I'll preface my comments with the fact that I've played in 3 WIS Championships and never cracked the Top 50 so take this FWIW.

$70M- I toyed with the idea of having one big bat and surrounding him with decent OBP guys but ultimately decided to use a balanced lineup - all 8 hitters have 12+ HR and most are very solid defensively. I have only 2 hitters with salaries >$4M and the entire offensive roster totaled exactly 200HR.

The pitching is a little shaky - I'm using guys that I've never used and might be subject to normalization ('63 McLish, '68 Kaat, '57 Shantz, '72 Corbin, '68 Selma). This five man rotation and questionable bullpen will probably be my downfall. We only have 1,295 innings - not sure that will be enough for Cleveland Stadium.

I haven't looked at the other rosters in my league but if I had to guess, I'd project about 75-80 victories here.

$80M - I'm a product of the 1980's and thought of several possibilities and decided on the Toronto Blue Jays ('84-'93). They offer a good balance of power and speed along with a plethora of pitching combinations (not many aces though). I really needed another $5M to make this team into a really good one and wound up compromising much to my chagrin.

The pitching staff features a 1.15 WHIP over 1,433 innings and I still don't know what I'm going to do with my best pitcher ('86 Eichhorn) - probably mix him in the rotation and pen. The lineup has '93 Henderson (our leading HR hitter) at the top along with some names like Alomar, Moseby, and Gruber.

Again, haven't looked at the other clubs yet but I believe this team can be better than .500, maybe 85 wins.

$90M - I went with my first instinct here, looking at the 1986 Cardinals right away as a team that went to the World Series both the prior year and subsequent year (losing both in 7 games). I felt the team was good enough to work with since I was getting 4 FA's. I chose to add Wade Boggs at 3B and Don Mattingly at 1B along with Mike Scott and Mark Eichhorn to the staff.

After doing this and now looking back, this team isn't going to do much damage offensively. Actually, it stinks. The pitching will have to carry the club and I think it will hold up as long as the bullpen is not abused.

Overall, this team is probably a 70-75 win club. I should have put more thought into building this team than I did.

$100M - Yes, ultimately I went with the NYY/ATL combination like most others but used the 1995 version (most took 1996 or 1998). I tried building some other teams using World Series teams from the '70s and '80s to no avail and built what I could using the Yanks and Braves.

No point in going into details since you already know the individual players available to twist. I will say that I used '97 Maddux and not '94 or '95. I also used the Velarde/Boggs combo as my 1-2 punch as someone previously posted as well as using Tony Fernandez at SS in lieu of Jeter.

I'm usually outclassed by other owners in WIS when similar clubs are chosen so I will not expect as much from this team as I originally hoped. I'd like to see them win 80-85 games.

$120M - Ok, this is where I get lost. I almost never use players from this timeframe and was too lazy to read message boards for clues on which guys to use. I did the best I could to have a decent defense since most guys have awful ratings. My pitching staff will differ than most, I'm using a 4-man rotation.

My two best hitters are 1894 Billy Hamilton and 1894 Hugh Duffy. I'm only using 9 pitchers (I never use less than 10 and seldomly less than 11) at this cap which will likely doom me from the start.

This will end up being a 90-100 loss team - I'll be thrilled to win 70 with this group.

$140M - Don't usually play at cap levels above $100M. Built a team I thought could compete; '73 Morgan, '56 Mantle, '00 Giambi, '96 Griffey Jr along with a rotation of '89 Ryan, '64 Koufax, '99 Pedro, '04 Big Unit, and '84 Gooden.

Looks solid on paper but after reading some other comments above, it appears I should have went with less power and more OBP/OPS. My bullpen is short some innings so I hope the rotation doesn't get rocked too often or I could face a fatigue problem.

Let's shoot for 81-81 here and hope for better. There is more volatility at these levels so anything can happen.

Other Thoughts - thanks again to Jeff and the volunteers running this event. I decided to skip it last year because of my prior results and realized I'd never get better if I didn't play against the best WIS had to offer. I'm here for the fun and comraderie and if I finish similar to my past performances, so be it.

I just noticed that 4 of my 6 clubs are in the AL East along with 1 AL Central and 1 AL West. I guess I'm going with the Junior Circuit theme this year.

Eric

this is my first WISC and I'm predominantly a progressive and/or $100 mil twist guy so I'm in a bit over my head here. That said, I'll still outline my thinking.

$70 mil I went the full offense route...taking a high offense park and looking for guys with big time slug % (but salaries in the 3-4 mil range). All 8 of my starters have 27 HR or more but all have less than 600 PAs...having never played with injuries, I'm a little worried there. For pitching, I looked for high K/low OAV guys...as a result, my team BB/9 is absurdly high, which will probably come back to haunt me.

$80 mil Played around with a lot of teams but settled on the 1999-2008 Mets since they have a great combo of speed and power (210 HR/228 SB) plus I got to use Pedro and Santana. I also feel better after reading that tracyr picked this decade as well. Back end of my rotation and bullpen are a bit shaky and I don't have enough OF ABs but I think this team could be good.

$90 mil Tried a lot of options here--was inches away from taking the 64 Dodgers but the hitting was poor in a hitters park. Finally got crazy (or desperate) and took the 98 Rockies. I know Coors is going to be a disaster but got to add Maddux, Pedro, Clemens plus the Unit's great partial season. This could be a huge success or a monumental failure.

$100 mil I need to thank doctorwoo for this combo, which was the easiest for me to build. About 30 iterations of Wannabe Twist ago, we had a bet over which 1997 team was better to twist, the M's or the Tribe. My M's beat out his Tribe, winning me a GC and they match up wonderfully here with Unit, El Presidente, Derek Lowe, Fassero, Timlin and Charlton on the hill and a ridiculous selection of hitters (Manny, Giles, Franco, Thome, Matt Williams, Kevin Mitchell and Vizquel). I really like this team, which means they'll probably lose 95 games.

$120 mil Never played with old-time guys so I tried to make this easier for myself by taking Silver King right up front. Then I took National League Park II (+3 in 2B) and took guys with tons of doubles. This will likely be my worst team.

$140 mil Took a pitchers park and then tried to load up on walks and speed (over 1000 walks, and almost 300 steals). Ended up with 266 HRs as well, so took Qualcomm, which is a pitchers park but doesn't kill HR hitters. Went for low WHIP, low BB pitchers and ended up with the 3 Ms (Maddux, Martinez, Marichal) plus Bill Bernhard and a killer bullpen (just like everyone else). Never played 140 mil before so I have no idea how this will work out.

I was going to weigh in with my draft strategy, but I picked those teams so long ago, I can't remember what the strategy was.  So long ago, in fact, that when I drafted the 19th century team, a lot of those guys were still alive...some of 'em were probably still playing.  70 mil - Our staff ace, Dick Drago, has very little talent but he does have a moustache+ rating of 129, which is well ahead of the league average.  Not sure what that's worth in the sims, but it did get him an off-season job with the Village People.  With what we're paying him, he'll need that supplemental income.  Our leadoff man, Rickey Henderson, is ready to go and he wants to show everyone why he "shouldn't" have been elected to the HOF.  Mop up man extraordinaire, Unknown Palmer, is on the staff.  Golf fans will recall his son, Fuzzy Palmer, who had a brief stint on the PGA tour.Prediction:  If we catch a few breaks, and backup first baseman Sid Bream surprises us with a 50+ homer campaign, we could win 48 games.80 mil - NY Giants 16-25.  George Burns leading off, and based on spring training observations, it must be the comedian.  Irish Meusel is in .  We didn't know Irish drank until he showed up sober one day.  Whoever uttered the phrase "there's always a catch" never saw this guy play the outfield.Prediction:  If everyone on the team has a career year, we cruise to 65 wins.90 mil - 98 Rockies.  If odalisgagne finds out about this, we'll probably have to talk him down off the ledge.  This is the team that hired Manny Ramirez as their off-season fielding instructor.  Final score:  Rockies: 10.  Insert opponent here: 15.  Gonna be a lot of that.Prediction:  Entire pitching staff opts for Tommy John surgery by the All-Star game.100 mil - 97 Braves/Indians.  Sean Casey's at first base.  Benjie Molina once beat him in a 50-yard dash.  Rules him out as a leadoff hitter.  Catcher Sandy Alomar is the spitting image of his brother, Roberto.  Our expectorations are high for him this year.Prediction:  97 Braves and Indians both choked, you can expect us to do the same.120 mil - Staff ace is Cannonball Titcomb.  What exactly is a titcomb anyway?  Didn't the OxyClean guy used to throw one of those in for free if you bought six cases of Orange Glo?  Buy 12 cases and you get a bonus assbrush.Prediction:  No Caruthers = no pennant.140 mil -  Greg Maddux anchors the staff and he's joined on the team by his twin brother, Garry.  I doubt if the government could have done a better job of wasting $140 million.Prediction:  Team sets sim record for number of refunds to season-ticket subscribers.

70M-Killer Clowns and the Big Bat Dingbats

The only time I do low caps like this are in the WISC. I have been hit or miss. This team I went with guys that were as close to .50 hrs as possible. With the low cap I also wanted to add a few power hitting pitchers. I took Micah Owings who did awesome for me last year, and then Mike Hampton, who will be the worst starter I have ever used in any theme league. Offensively I wanted guys that would hit homers, and not much of anything else. I'm interested to see how Hank Greenberg 46 does for me. I also took Hank Aaron and Cy Williams, and went with a super high OBP guy in the form of Eddie Stanky at the top of the order. Looking at the other teams in my division I have more HRs than most, but the worst pitching by far, which will probably lead this team to the cellar of the division.

80M-BoSox 99-08:The Babe Let them Win Some

I took the Sox mainly because I always have success with Pedro at any cap, high or low. I hate the Sox but I've had success with many of their players at the lower caps. My staff is 04 Schilling, 02 Martinez, 07 Beckett, 08 Lester with 99 Saberhagen spot starting. 08 Papelbon is closing. I wanted to have a strong defense with either A+ fielding or range at every spot. The only two spots I don't have that are 1st and SS. I get the benefits of double dipping at Fenway by taking the best 2B#s guys I could and have pretty decent home run power for a 80 million team.

90M-65 Dodgers "Say Hey" to 2 Giant Helpers

I tried a bunch of different teams. I really wanted to turn a loser into a winner. The closest I came was the 94 Padres and their many free agents. I wonder if anyone will use them. I know I would have had a winner with that team, especially adding the 94 Maddux. Oh well. I ended up taking the 65 Dodgers and added two "Giant Helpers," Juan Marichal and Willie Mays. I know the hitting will probably be the worst in the league but I hope to have big years out of Juan, Koufax, and Drysdale (who was the Dodgers best hitter). I got Koufax to K well over 400 people last year with a similar team and I will work him till his arm falls off, as well as the other big guns. I normally change the rotation to reflect who I am playing and figured I can be selective with Koufax and throw him when I really need a win and agaist my best division and league foes I hope to be fighting for playoff spots with. I think we did a similar theme in a past WISC and remember that 65 Dodgers going to the World Series on the arm of Koufax.

100M-2000 ALCS Mariner Bats -Yankee Arms

I focused on the 2000 Yankees on the start to twist Gooden and Clemens and Rivera. I always like to have 2 stud pitchers and an awesome reliver. My take is if you get "hardware" (guys in the running for Cy Young-Fireman), pitchers you always have a chance. The pen holds its own and I liked adding two ies, Pettite and Neagle. Hitting I added their 2000 ALCS counterparts-the Mariners. I liked them for their high avg guys-Olerud 93 .363, A-Rod 96 .358, Edgar Martinez 92 .343. Rickey Henderson is such a versatile guy at the plate, on the bases and outfield, plus the super range year for Mike Cameron. I had a hard time deciding between single seasons for Jay Buhner or Raul Ibanez to round out my OF and decided it would be easiest to just platoon them. This team normalizes pretty well at the plate. I'm anxious to see how the 96 A-Rod does.

120M-Aces from the Grave of Baseball Past

I probably spent the most on pitching innings and quality so it will be interesting to see how I finish. I wanted to be all set with innings in case the offense in this theme is amazing, plus the bad defense that I can only imagine will ensue. I loaded with the best from the top, Silver King, and added 85 Baldwin, 86 Caruthers, 98 Leever, and 88 Chamberlin. I haven't decided once the year gets going if I will go with tandem pitching, I am thinking I will go with Silver-Chamberlin and Caruthers-Baldwin set up with Leever as the 9th inning guy. I mix and match my pitchers so I will try and get Silver to throw as many innings as possible. That didn't leave a whole lot for hitters so I had to be resourceful with what I got. I tried to target guys who might not have great slugging but had a lot of extra base hits and speed who can turn that botched fly ball into a run from first. My highest salary hitter was 97 Lajoie at $6.78 million. I took some big names guys in lower salary years:Honus, Willie Keeler, Buck Ewing. I did pay somewhat attention to defense and took Ewing with his A+ arm to try and stop the running game and with high range guys like 87 Curt Welch.

140M-Five Tiers Tearing up the Tourney

For my big five I took 3 pitchers and two hitters, 26 Ruth, 34 Gehrig, 94 Maddux, 00 Pedro, 06 Doc White. I haven't used those versions of Ruth and Gehrig, who I decided I wanted some years of the two as my two main hitters. I only took the 94 Maddux because of his innings. With the 15 million cap there weren't many good guys in the high 200's or 300's for innings pitched. 2000 Pedro in my mind is the best pitcher and I had to had that year on one of my 6 themes. From those 4 main guys I assembled the rest of my team. For around 20 million I tried assembling a couple different guys for the remaining two roster spots. I ended up with Doc White 06 and Mordecai Brown 04. I then used all of the "4th tier" of guys for my relief pitching. I wanted to try a new guy or two and started with Eckersley 88 and Rhodes 02. My favorite value starter, the 04 Joss was going to be a long reliever and spot starter at $7.46 million. In looking at my offense I assembled it by targeting spots in the batting lineup and working down. For lead off I took 51 Ashburn for his PAs and range. Barry Bonds 92 my favorite all around player with 7# doubles and homers, speed, and OBP. Ruth and Gehrig penciled in 3-4, and then wanted to go with a home run hitter 5. I took 80 Mike Schmidt for his D and pop. I finished the next tier off with my 6 hitter Gabby Hartnet 00, a guy I wanted to try. With the 3rd tier I took the platooning short season Big Mac and Gavvy Cravath, who depending on fatigue, I might bat at the top of the order. I sacrificed my middle infielders for defense. Mark Ellis 07 is an A+/A+ guy and Campaneris is my speed guy and A/A+. I want to see how many DPs they turn and see if their range has a positive impact on my pitching.



Another great group of owners and some creative themes. Schwarze excellent job as always.

This year I built the 80 and 100mil teams first since I am commishing both of those leagues. Probably a good thing since it kept me from wasting weeks building them :)

80mil - CLE 1999-2008

I am always amazed by the people who fit an 85 Tudor or a 94 Maddux onto an 80mil team. That's not for me - I like balance. Nobody else picked this choice and only one other person picked a late 90s-2000s Indians club. I suspect it had to do with their general lack of pitching in their prime years. With the ability to add Cliff Lee '08 and CC '08 and Carmona '07, they solved that problem, even if it does get away from some of their best offensive years. I confess that my choice here had a lot to do with the fact that I just won a WS with a 2008-themed Indians team as I was building this team.

My first thought for this league, like everyone else, was the 80s-90s Cards. I did have the big McGee season and Coleman and Ozzie at the top of the order. I probably should have gone with this team but I couldn't make the pitching work. My next thought was the 90s Braves, but it was hard to get the complementary pitchers and I wasn't going to use Maddux94 or 95. The lack of a leadoff hitter led me away from them. Then I looked at the 21-30 Pirates, since Emil Yde and a host of my other favorite pitchers come from that era, but they weren't quite good enough. Finally I settled on the Indians, with Vizquel and Lawton at the top of the order. I'm worried I just have a lesser version of the 80s Cards, but at least I like the pitching. Bartolo Colon is the 4th starter, with a very good bullpen.

100mil - 05 Yankees hitting and 05 Sawx pitching

Dogs and cats living together!!! My first thought was the 97 CLE/ATL combo which was pretty popular. Then I looked at the 01 BOS/CLE combo, and a few wildcards. The 1909 A's offense and Pirates' pitching was very close to being a winner. I just wasn't sold on their gloves.

My 4th guess was the 34 Yankees offense and the 34 Cards' pitching. Had to try to get Ruth. The problem was that I couldn't find enough pitching for any teams in the 30s and Ruth's teammates weren't that great in the 20s. I also tried the 70 Mets' pitching and O's offense. If they had a leadoff hitter they might have been the choice.

Finally I settled on the Yankee/Sawx combo. I liked 2005 since the Yankees had Brown and Johnson, and Al Leiter makes an OK 4th starter. Damon leads off, with Hanley Ramirez at SS and Olerud hitting 3rd. Youk plays 3B with Ramon Vazquez and Graffanino sharing second.

90mil - 2001 Seattle Mariners

Nobody picked the first team that I really liked - the 1944 Philly Blue Jays (aka Phillies). They had a solid bullpen, a few decent hitters and 6 free agent picks. If the bullpen would have been a bit deeper I would have gone with them.

To build this team I started looking at lousy teams that had some holes. I also looked at players that could fill those holes - that was how I found the Jays... 1944 had a pair of 300+ inning starters. I looked at all the years with 2+ big starters and tried to find teams that might work. I figured that pitching would be the easiest to add, but most teams with lousy SPs also had lousy RPs.

I went through 13 teams (that I actually built) before settling on the Ms. The '72 Cubs, the '05 Astros, the 1909 Pirates, the '75 Dodgers, the '51 Braves, the '39 Yankees, the 97 Braves, and the 2006 Cardinals.... I think I might be missing a couple. I finally decided that the Braves' 5-man rotation with only 4 decent RPs, plus their lack of base-stealers, made the Ms a better choice. I added Randy Johnson for a good 4-man rotation and I'm going to play Edgar (D/D-) at 1B and Olerud in the outfield.

140mil - Five Tiers

I knew right away that the top tier would be at least 3 pitchers, and probably 4. If I went with 3, then I'd be running a 5-man rotation for sure. I identified all the pitchers that might work in the 7-10 range (M Brown, Horlen, Pfiester, Clemens, Lowe) and tried to work them in. I tried a few different varieties but I kept running into the problem that my 7mil-10mil pitchers were in the 9mil+ range, not leaving a lot of cap space for other tiers since they were so far on the high end. There was absolutely no doubt that Maddux '95 would be on any team I built - he's my favorite RL player and also my favorite sim season. So since he has 236 IP/162 that put me at either a 4-man with some other guys at 250+, or a 5-man.

So, for my first team, I built a -HR team thinking that a lot of the pitching options (Guidry, Pedro, Clemens, Horlen) would benefit from that. I had a 5-man with Maddux, Pedro, Guidry, Horlen and Clemens '05. I really liked this team and it was just that I found one a bit better. My 2nd team was a +HR team, with Maddux, Walsh, Bender and M Brown in the rotation. Also liked these guys a lot but worried that the modern power (McGwire, Bonds, Schmidt, Larkin) would be neutralized by deadballers.

Version 3 was pitching, defense and speed, with only 3 pitchers over 10mil plus Ruth and Ted Williams. Couldn't quite get the pitching right, though. Version 4 was a tweak of version 3 that still wasn't right. Version 5 was just a mishmash of all the previous versions with the players that seemed to fit in all of them (TP, Ozzie hitting 9th, Rickey85 in CF, Buck Ewing at C)... version 6 was a tweak of version 5.

Version 7 was the version I ended up with... Maddux95 had been joined by Ed Walsh '09 who seemed to fit on every team, Baldwin/Pedro/MBrown rounded out the 5-man rotation. Billy Hamilton leads off and DH's - makes sense to spend the least on defense for your leadoff hitter, after all. I've got Ruth '26 with Foxx and Bonds hitting 4 and 5. How can anyone resist Ozzie '92 with his 590 PA, great D and great wheels as a #9 hitter?

120mil - 19th century

Apparently I wasn't alone in drafting a ton of glove men for this league. I could NOT find a decent 2B so I am running a 4-man platoon (Lowe, Egan, Daly, Harrington). I focused on relievers before starters since I knew they'd be hard to find. I did NOT want Silver King because I wanted to use at least a 10-man pitching staff to minimize the wasted 200k spots. I've got Orth and Esper as LRs, Bill George as closer, and Leever/Shaffer/Jack Taylor/Phenomenal Smith as setup guys. I have a 4-man rotation of Baldwin, Titcomb, Chamberlain and Jack Stivetts.

I kind of assumed I'd need some extra innings due to the errors so I tried to account for that (1479 here). I am surprised that so many people drafted Caruthers... at 120mil he has never hit that well for me. For this team I had to splurge on one of my favorite sim players of all time - Tip O'Neill.

70mil - homer heaven

For this one, my initial plan was to build around pitchers who could hit. I know that's a dominant strategy in low-cap leagues. But in this case, the first team I built around hitting pitchers had a pretty crappy staff (Odom, Siebert, CZambrano, Owings and Rooker). Combined those 5 starters had 23 HR, but their HR/9+ was pretty awful. I thought about the 30ish HRs they might hit and decided they could easily give up that many more than a good staff. So I decided to go against the grain and go with the highest HR/9+ guys I could find without worrying about their bats.

I ended up with 3 of my 5 starters having a HR/9+ over 200, and the others at 173 and 195. Nobody on my team has a HR/9+ over 0.60, assuming that the raw number is more important than the HR/9+. 6 of my 7 relievers also have a HR/9+ over 200.

On offense, I've got my favorite HR hitter (Cy Williams '23, admittedly a bit of a splurge for such a low cap), plus Armas, Tenace, a cheap Tony Batista at SS, Ron Gant, Dolph Camilli and Troy Glaus. I did go with a pair of no-power, high-OBP guys at the top of the order - Max Bishop and Julio Franco platooning at 2B

I did try for a very good fielding team to keep the HRs to solo shots as much as possible. Unfortunately the result is that we can't run so much - HRs, defense, pitching, you've got to sacrifice something at this cap. Normally with a team like this I'd pick the most pitcher-friendly park possible. I took the Kingdome, not quite that route... figure my pitchers are better at preventing the longball than most. I probably should have gone even further and taken Bennett.

My draft strategy was simple. Wife goes to bed at 10pm. Begin drinking. Quit by 2am. 6 teams in 2 nights and a little worse for ware at the job.

70 mil - Wake Me Up Before You HoJo - Built my team around Howard Johnson 89' and good hitting pitchers. LineUp - Roy Thomas 01' will get us going and with good hitting pitchers bunting (hitting) him to second we just wait for HoJo, Greenberg & Killebrew to slam him home. A few HR from the bottom in Carter and Armas. Not Bad. Pitching - These boys are in there for thier bats and to give us 6 inn per game. Lock down bull-pen from "Take me out to the ball game on. Prediction - 86 Wins / WildCard

80 mil - 10' - 19' Red Sox. Love the Sox. Wanted Ruth as a hitter. Here you go. Line-Up - Ruth will probably get 250+BB. Pitchers can Hit. That's about it. Pitching - Did I mention pitchers can hit. Best move I made was using Hunnington Baseball Grounds as Park instead of Fenway.
Prediction - 54 Wins

90 mil -'34 Phillies. Testing the Anti-Normalization Theory. Wanted to draft 6 Free Agents so I looked for very bad teams. '34 Phillies can hit so I knew if I got them some pitching that they could contend. Line-Up - If I can overcome Normalization this team will rake. Look for Foxx '34 (in RF) and Gehrig '34 to finish Top 5 MVP. Dick Bartell '34 might score 200 runs. Pitching - With 3 Free Agent Choices as pithcers I went with Hubbell, Dizzy Dean & y Gomez. I feel pretty good about that. Gomez is going to the pen and should appear in 100+ games. If he ends up a stud then this will be a good team. Prediction 100+ Wins

100 mil - '83 Bleeding Dodger Brew. My favorite team. Brewers Bats + Dodger Pitching in a Pitchers Park. Hitters will mash and I think the pitching staff is good enough to keep teams under 5 runs so this team should do well. Line-Up Yount, Simmons, Molitor, Cooper, Oglive...are you kidding. Enough Said. Pitching - Got to grab Hershiser because '83 he pitched in September so that will help. Fernando anchors the staff with a very solid bullpen. Steve Howe should win Fireman Award.
Prediction 90+ Wins / World Series Winner

120 mil - This Theme Sucks. No Comment
Prediction Don't Care

140 mil - Teir in my Beer. Never play at caps over 100m so I have no Idea what to expect. LineUp - Went with a traditional line-up. Great OBP at the top in Thomas '03 & Stanky '50. Lots of SLG in the middle with '31 Ruth, '56 Mantle, (Williams/Manny platoon) & Aaron '71. Good to great Defense all around. Pitching - Johnson '19, Maddux '95, Clemens '05 & Pedro '99 are the best I have ever thrown in a SIM season. Awsome Bull-Pen with the best 3 headed closer team in SIM history.
Prediction Never Play at Caps this high so I realy don't Know but this team looks like it should make the playoffs.

That's it and I had a blast!

70 MIL - I was not really sure what to expect with this team since I generally don't play low caps.  Throw in the fact that I usually build my teams around speed and pitching, and I thought this might be a difficult team to build.  I built my offense around a few HR hitters who had a higher normalized HR/100 rate.  I intended to have either '29 or 32 Ruth, but I didn't want that much salary tied up in one guy, and I wanted power hitters who didn't walk as much. so I went with '46 Greenberg, '23 Williams and '22 Tilly Walker.  I'm hoping less walks = more homers. Throw '80 Roy Cey and Tony Armas (who I'm sure is on 90% of the rosters) and that is most of the power on my team.  Pitching-wise, I decided to take pitchers with low BB/9 and a good HR/9+.  I decided to sacrifice OAVG figuring that most of the hitters will obviously have a low average.  3 of my 4 starters have an OAVG of .270 or higher, other than '06 Webb.  All but one of my "quality" pitchers have a HR/9+ over 150.  I took Cinergy Field, which is a -2 for singles, so I am hoping that low walks + crappy hitters + park with negative effect for singles limits most of the the homeruns I allow to be of the solo variety.80 MIL - I knew that I wanted this team built around speed, so I went straight for the Cardinals of the '80s.  I didn't know what 10 year span I wanted, so I originally went for 1984-93 to get Jeffries on my roster, but I really wanted '82 Lonnie Smith, so I went with 1980-89.  Lots of steals (351) decent pitching with Tudor, Cox, Andujar and Lary Sorensen.  Now looking at my team I wish I would have taken 84-93, used Jeffries, added a few more quality innings to use.  Hopefully I don't burn out my rotation since I don't have much for relievers.90 MIL - For this cap, I figured the way I wanted to go about it was to was to find teams with the biggest difference between their pythagorean record and actual record. I was deciding between the '93 Mets, '94 Padres, and '96 Marlins. I had decided on the Marlins, but at the last minute sent in my roster for the Padres. My offense should be consistent, with 6 of my 8 starters have averages over .311, adding free agents Paul O'Neill (.359) and Wade Boggs (.342) to go with Tony Gwynn (.394). I added Ozzie Smith to shore up my defense. I added Greg Maddux head up my rotation, with Andy Ashby and Andy Benes behind him. They should be solid, as their ERC are each at least a half run lower than their actual ERA, so hopefully that works in my favor. And I added Todd Jones and his 103 IP/1.08 WHIP/2.10 ERC to use in the bullpen. My biggest concern is the rest of my bullpen, which will probably decide the fate of my team.

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70 mill - Many people have mentioned above that the key to a good lineup is balance. I agree - it's a very wise idea indeed.

Of course, I'm the moron who took the 12.9 mil 1927 Babe Ruth - the highest paid player by far on all 96 teams. The original thought was to put the 1920, 1921 or 1923 Ruth on the squad but I kept running afoul of some obscure WIS rule that demands 25 players on every team.

So having settled on the 27 Ruth I then took Tony Phillips, Ferris Fain and Max Bishop to set the table ahead of him and the 6.1 mill 1923 Cy Williams to knock them in the odd time Ruth doesn't. It's actually a better offence than my 140 million team but of course it approx. $847 for the entire pitching staff and Bob Uecker is my starting catcher (no kidding).

If I figure out a way to bat Ruth 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th in the lineup I might reach .500, otherwise the pitching staff nightmare will lead to a lonnngggg season.

There's a reason I predominately play high cap leagues

80 Mill - After putting the above pitching debacle together I learned my lesson and went with the 1906-1915 Cubs and Reulbach, Vaughn, Pfiester, Lundgren, Leifield, etc. It's actually a better pitching staff than my 140 mill team but it leaves the immortal Vic Saier as my highest paid batter. And I could only have hoped for someone as good as Bob Uecker.

There's a reason I predominately play high cap leagues.

The one thing that gives me vague hope is that Shaybee went with a similar era Cubs team and to me, he is a SIM god

90 mill - Went with the 1902 Cleveland Indians/Naps/Blues and 3 FA. Believe it or not, it's a team I used before in themes including a championship in a previous WISC theme from years past that demanded players from two teams of the same year with a combined winning percentage less than .500. Nap Lajoie, Bill Bradley, Charlie Hickman, Bill Bernhard, Addie Joss are a decent foundation and my orginal plan was to use the great 1902 Ed Delahanty as one of the FAs.

For those that don't know me that well, I worship at the temple of Big Ed. In my mind he's always been the best WIS player available and he's on approx. 92% of the teams I build. And if the clone rules allow it, I usually use 4-12 Big Eds on a team. In Schwarze's recent Progressive 6 team championship I thought of taking him with my second pick - wrongly gambled he would last to my third pick, and then lost him to markeking. Of course, I finished out of the money and the tourney's run-away winner - markeking.

Anyway, after fiddling with getting under the salary cap and rushing to get the team finished as I was the league commisioner I realized I Delahanty off the squad.

I cried a little and drowned my sorrows in beer. But to really rub things in, I've ended up being aligned in the same division as the afore-mentioned Shaybee and his 1902 Orioles. And, of course, with his 6 FA he has taken all my Cleveland stars - Lajoie, Bradley, Bernhard, etc and he has my 1902 Delahanty. Arrghhhg!

TBC

100 mill - I really liked a 1892 Cardinal (Caruthers, Hawley) & Phillie (Hamilton, Thompson, Connor & Delahanty!) team I assembled but it didn't have a shortstop that wore a glove. A 1900 Phillie & Pirate combo was also in the running.

In the end I went with the 1986 Mets and Royals. Like tracyr has outlined, the Mets are an offensive powerhouse. No Delahanty but I like my offence of Dykstra, Foster, Mitchell, Hernandez, Hojo, and the incomparable Tim Teufel. I've also had good success with the Royals pitching of that era with Cone, Saberhagen, Quisenberry, etc.

Like almost everyone else this is my favourite team of the 6 and I expect big things. Of course, I also realize that mathematically it's going to be very difficult for all of us to win 90-95 games.

And the SIM gods threw this squad into the same division as tracyr's similar 86 Mets/Red Sox combo which will undoubtedly highlight why I should have went with Clemens over Mark Gubicza.

120 Mill - Finally, a league right in my wheelhouse. My favourite cap and I've always been partial to the lousy-fielding 19th century players - partly because I play ball myself like a guy with a cast using a wooden glove. And I got to use Delahanty. What's not to like??

At least 75 wins with this team

140 mill - Maddux, Chance, Clemens, Gehrig and...Delahanty as the big guns. Boggs, Eichhorn, Cronin, and two more of my all time favourites, Lajoie & Medwick in the next tier. Cravath, Hornsby, Lo Duca (what was I thinking??) Lemon and Juan Guzman (again, what the hell was I thinking?) and then a bunch of cheap players.

Not sure what the outlook for this team will be.

Overall, however, I'm fairly confident I'll crack the top 100 but will not top my previous best finish in this tourney

Good luck to all

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My teams in general, and in previous WISC tournaments in particular, have been so wildly inconsistent that it's hard to say that I actually had a coherent strategy in any one theme. However, I think I might have gotten too cute, and will suffer for some fundamental flaws where I went against conventional wisdom.

$70M - Bovine Flatus Emissions
Even though this is an "offense" league, I couldn't convince myself to overspend on IP. I've got 1250 good IP, but it's tied up in a 5-man rotation, with 3 of my SP bringing under 200 IP each. And I've only got 3 RPs (not counting mop-up), one of whom is a pure closer (Dennys Reyes, who I've never actually used before). It seems every time I try to put together an economical bullpen in a low-cap or offensive league (this is both), my middle relief gets destroyed. So this time I decided not to have any middle relief. My starters will pitch well enough to get to the 8th or 9th inning (they are all at 1-pull setting), or they will lose, probably by a lot. Forcing my SP to go deep, no matter what, should actually help prevent major fatigue problems (I have never minded a little bit of fatigue on my teams).
The offense is pretty unimaginative. We'll see.

$80M - 55-64 White Sox
Of course I looked at the 80s Cardinals, and I also had to check my favorite 80s-90s Astros teams. When I started looking at 70s-80s Brewers teams, I realized I needed to get to a new era. I've had lots of recent success with 50s and 60s White Sox players (Minoso, Floyd Robinson, Nellie Fox, etc.), and as long as I stayed away from those late 60s pitchers (who I can never get to work for me), I figured I could build a decent, deep and balanced team. I found what I wanted in the 55-64 White Sox, and stopped looking. The era might not normalize that well, but I figured this theme will actually play a little under the $80M cap. I have no idea if this will work.

$90M - 1915 Chicago Whales (+2)
Oddly, I ended up going with the first team I actually tried to build. I pulled up a lot of teams on BR.com, but the Whales were the first team I put into the draft center. What I liked about it was that it was deep on pitching and offense both -- every other team I seriously considered was short, somewhere, on either PAs or IPs. I do not love the pitching at all, but the raw numbers are solid to good (even given the ballpark), and they gave me 1400 useable IP without adding anybody. The offense should also normalize well, and with 1915 Eddie Collins and 1915 Gavvy Cravath it is vastly improved. Another big advantage...very solid defense. Biggest flaw is the ballpark...the Whales played in Weeghman (Wrigley), but they had few team HRs. Hopefully adding the ideal Wrigley hitter (Cravath) will help.
My second choice team was the 2002 Texas Rangers (with 5 FAs). I could create an awesome rotation, add a couple big bats, and the team was scary good. BUT, I hated the defense, I hated the ballpark, and aside from the superstars I had a weak bottom half of the order, a very sad bullpen and way too few IP. I went with the less impressive team with fewer holes. Probably a massive mistake.

$100M - 1998 Yankees/Braves
I put almost no thought into this team. It seemed like far too obvious a choice, but I figured that most other combos I was likely to consider would be roughly equal. This theme seems likely to be a crapshoot.

$120M - O Caruthers Where Art Thou?
This one I actually put some thought into, trying to take what I've learned from the ATP (All-Time Progressive) which I've been in since 1885 (now playing 1903). I probably ended up with a similar roster to most everybody else, but I tried to use players that had been particularly successful in that progressive. Also, I learned in that league that you can absolutely get by with fewer PA and IP than you might think, even at a higher cap, and that most of those players perform just fine with a bit of fatigue. I also became a convert to the 2-man rotation in that league. I'm certain that I have fewer PAs and IPs than most, without sacrificing defense (too much). Also, I did not use Bob Caruthers (although I almost used him as a position player). I had him on my progressive team, and he was awesome, but I thought I could do better with Buffington and Hughes. I will be disappointed if I don't make the playoffs with this team.

$140M - John Denver's Nightmare
I started with an indefensibly stupid decision, to build a team for Mile High Stadium. I have always wanted to build a Mile High team, but my first attempt was in the most recent iteration of doctorkz's blacklist league. And the team (which I thought would stink) did surprisingly well. I still don't think that I know how to really build something for such an extreme hitters park, but it is really, really fun. The key here, as in the $70M theme, was counterintuitive ... I went short on IP (but NOT on PAs). I "only" have 1380 IP (plus about 50 in mopups). Again, my pitchers will go deep into games, even if they are getting shelled, with 1-pull settings. Considering I spent 4 of my 5 top tier slots on SPs (Maddux, Pedro, etc.), they shouldn't get shelled that often. This was a lesson learned in last year's WISC, which had a $140M high offense theme. I went with under 1400 IP in that theme, abandoning middle relief almost completely, never suffered any fatigue, and finished with a winning record. It can work. The question is whether it WILL work...