As I write this, we are over halfway through round 1 of this tournament as leagues 9 and 10 have just finished their World Series. I wanted to document my thoughts on this tournament, with respect to my teams, the drafts and the results. I will add to this post as each league finishes.
League 1: Braves
Team Name: High Scoring Braves
Ballpark: Atlanta Fulton County Stadium
Salary: $113,404,793 (14th)
Record: 90-72 (2nd place in AL East, 3rd best overall)
Exp Win% .575 (Best in A.L., 2nd best overall)
Rank Offense: 1st
Rank Pitching: 9th
Rank Def Range: 4th
Playoffs: N/A
Top 5 picks:
1.12 – 1966 Joe Torre
2.04 – 1945 Tommy Holmes
3.08 – 1998 Chipper Jones
4.08 – 2000 Greg Maddux
5.10 – 1963 Hank Aaron
Comments:
As expected, this team scored a bunch of runs, led by Tommy Holmes (.337, .370, 550, 30 HRs, 147 RBIs) and Hank Aaron (.326, .404, .521, 33 HRs, 135 RBIs). My first-round pick (Joe Torre) was a disappointment as the second worst hitter on my team (.266, .339, 398). My four SPs (Maddux, ’98 Glavine, ’97 Smoltz, ’15 Rudolph) each started 40+ games and finished with ERAs of 5.06, 5.13, 5.24 and 5.31... very consistent. The defense was solid and we won 90 games with a neutral 18-18 record in 1-run games. We just got stuck in the wrong division. What’s worse, winning 90 games and missing the playoffs in a tough division or winning the division with 93 wins only to lose in the LCS to a lucky 84-win team that get outscored by 71 runs in the regular season? Sorry ff09. That is worse.
League 2: Athletics
Team Name: Amazing A’s Making Plays
Ballpark: Municipal Stadium
Salary: $112,142,841 (14th)
Record: 92-70 (1st place in AL East, tied for best overall)
Exp Win% .581 (Best overall)
Rank Offense: 2nd
Rank Pitching: 3rd
Rank Def Range: 1st
Playoffs: Lost 4-1 in World Series to calhoop’s 82-80 team
Top 5 picks:
1.04 – 1913 Frank Baker
2.03 – 2003 Tim Hudson
3.04 – 1931 Al Simmons
4.04 – 1333 Mickey Cochrane
5.02 – 1951 Eddie Joost
Comments:
Of course, I didn’t know it at the time, but this might have been the best and most balanced team that I drafted in this entire tournament. To rank in the top three in offense, pitching and defense while having a bottom three salary is remarkable. Al Simmons was a complete stud (.373, .428, 546) and won MVP. Somehow, he had 18 “plus” plays in RF despite having B- range. In fact, my entire OF combined for 82 plus plays. My three *good* SPs were very good. Tim Hudson (21-9, 3.64), ’09 Jack Coombs (14-11, 3.64) and ’09 Eddie Plank (20-14, 4.52) combined to go 55-34 in 124 starts. I was disappointed that I couldn’t win the World Series vs. a .500 team that was outscored during the regular season (which seems to happen a lot). This team will advance to round 2 but due to a very low team salary, they probably won’t come close to 90 wins.
League 3: Cardinals
Team Name: Slick Fielding Cardinals
Ballpark: Busch Stadium
Salary: $127,937,114 (5th)
Record: 80-82 (3rd place in NL West)
Exp Win% .487 (5th worse overall)
Rank Offense: 16th
Rank Pitching: 3rd
Rank Def Range: 4th
Playoffs: N/A
Top 5 picks:
1.14 – 1901 Jess Burkett
2.03 – 1946 Stan Musial
3.06 – 1950 Jim Hearn
4.04 – 2004 Albert Pujols
5.05 – 1953 Stu Miller
Comments:
This is one of the worst teams I drafted in the tournament. I blame Jim Hearn. I always blame Jim Hearn. Seriously, what was I thinking by taking two RPs in the first five rounds? Dumb, dumb, dumb! This team was dead last in offense despite ranking 7th in batting average. We were last in walks and third-to-last in HRs hit. Jesse Burkett was good (.360, .418, .465) and justified his first round pick status. Despite ranking 3rd in pitching, my team’s downfall was my SP3 and SP4. ’15 Slim Sallee was supposed to be a decent deadball pitcher but was awful (7-20, 6.56 era). My SP4, ’44 Harry Brecheen was nearly as bad (8-18, 5.13). Oddly enough, Jim Hearn was decent (9-3, 6-for-9 in saves, 3.91 era in 69 games). Luckily, I learned from this disaster and didn’t pick RPs early ever again. It kills the offense and as well as the SP depth.
League 4: Indians
Team Name: Indians Good, Guardians Stupid
Ballpark: League Park II
Salary: $132,518,429 (4th)
Record: 83-79 (2nd place in NL East)
Exp Win% .551 (2nd best overall)
Rank Offense: 1st
Rank Pitching: 13th
Rank Def Range: 4th
Playoffs: N/A
Top 5 picks:
1.13 – 1903 Nap Lajoie
2.04 – 1920 Tris Speaker
3.04 – 1913 Joe Jackson
4.02 – 1913 Willie Mitchell
5.04 – 1948 Bob Lemon
Comments:
This team should have made the playoffs. The .551 Exp Win% was second best in the entire league and we lost the division by 6 games to a team that was only +4 in run differential. The 13-20 record in 1-run games was the killer. My starting pitching was a huge disappointment. My team ERA was 5.36 and all four SPs had ERAs worse than that. In fact, my two late round SPs (Feller 5.37, Wynn 5.82) fared better than my fourth and fifth round SPs (Lemon 5.93, Mitchell 5.95). My decision to take ’03 Lajoie over ’04 Lajoie in round 1 turned out ok (.338, .369, .494, w/ 40 plus plays at 2B). Tris Speaker and Joe Jackson were also both very good (both over .900 ops). My bullpen was very strong. Karsay went 24/25 in saves with a 2.75 era, once again proving that bullpen performance and 1-run game luck is not strongly correlated. If this league were played out ten times, I am confident this team would make the playoffs in eight of them.
League 5: Cubs
Team Name: These Cubs Can Score
Ballpark: Cubs Park
Salary: $130,632,138 (2nd)
Record: 93-69 (1st place in NL East)
Exp Win% .544 (2nd best in N.L., 4th best overall)
Rank Offense: 5th
Rank Pitching: 3rd
Rank Def Range: 4th
Playoffs: Lost 4-2 in the LCS to nocomm999’s 86-win team that was outscored during the regular season.
Top 5 picks:
1.06 – 1992 Greg Maddux
2.09 – 1970 Billy Williams
3.05 – 1948 Johnny Schmitz
4.06 – 1966 Ron Santo
5.09 – 1901 Topy Hartsel
Comments:
This one hurt. My strategy of waiting until very late in the draft to grab my deadball SP paid off. I got ’04 Jake Weimer in round 17 and he went 23-15, 3.74 for me. My top two SPs selected (Maddux and Schmitz) were both very good (20-14, 4.11 and 16-9, 4.16). My four deadball short-inning guys (’13 Vaughn, ’11 Weaver, ’11 Smith, ‘15 Douglas) combined to go 11-8, 36/41 saves with a combined ERA of 2.52 in 171 innings. The offense ranked 5th overall, but was a disappointment in my opinion. Billy Williams was great (.317, .377, .538, 35 HRs, 120 RBIs), but '28 Gabby Hartnett (.233, .334, .388) and '56 Ernie Banks (.192, .247, .356) significantly underachieved. I should have seen that coming given all the great right-handed deadball pitching in the league. Still, this team won 93 games and easily won a tough NL East (all four teams finished over .500 and all had Exp Win% over .520). Meanwhile, all four NL West teams had negative run differentials. So of course, we knew we were going to lose in the LCS. nocomm999’s team actually won the World Series vs footballmm11. I am very sad (and annoyed) that this Cubs team won’t get to compete in round 2.
League 6: Orioles
Team Name: Baltimore Browns Big Bats
Ballpark: Sportsman Park (III)
Salary: $132,772,117 (1st)
Record: 77-85 (4th place in NL East)
Exp Win% .496 (5th best in N.L., 10th best overall)
Rank Offense: 4th
Rank Pitching: 13th
Rank Def Range: 3rd
Playoffs: N/A.
Top 5 picks:
1.07 – 1923 Ken Williams
2.09 – 1973 Jim Palmer
3.11 – 1992 Mike Mussina
4.13 – 1977 Ken Singleton
5.09 – 1920 Baby Doll Jacobson
Comments:
Easily, my worst team in the tournament. I drafted three great hitting 1B (Murray, Sisler, Powell) and tried playing two of them out of position (2B, RF) and it was a massive failure. I did draft backups at those positions, so my team salary was artificially inflated. I ended up benching Sisler (.353 real life avg, .245 sim) and Powell (.942 real life ops, .722 sim) because they sucked on offense. Ken Williams was awesome as expected (.366, .437, .605, 38 HRs, 152 RBIs) and won the MVP. Eddie Murray (.293, .378, .484, 131 RBIs) also hit well. The rest of my offense was ok. I had to start Paul Blair and Davey Johnson (both originally drafted just for defense) and that brought my offense down a notch. Despite taking Palmer and Boddicker early (rounds 2, 3), neither cracked the top 25 in ERA and as a result, my pitching was near the bottom of the league. Not ideal. I can’t blame bad luck or poor sim results. I just drafted poorly.
League 7: Dodgers
Team Name: No Koufax, No Kershaw, No Chance
Ballpark: Ebbets Field
Salary: $130,683,802 (4th)
Record: 95-67 (1st place in NL East)
Exp Win% .572 (Best in N.L., 2nd best overall)
Rank Offense: 5th
Rank Pitching: 3rd
Rank Def Range: 2nd
Playoffs: Lost 4-3 in LCS to mpitt76’s 82-80 team that was outscored on the season (anybody see a pattern here?).
Top 5 picks:
1.01 – 1941 Pete Resier
2.06 – 2004 Adrian Beltre
3.06 – 1955 Duke Snider
4.09 – 1913 Ed Reulbach
5.03 – 1918 Burleigh Grimes
Comments:
This season went just like my Cubs season. I drafted well, won a tough NL East with the league’s best record, then lost to a very weak NL West champ that was outscored in the regular season and missed round 2 with what seemed to be the best team in the league. My strategy of going with hitters early worked out as well as I could have hoped (Reiser and Belte represented 2 of the 7 hitters drafted in the first 29 picks of the draft). Besides Snider in round 3, I also took Piazza, Gilliam, Parker & Reese in the first 10 rounds. So, despite taking only three pitchers in the top 10 rounds, I still finished 3rd in pitching. Burleigh Grimes was awesome (27-14, 3.59 era in 49 starts). My other top 10 SP (’75 Sutton, round 9) went 19-11, 4.47 era. My closer, ’17 Brandon Morrow went 23/23 in saves with a 1.79 era. Reiser, Snider, Parker, Gilliam and H.Myers combined for 111 “plus” plays on defense. Seriously… I can’t believe this team isn’t advancing to round 2.
League 8: Red Sox
Team Name: Great Range Behind Pedro & Ruth
Ballpark: Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds
Salary: $125,661,338 (6th)
Record: 89-73 (2nd place in NL West)
Exp Win% .566 (3rd best in N.L., 4th best overall)
Rank Offense: 5th
Rank Pitching: 5th
Rank Def Range: 2nd
Playoffs: N/A
Top 5 picks:
1.02 – 1999 Pedro Martinez
2.09 – 1913 Tris Speaker
3.11 – 1942 Ted Williams
4.12 – 1957 Frank Sullivan
5.12 – 1907 Cy Morgan
Comments:
chewy3344 had the 7th pick in round 20. His final team salary was 125.3 million. ff09 (125.2), ronthegenius (125.1) and DarthDurron (125.1) all drafted after chewy and all three undercut chewy’s salary and that forced chewy into the NL West. Why is that important? Because chewy’s team won 100 games in my division. My 89 wins was a massive underachievement thanks to a 12-23 record in 1-run games (chewy went 22-10 in 1-run games). By the way, ff09, RTG, DD and EB all finished with a negative run differential in the weak AL East division. Bottom line is that I drafted a very strong team worthy of round 2 advancement but was twice unlucky (division placement, 1-run game luck). My draft strategy was to get good pitching early while also securing a stud season of Speaker and T.Williams. ’99 Pedro was good (20-10, 4.73) but not spectacular (only 13th in ERA). He was behind guys like ‘18 Sale and ’20 Lester. ’57 Sullivan (17-12, 5.21) and ’17 Ruth (22-19, 4.39) were both solid. Both Ted Williams (.348, .467, .644, 45 HRs, 145 RBIs) and Tris Speaker (.341, .405, .467, 139 runs, 120 RBIs, 33 + plays) were great as expected. I don’t think I would change a thing about my draft except spend $300K less to move out of this division.
League 9: Giants
Team Name: Carl Hubbell at Candlestick
Ballpark: Candlestick Park
Salary: $135,067,226 (4th)
Record: 91-71 (1st place in NL East)
Exp Win% .584 (Best in N.L., best overall)
Rank Offense: 7th
Rank Pitching: 1st
Rank Def Range: 2nd
Playoffs: Won LCS 4-3 over calhoop’s 88-74 team, won World Series 4-0 over ronthegenius’ 91-71 team.
Top 5 picks:
1.05 – 1933 Carl Hubbell
2.09 – 1918 Fred Toney
3.08 – 1958 Willie Mays
4.08 – 1998 Barry Bonds
5.09 – 1929 Mel Ott
Comments:
After multiple frustrations, I finally got one of my *good* teams to advance to round 2. My top pick (’33 Carl Hubbell) was a stud. He went 24-11, 3.14 era, and had a 33-inning scoreless streak over four starts during the season. He won the NL Cy Young Award, beating out three Christy Mathewson seasons. After clinching the division, I rested him over the last 12 games. As a result, Hubbell was fresh going into the playoffs and he went 5-1 in six starts. Another gem of a pick was ’78 Ed Halicki (round 10). In 33 starts, Halicki (14-9, 2.74) led the league in ERA. Fred Toney had some ups and downs (6-9, 8/13 in saves) but he did finish with a 2.99 era. The offense was led by my three OFs. Willie Mays (.299, .360, .495, 122 RBIs, 35 + plays) was well worth a third-round pick. Bonds (.284, .378, .501) and Ott (.261, .363, .465) didn’t hit for high averages but both finished in the top 20 in OPS. Mays finished 2nd in NL MVP. First, third, fourth and fifth places were held by Barry Bonds’ four stud seasons (2001-2004). At DH, I ended up benching my 7th round pick (’89 Kevin Mitchell (1.023 real life OPS) for 20th round pick ’08 Mike Donlin (.816 real life OPS). Mitchell couldn’t hit at all and finished with a slash of .231, .306, .389 in 343 PAs while Donlin finished at .327, .352, .462 in 384 PAs. Best decision I made. Defensively, we had 143 + plays, led by Dave Bancroft’s 36 (24 at SS, 12 at 2B) and Mays’ 35. Here’s a fun stat… Hubbell and Toney combined for 13 “plus” plays. I truly think this team will be very competitive in round 2.
League 10: Tigers
Team Name: Mark Fidrych at Comerica
Ballpark: Comerica Park
Salary: $132,664,925 (3rd)
Record: 90-72 (2nd place in NL East)
Exp Win% .547 (2nd best in N.L., 3rd best overall)
Rank Offense: 7th
Rank Pitching: 5th
Rank Def Range: 2nd
Playoffs: N/A
Top 5 picks:
1.09 – 1976 Mark Fidrych
2.06 – 1944 Dizzy Trout
3.12 – 1909 Ed Summers
4.14 – 1961 Al Kaline
5.15 – 1909 Ty Cobb
Comments:
Once again, I drafted a very strong team that got stuck in the wrong division. What’s worse is that It’s my own damn fault. Despite having more than enough innings, I decided to draft ’59 Don Mossi ($6.2M) in round 20, thinking I needed another lefty SP. I barely used him. He finished with an era of 8.84 in just 19 innings. I could’ve been in the NL West where the top team won only 84 games. Picking 9th in round 1, I knew I wouldn’t get a good Hal Newhouser season, so I went with a favorite of mine, Mark Fidrych. He won a bunch of games for me despite a high ERA (22-9, 5.91). This was the only draft where I drafted three SPs with my top three picks. Trout was a workhorse with a good ERA but poor run support (19-18, 4.28 ERA in 56 starts / 382 innings). He finished 4th in ERA. Summers was also solid (20-17, 4.75). My top drafted hitters did well. Kaline went .308, .380, .461 w/143 RBIs. Cobb hit .366, .415, .482 w/139 RBIs. My 19th round pick, ’29 Dale Alexander, replaced Sam Crawford at 1B and finished at .347, .391, .550 in 418 PA. All in all, this team was well put together but won’t advance to round 2.