I still don't really get capped drafts. I spend all my time looking for these valuable picks and then they end up being less valuable. It's really just about making sure you can spend to the cap without wasting money and then secondarily, trying to get your players to fit together and complement each other and the park.

Pick 1 - 2015-19 Nationals (group 2)
Group 2 I thought was the sparsest given that you needed two of them and there were no 19th century teams to help out like in Group 3. The Nationals give a stud Harper, Scherzer, and Doolittle, plus solid Rendon and Murphy seasons in the infield. I also looked at Trea Turner instead of Murphy, but didn't find another 2B so stuck with Murphy.

Nationals
2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
OF Harper	2B Murphy	P Scherzer	P Doolittle	3B Rendon

Pick 2 - 1997-2001 Rangers (group 2)
I wanted the late 90s Rockies but they were taken. Group 2 was thinning out but this Rangers combo gave me the stud Rodriguez "brothers" at C and SS. Zimmerman has a great RP year and then I ended up grabbing Clark to help out at 1B.

Rangers
1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
1B Clark	P Bailes	P Zimmerman	C Rodriguez	SS Rodriguez

Pick 3 - 2007-2011 Dodgers (group 1)
Gotta get one of my Dodgers teams! There were lots of options here. I tried to fit in Kuo's stud RP season but had to downsize to an early Jansen year instead. Got a Kershaw season to pair with Scherzer atop the rotation and a stud Saito to join the bullpen. Went with ManRam's great partial to play against lefties and Belliard had a nice pinch-hitting/backup 2B season that fit.

Dodgers
2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
P Saito	OF Ramirez	2B Belliard	P Jansen	P Kershaw

Pick 4 - 1983-1987 Blue Jays (group 3)
I was running out of Group 3 options and with my first 3 picks all in modern times that also severely limited my Group 3 option so I decided to grab them now. I spent all this time looking at the best combo and then ended up not being able to use most of them. I did get to keep Moseby to play CF and Eichhorn to be the ultimate Long man. But then I couldn't afford Jimmy Key's better 1987 season or any Stieb season or fit Tom Henke in. Key's worse 1985 season is my 3rd starter and both Clancy and Niekro are mostly just innings eaters.

Blue Jays
1983	1984	1985	1986	1987
OF Moseby	P Clancy	P Key	P Eichhorn	P Niekro

Pick 5 - 1939-1943 Red Sox (group 1)
Saved a Group 1 pick for last, so had plenty of options. Too many! I would say in retrospect I should have targeted Group 2/3 teams with just 2-3 guys instead of 4-5, but it doesn't really matter. There's just so many options, it's almost impossible to get backed into a corner. I needed a C to join I-Rod's 389 PA season and still needed an OF and 1B. Jimmie Foxx popped out and he'll actually split time at C with I-Rod and 1B with Clark.

I didn't have time to fully build my team when I made the pick, so I was a bit in scramble mode trying to keep Ted Williams in my lineup. Ultimately, I just downsized a bunch of pitching options (Key, Kuo, etc.) and just went all offense. Cronin is like Belliard another good pinch-hitter/backup IF. Wagner and Fleming mostly scrubs.

Red Sox
1939	1940	1941	1942	1943
P Wagner	C Foxx	P Fleming	OF Williams	3B Cronin

I ended up with over $70m on hitting so stuck this team in Fenway. We'll probably only win about 1/3 of Jimmy Key's starts but hopefully we can do well when Kershaw and Scherzer are on the mound. Probably will have to lead the league in scoring and try to not be too far below average in defense.

My plans throughout this draft changed constantly - though it all started with me misunderstand one of the most important rules. Every time Contrarian would say “double read the rules so there’s no confusion”, I’d think in my head “pshh. I’ve read it - sounds clear enough. I got this”. So I went with planning.

Pick 1: Pittsburgh Pirates 1905-1909

First thing I started thinking of was where I struggled in the first iteration of this theme. I picked Silver King as my horse but I didn’t surround him with any real defense. I got distracted by the big hitters in Musial and Hornsby and Mize, and feel my team would’ve performed much better with a better defensive team (we finished dead last in the league with a .969%, having committed 197 errors).

I started thinking of key positions and who I’d want in a perfect world. C- Thurman Munson 1975, SS- Wagner (one of my favorite $120m players), CF- 1907 Tommy Leach (with his 36+ plays against 4 errors on his PH). This immediately brought the 1907 Pirates to my mind. My plan: Grab 1908 Wagner, 1907 Leach, 1907 Fred Clarke, 1909 Babe Adams, and 1909 Howie Camnitz (some of you may now guess the misunderstanding I had with the rules). I sent those 5 names to my brother just4me and said “I’m gonna take the 1975-1979 Yankees with my 2nd pick - which will get me 75 Munson, 78 Guidry and a stud RP to go with these guys. My team is gonna look great!”

So I picked the Pirates, and selected 1905-1909 solely to prevent someone else from taking Wagner’s 1905 season.


Pick 2: New York Yankees 1927-1931

As my 2nd pick was coming around, I’d all but settled on the 1975-1979 Yankees for my pick. 75 Munson, 76 Grant Jackson, 1978 Guidry, 1979 Oscar Gamble, and 1976 Mickey Rivers were my guys. I even sent Contrarian a proxy for my pick, which he can confirm was the 1975-1979 Yankees.
Around that time I got an email from contrarian on an update for the league, and an encouragement to re-read the rules, which he then posted:

And then, once you have your 5 franchise selections:
-- you must roster exactly 1 player from each of the 25 franchise-seasons you chose in the draft.

My mind froze for about 30 seconds as I processed that rule. 1 player from each of the 25 franchise seasons...****!

This meant that with my previously selected Pirates team, I couldn’t choose 1907 Leach AND 1907 Clarke, nor could I select 1909 Adams AND 1909 Camnitz - nor with my soon to be Yankees could I have both Jackson and Rivers...I went back to the drawing board. It was also about this time that it hit me that I would be losing all of the other group 1 teams after this pick. I’m not sure why I decided to go back to back group 1, but I did. I started quickly looking at other options, and one that had been kinda pulling on me was having 1928 Gehrig and 1930 Ruth together on a team. Sounds pretty fun to me! So I pulled the trigger on them without too much though other than Ruth and Gehrig - knowing I could very likely find pieces I need from the other years. My hope then, was to take the 2000 Rangers with my next pick and replace Munson with Pudge as my backstop. After that team was soon taken by footballman11 in the same round - I decided to see what I had with my first two teams, and ended up finding 1931 Dickey as a great option for my catcher.

1905 - Honus Wagner .363/.427/.505
1906 - Bill Hallman .270/.375/.360
1907 - Tommy Leach .303/.352/.404
1908 - Harley Young 2.23/.234/1.03
1909 - Babe Adams 1.11/.196/0.85


1927 - Tony Lazzeri .309/.383/.482
1928 - Lou Gehrig .374/.467/.648
1929 - Lyn Lary .309/.380/.428
1930 - Babe Ruth .359/.493/.732
1931 - Bill Dickey .327/.378/.442

Overall, I was loving my offense. I still needed a 3B, OF, and a lot of pitching.


Pick 3: Expos/Nationals 1996-2000

I was targeting three players with this pick. 1997 Pedro, 1989 Saberhagen, and 2004 Randy Johnson. At the time, I hadn’t selected Lazzeri yet, and was using a 200k scrub from 1927. So I was looking for teams with 2B/3B/OF as well. The Expos had Vlad and Vidro to go with Pedro, while the Royals had George Brett and some solid PT guys like Tabler, and I didn’t really feel like Randy had anyone decent around him, and didn’t wanna waste my pick on one guy. I decided I liked Pedro slightly more and went with them in round 3, hoping for the small chance I could take the Royals with my round 4 pick. From the Expos I took:

1996 - Mel Rojas 3.22/.193/1.04
1997 - Pedro Martinez 1.90/.184/0.93
1998 - Bob Henley .304/.377/.470
1999 - Vladimir Guerrero .316/.378/.600
2000 - Jose Vidro .330/.379/.540


Pick 4: Angels 1968-1972

When the 89 Royals got picked up by Schwarze, I was left with a tough choice. I still loved 1985 Brett at 3B - but there just wasn’t a lot of other stuff to go along with him - so I decided to focus on pitching. It took a lot of research on this one, but eventually I landed on the Angels - and though I am sure I’ll regret it down the road, I decided to give 4.98 BB/9 Nolan Ryan a chance. The Angels had plenty of stud arms to choose from, it was just a matter of which stud arms. From the Angels I took:

1968 - Tom Murphy 2.17/.191/0.96
1969 - Andy Messersmith 2.52/.190/1.08
1970 - Tony Gonzalez .304/.326/.359
1971 - Bruce Christensen .270/.333/.286
1972 - Nolan Ryan 2.28/.171/1.14


Pick 5: Rays 2014-2018

After my 3rd round pick, I’d already decided I was going to pick group 3 last. And so I started looking at the options I had. 2015-2019 Mets were my top, with 2015-2019 Dbacks and 2014-2018 Rays a close 2nd. When jtpsops took the Mets with his round 4 pick, I began messing with the other two options. Before I’d even decided I wanted the Angels with my 4th round pick, I picked the Rays for my 5th round pick, and just crossed my fingers they were still there. My final five from the Rays:

2014 - Jake McGee 1.89/.189/0.90
2015 - Desmond Jennings .268/.324/.340
2016 - Steve Pierce .309/.388/.520
2017 - Sergio Romo 1.47/.178/0.85
2018 - Blake Snell 1.89/.178/0.97


In the end, I ended up drafting Lazzeri at 3B due to my drafting of Vidro, and debating a long while on whether to roster 1969 Messersmith or 1908 Camnitz.

Hitter totals: 6348PA - .329/.402/.523
Pitcher totals: 1442IP - 2.21/.186/1.00

Posted by MrSafety61 on 8/4/2020 10:41:00 PM (view original):
Did we get through this whole draft without anyone taking a Tigers team? Poor Detroit! I think they were the only Group I or II team that wasn't picked at all?

I definitely looked hard at the 30s Tigers with Cochrane, York, Greenberg, Gehringer and a bunch of other useful bats...ultimately decided on the mid-70s Reds to fill most of those needs, but it wasn't an easy call.

Going into the draft I had a few basic ideas in mind:
-- Group 2 would be a problem, with each owners needing 2 franchises, and a whole bunch of years that were basically unusable. MLB definitely got better at handling expansion over time. None of the post-1993 expansion teams were ever as bad as those early 60s Mets or Senators, or the early 70s Expos/Padres.
-- But Group 1 had a disproportionate share of players who are strong values at 120M. Consequently I decided not to worry too much about Group 3 in the first couple of rounds. I do think schwarze's pick of the 1890s Orioles to start off was an inspired choice - but they were probably the only choice from Group 3 I would have considered taking in round 1.
-- A key element of success would be not wasting salary

When I drew a late pick (23rd in round 1, but 2nd in rounds 2 and 3), my goal was to fill out most of my roster with my first 3 picks, and then use rounds 4 and 5 as fill-ins. I was very happy, and more than a little surprised, when the 1880s Giants were still available at 23. I just won the WS in season 1 of this series of franchise leagues, with guys like Keefe, Connor, Tiernan as mainstays of my roster. The Giants have great pitching and hitting, and offer a ton of flexibility allowing me to mix and match later. While not my original configuration, I ended up using 1885 Welch and 1888 Keefe as my rotation (that's 1250 innings of SP with an aggregate WHIP of < 1.0 and they'll give up very few homers. Welch is a little tricky to use because I probably won't be able to get all of his innings, so there's a small deadweight loss there; I can live with it. 86 Connor and 89 Ewing are also on the team (though again, I toyed with several other configurations.)

With pick #2 I wanted to get a group 2 club out of the way, and I was largely looking for a bullpen. I figured I could add 3, 4, or 5 offensive starters with my second group 1 choice - but modern day bullpens seemed like a perfect way to get max value with minimum wasted salary from those modern expansion teams. Enter the 2009-13 Rangers with Feliz (0.68 WHIP), Adams (0.79), Uehara (0.64), Cotts (0.95). That's 200 innings of ~0.80 WHIP relief, and my pitching staff is effectively finished. Oh, I decided to thrown 2010 Josh Hamilton with his .359/.411/.633 into the lineup. Given how many teams ended up rostering modern starting pitchers, I was not too worried about having some HR power in the lineup.

Pick 3 was going to need to fill out most of my lineup. I wanted at least 3 or 4 fulltime position players, knowing that I could mix and match some of the Giants. As mentioned above I looked long and hard at the 30s Tigers, but ultimately decided on the 72-76 Reds. Originally I decided on 72 Bench, 75 Rose, 76 Morgan with 73 Griffey on the bench, but my subsequent choice of the Marlins as my Group 3 pick made my adjust that strategy...I also decided that Bench (a perennial disappointment for me at his salary) was not as good a value at catcher as Buck Ewing. Ultimately went with 72 Morgan at 2B and 76 Rose at 3B, plus some filler.

Pick 4...I needed an OF and wanted one more relief pitcher...could have gone a lot of directions, but grabbed the 1991-95 Astros with 92 Jones (112 IP, 1.01 WHIP) as my long reliever and a nice platoon OF of 95 Cangelosi (.457 OBP) and 94 Bass (.393 OBP), both switchhitters. 91 Ortiz (.381 OBP) and 93 Rhodes (.400 OBP, .519 SLG) give me two decent PH.

Pick 5...I was actually really surprised to see the 2004-08 Marlins still on the board, as they had a lot of usable players...so many that I ended up redoing my lineup again so that I could get 05 Cabrera on the team, plus added 08 Ramirez as my SS and decided to add one more arm (04 Benitez) to the bullpen.

All told, I'd like a little more offense, but I expect the pitching staff to be as good as any in the league. GL to all, and thanks for everyone keeping things moving in an untimed draft.

Posted by Jtpsops on 8/4/2020 11:19:00 PM (view original):
“And having 5 hitters from the 1890's should mean more errors for my opponents, especially those who drafted deadball pitchers. Great theme idea.”

I was not aware hitter era impacted opponent defense.

Oops. Not sure what I was thinking when I wrote that.

Wait...hitter era DOES impact opponent defense. Fielding percentage - and therefore likelihood of committing in error - is a function of 4 things: the defensive player's raw fielding percentage, the league fielding percentage from the fielder's season, the league fielding percentage from the pitcher's season, and the league fielding percentage from the batter's season.

Here's the direct quote from the knowledge base FAQs:
"We also use Log5 normalization for fielding and determining errors. The 4 key pieces here are: fielder's fielding percentage (FPCT), the league average from the fielder's season at the position, the league average from the hitter's season at the position and the league average from the pitcher's season at the position."

Interesting. I never knew that. I don’t know why that should factor in at all.

Ok, whew... I thought I was right, but then started second guessing myself.

here's a question: I wonder if you could create a competitive team picking your 5 teams now. My guess is you could. I think there's even a possibility it could even be preferable since you have complete knowledge and can make your 5 teams fit together perfectly.

If that's the case, I should have made an invalid pick every time!

There’s definitely enough talent in group 1 and even group 3. Group 2 you’d have to cherry pick 1-2 players from each pick but think it’s doable

This is not hard. Starting with Group 2 & 3, I already have 1250 solid innings with...

1969-73 Mets ('71 Seaver, '69 Koosman, '72 McGraw)
2010-14 (or 2011-15) Angels ('11 Weaver, '14 G.Richards or '14 J.Smith)
1993-97 Marlins ('96 K.Brown, '93 B.Harvey)

With these three selections, I can also add a stud Mike Trout ('12, '13 or '15 Angels) plus a decent backup catcher in '97 Gregg Zaun (Marlins). If I need OF plate appearances, I could add '95 Sheffield (311 pa, 1.040 ops). If I didn't want to take Koosman, I could add '69 Cleon Jones.

There are a number of Group 1 team combinations where I could fill in the remaining batters + 1-2 pitchers. I bet this team would be very competive.

I just realized I've had '94 Gwynn in my lineup this whole time instead of '97. So I have $2M extra. I can find a use for it, but I likely could've used one of the Tiger or Pirates groups I wanted. Blah.

Really fun theme to draft. As usual, I did not do much if any prep work because things change as available options disappear.

Round 1 - 1992 - 1996 Seattle Mariners (group 3)

Once I saw that I got the number 7 overall pick I knew I would choose from Group 3 in round 1. I liked the 19th century Orioles that schwarze took #1 overall but was happy to take these Mariners. Given the $120 salary cap, in each round I knew I would focus on looking for strong starting hitters between $6.5mm to $9mm per player and starting pitching at not much more than $40/000/IP except for maybe one stud. I also wanted to keep my permutations somewhat flexible

1992 Edgar Martinez - 3b
1993 Mark Newfeld - bench
1994 Ken Griffey, Jr - OF
1995 Randy Johnson - SP
1996 Alex Rodriguez - SS

Round 2 - 1916 - 1920 Chicago White (and Black) Sox (group 1)

After covering my SS, one OF, one SP and most of a 3b with the Mariners, I needed to look at getting some pitching as well as a 2b, c, and 2 OF. I figured RP would be something I could cover in the later rounds. Looking at the usual suspects at 2b I honed in on Lajoie and Collins because I might be able to parlay some dead-ball pitching as well. The 1916 - 20 White Sox were worth using a Group 1 pick on here filling needs with no waste.

1916 Reb Russell - SP but more often long relief
1917 Eddie Cicotte - SP
1918 Jack Quinn - RP
1919 Joe Jackson - OF
1920 Eddie Collins - 2b

Russell and Cicotte gave me a lot of low HR against innings and I had forgotten about Quinn. Jackson and Collins were both strong in both years 1919 and 1920 so I had options if needed.

Round 3 - 1927-31 Philadelphia A's (group 1)

I have now covered 2b, SS, most of 3b, 2 OF, 3 SP and 1 RP I was starting to get concerned that group 2 options might disappear completely for future rounds but did not have that many needs to fill and could save covering whatever gaps I had with what would be available down the line if I could find a C, 1b and the third OF with my final group 1 pick. Thought of Dickey/Gehrig/Ruth with Gomez added from the mid-30s Yankees which were still available but went with the similar Cochrane/Foxx/Simmons (or Cobb) with Grove added A's

1927 Ty Cobb
1928 Walter French
1929 Jimmie Foxx
1930 Mickey Cochrane
1931 Lefty Grove

Again, lots of flexibility offered here. 1927 Cobb has performed well and is much more affordable than any Simmons in this range of years. Could have saved a lot of cash if necessary and put 1928 Max Bishop in at second replacing 1920 Collins (almost identical OBP). That would open the door for 1928 Simmons and replacing Cobb with really high OBP Collins. Too many options but that's how we roll.

Round 4 - 2010 - 2014 San Diego Padres (group 2)

I still had plenty of money left and finding a couple of good RPs from a group 2 team was a priority. All I really needed now besides RP were some backups at C, 3b and OF at about 100 PA/162 each. These Padres are a mother lode at RP and not brutally overpriced.

2010 Joe Thatcher - RP
2011 Mike Adams - RP
2012 Huston Street - RP
2013 Yasmani Grandal - backup C (had originally penciled in Nick Vincent - RP here)
2014 Joaquin Benoit - RP

4 RPs here total 176 IP / .154 OAV / 0.77 WHIP / 0.41 HR/9 all for $8,917,532

Round 5 - 2004-2008 Expos/Nationals (group 2)

I had a little over 3 million to spend at this point and had to fill 3b and OF PAs. Looking for high average hitters I immediately found 2005 Ryan Zimmerman. Liking 2006 Alex Escobar for the OF filler and 2008 Anderson Hernandez as switch-hitting PH.

2004 - Andy Fox - cheap backup IF
2005 - Ryan Zimmerman - backup 3b
2006 - Alex Escobar - backup OF
2007 - Chris Snelling - cheap but useable backup OF
2008 - Anderson Hernandez - PH

Total hitting (minus 4 scrubs)

Batting Totals

5667 PA/162

.350

.424

.551

$61,854,403

Total pitching (9 pitchers - no mopup)

Pitching Totals

1,435 IP

1.99 ERA

.206 OAV

0.95 WHIP

0.22 HR/9

$56,867,061

Posted by schwarze on 8/5/2020 12:34:00 PM (view original):
This is not hard. Starting with Group 2 & 3, I already have 1250 solid innings with...

1969-73 Mets ('71 Seaver, '69 Koosman, '72 McGraw)
2010-14 (or 2011-15) Angels ('11 Weaver, '14 G.Richards or '14 J.Smith)
1993-97 Marlins ('96 K.Brown, '93 B.Harvey)

With these three selections, I can also add a stud Mike Trout ('12, '13 or '15 Angels) plus a decent backup catcher in '97 Gregg Zaun (Marlins). If I need OF plate appearances, I could add '95 Sheffield (311 pa, 1.040 ops). If I didn't want to take Koosman, I could add '69 Cleon Jones.

There are a number of Group 1 team combinations where I could fill in the remaining batters + 1-2 pitchers. I bet this team would be very competive.

Yeah, that's what I figured.