F
Rafael Furcal

Last pick:

"O"

Jose Oquendo

E

Woody English

Since NEBHUSKER has already used his letter "T" I am going to go ahead and pick Fernando Tatis Jr. to complete my draft.

I’ll finish off with Ted Cox.

I will finish off my team with

E
Jacoby Ellsbury

I'll finish with
H
Clint Hurdle

Freddy Peralta

Diamond Letters Draft
Quick thoughts on the draft strategy

Pre-draft: I had a later pick in the "pick draft" so went with pick 21, which gives a better pick in rounds 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9. I think picking very high is best, so you can get Silver King, Walter Johnson, or one of the huge-inning studs. But otherwise, opinions start varying and getting higher picks in the next two rounds helps round out the team. In the previous Diamond draft, with clones, we had to plan out the middle rounds because you're likely getting 5 of the same position, but here you can spread it out. All else equal, picking a less valuable letter would be ideal, but it felt like there were more than enough letters to get through the 9 rounds, so I didn't pay much attention to saving good letters.

For my team, I first wanted to get a big-inning deadballer if I could. If not, I generally wanted to get a good starter or two early, then fill in the bullpen in the middle, and then get one more big inning guy at the end with whatever innings I still needed. For the lineup, I'd likely only have 12 spots (assuming I used all 13 pitching slots), so would need mostly full-time hitters.

Pick 1.21:
B
Barry Bonds
I first incorrectly picked Tip O'Neill, because of issues with the apostrophe in my spreadsheet. Once I got corrected on that, and with no pitchers particularly calling out to me, I went with Barry Bonds. B is a strong letter, but there's only one Barry. With him anchoring the lineup, I decided to firm up my strategy: I figured I'd lean more power hitting and so my preference was to get a very good, powerful lineup, make sure all my pitchers suppressed HRs well, and stick the team in a hitters park.

Pick 2.4:
W
Honus Wagner
Devin Williams
This Devin Williams season always grades out highly and plays well for me. Honus Wagner gives me the best available SS with enough PA to not need a backup. I thought about Kershaw but didn't want the HR issues.

Pick 3.4:
R
Reb Russell
Ed Reulbach
Mariano Rivera
Time to get some deadballers. I really wanted Gagne and could have grabbed Guidry, but didn't love him and the third option didn't particularly intrigue me. Both Russell and Reulback had HR# of around 0.05 and ERC# around 2.00 with almost 600 combined innings. Rivera gives me a 108 inning fantastic relief season with 0.05 HR# and 1.38 ERC#. I've now got about half of the innings I'll need. Plan is to focus on relievers coming up and then can grab the last starter/long inning guy at the end.

Pick 4.21:
N
Mike Napoli
Joe Nathan
Jake Northrop
Johnny Niggeling
As schwarze and others alluded to...it's a long wait between these picks on the end of each round. It also became increasingly difficult to find letters with 4-5 useful players. Dean Chance had been near the top of my list last round and was sticking around, but he went a couple picks before. The Ls were intriguing with Fred Lynn, Tony Lazzeri, Dinelson Lamet, Javy Lopez, and a couple relievers. M is another great letter and had a huge McGwire season plus some other useful parts. I wanted to get one of the top catchers left--Napoli, Lopez, Hoiles, etc.--and I thought this trio of relievers was the best I could get from that group. Northrop and Niggeling have 0.00 HR# while Nathan is at 0.28, one of the three highest on my team. Napoli is about as good as they come for catcher hitters and can play 1B or DH depending on the other catcher I end up with.

Pick 5.4:
H
Jesse Hahn
Matt Harvey
Bryce Harper
Ke'Bryan Hayes
Trevor Hoffman
McGwire went right ahead of me and Fred Lynn went at the end of the 4th round, dashing my L hopes. I needed to start filling out my position group at least a little bit and Harper gave me one of the best bats remaining. Ke'Bryan Hayes 257-PA partial is always a favorite. Hahn (0.00 HR# but obvious walk issues) and Hoffman (0.19 HR#) add to the pen. And I panicked a bit thinking I needed another bulk guy so went with Matt Harvey. His 1.83 ERC# and 0.30 HR# are respectable, but in retrospect I didn't need to grab him and could have maybe gotten some more value elsewhere.

Pick 6.21:
S
Ryne Sandberg
Gary Sanchez
Reggie Smith
Scott Stratton
Another long wait and this one resulted in my worst set of picks. Leading up to the pick, none of my combinations were perfect and I was having trouble deciding. I finally settled on using J to get Aaron Judge and Bill Joyce, both of whom I really wanted, and then biting the bullet on the other two options. But then Judge went a couple picks ahead and I had to rethink. I needed both 2B and 3B, a backup C, a CF, and 2 more mashers (1B and DH/OF). I looked at M to get Daniel Murphy and then some combination of Kevin Mitchell, Justin Morneau, etc. Utley was in consideration and could be paired with Uehara, but the other Us were less inspiring. I did really like Gary Sanchez as Napoli's backup. I don't love Sandberg, but he was one of the best 2B left and I was hoping for Joyce as my 3B to go with Hayes. Turns out Sandberg is my worst hitter and I could have gotten similar 2B later on. I went with Reggie Smith given his A+ range and switch-hitting, but he won't even be my starter. And then I grabbed Scott Stratton, mostly to make sure I had plenty of innings in case I ended up putting this monstrosity into Coors.

This pick may end up giving me (a) a backup catcher, (b) a 2B who I could have matched later in the draft, (c) my 4th OF, and (d) a pitcher with 500 innings that I'll only use 150 of. Not a great pick!

Pick 7.4:
J
Bill Joyce
Reggie Jackson
Grant Jackson
Ugh, Utley (and Uehara) are still here and so is Daniel Murphy but I've already made my bed with Sandberg. At this point, I really want Bill Joyce, he's a lefty 3B and one of the best overall hitters left, plus he's a near-perfect platoon with Ke'Bryan Hayes. Finding two Js to go with him, though, not so easy. I can probably get equal or better hitters later, but he should suffice as a usable DH (or RF). Grant Jackson is my worst reliever, but at least he's left-handed.

Around this time, I'm also considering using Reb Russell's partial OF season, since with Stratton on board I have plenty of innings. It also would free up a pitching slot. What a waste that would be though to use a 3rd Round pick on what you think is a 300-inning starter and instead use him as a 200 PA pinch-hitter. This draft was hard!

Pick 8.21:
K
Ralph Kiner
Adam Kolarek
I need a 1B and ideally a right-handed power hitter. I thought about Justin Morneau, Derrek Lee, and a couple of others but Kiner fits the bill pretty well. Kolarek isn't great, but is another lefty reliever with a low-enough HR#.

Pick 9.4:
D
Eric Davis
I was about to go with Davis who is an upgrade over Reggie Smith hopefully. But I let my pick get skipped so I could look at taking someone here just for their ballpark. I looked at some Rockies but there wasn't a great one and I still needed about 300-400 PAs to feel comfortable. I looked at a couple others from ballparks that had high HR and also 2B, but none were inspiring and I could still use Yankee Stadium (III) thanks to Sanchez. Finally, I settled on sticking with Davis. Hopefully he's better than Smith at least?

Ballpark: Yankee Stadium III

=====================

Position players:
C 2011 Mike Napoli / 2016 Gary Sanchez
1B 1951 Ralph Kiner
2B 1984 Ryne Sandberg
3B 1894 Bill Joyce / 2020 Ke'Bryan Hayes
SS 1908 Honus Wagner
LF 2004 Barry Bonds
CF 1987 Eric Davis
RF 2015 Bryce Harper
DH 1969 Reggie Jackson
OF/1B 1973 Reggie Smith

Pitching staff:
SP 1905 Ed Reulbach
SP 1916 Reb Russell
SP 1890 Scott Stratton

Long 2013 Matt Harvey

RP 2020 Devin Williams
RP 1996 Mariano Rivera
RP 2020 Jesse Hahn
RP 2006 Joe Nathan
RP 2020 Adam Kolarek
RP 1918 Jake Northrop
RP 1998 Trevor Hoffman
RP 1976 Grant Jackson
RP 1943 Johnny Niggeling

I will add my comments, although I really didn't spend much time thinking through what the optimal strategy should be. I did want to save what I considered "deep" letters to the middle rounds.

When calhoop first introduced the Diamond Theme (Clones version), I suggested he have a third round reversal because the early first round picks were too valuable. But after this draft started, I quickly realized that it was a huge advantage to pick at the end of the draft. In the clones version, the 2nd 3rd, 4th best versions of a player drafted in rounds 3, 4, 5, aren't as strong as the players drafted in this theme. In this version, those picking early in rounds 2, 3, 5 can pick 2 studs, 3 studs, 5 studs at the same time. I'm nearly certain the American League will have an overall better record than the National League. Sadly, I hadn't realized this when I decided to draft 1st overall. (In retrospect, I should have selected 22nd... the latest available spot).

Pick 1.01
K
Silver King
I calhoop's clone version, I also got Silver King and he led my team to the Championship. Gagne & Eckersley helped. Seemed like the obvious choice here. Had somebody else selected the #1 pick and taken King, I probably would've taken Pete Alexander.
.
Pick 2.24
H
Claude Hendrix
Joe Horlen
I was always pretty much taking the best two starting pitchers to lock up my rotation. Had either of these pitchers been taken before me, my next choice was Sutton & Scott, although I was glad to save "S" for a later round. Now the very long wait while 115 very good players get taken before my next turn. Damn this third round reversal.
.
Pick 3.24
W
Ken Williams
Bernie Williams
Billy Williams
It was very painful watching 115 stud players get taken. I get 7 players now, but then have to watch 207 more players get selected. I better get these picks right. I really wanted to get Larry Walker, Paul Waner and Ken Williams with this turn, but bheid408 grabbed Walker and Waner two picks before me. I later learned ronthegenius was taking them right in front of me, which would have been even more painful. I strongly considered a Stirnweiss, Sale, Stone combo but RTG grabbed Stirnweiss. I also looked at Lamet, Lemahieu, Lynn here. But I really wanted Ken Williams. A total of 141 players were taken before I got my first batter, so I needed a stud, It was probably a bit early for Bernie and Billy Williams, but I couldn't resist playing an all-Williams outfield.
.
Pick 4.01
G
Tony Gonsolin
Rich Gossage
Pedro Guerrero
Jason Giambi
Again, I still considered the L group I mentioned above, with Lazerri added. Over 200 players would get taken before my next turn, meaning all the good relievers will be gone by my next turn, so I absolutely has to get some bullpen innings, so I went with Gonsolin and Gossage. Guerrero and Giambi were the best "G" hitters available. I still need a 2B, SS, C and a bunch of relievers. I am targeting George, Spud & Wade Davis with my next pick. There are a ton of 2B I can live live including Chase Utley, Roberto Alomar, and even Tony Phillips.
.
Pick 5.24
D
George Davis
Spud Davis
Wade Davis
Carlos Delgado
Sean Dolittle
Man, I was sweating this pick out. The letter "D" made it all the way back to one pick before me. Ronthegenius needed a shortstop and I thought for sure he was taking D, for George Davis. He did take D, but he went with Bo Diaz, Andre Dawson, Joey Devine (who I would've taken), Doug DeCinces and George Dumont. Whew.... what a relief. Had Devine still been available, I take him instead of Delgado. But again, I was way behind everybody else in offense, so I grabbed my DH early (Giambi will play 1B). Spud Davis give me half of my catching platoon. There are a dozens of catchers I can take later. So now I need more RPs and maybe a 2B.
.
Pick 6.01
A
Roberto Alomar
Dick Allen
Nick Anderson
Doyle Alexander
I so badly wanted to take Utley and Uehara, but didn't like any of the other "U" choices. So this round gives me my starting 2B. Dick Allen can spell Pedro Guerrero at 3B and will also DH vs lefties. I've never used Nick Anderson before. He will be my closer and will only pitch in the 9th, in save situations. Doyle Alexander isn't a great pick for an uncapped league, but I needed a fourth player, and would rather have him than a better pitcher with an IP/G of < 1.00 (and there were plenty of those available). Alexander will be my mop-up / long reliever. I now have my entire batting lineup except backup catcher. I have 450 innings of bullpen plus a 3-man rotation of Silver King, Claude Hendrix and Joe Horlen. Don't need much now.
.
Pick 7.24
P
Fritz Peterson
Jorge Posada
Jim Poole
I needed some left-handed arms, and I wanted one more guy who could start for me vs any left-handed heavy lineups. I really wanted Nehf and/or Newhouse, but ledfoot grabbed them both with his 6th round pick (nice pick!). I guess Fritz Peterson is the consolation prize. Jim Poole is a bit HR-prone, but has a nice low whip and will be a lefty situational guy out of the pen. I almost took Don Padgett as my 2nd catcher, but I really wanted the switch hitter, so Jorge Posada was the pick.
.
Pick 8.01
S
Ozzie Smith
Bill Sweeney
Don't need really anything, so lets get some defensive replacements. George Davis will make a ton of errors playing behind Silver King so Ozzie seemed like the obvious choice. I almost grabbed Eddie Stanky here, but I was enamored with Sweeney's range at 2B and he may actually play as much, if not more than Alomar (thus making me somewhat regret my "A" pick - I should have taken Newhouser/Nehf).
.
Pick 10.24
E
Jacoby Ellsbury
I have Billy Williams as a starting OF. He has D- range. (I rarely use guys with D- range). We can't have that in the outfield late in close games. Jacoby Ellsbury was the perfect fit and is my fourth OF. Even though Ken, Bernie & Billy average 689 PA each, Ellsbury may get a few OF starts.
.
.
Final comment: I don't expect this team to be that good. Even though I am playing in Tiger Stadium (+2 for HRs), my home run heavy team will get neutered by all the dead-ball pitching. My guys don't have high enough batting averages to keep pace with the Lajoie, Hornsby, Cobb teams.

I have far less experience than everyone else in the league, so I'm not sure how helpful it is to read about my thought process, but here goes:

Looking at recent DEAL drafts as a model, I decided I wanted to pick close to the back of the draft. Pick 24 would me 6 picks in the top 75. Pick 20, which I got, gave me 6 picks in the top 87. My sense was that you could guarantee six excellent players, even if you had to forego the very best guys early in the first round.

Pick 1.20
C
Ty Cobb
I decided that I would just pick the best player available here, without concern for letter. When a few people I didn't expect flew off the draft board I got hopeful that King Kelly or Hugh Duffy would fall to me. They both went right before me, so I grabbed Ty Cobb. I never really regretted the plan to ignore letters early, but it did certainly take a lot of Cs off the board.

Pick 2.05
S
George Sisler, Tris Speaker
As I made my first round pick, I was already thinking about who might be available in round two. My dream would've been Ted Williams and Honus Wagner or Mantle and Morgan so that I could get a stud hitter and fill a middle infield position, but they were gone. I toyed with some great pitching Ks (Kershaw and Koufax, or maybe even Keefe?) or a Joe Jackson and Hughie Jennings combo. But ultimately I couldn't pass up two terrific hitters in Sisler and Speaker. I've now used two good letters and only have two OF and a 1B, so I like my players, but haven't been paying attention to needs like position or letter scarcity.

Pick 3.05
G
Eric Gagne, Ron Guidry, Tony Gwynn
I was surprised that Keefe and Kershaw hung around for so long and there were some Bs who went just before my pick (Brett plus either Bieber or Bender). I got really excited about Garciapara, Gehringer, and Gagne, but the middle infielders went off the board before I picked in the 3rd. I stuck with Gs, adding a decent SP and, hopefully, my DH. I considered McGraw, Mays, and Ed Morris, but I decided I didn't want a huge inning guy -- I've just never figured out how to effectively manage them.

Pick 4.20
R
Tim Raines, Toad Ramsey, Jose Reyes, Fernando Rodney
This was an insanely long wait, with great players flying off the board (137 picks). I knew I needed to address some needs (middle infield and pitching) in this round and the next. There was no one I got here that I was super jazzed about, but this finished up my OF, got me a decent SS and helped my bullpen.

Pick 5.05
M
Buddy Myer, Kenta Maeda, Dave McNally, Juan Marichal, Cla Meredith
I had to decide here whether to sure up my bullpen or my starting staff. I knew I'd have another long wait coming, so whichever I ignored would be a possible pain point. With Gagne and Rodney already in my pen, I decided to go with starters. Two picks after me 3dayrotation grabbed up the B relievers I would've targeted (Betances, Betancourt, Britton). The starters I got locked me into a low WHIP, high HR strategy.

Pick 6.20
L
Freddy Lindstrom, Seth Lugo, Paul LoDuca, Hans Lobert
At this point I needed 2 catchers, a 3B, tons of RPs, and backups. I thought Lindstrom was easily the best available 3B, given my team makeup, so I build this round around him. LoDuca gives me good defense behind the plate. Lugo isn't so great, but is useable. And Lobert allowed me to lock in Palace of the Fans.

Pick 7.05
U
Koji Uehara, Chase Utley, Jim Umbricht
Uehara was the best RP around, especially given my pitching staff setup and home stadium. Utley would be a nice backup at 2B and 1B. But there was really no one else available with the letter U. That said, I knew Uehara would not make it back to me at the back end of round 8. I don't typically use mop up guys, but decided to take a chance that I could make this work with basically two dead spots in the lineup (Umbricht and Lobert). I'm not sure that was the right strategy.

Pick 08.20
F
Keith Foulke, David Fletcher
End game here. I need a catcher, an RP and a backup SS (who ideally can also play elsewhere). I knew I wanted Bassler as my catcher, but there were other guys I could've grabbed if he got taken, so I went with the multi-eligible Fletcher and the lots-of-innings Foulke.

Pick 09.05
B
Johnny Bassler
I was glad to get a lefthanded hitting catcher with a decent arm with my last pick.

Final roster

C: Bassler/LoDuca
1B: Sisler
2B: Myer/Utley
SS: Reyes/Fletcher
3B: Lindstrom/Lobert
OF: Cobb, Speaker, Raines
DH: Gwynn
SP: Guidry, Maeda, McNally, Marichal, Ramsey
RP: Gagne, Rodney, Uehara, Lugo, Meredith, Foulke, Umbricht

My main concern is that playing in Palace of the Fans, and with effectively only 23 players, I won't have enough innings (1622 without Umbricht). We'll see. Anyway, this was a very fun draft -- I'm eager to see how the season goes.