This is my first time playing in one of these leagues - though it will definitely not be my last given how much I enjoyed the draft and the strategy of it all. I went in not really knowing what to expect. I nominated Jay Bell and grabbed his 1999 season for a few reasons:

-- One of his best offensive seasons
-- Gave me a strong Randy Johnson season right out of the gate
-- I'm not sure if Dave Cash had already been nominated at that point - I think he had - but I remember thinking that I didn't like any of Cash seasons, figured most of you would feel the same, and that therefore there would be a run on seasons that gave access to the good Biggios. 1999 Bell is a 2B, which kept me out of that pickle AND I felt pretty confident that of the teammate SS options that were out there (a couple of 89 HoJos, a good Renteria, and the guy I ended up with, Jose Reyes), I'd be able to grab one in one of the middle rounds.

That 3rd point ended being only semi-accurate, but...there you go.

After the nominations were in, I made the following assumptions:
1.) Given the 12 players we had available and the eras from which we would be drafting, this was going to play more like a 100M cap than a 120M
2.) Staying under the cap was not going to be a problem. When deciding which guys I wanted - as draft picks or as teammates - I didn't care how high their salaries were. I figured unless things went really awry I was in no risk of going over.
3.) We were all going to end up with some dreck on our rosters. Hello Jay Bruce and Darryl Kile. So I decided not to worry too much about getting stuck with one or two $5M seasons I wasn't going to use. I decided to draft almost exclusively based on teammate seasons I wanted, and didn't really concern myself with avoiding "bad" seasons from our core 12.
4.) I didn't think there were nearly enough SP seasons to fill 12 rotations that were $100M cap worthy - never mind $120M. So I figured everyone would be going after the same handful of player-seasons.
5.) There were a lot of interchangeable seasons among Bagwell, Kile, Schilling, Dykstra, and others.

Assumption #4 is what led to my 1st round pick: I wanted 2018 deGrom. I might have taken 2002 Schilling if he had been available - but mpitt76 grabbed him, plus I already had RJ on my roster. I briefly considered 92 Schilling - whose stats are great - but his IP/G has always caused me problems unless I can carefully build the rest of my staff around him. I knew I wouldn't have that flexibility. So hello Jay Bruce and Jacob deGrom. That pick moved me from 4th to 3rd in the draft order, and I think for every round after the second I never drafted lower than 2nd.

2nd round: With 1/2 my rotation set, and one wasted player already on the roster, I wanted some offense. Though if '84 Gooden had been available I probably would have taken him. He went one pick ahead of me, and I decided none of the other Gooden seasons were all that special...so I grabbed his 2000 season, which gave me (so I thought) 2/3 of my outfield in Lance Berkman and Moises Alou.

At this point I had 2 really good SP, no bullpen, a starting 2B, and 2 starting OF. Had to make my first tough decision - fill a key defensive spot (C, 3B, SS) or grab one of the few really great SP seasons left on the board. I decided on the latter, took 73 Mays so I could have Tom Seaver. Now with 3/4 of the rotation filled, I decided not to worry too much about the 4th SP. It was a little difficult to leave so many good Mays seasons on the board, but (a) I felt there were plenty of really good OF teammate seasons left - many of which were not a huge dropoff from Mays - and I didn't think the available Mays seasons could fill the C, 3B, SS positions I was about to start targeting. Considered 70 Mays for a while with Dick Dietz (and a good McCovey if I went that route) but then figured I would be utterly wasting Bagwell, and 70 Mays is nothing special...and you're really gonna prioritize Dick Freaking Dietz in an early round? So 73 it was.

In round 4 I wanted to fill either C or SS. Looking at the options left, I felt there were enough decent (and similar quality) catcher seasons that I decided to prioritize SS, especially after the 2 options that would have given me 89 Hojo went off the board. So hello 11 Isringhausen, which brought Jose Reyes.

I gambled, and lost, in round 5. Saw a few good Schillings still on the board, and thought at least one of them would make it through round 5, so I grabbed a crappy (but cheap) 99 Mike Williams, which brought me half of my catching platoon, Jason Kendall. I really wanted Kendall because of his overall good bat and A+ arm. As it turns out, I eventually decided to add Brian Giles from this combo as well, and used him to replace the 00 Alou I had originally grabbed with the Gooden pick. So even though I lost the Schilling gamble, I can't complain too much. I probably got more value from this pick than any other, and added almost no salary to my draft order.

So I needed, in no particular order: 1B, 3B, OF, half a catcher, a 4th SP, and at least some semblance of the bullpen. I decided to put off 1B, figuring that the remaining Bagwell options were not that different from each other, either in terms of Bags or his teammates. I felt there were plenty of OF and C options left, so it came down to 3B, SP, and bullpen. Decided to kill two birds with one stone: 80 Nolan Ryan brought the guy I thought was maybe the best RP on the board in the whole draft: JR Richard. Ryan is a weak 4th starter, but I'm comfortable with the overall rotation for a ~100M league, and I was really happy to have Richard, who I expect to do very well at this cap.

Second big gamble in round 7. I looked at the 3B options remaining on the board and didn't love any of them. Option 1 was to put off filling that hole since any one of them would be as good as another. Option 2, which I convinced myself was better, was to grab one of the few remaining good Biggio seasons and play him at 3B. Since I needed to draft a crappy Kile season, I decided to use 94 Kile to plug in 94 Biggio at the hot corner. He should field OK, and he's moving to an easier position on the defensive spectrum, so I feel pretty good about this gamble, given his 720 PA and .411 OBP. If he ends up with 30 minus plays, we'll know this was stupid.

At this point I had about 400 less than ideal innings on the staff in Kile, Gooden, Williams, and Isringhausen...and I knew I was going to add a mediocre Schilling too. So I definitely had to spruce up the bullpen. But I also saw to my horror that the good OF seasons were rapidly coming off the board - faster than I expected. I was starting to regret taking 73 Mays rather than a version that was, you know, not a corpse.

Like most of us, I had to make some tough calls now. Decided I could live with either a mediocre 3rd OF, or else playing someone out of position. The bullpen was a greater priority given that it was currently Richard and the dead weight listed above.

Round 8: A mediocre (but usable) 2003 Bagwell brought Billy Wagner.
Round 9: A mediocre (but usable) 1988 Dykstra brought Randy Myers.

That gave me 150 IP of good LH RP (WHIP of ~0.90). Wanted 1 more decent RP, but in two rounds felt I had turned the bullpen from a weakness into a strength.

Round 10 I decided to finish off the C platoon. Knew I wanted Daulton, who pairs perfectly with Kendall. Welcome 94 Fascist Schilling and 94 Dutch. Pardon me...despite being a Red Sox fan who will forever hat-tip Curt for his 2004 postseason, I have to hold my nose every time I type his name now. I consider Schilling more of a disgrace to the sport than Bonds and Clemens. By a country mile.

Round 11. Dave Cash. Several times I had thought about taking one of his cheap seasons, but each time something else took higher priority. So now it was down to 72 or 78. Neither cheap. Nor good. But 78 Cash brought nothing that I needed, while 72 Cash brought Hebner or either Hernandez or Giusti to round out the bullpen. Ultimately I decided on Giusti since my bullpen had 2 good lefties, and Hebner, while a cookie at 80M, is probably league-average at 100M.

So the team looks like:
C: Platoon Kendall/Daulton - very happy with this
1B: Bagwell (meh)
2B: Bell - happy here
3B: Biggio - happy here
SS Reyes - happy here
OF: Giles and Berkman and an execrable platoon of Dykstra and Cash
SP: Johnson, deGrom, Seaver, Ryan
RP: Richard, Wagner, Myers, Giusti, a few IP from Izzy and a hydra of wasted IP in Gooden, Kile, Williams, and Schilling.

All in all, I'm lukewarm on the team. Starting rotation should hold their own. Bullpen is pretty strong but not deep. Lineup has 2 big weakness (1B and one OF), and 2 positions filled by out-of-position players (3B and OF). 85 wins would make me happy.

I decided to go with 1985 Dwight Gooden (277 IP .97 whip .42 hr/9) to make sure that I had at least one stud SP, preferably one that didn't have several outstanding seasons. I was also able to fill the sometimes challenging catching position with Gary Carter (.281 .265 .488 B+ arm).

I've done several versions of these and although more important in the 16x16, one thing I always try to accomplish is to not get stuck with too many expensive pitching innings that are unusable. With that in mind I was hoping to get a cheap Kile and/or Ryan so I was fine with the early run on Mays/Marichal combinations. I was really hoping to pair 86 Ryan with Mike Scott, but when he was taken I decided to grab 2002 Daryl Kile (85 IP 1.31 whip .96 hr/9). This pick also provided me flexibility with eventual teammate Albert Pujols (.314 .394 .561) at 1B/3B/or OF as well as Edgar Renteria or Jim Edmonds. I eventually slid Pujols in at 3B.

With Kile out of the way I decided to look at Ryan. I was between 68,71, and 88. 71 had the best Seaver and was my preference, but when that was gone I decided on 1968 Nolan Ryan (134 IP 1.25 whip .81 hr/9) mainly because it was cheaper and Tom Seaver (278 IP .98 whip .49 hr/9) has more IP. So I was pretty happy to get through 2 rounds with a solid 1-2 top of the rotation and not too much wasted pitching salary.

I was less happy when 2014 Jay Bruce was selected which deprived me of Cueto and a cheap Bruce which would cause some problems later. I knew that I wasn't using 2 of the 3 OF in my starting lineup so decided to look around for some teammates and settled on 1989 Lenny Dykstra (.270 .362 .415). I got an ok bench bat to spell Mays and gave myself flexibility with Sid Fernandez who I had penciled in as SP4 for a while and Howard Johnson (.287 .369 .559) an excellent hitting shortstop.

I decided to use Johnson at SS only after 1992 Bell got selected in this round. With that gone I decided to pivot to RP and take the best one I could find. That lead me to 1999 Jeff Bagwell (.304 .454 .591). I got, in my opinion, Bagwell's best remaining hitting season to go along with Billy Wagner (75 IP .78 whip .60 hr/9) in his most expensive season. I also had the option of a decent Biggio season that I decided not to use.

At this point I had to respond to a run on Curt Schilling. I had for a couple of rounds thought to use 1997 as my SP3, but now that he was gone I decided to pivot to using him as a LR/spot starter and committed to a 3 man rotation with a floating 4th starter. Looking at the teammates of the 100-200 Schillings lead me to take 2003 Curt Schilling (168 IP 1.05 whip .91 hr/9) and getting a much needed starting left handed bat in Luis Gonzalez (.304 .402 .532).

This is where Schwarze broke my heart and took 2001 Mike Williams and my guy Lance Berkman. I knew from the beginning that I wanted a LH OF bat as a teammate so after a mini run I had to act now. I settled on 2002 Mike Williams (62 IP 1.23 whip .88 hr/9) for the sole reason of getting Brian Giles (.298 .450 .622). The fact that this Williams season isn't complete crap is just a happy accident.

I was still looking for pitchers to pair with Schilling to get some starts in the 4th spot from time to time and for that reason only took 2015 Jay Bruce (.226 .294 .434). The money I saved on the Ryan/Kile combo earlier is now wasted here, but it did net me Johnny Cueto (131 IP .96 whip .76 hr/9).

I still had Biggio at 2B, but decided that I'd probably need Sid Fernandez as an extra starter if I couldn't get one with Mays so I decided to take the last Bell 2B season with 1998 Jay Bell (.251 .353 .432). I've had worse hitters hitting 8th in these leagues so I wasn't too mad about it. I had a pretty decent Tony Batista in as a backup IF for a long time, but couldn't afford him at the end so I switch do backup catcher Damien Miller (.286 .337 .446).

With 2B filled I was fortunate to be able to get a cheap Dave Cash who is a good hitter for being Dave Cash in 1970 Dave Cash (.314 .365 .419). I was looking at using Cash as a starting 2B earlier in the draft and pairing him with Schmidt or taking a Pirates season with Clemente or Stargell, but it never worked out. There were no good teammates that I needed her so I took the cheapest OK guy I could find with John Lamb (33 IP 1.13 whip .56 hr/9).

I needed the Cash pick to save Cash, but at this time I was praying that 68 Mays didn't get selected and was ecstatic when he was still available, but before I could take him I had to take one of the last 2 Izzy's. It was an easy decision to take 2006 Jason Isringhausen (59 IP 1.46 whip 1.54 hr/9) since he was the cheapest of the two garbage choices available. I decided on teammate Hector Luna (.291 .335 .417) to backup in the infield since I had to part with Batista. Now I was free to select 1968 Willie Mays (.289 .372 .488) who I was thinking about taking every round since about round 4. I decided to replace Sid with Juan Marichal (326 IP 1.05 whip .58 hr/9). I decided on him over Perry because he had more IP and Marichal generally does better for me than Perry. I decided to finish it off with Bobby Bolin (177 IP .98 whip .46 hr/9) to throw into my SP4/LR rotation.

In summary, I think my pitching should be pretty decent with a lot of choices to rotate through there. I'd like a higher OBP team and my defense is garbage, but all-in-all it could've been a lot worse!

These drafts are always fun and schwarze does a great job of updating the board and keeping it rolling. Strategy wise things can go out the window very quickly. The 12x12 format is easier at keeping to your plans than the 16x16 drafts. I selected Lenny Dykstra solely on the basis he had enough years and I wanted the 1990 season. After perusing the nominated players I selected 3 or 4 teammates that would be my targets. When it’s done that way sometimes you hold your nose and hope you can live with the stats you’ll get out of the selected player. The first one chose was 1986 Mike Scott by way of the ‘86 Nolan Ryan who didn’t have a great season but was usable. 2nd round I targeted 1969 Juan Marichal because of his low (for him) hr/9 in. To get him I had to select a subpar but usable Willie Mays, and toyed with idea of adding McCovey’s best season but that idea went out the window because of the high quality of the Bagwell seasons still on the board. The third round teammate of 2014 Jay Bruce, Johnny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman was chosen next with the idea Bruce would share left field with Mays. 2002 Isringhausen was available in the 4th round with his teammate Jim Edmonds. Got Bagwell next with his teammate Biggio, both with good seasons but not their best ( missed by one pick as redcped got there first). After that, I chose the awful 1980 Dave Cash to get good field/no hit Ozzie Smith, may have been wiser to take the still available better years of Jay Bell. The remainder of the draft was filling needs from the remaining nominees and teammates. Overall I would think this team be among the poorest hitting but likely will be near the top of the league in pitching. Probably wound up with about 300 innings of unusable innings with what remains being formidable.

2013 Bruce WOW! did that hurt

Bruce’s Philosophers Song
(SkyDome)

Sing along with the Bruces! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b7r5jIEe9s



Initial Selection: 2016 Jay Bruce $874,640
Lessons learned in the last 16x16 draft: 1) Start with a low salary in the first round if you can; and 2) if you can saddle a large number of owners with wasted seasons, that’s good business. So I searched the database for hitters and pitchers in the time frame who had All-Star seasons under $1M and then checked them all to see who had the right range of 12-15 seasons.

I zeroed in on Mr. Bruce pretty quickly, and the Monty Python song has been with me ever since because we have all these Bruces running around. Jay is a slightly above-average power hitter with low batting average and OBP and strikes out a lot. Also, he’s not particularly fast and plays mediocre defense. He has exactly 12 seasons so there’s nothing to dodge. I wouldn’t even want Bruce’s best season as a starter in a league like this. He’s no Gus Weyhing, but he’s dead weight. Mission accomplished.
Teammate: RP Addison Reed (78 IP, 1.68 ERC#). Now prepare to sing along or drink or both ...

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.

Round 1: 2003 Jason Isringhausen $1,314,618 (2,189,258)
Three goals here: 1) stay low on the salary list for R2, 2) get a player I will use, and 3) get a great teammate. I took a little abuse in the forum for doing some actual research and then some actual thinking, but I learned a thing or two.

Calhoop started the draft by taking the only cheap Bagwell, and every other season has 600+ PA and costs at least $4M. I can’t see playing him in the OF, as I’ll have ample good options there. Ergo, I want a Bagwell to be my everyday 1B, and all the good teammate 1B options are basically worthless distractions. So I ignored them all and focused on the other positions. 2003 Albert Pujols is his best OF season, and one of his 2-3 best seasons period. Not great defensively, but he’s a massive bat and likely the best of any teammate out there save the Larry Walkers who come with a couple of awful Kile seasons.

Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.

Round 2: 1984 Dwight Gooden $8,232,727 (10,421,985)
I didn’t get a SP in R1 and must do it here. A run on Mays took away a lot of good Marichal seasons, and of course the ‘86 Scott, the ‘71 Seaver, and the ‘92 Schilling didn’t last either. I was surprised to discover the best available arm was actually a draftee and not a teammate at this point. Gooden only has 3 really good seasons and one was drafted initially. The ‘84 has a .205 OAV# and 1.09 WHIP# with very low HR rate. I’ll take that, and avoid getting stuck with a version I won’t be able to use. And did you notice that despite being on those talented Mets teams all those years, Gooden really didn’t have any amazing teammate seasons either. What’s up, Doc?
Teammate: RP Jesse Orosco, until someone better comes along.

David Hume could out-consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel.

Round 3: 2001 Jay Bell $2,677,623 (13,099,608)
I had my eye on ‘73 Mays for a while here to pick up the Seaver teammate, once I realized that the really good Mays seasons were already taken anyway and I might as well go cheap. I had only fallen from 2 to 3 in the draft order, but it was one spot too many. Contrarian swooped in and took Mays just a spot ahead of me.

My backup plan isn’t too bad though. The ‘01 Bell came with a very good Randy Johnson season and a sensational Luis Gonzalez. I wasn’t counting on getting 2 teammates with a pick at this stage who I would absolutely stick with, but here they were and I couldn’t pass them up. Bell isn’t very good, but I can live with $2.6M spent on a reserve IF if it means getting these two teammates.

My offense is starting to look very promising, with a Bagwell coming to fit with Pujols and Gonzo. All I need is someone to get on base ahead of them. Maybe I won’t screw this draft up for a change.

And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schlossed as Schlegel

Round 4: 1993 Lenny Dykstra $8,104,390 (21,203,998)
I probably won’t be making Mays my everyday CF and will have to try to grab a cheap season as a backup, but I could potentially get a version who could platoon with Dykstra. I could also easily end up missing out on both pieces and don’t want to chance it. So I look at everyone still on the board and ask, who brings a great CF teammate? I don’t see one aside from Jim Edmonds or Garry Maddox. I have a decent Edmonds as a second Izzy teammate, but I’m locked in to using both spots with Bell and can’t do that. The other Edmonds teammates are Kile seasons that aren’t worth buying now. And Maddox only comes with full Cash seasons that I really don’t want to use as my everyday 2B.

All of which leads me back to a basic concept: Get the best season available of someone who fills a big need. Dykstra has great range and speed, an OBP over .400, and tons of PA. Even some nice power, too. He’ll look great atop my lineup, maybe even paired with a Biggio if I can swing the right Bagwell season later. Also, I’m going to need a catcher and there’s not exactly a ton of awesome teammates there. Lo and behold, ‘93 brings along a fine Darren Daulton, who helps balance the lineup as a 3rd lefty with Gonzo and Dykstra (the most likely teammate options at 2B-3B-SS are righties, and the nominated pitchers are all RH). I suspect the other two people who draft ‘93 Phillies will use Daulton, too. My lineup is half built now, and I have 2 nice SP along with 3 RP in place. Downside is I’ve committed to my whole starting outfield, and none of them need backups. So Mays is likely a very expensive pinch hitter and defensive replacement. He deserves better, but code bits couldn’t care less.

Even though I’ve now drafted two $8M players, I’m still likely in the top 4 picks. My projected roster is at $60M with 14 players to go. I can afford to get stuck with lousy Kile and Cash seasons. There are no total budget-busters. There are still 6 good Schilling seasons and every remaining Ryan has a good teammate. I think this is going really well, which should be a sign that doom is imminent.

There’s nothing Nietzsche couldn’t teach ya ‘bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates himself was permanently pi$sed.

Round 5: 1997 Jeff Bagwell $7,756,040 (28,960,038)
So far, so good. A little Bagwell run started, and there were only 2 really good seasons left at this point so I grabbed the ‘97 because it came with an excellent teammate in 2B Craig Biggio. True, I’m going to have a lot of PA from Bell and Cash to waste, but it’s Biggio’s best season. He’s got A+ range to go with a .413 OBP#, 47 steals and even 22 homers. This Bagwell can also run (31 steals) and has A range to go with an OPS# of 1.001. The top 6 in this lineup should be as good as any in the NL: Dykstra-Biggio-Pujols-Gonzalez-Bagwell-Daulton looks very potent. Over 200 homers between them. Admittedly, my pitching is a bit softer than I’d like but the hitting couldn’t be shaping up better. I must be doing something wrong, though.

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.

Round 6: 1996 Curt Schilling $5,665,736 (34,625,774)
Four Schillings went off the board after my previous pick, but thankfully there were six I could be happy with. So I got one, which was all I wanted. He adds 184 solid innings behind Gooden, Unit and TBD.

The teammate here is likely to depend on other gaps later because there’s no obvious choice. For now, Ricky Bottalico’s 68 relief innings are penciled in, but this team has tons of potential detritus if I just need a roster filler.

Plato, they say, could stick it away,
Half a crate of whiskey every day.

Round 7: 1979 Dave Cash ($1,338,108) (35,963,882)
Back-to-back costlier picks dropped me to 8th this round, and I really wanted one of the remaining cheap Cash seasons here. I have no need for anything from him, and his best teammate fits only come with his most expensive seasons. I would have possibly used the all-field, no-hit Ozzie if the ‘80 season had still been available, but the ‘79 worked fine because it gave me a solid 3B Larry Parrish with 30 homers and a .910 OPS# for under $5M. Damn, this lineup looks great now. And this Cash can hit too, so he’s now the top PH.

I’m at $90.5M with 8 spots to fill, but surely something can still go horribly wrong. I’m assured getting one of the cheapest Kile seasons left (under $3M) in Round 8 and a Williams under $1M. Mays and Ryan are going to be the toughest calls, because ‘88 Ryan comes with a SP in Mike Scott and ‘83 with a good SS Dickie Thon, both about the same Ryan salary. But with Mays it’s a different set of variables, with two expensive seasons I don’t need that can bring a Gaylord Perry teammate or a cheaper one that can get me a SS in Speier or a RP in McGraw. I’m not sure I can afford the pricey Mays and Perry as well as Ryan and Thon. But I’m not sure I have enough pitching with the lesser Ryan season coupled with Scott.

I might not get a choice, and the real danger is getting neither good SS season and having to scramble. I have a backup plan, but it’s not near ideal. There are 3 remaining Ryan seasons, and 2 owners need one. There are 5 remaining Mays seasons, and 3 owners need one. It would really help me now if other seasons I’m not considering went off the board before my Round 9 pick, because I need to take a Kile next.

Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.
Hobbes was fond of his dram.

Round 8: 1992 Darryl Kile ($2,294,727) 38,258,609
This is about saving money before it’s too late. The teammate I use will be to fill a hole, like backup catcher or a bullpen spot or a scrub. Doug Jones is a decent bullpen option with 112 innings (Note: ended up with Eddie Taubensee as nearly unnecessary backup C)

And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart,
I drink therefore I am.

Round 9: 1993 Mike Williams ($901,716) 39,160,325
When Royhobbs09 took ‘83 Ryan, it took away my plan to use Dickie Thon at SS, but it also allowed me to push my Ryan pick (the last one) to the final round. So even though it left me scrambling for a SS, it gave me a chance to jump in and grab the Williams I wanted. After Calhoop took ‘72 Mays, it was down to me and chisock for the final Mays seasons with 4 choices. But three people still needed a Williams, and it was a gamble that chisock wouldn’t take a Mays season I really wanted this round (he didn’t, thankfully).

This Williams brought along a 300-PA Kevin Stocker with a .400 OBP and B+ range, which was the best SS option out there for me. Somehow I have to fill the rest of the PA from a very limited range of choices, but so be it. I want a Perry teammate season out of Mays rather than use my slot to grab ‘72 Speier, so I’ll find a platoon SS somewhere. I should have at least had an alternate plan for SS. My worst case was sucking it up and using 2016 Asdrubal Cabrera with his A/D defense but darn good bat.

Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pi$sed.

Round 10: 1967 Willie Mays ($3,975,076)
It came down to the ‘67 or ‘68 here, both of which totally waste Mays as anything but a defensive sub for Pujols and occasional PH. The biggest regret I have now is taking Dykstra’s full season when I could have fashioned a solid platoon out of these two. I tried many permutations that would allow me to use the slightly better ‘68 Perry instead of ‘67, but it cost $1.3M more in Mays salary to get him. I just had no combination that kept me under the cap with the ‘68 Mays/Perry. One option was to swap catchers and use ‘96 Benito Santiago (who knew he hit 30 homers that year?) instead of Daulton, but I much preferred Daulton’s higher OBP, lefty bat and better arm. So I’m wasting a slightly cheaper Mays instead.

Round 11: 1985 Nolan Ryan ($5,765,981)
Losing out on the ‘83, the last good enough season to use with Thon as a teammate, definitely altered my plans. It was down to the ‘88 with Mike Scott or ‘85 for … platoon SS Craig Reynolds? With Perry, Gooden, Johnson and Schilling, I’ve got about 1000 SP innings, which is enough. I can live without Scott, who would have pushed Schilling to a setup/occasional SP5 role. Ryan will pick up any spot starts and be a long man. But I couldn’t find anyone else to make SS work than Reynolds, who is at least A/B defensively. I have enough offense elsewhere anyway. If 300 PA at shortstop is the worst problem I have, maybe I have avoided messing this draft up.

Starting Lineup:
CF Dykstra LH 773 PA .305/.420/.482, 37 SB
2B Biggio RH 744 PA .309/.415/.501, 47 SB
RF Pujols RH 685 PA .359/.439/.667
LF Gonzalez LH 728 PA .325/.429/.688
1B Bagwell RH 717 PA .286/.425/.592, 31 SB
C Daulton LH 637 PA .257/.392/.482
3B Parrish RH 603 PA.307/.357/.551
SS Stocker SH 302 PA .324/.409/.417 and Reynolds LH 396 PA .272/.293/.393
Bench: Mays, Cash, Bell, Bruce, Taubensee

Rotation:
Gooden RH 218 IP 2.60 ERA/.202 OAV/1.07 WHIP
Johnson LH 249 IP 2.49/.203/1.01
Perry RH 293 IP 2.61/.214/1.08
Schilling RH 184 IP 3.19/.223/1.09

Bullpen:
Reed RH 1.97/.210/0.94
Izzy RH 2.36/.200/1.17
Orosco LH 2.59/.185/1.06
Bottalico RH 3.19/.197/1.03
Scrubs: Ryan, Kile, Williams

Outlook: Maybe I’ll be surprised when I see what others have put together, but I think I should have as strong a lineup as any here. Even without a dominant ace SP season, I’ve got a good one going every game. The bullpen also lacks a shutdown arm, but four strong guys to share the late innings should be enough if we score as much as I expect to. Playing in SkyDome to get a boost on 2B and HR, but hopefully not so much as to tax my arms too much.

Apparently you can write pissant on the forum, but sensitive eyes can't handle the word pi$sed. Really? Is that even swearing?

Great writeup redcped. I wish every owner did this...not everyone can be entertaining, but I learn something from everyone.

Glad someone read it ... and enjoyed it. I've started writing them as I go because otherwise I forget why I did anything. Then I took out my scalpel and tried to make it interesting as a postscript.

Yes, very nice job.

Great job, redcped. I enjoyed that a lot, and had forgotten about the philosopher's song. Great stuff.

The Monty Python troupe always made me smile, sometime out loud. Thanks for posting.

I've asked ff09 to randomly sort the 12 teams in this league. He will post here.

Well, he sitemailed me instead...

From:

ff09

To:

schwarze

Received:

2/12/2019 4:17:00 PM

Subject:

RE: Can you randomly sort these names?

Message:

royhobbs09
Lincoln15
schwarze;
joerat1
happyhours
Chisock
mpitt76
njbigwig
calhoop
redcped
good_beef
contrarian23

Posted by contrarian23 on 2/7/2019 4:58:00 PM (view original):
This is my first time playing in one of these leagues - though it will definitely not be my last given how much I enjoyed the draft and the strategy of it all. I went in not really knowing what to expect. I nominated Jay Bell and grabbed his 1999 season for a few reasons:

-- One of his best offensive seasons
-- Gave me a strong Randy Johnson season right out of the gate
-- I'm not sure if Dave Cash had already been nominated at that point - I think he had - but I remember thinking that I didn't like any of Cash seasons, figured most of you would feel the same, and that therefore there would be a run on seasons that gave access to the good Biggios. 1999 Bell is a 2B, which kept me out of that pickle AND I felt pretty confident that of the teammate SS options that were out there (a couple of 89 HoJos, a good Renteria, and the guy I ended up with, Jose Reyes), I'd be able to grab one in one of the middle rounds.

That 3rd point ended being only semi-accurate, but...there you go.

After the nominations were in, I made the following assumptions:
1.) Given the 12 players we had available and the eras from which we would be drafting, this was going to play more like a 100M cap than a 120M
2.) Staying under the cap was not going to be a problem. When deciding which guys I wanted - as draft picks or as teammates - I didn't care how high their salaries were. I figured unless things went really awry I was in no risk of going over.
3.) We were all going to end up with some dreck on our rosters. Hello Jay Bruce and Darryl Kile. So I decided not to worry too much about getting stuck with one or two $5M seasons I wasn't going to use. I decided to draft almost exclusively based on teammate seasons I wanted, and didn't really concern myself with avoiding "bad" seasons from our core 12.
4.) I didn't think there were nearly enough SP seasons to fill 12 rotations that were $100M cap worthy - never mind $120M. So I figured everyone would be going after the same handful of player-seasons.
5.) There were a lot of interchangeable seasons among Bagwell, Kile, Schilling, Dykstra, and others.

Assumption #4 is what led to my 1st round pick: I wanted 2018 deGrom. I might have taken 2002 Schilling if he had been available - but mpitt76 grabbed him, plus I already had RJ on my roster. I briefly considered 92 Schilling - whose stats are great - but his IP/G has always caused me problems unless I can carefully build the rest of my staff around him. I knew I wouldn't have that flexibility. So hello Jay Bruce and Jacob deGrom. That pick moved me from 4th to 3rd in the draft order, and I think for every round after the second I never drafted lower than 2nd.

2nd round: With 1/2 my rotation set, and one wasted player already on the roster, I wanted some offense. Though if '84 Gooden had been available I probably would have taken him. He went one pick ahead of me, and I decided none of the other Gooden seasons were all that special...so I grabbed his 2000 season, which gave me (so I thought) 2/3 of my outfield in Lance Berkman and Moises Alou.

At this point I had 2 really good SP, no bullpen, a starting 2B, and 2 starting OF. Had to make my first tough decision - fill a key defensive spot (C, 3B, SS) or grab one of the few really great SP seasons left on the board. I decided on the latter, took 73 Mays so I could have Tom Seaver. Now with 3/4 of the rotation filled, I decided not to worry too much about the 4th SP. It was a little difficult to leave so many good Mays seasons on the board, but (a) I felt there were plenty of really good OF teammate seasons left - many of which were not a huge dropoff from Mays - and I didn't think the available Mays seasons could fill the C, 3B, SS positions I was about to start targeting. Considered 70 Mays for a while with Dick Dietz (and a good McCovey if I went that route) but then figured I would be utterly wasting Bagwell, and 70 Mays is nothing special...and you're really gonna prioritize Dick Freaking Dietz in an early round? So 73 it was.

In round 4 I wanted to fill either C or SS. Looking at the options left, I felt there were enough decent (and similar quality) catcher seasons that I decided to prioritize SS, especially after the 2 options that would have given me 89 Hojo went off the board. So hello 11 Isringhausen, which brought Jose Reyes.

I gambled, and lost, in round 5. Saw a few good Schillings still on the board, and thought at least one of them would make it through round 5, so I grabbed a crappy (but cheap) 99 Mike Williams, which brought me half of my catching platoon, Jason Kendall. I really wanted Kendall because of his overall good bat and A+ arm. As it turns out, I eventually decided to add Brian Giles from this combo as well, and used him to replace the 00 Alou I had originally grabbed with the Gooden pick. So even though I lost the Schilling gamble, I can't complain too much. I probably got more value from this pick than any other, and added almost no salary to my draft order.

So I needed, in no particular order: 1B, 3B, OF, half a catcher, a 4th SP, and at least some semblance of the bullpen. I decided to put off 1B, figuring that the remaining Bagwell options were not that different from each other, either in terms of Bags or his teammates. I felt there were plenty of OF and C options left, so it came down to 3B, SP, and bullpen. Decided to kill two birds with one stone: 80 Nolan Ryan brought the guy I thought was maybe the best RP on the board in the whole draft: JR Richard. Ryan is a weak 4th starter, but I'm comfortable with the overall rotation for a ~100M league, and I was really happy to have Richard, who I expect to do very well at this cap.

Second big gamble in round 7. I looked at the 3B options remaining on the board and didn't love any of them. Option 1 was to put off filling that hole since any one of them would be as good as another. Option 2, which I convinced myself was better, was to grab one of the few remaining good Biggio seasons and play him at 3B. Since I needed to draft a crappy Kile season, I decided to use 94 Kile to plug in 94 Biggio at the hot corner. He should field OK, and he's moving to an easier position on the defensive spectrum, so I feel pretty good about this gamble, given his 720 PA and .411 OBP. If he ends up with 30 minus plays, we'll know this was stupid.

At this point I had about 400 less than ideal innings on the staff in Kile, Gooden, Williams, and Isringhausen...and I knew I was going to add a mediocre Schilling too. So I definitely had to spruce up the bullpen. But I also saw to my horror that the good OF seasons were rapidly coming off the board - faster than I expected. I was starting to regret taking 73 Mays rather than a version that was, you know, not a corpse.

Like most of us, I had to make some tough calls now. Decided I could live with either a mediocre 3rd OF, or else playing someone out of position. The bullpen was a greater priority given that it was currently Richard and the dead weight listed above.

Round 8: A mediocre (but usable) 2003 Bagwell brought Billy Wagner.
Round 9: A mediocre (but usable) 1988 Dykstra brought Randy Myers.

That gave me 150 IP of good LH RP (WHIP of ~0.90). Wanted 1 more decent RP, but in two rounds felt I had turned the bullpen from a weakness into a strength.

Round 10 I decided to finish off the C platoon. Knew I wanted Daulton, who pairs perfectly with Kendall. Welcome 94 Fascist Schilling and 94 Dutch. Pardon me...despite being a Red Sox fan who will forever hat-tip Curt for his 2004 postseason, I have to hold my nose every time I type his name now. I consider Schilling more of a disgrace to the sport than Bonds and Clemens. By a country mile.

Round 11. Dave Cash. Several times I had thought about taking one of his cheap seasons, but each time something else took higher priority. So now it was down to 72 or 78. Neither cheap. Nor good. But 78 Cash brought nothing that I needed, while 72 Cash brought Hebner or either Hernandez or Giusti to round out the bullpen. Ultimately I decided on Giusti since my bullpen had 2 good lefties, and Hebner, while a cookie at 80M, is probably league-average at 100M.

So the team looks like:
C: Platoon Kendall/Daulton - very happy with this
1B: Bagwell (meh)
2B: Bell - happy here
3B: Biggio - happy here
SS Reyes - happy here
OF: Giles and Berkman and an execrable platoon of Dykstra and Cash
SP: Johnson, deGrom, Seaver, Ryan
RP: Richard, Wagner, Myers, Giusti, a few IP from Izzy and a hydra of wasted IP in Gooden, Kile, Williams, and Schilling.

All in all, I'm lukewarm on the team. Starting rotation should hold their own. Bullpen is pretty strong but not deep. Lineup has 2 big weakness (1B and one OF), and 2 positions filled by out-of-position players (3B and OF). 85 wins would make me happy.

Thought this might be worth a retrospective. I think I nailed the team pretty accurately in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. I said 85 wins would make me happy; we ended up with 88 and squeaked into a playoff spot due to a late 10-2 run through the division.

We allowed the 2nd fewest runs in the NL, and scored the 3rd fewest. The rotation, especially the top 3 of RJ (18-16, 3.37, 1.18 WHIP, 322 K), deGrom (16-14, 3.37, 1.12 WHIP, 250 K) and Seaver (18-13, 4.16, 1.26 WHIP, 266 K) were as good as I could have hoped. The bullpen was really just 3 guys, 2 of whom were good: Richard (2.89 ERA, 1.34 WHIP) and Giusti (2.13 ERA, 1.28 WHIP). The team was 36/44 in save opportunities, which I'll gladly accept.

On offense we got good seasons from Biggio (.289/.363/.439 with 65 2B, 67 SB, and 137 runs), Reyes (.348/.386/.515 with 36 2B, 21 3B, 51 SB, 107 runs, 95 RBI), Hidalgo (.286/.360/.493, 30 2B, 30 HR, 103 R, 104 RBI). Our catching platoon of Kendall/Daulton combined for 198 hits, 36 2B, 23 HR, 126 RBI, and 101 runs scored. Acceptable performances from Giles (22 HR, 96 RBI) and Bell (20 HR, 81 RBI) gave us just enough offense. Bagwell, Dykstra, and Cash were horrible, and no one else saw much PT.

I played Biggio out of position at 3B, and he made 18 errors and 16 minus plays, but on the whole I consider it a successful gamble. He had the worst range of any 3B in the NL, but his fielding percentage was middle of the pack.