It's always fun reading about what was going through your mind during the 16x16 draft. All the highs (few) and the lows (many).

Nominated Player
1972 Gaylord Perry
(356 ip, 2.18 ERC#, .217 OAV#, 1.04 WHIP#, 0.46 HR/9#)
I initially nominated Pedro Martinez with the intention of using 2002 and rostering his teammate Derek Lowe. But decided I didn't want to to give other folks good-to-great Pedro seasons to draft. With the years restricted to 1969+, I see that most of Gaylord Perry's available seasons are below average and expensive. Plus, I've always had success with '72 Perry at mid cap levels (80-100M). And of course, his salary should keep me near the top of each round. He has no teammates worth taking, but I don't care. In this draft, I plan on drafting the good versions of most players. It's easier to find <$250K teammates than it is to draft all the <$250K seasons of the nominated players.
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Pick 1.1
2013 Freddy Garcia
(27, 2.43, .241, 1.06, 0.56)
I agonized over this pick. I narrowed down my first pick to one of four choices.... The best season from Pettitte (97) or Knepper (78) or a cheap season from Garcia (13) or Buehrle (00). I was VERY close to going with '97 Pettitte. But here's the thing... If I take an expensive season, I'm almost for sure going to get stuck with expensive seasons of the other three as I figure the cheap seasons will be gone before it gets back to me. I went with '13 Garcia because this season is actually usable and cheap. I might have a shot at an expensive Knepper or Buehrle next round. What I didn't anticipate was that almost everybody went expensive. That dropped me to pick 8 in round 2, where, had I stayed at #1, I could have had '86 Knepper, or a cheap Garcia or cheap Knepper season. Damn! Really bad choice.
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Pick 2.8
1998 Jose Offerman
(709 pa, .310 AVG#, .397 OBP#, .413 SLG#)
After getting completely crushed with all the missed picks I could have had if I had just taken 97 Pettitte, I needed to regroup. My strategy coming in was to get as many of the best seasons of players I could. At this point, I've already resigned myself to the fact that I was going to end up with $12M of crap between Knepper, Buerhle & Pettitte. I also knew one of those pitchers would have to be my SP4. Can I possibly make the playoffs by punting 30 games? Anyway, I went with Offerman's best year. No good teammate options... Who cares.
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Pick 3.3
1992 Roger Clemens
(247, 2.37, .225, 1.07, 0.36)
I preferred '90 or '91 Clemens and almost took him last round, but I knew there would still be a reasonably good Clemens this round. I didn't hesitate to grab what I thought the best valued Clemens left. I didn't know it at the time, but I did end up rostering a teammate here, $413K Eric Wedge (81 pa, .250/.370/.500) as a third catcher. This pick also moves me up a spot for next round.
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Pick 4.2
1995 Ken Caminiti
(678, .302, .379, .500)
There is something therapeutic about not worrying about what season I get stuck with w.r.t. Knepper, Pettitte & Buehrle. Meanwhile, a bunch of Kneppers, Pettittes, Garcias, Perrys & Clemens are flying off the board. Meanwhile, I am focusing on offense. With a larger cap, '96 Caminiti would be a no-brainer, but this version is probably the next best when factoring in salary. Teammates? Nada.
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Pick 5.1
1981 Rollie Fingers
(116, 1.54, .201, 0.89, 0.33)
And we are back at the top of the draft, where we'll stay for all but one of the remaining rounds. I did consider taking Fingers' second or third best season where there were a few decent teammate options. But F**k it.... let's take the best and figure it out later. Never really looked at teammates here, but it turns out I rostered a $1.6M platoon catcher, Charlie Moore (255 pa, .301/.351/.410).
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Pick 6.1
2015 Juan Uribe
(167, .290, .360, .456)
Shortstop is the one position where I knew I wasn't going to be able to draft a starter. There were three cheap Uribe seasons left. I could've gone with 2016 and had some good teammate options (Kluber, Miller), but with his 2015 season, he can actually hit a little. Trying not to waste any salary... so he's at least a pinch hitter. The 2016 version went this same round, but I could've waited two more rounds and taken the other cheap version (2011). Teammates? Had no idea at the time, but this Uribe provided me with a key 118 plate appearances to spell Fred Lynn with $910K outfielder Phil Gosselin (118, .311/.373/.500). As you can see, I am really spending big on my teammates.
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Pick 7.2
1997 Barry Bonds
(690, .291, .444, .570)
There were three really good Bonds seasons left that I felt like I could afford. Didn't really care which one I took, so I grabbed the one with the most plate appearances. Nothing in term of teammates. Teammates are overrated anyway.
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Pick 8.1
1987 Andres Galarraga
(606, .306, .362, .448)
This seemingly boring pick was pivotal for me. I finally filled in what I thought my projected roster would look like. I realized I wouldn't really be able to afford one of Galarraga's $6M+ seasons, which are overpriced anyway. This season was fairly priced and most importantly, for the first time in this draft, I made a pick with specific teammates that I intended to roster. Tim Burke and Pascual Perez (71, 1.96, .207, 0.96, 0.52). Sadly, a couple of late round snipes cost me the shot at keeping an expensive, but studly Tim Burke.
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Pick 9.1
1982 Fred Lynn
(545, .298, .375, .506)
Damn, Fred Lynn was injured a lot. He was a very good hitter with very few full-time seasons. There's another important player I really need to take but I am going to gamble on him still being there next round. I know I will need another 100-150 PA at OF with this pick, but as you've seen, I have no problem using a teammate slot on a cheap platoon hitter. No teammates here.
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Pick 10.1
2003 Manny Ramirez
(679, .322, .425, .564)
And he made it back to me- woo hoo! I mentioned before that I needed to use a teammate as my full-time SS. There just aren't a lot of good SS teammates in this draft. I had '99 Vizquel (Ramirez teammate) penciled in for a while but he's expensive. This version of Manny brings me a usable and not overly expensive, $6.0M Nomar Garciaparra (710, .298, .343, .501). Just as importantly, I also get my SP3, Pedro Martinez (187, 2.06, .212, 1.03, 0.24). I also later added pinch hitter David McCarty (57, .340, .368, .491). Now my roster is almost set. I just need to get some cheap versions of the remaining players I still need for everything to fit. I'm sure everybody will cooperate.
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Pick 11.1
1980 Steve Braun
(63, .273, .365, .364)
Doing some analysis between last round and this round, I determined that I really, really wanted 1983 Braun. He would have fit perfectly into that "extra plate appearances at OF" I needed to for Lynn. Right after I took Ramirez, bheid408 took a cheap Braun. I started to get worried. Later, mpitt76 takes 82 Braun... Still ok... I only need to get through one more person who needed a Braun... 3dayrotation..... C'mon... take the cheap 1980 version...... DAMN IT! He take '83 Braun. Well, at least I didn't get stuck with an expensive version, but now I need to allocate more $$$ for another backup OF who will have to play. My salary is tight - I can't afford any more surprises.
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Pick 12.1
1979 Bob Knepper
(stats irrelevant, only used in mop-up role)
First priority after the Braun pick was to save salary with Knepper. I wanted '82 Knepper ($3.2M) but Chisock grabbed him. I was fortunate to get the $3.4M 1979 version. Big price increase after this pick. I absolutely need to get the cheapest Pettitte next.
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Pick 13.1
2009 Mark Buehrle
(213, 3.64, .273, 1.23, 0.87)
The rest of round 12 was a disaster for me. NebHusker grabbed '99 Pettitte. So now I focus on 2010 or 2011 Buehrle. Nope, both go right in front of me. Goodbye '87 Tim Burke. Researching a cheaper RP option, I find Jake Peavy (102, 2.43, .214, 1.10, 0.52). I also add a backup 1B/OF who will need to start a few times at both positions, $617K Mark Kotsay (127, .290, .346, .410). Buehrle will be my SP4. In this league, he can't be the worst SP4, right?
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Pick 14.1
1982 Darrell Porter
(445, .233, .352, .407)
I never really focused too much on which version of Porter I'd get once the top couple of Porter seasons were gone. I knew I'd be able to find the right platoon compliment base on which Porter I got. I could have gone with Porter's natural backup, Gene Tenace but Charlie Moore saved me $400K.
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Pick 15.1
2000 Andy Pettitte
(stats irrelevant, only used in mopup role)
How ironic is it that my first overall pick was going to be 97 Pettite and that one decision ended up getting me the very last Pettitte taken. So when Buehrle gets killed, Pettitte and Knepper will come in and mopup. Will save my good relief pitchers for my three good starters. '72 Gaylord Perry may pitch over 400 innings.

Final Stats (excluding players who won't play much)
Hitting: 5628 PA, .300, .386, .501, $47.1 million
Pitching: 1319 IP, 2.47 ERA, .223 OAV, 1.06 WHIP, 0.57 HR/9, $43.2 million
Effective Salary $90.3 million
Assuming I get my 10% bump, that still leaves me short IPs.
The remaining innings will be used by mopup pitchers Pettitte & Knepper.

Let me begin by saying, as I have often in the past, how much I love this theme. It is probably my favorite in all of WhatIf. And the decision to rank draft order from high to low added another layer of strategy, and therefore made it that much more enjoyable. Kudos to schwarze for this idea, and thanks to him as always for running an extremely efficient draft.

Obviously, one of the major considerations when drafting in this theme is to try to limit wasted salary. As such, my overarching philosophy has always been “it’s not wasted [salary] if you use it” (henceforth known as INWIYUI). The majority of potential wasted salary lies with the pitchers, so the idea is to lower your usual pitching standards and use the savings, from lesser pitchers and non-wasted salary, to build a killer offense to compensate. Now, I’ve used this strategy in the past and it hasn’t always worked out so well. I don’t recall any of my last several teams in this theme being particularly good. I think this was due to a combination of poor execution (I ended up wasting a bunch of salary anyway) and inappropriateness of the strategy (there are limits to how bad of a pitcher you can use effectively at a given cap level). In fact, for this draft I actually considered the crazy notion of abandoning any philosophy and, you know, just trying to build a good team. But when I looked at the cap and the nominated players I thought that the INWIYUI pitching strategy could work here so I decided to give it one more shot.

How did I do? I believe I executed the strategy as well as possible. No one ever gets every player they want, but my team looks pretty much exactly the way I intended it to look. Of course, nothing is easier than executing a bad strategy, so it remains to be seen whether this was the correct approach, but at least I’m happy with my performance in the draft. Now, on to the round-by-round analysis. Stats shown are normalized.

Initial nomination: 1975 Red Sox Fred Lynn (.334/.401/.568, B/A+, $7.8M)
My initial idea to nominate Lynn came from recently using him for the first time and being pleased with his performance. I really didn’t expect this to stick, though. I usually try to do more to screw over others with my nomination, and I figured I’d eventually change it to a bad starting OF with one cheap season. However, I gradually warmed to the idea of using Lynn. I estimated that my roster would shake out as $60M offense, $35M pitching, and $5M waste, and this Lynn fits perfectly in that scenario. Plus, I often tend to neglect defense, but with these pitchers I’ll need all the defense I can get so I figured I’d lock in a good CF so I don’t end up with like a B-/D+ there. I considered using the $9M Lynn but I don’t think he’s appreciably better and he wouldn’t have gotten me any higher than the 3^rd overall pick that I got with this one. I’m happy with my nomination.

Round 1: 1978 Giants Bob Knepper (260 IP, 2.70 ERC#, $7.3M)
Pettitte, Buehrle, Garcia and Knepper were all potential minefields in this draft. I considered it highly doubtful that I’d be able to get “good” (in this context, roughly sub-3.50 ERC#) versions of all four, so I decided early on that I’d punt one of them. I’d still use them, but I wouldn’t worry about how bad they were, figuring that if I somehow make the postseason I can remove them from the rotation. I decided to punt Buehrle because his worst seasons weren’t all that much worse than his middling ones, and I decided to choose Knepper here because his worst seasons are beyond godawful and this season is eminently usable at this cap, and drafting a usable season allowed me to maintain my spot in the draft order. As it turns out, he ended up being my best SP. INWIYUI is not for the faint of heart.

Round 2: 2012 Yankees Andy Pettitte (75 IP, 2.94 ERC#, $1.9M)
Not surprisingly, 13 of the 18 picks before this one were starting pitchers. The two “good” full-season Pettittes were already gone, and it would be inadvisable to draft 200+ IP versions of all six nominated SPs, so I went with a solid RP option here. He also came with a $7.8M, good offensive and defensive Robinson Cano who would fit well in my position player strategy if I ended up using him. However, this did drop me a couple of draft spots.

Round 3: 2012 Dodgers Juan Uribe (scrub, $655k)
The way this draft would play out with respect to SPs was pretty predictable. Good seasons and cheap seasons would be snapped up early. Players like Uribe (and Offerman and even Braun) were harder to figure out, because INWIYUI doesn’t only apply to pitchers. There were potentially usable seasons of all three players, especially at this cap and if you hold your nose hard enough, but I had no idea how low people would be willing to go, and therefore how much demand there would be to lock up cheap seasons instead. Perhaps to my detriment, I decided early on that I had no appetite for using Uribe at all, so when the cheapest available Uribe was drafted I immediately took the only remaining sub-$1M version. After all, he only had two remaining seasons under $2.3M, and this one came with a couple of potentially good relievers and even a really good Kershaw if I somehow got enough cheap nominated SPs to enable me to use him. But the anticipated Uribe run never came (the next one was drafted a full two rounds later), I never used any of his teammates, and it dropped me another four draft slots, so this was a waste of a pick, right? Not really, IMO. Nobody who I had targeted was drafted in the next round, and this pick still saved me $2M or $3M in cap space. What looks like a waste allowed me to stay on target, so I’m OK with this.

Round 4: 1996 Padres Ken Caminiti (.326/.407/.608, B-/A+, $8.9M)
From the outset I intended to draft this Caminiti. His range would take away a lot of hits (and my pitchers sure would allow plenty of those) and his salary was high but workable. The question was if anyone else would consider spending $9M on a third baseman, and if so, when. When two of the very few good Caminitis went off the board earlier this round I decided that I couldn’t risk missing out on this one. Did I need to pick him this early? It’s impossible to say. Again, no Caminiti was picked for another two rounds after this, but does that mean that I got the last good one for this stage of the draft or that I totally reached? Even if 14 people think the latter, it only takes one to have thought the former in order to have messed up my team. Either way, I think he’ll work out fine. And he comes with Scott Sanders (144 IP, 2.52 ERC#, $4.5M) who seems especially suited for success at this talent level. From the moment I drafted him I considered him a given on my roster. We’ll see if that was justified.

Round 5: 2000 Mariners Freddy Garcia (125 IP, 3.69 ERC#, $2.7M)
My Caminiti largesse moved me up 3 spots in the draft order, but my stint in the top half would be brief. I strongly considered this Garcia the previous round. I found him desirable because he had a relatively low number of innings and if I try really hard I can imagine him getting some hitters out at this cap level. I have a very active imagination. But most of all I wanted him because of who he brought to the team: Alex Rodriguez (.309/.409/.576, A/B, $8.7M). There weren’t all that many great offensive shortstops available, and many who were came with even less useful nominees. This Garcia also included Edgar Martinez (.316/.412/.548, D/D-, $5.3M), who I wasn’t planning on using since there were so many Galarragas with good range who could hit, but would allow me to save salary if need be and if I was willing to sacrifice defense. Spoiler alert: I’m always willing to sacrifice defense (which demonstrates precisely why I nominated Lynn) so I used Edgar. Of course, bolding his name and listing his stats already spoiled that. Sorry.

Round 6: 2002 Mariners Jose Offerman (scrub, $1.35M)
A funny thing happened on the way to my 6^th round pick. There was a run on cheap Offermans. Three of them were drafted. And if there’s one thing you don’t want to do, besides needlessly extending a run, it’s to miss out on a run. In a perfect world you want to be like Mexican tap water: you want to cause the runs. But at the very least you want to get the last viable player of the run. And while $1.35M worth of useless isn’t great, it sure beats $3M of the same.

Round 7: 1993 Giants Barry Bonds (.335/.459/.670, B/C, $10.1M)
Montezuma’s…er…Offerman’s revenge dropped me to 11^th in the draft order, so I decided to nip that in the bud. Three things happened back in the 5^th round that made me think I could pull off this pick. One, my Garcia pick gave me Edgar, who I would end up using, because, two, the ’97 Galarraga was drafted, which was the only Galarraga I ever really wanted. That had the potential to save me about $1M. Three, the 1985 Porter was drafted, who I was planning on platooning with the 1975 Fisk, for about $6.3M total. With that Porter gone, I scrapped that idea and decided to settle for whatever Porter was left at the end of the draft, saving me an additional $2M. $2M + $1M = $3M, and a $7M Bonds + $3M = a $10M Bonds. Of course, in order to pull this off I needed a cheap Galarraga.

Round 8: 1985 Expos Andres Galarraga (scrub, $249k)
Do you remember that scene in Office Space when they’re in the car and they check to see how much money has been funneled from Initech into their account due to the software they installed that was supposed to send them the rounded off fractions of a penny from each transaction? It ends up being a lot, and Michael Bolton confesses that he probably put a decimal point in the wrong place because he always overlooks some mundane detail. That’s like me preparing for this draft, except my plan doesn’t result in Jennifer Aniston dumping me. My plan just involves setting up my spreadsheet, and then not-cross-checking it with schwarze’s list of available seasons of nominated players. I always overlook some mundane detail, like the fact that the 2001 Rangers Galarraga has a cheap partial season. Now, if I had realized that, would I have waited another round to get my cheap Galarraga? I have no idea. I just like Office Space.

Round 9: 2015 Blue Jays Mark Buehrle (199 IP, 3.80 ERC#, $3.9M)
Like my Uribe pick, this pick looks meh on the surface, but helped to get me to where I wanted to be. On one hand, this Buehrle is not appreciably different than the one that redcped got with the last pick of the 13^th round. But on the other hand, this one came with a large number of potential relievers, two of which I used: David Price (74 IP, 2.01 ERC#, $2.6M) and Marcus Stroman (27 IP, 2.17 ERC#, $719k), plus versatile sub Cliff Pennington (scrub hitter but non-horrible defense at 2B, SS, 3B and OF, $252k). Also, the extra IP from the other Buehrle would’ve been a waste, and the $450k I saved helped me roster an excellent reserve OF and PH. Baby steps.

Round 10: 1977 Rangers Gaylord Perry (238 IP, 3.37 ERC#, $5.5M)
As I wrote when I made this pick, I hate, hate, hate taking the second-to-last version of a player, especially this early in the draft. What hurt even more was that there were four versions of Perry available and only two would be drafted. But I really could only stomach one of them. Two had ERC# well over 4, which I wasn’t willing to use (and, you know, INWIYUI), and the other had 344 innings, which meant that if I took him and couldn’t get a low inning Clemens then I would have virtually no bullpen. I wasn’t willing to take the chance that bheid408 would just take the cheapest Perry (which he ended up doing) so I bit the bullet and took this Perry here. I’m happy with the way my team turned out, but this was super annoying at the time.

Round 11: 1978 Mariners Steve Braun (scrub, $352k)
Another blasted run. I knew it would happen; I just thought it would happen one round later. I was fortunate though; it started 7 picks after my previous pick, and I stayed at the same draft slot as last round, so I was able to get the second-to-last palatable Braun. Whew.

Round 12: 1999 Indians Manny Ramirez (.327/.432/.636, C/D+, $7.3M)
In my initial planning for this draft I had always assumed that I’d get the ’99 Manny. I figured that there were enough good Manny seasons, and that there’d be enough people facing a salary crunch, that I’d be the only one willing to spend $7M plus on him. But I had banked on it enough that I started to get nervous as the draft transpired and extenuating circumstances kept preventing me from taking him earlier. I had wanted to draft him since round 9 but felt I couldn’t for various reasons. I was ecstatic to take him here; not only because he rakes but because I noticed (seriously, only as I drafted him) that he comes with a really good Roberto Alomar (.317/.412/.503, A/C-, $7.5M). To this point I figured I’d either use the 2012 Cano or the sneaky-good and cheaper 1993 Robby Thompson at second base. But I expectorate (see what I did there?) that Alomar will outperform either of them, and I thought I just might have the cap space to make it happen. Also, I didn’t realize it at the time but because of earlier frugality in round 9 I would end up rostering 4^th OF and pinch-hitter extraordinaire Jacob Cruz (.323/.359/.482, A+/D+, $758k). This was my favorite pick of the draft.

Round 13: 1977 Padres Rollie Fingers (133 IP, 3.04 ERC#, $3.3M)
There’s a strange class of jokes, if you can call them that, that seem to be most appreciated by roughly 12-year-olds, that consist of long, drawn out narratives ending with a punchline that’s simply a play on words. My favorite as a lad ended with the phrase “I left my heart in Sam Frank’s disco”, but the most prevalent in my era concluded with “let your pages do the walking through the yellow fingers.” I thought of that often throughout this draft. Which is neither here nor there, but I was marginally pleased to get this “good” a Fingers this late.

Round 14: 1984 Cardinals Darrell Porter (.235/.336/ .369, C/B/B+, $3.2M)
Yep, he sucks, but I made that sacrifice so I could have 7 really good offensive players and not have to worry about catcher until the end. The other ~100 PAs will be handled by 1978 Giants John Tamargo (.243/.365/.342, D/B-/D, $562k) who is really good at not costing a lot of money.

Round 15: 1993 Roger Clemens (192 IP, 3.34 ERC#, $4.7M)
There were better Clemens seasons still available, but this one, akin to Lebowski’s rug that the Chinaman peed on, really tied the team together.

Epilogue
Again, this team ended up looking exactly as I envisioned it would before the draft began. But, again, executing a poor draft strategy is always easy. Will my pitchers be able to get enough batters out to allow my offense to win the day? The proof will be in the pudding of the season. I’m looking forward to tasting it.

Offense
.312/.408/.557, $60.7M

Pitching
1467 IP, 3.11 ERC#, $37.1M

Waste
$2.25M

I didn't get a chance to write anything up as I went along, so this will be shorter than usual. I'm still laughing over several comments in the ones posted already. I love these themes, and I spent way more time looking at my spreadsheets than I should have in a really busy week. But the draft moved fast and I had to keep up, so frankly I didn't do enough of my job and have a pretty hellacious Friday ahead. Might as well knock out the writeup tonight, too.

Nominee: 1985 Steve Braun.
Yeah, I knew the part about the draft order going high to low, but my experience in these drafts is that you have to waste a lot of salary and I was afraid to take on too much with my nominee. Easier to build from a low number than be stuck with salary you can't shed. I was too busy to research further after a few people changed nominees, or I might have realized I'd never have a way to use Willie McGee. But I was sure that I needed a nominee who came with a great SP season (John Tudor) and wanted a SS option I'd be happy with no matter how things broke later. As it turned out, I dumped Ozzie after the draft. I almost dumped Tudor, too, but I was too stubborn not to use any teammate from my draftee.

Round 1: 1989 Bob Knepper
I was picking next-to-last, and I decided if other people wanted to draft expensive players I could just play it cheap. Someone has to pick last every round. Might as well try to find an advantage in not chasing higher salaries to move up. I was definitely going to take a cheap season of an albatross pitcher here. I was too busy to scout the whole draft at this point and only looked at Garcia, Pettitte, Buerhle and Knepper seasons for teammates and ways to minimize the innings I needed from them. Knepper was cheap and came with 3 potential teammates I liked: Scott Garrelts, Will Clark, and Kevin Mitchell. I hadn't figured out yet that I wasn't going to need a teammate OF starter, because I hadn't even looked at the hitters yet. Mitchell was still sitting in my roster for a few rounds next to McGee before it clicked. Garrelts got replaced, but I kept anyone else from using him.

Round 2: 2009 Freddy Garcia
56 IP with a 2.98 ERC# was a very nice way to handle this albatross. That's a good enough bullpen piece to use.

Round 3: 2006 Roger Clemens
I really believed I'd draft a very good Rocket to be my SP2 or SP3, but the run came early. This version is only 114 IP but still very good. He'll be useful somewhere. I had no idea until a few hours ago that I'd end up with his SS teammate Adam Everett, who can't hit a lick but plays A+/A defense for $2M less than Ozzie. Almost used Lance Berkman at 1B but went another direction at the end. I love Berkman, too.

Round 4: 1975 Gaylord Perry
No Perry worth having ~300 innings of was left, so I bit the bullet on 124 innings at $2.5M. He'll have to pitch some long relief and spot start and hopefully not kill me. Terrible teammates.

Round 5: 2005 Jose Offerman
Wait, we have hitters? ... OK, time to look at who I don't want to play. Jose Awfulman tortured me as a Dodger fan. I don't want to see his name in the lineup. But I love me some 2B Chase Utley and RP Billy Wagner teammates. You're forgiven, Jose. Go sit on the bench.

Round 6: 1998 Barry Bonds
Someone has to carry this lineup, and I wanted a useable Bonds. His $10M+ years were going to be tough to roster, and his first few years weren't all that good. There were a few seasons left in the $7-8M sweet spot so I took one before they ran out. Also, another really nice bullpen piece in Robb Nen. I knew I'd have 100+ IP from Fingers, so Wagner and Nen were all I'd have spots for and they have 167 IP between them. That's got to be enough. I won't have another RP spot.

Round 7: 1999 Ken Caminiti
By now I'd stopped looking at 3B teammates and accepted I'd have a Caminiti-Uribe combo of some type. Just had to hope the PA matched reasonably well. This version can't field, but he hits enough to be a nice value at just over $2M. He's raking for me in the Cooperstown Replay league right now, so that probably swayed me. I've got over 100 wins with those Astros without any decent defense. Tempting here to try to roster the godly Wagner season, but I can't afford it. Somehow a couple hours ago though, I found Jeff Bagwell manning 1B in my draft queue. I hadn't seen that coming.

Round 8: 2013 Juan Uribe
Though I was a bit sad to see the Galarraga seasons I liked disappear, this Uribe was too good a fit to pass on. A bit more PA than I needed to platoon at 3B, but he can hit some bombs off the awful lefties in this league and doesn't make errors. Has extra PA I can use at 1B if I need them, I figure (spoiler alert: I won't). The big bonus is in the teammate department, where I immediately place Kershaw in the SP2 spot and dream briefly of adding Jansen to my pen. Alas, I end up with neither and only roster crappy Dee Gordon as a backup SS and PR. But like with Garrelts, I've taken another good SP teammate off the board for anyone else.

Round 9: 1972 Rollie Fingers
I met Rollie at a business conference a few years ago and got a picture with him. He looks the same. You can't get rid of a 'stache like that. ... Anyway, I didn't want to take Rollie just yet, but I was probably going to need him to be a key bullpen piece. So I took the best one left after 3day took the '73 right before me. Sometimes drafting last hurts. Turns out ol' Rollie has a fine SP teammate with 300+ innings in the great Catfish Hunter. He and Tudor now sit in the 1-2 spots, with nearly 600 innings of sub-2 ERC# at $23M to anchor me. Still dreaming of squeezing in Garrelts at this point and thinking I can always save a tiny bit of money with Kershaw instead of either. But I left the pitching alone.

Round 10: 1983 Fred Lynn
I kept having a reason to take someone besides Lynn, all while realizing neither Bonds nor Ramirez can play CF and I'm going to be stuck with 400+ PA of Lynn who has to do it. I had my eye on '76 but njbigwig grabbed him the round before. I took this decent-hitting version with B range as a last resort. I started thinking .339-hitting Rod Carew might end up manning 1B for me and leading off, but I booted him in a late shuffle to get more power.

Round 11: 2013 Andy Pettitte
Pettitte and Buehrle are going to have to pitch occasionally, and this version was at least under $4M with ERC# under 4. It's a pretty low bar, but he scraped under it.

Round 12: 1981 Darrell Porter
By now I see enough Ramirez seasons I can be happy with, a lot of similar Buerhles, and no Galarraga I want enough to take. So just grab the best Porter since I actually have to use him in a platoon. Turns out his teammate Gene Tenace has a .410 OBP and fills out the platoon darn well. I can't use the great Andy Rincon season alas, but no one else gets him. I think that's an underrated factor sometimes.

Round 13: 2008 Mark Buehrle
There were 3 left and 3 of us needing one. This was the cheapest. I was relieved to save the $350K.

Round 14: 2004 Manny Ramirez
I had my eyes on the '99 and thought he'd come to me because the folks up higher in the draft had spent too much already. I'd happily discard Utley and stick Robbie Alomar at leadoff, where I was badly lacking an option. I put all the pieces together around Round 11 and had it set. Then 'cuda stepped in and took '99 Manny and my house of cards collapsed. ... I tried lineups with 3 different remaining Mannys in various teammate combos and decided I wanted this version for the stronger bat. The much better 2000 version with lower PA was darn tempting, though, but I couldn't roster a backup OF besides Braun at this point so a full-time Manny helped out.

Round 15: 1986 Andres Galarraga
In some permutations I was still going to try to get productivity out of this pick. Maybe platoon him with the partial season '05 Ryan Howard or '83 Carew? Maybe find a scrub to toss in with him and Uribe and just get whatever out of 1B I could? But then I realized this offense needed more help than that. I kept moving pieces in and out until I settled on Bagwell playing every day and Andres picking splinters out of his pants.

5822 PA (not too much wasted). .277/.378/.492. This team will walk a lot. I have no ideal leadoff hitter. The team speed is OK. There's power in 7 lineup spots, which isn't bad. The two platoons work out pretty well PA wise.
1615 IP (about 1100 I actually like), but still nice totals of 2.69 ERA, .228 OAV and 1.09 WHIP even with 500 sucky innings.

Did the draft-last strategy work? Well, I never thought once of taking someone who moved me up, so I just let the picks come to me when they did and saved as much as I could to get a few premium teammates. I've got two ace SP at $11M+ each, two excellent RP, and some strong offense from Bagwell and Utley. I feel basically all of those guys are better than anyone I could have drafted, so I like the way I used the teammates. We'll see if it's good enough.

PS: One of my goals was to be able to spell Buehrle correctly by the end of this draft. Hopefully that failure is the worst I can say about this experience.

This is the second time I am writing this up. I am a pc guy but got this IPad for Xmas and still learning how to use it. Thus on the last line I lost it. Please excuse the bad highlighting .The end result of this draft I am using 10 nominated players and 9 teammates. The 6 waste players cost me 11.4 million. Usable batters cost 46.3 and pitching 42.3. My batting line is 5648 pas, .301 ba, .389 bop, .489 slug. My pitching line for usable is 1354, 2.82 era, .212 oav, and 1.07 whip.

nomination (1986 Roger Clemens)
At 9.30pm twenty minutes before the. Deadline I was going to switch from Clemens to Smoltz because there way too many good seasons for Clemens. But I decided that was to rude to be a horses patoot at that point. Besides Clemens would bring along Boggs and Rice (who I didn’t use).

Round 1 (1974 Gaylord Perry)
In my mind this was the last good season of Perry and it would give me the first pick next round.

Round 2 (1986 Knepper)
My third and 4th starters (teammate Nolan Ryan). In addition I am using Dave Smith as one of my 3 teammate relievers. Still number 1 for next round.

Round 3 (2013 Freddie Garcia)
Time to start saving salary cap room. Cheap Garcia here.

Round 4 (2009 Andy Petite)
Wow this draft pick made my draft. No less than 5 potential teammates on this roster at an affordable salary. It gave me ultimate flexibility depending upon who I would get stuck with in the next rounds. Jeter (who I did use), Cano(who I did use), Mariano (who I did use),Posada (who I didn't), and Teixera(who I didn't use). Petite was a waste but was worth it.

Round 5 (2007 Barry Bonds)
Time to address the Bonds quandry. My outfield strategy at this point was to use the 3 nominated outfielders for two spots and Rice for the third spot. I didn't want a 7 million dollar Bonds so I went for one with 470 pas. 2007 also had a .480 obp. Still had flexibility for Manny and Lynn.

Round 6,7, 8 were for the cheapest Offerman, Uribe, and Caminiti

Just trying to create as much cap space as possible. But I did drop like a rock to 11th draft position. But I still had the flexibility created by the Petite pick.

Round 9 (2007 Manny Ramirez)
Time for another OF. Manny had a usable 569 pas. And he brought another reliever Hideki Okajima. I wanted to use Papellbom but I couldn't fit him in.

Round 10 (2013 Mark Buerhle)
My final waste player.

Round 11 (1976 Steve Braun)
The run on cheap Braun was this round and had ended just before my pick. So I pivoted. Instead of using Rice as my third outfielder, I would use an expensive Braun as one of my 4 OFs with 512 abs. Getting a usable Lynn in upcoming round would make it doable. Also Butch Wynegar's 622 ab at catcher came with this pick. Now i could take the cheap Porter if he was still available. By not using Rice I had an additional teammate.

Round 12 (2000 Andres Gallaraga)
This solved my 1st base opening. With his teammate Joyner I had two decent hitting players.

Round13 (1971 Darrel Porter)
I got that cheap version I was hoping for. The Sim Gods were with me.

Round 14 (1985 Fred Lynn)
Praise to the sim Gods. It must have been good karma because I gave the owners a good pitcher in Clemens. Lynn fit my criteria. I now have 2085 usable pas in my outfield.

Round 15 (1970 Rollie Fingers)
A decent 148 innings at this cap level.

My Starting Pitchers
86 Clemens 256 IP 1.96 ERC#
74 Perry 323 IP 2.27 ERC#
86 Knepper 258 IP 2.87 ERC#
86 Ryan 178 IP 2.54 ERC#

Bullpen
09 Riviera 66 IP 1.78 ERC#
86 Smith 56 IP 2.53 ERC#
07 Okajima 69 IP 1.87 ERC#
70 Fingers 148 IP 3.42 ERC#

Lineup
SS 09 Jeter 716 PAs .334/.406/.465 A/D
3b 86 Boggs 698 PAs .357/.453/.486 B/C
2b 09 Cano 674 PAs .320/.352/.520 B/B+
OF 07 Bonds 477 PAs .276/.480/.565 C/D-
OF 07 Ramirez 569 PAs .298/.388/.493 B+/D-
1b 00 Galarraga 548 PAs .302/.369/.526 C-/D-
OF 85 Lynn 512 PAs .263/.339/.449 A/A-
C 76 Wynnegar 622 PAs .260/.356/.363 C/B/A-

Subs
C 71 Porter 81 PAs .214/.300/.329/ C-/B-/A+
1b 00 Joyner 260 PAs .281/.365/.402 B-/D-
OF 76 Braun 491 PAs ..288/.384/.353 C/C-

Overall view at the beginning: One thing I know is that I'm about as adept at writing about my draft as I am at drafting. Not very good. It would help if I kept notes as the draft unfolded.
I always break these leagues down into Catcher, Infielders, Outfielders and Pitchers. Looking at Catcher I figured Porter only provided 3 viable options 77, 78 and 83. If I didn't get one of those I needed to get the cheap 72 version and then hunt for a catcher teammate. I put too much emphasis on the cheapest version instead of just getting ONE of the cheapest versions. The Middle Infielders would be a problem as Offerman and Uribe were either crappy defensively or offensively.... Very few usable good options. I figured in these leagues there are always enough Outfielders that can be chosen as teammates if the ones nominated aren't any good. This time, Lynn, Bonds and Ramirez would easily fill those spots without a whole lot of trouble. I just needed to be ready to grab 'em when the time was right. The Pitchers presented a major problem with many mildly expensive but crappy seasons. I didn't help matters any with my nomination. So, I figured my priorities were to find teammates for the middle of the infield, bullpen and 1 or 2 Starting Pitchers.

Nominated Player
81 Bob Knepper - Astros = 231IP .226-OAV 1.06-WHIP .29HR/9 Starter #2
Knepper wasn't overly expensive so I figured he might be a good choice at a $100M Cap. Honestly I don't remember the last time I used him and what Cap level it was at but I remember it being decent, so I'm guessing he'll suck in this league like most of my choices. He did however provide some crap seasons for the rest of you so I figured what the hell. I thought about changing my choice as time was winding down thinking a better pitcher with some more expensive seasons would really give the rest of you a bigger migrane but didn't have the time to look so I just stayed with Knepp. Nolan Ryan, Joe Sambito, (Dave Smith 111IP .198OAV 1.03WHIP .24HR/9) would make good additions to the roster as well if I could fit them in at the end. Only Smith made it.

R1
00 Mark Buehrle - White Sox = Mopup
I really hated making this pick almost as much as I hate Buerhle. I loathe the WhiteSox and Buehrle makes me want to hurl-y. Seriously how can a guy who threw an 88MPH fastball last as long as he did in the major leagues. My son was throwing 90 in high school and some kids were hitting him. I really wanted to take someone good here but felt the pressure of the Salary Cap and knowing there were a lot of other pitchers that didn't have good seasons, Garcia, Perry, Pettitte, knowing I would end up with a couple of those, I figured saving some cash early on a Hurl-y would help me later. I figured Charles Johnson could come along at catcher if needed but he wasn't my overall choice to be my catcher. red, No problem spelling hurl-y!

R2
10 Andy Pettitte - Yankees = 129IP .257OAV 1.27WHIP .91HR/9 Long B or Setup B
This was a repeat thought process of my Round 1 pick, save cash, but it came with a small amount of gratification in that this version of Pettitte might be good enough in this league to be a Long B or Setup B guy and more importantly I was able to grab my closer in (Mariano Rivera 60IP .183OAV .83WHIP .30HR/9). I also added (Eduardo Nunez) to the bench to steal a few bases. $8.8M Robinson Cano looked good too but I went another direction that I will probably regret.

R3
97 Roger Clemens - Blue Jays = 264IP .213OAV 1.03WHIP .31HR/9 Starter #1
At this point 7 versions of Clemens have gone bye bye. Everyone that I had on my board was gone and I felt this was the only one left that was worthwhile. It was more than I wanted to spend here but it was either that or get another crappy version of another pitcher. No teammates were considered here.

R4
91 Barry Bonds - Pirates = 634PA 25HR .292BA .410OBP .514SLG A-/B-
Time to start taking some hitters. I didn't want to spend a lot here but also wanted a decent version while saving the bank. No teammates taken here but in the back of my mind Slaught and LaValliere could be platoon catchers.

R5
14 Juan Uribe - Dodgers = 404PA .311BA .337OBP A/A-
Seems like this guy makes it onto 16x16 leagues all the time. I took this version cause he can hit and play defense even though it only comes with 400 PA's. Plan was to also try to roster Kershaw but that didn't happen. I started to think like Cuda and say F the pitching and go for offense.

R6
78 Fred Lynn - Red Sox = 624PA 22HR .298BA 380OBP B/A-
The 78 version was the one I was looking at here from the beginning and I felt I waited long enough. My plan was also to add Carlton Fisk if I needed a catcher and actually hoped to make that happen but Alice changed my plans in Round 7.

R7
96 Jose Offerman - Royals = 650PA .303BA .384OBP A/D-@2B
This was a WTF pick. I really didn't want him playing 2B and getting this version he plays a respectable 1B. I currently have him in another league and he's hitting .204 with a .289 OBP so he should fit right in with all of my mistake picks. My only other choice was the 93 version which would have given me the option to get Piazza behind the plate. When I drafted him I was planning on playing him at 1b but I decided to go the wrong direction and draft a 1B teammate forcing him to play 2B where his D- range will work nicely for the rest of you.

R8
78 Darrell Porter - Royals = 602PA 18HR .265BA 358OBP B/C/A
As you can probably tell by now I obsess myself with Catcher too much. I feel that this was a mistake pick now. Alice took 72 Porter in round 7 and screwed up my plans to take the cheapest version and field Fisk so I decided to get the best remaining Porter and go with him. Looking back I probably could have waited at least 2 more rounds to make this pick or just go with a different version and field another catcher available as an earlier teammate.

R9
05 Freddy Garcia - White Sox = 228IP .259OAV 1.25WHIP 1.03HR/9 yuck Starter #3
Ok I sat on this guy long enough. This version is usable if you're playing horseshoes and hand-grenades. Wow, I can't believe he'll be my #3 starter. The only good thing (cough cough) to come from this pick is (Paul Konerko 664PA 40HR .283BA .375OBP A/A) at 1B. Yuck, another WhiteSox.

R10
80 Steve Braun - Royals = Bench Scrub
Strickly a cash saving pick here. I did end up rostering a good pinch-hitting (Jose Cardenal) as a teammate.

R11
08 Manny Ramirez - Dodgers = 654PA 37HR .332 BA .430OBP .601SLG B/D-
Time to get some help for the pen. His 2008 version is solid enough for leftfield and I added (Hong-Chih Kuo 80IP .204OAV 1.01WHIP .45HR/9) and (Cory Wade 71IP .202OAV .93WHIP .88HR/9). Besides schwarze took the 03 version in R10 which I had hoped for. Waited 1 round too long as usual. Bye bye Pedro and Nomar.

R12
01 Andres Galaragga - Rangers = Bench
At this point I'm just trying to save money. He's the cheapest option left. Not planning on it at the time I take him, I end up with (Alex Rodriguez 732PA 52HR .318BA .399OBP .622SLG B+/B) for SS and backup catcher (Bill Haselman Bench).

R13
80 Rollie Fingers - Padres = 103IP .263OAV 1.29WHIP .26HR/9
The best option left. I waited too long to make this pick. Wish I would have taken one of the 6 decent Fingers that went between R8 and Round 13 in Round 8 and waited to make my Porter pick.

R14
91 Ken Caminiti - Astros = Bench
Sometimes players get lost or pushed to the bottom of the pile. Seemed like every time I was ready to take him someone pushed me with their pick of another player to make me change my mind on taking Caminiti. I knew I had 400 PA's at 3B with Uribe so getting pushed to the bottom of the pile seemed to make sense at the time. He'll play some 3B but only when he has to.

R15
82 Gaylord Perry - Mariners = 217IP .287OAV 1.38WHIP 1.12 HR/9 Starter #4
This turned out to be, take the best or cheapest version left pick. I seriously tried to make the better 73 version work but couldn't fit him in. He'll be my#4 starter and it'll be ugly. I hope my defense is playing well and MY hitters are crushing it on the days he is pitching.

Hitting: .291BA .373OBP .486SLG $54M
Pitching: .240 OAV 1.16WHIP .65HR/9 $45M
Fielding: B/B+

Afterthought:
I feel like I didn't do very well in this draft. I usually try for really good pitchers and this team will be so far from that I won't recognize it as one of my teams. My defense is pretty good outside of Offerman's D- range at 2B and Manny's D- range in LF. We'll see how much it helps my pitchers. I would have really liked to roster Nolan Ryan $9M and Kershaw $10M but with a small amount of good seasons for C, 2B and SS this time I used the money there. Sure I could have fielded cheap versions at 2B and SS but those guys would have sucked defensively and been a lot less productive offensively which would have allowed me to roster Ryan or Kershaw or both. In the end I had to put Offerman at 2B because I couldn't get Cano in under the Cap and also roster Konerko at 1B. Cano at $8.8M verses Konerko at $6.3M forced my hand there. I'm sure everyone made sacrifices. It would really be interesting to play this Theme with exactly the same players at $120M and see how much differently the draft would unfold.

Nominated: Jose Awfulman… figured there would be some very bad defensive innings for people if he played and wasted $ if he didn’t. Plus as a Yankee fan in NH I loved watching him dive on the ground to miss the ball when he was with Boston. I originally chose Awfulman’s 2002 season because he was cheap and had some good teammates, looking specifically at Pedro and Lowe. When Pedro was nominated I looked at his other seasons and saw the 2005 season with usable teammates at C, SS, 3B, OF, starter and reliever. Missed the whole most money spent picked first thing… but stayed with it anyways. Ended up rostering Reyes, Wright, Pedro and Padilla while Piazza and Beltran didn’t make the final cut.

Pre-Draft Plan: I decided that there would be a ton of bad pitching out there given the nominated players. If I used what I could get in the draft, even if it were bad, I could build a good offense that could also help my pitching out with some good gloves. That would mean drafting pitching early and aiming for hitters who were either good or cheap. I also decided that my last two picks were going to be Bonds and Manny because there were more than enough seasons of each for my plan. I didn’t even look at them until there were only two picks left…

Round 1: Watching pitchers come off the board made me want to cry a little and swear a lot. When it finally reached me I took 04 Garcia because so many of the other seasons sucked and I needed some of those starters to come out of the bullpen. He also gave me two gold glove caliber OF in Ichero and Winn. My lead off batter should get on at a decent rate, help with his glove and play every day… and cost a pretty penny. Plus I moved all the way up to position 15!

Round 2: Missed out on a bunch more pitchers I wanted. Swore some more and grabbed another bullpen starter. 02 Pettitte. Solid start to a boring bullpen. Looked at Williams (possibility of switch hitters all over my line up) and the greatest closer of all time but in the end decided only to add Posada.

Round 3: I was excited that the Perry I really wanted was still there. No idea why no one had picked it… until I did and was reminded that it was not eligible. Yup, more swearing. Lots of it. Took the 78 Perry because now, instead of one I wanted to start, he was the best I could stomach… He brought along 35 IP of Lolich and his 1.56 ERA.

Round 4: I hate Clemens. He always rubbed me the wrong way. I was ****** when the Yankees got him. He was my least favorite Yankee until they resigned A-Rod after the opt out. Unfortunately I needed one who could start. I was happy to take 87 Clemens so at least it wasn’t a Yankee year. Looked at Evans and Rice but neither made the cut.

Round 5: I move up the draft! Pick 12! Lots of good Fingers left and were there ever any good Buehrles? I was happy with my two choices for starting catcher through teammates and the 86 Porter would take up the rest of the AB’s with no drop off at the plate and better D. I had him targeted from the start and was shocked to actually have it work out. Given that he will probably suck for me… but I can hope. Could have brought along Smith, but didn’t.

Round 6: Things seemed to be working out well (assuming my plan was good). Lots of people taking good but expensive seasons left the cheap seasons out there. Let's get back to the bottom of the draft with 88 Caminitti who can sit at the end of the bench and help keep the book.

Round 7: With Beltran, Winn, B. Williams and Ichero all available to me I took 88 Lynn. 98 AB’s of defensive replacement and occasional 8 hitter if necessary. No teammates.

Round 8: Returned to my space picking 15th again. Stayed there the rest of the draft. Spent a little money to get what would either be a super sub with very good d at second, short and of or platoon at one of the three with 03 Uribe. There were some good teammates with him, but I always liked Helton and he covered the whole good d and bat thing I was looking for.

Round 9: I had been watching the remaining pitchers closely and saw some of them go off the board. The 73 Fingers was in my mind the best one left. He had Reggie with him, but the one time I met him he was kind of a donkey so I left him out of my plans.

Round 10: Saving Manny and Bonds till last meant I had at least a platoon OF spot covered if not more. So I kept adding cheap hitters in the draft. 83 Braun won’t embarrass himself at the plate or the field when he plays. Good bench player. Could have brought along Smith (second option for him). For a stretch I thought I might play him at 2B… in the end I put Herr on the team to complete a platoon with Uribe.

Round 11 and 12: I am going to have to use both pitchers left and the not completely vomit worthy options are running out… so 83 Knepper (Really wanted Thorn but in the end left him off the roster) and 11 Mark (seriously, why even try to spell that name)

Round 13: 02 Galaraga was the cheapest option left. He will platoon with Bonds and force Helton to man Left Field against Lefties… he should do ok.

Round 14: I decided here that I wouldn’t be able to roster the 11M Bonds. I thought long and hard about doing it. That left the best option the 99 Bonds as a stud platoon bat. This would allow me good options with many of the remaining Manny seasons, either as a platoon or most every day starter.

Round 15: Had to wait on Redcped to pick his Manny in round 14. I was either going with 00 Ramirez and it’s very good, slightly short of a full season bat or the best remaining 300+ AB to complete a platoon with Bonds. I think I like the way it ended up. Then again the season hasn’t started.

End result: More IP than I wanted, so I jumped into a slight hitters park and hope for the best.

5280 AB, .303 Average, .875 OPS with good D

1610 IP, 2.91 ERA, 1.19 WHIP

The 16x16 draft has frequently been called "the Best Draft Ever". For good reason.

My first instinct is to channel my inner Brickyard and nominate a player that would be usable for me but dead weight for most others. This version is the first time using the "highest cumulative salary picks first each round" is a game-changer for me. So is the modest $100 salary cap. As more and more pitching nominees were starters with high innings as well as WHIPS, I started playing with options that would help me get a head start on developing a bullpen.

Nominee - I stumbled onto Freddy Garcia who had just a few really cheap seasons to go with several so-so 200+ IP ones. 2001 Mariners gives me a usable starter at this cap given there will be unavoidable wasted salary and llots of teammate options (Ichiro, Boone, 4 RPs). Most importantly, however, anyone who knows me must know that I could not resist trying a team to be named "Compliments of Garcia".

Round 1 - 1999 Offerman - Keeping teammate options open is always a goal and so is finding nominated players that can actually be used. This Offerman has 693 PA as a 2B, is a switch hitter, has an OBP of .391 and only costs $4.625 million. All decent stand-alone qualities. Of course, he also has some choice teammates - Pedro, Nomar, RP Lowe and others worth considering like Garces.

Round 2 - 2007 Pettitte - This is a player that I had nomintated once before at a higher cap and really wish I would have remembered because he is perfect at this cap. Even in the second round I felt the need to bite the bullet. There were already 4 other versions off the board and I could have gone cheaper but the Posada teammate is maybe the best teammate catcher option available. Not to mention the strong 3b ARod option. However in the final analysis, 2007 Yankees must not have been on anyone elses radar or the $2mm Clemens version would not have been overlooked altogether.

Round 3 - 1983 Perry (cheap KC partial) - After already choosing to roster a crappy Pettitte early, I did not want to make a commitment to the remaining Perrys. I also liked the value option of Quisenberry.

Round 4 - 2004 Clemens - A pretty usable version that also offered a strong yet affordable Berkman that plays both OF and 1b

Round 5 - 2002 Manny - It was becoming unlikely that neither 1999 Pedro or Nomar would be affordable. 2002 Manny is a hitting stud and defensive liability but gave me options on less expensive versions of both Pedro and Nomar and a great SP option in Lowe.

Round 6 - 1996 Bonds - I really wanted a full time Bonds in the 7-8 million dollar range and was happy to take 1996 here. I could have gone a little cheaper but this version catapulted me over schwarze (by 40k) and everyone else for first pick in Round 7 I wasn't looking at teammates (certainly not pitching) but Matt Williams and Bill Mueller could be prospects to be part time improvements over whoever I would up with at 3b.

Round 7 - 1987 Porter - Since I already had the Posada option, a cheap Porter backup was essential. This one happens to be his 2nd best OBP year as well not that that is any big deal. On the other hand, this pick will certainly cost me a few draft positions but worth it.

Round 8 - 1993 Galarraga - I was counting on getting a usable Galarraga but did not expect to get his .370 BA year this late. Very happy.

Round 9 - 1984 Fingers - Another cost savings options. Usable short innings version with a Ray Searage option to add to the potential RP mix

Round 10 - 1988 Lynn - Baltimore partial. I already had Manny, Bonds and Berkman so I was hoping to get a cheap Lynn and did not hesitate to grab this version at this point. From a teammate perspective, it was a pretty good year for Ripken and offered an option on another short innings SIM favorite.

Round 11 - 1978 Braun (cheap KC partial). I would have like to have been able to pick up one of his early Minnesota years where he played 3b and had some pretty nice years with Rod Carew. However, at this stage of the draft I was going to be saddled with some version of both Caminiti and Uribe to absorb my 3b salary allotment.

Round 12 - 2008 Uribe - At this point I was in full damage control mode. Cheapest version left by about $1mm. Not unhappy to have 350 PA of a strong defensive player here but that isn't saying much

Round 13 - 1990 Caminiti - Another pick where I saved $1mm over the only other available option.

Round 14 - 2003 Buehrle - Another cost conscious choice but savings are down to only about $500k

Round 15 - 1985 Knepper - The last version available for good reason.

Final Roster:

C- 2007 Posada and 1987 Porter
1b - 1993 Galarraga
2b - 1999 Offerman
3b - 2008 Uribe, 1990 Caminiti and 1996 Mueller (330 BA switch hitter but only 228 PA)
SS - 2002 Nomar
OF - 2002 Manny
OF - 1996 Bonds
OF - 2004 Berkman (will play 1b also)
OF - 1988 Lynn, 1978 Braun

SP - 2001 Garcia, 2004 Clemens, 2003 Buehrle, 1985 Knepper and 2007 Pettitte - did not get even one teammate SP in
RP - 1983 Quisenberry, 2001 Pineiro, 2001 Rhodes, 1984 Fingers, 1984 Searage
Special starter options to be used only against schwarze - 1983 Perry or 1988 Milacki

Compliments of Garcia has to be playing in Candlestick

However in the final analysis, 2007 Yankees must not have been on anyone elses radar or the $2mm Clemens version would not have been overlooked altogether.

I had my eye on the 2007 Clemens for much of the draft. If I had known that he'd be available at the end I probably would've drafted a $7M Bonds instead of $10M, drafted a cheaper Porter, and used '07 Posada. The issue for me was that there were enough palatable Clemens seasons available that I could never pull the trigger on one early, and I didn't want to risk not getting him at the end and messing up my strategy.

i think i will claim a draft win simply for being named by both schwarze and redcped for making picks that had an impact on their drafts... no matter how small

Only 7 commented here Was hoping for a few more.