Who are your favorite players to use (OL or not) - the guys you just find a way to shoehorn onto every team? I'm not talking about the best players (for me, Big Ed Walsh, who is incredible and can carry you to a title), or best value (Zobrist, who is on almost every OL team I make, but he's not very exciting), but simply your FAVORITES to use.

I am partial to the big Andre Dawson season. He's expensive for an OL but contributes in every way imaginable. Power, Speed, Defense, never needs rest...bat him anywhere in the lineup...in any type of park. I'd be much better off downgrading to Max Carey or Willie McGee, but what's the fun in that? The Hawk is working on a 40/40 season (and 30 + plays) for me as we speak.

The $7mm Mike Schmidt is up there too. Not the best value by a long shot, but + defense, good obp, and tons of power in a homer park are a blast.

81 Dawson? Using him for the first time right now and he's currently hitting .224 with a .761ops for me at the 60 game mark. He does have 15+ plays, but I was expecting more from his bat (I'm in Chase field / 100mil league).

I've found a way to get Whit Merrifield on a few teams (17-19 all useable) because he led me to a big fantasy baseball title a few years ago.

1887 John Kerins as a catcher. Speed rating 91,A+ arm, 600+ PA. Downside is his C- fielding but his 4.8m salary makes him usable in many types of leagues. 1925 Frankie Frisch would be a close 2nd with a great price and stats.

Posted by wojowojo on 12/28/2020 11:23:00 PM (view original):
81 Dawson? Using him for the first time right now and he's currently hitting .224 with a .761ops for me at the 60 game mark. He does have 15+ plays, but I was expecting more from his bat (I'm in Chase field / 100mil league).

I've found a way to get Whit Merrifield on a few teams (17-19 all useable) because he led me to a big fantasy baseball title a few years ago.

Wow that's a rough start but he should correct - that would set a new low in his performance history by some 70 pts of OPS! I'm 145 games into a season now and he's got 36 hr, 41 sb, 22 + plays (at Hilltop, but still). I've also had him on a Coors team and he hit like 55 homers. He won't bust the OPS leaderboards because he doesn't walk much, but in a hitters' park like Chase, he will be great.

2020 Whit helped carry my own real life fantasy team to the playoffs last year...never used him in WIS though but I'll check him out. Someone used him as a 2010s Royals "Stud" in my Studs & Scrubs theme and he was excellent.

Funny, I put together a team with this very topic in mind:

Position Players
		Pos	Player	Bats	AVG	HR	RBI	Field/Range	Salary
		C	2001 Paul Lo Duca	R	.320	25	90	B/A+	$6,127,875
		1B	1993 John Olerud	L	.363	24	107	B-/C-	$8,582,259
		2B	1996 Eric Young	R	.324	8	74	B/A+	$6,651,694
		3B	1998 Vinny Castilla	R	.319	46	144	A/C+	$7,120,262
		SS	1987 Tony Fernandez	S	.322	5	67	A/A-	$6,985,330
		OF	1930 Babe Herman	L	.393	35	130	B/D	$9,490,115
		OF	1980 Willie Wilson	S	.326	3	49	B+/A+	$8,270,710
		OF	1923 Harry Heilmann	R	.403	18	115	C-/C+	$9,886,067
		OF	1995 Dante Bichette	R	.340	40	128	B/D-	$6,337,343
		C	1986 Ron Hassey	L	.353	3	20	B/B	$2,131,417
		1B	1980 Cecil Cooper	L	.352	25	122	A/A-	$7,636,143
		SS	2007 Jeff Keppinger	R	.332	5	32	A+/D-	$2,462,719
		OF	2010 Jarrod Dyson	L	.211	1	5	C/A+	$554,013
		Util	optional
		Util	optional
		Util	optional
		Util	optional
		Util	optional
		Util	optional
Batting Totals					.344	238	1083	B/B-	$82,235,947

Pitching Staff
		Role	Player	Throws	W-L	SV	ERA	WHIP	K-BB	Salary
		SP	1906 Jack Pfiester	L	20-8	0	1.51	0.94	153-63	$10,252,659
		SP/RP	2002 Pedro Martinez	R	20-4	0	2.26	0.92	239-40	$8,994,829
		SP/RP	1964 Joe Horlen	R	13-9	0	1.88	0.94	138-55	$8,931,684
		SP/RP	1976 Mark Fidrych	R	19-9	0	2.34	1.08	97-53	$7,189,617
		SP/RP	1994 Steve Ontiveros	R	6-4	0	2.65	1.03	56-26	$5,629,688
		SP/RP	1986 Frank Williams	R	3-1	1	1.20	1.07	33-21	$1,693,906
		SP/RP	1989 Todd Burns	R	6-5	8	2.24	0.98	49-28	$3,678,907
		SP/RP	1987 Dave Smith	R	2-3	24	1.65	1.00	73-21	$2,963,878
		SP/RP	1988 John Franco	L	6-6	39	1.57	1.01	46-27	$2,914,263
		SP/RP	2001 Steve Karsay	R	0-1	1	1.25	0.85	44-8	$2,289,710
		SP/RP	1981 Andy Rincon	R	3-1	0	1.77	0.90	13-5	$2,145,127
		SP/RP	1992 Dennis Rasmussen	L	4-1	0	1.43	0.82	12-6	$2,011,353
		SP/RP	optional
Pitching Totals					102-52	73	1.95	0.98	953-353	$58,695,621

‘00 Donlin
’88 Oquendo
’87 Ezra Sutton
’19 Cravath
‘26 Cy Williams
’63 Mantle
’17 JD Martinez
’07 Brain
’19/‘31 Hornsby

are some of my favorite hitters to use and I use several of them every chance I get.

Pitching-wise, my favorites are some modern low-bb starters:
’10 Lee
’11 Halladay
’20 M. Gonzalez
‘20 Hendricks
as well as some guys that are far from useable in most cases:
‘16 Greinke
’17 E. Santana
’07 J. Santana

I go to the'84 Lance Parrish often. Low price, great arm, and gives some bottom of the lineup power. Tigers fan here too of course. And I often use Tiger Stadium since I prefer home run heavy teams. All of that means I don't win it all much, but it's fun nonetheless.

Posted by trumbull on 12/29/2020 5:45:00 PM (view original):
I go to the'84 Lance Parrish often. Low price, great arm, and gives some bottom of the lineup power. Tigers fan here too of course. And I often use Tiger Stadium since I prefer home run heavy teams. All of that means I don't win it all much, but it's fun nonetheless.

Lance Parrish is a really underrated player and has a good HOF case, IMO. Tigers have produced some great catchers over the years. Freehan and Rudy York should be in the HOF too!

However, I draw the line at Mickey Tettleton!

Here's an odd one; 1929 Al Grabowski
$2.22 mil, 54 IP of 1.68 ERC#.
He can give ya 8 starts of 7-8 IP, or 9 starts of 6-7 IP... and then hold him for a start in a playoff game
Start him, then send him to the minors for about 18 games; call him back up for another spot start. Another player gets to be on the roster 90% of the time.
It is likely that the team will go 6-3 in the games he starts.

One of my favorites to use as a backup and pinch hitter is 1998 David Bell. I use him especially in leagues that allow injuries. 86 PA, .325 AVG, hit 8 doubles and can play 1B, 2B, 3B, and OF with defense that won't kill you. $574K.

I use 1970 Roberto Pena the same as Bell if my funds are short for the last spot. Plays all INF spots with good fielding and lower range (mostly D+). Hits .259 so he could PH some. $245K

1988 Luis Medina...my go-to PH. I use him on almost every OL team.

Here's his performance in two recent leagues:
42 G: 9-36, 6 HR, .750 SLG, 11 RBI
65 G, 14-45, 6 HR, .711 SLG, 13 RBI

His plate appearances are almost entirely late-game clutch situations, so his HRs tend to be extremely valuable. In a typical OL he will hit 3-4 GW HR for me in the 9th inning or extra innings.

Posted by tomhanrahan on 12/30/2020 5:21:00 AM (view original):
Here's an odd one; 1929 Al Grabowski
$2.22 mil, 54 IP of 1.68 ERC#.
He can give ya 8 starts of 7-8 IP, or 9 starts of 6-7 IP... and then hold him for a start in a playoff game
Start him, then send him to the minors for about 18 games; call him back up for another spot start. Another player gets to be on the roster 90% of the time.
It is likely that the team will go 6-3 in the games he starts.

Our trade deadline was last nite, and guess who's sitting there on WW, about 4 hours before the above post ? So now I have basically for free a 2-inning Closer or SetUpA with a spot start option, plus a playoff 1-2 start ace. Found a similar 1904 Chick Robitaille the exact same way. My team was already good, plus now these guys for 3-4 playoff starts, including Gms#6-7 ?!

Not believing my luck and feeling quite smug about it, I almost posted here, but double thought it nah don't need the secret to get out. Well, thanx Tom !!

Tim Jones
Charlie Culberson
'11 Mike Adams (partial)
'18 Doolittle

'88 Jose Oquendo - can play every position and switch hits. The swiss army knife of baseball players.

Jack Clements ('90-'91) is on about every team I have right now, as is '69/'71 Reggie Smith, '07 Tommy Leach and '88 Bonilla.

For starters I pretty much switch between '11 Halladay, '10 Lee, '92 Tewksbury, '20 Hendricks, '01 Maddux, '85/'94 Saberhagen

and relievers I love '88 Dwyer, '94 Rueter, '12 Weilman, and a few other favs. Cheap, low bb/9 is my usual criteria. Don't focus as much on OAV as my defense will take a lot of hits away with + plays