Posted by schwarze on 1/19/2023 3:37:00 PM (view original):
Oh man, I don't want to call anybody out just b/c I think they made a pick that I wouldn't have made. Were there selections made in the top 5 in a league that I show as below average teams? Yes. Am I going to name them? No.

However, there is one team I am really curious about. Before I started on the spreadsheets, I was just poking around different leagues, trying different builds. One of the teams that I looked at, and also was a team I was interested in, was the 1979-80 Royals/A's (picked 3rd by ybjsports in League 9). I really love that defense (+3.2 STD). When I got around to the spreadsheet calculations and plugged in the numbers, sadly the pitching rates -1.2 STD and the offense rates -0.4 STD, making this team a below average team, even with the defense bump. This team's success or failure will go a long way toward me understanding how much to weight defense.

Regarding your teams steveizzy, you had mostly lower round picks, so as it turns out, I only built 2 of your 6 teams. I have your "2009-2010: Florida Marlins - Detroit Tigers" team rated as below average, which isn't all that shocking as the 15th selection in league 13. I have your "1951-1952: Chicago White Sox - Boston Braves" (league 6, pick 21) as slightly below average.

Well if it’s me, let me know. Publicly too

d_rock has 5 teams

League 15, pick #2 --> 2019-2020: New York Mets - San Diego Padres
I really wanted to draft this team in the Top 30, so yes - love this pick. +1.4 STD hitting, +1.1 STD pitching, but -1.6 STD defense

League 15, pick #4 --> 2021-2022: Los Angeles Dodgers - Washington Nationals
This team is tricky b/c it depends on how you use the 10 LA roster spots and how many innings I include in the ERC# calc. I am typically using 1450 to 1500 and I know that might be high. Using this high an IP number means some really bad Washington pitchers are included in the numbers, making this team below average in pitching (-0.8). Offensively, it's strong (+0.7 STD) and defensively average (0.0). That being said, I only built 13 teams in league 15, so if I added more (worse teams), the numbers for this team will improve. In fact, many of the league 15 teams I built are so bad, that this teams ranked 5th. And if you count fewer innings, the pitching improves. I never claimed my process is perfect.

League 9, Pick 4 --> 1981-1982: Montreal Expos - San Diego Padres
Overall, this is a solid pick, basically average in pitching (0.0) and defense (-0.1), and good in hitting (+0.5). Love the lefty/right/switch hitter balance.

League 5, Pick 6 --> 1943-1944: Detroit Tigers - Brooklyn Dodgers
Already mentioned that I almost took this team at pick 6. Very strong pitching (+0.9), and decent offense (+0.2), but a little on the weak side defensively (-0.6).

I didn't build your league 3 pick 13 roster (1919-1920: Chicago Cubs - Detroit Tigers)

Did anyone take less than 10 players from the better team? I did it once with the 2019-2020 Diamondbacks/White Sox. I only took 8 D-Backs. The 2020 White Sox have a lot of good players. 14 of my players are from the 2020 White Sox. I only have 3 players from the 2019 White Sox.

Posted by schwarze on 1/19/2023 4:24:00 PM (view original):
d_rock has 5 teams

League 15, pick #2 --> 2019-2020: New York Mets - San Diego Padres
I really wanted to draft this team in the Top 30, so yes - love this pick. +1.4 STD hitting, +1.1 STD pitching, but -1.6 STD defense

League 15, pick #4 --> 2021-2022: Los Angeles Dodgers - Washington Nationals
This team is tricky b/c it depends on how you use the 10 LA roster spots and how many innings I include in the ERC# calc. I am typically using 1450 to 1500 and I know that might be high. Using this high an IP number means some really bad Washington pitchers are included in the numbers, making this team below average in pitching (-0.8). Offensively, it's strong (+0.7 STD) and defensively average (0.0). That being said, I only built 13 teams in league 15, so if I added more (worse teams), the numbers for this team will improve. In fact, many of the league 15 teams I built are so bad, that this teams ranked 5th. And if you count fewer innings, the pitching improves. I never claimed my process is perfect.

League 9, Pick 4 --> 1981-1982: Montreal Expos - San Diego Padres
Overall, this is a solid pick, basically average in pitching (0.0) and defense (-0.1), and good in hitting (+0.5). Love the lefty/right/switch hitter balance.

League 5, Pick 6 --> 1943-1944: Detroit Tigers - Brooklyn Dodgers
Already mentioned that I almost took this team at pick 6. Very strong pitching (+0.9), and decent offense (+0.2), but a little on the weak side defensively (-0.6).

I didn't build your league 3 pick 13 roster (1919-1920: Chicago Cubs - Detroit Tigers)

Mets Pads was my first choice due to similarity. I’m always using those rosters in $120mil roster twist leagues.

Dodgers Nats was chosen because I thought I could cheese it a little knowing Washington had a fire sale, and used Scherzer’s, Trea’s, Soto’s, and Josh Bell’s combined seasons. Probably the most time I spent on the single clone, and chose Soto over Trea Turner and Julio Urias solely because he was a Nat, and I could use a Dodger elsewhere. I’ll have to manage this team the most as I move Gonsolin and Kershaw into the rotation to replace the second Urias, and some Washington mop innings come in to bring my IP total to 1379. I like going low on innings if the pitchers are high K guys.

Expos Pads was simply because I wanted to build a stolen base team with an A+ arm catcher. Sad that Royals A’s team was taken right before me, didn’t even think about .390 George Brett, I just wanted Wathan behind the plate. Instead I get Raines at 2B and OF with Gary Carter behind the dish.

Tigers Dodgers was my first choice all the way, and I’m glad nobody took it. I only built two teams and already forgot the other one.

League 3 had me choosing between a great pitching, poor hitting Sens Sox team, or an offensive based team like the Cubs Tigers I ended up choosing, or the other 1919-20 team that went right after me [Edit: Phillies Indians] that I was debating. Figured I’d just rely on Pete Alexander to go 8 or 9, and chose a division that I thought would have the poorest hitting, and hope my bats would show up.

Distribution of Division Alignment, by Draft Pick Number
.

Pick#	N.L. East	N.L. Central	N.L. West	A.L. East	A.L. Central	A.L. West
----------	----------	----------	----------	----------	----------	----------
1	10	1	0	2	0	2
2	2	0	1	5	2	5
3	1	0	6	6	0	2
4	1	4	4	1	3	2
5	0	3	3	1	5	3
6	0	8	2	0	4	1
7	1	3	0	2	2	7
8	1	2	4	1	5	2
9	3	3	3	1	3	2
10	0	2	3	6	3	1
11	1	7	1	1	4	1
12	1	2	2	1	4	5
13	1	1	3	3	3	4
14	2	5	3	1	3	1
15	2	3	1	2	3	4
16	4	1	2	4	3	1
17	1	3	3	4	0	4
18	4	1	1	4	4	1
19	1	3	5	1	2	3
20	2	3	3	1	3	3
21	4	2	3	4	0	2
22	4	1	3	4	1	2
23	6	1	2	2	3	1
24	8	1	2	3	0	1
----------	----------	----------	----------	----------	----------	----------
Avg	14.5	11.8	12.7	12.8	11.7	11.5

Posted by toysboys on 1/19/2023 4:39:00 PM (view original):
Did anyone take less than 10 players from the better team? I did it once with the 2019-2020 Diamondbacks/White Sox. I only took 8 D-Backs. The 2020 White Sox have a lot of good players. 14 of my players are from the 2020 White Sox. I only have 3 players from the 2019 White Sox.

After having checked all but a couple of rosters, I can tell you that at least five or six people took less than the allotted 10.

Posted by toysboys on 1/19/2023 4:39:00 PM (view original):
Did anyone take less than 10 players from the better team? I did it once with the 2019-2020 Diamondbacks/White Sox. I only took 8 D-Backs. The 2020 White Sox have a lot of good players. 14 of my players are from the 2020 White Sox. I only have 3 players from the 2019 White Sox.

My 1989-90 Rangers-Dodgers squad only has 9 players from the 1989 Rangers and two of those are platoon players.

My team selection process was pretty simple as I only had 1 top ten pick (#6) in league 10 and a #11 pick in league 12.

Most of the time I just pick teams that I like to manage, hence my not so great showing in round one (especially with my Tiger squads). I debated a long time about taking the 1985-86 Astros-Cubs in league 10 since my championship in league one was led by 1986 Mike Scott. I went with the 1989-90 Rangers-Dodgers though because I felt that their hitting was a bit better and just couldn't make myself pass on the two Nolan Ryans :). The 1985-86 Astros-Cubs didn't go for another 5 picks which probably confirms that my research was not up to the standard of others :).

My 11 pick in league 12 (2001-02 Giants-Reds) was definitely a knee-jerk pick with having the 2001 and 2002 Barry Bonds seasons. I snapped that team up pretty quickly when I saw it was still available and didn't take enough time building other squads. The pitching is going to be a big problem for me and if I had to do it over I think I would have went with the 2001-02 Phillies-Cubs squad that Toyboys took a few selections later.

The rest of my picks (18, 20, 21, and 23) were purely who I would like to manage the most. I tend to go with teams that are heavier on the hitting side and my pitching usually doesn't hold up. But I sure enjoy these leagues - thanks for putting in all the work Juice and I also love Schwarze analysis before, during, and after the season.

Posted by toysboys on 1/19/2023 4:39:00 PM (view original):
Did anyone take less than 10 players from the better team? I did it once with the 2019-2020 Diamondbacks/White Sox. I only took 8 D-Backs. The 2020 White Sox have a lot of good players. 14 of my players are from the 2020 White Sox. I only have 3 players from the 2019 White Sox.

I only have 7 Royals on my 1989-90 Royals/Cardinals team. Anybody have seven or fewer?

Posted by 84champs on 1/20/2023 9:01:00 AM (view original):
My team selection process was pretty simple as I only had 1 top ten pick (#6) in league 10 and a #11 pick in league 12.

Most of the time I just pick teams that I like to manage, hence my not so great showing in round one (especially with my Tiger squads). I debated a long time about taking the 1985-86 Astros-Cubs in league 10 since my championship in league one was led by 1986 Mike Scott. I went with the 1989-90 Rangers-Dodgers though because I felt that their hitting was a bit better and just couldn't make myself pass on the two Nolan Ryans :). The 1985-86 Astros-Cubs didn't go for another 5 picks which probably confirms that my research was not up to the standard of others :).

My 11 pick in league 12 (2001-02 Giants-Reds) was definitely a knee-jerk pick with having the 2001 and 2002 Barry Bonds seasons. I snapped that team up pretty quickly when I saw it was still available and didn't take enough time building other squads. The pitching is going to be a big problem for me and if I had to do it over I think I would have went with the 2001-02 Phillies-Cubs squad that Toyboys took a few selections later.

The rest of my picks (18, 20, 21, and 23) were purely who I would like to manage the most. I tend to go with teams that are heavier on the hitting side and my pitching usually doesn't hold up. But I sure enjoy these leagues - thanks for putting in all the work Juice and I also love Schwarze analysis before, during, and after the season.

I like that 2001-02 Giants team. I didn't build that team at first, but during the draft, I did build it, and it jumped to the top of my ranking, prior to my selection of the 2003-04 Twins/Rockies (pick 18). That's when I realized that you had already taken them. The pitching isn't good and the defense is sub-par, but the offense is the best in the league by a wide margin (better than the 03-04 Bonds team).

Posted by schwarze on 1/20/2023 2:36:00 PM (view original):

Posted by toysboys on 1/19/2023 4:39:00 PM (view original):
Did anyone take less than 10 players from the better team? I did it once with the 2019-2020 Diamondbacks/White Sox. I only took 8 D-Backs. The 2020 White Sox have a lot of good players. 14 of my players are from the 2020 White Sox. I only have 3 players from the 2019 White Sox.

I only have 7 Royals on my 1989-90 Royals/Cardinals team. Anybody have seven or fewer?

I don't remember seeing fewer than 7 on any roster. It was surprising to me how many rosters didn't have a clone on them...

Posted by thejuice6 on 1/20/2023 3:05:00 PM (view original):

Posted by schwarze on 1/20/2023 2:36:00 PM (view original):

Posted by toysboys on 1/19/2023 4:39:00 PM (view original):
Did anyone take less than 10 players from the better team? I did it once with the 2019-2020 Diamondbacks/White Sox. I only took 8 D-Backs. The 2020 White Sox have a lot of good players. 14 of my players are from the 2020 White Sox. I only have 3 players from the 2019 White Sox.

I only have 7 Royals on my 1989-90 Royals/Cardinals team. Anybody have seven or fewer?

I don't remember seeing fewer than 7 on any roster. It was surprising to me how many rosters didn't have a clone on them...

I have clones on every team and all of them are impactful. In round one I poked fun at myself in the write up for having 2 Rod Becks as my weakest clone. Ended up winning 96 games.

Posted by thejuice6 on 1/20/2023 3:05:00 PM (view original):

Posted by schwarze on 1/20/2023 2:36:00 PM (view original):

Posted by toysboys on 1/19/2023 4:39:00 PM (view original):
Did anyone take less than 10 players from the better team? I did it once with the 2019-2020 Diamondbacks/White Sox. I only took 8 D-Backs. The 2020 White Sox have a lot of good players. 14 of my players are from the 2020 White Sox. I only have 3 players from the 2019 White Sox.

I only have 7 Royals on my 1989-90 Royals/Cardinals team. Anybody have seven or fewer?

I don't remember seeing fewer than 7 on any roster. It was surprising to me how many rosters didn't have a clone on them...

Ironically, this 89-90 Royals/Cardinals team is the ONLY one of my 29 teams w/o a clone. I could clone Lee Smith's 1990 season (83 ip, 2.63 erc#, 1.22 whip#, but he'd be one of the lower ranked relievers on the team, I already have 1475 innings, and decided on a pinch hitter / defensive replacement Bernard Gilkey instead (72 pa, .297/.379/.484, C/A). The offense is so weak, he's my 4th best offensive player.

Totally unrelated, for some reason, I was looking at Justin Verlander's season by season stats on baseball-reference. Check this out...
.

Year	.	Team	.	ERA	.	IP	.	WHIP
2009		DET		3.45		240		1.175
2010		DET		3.37		224		1.163
2011		DET		2.40		251		0.920
2012		DET		2.64		238		1.057
2013		DET		3.46		218		1.315
2014		DET		4.54		206		1.398
2015		DET		3.38		133		1.088
2016		DET		3.04		227		1.001
2017		TOT		3.36		206		1.175
2018		HOU		2.52		214		0.902
2019		HOU		2.58		223		0.803

.
I thought to myself, I wonder if the 2013-14 Tigers got drafted in this theme... Then I came to the realization that I have that team, as part of the 2013-14 Tigers/Marlins combo. No wonder my pitching sucks... Neither season of Verlander was worth rostering. Any Tigers fans out there? What the hell happened in those two years?

Posted by schwarze on 1/20/2023 4:44:00 PM (view original):
Totally unrelated, for some reason, I was looking at Justin Verlander's season by season stats on baseball-reference. Check this out...
.

Year	.	Team	.	ERA	.	IP	.	WHIP
2009		DET		3.45		240		1.175
2010		DET		3.37		224		1.163
2011		DET		2.40		251		0.920
2012		DET		2.64		238		1.057
2013		DET		3.46		218		1.315
2014		DET		4.54		206		1.398
2015		DET		3.38		133		1.088
2016		DET		3.04		227		1.001
2017		TOT		3.36		206		1.175
2018		HOU		2.52		214		0.902
2019		HOU		2.58		223		0.803

.
I thought to myself, I wonder if the 2013-14 Tigers got drafted in this theme... Then I came to the realization that I have that team, as part of the 2013-14 Tigers/Marlins combo. No wonder my pitching sucks... Neither season of Verlander was worth rostering. Any Tigers fans out there? What the hell happened in those two years?

He signed a 7 year contract prior to the 2013 season and had surgery prior to the 2014 season. He also started dating Kate Upton during that time.

He did pitch great in the 2013 playoffs, not so much in 2014 though.