That 70M pitching looks terrifying, jbohrman

I predict he's going to have fatigue problems...4898 PA wow.

He’ll be ok. Pretty sure I’ve been under that with each of the 70M or lower themes in the last 3 years. Two or three of them won the WS and one won the TOC. The impact of hitter fatigue is largely overblown IMO.

I don't know... I'm running a theme right now where a guy with just over 5000 PA has major fatigue issues and has players playing at just over 80%. Incidentally, that team has scored the 2nd fewest runs in the entire league despite spending the 3rd most salary on position players.

1. Rationalize the problem - At it’s heart realize this is a 110 mil team from a specific 10 year period you get to choose. You have roughly 7 weeks to make it. Don’t panic.
2. Find your years - step one, figure out from which years you want to start. Want the late 60s and early 70s pitchers, cool. Want to go for ultra modern and try to take advantage of years that haven’t gone through huge price increases, cool. Realize all the 10 years will have flaws figure out which ones you can live with.
3. Start your search - So lets say you are thinking you want to do 65-75. Great go ahead and do a search for say 62-78 in your player searches. Make sure you don’t want to move your year choice one way or the other to accommodate a player or players who like
4. Decide what’s important - Once you have a general view of who’s available decide who you have to have. In the above example let’s say it’s Koufax, Sutton and one or two specific hitters at valued positions. Note who those players played for.
5. Take a break - No, really take a break. Watch a movie. Work on a less intensive team. Remember you have WEEKS here. Stress is your enemy.
6. Find your launch point - So you have your years. After looking you decided you really want player A’s 1964 season if you can. So 64-74 is your zone. So time to look at the 1969 teams. First off, make sure none of your key pieces play for a specific team then open up the BBR and check every player on that roster. Ideally, look for players who have WIS eligible seasons for only one other team. Write those down. Especially those that match up to the teams of key players you choose.
7. Narrow the list - you’ve gone through your base teams entire roster you have let’s say 12-15 potential teams you can twist too. Find which ones are most important. If 2-3 get you your must haves set those aside. If a player can twist to 3 seasons make sure you figure out which ones don’t have the player seasons you want. If you want Sutton’s 72 you can’t twist to the 72 dodgers.
8. Flesh out your first roster - So you have 3 teams you want to twist too and let’s say 8-10 guys you want off those teams. Great. Now you have to try to fill in the rest. Based on your list of available twist teams that don’t have your core players on them. Look for guys that fill a need. Need a shutdown RP or a tolerable 2b or a catcher that doesn’t haven’t a damn d rated arm. Try to find a way to get those guys to flesh out your roster, that should get you to your 5 teams to twist from.
9. Repeat step 5 - no really you have 7 weeks and the Oracle hasn’t even broken you yet. Drink a beer or something.
10. 25 and Alive - So you have your five teams. Great. Build away. Five players per team. Grit your teeth at bench options. Hate that 1-2 position players are weaker than you wish. Moan about wasting 200k here and 130k there because you kinda have too. Remember everyone else has too as well.
11. Let the oracle make or break you - Run each player on your roster through. Remember if a season matches and both players are not WIS eligible that year they are still valid. Make changes as you need them. If you realize there’s a fatal error go back to step 4-8 find where you need to reset and try again. Most of all. Don’t panic. YOU HAVE SEVEN WEEKS.
12. Profit - Well I mean. There is a little bit of money involved.

daddyzander, you could have saved a lot of people a lot of grief by posting that 7 weeks ago.

I'm not much for the long write-ups, most likely because I feel like a simpleton when I read the level of thought and detail many of you guys put into this process. For both pitchers and hitters, I have about 10 numbers/stats I look at (maybe a few more or less, depends on the constraints of the theme) and then just go with whatever feels right. Round 1 still feels like it had to be a dream, we'll see if my process can hold up in round 2.

$70M - RMS Titanic - (Astrodome)

These $70M themes always start to feel like too much work, so I rushed it a bit. I decided early I wanted Jack Flaherty as my 2019 player and that expense forced my hand in other spots. Hitting-wise, I went all-in with OBP, to heck with SLG. I was hoping to get my OBP over .400 but didn't quite make it. I am interested to see how many rosters contain some version of Rickey Henderson. I definitely feel the least confident in this team for round 2, I'm afraid it may struggle to stay over .500. Hence the team name.

Hitting = .251 / .398 / .355 (5,194 PA)
Pitching = 2.81 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, .221 OAV (1,242 IP)


$90M - Mickey & Minnie - (County Stadium)

I started this one by building pretty much my entire pitching staff, figuring it would be much easier to "fill-in" years and franchises on the hitting side. That plan actually worked out pretty well. Solid bullpen using mostly 50's players, then settled on a rotation of '31 Grove, '53 Spahn, and '58 Whitey Ford. I feel this team will live or die based on how this rotation performs. Offense is led by '53 Jackie Robinson, '51 Minnie Minoso, and '35 Mickey Cochrane. Hence the team name.

Hitting = .322 / .413 / .480 (5,166 PA)
Pitching = 2.27 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, .213 OAV (1,322 IP)


$110M - 2014 Pirates Twist-Off - (PNC Park)

Once the rules were "relaxed" a bit, I actually found this one to be pretty fun. I like tough themes. I decided early I wanted to build around 2018 deGrom. I bounced around a little bit but found Neil Walker's tie to the 2014 Pirates and things fell in place pretty nicely from there. It was still a tough build and I had to change a couple players out when I hit dead-ends, but it wasn't as brutal as it seemed at first. I really like the pitching staff overall, but I do have a wildcard in 2014 Johnny Cueto. This cap may be above his effectiveness threshold, we'll see, I'm a little concerned there. One interesting hitter I've never used before is 2009 Ben Zobrist. . . .dude is going to be playing all over the field for me!

Hitting = .304 / .385 / .506 (5,313 PA)
Pitching = 1.91 ERA, .91 WHIP, .191 OAV (1,405 IP)


$130M - Storm? What Storm? - (Target Field)

Not much to say here, with a hitters HR threshold of 8 and a pitchers HR/9 threshold of .41 it basically was just trying to build a decent $130M roster which I feel I did. Not great, not terrible. Rotation will be '63 Koufax, '97 Pedro, and '15 Greinke. On offense, '20 Speaker, '20 Hornsby, and '21 Cobb will be my monsters.

Hitting = .356 / .443 / .520 (5,597 PA)
Pitching = 1.95 ERA, .89 WHIP, .190 OAV (1,417 IP)


$140M - Iron Man Lives Again! - (League Park II)

I have ZERO idea how this theme is going to play out. Talk about some crazy rosters. Like most, I have a sh!t-ton of PAs and IPs so will have some room to experiment early on. I feel that for this team to be successful I am going to need a couple of these starting pitchers to be a pleasant surprise. . . 1931 George Earnshaw, 1908 Glenn Liebhardt, 1889 Jack Stivetts, and 1907 Carl Lundgren. I could probably throw 2007 Jake Peavy on that list too. If they all bomb I have serious problems. The good news for me is that I think a lot of you are in the same boat. Trivia note: my team name is the last line of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man".

Hitting = .330 / .404 / .496 (6,016 PA)
Pitching = 2.28 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, .209 OAV (1,854 IP)


$180M - Might As Well Spend It All - (Busch Stadium)

Like shooting fish in a barrel. Doesn't mean we'll win a lot as I know every team is completely stacked. Need some luck in this type of theme with experienced owners.

Hitting = .378 / .461 / .521 (5,952 PA)
Pitching = 1.51 ERA, .78 WHIP, .173 OAV (1,412 IP)

Quote post by NebHusker on 12/17/2019 12:06:00 PM:

$140M - Iron Man Lives Again! - (League Park II)
...1889 Jack Stivetts...

---

I have a severe case of Jack Stivetts envy. When I drafted Amos Rusie, the only thing that made me consider going in another direction wasn't "there are a ton starting pitchers with way better ERC# still available" or "he's going to walk like half of the guys he faces" but instead "this means I won't have Jack Stivetts."

I have never used Jack Stivetts. I had never even heard of Jack Stivetts. I think I need professional help.

Jack Stivetts should undoubtedly be the name of a whiskey. Or a whiskey cocktail, at minimum. "Gimme two more Jack Stivetts!"

Posted by redcped on 12/17/2019 4:09:00 PM (view original):
Jack Stivetts should undoubtedly be the name of a whiskey. Or a whiskey cocktail, at minimum. "Gimme two more Jack Stivetts!"

Good idea. Jack Stivetts' nickname was "Happy Jack". Wikipedia says that he earned this nickname due to his pleasant demeanor. Sounds like he was not only happy, but a gentleman.

According to Bartender.com there is already a drink called Happy Jack:

1 ½ oz. Jack Daniel’s Whiskey
½ oz. Apple Schnapps
Shake with ice and strain.

I'd say replace the regular Jack Daniel's with an equal amount of Gentleman Jack and you've got yourself a Jack Stivetts.

Posted by barracuda3 on 12/17/2019 5:24:00 PM (view original):

Posted by redcped on 12/17/2019 4:09:00 PM (view original):
Jack Stivetts should undoubtedly be the name of a whiskey. Or a whiskey cocktail, at minimum. "Gimme two more Jack Stivetts!"

Good idea. Jack Stivetts' nickname was "Happy Jack". Wikipedia says that he earned this nickname due to his pleasant demeanor. Sounds like he was not only happy, but a gentleman.

According to Bartender.com there is already a drink called Happy Jack:

1 ½ oz. Jack Daniel’s Whiskey
½ oz. Apple Schnapps
Shake with ice and strain.

I'd say replace the regular Jack Daniel's with an equal amount of Gentleman Jack and you've got yourself a Jack Stivetts.

Where are we meeting up to share these drinks?

Side note: Jack was a fine hitter, with a career slash of .298/.344/.439. He has two WIS seasons as a position player, and his 1897 looks pretty solid. Interesting they chose to make him a hitter with 267 PA rather than a 129 IP pitcher.

Posted by redcped on 12/17/2019 5:43:00 PM (view original):

Posted by barracuda3 on 12/17/2019 5:24:00 PM (view original):

Posted by redcped on 12/17/2019 4:09:00 PM (view original):
Jack Stivetts should undoubtedly be the name of a whiskey. Or a whiskey cocktail, at minimum. "Gimme two more Jack Stivetts!"

Good idea. Jack Stivetts' nickname was "Happy Jack". Wikipedia says that he earned this nickname due to his pleasant demeanor. Sounds like he was not only happy, but a gentleman.

According to Bartender.com there is already a drink called Happy Jack:

1 ½ oz. Jack Daniel’s Whiskey
½ oz. Apple Schnapps
Shake with ice and strain.

I'd say replace the regular Jack Daniel's with an equal amount of Gentleman Jack and you've got yourself a Jack Stivetts.

Where are we meeting up to share these drinks?

You know, it's funny...many many years ago (I'd say more than 10) a bunch of us tried to organize a WhatIf Sports meetup in Boston. For a while it looked like it was going to happen but a bunch of people backed out at the last minute so it never did.

You know, it's funny...many many years ago (I'd say more than 10) a bunch of us tried to organize a WhatIf Sports meetup in Boston. For a while it looked like it was going to happen but a bunch of people backed out at the last minute so it never did.

I've thought about that a couple times, would be awesome to actually get something going. Maybe something more centrally located would draw more people? You know, like maybe, oh just shooting from the hip here. . . . Nebraska?

If ozo would just fly us all out to Bali, I think that would work too.