Posted by schwarze on 10/26/2023 2:05:00 PM (view original):
"I went with Tulowitzki for all of my SS/2B/3B spots and was burned both by his poor hitting and his lackluster defense playing out of position, even with his great SS ratings. I vowed to try and avoid that this time."

If I recall, the first season of this Diamond Draft theme was open for all seasons, so Tulo probably had to face a high number of deadball pitchers. Hopefully, he will hit a little better vs guys that actually allow HRs. Not sure what to expect defensively. Surely, an A+/A shortstop won't get penalized too much moving to 2B or SS.

I used Tulo as a roving IF in one of the earlier rounds of this tournament on a team that was short on PA at 2B and 3B. He did really well, and he hit a ton, all against modern pitching. He's actually one of my favorite players to use when I have the opportunity, and I definitely thought about him on my teams here if the opportunity arose. Schwarze took him about 15 picks before the spot I would have.

League 2, Pick 22
Vida Blue & Associates

1.22 - Vida Blue (SP)
2.03 - Roger Clemens (SP, SP)
3.03 - Carl Yastrzemski (OF, OF, OF/DH)
4.22 - Mike PIazza (C, DH)
5.03 - Trevor Hoffman (RP, RP, RP, RP, RP)
6.22 - Mark McGwire (1B, 2B, DH)
7.03 - Derek Lowe (SP, RP)
8.22 - Robin Yount (SS, maybe OF)
9.03 - Ron Santo (3B)

Well, I drafted a starting pitcher with my first round pick for all four League 2 teams. Vida Blue tends to disappoint when I've used him in the past, but it's just too hard to pass up 314 innings of 0.95 whip. I guess I could've taken Kevin Brown instead (he went at 1.24 to thejuice6).

Picking at the end, I knew I'd get a solid choice as my second SP. I was hoping Joe Horlen would be there, but again thejuice6 made a nice pick at 2.01. SteveIzzy took Verlander (a justifiable selection) but I am happy to get Roger Clemens at 2.03. I decided to use his 1986 and 1997 seasons, and not use use 2005 Astros season.

It's nearing the start of round #3 and I'm really hoping to get three seasons of Larry Walker at 3.03, but footballmm11 takes him at 2.24. The first two picks of round #3 are Willie Mays and Steve Trout, which is fine as I prefer a lefty bat. I go with a player that normalizes well, although his defense isn't very good. Carl Yastrzemski will man all three OF positions.

Long wait to pick again in round #4. A bunch of outfielders went as well as the top relief pitcher options. When everybody is zigging, we'll zag and grab Mike Piazza. Almost every catcher will need at lest 2 seasons, and since my OF only has 3 seasons, I can use the other 2 Piazza seasons at DH. So really not much waste with this pick.

Being near the top of round 5 is nice, because I knew I was going to get a stud RP x5. I preferred Joe Nathan, but he went to thejuice6 at 5.01 (that's like three time thejuice6 has taken a guy I wanted / considered taking). But I am happy to get Trevor Hoffman here, as he easily has five strong seasons to use in innings 6-9. This team is shaping up nicely, although I wonder if I'd have been better off taking Kevin Brown instead of Vida Blue.

Round #6 was a key turning point for me. I still needed a 1B, 2B, 3B, SS and some additional pitching. I only have 4 rounds left. If I wanted to avoid playihg a player out of position, I could take somebody like Paul Molitor (oops, he just went one pick in front of me). I was very close to taking Chase Utley here and slotting him into 1B & 2B (he was all typed in and my finger was hovering over the submit button). Or I could grab a stud 1B and play one of his seasons out of position at 2B - which I have basically done on every other round 2 team. I would've taken Freddie Freeman here but pedrocerrano grabbed him at 6.14, Paul Goldschmidt has a bunch of A/A defensive seasons, but I really only need one decent fielding season out of my 1B choice. That's when I decided to hell with it, let's take Mark McGwire and figure it out later. I would have preferred a lefty bat (like Freeman), but McGwire's 1998 season is just way too dominant to pass up for a guy like Utley. Even with the defensive penalty, playing 1996 and 1998 McGwire at 1B & 2B has to be better than playing Utley at those two positions. With McGwire and Piazza, this team is going to be a bit too right-handed heavy.

With my last three picks, I need a 3B, SS and somebody who can start and/or pitch middle relief. I found the perfect guy that I had totally forgotten about. Derek Lowe has two seasons with ERC# below 2.00, and one can be my fourth SP. This really is the perfect pick for this team in round #7. Even his 2008 season (211 IPs, 2.57 ERC#) can be used as a long-reliever / mop-up guy.

So with two picks to go (needing SS, 3B) and picking near the end, I can kind of figure out which two players I want that fit together. I could have taken a guy like Alex Bregman and saved a pick for a true 2B, but Bregman's second best season isn't that strong and his fielding at SS is just so-so. Anyway, I needed somebody who can play a little in the OF since I only have my Carl Yastrzemski x 3 as my only eligible outfielders. Again, I found the perfect fit, Robin Yount. I decided to use his best OF season (B/B) because I may choose to start him in CF and move a Yaz season to DH.

My last pick is Ron Santo, who I chose over Adrian Beltre, who never hits well for me. Given that McGwire is my 2B, I wanted a very strong defensive 3B to help out the pitching staff. We're very heavy on right-handed bats. My most common starting lineup averages 40 HRs per player.

Batting stats (most often used 9-player lineup): .324, .428, .615 ($75.0 million)
Pitching stats (best 1450-1500 innings): 1502 ips, 0.96 whip, .197 oav, 0.53 hr/9 ($62.0 million)

My Favorite Picks (in no particular order)

These drafts are fun in that there's so many different ways the clones, draft order, positions, and eras change strategy. These are not necessarily my best picks, but picks I enjoyed or found interesting for some reason.

Earl Smith (Round 6)
This pick would basically be impossible in League 2, but in League 1, you can waste at least 5 positions and probably more like 7 or 8 easily. Many owners used a 4-clone or 5-clone pick on a catcher, knowing they'd only need 1 or maybe 2 of them, but the wasted roster spots wouldn't matter and getting the better catcher was more important. After a run on catchers, I found Earl Smith. He's not quite as good as a Bill Dickey or Mickey Cochrane, but if you combine him into one Earl Smith, he's probably a top 10 catcher in this league. All of his best seasons are short on PA. His two best seasons combine for 415 PA, with about a .975 OPS# and B arm. His lost couple hundred PA come from a less stellar season (OPS# in the low .800s) but one of them has an A arm. I will actually use all 4 of my Earl Smiths, and that's fun.

George McQuillan (Round 3)
Cy Falkenberg (Round 7)
I have never used either of these guys before, so maybe they'll suck, but I was excited to find both. There are almost no relievers in Lg1 with multiple good seasons. With these two guys, I found pitchers who had a closer-level season AND a starter-level season. McQuillan is the better of the two, he's got a 1.35 ERC#, 46 IP season. He then has TWO seasons with an ERC# right around 2.18, one is 379 IP and the other is more of a long relief 162 innings.

Falkenberg isn't quite as good, though his closer season is close with 1.52 ERC# in 52 innings. His next-best season is 2.48 ERC# but comes with 400 innings. And he has a not-terrible 3rd season with 175 innings (2.88 ERC#, 0.00 HR#) that can soak up innings if needed. Not bad for a 7th-round pick, I thought.

Sherry Magee (Round 4)
Edd Roush (Round 5)
These are probably picks that are more cool and less actually helpful. I picked both of these guys on the same team, which is actually somewhat helpful as both have multiple OF seasons and Magee is a righty and Roush a lefty. The cool thing is they both have a very good season as a double-play combo, Magee at SS and Roush at 2B. Magee's SS season I had ranked around the 10th-best (removing clones) behind a clear top group of the Wagners, Vaughans, etc. but similar to guys like Bancroft, Jennings, and Travis. Roush was a bit lower, but right around an average 2B in this league, which is quite valuable.

Now, as for how useful their other seasons are? I dunno. Magee has one great hitting season in the OF (that I'm actually DHing) with a .976 OPS# and another good-hitting/good-fielding season (.903 OPS#, B/A) that'll play in center. Roush doesn't have the big hitting season, but has 3 good OF seasons, two of which have a solid bat (around .900 OPS#) and the other of which is A+ range. Between the two guys, I will end up filling 5 spots--SS, 2B, CF, LF, and DH. The bats are a bit light for the OF/DH spots but the defense will be very good. This also allowed me to spend two of my final 3 picks on pitchers, so hopefully they have an indirect benefit on my pitching.

Jimmie Foxx (Round 2)
In the initial Diamond Clones draft, I missed out on Foxx in Round 2 by 3 spots. He is an amazing 2-clone player as you get, in my estimation, BY FAR the best catcher in the league. That season alone is likely worth a 1st Round pick and I almost took Foxx with my #23 pick in Round 1, but gambled that he would make it to me around the bend with just two picks between me. His catcher season has 706 PA, so no backup needed, his 1.074 OPS# is by far the best for any catcher season in Lg2 (Bill Dickey 1.007 is only other over 1.00), and his defense is very solid at A/B-/B. And of course you also get his actual BEST season to play 1B, probably the 2nd-best 1B season behind Gehrig. And cherry on top, he is rated (D/D but still) at 3B if you want.

Lew Fonseca (Round 8)
Another pick that I probably got too cute with. I needed a 2B and probably should have just taken Bobby Doerr or someone. But Fonseca's 335 PA partial season was the best per-at-bat 2B season remaining, with .344 AVG# and C+/A+ defense. I could have taken another 2B season from Fonseca, but they were pretty uninspiring or low on PA (he does have a good hitting season but with just 127 PA). Instead, I decided to just let one of my excess Eddie Mathews seasons platoon with Fonseca at 2B and take his 1929 1B season with A-/A- defense and a .934 OPS#. This season will also essentially platoon with Eddie Mathews DH season (Foxx slides from 1B to DH against lefties, allowing Fonseca's defense to play at 1B). If Mathews really underperforms, as I fear he might, I could use this Fonseca full-time at 1B, slide Foxx to DH, and knock out one of my Mathews.

Paul Molitor (Round 6)
There aren't as many cool picks in League 2, as the draft was a bit more formulaic, something like SP, SP, IF, OF, RP, RP, hitter, C, filler. On this team, I had made my first 3 picks and 4 of my first 5 picks as pitchers. Only Frank Thomas in Round 4 was a hitter and he's basically a 1B/DH. I have no idea if Molitor will perform, but he has such an interesting collection of seasons that I couldn't pass him up. Most importantly, he has a very reasonable SS season with C-/B- fielding but .825 OPS# and 650 PA that should be just fine. He has one monster hitting season (.978 OPS#) that has poor defense but is still C/D- at both 2B and 3B. He then has two other seasons with good defense (A-/A- at 2B, B-/A- at 3B) but less hitting (.819 and .805 OPS#), though still hopefully playable. He also has a reasonable 1B season but I already had Thomas. Very interesting career as I'll roster seasons where he was a speedy utility player all the way up to his late-career DH seasons where he was a very good and more powerful hitter.

Darrell Porter (Round 9)
Perhaps no pick in the whole draft did I sweat out more than this one. Porter was actually not very good for me when I drafted him also in Round 9 of the original Diamond Clones draft, but I'm hoping he performs better in this more modern-era league. But for what I was looking for, he was perfect--a left-handed, high OBP#, good-armed catcher with enough PA to handle the entire season--and there was NOBODY else left who came close. I don't even know who I would have taken had he gone...maybe Salvador Perez? Ugh. That's a right-handed, low OBP# catcher, though he does have A+ arm. Very happy with Porter...for now!

Posted by schwarze on 10/26/2023 2:44:00 PM (view original):
"I went with Tulowitzki for all of my SS/2B/3B spots and was burned both by his poor hitting and his lackluster defense playing out of position, even with his great SS ratings. I vowed to try and avoid that this time."

If I recall, the first season of this Diamond Draft theme was open for all seasons, so Tulo probably had to face a high number of deadball pitchers. Hopefully, he will hit a little better vs guys that actually allow HRs. Not sure what to expect defensively. Surely, an A+/A shortstop won't get penalized too much moving to 2B or 3B.

Yes, he will undoubtedly do much better without deadballers. The defense I remember being just okay at 2B and 3B, but the hitting was the bigger issue for sure. I should have not held a grudge and considered him in this draft, but I'm not that big a person haha.

First, let me start by thanking Schwarze for giving me a second chance at this tournament insanity

Premise - League 1 will be dominated by roughly 20 years of deadball pitchers.

Picks
1. Pitcher Russ Ford- no way I can compile a team that will outhit the deadballers. I throw my fortunes to a pitcher who is the best one available.
2. Joltin Joe Dimaggio- he can hit and he plays his positions. One of the Dimaggio's I am going with is 1939 which is a little bit Plate Appearance challenged but I believe I can work around that.
3. Lefty Gomez -I have to thank Schwarze here again. When he picked Pfiester and mentioned he was a lefthander it sparked my otherwise dormant antennae. Who is going to try and reduce the wrath of all those awesome lefty hitters? Gomez should be good but probably not great.
4. Pete Runnels- Well, Bill James the baseball theoritician/statistician wrote favorably of him. Pete is sort of like a throwback to the successful deadball hitters....not much power but great OBP. He has a good glove too. I have three Pete's in the starting lineup.
5. Howie Camnitz- He will make appearances against teams where the most fearsome hitters bat from the right side.
6. Freddie Lindstrom- A couple of really good Lindstrom's will be starting at 3B and also DH. A third Lindstrom will probably be starting in the outfield on a platoon basis.
7. Roy Thomas- My team lacked a good a leadoff man so I searched my memory banks and came up with Thomas. He is a notch or two below Richie Ashburn but the same idea. I anticipate two of the three will see playing time.
8. Johnny Kling- I put a premium on a good arm. Kling has that and bats around .300
9. Carmen Hill- My closer who was the best one available.

I anticipate a bit of micro managing this team. Even though it doesn't seem to make much of a difference- I only have this team to look after so I might as well play the percentages

Great writeups everybody. What's it going to take to get others to share?

I'm looking at you pedrocerrno

Posted by schwarze on 10/27/2023 10:27:00 AM (view original):
Great writeups everybody. What's it going to take to get others to share?

I'm looking at you pedrocerrno

Here's pedro's writeup:

Round 1: Took the guy schwarze was about to take
Round 2: Steal of the draft
Round 3: See Round 1
Round 4: See Round 2
etc. etc.

Figured some of these stats would be interesting to look at. Note that some of the position designations are not perfect, especially for multi-position players. For pitchers, I just used 150 IP as the delineation between SP/RP.

League 2 Draft Summary

Hitters vs Pitchers by Round

Rd	Hitters	Pitchers
1	5	19
2	7	17
3	16	8
4	12	12
5	8	16
6	19	5
7	12	12
8	19	5
9	16	8

Positions by Round

	Hitters						Pitchers
Rd	C	SS	2B	3B	1B	OF	SP	RP
1	0	0	1	1	1	2	16	3
2	1	1	1	2	1	1	16	1
3	0	1	2	4	1	8	5	3
4	1	1	1	1	2	6	3	9
5	1	2	1	0	1	3	1	15
6	0	5	1	1	3	9	1	4
7	3	2	1	2	1	3	7	5
8	16	2	1	0	0	0	4	1
9	2	7	4	1	1	1	4	4
TOTAL	24	21	13	12	11	33	57	45

- SP easily dominated the first two rounds, with 32 out of 48 picks being starters (16 in each round). No other position had more than 4 total picks.
- The 3rd Round shifted to hitters (2/3 of picks), with OF making up half of those hitters picks and surprisingly 3B. Some of those are multi-position guys though (Schmidt, Cabrera, Dick Allen, Machado).
- Round 4 was split exactly in half, with OF (6) and RP (9) dominating.
- The 5th Round, as expected, was dominated by relievers, with 15 of 24 picks.
- In the 6th, the league went heavy hitting (19 picks), with some owners filling their OF spot and many going for their SS (5).
- The 7th was split as many filled out their last starter (7 SP taken).
- Round 8 was clearly the Catcher round, 16 of the 24 picks.
- The 9th Round saw almost half of teams (11) take what is likely an open middle infield spot (7 SS, 4 2B).

League 1 is pretty different...

League 1 Draft Summary

Hitters vs Pitchers by Round

Rd	Hitters	Pitchers
1	9	15
2	13	11
3	14	10
4	18	6
5	11	13
6	18	6
7	18	6
8	14	9
9	12	12

Positions by Round

Rd	C	SS	2B	3B	1B	OF	SP	RP
1	0	3	1	0	3	2	14	1
2	1	0	3	1	1	7	11	0
3	0	1	1	0	0	12	10	0
4	1	4	3	2	3	5	6	0
5	2	2	0	0	0	7	10	3
6	8	0	4	3	1	2	6	0
7	8	2	1	2	4	1	5	1
8	2	1	5	3	1	2	6	3
9	0	4	4	0	1	3	6	6
TOTAL	22	17	22	11	14	41	74	14

- Probably the biggest difference is just how few relievers were actually taken. In Lg2, we had 45 relievers taken. Just 14 were taken in Lg1 and nearly half of those (6) were 1-clone relievers taken in Round 9.
- Round 1 was again dominated by pitchers, with 15 taken, 14 of which were starters.
- But likely due to the bigger inning total, Round 2 leaned slightly to hitters (13 to 11), with OF dominating (7).
- The 3rd Round was the OF round, with 12 taken.
- Round 4 was the infielder round, with 9 SS/2B/3B taken, and another 4 were either Catcher or 1B.
- In the 5th, many teams went back to pitchers, with 13 total. The difference is only 3 were primarily relievers.
- The catcher run started earlier in this league, with 8 taken in Round 6 and another 8 in Round 7. Clearly the lesser premium on roster spots played a big role.
- The last two rounds were very spread out. 8th round saw a lot of teams fill holes with 2 catchers, 5 2B, 3 3B, and 1 SS taken. We also saw 3 relievers go, after just 5 in first 7 rounds combined.
- The 9th Round was certainly when teams could finally take a one-season reliever (6 taken). There were also 8 more middle infielders (4 SS, 4 2B).
- Fewer pitchers were taken overall, with 102 taken in Lg2 and 88 in Lg1.

Thanks.... good stuff.

I should also thank Schwarze for giving me a second chance.

This was my first time in a diamond draft so I wasn't really sure what the best strategy was. I figured starting pitchers would be at a premium and that certain rounds make sense for bulk positional picks but otherwise had no idea how others would approach the draft.

Round 1 pick 10
After watching a number of top pitchers go there was nobody left I felt was as far enough above the next tier of starters likely around in rounds 2 and 3,to justify the pick. I opted to look at the top players in the tougher to fill positions and landed on George Brett

Round 2
By the time it got back to me a ton of pitchers had been taken. I was planning on taking a pitcher in this spot but again looking at my top 5 picks I didn't see a ton of separation between them. I had Hershiser as the top guy on my board but there where similar guys that I would be happy with in round 3. I figured so many people had taken pitchers in round 1 and 2 that most people would be moving to position players in round 3 so I took my chances at filling another hard to fill position and took Rod Carew. I figured I could get an elite hitting season with good defense at 1st base and a decent defensive season with solid range at 2nd base. This left me in a spot I would only need to use 3 more rounds on hitters to fill out my roster.so if I had to take pitchers with some seasons I wouldn't want to use it would be ok as I would have 4 rounds to use on pitching

Round 3
Starting out I figured I should grab an outfielder in this round but seeing as I had yet to grab a starter, outfielder would have to wait. I also noticed the depth at outfield and wasn't worried I would get a top choice in the 4th round. With all the power available in this draft I wanted to prevent hr as much as possible. My infield defense was shaping up to be pretty good and there were a bunch of guys with a number of good hitting and defensive seasons in the outfield still on the board so I figured I would build pitching around hr prevention as much as I could with an all modern staff and hope my defense could help with hit prevention.. Orel Hershiser was my top pitching choice all the way back to round 2 so when he was still there I grabbed him. He gave me an excellent 85 season and a solid long relief/tandem starter year with his 84 season, his 88 season was my 3rd pick. I was hoping 88 could be used as a spot starter against teams with less power and more avg. So I still had a ways to go with my pitching at this point

Round 4
I was on the fence between taking another starter or an outfielder. When my pick came up there was no pitcher that stood out but Rickey Henderson was there and fit the bill perfectly with a great mix of speed, power and high obp at the plate and tons of range in the outfield. I knew I would use his 85,90,93 A's only seasons but was torn between 81 or 83 as the final season. In the end I choose 81 over 83 higher avg and better range was the trade off. After seeing tons of great throwing catchers selected those skills seemed more valuable the 83's base stealing prowess.

Round 5
I had assumed I would take a reliever in this round but after seeing the top guys with 4 or 5 great years fly off the board I started to reconsider if that was where the value was in round 5. There were still some good relievers left but all the elite whip guys left had had a bunch of hr prone seasons. I noticed the only 2 catchers taken where Joe Torre and Mike Piazza and that got me thinking about Joe Mauer and how well he would fit in on my team I could use his 09 season as a DH against right handed pitching (still had 93 Rickey as an option to dh vs lefties) and as a catcher against teams without base stealing threats. 06 could bring lots of avg behind the plate with an A+ arm. More PA then I need but his 04,12 and 13 seasons would give me a high percentage late game defensive replacement a back up 1st basemen with good defense and a little power off the bench between the 3 of them all hitting well over 300

Round 6
Now I needed to take pitching badly I was looking at Gary Peters, Derek Lowe or Steve Howe and Grant Jackson. I really liked Derek Lowe's top season and his good relief season but I figured that would leave me with a reliever next round and I still needed a shortstop with two seasons, the 2nd would fill out Brett's PA's at 3rd base. That would leave me grabbing one more starter in the last round and 88 Hershiser every 4th day. As much as I would have liked Lowe I felt he was too much of a luxury in a 4 player round and hoped he might make it back to me next round. That left me looking at a reliever I went with Steve Howe over Jackson because I felt like he had more overall useable innings and some of his years the oav was a little high but his walks and hr/9 are solid on all

Round 7
Derek Lowe got taken by the time my next pick was up, I looked at Kevin Appier but decided Gary Peters was my best bet with 3 good starters seasons. This will give me enough innings between he and Hershiser to play matchups or do combo starts without dealing with fatigue issues.

Round 8
I needed a shortstop who had a second season that was good enough defensively that he could cover Brett's days off at 3rd. This was a tough choice because Robin Yount and Jose Reyes where both still out there and had a monster starter season and secondary seasons good enough to cover backing up at 3rd. But they are both only avg defenders and I felt like my pitching staff needed someone elite with the glove in this spot, I went with Cal Ripken Jr and his massive range 84 season and his 91 season to fill these spots. I am hoping I have enough hitting in the rest of the line up I can deal with the down grade from Yount and Reyes. The other decision this pushed me towards is hitting Brett 8th to keep his glove in the line up for more innings without a true back up at 3rd.. I am interested to see if he will have more value hitting less often in more games playing more innings in the field then hitting more often in less games

Round 9

This round I decided I had all my positions covered and more then enough innings so I would take the best reliever I could find, lucky for me Victor Gonzalez was still out there.
.

League 1, 11th pick
When it came time for me to select my NL draft slot picks 7,8 and 11 were available. Picked 11, wish I would have picked 7 or 8.

Round 1 - I thought the distribution between Pitchers and hitters would be 5-5. Turns out it was 7 Pitchers and 3 Hitters. The 3 hitters I missed out on were Ruth, Lajoie and Hornsby. I picked Gehrig for his 1927 season.
Round 2 - Went with Gehringer who I had ranked as the best available 2B. Would use his 2nd season as a DH or an out of position 3B.
Round 3 - Went with Medwick to lock up the 3 OF positions.
Round 4 - Went with Banks. I was worried about picking him with all the dead-ball pitchers, but he could start at SS and 3B. This pick leaves only Catcher to fill out my starting 9.
Round 5 - Time to pick a SP. Picked V. Willis which gave me 2 good SP's and 3 other serviceable seasons.
Round 6 - The "you can never have too many catchers" trend was in full force. Dickey, Hartnett, Cochrane, Campy among others were gone. Felt fortunate to get Berra. Will use one of his seasons as a back-up OF.
Round 7 - Technically all my hitting spots are filled so I needed a SP. Very pleased that Barney Pelty was still available.
Round 8 - I was looking for upgrades and was worried about Banks at 3B so picked G. Kell. Think I will use Kell against deadball pitchers and Banks against later year pitchers.
Round 9 - Happy to upgrade SP with J. Weimer.

League 1, pick #22,
Wanted to pick spot as close to 24 as I could. Liked the higher picks because of early picks in rounds 2,3,5 and 9.

Round 1 - The pitcher to hitter ratio continues with 14 pitchers and 7 hitters already picked. Going to pick a hitter and was torn between Foxx and Musial. Went with Musial. Foxx is a really good 1st round pick and a phenomenal 2nd round pick. I pick 3rd in the 2nd round. Was hoping that footballmm11 and pedro would be distracted. Was not going to happen as footballmm11 picked him (best pick off the draft in my opinion).
Round 2 - Surprised that Speaker was still available. Thought he would have gone in round 1. Picked Speaker. My OF is complete.
Round 3 - Thought I was going to pick an OF in this round. Had to go with plan B. A lot of SP's were already taken but happy to snatch Reulbach.
Round 4 - Picked Joe Sewell. Technically gave me a starting 2B, SS and 3B. The SS season is a great hitting but poor fielding season. One of the 4 Sewell's will be a good fielding back-up SS.
Round 5 - Went with Harry (Thurston) Howell. Gave me 5 decent seasons at SP.
Round 6 - The run on catchers is starting to slow down. Have Spud Davis as my highest ranked C that is still available. So 4 seasons of Spud it is.
Round 7 - Needed a 1B and a DH so went with Klu. Not sure how he will do against the deadball pitchers but I wanted some HR power in the lineup.
Round 8 - Went with Bill Sweeney as an upgrade at 2B.
Round 9 - Pleased to get Bugs Raymond as an upgrade at SP.

League 2, pick #18, Went with the latest round 1 pick I could as again I like early picks in rds. 2,3,5,9.
Round 1 - Again a little surprised that the distribution between hitters and pitchers already picked was not more even. 13 pitchers and 4 hitters. Went with Todd Helton at 1B. Really love his hitting. 20-20 hindsight maybe should have gone with another position as 1B is loaded in this league.
Round 2 - SP's are going like hotcakes. Hoping against hope that A-Rod will still be available when I pick. Not to be as richiebrown snaps him up. Go with Albert Pujols which will give me a DH or OF and a 3B. Pujols has so many great seasons to choose from. Very happy with this pick.
Round 3 - My #1 rated Of is still available so I pick Albert Belle. His fielding is suspect but what great hitter.
Round 4 - With 3-8 in my batting order set with Helton, Pujols,Pujols, Belle, Belle and Belle it is time to pick a SP. Went with Jim Palmer. Some really good seasons with a lot of innings.
Round 5 - With some of the top tier relievers gone I went with 5 seasons of Papelbon. He should be top tier but I haven't had good success with him. We'll see.
Round 6 - Still need a C,SS,and 2B. Derek Jeter was still available and I have ranked as the best available SS. His range is weak so I made sure to pick a good fielding SS season as a back-up. His other two seasons could be played out of position as a 2B or back-up 3B/OF.
Round 7 - Down to 2B or C. I felt like better 2B's would be available in round 8 so Buster Posey it is at C.
Round 8 - Edgardo Alfonzo is my top rated 2B that is still available. Good hit, mediocre fielding. Picked his best fielding season as a back-up 2B.
Round 9 - Really happy to add Curt Schilling's best season as a 5th SP.

Final Thoughts - I have played in very few ultra high cap leagues. Juice will have many no-cap leagues but they are usually limited by other factors. Evidently, conventional wisdom that in these ultra high cap leagues great pitching is more important than great hitting. My strategy was to pick great hitters and that there will be good enough pitchers left in rounds 4 and 5. I hope I get at least one team to advance to the last round. I will say that this was a really fun draft. The way everyone made each of their picks really had an influence on my next picks. I like my teams but it could be a long season.
Many thanks to schwarze and njbigwig for making proxy picks for me. The proxies really help to move the drafts along. Also thanks to schwarze for keeping everything organized, I don't know how he does it. Last, but not least, thanks to juice for always coming up with great themes that are challenging and fun.