So, one of the thing I've been playing around with is controlling for variables and trying to win with absurd rosters at the extremes. My first pass at this drafted the literal worst hitters in history (Jim Lillie, Chris Davis, Bill Bergen, etc) and I was able to run out an offense that cost less than $20m. The team hit predictably bad, but won more games than I expected by a good number, finishing with 48 wins. I adjusted this strategy and drafted a team of similar priced hitters, but instead of being just the worst, I focused on defense and ended up with a full team of sub-$3.5m hitters with A+ range Like 1889 Walt Wilmot. This team had a hitter salary of $20m and won 86 games.

So, then I took it to its full extreme and drafted the absolute cheapest hitting and pitching teams possible for an OL (1,200 IP and 4,800 PA minimums), with an exception on each. For the cheapest hitting team, to fill the required PA, it required I use all of the hitter slots on the roster and take only 6 pitchers. With just 6 pitchers, There's only so much money you can spend without significantly wasting IP, so I upgraded two hitters into a single Jim Lille which cost a few thousand more, but freed up an extra pitching slot and allowed me to spend the additional $5m+ that would've been wasted. This team had a $7m offense and spent $72m on pitching. Given that the quality here was roughly the same as the first team that won 48, but had better pitching, I put an over/under at 54 wins. They finished with 49. One change was made throughout the season. Around the All-Star break, I noticed my pitching was always at 100 and barely using allotted pitches, so I dumped '77 Sutter to the WW and picked up '19 Juan Soto. This brought my offense to a little over $12m.

On the other side, I did the same thing with pitchers, drafting a pitching staff that featured such aces as, '81 Nino Espinosa, '80 Ross Grimsley, '12 Nick Blackburn, '51 Al Widmar, etc... Pitching staff ballooned up to just under $9m as I drafted 1,300 IP figuring the quality would require more than I'd otherwise usually draft. That quickly proved to be not as true as I thought, and I waived '07 Mike Maroth and '02 Dad Hale and picked up a closer in '11 Neftali Feliz with the $ freed to end with 1,222 IP. Offensively, I drafted range in a couple of key spots, a few Ruths for offense, and finished 83-79. I will say, taking a team with an $8m pitching staff to a winning record felt like a huge accomplishment.



The leagues and teams can be seen here:
https://www.whatifsports.com/mlb-l/view.asp?lid=128081
https://www.whatifsports.com/mlb-l/view.asp?lid=128043

Dang, those images are huge...

Ultimately, I probably could've done better with both teams. On the cheap hitting team, an offense friendly ballpark, like Hilltop would've probably been a big boon, as with the quality of my pitching it wouldn't have hurt as much, but instead I was focused on minimal IP because of the extra $5m.

With the cheap pitching, I could've drafted less Babe Ruth and taken more opportunities with higher priced hitters with great range (e.g., Richie Ashburn, Tris Speaker) to help take away a few more hits from my opponents. My 2B/SS combo each finished with ~40 + plays (39 & 41), whereas my four Ruth's combined for 8 + plays. I would've lost some offense, but would have reduced opponent offense by, I believe, a larger margin.

Ultimately, I think these just go to show that you can win with any strategy in terms of budget allocation, you just have to commit and control for as many of the variables as possible in ways that maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

I think 83 wins is fantastic. I've been trying to put an all-hit team together for a long time but never really could figure it out. You have shown the way, just4me.

bump for doc

Bump for $40m league discussion on trades

I could be friends with that VerlanderMVP guy

Bump for savoybg