Post your writeups here.

Although I had 7 of my 8 teams qualify for round 4, I had no really strong teams (only one playoff team), so I knew I wasn't going to get a Top 4 pick. As a result, I didn't put in the usual amount of research time building teams in preperation for this round. I built some Mariners, Blue Jays & Rockies teams, but that's about it. I still had a number of league 1 rosters built from last round that were still available, so I wasn't too worried about that league.

To make things more complicated, I was on vacation when the regular season ended, so I didn't even have time to do a lot of last minute research. I decided to play only two teams this round, so hopefully I will get at least one to advance ot the final round.

League 2 - Pick 9
2003 Arizona Diamondbacks
I had 1997 Seattle as my #1 choice in league 2 (of the teams I built), so it's not surprising that they went off the board with the first overall pick. I had the 1998 Blue Jays as my top Blue Jays team, and they went #4 overall. I was getting on a plane and was due up soon, so I figured this would be the perfect time to do some research. The good news is that the wifi was free on this particular flight. The bad news is that b/c it was free, everybody was using it and it was *very* slow. It took me two hours to build 2-3 new teams. I knew I'd be looking at the 2000 & 2003 D'backs (2001 & 2002 were already taken). I also strongly considered the 1996 or 1997 Marlins... I also had previously built the 2012 Rockies. Since I missed out on the top A.L. teams, I was focused on picking an NL team.

I finally narrowed down my choices to 1997 Marlins and 2003 D'backs. (I preferred 1997 over 1996 Marlins because they had Daulton and Bonilla vs Pendleton & Dawson). The Marlins had the better offense. The D'backs had the better pitching. I chose the better pitching. Part of my thought process was that with 2003 Ariz, I might avoid being in the 1996-97 Marlins division, which is exactly what happened. The NL East is brutal with four very strong teams. With respect to the NL Central, I will concede that the 2002 D'backs is better than my 2003 team, but the 2007 Rockies and the 2008 D'backs were the 9th and 10th NL teams selected.

I rostered six 200+ starting pitchers (R.Johnson x 2, Schilling x 2, B.Webb x2) and will four of these guys will be put in two tandems. I will use '92 Schilling as my main long reliever, with B.Kim x2, Valverde, Bottalico and Reyes filling in the rest of the bullpen. Overall, my pitching staff has 1825 innings, with a .215 oav and 1.04 whip. Considering that I have gopher-ball pitchers R.Johnson and Schilling, my team HR/9 is a respectable 0.62.

The offense has a solid mix of lefties (L.Gonzalez x2, Finley, Womack, Grace), righties (M.Williams x2, a 3-man catcher platoon) and switch hitters (Baerga, Cintron, F.Jose). The weak spots on offense is at SS and catcher. Where other D'backs teams have Jay Bell, I will have to play Tony Womack for 1/3 of the time. Barajas will have to play 50% of the time at catcher. I am hopeful that using swtich hitters F.Jose, Baerga & Cintron will give my team a boost on offense. My team total hitting stats: .306, .366, .504.

This feels like an 87-win team which may or may not be enough for the playoffs.

League 1 - Pick 14
2003 Texas Rangers
It took me a long time to finally settle on a team. I had a number of teams I kind of liked. They all had flaws, but I think any of these teams are capable of advancing to the next round. I could be wrong, b/c some of the teams I considered didn't even get taken. I had the 2005 Mets as my top chioce and they went early (3rd overall). The '98 Padres (K.Brown, Caminiti, Gwynn) and the '80 Astros (Ryan, Richard, Cedeno, J.Morgan) were the only two NL teams I considered when my turn came up. In the AL, I looked at the '86 Royals (Brett, W.Wilson, Saberhagem Cone), the '08 Angels (Teixeira, V.Guerrero, Napoli), the '18 Angels (Trout, Pujols, Ohtani, M.Harvey), 2011 Rangers (J.Hamilton, Beltre, great bullpen, weak SP, but strong defense). I settled on the 2003 Rangers due to their very strong offense. (The '86 Royals were a close 2nd, especially considering the 82, 83 & 85 Royals all won 87+ games).

The offense is led by Alex Rodriguez x 2, Teixeiro x 2, C.Everett x 2, Pameiro x 2, Sierra, Ju.Gonzalez. I will likely start either Teixeira or Palmeiro out of position at 2B (instead of M.Young). This team is going to score runs, especially playing their home games at Bennett Park. The best featuree of this team is that I can start six switch hitters (Krueter, Teixeira, Teixeira, Everett, Everett, Sierra). The defense isn't great and if this team ends up below .500, that will be the reason. The overall hitting stats are: .313, .393, .581!

The starting pitching isn't very good with Ismael Valdez x2, Chan Ho Park, R.A. Dickey & Alan Benes making up the 5-man rotation. The bullpen is definately better, with F.Cordero x2, Benoit x2, Fultz, J.Powell, E.Ramirez, Urbina. What could go wrong? Pitching totals are 1489 ips, .211 oav, 1.07 whip, 0.74 hr/9.

I'm going to be aggressive and project tthis team to win 84 games, although they could easily lose 84+ games.

I just realized that both of my teams are from 2003. That was not my intention.

LG 1

2020 Brewers, 4th pick overall, 1st in AL

Both of my teams did really well in Rd1. So I didn't have to do much research when it came to Rd 2, especially for this league since I already did the research in Rd1. There were still a lot of really good Mets teams not taken in round 1 and the overall pool was still pretty deep. As for the AL side, the pool was shallow. There were two teams that stood out to me: the 1992 Rangers and the 2020 Brewers. Coming off of my 2022 Brewers surprise team, I was very familiar with the 2020 Brewers. To be frank, I loved that this team was the 23rd team chosen in the league and ended up with 96 wins. Plus, the 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023 Brewers were all out of play. That assured me no competition from similar teams. 1992 Rangers are a VERY good team, maybe a better choice than the 2020 Brewers. But the pick was all heart, and what is this league if it's not fun?

On the pitching side I have 2x Woodruff, 2x Burnes, 2x Hader, 2x Williams and Rd1 hero 2x Freddy Peralta just like the 2022 version. Only two new faces, Dennis Rasmussen (setup A) and Brett Anderson (Long B) are the new faces. I have about 70 less innings because I am only carrying 12 pitchers compared to the 13 I carried last season. But I'm playing at 0.87 Colt Stadium and fatigue wasn't really an issue last round, so we should be ok.

On the hitting side it's a very different story. Only returnees are 2x Christian Yelich and 17 Cain who will be a 4th outfielder/platoon. 2x Ryan Braun will be in RF/DH. I have an actual 1B this time in Justin Smoak. Orlando Arcia is at SS, and 2B/3B will be a combo of 2x Jedd Gyorko, Keston Hiura, and Eric Sogard. Even though I have access to Omar Narvaez, I'm using strong-armed 2x Manny Pina at catcher. Narvaez is a better hitter but he only threw out 4 out of 115 basestealers for me last season! Footballmm11 used the same 2x Pina platoon at catcher and he won 104 games, so it seems to be a smart choice.

I'm with the 3rd, 7th and 9th picks in the AL which means medium difficulty. Projection 92 wins.

LG2

2001 Arizona Diamondbacks - 5th pick overall, 2nd in NL

I'm a pitching first guy, so I think I always knew it would likely be one of these Diamondback teams. I would have taken this team even if I had the first pick in the draft. The problem with this team is that 2000, 2002 and 2003 are all very similar. Everyone has 2x Randy Johnson, 2x Curt Schilling, 2x Byung-hyun Kim, 2x Matt Mantei, 2x Luis Gonzalez and 2x Matt Williams. So I had to research to see what "others" that separate each of these four teams. Here are the key guys:

2B/SS Jay Bell - not on 2003, though Baerga is on 2003. I do have Cintron, but don't like Womack or Spivey,
1B Mark Grace - not on 2000
OF Reggie Sanders - on 2001 only. Similar to Bernard Gilkey (2000), Raul Mondesi (2003) and Jose Guillen (2002).
DH Erubiel Durazo - not on 2003
C - Damian Miller - not on 2003
P - Mike Morgan - not on 2003, though 2003 has Brandon Webb who is about even

I didn't pick 2000 because no Mark Grace and I'd have to play Durazo/Colbrunn at 1B and then use Finley in the OF which would be all lefties.
I didn't pick 2003 because mostly Jay Bell at SS, but somewhat because of Durazo/Miller/Morgan.

It came down to 2001 and 2002, who are very similar. I wanted the righty Reggie Sanders. Sanders will start in CF and the other Sanders will be a platoon DH with Durazo. Poor Steve Finley. He didn't make my 1991 Astros team nor this team either because of Luis Gonzalez. Just too many lefties and his OBP is not high enough for me to take a roster spot from a pitcher.

I am in a division with the 6th, 7th and 11th picks. But the 11th pick is the 2000 D-Backs which someone pointed out are similar to mine minus Mark Grace. And it's not that much of a difference to have him. Prediction 87 wins.

League 2 - 18th overall, 11th in the AL ... your 1995 Seattle Mariners

When it finally got to me I had realistically narrowed my pick to 2 teams - this one and the 2015 Marlins. The Marlins would have the advantage of an easier league. They had Haren, Latos and Jose Fernandez, a better bullpen, and the JTR/Stanton/Yeli/Ozuna core, plus Ichiro and Dee Gordon. I figured the Mariners were going to be in a harder division. But ultimately I decided I liked them better. Just being here was kind of a fluke anyway, since my 2019 Astros team sucked in the first half and got hot in the 2nd half to win the division at 85-77 and punch my ticket. (They proceeded to get crushed in the LDS.)

It's a typical Mariners team from this era - let's see how a team can do with 2x Junior, 2x A-Rod, 2x Edgar and 2x Randy. Andy Benes 177ip/2.68erc# and Tim Belcher 181ip/2.45erc# each have enough innings in their best year to tandem with a Randy. Chad Kreuter is actually not bad as a catcher and Jay Buhner is fine as a #7 hitter. Joey Cora and his C/D glove is the only real weak spot. I thought about playing Edgar at 3B and an out of position A-Rod at 2B with Tino Martinez at 1B. Maybe that would have been better. We're playing in Bennett Park because my hitters hit way more bombs than my pitchers allow. We'll need some luck to sneak into a wild card with both the 97 Mariners and the 98 Jays in our division.

League 1 - Pick 16
2009 New York Mets

Trade! I actually really wanted this team and I sent a conditional trade offer quite early in the draft in case they "dropped". I put that in quotes because I probably just got this very wrong, and they will not do as well as I think.

First thing that stood out was the bullpen. It was one of the better ones I could see in terms of the number of high quality relievers I had access to, and then to top it all off, I checked BRef, and Billy Wagner snuck in there at the bottom with 2IP! 2 Wagners, 2 Putz, KRod, O'Day and Oliver Perez give me just under 500 innings at about 0.85 whip. We might have a problem getting there, which is why this team might have dropped, but we will get there after.

The hitting also stands out. Delgado, Reyes, Wright, Sheffield, Murphy, Beltran, Castillo. This team has a ton of great players, and they are spread around the entire field. Very easy to build an elite lineup with great hitting all around and great fielding. Not to mention, the very low PA super seasons for Jeremy Reed and Marlon Anderson. My only issue was picking which versions of each player, especially Beltran.

Then finally, what sealed the deal for me was that the 2008 Mets finished 1st overall, and the 2006 Mets finished 2nd overall in Round 3. Picking 16th this round, I just don't think I could have hoped for a team with better pedigree to get through to the next round. I even have Gary Sheffield, which maybe makes my offense better than 2008? They also don't have Putz or KRod, so I believe my bullpen is better as well. The one very glaring and potentially very fatal difference is that I have no Pedro Martinez. I still have 2 Johan Santana's, and Oliver Perez actually has a pretty decent 200 IP season, but I have to fill that SP4 slot with 255 IP Livan Hernandez, and that's going to be trouble.

So, I still think this team is going to be good (or else I wouldn't have traded up to get them), but I am probably underestimating how important Pedro was on those other teams. Counting on similar hitting and upgraded bullpen to get me through to the next round.

Overview:

I had two of the top 3 picks, but there were not a lot of teams jumping out as obvious picks. I think Bill_James47 made the correct pick with 1997 SEA as the top choice. I decided early on in my research that Lg1AL (Angels, Rangers, Royals, Brewers) would be the last pick I made as there was both a dearth of good options and very little separating the top choices.

Among the teams I considered: 2005 HOU, 2005 and 2009 NYM, 2021 WSN, 2011-12 COL, 2015 FLA, 2000-03 ARI, 1994 and 1998 SEA, 1992 TOR.

The NL side of Lg1 had very good options. 2005 HOU rated highly, though I was a bit gun shy after my top choice last round of 2004 HOU was pretty mediocre. Still, you get a Clemens-led staff and the Bagwell/Berkman/Biggio killer Bs (no Beltran this time, however). A few other HOUs (2002, 1998, 2006) ranked highly as well. There were two Mets teams sandwiched around probably the best mini-era from Round 3--2005 and 2009. Last round, my 2006 NYM team won 104 games and got me the #2 pick. Of course, the 2008 team did even better and won 105 and got Bill_James47 the #1 pick. schwarze's 2007 team only won 81 games but had a .544 Exp%. 2005 gets Pedro and Piazza while 2009 gets Johan, an elite bullpen, and bigger bats (Sheffield, Delgado, Daniel Murphy). Lastly, there was the 2021 Nationals, heavy on pitching but with a still-decent offense.

Of the newer expansion teams, I was almost solely focused on SEA for the AL side, though I did briefly look at 1992 TOR. While 1997 was the best combination, I considered both 1998 (better offense) and 1994 (better pitching). Unsurprisingly, the Griffey/A-Rod/Unit/Edgar era Mariners grade out among the best. For the NL, you have the hitting-dominant Rockies, the pitching-dominant D-Backs and the more balanced (but overall weaker) Marlins.

As I sorted through the options, I couldn't really decide between the 2005 Astros, who rated out as the best team overall, or the 2005/09 Mets, who were just slightly behind in my ratings but had comp teams that performed much better in Round 3. I knew I'd have the 1st or 2nd pick in Lg1 if I waited, meaning only 2 teams maximum could be taken from Lg1 between my Top 4 picks and that pick (barracuda's #4 overall pick and potentially pedro picking ahead of me in the Lg1 draft), so I decided to wait. That led me to my two picks...

1994 Seattle Mariners
Top8 Pick #2
Lg2 Pick #2
AL Pick #2
SEA Pick #2

1997 gets a big bump from Dennis Martinez and Derek Lowe in the rotation, which neither 94 nor 98 get. Just comparing 94 and 98, which was my decision came down to the better 98 offense (Carlos Guillen, Rick Wilkins and Glenallen Hill) against the better 94 pitching (Gossage, Jeff Nelson, Thigpen and Bosio). I decided to go with the pitching, as I though Guillen and Hill were mostly superfluous and 94 does get Tino Martinez to play 1B which slots in nicely alongside A-Rod/Griffey/Edgar.

Griffey x2, A-Rod x2, and Edgar x2 were no-brainers. I went with 1992 Edgar to play 3B and with no 2B of any note, I'll play 1996 A-Rod there. That leaves 1B, C, and RF as my last 3 spots. Tino Martinez doesn't quite reach the level of the star trio but he's got a solid 1997 season to plug in at 1B, adding a 3rd lefty bat to go with Griffey. In RF, I rostered both 1994 Jay Buhner and 1996 Reggie Jefferson. Ideally, Jefferson would be a DH with his C-/D- OF ratings but with Mr. DH himself already in tow, the switch-hitting Jefferson will have to play RF vs righties, platooning with Buhner who will also act as his defensive replacement. Catcher is easily the sore spot on this team, but 1996 Dan Wilson has an A+ arm and a little bit of pop, and I also rostered 1990 Mackey Sasser's lefty bat to maybe hit against some righties. For the last spot, I rostered 1991 Luis Sojo solely for his glove--he's B/B+ at 2B (where I have nobody else rated) and C/C at 3B (where 92 Edgar has only 592 PA).

The pitching is pretty good, led of course by the Big Unit. But the bullpen is also better than expected thanks to the presence of both Gossage and Thigpen, who each got cloned. Same goes for Jeff Nelson, who is on many of the Mariners teams in this era. I rounded out the bullpen with solid relief seasons from both Bill Risley and Bobby Ayala. That gave me 1127 innings all with ERC# under 2.20. I still needed at least 300 innings, give or take, so enter Chris Bosio x2. He brings 400 innings with ERC# coming in the 2.90s. I had an extra spot so I also rostered Greg Hibbard's 211 innings (3.10 ERC#) to get another lefty.

I end up avoiding the rest of the Mariners teams, including Bill_James47's 1997 team, finding myself in the AL East with three Blue Jays squads. thejuice6's 1992 team is here, which is another one I considered. I feel pretty good about this team, especially avoiding 1997, so I'll predict 90 wins and a division title, though the early 90s TOR teams could easily win it.

2011 Colorado Rockies
Top8 Pick #3
Lg2 Pick #3
NL Pick #1
COL Pick #1

For my other pick, I went to the NL side of Lg2. I ruled out 2015 FLA first. You do get Jose Fernandez, but I'm less of a fan of Haren and Latos and the 'pen is just okay. Offensively, getting a real catcher in Realmuto is nice and the OF/1B/DH positions can be manned by a combination of Ichiro, Yelich, Ozuna, and Stanton. This team was the most balanced I looked at but didn't have enough to stack up. I figured the early 2000s D-Backs would be popular. Who wouldn't want Johnson and Schilling atop their rotation?! But I would say both the bullpens and the offenses leave a little something to be desired. Certainly a Luis Gonzalez/Matt Williams/Jay Bell base is solid, but it's not elite, and the depth is just okay. The bullpen has some decent options but very few in any elite studs depending on the exact year you pick in this era.

That all led me to (shockingly, I know) settle on a COL team with their great offenses. The 2010-13 era in particular rated highly, and I eventually focused specifically on 2011 and 2012. Both of these teams get Helton and Giambi, along with Tulo, Blackmon, and CarGo. The major differences are offense vs pitching. 2012 gets DJ LeMahieu, who fits perfectly into the 2B/3B gap. That lineup of Helton x2, Giambi x2, Tulo, LeMahieu x2, Blackmon/CarGo, and catcher is amazing. 2011 counters with the best (for this league) pitching in COL history thanks to the presence of both Kevin Millwood and Ubaldo Jimenez. (Note that this still ranks as just the 20th-best in all of the Lg2 NL teams.)

I decided to go with the better pitching version of 2011. There's still plenty of pop here and I'll start Helton x2, Giambi x2, Tulo, Blackmon/CarGo. Mark Ellis is no LeMahieu at 2B, but he's got a couple nice seasons, I went with his better hitting 2005 season (.383 OBP#, A-/B-, 486 PA) over his slick fielding 2007 season. Catcher is...fine...with Iannetta and Wilin Rosario. I went back and forth on the last roster spot, but I did end up rostering Ty Wiggington to have a true 3B. However, I may play my Tulo clone here sometimes or even one of my boppers out of position. This should be one of the best offenses in the league, though likely behind 2012.

The pitching is...actually not so bad for a COL team! Millwood has a legitimate ace season with 228 IP and 2.04 ERC# and Ubaldo Jimenez's best season is reasonable (222 IP, 2.54 ERC#). They each have a 2nd season that's not quite as good but still with ERC# under 3 and over 200 IP. The bullpen has some low-inning but stud-performance seasons with Huston Street and Rafael Betancourt each providing two seasons each under 2 ERC#--222 innings and 1.36 ERC# combined in those four years. Drew Pomeranz adds both an elite relief season (50 IP, 1.62 ERC#) and a strong long relief one (102 IP, 2.12). I rounded out the staff with some decent relief seasons from Nicasio, Romero, and Belisle.

I ended up in the division with the other similar Rockies teams that were drafted (2012 and 2013) as well as those 2015 Marlins. Lots of runs will be scored! My staff actually has decent HR numbers, but my hitters are a little more on the doubles power, so we went with Sportsman's Park which is +3 for doubles and 0/+1 for HR, benefitting my lefties a bit more. As I mentioned, I had 2012 ranked even slightly above my 2011 pick, so that was a great selection late in the draft by 3dayrotation, will be interesting to see how we fare against each other. And I had both 2013 COL and 2015 FLA high as well, as I mentioned. Given the tough division, I'll say 85 wins.

2005 New York Mets
Lg1 Pick #3
NL Pick #3
NYM Pick #1

I ended up with the 2nd pick in League 1 following the Top 4 draft (so 3rd overall). I had 3 teams I was considering--2005 HOU, 2005, NYM, and 2009 NYM--and I was secretly hoping others would make my choice easier. But they did not. barracuda3 took a different Astros team, 1998, to get Randy Johnson and then pedrocerrano took the 2021 Nationals. Those were my 4th and 6th rated teams, but didn't make my decision any easier.

I am shocked that 2005 HOU went completely undrafted. The pitching of Clemens/Oswalt/Pettitte with Lidge and others in relief is pretty good. And while the offense has two weak spots at SS and C, the other 7 positions are awesome--a combination of Bagwell, Biggio, Berkman, Ensberg. Can even use a Biggio clone at catcher or SS (OOP). However, at the juncture of my pick, I decided to eliminate 2005 HOU since they struggled for me last round and the 2006 Mets were so good for me (and 2008 was great as well).

Between the 2005 and 2009 NYM, the biggest differences are that 2005 gets Pedro and Piazza while 2009 gets Johan Santana, Billy Wagner and more offensive options with Daniel Murphy, Delgado, and Sheffield. (Side note: There are not very many duplicates between these two teams. I believe there were ZERO pitchers that were on staff for both 2005 and 2009. In fact, it's easier to just list the duplicate players of note--David Wright, Beltran, and Reyes.) While I loved the depth of 2009, both the lineup and the bullpen, there was quite a bit of waste--there's just not enough spots for Delgado, Sheffield, Beltran, Wright, Murphy, etc. and their possible clones. Plus, while 2009 certainly would have some upgraded positions--notably 1B, 2B, and RF--Piazza nullifies that by providing a huge upgrade at catcher and offsets any advantage at DH. Similarly, as good as Johan is, Pedro is a huge upgrade. So I went with 2005 to get the studs and hope that I could fill in the gaps around them.

My offense will be a bit piecemeal, but I like the balance. I cloned 4 players in Piazza, Beltran, Wright, and Floyd. Those 8 will occupy 7 lineup spots each game--everywhere but the double-play combination of Reyes and Offerman/Matsui. I do also have 112 PA of Mike Jacobs to play some 1B but mostly will be employing a Wright/Floyd out-of-position platoon there. Offerman is clearly the weakest link here but he gives me 700+ PA with a strong OBP and can soak up a lot of at-bats to help--I only have one other player (07 Wright) with more than 635 PA, so everyone else will likely need a little rest here and there. The biggest changes from 2006 Mets are that I get Piazza but drop Delgado (C/1B/DH goes from Delgado x2 + LoDuca to Piazza x2 + Wright/Floyd) and some neutral swaps--Cliff Floyd in for Shawn Green and Offerman in for Julio Franco.

The pitching staff is pretty similar to what I trotted out with 2006 with 7 pitchers returning--Pedro x2, Glavine x2, Roberto Hernandez x2 and Heath Bell. Billy Wagner is the biggest casualty, along with Oliver Perez x2, Chad Bradford and Guillermo Mota. They'll be replaced by a second Heath Bell, Juan Padilla, Mike DeJean, Shingo Takatsu, and Aaron Heilman x2. Definitely a worse staff than 2006 with Wagner out but that's to be expected. This should be a top pitching staff in Round 4, I'd hope.

With Delgado's power, I put the team in Robison Field last go round but this time I went with Bank One Ballpark. Hopefully Reyes, Beltran, and company can leg out some triples. We did unfortunately end up in likely the toughest division with both 2009 NYM and 2021 WSN both in it. A division title may be hard to come by, but would hope this team would at least comfortably advance. 92 wins.

1992 Texas Rangers
Lg1 Pick #6
AL Pick #2
TEX Pick #1

This league will be the toughest to predict. My initial rating system for teams shows very little difference at the top and a lot of depth. Three of the top 4 teams weren't taken, and just 6 of the top 25 overall. Lots of disagreement at the top.

I looked at a few Angels teams, including 2013 after I had success with 2012 ANA last round. You get Trout and Pujols but there's no Greinke this time around and that really hurts the pitching. Ultimately, I settled pretty quickly on 1992 TEX as the comparisons last round were solid (both 89 and 93 won their divisions, though 91 flamed out), the team seemed fun and different for me (last round 6 of my 8 teams were from 2004 or later), and it was just hard to find a team that might be materially better.

I'll start with the pitching staff this time which is, obviously, Nolan Ryan x2 and Kevin Brown x2. There are a few decent relief seasons sprinkled in from Todd Burns, Jeff Russell, and Lance McCullers but they run out pretty quickly. I usually roster 13 pitchers, but I only needed 10 here. I did end up rostering an 11th--Jeff M. Robinson--so I can decide between him and Kenny Rogers for my lowest-leverage innings. This will be a bit of a change for me with four stud starter seasons, we'll see how it goes!

The lineup is led by Ivan Rodriguez, Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez, and Jose Canseco. It's always nice to have Pudge behind the plate and I'll have a team with him and one with Piazza this round, which is nice. Juan Gone, Canseco, and Palmeiro are just the epitome of the 90s steroids era and they'll combine to form most of the heart of the order. Dickie Thon is a nice SS and I'll get a reunion with 2B 1991 Julio Franco (who I had on my 2006 Mets last round). 3B was the trickiest spot, but I rostered a hodgepodge of options from partial-season studs (1995 Dean Palmer) to mediocre options with 3B ratings (97 Jeff Frye and 87 Geno Petralli) to out-of-position options (probably Pudge and/or Palmeiro most likely). Palmeiro is our only real lefty--Petralli has 232 PA as well.

The division has two other Rangers teams in it, including another Ryan/Brown team in 1990. I put the team in Bennett Park for some doubles and home runs, but nothing too crazy. I don't know what to think about this team and how it will stack up--could see them winning or losing 90 but let's go right down the middle with an 81-81 prediction.