiser, and Candiotti, as well as Piazza behind the plate.  The 04 Cubs filled out the rest of the infield with Nomar, Aramis, and D-Lee, filled up the outfield with Sosa, and gave me a good bullpen with Farnsworth, Wuertz, and Wood.  From the beginning, I have liked this team the best, and after our 5-0 start, I am feeling hopeful of their success.  

120M - This was the easiest theme to complete for me.   The reason being that my brother, just4me, is the one who built the team.  Not able to decide which of his teams to choose, we decided to each take one, and see which was the better team.  

Not really sure what to expect, but I have a couple teams that I think have a shot.  

Here is a look at how my teams are doing (thru 110 games), compared to my pre-season comments...

70M
My 2006 Halladay in LA

Pre-Season Analysis
When I first started building this team, I wanted to find lots of SBs. I rarely play at caps below 80M. The only way I know how to win is to grab high% SB guys because these guys still seem undervalued. So I started searching through the years trying to find a year with as many high% 50+ SB guys as possible. I ended up finding 1987 (with V.Coleman, W.Wilson, B.Hatcher). I tried the KC Royals as my anchor team, as they had an entire starting staff already in place so I could cherry pick the hitters I wanted. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t stomach the pathetic quality of their pitching. In fact, I tried but couldn’t find any teams I liked from 1987. I also tried some other years in the mid 1980’s but couldn’t make any of them work. Back to the drawing board.

Instead, I decided to search for bargain starting pitchers… solid 200-ip guys with relatively low salaries. I wanted to stay in the modern era. I found 2006 with Halladay, Maddux, Lowe and Wang… almost 870 decent IPs for only $21 million. I decided to investigate this further. Since the 2006 Dodgers had both Maddux & Lowe, that’s the team I selected. The problem with LA is that most of their position players have < 600 PA. Even the position players I wanted to add (Vidro & Punto), were under 600. But I was able to find a reasonable backup/platoon partner for each of them. That also means I didn’t waste dollars on a bunch of 200K scrubs. So my lineup looks like this.

After the fact comments:
A week ago, this team was sitting comfortably in first place (50-39) but then lost 12 out of 14 games.  We've managed to creep back up to 57-53 (tied for first in a weak, but balanced division).   I don't feel real confident about this team.  They have no identity.  They are ranked 7th in runs scored and barely above average in pitching.  In an odd statistical fluke, Greg Maddux has 3 wins in 23 starts despite a respectable 3.52 ERA (playing for a good offensive team).  In retrospect, I should have gone with my first instinct and taken a 1987 team.  As I first suspected, the teams that loaded up on high-percentage SBs are doing very well in this theme. 

80M
A Century Apart (1800s H, 1990s P)

Pre-Season Analysis
The following strategy is something I've tried in the past. Because the era of your hitters and your opponents' pitchers has a direct effect on opponent errors, I believe that if you draft position players from the 1800's and put them behind modern-day pitchers, these fielders won't commit as many errors as they did in real life, thus making them better values than their salary would indicate. At the same time, I expect many will select pitchers from the 1900's or 1910's which will further increase the errors my opponents commit. Also, I like to take advantage of the A+++ range that many of these 1800's fielders have. So that's what I did. My roster contains a bunch of C/A+ or D/A+ hitters from the 1880's and 1890's. My pitching staff is from the 1990's. The starting rotation is K.Brown, Glavine, Candiotti and D.Martinez. The bullion is Wakefield, Cone, Isringhausen and Helling.

I'm playing in the Astrodome, so it will be hard to score runs against this team, despite the seemingly mediocre pitching. Hopefully, my hitting will be good enough to score enough runs to win. 

After the fact comments:
This team is doing exactly what I expected.  We're currently 63-47 (first place).  We're in 8th place in runs scored and 4th place in ERA.  The team has made 120 "+" plays and only 2 "-" plays.  And as expected, my 1800's fielding has been significantly helped by my modern-day pitchers.  In fact, my team has committed only 98 errors and my opponents (mostly modern-day fielders) have committed 119 errors.  The average team (excluding my team) has committed 82 errors, which means my opponents are commiting errors at a 45% higher clip than average.  My team's OPS is ranked 14th, so those errors have bumped my runs scored rank by 6 places.

90M
Doubly Fast

Pre-Season Analysis
I really have no clue what the right strategy is in this theme. I decided to target players with lots of steals, doubles and/or triples. I also shorted myself a bit on innings drafting only 1250 good innings. The offenses aren't going to be that good in this theme so I want to manufacture runs any way I can, so I have Pettis, W.Wilson and R.LeFlore in the outfield. Infielders O.Hudson, Polanco & J.Rollins average 35 doubles and 7 triples. I grabbed Jiggs Donahue at 1B because he might get 30 "+" plays. And of course, Gary Carter just in case other teams are SB-heavy.

The pitching staff is a little different. Instead of trying to get four equally good guys, I went strong and weak. '95 Maddux, '53 Spahn, '93 Appier and '06 Wang. Yep, that's two teams already with Chien-Ming Wang… yikes! The bullpen consists of your typical mid-cap cookies… Dean, Miljus, D.Alexander, Milacki, plus a bunch of mopup guys.

Plus, I'm playing in Municipal Stadium (+1, +3, +3, -4, -4) in order to maximize the doubles and triples on my team.

After the fact comments:
This team sits at 61-49 (first place).  They are ranked 6th in runs and 9th in pitching.  Also ranked 4th in fielding percentage and have 71 "+" plays cmopared to only 2 "-" plays.  We're 2nd in SBs (138/180, 77%).  We're also 7th in doubles and 3rd in triples.  So, I guess the offense is doing exactly what I expected.    The "strong/weak" pitching is sort of working.  1995 Maddux (19-5, 1.39 ERA, 0.68 whip) is an absolute beast in this theme despite his recent slump (he started 16-1).  Interestingly enough though, Spahn (13-13) and Appier (11-8) have similar W-L records as Chien-Ming Wang (11-10) despite posting ERA's a run and a half better.  Overall, I am happy with this team.


100M
Lefty, Freddie, Pedro & 3-Finger

Pre-Season Analysis
I started trying to fit '00 Pedro with either '94 or '95 Maddux, but I didn't like either Atlanta team as far as teammates go. Plus I couldn't quite get the '00 Red Sox team to work, so I then downgraded to '02 Pedro because Nomar was still good and Manny has a nice .349/.450/.647 season ($1.6M Cliff Floyd to platoon with Manny). Since the '02 Pedro has only 200 IPs, I knew I was going to need a big inning choice. I grabbed 1906 Three Finger Brown next and his very nice teammates of 1B Frank Chance and 3B Harry Steinfeldt. Jimmy Sheckard filled my 3rd teammate slot. I still needed a starting C, 2B and OF, so I searched for a good SP with those teammate choices. Bingo, 1931 Lefty Grove with Mickey Cochrane (.349, .423, .553), Max Bishop (.426 obp) and Al Simmons (.390, .444, .641). Now, I had my offense set. But I needed a bullpen. I went with the obvious choice and what will probably be a very common selection, the 2001 Mariners. Freddie Garcia brings along Pineiro, Sasaki, Charlton and Rhodes. I don't have a ton of RP innings, but I'm well over 1000 starting IPs, so I'll have to manage the innings wisely.

After the fact comments:
This team is doing very well at 63-47 but is tied for first in a tough division (only 4 games from missing playoffs).  We're in a bit of a slump lately, winning just 11 games in the last 27.  We're 3rd in runs scored, but only average in pitching (12th).   We're pretty average in defense too, although we're 23rd in allowing steals.  Nothing really to report on overachieving or underachieving players, other than '31 Lefty Grove can't get any run support (13-14, 3.02 ERA).   The low innings from my RPs hasn't hurt me, as I've been slotting Freddie Garcia into the  "Long A" role quite a bit and going with a 3-man rotation. 


110M
Peckinpaugh 10/20

Pre-Season Analysis
I looked at a couple of Maddux / Pedro combinations, but at 110M cap, I decided that there just wasn't enough offense (that didn't involve HRs) in the modern era for a 110M cap. I wanted to get Babe Ruth along with some solid deadball pitching. That's when I found Roger Peckinpaugh, who had a cup of coffee with the 1910 Indians (Addie Joss, Cy Young, Nap Lajoie, Joe Jackson). Bingo! The rest was merely a formality. Although '21 Peckingpaugh is better than the 1920 version, the latter offered me Ernie Shore, who will be the main bullpen guy. Cy Falkenberg (400 IP), Carl Mays, Jack Quinn and George Mogridge rounds out the 7-man pitching staff. Despite the era, I have surprisingly good defense with Pipp (B/A+), Lajoie (C/A+) and A.Ward (A/A+) in the infield. This is my favorite team of the six.

After the fact comments:
I knew it was a bad omen to say this was my favorite team.  They are my only team under .500, currently sitting at 51-59.  Their pitching is surprisingly ranked 6th, but there are only 4 teams ranked lower in scoring runs.  With 1920 Babe Ruth on the roster, I wasn't expecting that.  Babe is doing fine (.299, .442, .730 with 49 HRs).  But the rest of the offense is pathetic.  Joe Jackson ('20) is hitting 100 points lower than his .382 real life average.  Lefty O'Doul is 120 points lower than his .368 average.  Nap LaJoie is 70 points below, etc., etc.    The pitching is fine, although (Setup A reliever) Ernie Shore's 1.72 whip isn't helping me keep any leads.  Overall, a huge disappointment.  I guess I should have played it safe with 1928 Collins.


120M
Ty, Shoeless & Babe

Pre-Season Analysis
This team took me the longest to build. I had the cap at 130M, originally, but thought it would be too easy to get everybody you wanted, so I made it 120M. Now it seems really tough. I know that certain positions are limited as far as .400 hitters go (or even .350 hitters). I knew I would have two .400-hitting OFs and my C and SS would be under .350. I also knew I wanted to use Babe Ruth. His 350+ years are too expensive so I went with the popular 1919 version. '11 Joe Jackson and '12 Ty Cobb are my .400 hitters. I got some decently priced .350 hitters with '75 Carew, '88 Boggs, '17 Sisler and 1890 Dave Orr (DH). That's under $26 million for those four guys.

As far as pitching goes, I really struggled to balance how many innings to draft vs. quality. I focused on low OAV# but still wanted to keep the whip as low as possible. I wasn't concerned too much with HR/9 so I went with modern pitchers over deadballers. Maddux ('95) and Pedro were locks although I went with 97 Pedro to save salary. I also like '68 Tiant because of his low OAV. I needed an innings-eating pitcher who wouldn't get killed every time out. I looked at a number of Ryan seasons but his whip scared me to death. Koufax was too expense. I couldn't even afford '71 Blue. I decided on '74 Gaylord Perry (1.02 whip). My bullpen is '98 R.Johnson, '19 Nehf, '18 Toney, '88 Milacki, '82 Rozema. That's a thin 1431 IPs, plus 90 innings of mopup which I'll certainly need. If I have fatigue trouble, I have no problem sacrificing Perry.

I don't feel very confident with this team at all.

After the fact Comments:
Well, a little good, a little bad with this team.  The team's record is a respectable 59-51, but that's only good for third place (7 games out of wildcard spot).  We're ranked 7th in runs scored and 13th in runs allowed.  Most of the hitters are doing what you'd expect although I thought '19 Ruth (.264, 24 HRs) would do a bit better.  I have a lot of fatigue issues with my batters (most are playing at 93-95%).  I haven't had too much fatigue with my pitchers 91431 IP drafted).  The problem is my 4th SP - Gaylord Perry.  I knew he would suck, but I didn't think he'd suck this bad (200 IP, 7.59 ERA, 2.00 whip).  I think the issue is that I should have spent more on quality SP and less on hitting (i.e., downgrade Ruth at OF and upgrade Perry at SP).  Fred Toney's 7.04 ERA (.504 SLG) isn't helping matters either.


OVERALL
We're currently ranked 21st overall, but only 3 games from dropping out of the top 24.  The good news is that we have a shot for 4 playoffs teams.  I will feel good about advancing if I can get all four teams in.  If I get only 2 in, then I am extremely worried.