This thread will be used to document our thoughts during the recent 16x16 draft.

Key: Blue = Usable Drafted Player. Green = Rostered Teammate. Red = Wasted Salary.

Initial Nomination – 1897 Bill Hutchison
When I came up with the rules for this version, I did not do any prior research. In fact, I didn’t even start to look at players until the morning after I had posted the thread. Waiting that long put me into the A.L. as there were already 9 players nominated before I submitted my nomination.
Now I’m not normally the person who nominates a salary-cap albatross like Hutchison, but there was still one pitcher spot left and I was afraid somebody else might stumble across him, and I certainly didn’t want to get stuck with one of his uber-expensive worthless seasons. I didn’t even consider teammate options, but once the draft started, I did discover a very usable Klondike Douglass catching season (727 pa, .313 avg# / .390 obp# / .403 slg#) which I planned on using until the very end.

Round 1 – 1914 Claude Hendrix
My early strategy was to get the best usable stud pitchers I could early, then grab at least three usable starting position players, allowing me to use 6 teammate spots on hitting and 3 on pitching. My hope was to not have to use any of the really bad pitchers (Breitenstein, Cain, Doheny, Hutchison, McDowell). So right from the start, I was eyeing both ’09 Overall and ’14 Hendrix. Either player would drop me down to the bottom of the draft, but I didn’t care. I went with 1914 Claude Hendrix (381 ip, 1.72 erc#) because Overall had more usable options. Hendrix also brings along a solid pitching teammate... Rankin Johnson (127 ip, 2.10 erc#). I ended up not using Johnson.

Round 2- 1997 Jack McDowell
It was not surprising when ’09 Overall went on the pick after my Hendrix pick. I am now targeting 1907 Overall, but with all the cheap versions of the sucky pitchers going quickly, I needed to make sure I got one of those cheap versions. Since I really didn’t want to use a $6 million mediocre McDowell season, the $679K version seemed like the obvious choice here. No teammates were used here although there were some decent options (i.e., Thome, M.Ramirez).

Round 3 – 1907 Orval Overall
I can’t believe he made it to me at the end of round 3. This turned out to be the most important pick of the draft for me. Not only is ’07 Overall very good (286 ip, 2.27 erc#) compared to the other draftable pitchers, but I am using 3 of his teammates. Jack Pfeister (208 ip, 2.09 erc#), Mordecai Brown (249 ip, 2.11 erc#) and Carl Lundgren (221 ip, 2.20 erc#). When I made this pick, I didn’t really expect to be able to roster all three teammates but the way the end of the draft played out, I was able to modify the roster to make him fit. So my roster has exactly FIVE usable pitchers... Hendrix and these four 1907 Cubs. These five pitchers cumulative stats: 1345 ip, 2.05 erc#. When these pitchers don’t pitch, it will be very ugly. I'm basically going to be throwing 10-12 games when I let the Breitenstein, Cain or Doheny start.

Round 4 – 1886 Tip O’Neill
After mapping out the rest of my potential roster, I figured that the three starting batters I would add would be some versions of Tip O’Neill, Dale Mitchell and Sammy Strang. I was following the NL draft and I noticed the run on Tip O’Neill started, so I erroneously made the assumption that the $18M O’Neill would be the most undesirable O’Neill (I couldn't afford him). So when the O’Neill run started in our draft, I jumped on board. In restrospect, slainte wanted the $18M version, so I could have waited. Regardless, I am happy with 1886 Tip O’Neill (738, .340 / .398 / .472).

Round 5 – 1894 Dick Buckley
I still needed six teammate hitters. You know who has a lot of good hitters? The 1894 Phillies. This version of Buckley got drafted in the third round in the NL draft, so I couldn’t afford to wait any longer. I can’t afford $15M Billy Hamilton, but I can afford Sam Thompson (605, .379 / .431 / ..662) and Ed Delahanty (704, .379 / ..451 / .558). I expected to also roster Lave Cross (711, .358 / .394 / .496) but dropped him when I upgraded to Lundgren. I will also end up using Buckley's 200 PAs. He's not terrible (.270 avg#).

Round 6 – 1982 Mike Davis
I really wanted to get my full-time Dale Mitchell and Sammy Strang before they got selected, but with Sam Thompson a bit short on plate appearances, ’82 Mike Davis (77, .399 / .416 / .483) was the perfect addition to the team. Also inexpensive, so no wasted salary here.

Round 7 – 1952 Dale Mitchell
I got my second starting position player from the nominated players, 1952 Mitchell (601, .329 / .386 / .424). Things are really starting to shape up. I just need to get 1902 Sammy Strang next. I’ve built my entire roster at this point, with the assumption that I will get stuck with some expensive versions of crappy players. I still have Rankin Johnson as my fifth usable pitcher.

Round 8 – 1900 Ed Doheny
I decided to gamble one more round on ’02 Strang since he has two of those seasons available, one with the Cubs and one with the White Sox. I needed to start saving some salary. This pick saves me $2.5 million.

Round 9 – 1902 Sammy Strang
Neither version of ’02 Strang had been selected yet but I still needed a starting shortstop. So I decided on the White Sox cheaper version of ’02 Strang (760, .288 / ..386 / .370). With no power and 760 PA, he’s the perfect leadoff hitter and will play DH for me since I already have Cross (C+/A+) penciled in to start at 3B. Oh, and I get to add teammate George Davis (685, .292 / .385 / .409).

Round 10 – 1930 Doc Farrell
This was the last critical pick for me. Not only is his salary only $201K, but he also gives me a very usable teammate, my starting 2B Frankie Frisch (643, .323 / ..390 / .486). That completes my what I assume will be my final starting lineup. Now it’s time to start saving salary, in case I can upgrade somewhere.

Round 11 – 1962 Dick Stuart
Not really paying attention to teammates at this point, but this version of Stuart saved me over $1 million in salary. After the fact, I noticed that he has a nice teammate, which I ended up using... catcher Smoky Burgess (402, .329 / .376 / .494). Since the version of Dick Buckley I drafted isn’t terrible, I could use the Burgess/Buckley platoon at catcher and save salary downgrading from Klondike Douglas.

Round 12 – 1935 Sugar Cain
With the last two cheap picks, I moved up to third in the draft order and was able to save $1 million with this version of Cain. At this point, with only one contested pick left, I re-worked my roster and figured out I could add ’07 Lundgren if I could only get the cheapest Heisey left. Only one other person needed him and I was currently ahead of him in the draft order (depending on what he did with his next pick).

Round 13 – 1911 Chris Heisey
No!!!! Damn it! The only other person who needed Heisey (barracuda30) jumped me in the draft order, then promptly sniped me with the cheapest Heisey left. So instead of having a completed roster at $129.9 million salary, I was now $500K over the cap. If I go back to Rankin Johnson (and drop Lundgren), my five usable SPs have only 1250 innings. And I have $2+ million of cap room available. So before I made my last pick, I started looking at other options. I have the ultimate flexibility since I can play Delahanty at 1B or OF, I could move Strang from DH to 3B and could also move Frisch from 2B to 3B, so I can essentially change just about any expensive player to a less expensive alternative and still make it work. I considered using 2011 Votto, ’52 Al Rosen, ’52 Doby or ’97 Ramirez. But then I found one new option… See Round 15 for more.

Round 14 – 1896 Ted Breitenstein
I was very fortunate that cholatse drafted ’97 Breitenstein in round 10. There were two of us left who needed Ted and I was worried about having to spend that extra $2 million. So his pick made it so I only had to waste $9.4 million on Breitenstein instead of $11.2 million.

Round 15 – 1989 Jose Lind
I was also the last person to need a Lind, and I was planning on adding 1993 (cheapest left at $2M). But once I researched a bit more, I could use 1989 Lind ($3.3M) and add teammate Bobby Bonilla (698, .289 / .367 / .499). Sure, he’s a downgrade vs Cross, but his sim performance has been as good as Cross, and he saves me enough salary to upgrade from Rankin Johnson to Carl Lundgren.

Final Numbers (only including guys I am using)
Hitting: 6126 PA, .332 avg, .399 obp, .482 slugging, $57.7 million
Pitching: 1345 IP, 1.46 era, .2015 oav, 0.98 whip, $48.1 million
Ballpark: Playing in an extreme pitcher park so I can maximize these 1345 innings.

Batting
C: Smoky Burgess (L) B/A-/C & Dick Buckley (R) C/C/C-
1B: Ed Delahanty (R) D/A+
2B: Frankie Frisch (S) C/A-
3B: Bobby Bonilla (S) D+/A+
SS: George Davis (S) B/C
OF: Sam Thompson (L) A-/D-
OF: Tip O'Neill (R) C/A
OF: Dale Mitchell (L) A/C
DH: Sammy Strang (S)
PH/OF/Def: Mike Davis (L) C/A+

Pitching
1914 Claude Hendrix
1907 Orval Overall
1907 Mordecai Brown
1907 Jack Pfeister
1907 Carl Lundgren

Wasted Salary (approx $24 million)
Ted Breitenstein $9.4 million (will start and lose 10-12 games)
Sugar Cain $3.2 million
Ed Doheny $2.8 million
Jack McDowell $679k
Bill Hutchison $422k
Jose Lind $3.3 million
Dick Stuart $1.9 million
Chris Heisey $1.7 million
Doc Farrell $202k

The only problem with Bonilla is that you have to pay him for 25 additional years after this season.

Rd0 Pick8 1987 Jose Lind Pittsburgh Pirates
I was a late add, so all the pitcher choices were taken and it was down to 2B and a couple other infield positions. I had no idea what to look for, so I played it safe by finding a cheap player with a nice partial. However, I mis-read the rules and thought you COULDN'T use your nominated player's teammates.

Rd1 Pick8 1911 Claude Hendrix Pittsburgh Pirates
Amazingly, my "cheap" Jose Lind put me last in Round 1. Turns out it didn't matter since I had no idea what I was doing. I took Hendrix since he had a rather cheap, usable season. This was a bad choice. However, I was able to use one teammate in SS Honus Wagner, and almost used P Babe Adams.

Rd2 Pick6 1897 Ed Doheny New York Giants
Moved up to 6th! Still no idea what to do, so I took another cheap but usable pitcher. I still have not even glanced at anyone's teammates to see if they will be helpful. Doheny did have one in George Davis but ended up using Wagner instead.

Rd3 Pick5 1998 Jack McDowell Anaheim Angels
Okay, doing some more research, so new strategy: don't waste salary. Seems like that mostly affects pitching, where I'll likely be stuck with lots of innings for some pitchers, so I opt for a low-IP McDowell. Shockingly (since I'm still not checking) he has no friends to bring along.

Rd4 Pick5 1892 Ted Breitenstein St. Louis Browns
Still panicking about innings so I take the Breitenstein with the fewest IP (and lowest salary) remaining. Bad choice. To top it off, he also has terrible teammates. Like REALLY terrible.

Rd5 Pick5 1910 Orval Overall Chicago Cubs
You won't be shocked here...low IP but usable. I'm STILL not checking teammates, but ended up using two of the 1910 Cubs--OF Solly Hofman and P Mordecai Brown--though I tried like hell to upgrade both and just couldn't.

Rd6 Pick4 1953 Dale Mitchell Cleveland Indians
Now decide to check on the cap and my options...oh &$*! I'm going to save all this money and not waste innings...and then fall $30m short of the salary cap! I go looking for teammates and realize it's not that easy to just find good ones! This is very bad! Okay, new strategy. I'm already going to get a bunch of innings and I don't want to waste innings. Will use my teammates on hitters. Best hitting teammate left = Al Rosen. So what if i have to burn $3.5m on the player himself?!

Rd7 Pick3 1906 Sammy Strang New York Giants
I'm starting to figure things out a little bit more. Not a lot of catcher options so Strang brings along Roger Bresnahan. At this point I'm thinking "1906 Strang isn't so bad, he can be my backup infielder". I later realize (a) 9 teammates runs out fast (I was planning to use George Davis at 2B given the actual 2B teammate options were poor, but then realized I would run out of teammate spots) and (b) this version of Strang is going to end up as my best drafted player and I need to actually play him! Maybe my best pick. Definitely my luckiest pick. He'll be my starting 2B against LHP (Lind against RHP).

Rd8 Pick4 2012 Chris Heisey Cincinnati Reds
I've now realized holy crap my pitching is going to be bad and maybe I should probably also look at pitching teammates. Wanted the Dodger version of Heisey to get Jansen and potentially Kershaw/Greinke but he went the round before. This version gets me Chapman and also Joey Votto. Unfortunately, Heisey himself costs me over $2m (instead of $262k for the Dodger version).

Rd9 Pick3 1929 Doc Farrell New York Giants
Had been targeting 1932 Doc to get some Ruth/Gehrig options but he went right before. This one gets me OF Mel Ott (who I used) and 1B Bill Terry (who I didn't).

Rd10 Pick2 1892 Tip O'Neill Cincinnati Reds
Okay, I'm kinda starting to figure this thing out and build out my team...only 10 rounds too late. I've already got Ott, Votto, Hofman (and am targeting 1934 Jimmie Foxx who I'll play in the OF) plus PA tied up in Mitchell and likely Stuart so my 1B/OF/DH spots are chock full. There were 3 versions of O'Neill left and this one was by far the cheapest. Turns out, I will need either him or Heisey (or Mitchell, but he's LH) to play against lefties but that's not a big deal. No teammates.

Rd11 Pick2 1934 Sugar Cain Philadelphia Athletics
All the Sugar Cains left are pretty much the same. This one gets me Foxx who with B/A+ fielding I can play in the OF (one of my favorite tricks from Schwarze's Quick Draft leagues) and he's by far the best teammate left that I can get.

Rd12 Pick1 1888 Dick Buckley Indianapolis Hoosiers
He's just a little more expensive than the other remaining options but he's at least semi-usable and I need some at-bats behind Bresnahan.

Rd13 Pick1 1984 Mike Davis Oakland Athletics
Cheapest one left, don't need 1B/OF/DH at-bats. See Tip O'Neill above.

Rd14 Pick2 1960 Dick Stuart Pittsburgh Pirates
Had a whole team built using 1959 Dick Stuart who had a nice little hitting season to use as a DH vs LHP and pinch-hitter otherwise. Of course, cholatse sniped him. I spent a bunch of time debating between 1961 Stuart (very good hitter but 606 PA and therefore costs $4.5m) or the 1960 version who hits worse but at least only costs $3.0m. Essentially, my last two teammate options were down to Solly Hofman vs Fred Clarke in the OF and Babe Adams vs Mordecai Brown for a SP spot. I couldn't afford Hofman and Adams. Using Clarke allowed me to get the better Stuart and the better pitcher in Adams but Clarke had fewer PA and I couldn't really use the better Stuart enough to warrant it. So I switched to the worse Stuart, got more PA in Hofman (and A+ range in center) and settled on Mordecai Brown for my other starter.

Rd15 Pick2 1891 Bill Hutchison Chicago Colts
Figured out halfway through I'd be stuck with a lot of Hutchison innings and would HAVE to use a lot of them. Thought I'd get the $21m version, but happyhours took him. This version is a bit worse but does save me $3.5m which I put to use elsewhere.

PARK: Baker Bowl
Eff it, let's at least put some of our excess IP/PA to use.

TEAMMATES:
1934 PHA 1B Jimmie Foxx (Sugar Cain)
1953 CLE 3B Al Rosen (Dale Mitchell)
1929 NYG OF Mel Ott (Doc Farrell)
2012 CIN 1B Joey Votto (Chris Heisey)
1911 PIT SS Honus Wagner (Claude Hendrix)
1910 CHC OF Solly Hofman (Orval Overall)
1906 NYG C Roger Bresnahan (Sammy Strang)
---
1910 CHC SP Mordecai Brown (Orval Overall)
2012 CIN RP Aroldis Chapman (Chris Heisey)

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

HITTERS
C Bresnahan (Buckley backup)
1B Votto / Heisey platoon
2B Strang / Lind platoon
3B Rosen
SS Wagner
LF Ott
CF Hofman
RF Foxx
DH Mitchell / Stuart platoon

Dead weight:
- Davis ($1.98m, 423 PA)
- O'Neill ($2.68m, 513 PA)
- Farrell ($580k, 206 PA)
- Heisey, Stuart, and Buckley will also have some unused PA

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

PITCHERS
SP1 Hutchison
SP2 Brown

SU Hendrix, Overall, Doheny
CL Chapman

Dead weight:
- Breitenstein ($6.19m, 305 IP)
- Cain ($4.90m, 250 IP)
- McDowell ($1.23m, 76 IP)

(with absolutely no apologies to Andy Williams because my version is way better)

It’s the most…wonderful draft…of the year…
There’ll be picks filled with doubt
And pulling hair out
And switching of gears!
It’s the most…wonderful draft…
Yes the most…wonderful draft…
Oh the most…wonderful draft ………OF THE YEAR!!!!

Thanks, as always, to schwarze for running this amazing theme. Rostered players in bold. Stats shown are normalized.

Nomination – 1895 Ed Doheny (scrub, $229K)

At first I was very proud of my original nomination, 1935 Bill Swift. Other than the 1935 there was only one cheap Swift, and only 2 or 3 others who could get people out in this league, plus he’d come with my beloved Arky Vaughan (and even Cy Blanton if there was room). That pride lasted all of one minute, as a scant 60 seconds later schwarze dropped the H-bomb: Hutchison. With all of the high-priced guys in the draft (Hutchison, Breitenstein, McMahon) I knew that I wouldn’t be able to afford to roster Swift and Vaughan so I decided to find a low-priced scrub in order to move from the end of round 1 into the #2 pick of the draft. Then McMahon was switched out for Cain. I briefly considered switching back to Swift but stayed the course. Doheny is not a great nomination; his useless seasons are generally not all that expensive and he allows access to a couple of nice Honus Wagners. But he comes with a good, and reasonably priced, 3B George Davis (606 PA, .321/.399/.491, D+/A-, $5.5M).

For those who haven’t been to Dublin Ireland, my team name derives from the classic Victorian-era pub Doheny & Nesbitt, at which pints have been pulled since 1867. In the Dublin pub pecking order I rate Toner’s (which is across Lower Baggot Street from D&N and was the site of the only pub visit ever made by poet William Butler Yeats) a bit higher, but both are absolutely worth a visit.

Finally, and this is the kind of thing that I probably would never learn about if not for leagues such as this one, the story of Ed Doheny is extremely sad. He was a pretty good pitcher, but quite literally went insane in the middle of his playing career. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Doheny

Round 1 – 1900 Ted Breitenstein (waste, $4.5M)

I ended up with the second overall pick thanks to slainte’s brilliant nomination of the $200K Stuart, which guaranteed him the most obvious pick in the history of any draft, the cheap Breitenstein who also can be used as a closer. Slainte also completely nailed his second and third picks of the draft. With his team and schwarze’s in my division I don’t think I have even a snowball’s chance in hell of making the postseason. Kudos.

My first thought when researching the available players was to punt Hutchison and Breitenstein until the endgame; wasting their salaries or using them depending on which versions I ended up with. But then I realized that if I ended up with high-priced, usable versions of both then every other pitcher that I drafted would be wasted salary, and there was no way that I’d get cheap versions of all of those. Therefore I had to make sure I used at most one of them. Between the two, the 1900 Breitenstein had the cheapest remaining version, so I chose him here. I figured I’d have to do this immediately, given that in the other draft the more palatable Hutchison and Breitensteins were going off the board early.

Round 2 – 1889 Bill Hutchison (391 IP, 3.25 ERC#, $9.7M)

A funny thing happened on the way to the second round. There was no run on the cheaper or usable Breitensteins and Hutchisons, as there had been in the other league. I had the 13^th overall pick in the AL. In the NL, 7 of the first 12 picks were B&H’s. In the AL 2 of them were. Instead, in the AL those B&H picks were generally replaced by low-priced players with good teammates. So what do I do here? I had hoped for the ’95 Buckley and his killer teammates but he was drafted 3^rd overall, immediately after my first pick. I figured the B&H run would come soon so I grabbed the only Hutchison that IMO had no wasted salary. The 1893-1895 seasons are too bad to be used effectively, and the 1890-1892 seasons have more innings than can be used at 100% (maybe all 674 of the 1891’s IP can be used by a more astute manager, but I doubt that I could do it). Only the 1889 can be used in total, at 100%. Whether you’d want to is another question, but I decided that I would. So after the first two rounds, I had no good teammates, almost $10M worth of one mediocre pitcher, and $4.5M in wasted salary. But at least I was done with Hutchison and Breitenstein, and I’ll bet that several owners will waste much more than $4.5M on those two. But with the ranks of quality offensive teammates quickly dissipating, I was beginning to regret not sticking with my initial nomination, especially since the draft was unfolding in such a way that I might very well have been able to get the 1900 Breitenstein with the last pick in the first round.

Round 3 – 1928 Doc Farrell (565 PA, .207/.256/.265, D+/B+, $2.2M)

One Hutchison and one Breitenstein went before my next selection. Still not the run that I was expecting. Meanwhile, more cheap guys with good teammates came off the board. I needed to start getting some good hitting teammates. The only second basemen that I really wanted were the two Hornsbys, so when Jtpsops took the ’27 Farrell 3 picks before mine this decision was made for me. In terms of price to quality ratio the ‘28 is probably my favorite Rogers Hornsby (656 PA,.376/.490/.625, B-/D+, $10.2M), so despite happening a round earlier than I’d expected I was happy with this pick. Foreshadowing: you may have noticed that I listed Farrell’s stats rather than just typing “waste”.

Round 4 – 1888 Tip O’Neill (693 PA, .349/.408/.482, C/B, $6.6M)

When Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Boston College class of 1936, was running his first political campaign for election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, he spent election day as all candidates do: speaking publicly and frantically trying to gain every vote that he could. When the polls closed, he went home to his wife. During a nervous dinner, as the early returns were being reported, Tip jokingly asked his wife if she had voted for him. Her demeanor immediately darkened; she frowned and said “I did, but I really didn’t want to.” Tip was flabbergasted and furious, replying along the lines of “HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT YOU DIDN’T WANT TO VOTE FOR ME?!?!?! YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS MEANS TO ME!!! YOU’RE MY WIFE!!! WHY DIDN’T YOU WANT TO VOTE FOR ME?!?!?!” Mrs. O’Neill calmly replied “because you never asked me to.” Tip O’Neill never forgot that, and never again took anyone’s vote for granted. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1953 and served until 1987, including 10 years as Speaker of the House. Around the time of his retirement, the new library on the campus of BC (my alma mater, if you haven’t guessed), built with money made from the Doug Flutie years, opened, bearing Tip’s name.

Yes, I know that this is a totally different Tip O’Neill, but I love that story.

One of the keys in this type of league is deciding how many nominated players to use in your starting lineup. This is even more crucial in a season like this one where there is a DH. With the DH there are 9 starting offensive spots, and each team can only use 9 teammates, so the number of non-teammate pitchers that can be rostered is equal to the number of nominated players in one’s starting lineup. With Tip O’Neill being far and away the best offensive player nominated, I considered it imperative to get a good, startable season of his. Once one came off the board at the beginning of Round 4 I knew I had to take one here. I got one of the better ones. While I knew that I would never be able to use his teammate Silver King, I figured that having Elton Chamberlain to take up some salary if I had any left over was a nice perk. That didn’t end up being needed.

Round 5 – 1933 Sugar Cain (waste, $3.9M)

After a nomination and four rounds my starting lineup consisted of a very good Hornsby and an OK George Davis. Good hitting teammates were becoming scarce, so it was time to bolster the offense. Welcome Mickey Cochrane (582 PA, .316/.452/.511, B/D+/B-, $6.3M), who was the best catcher still available to me, and Jimmie Foxx (719 PA, .350/.442/.700, C+/C-, $9.9M). In one fell swoop my offense suddenly looks like it has a chance to be formidable. I love this pick.

Round 6 – 1908 Orval Overall (237 IP, 2.59 ERC#, $6.6M)

As much as I like to pretend that these drafts are all skill, there’s a lot of luck involved, centering primarily on being in the right place to not miss out on crucial runs. My O’Neill pick fell in a spot that prompted a run, and to some extent this one did as well. At this point there was one player in the entire draft who I needed to avoid: the useless $7M 1905 Overall. Once the cheaper and usable ’06 version went off the board two picks before mine, I knew it was time to act. I got an acceptable version that came with an expensive Mordecai Brown that I figured that I wouldn’t be able to afford. But this was all about avoiding the $7M disaster, which I did. So I think this was a pretty good pick…Overall……………….....don’t get up; I’ll show myself out…

Round 7 – 1905 Sammy Strang (super-sub, .262/.397/.372, $2.2M)

Super-sub? More like super-scrub! Amirite ladies? I mean, he plays every position except catcher…remarkably poorly. Basically D/D- with low D- range everywhere. He’ll probably need to start 10-15 games at 3B and 10-15 games at SS. Speaking of shortstop, my plan all along was to get a good offensive player at every position, and at SS I was considering the 1912 Honus Wagner or the 1918 Hollacher that came with Hendrix, or one of the Glasscocks (tee hee) associated with Buckley. But other than Wagner I really didn’t like any of those, and I wasn’t ready to take my Hendrix. Then I realized that I already had drafted 565 PA of a D+/B+ shortstop, which isn’t great defense but not debilitatingly bad. Sure, he barely outhits a decent offensive pitcher, but this league has a DH so I can deal with one weak spot in the order. Best of all, he only cost me $2.2M (which I’d have to roster either way) so he was basically a free starting position. I could carry out this plan as long as I got a Strang who could fill in at short. This one checked that box, and yielded two very important teammates: starting OF “Turkey” Mike Donlin (716 PA, .361/.420/.522, D/B-, $6.9M) and SP Christy Mathewson (359 IP, 1.81 ERC#, $14.3M), who I was able to afford because of my willingness to start Farrell. At this point I only needed 2 outfielders and a DH to complete my starting lineup, and I was convinced that the remaining players that I needed to draft had enough choices at those positions that I would end up with an offense with which I could feel comfortable.

Round 8 – 1966 Dick Stuart (scrub, $296K)

Especially since I am too young to have ever seen him play, it’s amazing to me that I knew that Dick Stuart’s nickname had been “Dr. StrangeGlove” before I ever knew of the movie “Dr. Strangelove”. This is all the more remarkable because that film is now one of my two favorites of all time (the other being 2001; yes, I’m a Kubrick fanatic). But I remember in college talking about seeing the film for the first time and pronouncing it “StrangeGlove” out of habit. Weird. Of course, everyone remembers “You can’t fight in here, this is the war room!” and “Mein fuhrer, I can walk!” but this is one of my favorite scenes in cinematic history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUAK7t3Lf8s

As for this selection, I had started doing the math on the players that I wanted and the players that I’d need to roster, and I realized that I needed to save some money. I had no use for Stuart or his teammates, so this was an easy pick.

Round 9 – 1992 Jose Lind (defensive replacement, otherwise waste, A/A+, $3.5M)

In the back of my mind I’d always hoped that I’d end up with the 1894 Buckley and his cadre of strong-hitting teammates, but schwarze grabbed him way back at the end of round 5. I still needed 2 starting OFs, and Barry Bonds (612 PA, .317/.464/.631, A-/C+, $8.7M) was the best still around. My other thought was the $6.9M, 108 SB, A/A- 1983 Rickey Henderson that would come with a $3.2M Mike Davis. But Bonds obviously hits better and can run too (39/47). I’m not sure exactly how homers will play in this league so I’ll be curious to see how this works out.

Round 10 – 1988 Mike Davis (waste, $1.1M)

One advantage of taking Bonds over Hendu was that the corresponding Lind was only $1.5M more expensive than the cheapest remaining Lind, while the ’83 Davis was more than $2M more expensive. This one was $150K more expensive than the cheapest Davis but came with a better Jay Howell who I thought that I would use as my closer. I ended up going in a different direction, but the extra $150K didn’t end up costing me any players as I feared it might.

Round 11 – 1915 Claude Hendrix (304 IP, 2.78 ERC#, $9.2M)

Wow. At this point, everything was coming up Milhouse. In the 11^th round I got the Hendrix with the third-best ERC#. He actually might be able to get people out. He also came with a serviceable Three-Finger Brown (giving me a total of six fingers worth of Brown) in case I was unable to afford Mathewson. The catching platoon of Wilson and Fischer is also intriguing but went unused.

Round 12 – 1891 Dick Buckley (waste, $1.5M)

More like “mostly waste”, as he’ll probably have to start 15 games or so to spell Cochrane. This was the pick when I finally realized that I had a chance to comprehensively execute my strategy. With my decision to start Farrell I had no use for Glasscock (which is sad, because if I had then this writeup would’ve been much more interesting) and therefore could just go with the cheapest Buckley. I also needed the cheapest Heisey, which I realized I could do because the only other owner who needed him was schwarze, and this Buckley pick moved me ahead of him in the draft order. So at least I have that small victory to keep me warm at night when schwarze’s team is 28 games ahead of me in the standings and beating me by double-digit runs every game.

Round 13 – 2010 Chris Heisey (226 PA, .257/.327/.424, C+/D-, $1.2M)

Not only was this the cheapest Heisey left on the board, but this pick yielded the final player for my lineup: 1B Joey Votto (648 PA, .328/.427/.591, A-/C, $7.1M). He moves Foxx over to DH. Again, I’m not sure how well home run power will play in this league; there are a lot of deadballers but also some guys like McDowell and even Hutchison who should yield some homers. We’ll see. I considered using the 1891 Tiernan that I’d acquired with my previous pick as my DH, but I didn’t have a good place to utilize the cost savings so I stuck with Votto. That is, I planned on doing so as long as the next pick went my way.

Round 14 – 1956 Cleveland Indians Dale Mitchell (scrub, $200K)

It’s fairly well-known that the final strike of Don Larsen’s 1956 World Series perfect game is probably the worst ball-strike call in the history of baseball. The pitch was clearly a foot outside. What I had never realized is that it was the final pitch seen by Dale Mitchell in the major leagues. I wonder if a day went by the rest of his life when he didn’t think about what would’ve happened if the ump called the pitch correctly. Maybe Mitchell would’ve gotten a hit on the next pitch, and then, instead of being known as the guy who made the final out in Larsen’s perfect game, he might be known as the guy who broke it up, and also as a guy who had a pretty solid big-league career.

So this was the guy I needed to round out my roster; not because of him, but his teammate RP Ray Narleski (63 IP, 1.64 ERC#, $2.5M), who I needed as a closer because my cumulative salary came in a hair too high to include the Jay Howell that I drafted. Of course, if I had taken the cheaper Mike Davis in round 10 it wouldn’t have mattered. But it didn’t matter anyway, as ronthegenius took the cheap Mitchell who could hit a little, as I was hoping that he would. Narleski is more homer-prone than I’d normally prefer in a closer, but one’s roster in these leagues is never perfect.

Round 15 – 1995 Jack McDowell (245 IP, 3.55 ERC#, $5.6M)

I’ll only use about one-third of these innings, in a Long A role, so there’s a decent amount of waste here. I briefly considered rostering Bernie Williams and his A+++ range instead of Votto, but anyone who knows me knows that the day I favor defense over offense is the day that the denizens of Hades start looking for parkas.

Epilogue

This draft went as smoothly for me as any of these drafts I’ve ever done. In and of itself this means nothing; as I’ve said many times before, there is nothing easier than executing a poor draft strategy. But this was a very welcome change from the previous draft, which was downright painful. I think I created as good a team as I could have, but given my divisional draw with schwarze and slainte and the absence of a wild-card spot I think I have zero chance of making the postseason. Oh well. It still was a fun ride. See you all on the virtual field!

PS - I chose to play at Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds because it's on my way home from work. I mean, it would be if it still existed. It's been replaced by the campus of Northeastern University, but there is a statue of Cy Young where the pitcher's mound used to be. Which is nice.

Lineup:
RF Donlin .361/.420/.522
2B Hornsby .376/.490/.625
CF Bonds .317/.464/.631
DH Foxx .350/.442/.700
1B Votto .328/.427/.591
LF O’Neill .349/.408/.482
C Cochrane .316/.452/.511
3B Davis .321/.399/.491
SS Farrell .207/.256/.265

Pitching:
SP Mathewson 359 IP, 1.81 ERC#
SP Overall 237 IP, 2.59 ERC#
SP Hendrix 304 IP, 2.78 ERC#
SP Hutchison 391 IP, 3.25 ERC#
Closer Narleski 63 IP, 1.64 ERC#
Long A McDowell 3.55 ERC#
Long B Breitenstein 4.25 ERC#
Mop up Cain, Doheny

Taking into account the amount that I’ll use my scrubs, I wasted almost exactly $20M in salary.

BRAVO! Barracuda, your write-ups are the cherry on top of the 16 x 16 sundae. "Doheny continued to suffer from paranoid delusions", very similar to my situation around the 4th or 5th pick in these drafts. LOL

Initial Nomination - 1908 Sammy Strang
I tried to get too cute with the initial nomination. I had a couple of ideas in mind but was waiting to ensure I wasn't in a division with Silver King and Claude Hendrix and was going to try and ensure I got the first pick in the NL draft with a cheap nominee. But when I woke up the next morning there had been a bunch of late night nominations and I found myself in the AL. I was thinking Sadie McMahon with his one good season and a bunch of albatross's but then calhoop switched and took McMahon so back to the drawing board. And I wasn't keen on being in a division with schwarze anyways and playing for the meaningless second place. So when the AL West opened there were no pitching seasons left and so a lot of my research was useless.
I had been randomly assigned 08 Strang in Tulsa's Random players and their teammate league where I paired him up with his fellow Giant, 08 Mathewson, and cruised to the playoffs. Combine that recency effect with the fact that Strang had one cheap season and a bunch of moderate priced but horrendous defense seasons and the great Mathewson teammate and I had my nomination. Although when I posted it and Strang's 259k salary I was thinking I would have the first pick in the AL draft and, alas, many last minute changes by others dropped me to third pick.

Round 1 - 1895 Dick Buckley
Let me say that 130M sounded like a large salary cap beforehand...
My initial thoughts looking at all the original nominees is that there were not a lot of usable seasons out there. Although I had a ten year or so hiatus in these 16x16 drafts it came back to me last draft that maximizing the 9 teammate slots is crucial but, at the same time, 9 teammates is not a lot when considering a 25 man roster and that you better ensure you end up with some drafted players you can actually use. My original thinking here was that I'd be OK using one of the 700ip Hutchison seasons for half my starts and that there were some usable Overall, Hendrix, and McDowell seasons but that I did not like the looks of the available hitting choices. Other than O'Neill and maybe a Mitchell or two I realized the majority of my 9 team mate slots would have to be used on hitting teammates. So after missing out on the one cheap, good Breitenstein season which was the other obvious choice for my first pick I was happy to take the 1895 Buckley. Ed Delahanty has been my long time favourite SIM player and the chance to use his 1895 season along with excellent Thompson, Hamilton, and Clements seasons was a no brainer. I even had 1895 Lave Cross slated in as usable choice at 3B if needed. So with these players I figured I had more half my offence already solidified and along with 08 Mathewson I was feeling pretty good at this point and the cheap Buckley pick moved me to first pick in Round 2.

Round 2 - 1901 Ed Doheny (Pirates)
After playing around with the roster a bit I started to realize that it wasn't going to be the cakewalk to the championship I was congratulating myself on after round 1. The 1895 Phillies come with a complete amazing outfield and 1892 Hutchison/08 Mathewson is an amazing starting rotation......but they cost a lot and as I started plugging in the other expected crap I would be stuck having to use I realized, belatedly, that 130M is actually not a large salary cap here.

In any event, I was really focusing on shortstop here. I had already planned on using a Lind as a starting second baseman and Stuart or Mitchell or many other teammates could probably be used at first base and, of course, the Phillies already gave me an OF, catcher, and possible third base. Shortstop was going to be a need. 1948 Mitchell was strong in itself and came with 48 Boudreau. 47 Mitchell was a little cheaper and 47 Boudreau is pretty good. But 1901 Doheny was my clear choice here. It was the most usable of the Doheny seasons, was cheap, and came with 1901 Honus Wagner. Putting Wagner with Delahanty, Thompson et al made more sense for a developing strong doubles/triples type team than Boudreau.

Round 3 - 1937 Sugar Cain

I was happy with the teammates I had collected so far but starting to worry more and more about fitting them under the salary cap. This was pretty much a pure salary-minded selection as it was the only cheap Cain season available and the others were a few million more expensive for unusable crap. But, I was also looking at teammate, 1937 Monty Stratton, who is a favourite pitcher of mine I have used many times.

Round 4 - 1889 Tip O'Neill

I had first pick in Round 4 and knew this would drop me down a lot. But, I was counting on a strong O'Neill season as one of my few nominated hitter selections in the lineup and this is the clear one I wanted. I tried hard to figure out how to use 1887 O'Neill with Delahanty, Wagner and Thompson as part of an offence that would score 15 runs a game but was forced to realize his salary was never going to fit. I classified 1889 as O'Neill's second best offensive season, especially with the doubles. Furthermore, I had realized that the 1895 Clements/Buckley catching combo was going to be short of plate appearances. I didn't like the thought of sacrificing two of the precious 9 teammate slots on catchers but the only other choice was sacrificing Clements for a lesser teammate who had more at bats. 1889 O'Neill brought Jocko Milligan. Yes, it is stupid to have three catchers using two teammate spots but I do classify the 1895 Clements/1889 Milligan duo as the strongest-hitting catching tandem in the sim and one I have used many times (in high salary cap leagues) in the past.

Round 5 - 1988 Jose Lind

Started to panic here. I was thinking of picking a usable pitching season and probably should have picked an Overall or the decent McDowell season. But I was starting to worry that we weren't having the run on cheaper Hutchison seasons that the NL draft had. I had entered planning on using 1892 Hutchison or maybe 1890 but it seemed others were thinking the same thing. Should I take the 1892 Hutchison season now instead of waiting? but then that would drop me to bottom of the draft order and it would defeat the purpose of the strategy of picking other players and then being 'left' with an expensive Hutchison season at the end even though that was what I was planning.

I was thinking of 1892 Dahlen at 3B along with Hutchison. But now I was reconsidering and also really worrying about salary cap. I knew I needed a Lind season at 2B and 88 is his best. It's not great offensively but it's decent defensively and it comes with 1988 Bonilla. I considered 1992 Lind and his teammate Bonds but I needed a 3B more. And more recency effect - I successfully used 1988 BonIlla as the cornerstone of my 90M WISC Round 1 team so I pulled the trigger on the 88 Lind/Bonilla combo.

Round 6 - 1898 Breitenstein

I should note that at this point of my write up I took a break and noticed that barracuda just posted his. Of course, his is much better written, comes complete with interesting stories about Doheny, Mitchell, and others,...and accurately describes my Overall blunder.
I knew I needed more usable pitching and had been considering one of the decent Overall seasons. I was ready to select one here but decided to push my luck one more round and took the cheapest Breitenstein available (although not at all cheap) to get it out of the way.

Round 7 - 2015 Chris Heisey

A run of Overall's in the last round, of course, left me as barracuda so aptly describes "the one player in the entire draft who I needed to avoid: the useless $7M 1905 Overall."
So out of spite, I took the only super cheap Heisey left. I wasn't sure how he was still available as I figured he and his pitching teammates Greinke, Kershaw & Jansen would have been long gone. I wasn't planning on using the pitchers (plans changed) but figured it was good to save money on Heisey and to prevent others from accessing 15 Greinke/Kershaw.

Round 8 - 1894 Hutchison

So here is where I had to stop and change strategies. I was perplexed there had never been the run on Hutchisons I expected and saw in the NL draft. Here was round 8 and there were still some 'cheaper' Hutchison seasons available. Do I pivot off my original strategy of waiting for a somewhat usable 17-22M 700ip Hutchison or do I grab a more useless, but more affordable version? I was also trying to fit 1905 Cy Seymour onto my team now at this point to make the 1905 Overall necessity more palatable. 05 Overall is garbage but 05 Seymour is great. So, I decided to completely screw pitching and go with a Hamilton, Wagner, Delahanty, Thompson, Seymour, Clements/Milligan super lineup. I also noted 1894 Hutchison brings an 1894 Cap Anson that I figured might be a plan B if schwarze changed the rules to allowing 4 outfielders and/or 2 Dhs.

Round 9 - 1958 Stuart

At this point I could play with different roster combinations and see none them were going to fit under 130M. Still needing to save money I went with the cheapest Stuart available. I was still hoping somehow to keep 08 Mathewson in the rotation (or more accurately, to be the rotation) but the math wasn't working. I was now realizing I would have to sacrifice either Cy Seymour of Billy Hamilton. Both are 9.2M and come with identical defense. One has high OBP and speed and would be the lead off hitter. The other can slug extra bases. But I wasn't seeing how I could keep both at this point without giving up on Delahanty or Thompson and that was a non-starter. Having to pick a Stuart who had some usable plate appearances got me thinking of plan C which I hinted to above. The decision was made to pair Stuart with 1894 Anson as a platoon duo at first base

Round 10 - 1910 Hendrix

My offence and defence is solid at this point. The pitching is a mess. 17M 08 Mathewson who was primarily the point in nominating 08 Strang is out the window. I'm trying to decide on how to mix what's left with some combination of Greinke, Kershaw or Stratton. I was going to go with a cheaper Hendrix season but ended up picking what I thought was the best pitching season still available on the board. I'm also starting to realize the decision on three catchers is hurting as I only have 1 available teammate spot to use on a pitcher. I was trying to use two seasons of the above and/or a reliever somewhere but realized there was no way to use more than one pitching teammate with the cheap and partial-season hitters I had already selected.

Rounds 11-15 1989 Davis, 1990 McDowell, 1933 Farrell, 1995 Mitchell, and 1905 Overall

At this point it was all about selecting the cheapest seasons still available and fitting under the cap. I left Farrell and Mitchell to the end once I realized there would be still some low priced seasons available no matter what was picked by others. I had final decisions to make whether I would use Billy Hamilton after all along with Monty Stratton or go with Stuart/Anson and upgrade to Greinke and Kershaw. I went with the latter and depending on which Davis and others I would end up with would determine the Greinke or Kershaw decision (ended up being Greinke).

So after the dust settled I have the following potent line-up:

1889 Tip O'Neill - OF
1901 Honus Wagner - SS
1895 Ed Delahanty - OF
1895 Sam Thompson - OF
1895 Jack Clements/1889 Jocko Milligan - C
1905 Cy Seymour - OF
1894 Cap Anson/1958 Dick Stuart - 1B
1988 Bobby Bonilla - 3B
1988 Jose Lind - 2B

......and some awful pitching relying on 200 ip of Zach Greinke starting, 100 ip of passable Doheny closing, and 1600 ips of mediocre-terrible versions of Hutchison, McDowell, Breitenstein, and Overall.

RTG - with THAT hitting it might just be a "CAKEWALK".

I think, before the draft, if you had posted what everyone's roster would end up looking like (minus the nominee, obviously) and asked me to guess which one was mine I would've guessed RTG's. It's going to be really interesting to see how this plays out.

And thanks for the kind words about my writeup, njbigwig and rtg.

Extremely funny barracuda3. My favorite part of this league.

I am realizing that my strategy to minimize the use of all those mediocre-to-bad nominated pitchers, my offense doesn't remotely stack up to some of the other offenses that have been posted here.

I nominated 1895 Dick Buckley, because as Schwarze put it “You know who has a lot of good hitters? The 1894 Phillies”. I love that OF, even the 4th OF hit .386 !!!. I’ve used Hamilton and Delahanty a lot and they don’t disappoint.

My initial plan was to take two starters from the nominated hitters (Stuart and Lind) and full the other 7 hitters with guys from the 1800s. Stuart turned into a pinch hitter and Lind into a defensive caddy when I found out that Strang’s secondary D position at 2B gave me a better hitter. I wanted to go low $ on all the other hitters and as many Pitchers as I could.

As the draft progressed my plan went out the window and plan B became Who are we all drafting this round? I’ll probable finish last, but overall I’m satisfied with my team. Overall I believe I have 20 guys with a purpose and 5 bums.

Lineup
C. Jack CLements 6.8
1B Cap Anson 6.1
2B. Sammy Strang 3.8
3B Danny Lyons 5.4
SS George Davis 5.1
OF B Hamilton 9,2
OF Ed Delahanty 11.2
OF Sam Thompson 9.3
DH Tip O Neil 5.2
Total. 62.1

Useable Bench Guys
PH Doc Farrell 0.5
PH Dick Stuart 1.6
Def Mike Davis 1.0
Def Jose Lind 3.4
Total. 6.5

SP Bill Hutchison 9.7
SP Ed Reulbach 8.8
sP Orval Overall 6.6
SP Tim Belcher 6.1
Total. 31.2

RP J McDowell 6.2
R P C Hendricks 5.8
RP T Breitensen 8.6
Total. 20.6

Waste
D Mitchell 0.2
D Buckley 0.6 (Except he brought in the hitters)
C Heisey. 1.1
E Doheny 1.5
S Cain 4.9
Total 8.3

I've played a few of these 16.x.16 seasons and will continue. The format is fascinating and the strategy changes pick by pick. There is only one "through line" in my experience in these leagues: I've never done very well.

Nominated Player: 1930 Doc Farrell $542,205. I nominated Farrell for teammates. Along with him I got Hack Wilson's best season (54 HRs and 190 RBI) I can't remember ever having Wilson on a team before so I'm curious to see how he'll do here. I also got a great season for Gabby Hartnett (609 PA 37 HR 122 RBI and solid defense) So I won't have to use Buckley very often. I intended to use KiKi Cuyler as well, but I needed a left hand bat in the middle of the order and went with the 1990 Bonds.

This season I set out to address a continual failure of my team. I fall in love with teammates. Undoubtedly, you need teammates, but this year I set out to get as many usable nominated players as I could. I plan to use these:

Round 1 - 1909 Orval Overall (302 innings at 162 ERC+) Nothing really needs to be said here. I was happy to get the 2nd best nominated pitcher and I'm hopeful he has a good year. I tried to use his teammate Mordecai Brown, but he was out of bounds both for money and innings. I ended up not using any of Orval's teammates - not so good for a first round pick. No teammates.

Round 5 - 1990 Jose Lind (great defense at 2B) I drafted him hoping I could put him in a platoon, but he will be my every day 2B. When he can't play, it'll probably be Strang. Ouch. Lind won't hit but he can field and I'm hoping he can hold his own. With Jose, I got Barry Bonds. I hate Bonds and tried not to use him. But my lineup was so right handed that he was essential. Teammates - Barry Bonds (33 HR 114 RBI)

Round 9 1994 Jack McDowell (260 innings at 137 ERC+) I got him in the ninth round and am happy. He'll stay in the rotation all season no matter what happens. Blackjack's teammates - Jose DeLeon who I'll use in both set up and long relief roles. There wasn't much room for teammate pitchers and Jose will carry a burden, so I hope he doesn't issue too many walks. Teammates - Jose DeLeon (97 innings at 172 ERC+)

Round 10 1897 Ted Breitenstein (394 innings at 124 ERC+) Big mistake here. I was hoping to roster the 1893 version (470 at 142 ERC+), but waited too long. No teammates. I'll use Breitenstein, but he probably won't be very effective.

Round 11 1983 Mike Davis (no stick but some speed and defense and he bats lefty) Unfortunately, I'm going to have to use him some and for one reason. I made a mistake with my Tip O'Neill pick (more below on this). No Teammates.

Round 13 1959 Dick Stuart (Right Hand power and useful in the field) I knew I would have to get a usable Stuart year and, for me, he had several. No teammates.

Round 14 1892 Dick Buckley (solely for back up) No teammate.

Round 15 1907 Sammy Strang (He plays everywhere but no glove.) He can hit however and I'll use him at DH.

The rest of the picks were solely for teammates or damage control.

Round 2 1895 Bill Hutchinson. I picked him high solely for damage control. 363 pretty wasteful innings, but he only cost $6.5mil. No teammates.

Round 3 1919 Claude Hendrix. I picked him for his rotation teammate - Pete Alexander and I will probably use Claude in Long Relief. Teammates - Pete Alexander (272 innings at 183 ERC+)

Round 4 1885 Tip O'Neill. Big mistake here not getting a full season. I picked him in a panic about not getting the 1887 year, also a mistake. My upcoming mediocre season will have a lot to do with this pick and the Dale Mitchell pick referenced below. Still, the O'Neill year is good and he'll use all of his 323 PA and more. No teammates. He was a one man show.

Round 6 - 1896 Ed Doheny. Very average Lefty. He won't pitch much. But he did get me Bill Joyce at 3B and maybe Doheny can get a few guys out. Teammates - 3B Bill Joyce (333 BA and 470 OBP)

Round 7 2016 Chris Heisey. Damage control with a closer. I wanted the 2015 Dodger year which might have brought Greinke or Kershaw and Jansen. Instead, I got this Nationals year and rostered Melancon as a closer. Teammates - Closer Mark Melancon (47 saves at 243 ERC+)

Round 8 1954 Dale Mitchell. As referenced above, it was a mistake not to get a usable year from Mitchell, especially as he hits left handed. But this version brought Don Mossi who will be very important to my season performance. Teammates - Set Up Don Mossi (98 Innings at 204 ERC+)

Round 12 1936 Sugar Cain. Average pitcher but he did bring the best Luke Appling season. Teammate - Luke Appling ( 388 BA 483 OBP)


Another fun draft. Now, let's see what happens.

Good luck All.

I admittedly didn't have the best feel for this draft. I ended up drafting further down than I initially anticipated, so probably should've switched to a more expensive player to start, to make it worth it. I knew everyone would have dead salary for pitching so it was a question of where to eat it. I immediately decided Cain and Doheny would be my last two picks, as none of their seasons stood out quality-wise, and there wasn't a ton of variance in cost between seasons. I planned to draft Buckley late as well but that changed as I went.

Nominee: 1987 Jack McDowell

Decided to grab a cheap high-IP stud for the back of the bullpen and odd start. I thought I was shrewd in sticking others with his mediocre starting seasons. Once I began researching the other pitching nominees, I was reminded that I'm an amateur among professionals when it comes to these drafts.

Round 1 - 2017 Heisey ($200K)

With good pitching seasons gone, I decided to move up the draft order, and secure Scherzer. There were also some really good pen options if I needed them. Doolittle ended up coming along for the ride.

Round 2 - 1966 Stuart ($432K)

Another low-cost pick up front to accommodate more dead salary at the back end. Stuart also brought Koufax and Regan, both of whom I ultimately chose not to roster, so this was purely a cost-saving pick after all.

Round 3 - 1927 Ferrell ($2M)

Ferrell brought a stud 2B with good D in Hornsby, and also offered some other good low-cost defensive possibilities if I ended up needing them.

Round 4 - 1913 Overall ($1.3M)

There were 3-4 pitchers I knew I'd likely be taking as dead weight at this point, so I opted for the remaining cheap season of Overall to minimize his hit.

Round 5 - 1995 Lind ($565K)

Another low-cost pick, as I knew Lind would not be of any use to me. He also brought along great OF options in Salmon and Edmonds. I ultimately had to drop Edmonds but Salmon will anchor my lineup. Percival also provides a stud season in the pen to close out any games I'm fortunate enough to have a lead in.

Round 6 - 1949 Mitchell ($6M)

At this point I was starting to realize some of the nominated players I'd need to start for me. Mitchell brings a very good defensive season in the OF, along with a .317/.360/.428 slash line. I also planned to use Boudreau but ended up acquiring a better teammate at SS later on.

Round 7 - 1890 Buckley ($2M)

I didn't want to take him this early, but This season was semi-usable and brought along a couple hitting studs in C teammate Buck Ewing and 1B Roger Connor.

Round 8 - 1893 Breitenstein ($13.2M)

I contemplated the expensive Hutchison here, but was realizing I probably wouldn't find him under the cap, since I was still going to get stuck with an expensive Breitenstein either way. I took Ted here, hoping a cheap Hutchison would be left for me later on. Ted will sadly be in my rotation.

Round 9 - 1985 Davis ($5M)

Another nominee I needed to start. This option was serviceable and brought along Steve Ontiveros for the bullpen.

Round 10 - 1893 Hutchison ($9.7M)

After taking Davis with the previous pick, I immediately regretted it, as it moved me down the draft order and put footballmm11 ahead of me, who also needed his Hutchison still. Thankfully he and happyhours both took O'Neill and I was left with the only "cheap" Hutchison remaining.

Round 11 - 1913 Hendrix ($7.8M)

This Hendrix will be in my rotation *shudder*. That is all.

Round 12 - 1902 Strang ($5M)

I planned to use Anthony Rendon here, but wanted more pitching so ultimately decided to start Strang. Not great, but not awful.

Round 13 - 1903 Doheny ($6.6M)

A piece of crap, but came with a winning lotto ticket at this stage of the draft, in Honus Wagner, who supplanted Boudreau as my SS.

Round 14 - 1936 Cain ($4M)

Filler.

Round 15 - 1890 O'Neill ($5.1M)

Another guy I needed to round out my lineup. He'll DH and leadoff. I'm quite glad he had one solid full-season option left.


My offense actually has zero wasted money. Buckley will be needed to spell Ewing on occasion and Farrell is a stud PH option who can play around the diamond. The rest are cheap scrubs.

Lineup:

'90 O'Neill (DH) - .302/.377/.407 (C-/C-)
'90 Connor (1B) - .349/.450/.548 (B/A+)
'27 Hornsby (2B) - .361/.448/.586 (B-/B-)
'95 Salmon (LF) - .330/.429/.594 (B+/B)
'03 Wagner (SS) - .355/.414/.518 (C/A+)
'90 Ewing (C) - .338/.406/.545 (C/A-/B)
'49 Mitchell (CF) - .317/.360/.428 (A/B-)
'85 Davis (RF) - .287/.348/.484 (C+/A-)
'02 Strang (3B) - .296/.387/.364 (D/B+)

My pitching staff has anywhere from $12-15M in wasted salary. I chose Globe Life park to take advantage of my team's wealth of IP, and defense. We'll see if it works.

Pitching Staff:

SP1 - '17 Scherzer - 200 IP, .178 OAV, 12 K/9
SP2 - '13 Hendrix 263 IP, .248 OAV, 5.2 K/9
SP3 - '93 Breitenstein - 470 IP, .239 OAV, 2.4 K/9

Long A - '03 Doheny - 258 IP, .252 OAV, 3 K/9
Long B - '13 Overall - Awful
Setup A - '17 Doolittle - 51 IP, .185 OAV, 10.9 K/9
Setup A - '85 Ontiveros - 75 IP, .174 OAV, 4.4 K/9
Setup A - '95 Percival - 83 IP, .147 OAV, 11.4 K/9
Closer A - '87 McDowell - 28 IP, .168 OAV, 4.8 K/9

Expensive Mopups: '93 Hutchison & '36 Cain.

Final Analysis: My offense is solid, but if I win, it'll be because of my defense and bullpen. We also can't afford to lose any of Scherzer's starts. I chose a hitters park to give my defense more value. I foresee a .500 team, but knowing everyone is dealing with similar awfulness, it's hard to predict.