I expected a run on Rays teams to build bullpens. I almost took 2019 and had a couple others in mind, too.

I will use this thread to add my Draft Comments. Red = pitcher, Green = hitter, * = starter, ** = platoon

Round 1 - 2004 Diamondbacks .315
Randy Johnson, SP
When I came up with this theme, I immediately remembered the 2004 season when Randy Johnson should have won the Cy Young but lost to Roger Clemens (who had far inferior stats) because of his Johnson's mediocre W-L record. This was one of the most famous award controversies in MLB history. Without even looking at other alternatives, I selected this season knowing I would get an early pick in round 2. In retrospect, I probably should have taken '64 Dean Chance. I ended up rostering a bunch of HR hitters and am playing home games in a +HR park. Randy Johnson might give up 50 HRs.
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Round 2 (Pick 1) - 1981 Astros .555
Nolan Ryan, SP
Don Sutton, SP
Bob Knepper, SP
My choices here were 1981 and 2019 Astros for pitching, the 2001 Rockies for hitting and an early round 3 pick. I also strongly considered 1994 to get Bagwell, Biggio and a solid Doug Drabek. Since I already had Randy Johnson, maybe I should have taken 2019 and then made sure I grabbed a negative HR ballpark. But I couldn't pass up 1981, especially since their modest .555 win% should have me drafting in the middle of round 3. Also, I thought that if I end up with another solid SP, I could pivot from Knepper to Dave Smith.
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Round 3 (Pick 13) - 2019 Rockies .438
*Nolan Arenado, 3B
*Trevor Story, SS
*Charlie Blackmon, OF
**Tony Wolters, C
Scott Oberg, RP
I had my heart set on the 1996 Rockies and kstober sniped them from me just two picks before my turn. That really hurt. I could have added three A+ fielders (and decent hitters) with Galaragga, Castilla and E.Young, plus stud hitters Ellis Burks and Larry Walker. I didn't really have a plan B. So, I panicked and grabbed 2019 Rockies mainly because of their low win%. This team really only has 3 good players (Arenado, Story, Blackmon). Scott Oberg is an ok reliever. I was forced to take Tony Wolters b/c I needed a catcher. I actually considered taking 2001 Mariners (despite knowing I would pick last next round) but thought there was a non-zero chance they might last to round 4. At the time of my selection, I was set to pick first in round 4. But if I had to take truth serum, I knew they wouldn't make it to me in round 4. In retrospect, there were so many better picks than 2019 Rockies here.
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Round 4 (Pick 4) - 2009 Brewers .494
*Prince Fielder, 1B
*Ryan Braun, OF
*Felipe Lopez, 2B
*Mike Cameron, CF
Casey McGehee, 2B/UT
Trevor Hoffman, RP
Claudio Vargas, RP
Sure enough, I dropped to pick 4 this round. The 2001 Mariners went at pick 22 in round 3. The 2026 players had not been released yet, but I was looking at the '26 Brewers on baseball-referenbce but I just didn't like their hitting options even though their pitching looks awesome. I mean, what 2026 team can you say you really love their hitting? Anyway, because I only got 3 decent hitters from my round 3 pick, I really needed to focus on getting some impact hitters. I've looked hard at the 1999 Rangers with Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro, Rusty Greer plus a solid RP in Jeff Zimmerman. Actually, this looks like a pretty strong pick - why didn't I take this team? Well, two main reasons. Their 95 wins would put me near the end of round 5. Also, I never have any luck with right power hitters that have low OBP, like Pudge and Gonzalez, but I also needed somebody who can play CF. That's when I found 2009 Milwaukee. I get two usable RPs, plus Prince Fielder will be my best hitter. Braun is solid and the switch-hitting Lopez will lead off with his decent OBP. Cameron isn't a great hitter but can play CF. And I get to pick early next round.
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Round 5 (Pick 6) - 1975 Mets
Tom Seaver, SP
Bob Apodaca, RP
Skip Lockwood, RP
Ken Sanders, RP
*Rusty Staub, DH
**Jerry Grote, C
Del Unser, OF
Ed Kranepool, 1B
Mike Vail, OF
For the first 15 picks in round 4, I was slated to pick 2nd in round 5. Then a bunch of people took bad teams and undercut me, dropping me to 6th pick. Surely that won't make a difference. During the wait, I found the perfect fit for my last team. I just had to wait it out those first five picks. With one pick to go, I thought it was a lock. I had already built my complete team, opened the league and entered my team, then even went as far as modifying my lineup, setting up the rotation and editing the other settings. After hours of waiting for ff09 to become available to make his pick, he finally posted... "2014 Angels". Noooooooo! F*ck me!

After cleaning up the blood from banging my head against the wall, I had to come up with a Plan B. I finally had it narrowed down to either 1969 Mets or 1975 Mets. Had I taken '69, I would've added both Seaver and Koosman and replaced '81 Knepper with '81 Dave Smith. But I already drafted all these HR hitters and '69 Seaver is very HR-prone and Koosman isn't as much, but more so than Knepper. I also needed a catcher and '75 Grote is better than '69 Grote. So I decided on 1975. This is Seaver's best season as far as his HR frequency (0.35). I get three pretty good RPs (2.29, 2.11, 1.81 erc#) and all of three of these RPs can throw more than 10-15 pitches per appearance (which was not the case with the 2014 Angels RPs). Of course, Rusty Staub is no Mike Trout, so the '75 Mets is certainly a downgrade from the '14 Angels. Oh well. ff09 took a terrible '98 Rockies team in round 4 just to pick early in round 5, so he earned the right to snipe me.

Overview
Had I gotten the 2014 Angels, I would have used Garret Richards as my Long-Setup RP. Trout would've played CF, allowing me to move Cameron to LF and my defense would've been way better - probably a 90+ win team. As it stands now, my rotation will feature Seaver, R.Johnson, Sutton, Knepper and I will use '81 Ryan as my Long-Setup pitcher. He doesn't give up HRs, so it won't be easy to score off him in those later innings. My offense won't be as good as I had originally hoped (Cameron can't hit and my catching platoon isn't great), but if I can finish in the top 5 in HRs hit while allowing the fewest HRs, then this team could finish with 85-86 wins.

Round 1 - 1969 Astros .500
Larry Dieker, SP
So when I did a search on all pitchers that would be available for use in this theme, I found a very small amount over 250 IP, obviously by the time I jumped in several had been taken and I had a small handful that I was targeting (85 Gooden, 96 Kevin Brown, 89 Saberhagen) I decided all those teams had too high winning pcts. or too many teammates that would just be wasted, so I settled on the .500 1969 Astros. That strategy didn't really pan out, as the 85 Gooden team only picked 7 picks later than me, but it is what it is.
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Round 2 (Pick 17) - 1998 Padres .605
Kevin Brown, SP
Trevor Hoffman, RP
Greg Vaughn, OF
Like I say, I thought for sure my .500 team would have put me higher in round 2 than 17th, but it worked out well, as I was able to secure the 1998 Padres and pick up a version of Kevin Brown who through all his incarnations as a Marlin, Padre or Dodger has always been one my best pitchers in the sim. Also allowed me to take Trevor Hoffman's best season and a 50 Home Run Greg Vaughn season to boot. This Vaughn pick would be a harbinger of things to come for the makeup of the rest of the boppers to fill out this lineup.
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Round 3 (Pick 21) - 2004 Rockies .420
Todd Helton, 1B
Vinny Castilla, 3B
Jeromy Burnitz, OF
Larry Walker, OF
Mark Sweeney, OF

On this pick it was really about panicking that probably almost everyone is going to pick a Rockies team and if I wait too long, then I will miss out on all the good seasons, and my offense will really be struggling to compete. So at this point I think 8 Rockies teams were already off the board so I was surveying what remaining seasons would be able to offer me 5 quality bats. Todd Helton's $9 million dollar .347/.469/.620 season was sticking out like a sore thumb. It also came along with 35+ HR, 110+ RBI seasons from Burnitz and Vinny Castilla, strong defense from Castilla as well. A strong 17 HR half season from Larry Walker will platoon nicely and Mark Sweeney will be a good bench piece. The fact that this team had only a .420 winning pct was just a bonus as I did not expect it to set me up at the top of round 4, but it set me up nicely for the team I was targeting with my next pick.


Round 4 (Pick 1) - 2001 Rangers .451
Alex Rodriguez, SS
Ivan Rodriguez, C
Rafael Palmeiro, DH
Jeff Zimmerman, RP
Juan Moreno, Mopup
Frank Catalanotto, 2B/OF Platoon
Randy Velarde, Bench

I have to admit, I got a little lost how may rounds we had left with this pick, as I told myself, I have the perfect pick this round to fill out my C, SS and DH spots and then I'll fill out my pitching on the next two rounds. Obviously that was incorrect, and with my Round 4 pick providing me with one single serviceable RP and a mopup, the final 650 IP were going to have to all come from our Round 5 team which I think we did pretty well with. But yeah with our 2001 Rangers pick I knew we needed to sooner rather than later address the two thinnest positions on the field of C and SS. I had zeroed in on the 2001 Rangers as having possibly the best possible option for both of those positions in Arod and his 52 home runs and Pudge Rodriguez with his 59% Caught Stealing Pct. Obviously this particular Pudge leaves me needing about another 200 PAs, which I was also able to address in Round 5. Also was able to grab Rafael Palmeiro as my DH with 47 HR. Frank Catalanotto and Randy Velarde will provide platoon and bench depth at 2B/OF. Of Course the .451 winning pct provided us another high pick in Round 5.
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Round 5 (Pick 2) - 2016 Nationals
Max Scherzer, SP
Stephen Strasburg, SP
Tanner Roark, SP
Mark Melancon, RP
Shawn Kelley, RP
Matt Belisle, RP
Daniel Murphy, 2B
Wilson Ramos, C Platoon
Trea Turner, Platoon

So after the realization that I had left myself in position to need to find 650 usable IP from one Round 5 team I was able to identify several teams that would fit the bill, 2002 DBacks, 1969 and 1976 Mets, several Rays teams. But there was only really one team that I had circled that could get me there on IP while also giving me a starting 2B and fill out my C platoon. That team was the 2016 Nationals. I had them targeted since the 3rd round and was sweating every time I saw a Nationals team go off the board thinking for sure that I had waited too long. Luckily by pick 5.2 my preferred pick did fall to me. Affording me Mad Max, Stras and Roark to fill out my rotation along with 170 innings of high level RP. Also happened to give me a nice upgrade at 2B with Daniel Murphy and Wilson Ramos to help fill out my C spot. a Half season of Trea Turner with a .342 average, 13 HR and 33 SB will serve nicely to platoon with Larry Walker as my LF.

Overview
Should have some slugfests as I do have 313 HR in my lineup but also a few high HR/9 pitchers. Maybe we can grab a postseason spot with 88-90 wins.

Some data on the draft...

Team Salaries & Division Alignment
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Division_________	Owner_________	Salary_______
NL East	thebubbaq	137,463,210
NL East	njbigwig	133,147,807
NL East	kstober	132,372,596
NL East	mllama54	129,187,542
NL Central	pedrocerrano	127,516,949
NL Central	3dayrotation	125,987,599
NL Central	nocomm999	124,943,894
NL Central	ledfoot	124,434,963
NL West	Ribbentrop	123,980,291
NL West	Jtpsops	123,653,681
NL West	schwarze	123,289,019
NL West	firesalt	123,144,944
AL East	bbondsmvp	122,266,140
AL East	DarthDurron	121,229,688
AL East	SAKABAKBRG	120,885,022
AL East	pmars2001	120,325,803
AL Central	redcped	120,247,193
AL Central	calhoop	119,136,779
AL Central	ronthegenius	118,943,863
AL Central	ybjsports	116,635,379
AL West	thejuice6	116,386,134
AL West	ff09	116,366,963
AL West	bigsteve12	113,805,731
AL West	footballmm11	112,301,349

Excluding round 5 (since that team's win% doesn't matter in the draft order), here is the cumulative winnings% drafted by each person...
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Owner___________	Win%
schwarze	0.450
Jtpsops	0.466
footballmm11	0.481
pedrocerrano	0.484
bbondsmvp	0.494
bigsteve12	0.500
calhoop	0.505
3dayrotation	0.510
ledfoot	0.516
ybjsports	0.519
firesalt	0.520
ronthegenius	0.521
kstober	0.526
pmars2001	0.526
mllama54	0.526
nocomm999	0.528
thebubbaq	0.532
Ribbentrop	0.538
SAKABAKBRG	0.541
redcped	0.542
DarthDurron	0.546
njbigwig	0.546
ff09	0.571
thejuice6	0.584

Wow I’m almost never towards the bottom of salary let alone last

If I’d used David Price’s full 2015 instead of partial, that would be $4m more. Would move me up two or three divisions.

Round 1 – 1971 Padres .379
Dave Roberts, SP
I only did four of the original 1-3-5-7-9 drafts. Three of them used Round 1 teams with a stud hitter and one used a team with a lot of SP innings (Feller’s 46 Indians). Only the latter made the playoffs and Round 2. So, this convinced me that I needed a team with a poor winning percentage and one good starter.
The 2004 Diamondbacks would be perfect but schwarze snagged them (Of course, he did). Then when I first took a few minutes at work to look at options I was thinking the 2013 Marlins and Jose Fernandez. After all, it’s always good to have a leader who can drive the boat (Ohh, too soon?) Anyways, I refreshed and saw that footballmm11 snagged them (Of course, he did). Then I considered the 2002 Jays and Halladay. You know, someone who can take this team by the yoke and pilot it through adversity (ohh, too soon as well?). Well, then I got busy at work and didn’t look again until a few hours later and started to panic that everyone already had much better choices in place. 79 Astros? - Winning percentage too high. 75 Mets? – I was planning on taking a Mets team in round 2 or 3 (Spoiler alert – I didn’t). 97 Jays – jtpsops beat me to it (Of course, he did) So, wanting to pick before going out the door for the drive home, I somehow settled on the 71 Padres and Dave Roberts (Not sure why, but hey, at least he hasn’t operated a vehicle to his death while intoxicated)

Round 2 (Pick 5) - 1981 Expos .556
Bill Gullickson, SP
*Andre Dawson, CF
**Tim Raines, OF
I didn’t do any research here. I have documented many times before that the early 80s Expos were my favourite team as a young Canadian growing up in Saskatchewan. We only got 2 channels on TV (French or English CBC) and the Expos were the team that CBC aired. Then, in the summer of 1981, I attended my first live baseball game when I was out East visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Ottawa and they took us to Olympic Stadium. I remember we were in some nosebleed seats and I had one of those disposal cameras. I was looking around the stadium through the viewfinder and happened to notice Raines and Dawson initiate and complete a double steal. I was so excited that I was able to snap a few pictures of this. My parents didn’t even know what happened until the crowd roared. Of course, when the film was developed when we got home it looked like a bunch of ants on a green carpet (no telephoto lens on those disposal things). But still, good memories. On the flip side, I remember my teacher that fall was a big fan and she stopped teaching so that the class could listen to the entire Blue Monday playoff game on the radio - my first real big sports heartbreak. Anyways, Dawson was far and away my favourite player growing up and it crushed me when he left for the Cubs. But, by then, CTV had entered my small TV market and they showed Blue Jays games and they were the exciting Canadian team in the mid 80s so loyalties had already started to shift. As for more recent memories, Bill Gullickson just took my team to a (rare for me) World Series win in the latest iteration of mfumar’s Bookend Twist League. He’s always done well for me in WIS (as has Dawson) and so this pick was decided long before I finalized my Round 1 pick.
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Round 3 (Pick 15) – 2005 Florida Marlins .512
Dontrelle Willis, SP
*Carlos Delgado, 1B
*Miguel Cabrera, 3B
**Luis Castillo, 2B/OF
Todd Jones, RP
Pitching always seems to be the Achilles heel in these types of drafts – especially my type of pitching. For those that don’t follow my team building trends closely (which should be all of you I dearly hope - or please seek help) I generally value hr/9+ over everything else. I will gladly take a low hr pitcher with an OAV in the .400s over some modern WHIP star that likes to give up the gopher ball. Usually this strategy works to my complete detriment (which makes sense) and yet I persevere.
So for this draft, I started to look at some Ron pitchers – 88 Gubicza, 88 Ojeda, 98 Clemens, 05 Willis, 84 Gooden, and 10 Jiminez were ones that stood out to me as having being used on my teams in the past (likely towards a last place finish). Most teams were too successful but the 88 Royals, 05 Marlins, and 10 Rockies had middling records and some useful pieces. I settled on the 05 Marlins to grab Dontrelle along with a Ron-approved reliever in Todd Jones and decent corner IF pieces in Delgado and Cabrera. In the end analysis I’m using Luis Castillo as well to platoon (out of position) with Tim Raines at RF and at leadoff.
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Round 4 (Pick 9) - 2026 Brewers .636
Jacob Misiorowski, SP
*William Contreras , C
*Brice Turang, 2B
**Jake Bauers, DH
Trevor Megill, RP
Brandon Woodruff, RP
Abner Uribe, RP

I usually read the rules in this type of league a few times; partly because things take awhile to sink into my slow brain, and partly to try identify any possible advantages. In this case, I picked up at the beginning that 2026 teams were available. At the same time the 2026 players were delayed and no one had picked a 2026 team or even commented on them so I wondered if some of the owners didn’t even realize they were an option. Of course, Misiorowski brings attention to the Brewers and, although some of their pitchers are more homer prone than I like, baseball-reference seemed to indicate they might have a few useful pieces.
Then, to my chagrin, jtpsops ruined the surprise and started asking questions and brought the whole 2026 option into the light. I figured the attention would lead to someone sniping the Brewers from me so I focussed research elsewhere.
I arrived at this pick ready to draft the 2014 Angels. Garret Richards is a Ron-liked pitcher for sure and Mike Trout and Joe Smith would be valuable additions. But jtpsops went with 2026 Yordan Alvarez and, to my surprise, the Brewers were still there niggling at my consciousness. What the hell – might as well give them a try. Miz will serve a reliever/occasional starter role and Megill will be my closer. Turang bumped Castillo from 2B on my roster and Contreras provides enough at bats to fill the catcher spot. Woodruff and Uribe can add some innings. I knew the pick would drop me to the end of Round 5 but thought it was worth it.
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Round 5 (Pick 23) – 2010 Rockies .512
Ubaldo Jiminez, SP
*Troy Tulowitzki, SS
*Carlos Gonzalez, OF
Miguel Olivo, C
**Ryan Spilborghs, DH
Clint Barmes, IF
Rafael Betancourt, RP
Matt Belisle, RP
Huston Street, RP


The 14 Angels went in a slow-rolled snipe between the Schwarze brothers so they were off the table. I needed a SS, an OF, some combination of DH at bats and maybe a pitcher. Looking at shortstops, I quickly came to the 1980 Brewers - Yount, and the rest of their offense, was spectacular. They don’t have any pitching help but by going back and adding Josh Beckett from the 05 Marlins and Logan Henderson from the 26 Brewers I could make it work. So, I spent the majority of the Round 5 checking every pick to see if I was sniped and hoping the 80 Brewers would remain……And then it finally hit me (I told you things are slow to sink into this old brain) - I couldn’t take a Brewers team because of my Round 4 pick. Aaarghh.
So, with just a few picks remaining before me, I circled back to the 2010 Rockies who I considered earlier. Tulo provides 500+ at-bats of excellent SS and Carlos Gonzalez fills the OF spot. There are also enough spare pieces to help fill the DH spot, provide back-ups to the other positions, and add some relief innings. And, although it’s always risky to rely on the Rockies to provide an important starting pitching chip, I’ve been considering Ubaldo Jiminez for the rotation since Round 3. So, the Rockies it is. And, returning to sports memories, my all-time favourite live sports memory was sitting in the Rogers Centre for the 2016 Wild Card game between the Jays and Orioles. A tight, nerve-wracking affair that went into the 11^th inning and used up almost every pitcher from both teams. I say almost as Buck Showalter made the decision to keep the season’s most dominant pitcher, Zach Britten, in the bullpen. So, it was old Ubaldo himself that was left out there to groove one to Encarnacion who drilled it deep into left-centre for the walk-off that left the stadium rocking.
I’m sure that will be a sign of things to come

Fantastic write-up Ron! Thanks for those Expos & Blue Jays stories. And, it's not "too soon".

I checked your pitchers HRs allowed and was shocked and thrilled that my pitchers (67 in 1540 IPs) have allowed slightly fewer than yours (80 in 1582 IPs), although if we normalized the numbers, your HR/9# is probably better than mine. Every team has 275+ HRs on their roster, so it should be interesting to see how our pitching staffs do (coincidentally, we both chose Miller Park as our home stadium).