Doing a post-draft write-up has been popular with other themes, so I figured I write up my thoughts, strategies, etc., with the selection of the teams I took in the various leagues and why.
I will start by mentioning what went into picking the leagues I picked to draft first in. I had 5 teams in the top 20 from round 1 (a sixth team just missed, ranking 21st on the tie-breaker). I started scouting the various franchises by era, using the 5-year winning% as a starting point. There were a number if leagues I wanted the first pick in. These leagues and teams I wanted are listed below (their 5-year winning% in parentheses)
1N (1901-05 Pirates, .645)
2A (1926-30 Yankees, .618)
3N (1941-45 Cardinals, .661)
3A (1936-40 Yankees, .651)
4N (1951-55 Dodgers, .633)
5A (1969-72 Orioles, .626)
6A (1977-80 Yankees, .606)
7N (1985-88 Cardinals, .543)
8N (1996-98 Braves, .623)
10A (2018-19 Astros, 648)
I had picks 1, 3, 4, 6, 14. So I would be able to get 5 of these teams. So how do I rank these teams? It was unlikely I would get any of these teams with a 2nd or 3rd pick.
The teams I wanted the most included 1901-05 PIT, 1926-30 NYY, 1936-40 NYY, 1941-45 STL, 1951-55 BRK and 1969-72 BAL. I originally had 36-40 NYY ranked first, but I noticed that njbigwig had the #2 pick and he had a really good round 1 record with a deadball team, so I put league 1N first and 3A (36-40 NYY) second. Wouldn't you know it, njbigwig took 36-40 NYY. With my 3-4 selection, I got 51-55 BRK and 69-72 BAL. But then contrarian23 grabbed 26-30 NYY with pick #5. So I got 41-45 STL with pick #6. Then with pick 14, I accidentally listed 4A instead of 6A. Luckily, I was able to trade picks with ybjsports, so I got 77-80 NYY in league 6A with my fifth #1 pick. Not surprisingly, the other teams I had listed above all went with the #1 pick in their respective leagues.
I will go over each team, in order of era.
League 1N (pick #1) - 1901-05 Pirates (+ Braves)
Even though I won 102 games with 1905-06 Cubs, I think the 1906-10 version will not be as strong. The round 1 team was helped by free agent Honus Wagner's 140 RBIs. I knew I wouldn't get an offensive stud that good, so I went with the Pirates team. Their only offensive weakness is at 1B and I was able to add Fred Tenney (.409 obp) from the Braves.
League 2A (pick #3) - 1921-25 New York Yankees (+ Athletics)
Of course, my first two choices (26-30 NYY and 16-20 CHI) were taken. I didn't really have a strong preference at this point and would've been fine with a number of teams, including 16-20 Indians and 16-20 Red Sox, which went 8th and 9th. I went with the Yankees just to get Ruth's stud '23 season. It will be fun playing around with my first basemen... Wally Pipp (.329/.392/.466) and some rookie name Gehrig (.295/.365/.531). Amazingly, I was able to add free agent Al Simmons (.387/419.599) to the mix.
League 3A (pick #11) - 1941-45 Cleveland Indians (+ Senators)
I was really hoping for a top 3 pick in league 3A (in order to get one of those dominant Yankees teams). Of course, this was the worst pick out of my 13 teams (I really wish we had a say in where we drafted, after round 1). The one advantage of picking late is that I can pick two teams at once, and find the right roster fit. I didn't want any of the remaining 1936-40 teams... the pitching is horrendous. So I went with the 1941-45 Indians/Senators combo. Steve Gromek (9th) and free agent Roger Wolf (2nd) are two top 10 AL starting pitchers. The goal with this team: win enough games to make round 3.
League 3N (pick #1) - 1941-45 St. Louis Cardinals (+ Braves)
I thought this Cardinals team is one of the top choices across all the eras. The only thing that gave me pause was my poor performance by my 42-43 Cardinals in round one (only 83-79). This team is so stacked. There are very few weaknesses. I didn't need any pitching help. The Braves were the team I was stuck with at the end and they actually provided 3 helpful players... Tommy Holmes (.352/.420/.577) is an upgrade in the OF. Ernie Lombardi (.330/.403/.482) will use all of his 380 PA's at cacther. And 2B Connie Ryan is slightly better than Creepy Crespi (one of the best nicknames ever). I would love to hear the story of why they call him "Creepy".
League 4A (pick #3) - 1946-50 Boston Red Sox (+ Athletics)
I didn't mean to pick league 4A for one of my top picks. I was at my son's wedding when I got the sitemail from thejuice and didn't want to hold things up. I meant to list 6A. Thanks to ybjsports for swapping picks with me. He moved up from #3 to #1 in 4A. I moved up from #4 to #1 in 6A. I did look at picking a team in this theme before offering the trade. I strongly considered the two Indians teams (that went #1 & #2) and the three Yankees teams. I almost went with the 56-60 Yankees for the big Mantle season but the 56-60 Athletics (the likely free agent team) had no useful players. So I wanted a team in one of the other two divisions so I could pick 3rd in the free agent selection. I liked the offense the Red Sox provided. No weaknesses anywhere plus a stud in Ted Williams. The Athletics gave me a $7M pinch hitter and defensive replacement in Eddie Joost (.429 obp B/A fielding). Vern Stephens is the starting SS. The A's did provide two useful big-inning relief pitchers (Nels Potter, Jesse Flores)... essentially the two best pitchers now on my roster, outside of Tex Hughson.
League 4B (pick #1) - 1951-55 Brooklyn Dodgers (+ Pirates)
One of the teams I targeted from the onset. Fantastic hitting and the pitching is reasonably good for that era. Just look how well these early 50's Dodgers teams did in round 1. My 52-53 team won 91 games. The 54-55 Dodgers won 99 games. The 51-52 Dodgers team won 96 games. I really liked my team before I found out that the Pirates fell to me. Now we add Ralph Kiner (.309/.452/.627) to the offense. Oh and Bob Friend gives me 211 innings of 1.15 whip.
League 5A (pick #1) - 1969-72 Baltimore Orioles (+ Indians)
I've always liked playing the 69 Orioles teams in these type of themes. My round 1 team (68-69 O's won 102 games). I lose 68 McNally from that team, but was thrilled when I could add '72 Gaylord Perry. Of course, their bullpen is great and their defense is top notch. I was even able to improve their defense with 71 Nettles (A/A+) and 70 Fosse (55% CS%), thanks to the free agent Indians. I expect this team to lead all teams in fewest runs allowed.
League 5B (pick #11) - 1961-64 Milwaukee Braves (+ Cubs)
I initially was not in this league. My brother (ff09) is a big Oakland A's fan. I drew #2 pick in league 7A and drafted what I thought was the best team available, the 1989-92 A's with Henderson, McGwire, Canseco, Eckerlsey. When ff09's pick came up in 5B, I offered to swap him my A's team for his spot in this league. I really don't know how good this team will do, but I do like a lot of the players on this roster. Picking late, I could structure my two picks so I could maximize the roster. Torre, Adcock, Mathews, Carty, Aaron is a pretty good starting point for my offense. The Cubs give me two very strong starting pitchers in Ellsworth and L.Jackson. I chose Ron Santo over Billy Williams. Either Santo or Mathews will play out of position, at 1B.
League 6A (pick #1) - 1977-80 New York Yankees (+ Twins)
Again, thanks to ybjsports for the trade. Although had I picked 6A, I think he probably would have picked 4A and we'd end up at the same place. Other than '78 Guidry, there really aren't any studs on this team, but the roster is solid up and down the lineup with few weaknesses. And those weaknesses are now covered when the perfect free agent team landed in my lap. Weak at 1B? Let's add Rod Carew (.388/.449/.570). Weak at SS, how about Roy Smalley (.362 obp, B/A-). Although the Twins don't have any useful starters, I was very happy to roster 138 IPs of 1.06 whip (Doug Corbett). One other thing... the Yankees have a plethora of pinch-hitter / DH types of players with Gamble (.609 slug), C.Johnson (.584 slug), J.Spencer (.593 slug).
League 7N (pick #5) - 1985-88 Los Angeles Dodgers (+ Reds)
Of all my franchise selection decisions, this was the one that gave me the most difficulty. As I researched my options, I was regretting not picking the League 7N (1985-88 Cardinals) with one of my top 4 picks. You'd think that a team that won 107 games for me in round 1 (84-85 StL) would warrant a top 4 pick. But that team was able to add '85 Hershiser who finished 21-5 with a 2.58 ERA (2nd in league behind Tudor). Also, I would lose '84 Andujar (19-12), who was very good as well. So I downgraded the Cardinals a bit. But after reviewing the other choices, it was clear that the Cardinals are still the class of this era. Anyway, I was taking a long time to decide which team to take... finally deciding to offer a trade with thejuice6 to move down a few spots (from #3 to #5) to give me more time to think about it. Before making the trade, the teams I was looking at were 89-92 Pirates, 85-88 Mets and the 85-88 Dodgers. I didn't even care which division I moved up in with the trade to thejuice6 (turned out to be 8A). Anyway, thejuice6 took the 89-92 Pirates and harrelson took the 85-88 Mets... Well, at least I didn't have to waste anymore time deciding which team to take. The move down allowed me to pick one spot earler in the free agent draft, but it turns out it didn't really matter. I needed to upgrade at SS, OF and 1B/OF. The Padres have Kruk, Templeton & Gwynn. Very solid... would be thrilled to have them. But somehow, the Reds (3rd best team from that era) were still on the board. They have Larkin, E.Davis, D.Parker and SP D.Jackson. I grabbed them and added the three hitters (the Dodgers are very strong at pitching so I didn't need Danny Jackson). I feel better about this team now.
League 8A (pick #6) - 2002-04 New York Yankees (+ Blue Jays)
So with that trade with thejuice6, I moved from pick#8 to pick#6. But I honestly didn't even research this era before making the trade. So I had no idea what team I wanted or what my strategy was going to be here. I probably grabbed the Yankees here because of their strong hitting. Posada, Giambi, Soriano, A-Rod, Jeter, B.Williams, Sheffield, Matsui - that's 255 HRs among 8 players. Because the 02-04 Red Sox and 02-04 A's were already taken, I knew I'd get the 2nd pick of free agent teams. And I was glad to add my SP#1, Roy Halladay. With that offense, Halladay should win 20-25 games without much of a sweat. Oh, and since I didn't have enough offense already, we added another hitter - Carlos Delgado (.302/.426/.593).
League 9A (pick #7) - 2008-10 New York Yankees (+ Angels)
This was an interesting decision for me. First, I feel like I have too many Yankees teams. I could have even had two more (I passed on 56-60 Yankees and also strongly considered 61-64 Yankees over the 69-72 Orioles). Anyway, when my pick came up here, I was very very close to grabbing the fourth team from 2011-13 --> Tampa Bay Rays and adding Trout, Weaver & Haren from the Angels (a great trio). That would have given me 4 of the top 10 starting pitchers in this era. In fact, including all those great TB relievers, I would have had 1400+ innings of 1.02 whip. But outside of Trout and maybe Zobrist, the rest of the TB offense was abysmal. I just couldn't pull the trigger. Congrats to thebubbaq who ended up with that 2011-13 Angels as his free agent team. Anyway, the 2008-10 Yankees was so much better offensively than the 2011-13 Yankees (who I also considered), I had to grab my fourth Yankees team. Posada, Teixeira, Cano, A-Rod, Jeter, Swisher, Abreu, Damon. The Angels team I added gave me two top 12 pitchers in Santana & Weaver. Chone Figgins (.395 obp, A-/B+) will man the hot corner, moving A-Rod to DH.
League 10A (pick #5) - 2018-19 Boston Red Sox (+ Athletics)
Having only two years to build a team makes it really tough since there are very few 200 inning pitchers, and hardly anybody plays full time. I may not have enough IPs (1388) on this roster. I went with Boston because they had two of the top full-time hitters in this era (Mookie Betts & JD Martinez). I was able to add a third stud hitter with SS Marcus Semien (.285, .369, .522, A/A) from the A's (moving Bogaerts to DH). The pitching isn't Astros quality, but it's not awful. I have to use a 6-man rotation though. Here is the IP count of my six SP... 203, 191, 176, 161, 158, 111. The Athletics gave me two pitchers... Sean Menaea (161 ip, 1.08 whip) and Blake Treinen (80 Ip, 0.83 whip). Like the 85-88 Cardinals, I regret not using a top 4 pick on the 2018-19 Astros. Their starting pitching is stupidly good. Hoping this team can go .500
Thanks again to thejuice6 for putting on this tournament. Looking forward to see how round 2 plays out and what round 3 has in store for us.
6/15/2020 9:53 AM (edited)