From the category “it’s better to be lucky than good”, my last two picks which were really just whatever was left, ended up yielding two of my full-time position players as teammates.

OK now that I’ve said it out loud maybe that’s not Such a good thing. :(

Technically, I didn't draft a Mauer, do I have to roster him?

Initial Choice:

I wish I had the list of players earlier. I spent a great amount of time trying to find players that qualified. So many players that would have been great at 14 or 16 seasons... At first I was going to go with a pitcher knowing that it would let me be at the top of the order but in the end I grabbed a hitter that should put me just behind the pitchers. 2000 Nomar put me 7th overall, second highest of the hitters and with SS filled. My plan was bold in also bringing along Pedro and possibly Varitek to catch some games. I thought very hard about taking the 1999 version of Nomar with the very good but less expensive version but stayed with this one becasue it appeared that there would be a lot of misserable innings from nominated players but that they could be cheap side so there was a chance to get a win every 4th day at a high cost. I did find myself laughing at the first base Nomar season with all the other first base seasons of nominated players... someone could end up with first baseman at 4 positions without a DH here.

Round 1:

I watched the three picks before me take the three that I was willing to take to try and move up the draft order. With them gone I looked at a couple of other high priced players but in the end found myself trying to decide between a very cheep kid and a long releiver at a good price. took 04 Orth (highlanders partial). I knew this would drop me down the draft but there were so many Orth seasons I wanted nothing to do with. Perhaps I should have taken a pitcher as my initial choice so as to get a top roster spot... as far as teammates there was Willie Keller who could get on base but not catch the ball, a right handed platoon cf and a huge inning jack chesbro. Kind of hoping I don't need any of them.

Round 2:

Round 1 saw my Kid picked. less than $1M for him would have made me smile. Was still looking at the remaining Kid's... man they are all crap, so I decided to wait again. going back and forth between two more of the pitchers decided to take some relief innings with 1929 Ehmke. Just a bit over 1.5 M. Chance for Foxx at thrid (with some bad D), Muel Hass and/or Simmons in CF? not at all sure. There is also a beast of a lefthanded hitting catcher here that I won't be able to use because we have one nominated. Worried about both Kid and Griffith but hoping that people will be looking elsewhere with the useful or very cheap seasons gone. in the end i think this was my worst pick because i really should have gone high here to keep draft position.

Round 3:

Yup. Not enough of an Ehmke run. Couple that with the drop down the board and I have too long a wait for picks. i think i need to move up the board so i make a pick here to do that. The 1891 Kid offers 500 innings... that's about it. He does move me up the list and as most of the people ahead of me already have their deadballers I should be able to climb more in each of the next 4-5 rounds. As a bonus to being "blah" Kid also doesn't bring along any friends worthy of consideration.

Round 4:

The last person who could took the $9.5M version before my pick denying me the guy I wanted as he was best version left and would have helped with the position climbing. I went with the 1899 Grifith instead, same idea as last round. I am going to get one of these players (Kid and Grifith) so I might as well try to get draft value out of their high cost. Moved up a few more spots with a handful of guys staying just out of reach...can I make it into the top 5 next round? Though they were noticeably better than Kid's 1891 teammates, he was kind enough to leave all of his in 1899 .

Round 5:

So my pitching is going to struggle so my hitting needs to hold up. I typed and deleted 4 different picks here. 4. In the end I took 1994 Bagwell... lets see how that goes. I am not sure about this pick at all but 8 hr/100 expectation plus moving up four more spots is nice. i think. or it could kill me in the end with way to much dedicated to one hitter. Cheap utility player Andy Stankiewicz can not kill me in a few games at 2nd, third and/or short. Tod Jones can help some on the mound. When I made the pick I wasn't looking at him but ended up rostering Biggio at second base. Breem will work as a LH bat off the bench.

Round 6:

I really wanted the big 8Mil Maur to as a good average lefty bat with good D. He could have sat second in my order and been driven in a ton. After he went I jumped on the very good defense LH platoon catcher version. In normal leagues I would think there were some extra AB's there but there are sooooo many RH pitchers nominated I am going to try and roster a switch hitter to help finish out the innings. Neshek will get to take some innings on the mound.

Round 7:

Again, I wanted that big Maur to keep me up the draft knowing I was going to be targeting some good but PA short players for some kind of platoon role because there were so many 1B going to play out of position. Have to take them anyways even though it means going down the board again. There were 3 players I very much wanted and two of them went right at the top of the round. Luckily one of them was left; 1898 Tucker can hit and can be used as either side of a platoon because he switch hits. No teammates.

Round 8:

Very much want to roster Mule Hass and Willie Keller as teammates so I still need more platoon type or bench players from the draft. Enter 1989 O'Neil who will play mostly against RH which there will be many of because of nominated players. I thought about taking one of the full seasons but liked the idea of having O'Neil, Keller and Hass against all the righties. Looking like Bagweel will be OF/!B side of a Tucker/O'Neil platoon. I will keep an eye on the 99 IP Rob Dibble but don't think he'll make the cut with all the innings that have been and still will have to be drafted.

Round 9:

Not sure if I am using the advantage of moving up with earlier picks or blowing the whole thing up with the cheap 1991 Tom Herr but I didn't want the other seasons and the only picks I was confident about keeping me up the board were players that seemed worth waiting on because they were all similar enough to keep there there. Did think long and hard about the best reliever season available but thought it was more likely to last. In the end seeing that almost everyone after me still needed their version made the decision for me. Looking at the players left: Santo all pretty much the same, Gurrero (89 full season, 82 or 88 cheap bench), Ordonez (05, 10 platoon or 04 w/200+ innings), three lindblad's with #era and #erc under 3 or the super cheap ones. verland and brown will probably be the player left variety at this point.

Round 10:

I decide on the 89 Guerrero knowing full well that I will have to play at least one if not two first baseman out of position. It also likely ends my plans to bring Mr. Foxx along. . Starting to look at the roster critticly. can I still fit the 2000 Pedro? Larkin will play short when the under 600 PA Nomar needs time off. He wll also get some games out of postion at 2B.

Round 11:

05 Ordonez joins the team to platoon with Mr. O'neil. Given the number of right handed hitters nominated in the league I am guessing he has more than enough plate appearances. Fransworth might make the cut if have to go with relievers rather than Pedro... wondering if perhaps I should have been sure to grab some more low cost players.

Round 12:

Reaching the point where I am trying to avoid painful players vs. getting good ones. As I am planning on using a hitters park I grab the Tigers full season 17 Verlander as he has the best #oav of the remaining versions. Didn't think I would bring teammates but Candelario will be a switch hitter on the bench and Wilson will start the season off as the closer.

Round 13:

Ok. three picks left. Not going to be happy with either Brown season. Lindbald has some better than others but not so much that I am have to take one here. 61 Santo seems to be a good pick here. I don't want to get the outlier poor hitting season (that doesn't really save much $ either.) No teammates again

Round 14:

I sat waiting for chisock to decide on a pick wavering between wanting and not wanting Brown to be chosen. If he goes I can take the best available Lindbland on my turn and be done. If he goes elsewere I have to make a decision. He takes the cheaper Brown leaving me to wait on shwarze for my last choice... and I get to pick 1975 Lindblad to close out games? erghhh. bad pitching all around.

Round 15:

My last pick was the last Mr. Brown, 1911. My pitching staff will be bad. I should have dominant hitting. It's going to be ugly, but the scores should be fun to see.

In the end:

hitting: 7019 PA, .320 BA, .510 SLG

pitching: 1,782 IP, 2.75 ERA, 1.18 WHIP

Nominated Player
My first choice would have been Kid Nichols, but he was already taken. I also considered Mordecai Brown, but he was also off the board. I went with 1901 Al Orth (326 ip, 2.22 erc#, .239 oav#, 1.03 whip#, 0.15 hr/9#) who had lots of expensive crappy seasons. Also, 1901 had a number of good teammate options. I went back and forth on who I should use as my third OF, but ultimately went with 1901 Ed Delahanty (719 pa, .352 avg#, .432 obp#, 546 slg#). This nomination allowed me to pick 4th in round 1.
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(Pick 1.4)
With all the expensive crappy pitchers, clearly the strategy was to minimize the wasted salary. It would be virtually impossible to avoid some wasted salary. I learned my lesson in the last draft, so I knew I wasn't going cheap in round 1. The drop in the round 2 draft order would be crippling. So the question was do I go big on Brown or Nichols? I wanted a stud - so I went with 1909 Mordecai Brown (363, 1.74, .212, 0.94, 0.05). In a normal 16x16 draft, Orval Overall would be a nice teammate addition, but in this draft, there is no way I could afford him. Had I drafted the $14M Kid Nichols, I would have lost two spots in the round 2 draft order, so I am happy with this pick.
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Pick 2.2
At the time, I was thrilled to get the reasonably priced ($3.5M) and somewhat usable 1905 Kid Nichols (148, 2.89, .254, 1.19, 0.11) here. In retrospect, maybe I should have just gone with the cheap $700K Griffith. I didn't want to end up with a crappy $12M Nichols, which is why I made this my pick. A bunch of cheap versions of Griffith and Ehmke went this round. Luckily, I only dropped one spot in the draft order.
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Pick 3.3
This was a tough choice. I had 2019 Verlander all typed in and ready to submit, but changed my mind and went with a moderately priced and somewhat usable 1900 Clark Griffith (287, 3.07, .255, 1.17, 0.33). I will end up needing to use about half of his innings. I figured if I passed on Griffith here, I would get stuck with an unusable $10M version. And I thought that I would still get a decent Verlander the next round. This is essentially what this draft was about... Do I take a stud early ('19 Verlander) and get stuck with an expensive bum later ('96 Griffith), or do I take a medicore pitcher ('00 Griffith) now and a decent pitcher ('16 Verlander) later. Not sure if I made the right choice. Ironically, I was able to use Griffith's teammate, 1900 Frank Chance (217, .286, .408, .404) who can play some catcher and pinch hit.
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Pick 4.2
After the 2019 and 2018 Verlander seasons went off the board last round, I started second guessing myself but was happy that 2016 Justin Verlander (228, 2.45, .210, 1.02, 0.85) was still available. I knew by taking Verlander here, I was almost certainly going to miss out on the remaining sub $6M Ehmke seasons. Everybody else has at least one overpriced crappy season of a player, right?
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Pick 5.3
Sure enough, I missed out on the last few Ehmke seasons worth taking here. I knew it was time to start focusing on hitting. I honestly never even considered taking a hitter before this round... didn't even really look at hitters. After some research, I quickly realized there are way too many 1B available. I grabbed 1889 Tommy Tucker (723, .372, .448, .499), his best season by far, because he's a stud hitter AND he can play OF and if I miss out on the cheap Bagwell, I can always grab a cheap Guerrero or cheap Ordonez. I also knew this pick would put me ahead of cholatse next round (the other Tucker owner - I thought cholatse might go after that cheap Bagwell season).
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Pick 6.1
Damn.. I didn't expect the Joe Mauer run. Normally, I would have just passed on Mauer and grab a partial season later since I knew I would be able to find a teammate to fill in the missing catcher PA's. But after a closer look, I quickly realized that Mauer had a number of 1B-only seasons and they weren't cheap. I guess I have to take 2010 Joe Mauer (584, .329, .403, .456). Maybe that cheap Bagwell season will make it back to me.
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Pick 7.2
Nope. calhoop grabs the cheap Bagwell season. Now I have to grab a cheap OF. Guerrero has a number of cheap options so it's got to be 1997 Magglio Ordonez (73, .314, .332, .556). I know Ordonez has a number of decent seasons, but in this league, there are a lot of deadball pitchers and right-handed modern day HR hitters probably won't do well. This Ordonez can actually be used to pinch hit and he comes with a useful teammate, 1997 Tony Phillips (162, .306, .434, .380), who can play a little 3B and OF. This will drop me in the draft order, but at least I have a piece of mind that I won't get stuck with too much wasted hitting salary.
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Pick 8.7
Ouch - dropped 5 spots. The last full-season Nomar-at-SS went and the Paul O'Neill I was targeting ('97) went a few picks before me. If I wait any longer on O'Neill, I'm going to get a season I'm not real happy with so I grabbed 1998 Paul O'Neill (672, .312, .366, .484). More importantly, he brought with him a number of solid teammates. I needed a shortstop so 1998 Derek Jeter (694, .319, .378, .455) should be ok. I thought about using Ozzie Smith, but wasn't 100% sure if I could get an Ozzie season I liked. I also added 1998 Mariano Rivera (62, 1.99, .211, 1.03, 0.32). I thought about adding Graeme Lloyd, but I don't have good success with pitchers with IP/G < 1.00. I was very close to using Bernie Williams instead of Ed Delahanty as my third OF. He only has 578 PA, but his other numbers are outstanding. I can use Tony Phillips to spell him. He's a switch hitter facing mostly righties, and he has great defense. So why did I choose Delahanty instead? I think HR hitters are going to be struggle vs all the deadball pitchers and I already have too much HR power. Oh, I forgot one more teammate. I wanted a stud pinch hitter - I think 1998 Shane Spencer (73, .368, .405, .902) qualifies.
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Pick 9.6
I didn't want to use this guy so I picked 1986 Pedro Guerrero ($343K scrub) - his 2nd cheapest season. I originally planned on taking '92 Guerrero (StL, 575K) so I could get Ozzie Smith, but when a couple of Herr seasons went, I decided I needed a starting 2B, so I planned on using Steve Sax's best season. When I was finalizing my roster, I decided to downgrade slightly to save some salary.
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Pick 10.7
When I took Guerrero last round, I knew I would miss out on the last remaining cheap Herr seasons, so Herr now would be one of my last picks. I missed the run on the good Ron Santo's, but there was one Santo who I could stomach as a starter, so I grabbed 1968 Ron Santo (682, .256, .369, .443, A/B+). All the other Santos are too expensive to waste and aren't really good enough to start.
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Pick 11.5
I really didn't lose out on anybody I wanted between last pick and this pick, so I wanted to get my Bagwell. I would have been fine with three of four different versions, but felt like there might be a Bagwell run soon, so I took the one I wanted the most - which includes a couple of good teammate options. I went with 2001 Jeff Bagwell (717, .289, .396, .546). I love his teammate Lance Berkman, but alas, had room for only one teammate OF and went with Delahanty. I did add 2001 Billy Wagner (63, 2.28, .199, 1.02, 0.51). When I was finalizing my roster, I decided to take a slight downgrade at 2B, and went from '86 Steve Sax to 2001 Craig Biggio (717, .292, .381, .433). This saved me $2.5 million and allowed me to roster my stud pinch hitter Shane Spencer. I just didn't think there was that much difference between Sax and Biggio.
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Pick 12.4
With four picks to go, I needed Herr, Garciaparra, Ehkme and Lindblad. At this point, I was just trying to save salary as none of these guys were going to really help me. If I got any teammates from them, that would be a bonus. There were two Herr's left, so 1990 Tom Herr ($2.7M) saved me almost a million in salary.
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Pick 13.3
Picking in front mpitt76 was key as we both needed an Ehmke. I happily saved $1.1 million and grabbed 1923 Howard Ehmke ($7.5M) who will only pitch in a mop-up role. I was happy that he has a usable teammate, in 1923 Les Howe (32, 1.68, .201, 0.96, 0.00).
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Pick 14.3
There are two Garciaparra's left, so of course I draft the cheaper version, saving another million, 2005 Nomar Garciaparra ($1.4M).
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Pick 15.3
Very happy to save $3 million with my last three picks. I kind of wanted 1966 Paul Lindblad (in order to get Jack Aker), but that was more of a luxery than a need. I took 1967 Paul Lindblad ($2.3 million) who I will probably not use. I was going to take Ken Suarez as a backup catcher until I realized 1900 Frank Chance was a better option.

Overall stats (excluding guys I don't plan on using)
Hitting: 6033 PA, .314, .396, .492, $55.4 million
Pitching: 1509 IP, 2.31, .226, 1.02, 0.32, $50.4 million
Total effective salary = $105.8 million

Starting Lineup
C - 2010 Joe Mauer (584, .329, .403, .456, A/A/D+)
1B - 2001 Jeff Bagwell (717, .289, .396, .546, B-/C+).
2B - 2001 Craig Biggio (717, .292, .381, .433, B/D+)
3B - 1968 Ron Santo (682, .256, .369, .443, A/B+)
SS - 1998 Derek Jeter (694, .319, .378, .455, A/C-)
OF - 1901 Ed Delahanty (719, .352, .432, 546, C/B+).
OF - 1889 Tommy Tucker (723, .372, .448, .499, D/D+),
OF - 1998 Paul O'Neill (672, .312, .366, .484, B/C+)

Pinch Hitters and occasional starters*
1998 Shane Spencer (73, .368, .405, .902)
1900 Frank Chance* (217, .286, .408, .404)
1997 Tony Phillips* (162, .306, .434, .380)
1997 Magglio Ordonez (73, .314, .332, .556)

Starting Pitching
SP1 - 1909 Mordecai Brown (363, 1.74, .212, 0.94, 0.05)
SP2 - 1901 Al Orth (326, 2.22, .239, 1.03, 0.15)
SP3 - 2016 Justin Verlander (228, 2.45, .210, 1.02, 0.85)

Spot Starters* / Bullpen
SP/RP - 1900 Clark Griffith* (287, 3.07, .255, 1.17, 0.33)
RP - 1905 Kid Nichols (148, 2.89, .254, 1.19, 0.11)
RP - 1998 Mariano Rivera (62, 1.99, .211, 1.03, 0.32)
RP - 2001 Billy Wagner (63, 2.28, .199, 1.02, 0.51).
RP - 1923 Les Howe (32, 1.68, .201, 0.96, 0.00)

Wasting Lots of Money with PayPaul

Nominee: Paul O’Neill, 1994, $8,668,532 (.359/.460/.603)

I had the last spot to fill and was limited to an outfielder. I narrowed it down to about 6 options, some with a cheap season that would have put me at the bottom of the draft order. The best of those options likely was Nelson Cruz, who had one excellent $1M season and otherwise was another RH-hitting corner outfielder (with some DH only years) who relies on homers (in a league with a lot of deadball innings). A solid pick, sure, but I felt being at the bottom of the draft was a big disadvantage with all these albatross pitchers.

The plusses on O’Neill were the one outlier great season that should play well against any pitching because it’s not homer-heavy, a lot of really average seasons that people will likely have to use because you can only waste so much salary, and a few good teammate options. Steve Howe (.194 OAV, 0.88 WHIP) was a sure bullpen piece, and there were three catchers including Mike Stanley (.300/.384/.545), Wade Boggs and Bernie Williams, and even a cheap glove-only SS in Mike Gallego (.239/.327/.359). Howe, Stanley, and Gallego all made the final cut.

Round 1 (pick 8): Kid Nichols, 1890, $16,078,549 (.230 OAV, 1.15 WHIP)

It would have been easy to try to save here but then likely miss out on a lot of useful options in Round 2. Better to spend big now (#INWIYUI) and stay near the top rather than absorb lousy salary when it can’t help you. These aren’t the best 517 innings I’ve ever drafted, but I think they’ll be good enough (1.13 WHIP#, 0.26 HR/9). Plus a decent K rate for a deadballer to help out what is likely to be a weak defense. And I move up 4 spots in the next round, too.

Teammates? We don’t need no stinkin’ teammates.

Round 2 (pick 4): Clark Griffith, 1906, $1,439,074 (.258 OAV, 1.22 WHIP)

So many ways to go here, and I was nearly frozen with choices. All the cheap Orths were gone, but that was the only narrowing I could do. The $11M 1898 Griffith? Also not spectacular but solid enough to use. The $2.3M 1904? Still a usable 108 innings, but the biggest appeal is Chesbro as a teammate … that I will never be able to afford. I thought about one of the good remaining Three Fingers, 2011 Verlander, or one of the Ehmkes (thus far, unsullied by a pick).

Went with the cheapest Griffith because I think I can fill my key pitching spots with better innings than he offered elsewhere, and I can save a little money now that won’t be an option later. Not much promising on the teammate front.

Round 3 (pick 9): Justin Verlander, 2018, $7,724,669 (.200 OAV, 0.90 WHIP)

Dropping 5 spots from the previous round made this wait pretty agonizing as my top targets fell one after another. I had finally settled on 2019 Verlander with just calhoop ahead of me … and of course calhoop took him. A $300K salary difference sure was costly there.

But the 2018 is still the best SP season on the board, and knowing I will have to eat up roster spots elsewhere doesn’t leave me many openings for useless pitchers. So it came down to one of the best remaining Brown or Verlander seasons, and this one was just a good deal better than the rest.

Among the teammate options, Collin McHugh (.176 OAV, 0.91 WHIP) is a solid 72 IP reliever and the $6.8M Gerrit Cole could round out the rotation solidly.

Round 4 (pick 6): Mordecai Brown, 1916, $1,079,797 (.289, 1.26)

(Editor’s Note: Even though I wrote this as the draft progressed to capture my thinking, I failed to take note that I’d just noted Cole as an SP3 option from the last pick. In fact, I didn’t remember he was an option for several days. I’m going to blame antifa, because that seems to be the fashionable choice.)

With so many ways to go here, I hope I chose wisely. I’m already committed to Nichols and Verlander with 731 innings, so I need one more SP. By my estimation, there are at least a dozen teammates who are better than either of the remaining good Brown seasons (~2.40 ERC#), and I like my ability to secure one of them. If I didn’t take a cheap Brown now among the 3 remaining, I might also miss out on the 2 good ones (one went 2 picks later). So it was time to decide.

Going cheap dropped me 5 spots next round, too. I think it proved a prudent choice, however, when his two good seasons and other two cheap seasons all went within the next round. So if I’d passed on him here, I would have landed a $1M more expensive useless season.

Not much to be gained teammate-wise here, but the ‘16 Cubs do have a pair of 200K hitters who might come in handy at crunch time. (Editor’s Note: They didn’t.)

Round 5 (pick 11): Magglio Ordonez, 2007, $7,904,611 (.363/.434/.595)

There were a few draftees with one outstanding season and a big dropoff, including my nominee. Tucker was another, and schwarze grabbed him early in the round. So was Bagwell, who also went this round though I’m not too sad about not trying to fit a $12M salary onto my roster. Nomar’s two awesome seasons were gone. Ordonez was therefore one of the last shots at nabbing the outlier, and I was happy to get him. At least I’ll have two big bats.

Ordonez also comes with a great option at 2B in Placido Polanco, a .341/.388/.458 hitter with an errorless season. So I’d better get a cheap Herr. Surprised to learn in my research that Polanco is the career record holder for fielding percentage at 2B (.9927). There’s also a very usable CF in Curtis Granderson if I can open up a spot there.

The bad news is that a big Mauer run started right after this pick, and I immediately regretted not taking one of the years of his I liked.

Round 6 (pick 10): Pedro Guerrero, 1980, $1,556,503 (.322/.359/.497)

And then all hell broke loose. The End.

In one of the many alternate histories I can tell myself of this draft, I would have taken a useful Mauer last round when I could and actually had something resembling a plan at this point. But I didn’t and I don’t. Instead I’m possibly stuck having to find a 600+ PA catcher teammate to avoid using two picks on catchers. And I probably have to use a weak-hitting Mauer out of position as a platoon LF while sticking O’Neill in CF with C+ range, because it’s highly doubtful an affordable CF ends up fitting.

I could have taken the last Mauer rated at C (though at D-/D-/D-), but at this point that hardly seems helpful. I also had to find my third SP and was nearly out of options. So to avoid a major logjam in LF I had to go cheap on Tucker or Guerrero ASAP, and at least this Pedro has a solid 200 PA and came with $7M Jerry Reuss (.227, 1.02) to fill my rotation spot.

(Editor’s Note: Did I completely forget that I had a rotation candidate teammate in Gerrit Cole already available when I made this pick and for multiple days thereafter? Yes, I did. Would it have changed things? Well, I’d feel like less of a nincompoop right now, for starters.)

Round 7 (pick 10): Ron Santo, 1964, $8,072,942 (.313/.398/.564)

Sometimes you have to try to get ahead of a run in these things. I need Santo to play for me, so I might as well get the best hitting version. The 1967 has better range and comes with a catching option I might have found useful, but at this point I felt like I really needed the most offense. As it is, my lineup looks like it will be very slow and righty-heavy and not too dependent on great teammates. So having the best version of 3 nominees seems like a plus.

I doubt I use any Santo teammates, and even spending $8M didn’t improve my draft position. This is just a pure offense move.

Round 8 (pick 10): Jeff Bagwell, 1999, $7,350,442 (.304/.454/.591)

I was all set to take the cheapest remaining Tucker and save at least $1.3M, but after njbigwig took the ‘97 Bagwell that left just the ‘99 and ‘00 among his best seasons. With only a few owners having drafted him so far, it felt like a big gamble to hope no one else was eyeing those seasons. Passing twice on Tucker means I’m bound to get stuck with a pricier season and have to cut corners somewhere else, but I’ve got 4 very strong bats among these nominees now.

Carl Everett (.325/.398/.571) would be useful if I end up having room for an outfielder. I’m sure I can’t afford the Billy Wagner season and don’t see anyone else fitting unless I need one of the catchers in a platoon. And despite two big salaries in a row, I’m only moving up one spot next round.

Round 9 (pick 9): Tom Herr, 1990 Mets partial, $517,883 (.250/.342/.330)

One of the few certainties for me was that I didn’t plan to use Herr since I committed to Polanco several rounds back. A couple of the sub-1M seasons got snatched up this round, and I had no choice but to jump at the lowest one left. No great teammate options here, just a pure savings opportunity.

Sad note to see that no one took a Bagwell season in the cycle until it came back to me, so I could have waited a round on him and gotten the cheaper Tucker after all. Dang it.

Round 10 (pick 10): Joe Mauer, 2018, $2,886,326 (.282/.351/.379)

Since the one remaining Mauer season with a catcher rating (dreadful though it is) also happens to be the cheapest of the four left and comes with a very usable Taylor Rogers’ 68 relief innings (.206, 0.95), this pick made a lot of sense. It gives me flexibility to use a teammate catcher with any PA total, though of course more will be better to keep Mauer away as much as possible.

For now, I’m slotting in 1994 Mike Stanley’s 478 PA (.300/.384/.545, A+ arm) with Mauer filling the gap.

Round 11 (pick 11): Howard Ehmke, 1920, $6,568,858

This Ehmke (.253, 1.39) is just one of those tough pills this league forces. He’s one of several guys who will just eat innings, and occasionally cost me a close game when my good pitchers can’t cover it all. I still have a $7M+ Orth to add in, too, along with not-so-hot versions of Griffith and Brown (and, likely, Lindblad). I’ll have about 1,150 “good” innings, which seems almost enough to pull it off if those guys actually pitch well enough.

If savings break well the remaining rounds, this pick creates an opening to slide the remarkably low-priced $4.4M Ty Cobb (.334/.416/.451) onto the roster and platoon with Guerrero. I think a high-average lefty hitter with speed atop this lineup might have a huge impact. (Editor’s Note: Cobb got supplanted by Everett.)

Round 12 (pick 8): Tommy Tucker, 1895, $3,122,476 (.249/.360/.335)

Just one more bite of poison stew here. The best remaining Tucker seasons offered about a .740-.760 OPS, which is hardly worth spending an extra $1M for. Like it or not, I’ve drafted myself into limited options. None of the remaining players fits into my plans, so I’m just taking on ballast and as little as possible. If I can save a bit on these last few, I can possibly upgrade a spot or two somewhat.

I have $12M left under the cap and four spots to fill (three with draftees). They’ll cost between $9.6M and $13.6M, so basically anything over $11.8M forces me to change my plans.

Round 13 (pick 8): Nomar Garciaparra, 2004 Cubs partial, $1,170,848 (.297/.364/.455)

I needed a Nomar with a SS rating to back up Gallego’s 512 PA. I’ll get my use out of these 185 PA for sure, because he’s also my best pinch hitter now.

I preferred the teammate choices with the 2007 Dodgers, including Saito for the pen, but the Catch 22 is that if I spent the extra $1.2M for that season I wouldn’t have the cash left to use Saito anyway. And since that Nomar has no SS rating, I’d have to use my last roster spot on a cheap backup SS.

Round 14 (pick 9): Paul Lindblad, 1977, $1,677,592 (.270, 1.34)
Round 15: Al Orth, 1902, $7,949,254 (.285, 1.26)

Once the other two Orth seasons went, it all came down to which of the six remaining Lindblad seasons would be available for me. With the extra Orth expense, only two of the Lindblads gave me the ability to keep the rest of my team as currently constructed. The waiting game was painful. Calhoop jumped me in the order, so despite two other owners passing on him, I still had three possible picks in front of me. I was certain I was screwed.

Shockingly everyone else took a more expensive Lindblad or passed, and I had my choice between the 1966 or 1977 to prevent a roster reconstruction. Both were terrible and ‘77 was cheaper, so easy enough call. I couldn’t use teammates from either anyway.

I realized my Orth came with a studly Ed Delahanty at $8.6M, and I tried to rejigger everything to fit him in and still came up short after dumping one of my three good RP and downgrading at another position. Just not worth it.

Summary: I’m spending about $93M on guys who will do most of the heavy lifting, a few million more on the will-play-some subs and scrubs, and about $15M on totally useless. I’m not sure if what’s basically a $100M roster can compete until we see how well everyone else did with this.

My lineup is deep, but righty-laden and slow. Four guys (O’Neill, Ordonez, Everett, Polanco) hit for high average and ought to be very productive, plus Bagwell, Santo, and Stanley who walk a lot and slug. Gallego is the only weak spot. My slash for the top 9 guys ($54M) with 5,094 PA is .323/.409/.541. The full roster is 6,706 PA (.308/.394/.499).

My rotation will be as good as Nichols fares, really. He’s going to start half the games, and if he keeps turning over big deficits to the long relievers it will be a long season. But if he keeps me in the games long enough to put up some runs and get it to the 3 short relievers, we might do all right. I’m worried about Verlander’s HR rate and went with a -1 HR park (Truist) just to help him out. Maybe I can steer him away from starts in plus parks at least. Reuss survived my bout with senility and remained in the rotation.

The bullpen is thin, with just the 3 useful guys and their 198 IP. Hopefully I can maximize their contributions. Those 6 total $39M with 1,158 IP (2.34 ERA, .217 OAV, 1.03 WHIP). The team as a whole has 2,043 IP (2.92, .241, 1.15).

This was definitely a draft where having some of these SP nominees was a huge advantage.

Nomination: 2007 Magglio Ordonez

I was one of the last to pick, but Ordonez was a solid option. One season that was clearly better than the rest. He also offered strong teammates in Placido Polanco and Curtis Granderson. Polanco is a high contact, low K guy who should do well against deadball pitchers. His defense will also help. Granderson's mix of A+ range, speed, high % steals and insane triples numbers should also fare well.

Pick 1: 1899 Al Orth
With Orth's top season already off the board by this pick, I knew I wanted this season because I didn't want to get stuck with any of his remaining seasons. He also brings an elite Ed Delahanty season with him.

Pick 2: 1926 Howard Ehmke
I screwed the pooch a bit with this pick. Like with Orth, I saw this as by far the best of his seasons, with a dropoff. It also saved some money. However, with 4 Griffiths already off the board, I should've gone with a cheap version of him instead. 4 more went before my next pick, dooming me to an overpriced medicore season of Griffith. Ehmke brings along Mickey Cochrane and a good-hitting PH in Bill Wambsganss.

Pick 3: 1999 Nomar Garciaparra
Dropping down in the order, I knew I was going to get screwed a bit with some pitchers, so I decided to turn the tables and get ahead of a run on a good offensive player. I didn't want Nomar's most expensive season, so this one did nicely. It also brought along a stud Pedro Martinez to anchor my rotation.

Pick 4: 2015 Justin Verlander
I knew I was going to get stuck with innings from Nichols and Griffith, so I decided to grab a cheap Verlander that will provide valuable bullpen innings.

Pick 5: 1912 Mordecai Brown
It still annoys me that I had to settle for such a mediocre version of a pitcher like Brown, but his only high-priced seasons left here weren't great, so I decided to continue saving some cash. He can serve as an adequate Setup B if needed.

Pick 6: 2017 Joe Mauer
I was hoping for '04 Mauer, but he went off the board after my last pick. I must confess, I also thought there was another C season left, but alas, it was not to be. Mauer will move around, getting ABs at 1B, OF and even 3B.

Pick 7: 1979 Pedro Guerrero
With Delahanty and Granderson on my teammate wishlist, I needed cheap throwaway versions of Guerrero and O'Neill. This fit the bill perfectly and one of the picks that I was most pleased with at the time.

Pick 8: 1987 Paul O'Neill
Like the previous pick, I was pretty pleased this version was still here. Just another cost saving measure that freed up space for teammates.

Pick 9: 1991 Tom Herr
The trend continues. Already at the bottom of the draft, made sense to keep saving money and keeping options open in my lineup.

Pick 10: 1894 Tommy Tucker
This pick confirmed I'd be stuck with 3 full-season 1B in Tucker, Mauer and Bagwell. Sigh. At least I got a 700+ PA version of Tucker that hits .330. He should be a solid leadoff hitter. At this point, I was locked in to 1894 Nichols as well, so Tucker didn't bring any new teammate options.

Pick 11: 1978 Paul Lindblad
I was really hoping for the Yankee version, more for Thurman Munson than Guidry, but Neb snagged him a few spots before me. So I grabbed the Texas version to...wait for it...save money.

Pick 12: 2004 Jeff Bagwell
I had been targeting this Bagwell for a few rounds, of the options remaining, mostly because he was cheaper than the rest and brought me a stud season of Brad Lidge to anchor my bullpen. A pretty solid teammate addition this late. The first drafted player to bring along a teammate for me since Round 3. I'm killing it.

Pick 13: 1962 Ron Santo
This was unbelievably disappointing. Usable options quickly dwindled. I should've pounced earlier, but kept feeling the need to grab cheap versions of other players. Santo will serve as a defensive replacement at 3B.

Pick 14: 1895 Clark Griffith
This pick was forced on me, but I'd known for a while I'd be getting a $10M version of Griffith. None of them offered good teammate options. He'll serve as a long man and mopup. If I can use half his innings, I'll be happy.

Pick 15: 1894 Kid Nichols
Not a great selection, but I don't think he'll be awful. Mediocre, which is probably the best I can hope for when saddled with a $12M pitcher in the last round. He'll likely start every other game on a short leash.

I'm not pleased with how this draft went, but I think the final team looks better than it should. I decided to go with Municipal Stadium to take advantage of my team's doubles and triples. I also want to maximize on my 1,800 IP and hopefully get further mileage out of Bagwell and Santo as substitutes off my bench.

Lineup:

'94 Tucker (1B) - .330/.412/.420 B-/C-
'99 Delahanty (LF) - .410/.464/.582 B/B-
'07 Ordonez (RF) - .363/.434/.595 A/D+
'99 Garciaparra (SS) - .357/.418/.603 B/B+
'07 Granderson (CF) - .302/.361/.552 B+/A+
'07 Polanco (2B) - .341/.388/.458 A+/B
'17 Mauer (3B) - .305/.384/.458 A/C- (at 1B)
'26 Cochrane (C) - .273/.369/.408 C/B-/B+

Totals for Starting Lineup: .338/.405/.511 B+/B-

Rotation
'99 Pedro - 214 IP, 0.92 WHIP
'50 Nichols - 500 IP, 1.50 WHIP (1.32 WHIP#)

Bullpen
'12 Brown - 96 IP, 1.26 WHIP
'26 Ehmke - 160 IP, 1.19 WHIP
'99 Orth - 155 IP, 1.16 WHIP
'15 Verlander - 134 IP, 1.09 WHIP
'04 Lidge - 95 IP, 0.92 WHIP

I definitely have wasted salary, but I hope my ballpark will help minimize it. I will likely end up with $10-15M of dead money between Bagwell, Santo and Griffith. Everyone else should get full usage.

Only having to start one of the outfield nominees really is impressive. I had to ignore most of the best teammate options because I was so limited by taking O'Neill and then Ordonez early.

Posted by redcped on 2/25/2021 12:07:00 AM (view original):
Only having to start one of the outfield nominees really is impressive. I had to ignore most of the best teammate options because I was so limited by taking O'Neill and then Ordonez early.

I really didn’t want to have to rely too much on any HR heavy hitters with these deadball pitchers. I ended up with four 20-HR hitters, but one is on the bench and the others have high averages and bring plenty of other XBH.

I usually begin these writeups by mentioning how much I love this theme and this draft. But man, I hated this one. I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was the whole picking last thing. Maybe it’s just cabin fever setting in. I don’t know. But this was excruciating. About halfway through I convinced myself that there was no way that I was doing a writeup for this draft because there’s no way I’d ever want to re-live it. But I feel like enough time has passed now that I can dispassionately separate myself from the original event, in sort of a “hey, look at that *******!” kind of way. So like the swallows returning to Capistrano, like moths to a flame, like Tony Montana to a large pile of blow, here I am with my regularly scheduled public service announcement on how not to draft a team.

Nomination – 1929 Howard Ehmke (60 IP, 2.41 ERC#, $1.7M)
I spent about 30 seconds making this selection. OK, so actually, I spent several minutes compiling the list of eligible players before schwarze posted it, but then spent about 30 seconds making the pick. As soon as I saw Ehmke I decided that I had my man. I think it turns out that I should’ve spent more time on this. I mean, in the old days, when draft order went lowest-to-highest, this would’ve been fine, but now this buried me so far down in the draft that there’d be no way that I’d ever make it to the top half. And furthermore, the most attractive element of this pick, the 1929 A’s teammates (Foxx! Simmons! Cochrane! The totally awesome A+ at 3B that I fell in love with during the last Single Team Transformation league Jimmy *****!!!) was rendered totally moot when I ended up using a grand total of zero of them. When I saw the nominee list I had a feeling that this might happen but I was too lazy, or too stubborn, to look into changing it. This will apply to most of the picks I made, but let’s just get it out of the way at the outset: dumbass.

Round 1 – 1895 Al Orth (109 IP, 3.37 ERC#, $3.7M)
When formulating my strategy for this draft (yes, believe it or not, there was strategy, at least at first) I quickly decided that there was no way that I’d avoid getting at least one expensive version of every nominated starting pitcher except Ehmke, and there was no way of getting a “decent” Kid Nichols at the end of Round 1, so I decided to punt him. Just cast him aside and hope to get a usable one, in an #INWIYUI kind of way, in the endgame. So, to me, the two major pitfalls were Orth and Griffith. Pretty early on I decided that, realistically, this was the best Orth that I could hope for, and I was glad to get him. Not because his pitching is any great shakes (a .273 OAV# may be hazardous to your health, 0.0 HR/9+ notwithstanding), and not only because he’s relatively cheap, but because, and stop me if you’ve heard this one before, TEAMMATES!!! Except this time I used some of them. I’ve always been kinda fascinated with the 1895 Phillies, so I picked this league to try some. We’ll see how that works out. I figured that I wouldn’t be able to build a good enough offense to compete using solely nominated players, and that outfield was a good place to sneak in some teammates given that there were a bunch of cheap Guerreros and some not-too-expensive Ordonezes. So I decided that I’d do everything I could to roster Ed Delahanty (a normalized, as is my wont, .384/.482/.608, C/B, $11.3M) and Sam Thompson (.372/.413/.646, C/D+, $9.3M).

A funny thing happened when I was setting the advanced settings for my team: I noticed that this Orth can flat-out rake. Given that he’s from 1895 it’ll get normalized down (I assume pitcher hitting gets normalized?) but .356/.370/.511 is nothing to sneeze at regardless. Suddenly I envisioned a guy, who I was originally planning to use as a long reliever, instead being used as a tandem starter whose bat would turn over my awesome lineup and make this team an unstoppable offensive juggernaut. Maybe I’d even bat him leadoff to maximize his potent plate appearances. Then I noticed his speed rating. 18. Really? 18? What does that even mean? Does he moonwalk to first base? Can he score from second on a triple, or does he get caught in a rundown 30 feet from home? I have no idea, but maybe that’s something I’ll experiment with when I’m 28 games out of first at the All-Star break.

Round 2 – 1903 Clark Griffith (258 IP, 2.82 ERC#, $6.7M)
I was one pick away from getting the last cheap Griffith, which was super annoying, but oh well. I don’t love his .251 OAV#, but his ERC# suggests that he might not be all that bad, and at 258 IP it’s not like he’s weighing down my entire pitching staff. I feel that, given my starting draft position, I’ve dodged the two biggest albatrosses as well as I could.

Round 3 – 1985 Tom Herr (.308/.385/.421, B/C, $5.9M)
I have no idea whether this was a good pick. It didn’t feel like one then, and it doesn’t feel like one now, so I’m guessing it wasn’t. But I think it’s justifiable. My original idea was to take the $8M Nomar, who came with a bunch of nice pitching teammates, but he was snatched up 3 picks before mine. The $9.3M Nomar was still available, which the hive mind suggests would’ve been the logical selection since 3 of the following 7 picks were Nomars, with that one going first. But I thought that was a little rich for my blood. Here’s why I went with Herr:

1. There were very few other palatable 2B available; Herr or otherwise. 1985 was the only other Herr I wanted starting for me, and the only other 2B teammates I saw were a few Biggios, which would’ve meant drafting certain Bagwells, which would prevent me from getting the cheap Bagwell and using Foxx (which didn’t end up happening anyway). And there was one decent Evers attached to a cheap Brown who I probably wouldn't get.
2. Herr came with a good SS teammate, and Nomar had enough cheap seasons that I could be pretty sure of getting one late. Ozzie Smith (615 PA, .281/.360/.365, $6.3M) is certainly nowhere near the hitter that the 2000 Nomar is, but he’s superb defensively, an excellent basestealer, will hit enough to be useful, has the perfect number of PAs to hit 8^th and stay at 100% all season, and saved me $3M over Nomar, for whom I would’ve had to waste a roster spot on a backup SS. This part worked out well.
3. This Herr also came with the excellent John Tudor, and maybe with the savings at shortstop I could afford him! It turns out that I could. But not this one. Of course. And the cool kids would say that I should’ve used Willie McGee. I wish I could replay this league solely replacing Delahanty and Thompson with McGee and Al Simmons. With all the hits my pitchers will give up those guys would have a field day out there.

I may never know whether Herr would’ve been there for me in Round 4, but I think this pick is defensible even if premature.

Round 4 – 1994 Paul O’Neill (.353/.452/.577, $8.7M)
I’ve seen a lot of great moments as a Yankees fan. The first time I ever stayed up past my bedtime on a school night was to watch Reggie Jackson hit 3 HRs to beat the Dodgers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. I’ve seen the Yankees win 7 World Series. Boone’s homer in ’03 was one of the most cathartic moments of my life. But beyond a shadow of a doubt, the proudest moment of my Yankees fandom came in the top of the 9^th inning of Game 5 of the 2001 World Series. The series was tied and the Yanks were losing 2-0, three outs away from going back to Arizona down 3 games to 2. But rather than focus on that, the fans spent the majority of the inning chanting Paul O’Neill’s name in what would likely be the last moments he would ever spend in right field at Yankee Stadium. O’Neill was a very easy guy for opposing fans to hate and mock; he treated every at bat as Armageddon and he never cared who knew about it. But the guy was an absolute warrior and earned every bit of the effusive praise lavished upon him in the Bronx.

But that’s not why I drafted him here. I’d decided that O’Neill would be the nominated outfielder that I would use primarily because he was the only lefthanded OF nominated, and given that all of the nominated SPs were right-handed I wanted as many lefties in my lineup as possible. And I figured if I was going to use O’Neill then why not use the best? Plus it would be embarrassing if my outfield in this $120M league cost less than my famed $25M outfield in the 16x16 league currently in progress. He also brought in two key pieces to my bullpen. I was hoping not to end up using Steve Howe (58 IP, 1.34 ERC#, $2.5M) as closer because he has a bit too many innings (this team is going to be lucky to win 58 games, let alone have 58 save situations), too few IP/G (1.0), and is a lefty in a league where the majority of nominated hitters were right-handed. But I didn’t acquire any better teammates for the job so here we are. More to my liking was Bob Wickman (101 IP, 2.16 ERC#, $3.5M), both because I like his low OAV and HR/9 and because the time I visited Detroit to go to two games in Tiger Stadium the last year it was in use a cabbie told me a cool story about Wickman getting into his cab and paying him to cross the border into Ontario and hang out with him at a strip club for several hours. I miss traveling.

Round 5 – 2012 Joe Mauer (641 PA, .323/.421/.431, $5.9M)
This was absolutely the right time and place to choose my Joe Mauer. After my pick a whopping 6 of the next 11 were Mauers. The only problem is I picked the wrong one. I recognize my reasoning at the time. I still thought I needed to save money to use the ’85 Tudor, and I figured that I could live with this Mauer’s Venus de Milo tendencies because guys like Henderson and Raines aren’t going to show up in this league. But, as already recounted, I didn’t end up using that Tudor, and it turns out that there are a few more basestealers in this league than I’d guessed there would be. Furthermore, there’s more than one way to waste salary. Paying a lot for a guy you won’t use is one, but using a guy at a position where he’s rated inferiorly to a different position is another, and I’m paying Mauer for being a good defensive 1B and using him as a lousy C. At the time I thought that perhaps I’d end up with the cheap Bagwell and use this Mauer both at 1B and to spell super-stud Jack Clements at catcher, which would’ve been a fine plan except that the cheap Bagwell was taken before my next pick. The correct pick would’ve been the 2009 $8M awesome offensive Mauer, but besides wanting to save money for a pitcher I wouldn’t end up being able to afford I decided that I didn’t want to waste a roster spot on the backup catcher I’d need to augment his 602 PAs. So who do I end up using as my primary pinch-hitter? A catcher. FML.

Oh, but this Mauer got me RP Casey Fien (35 IP, 1.88 ERC#, $1.2M). Whoop-dee-bleeping-doo.

Round 6 – 1898 Tommy Tucker (crap, $1.3M)
I know! I know! I have a great idea! Let’s not take a cheap Santo so I can use the Jimmy ***** I want at 3B! Let’s not draft a usable Verlander so I don’t have to waste $4M on him later! Let’s not save $2M on the cheap Ordonez who is also a really good pinch-hitter! Instead let’s take a useless Tucker with no teammates and save $500k over the version I could’ve drafted two rounds later!!! There’s a word I’m trying to come up with here; I’m not sure I remember it but I believe it starts with “dumb” and ends with “***”.

Round 7 – 1996 Jeff Bagwell (.315/.450/.557, $6.9M)
At least I knew this pick was stupid as I was making it. I wrote as much at the time. I think it took about a half a round for me to figure out how dumb the Tucker pick had been, but when I did I realized that I’d already lost the draft. It was so in my head that I just took a guy that I liked, not really caring how bad my team would end up being. There was still a cheap Santo to be had, not to mention a few good ones, but my brain was just completely fried at this point. I do truly like this Bagwell though.

Round 8 – 1972 Ron Santo (572 PA, .309/.398/.497, C+/B, $5.0M)
Having ****** away the chance to take a good or cheap Santo last round, here I take the last palatable one. It could’ve been worse. It might’ve been made better by using the ’72 Billy Williams along with him and saving enough money to, you know, use the ’85 Tudor, but why would I ever use the pitcher who I want to use and for whom I’ve been altering my entire draft strategy?

Round 9 – 1893 Kid Nichols (534 IP, 3.02 ERC#, $14.4M)

Joey Nichols: “Nichols! You see? Nickels! <slaps a nickel on his forehead> You can always remember my name, just think of Joey Five Cents! That’s me! Joey Five Cents!”

Young Alvy Singer: “Whaaaaat an *******!”

I sensed during the draft that the nominated player that most annoyed people was Kid Nichols. He was the Joey Nichols of this draft. But not for me. I was fairly certain that I would get this version, and, given my initial draft position, this was the only one that I wanted. I don’t think that he’s going to be much worse than the 1892 and 1899 versions that were drafted in the second round. This was one of the only aspects of this draft that went right for me. I don’t know whether I needed to take him here (although I really, really did not want the other remaining 500 IP, 3.88 ERC# version) but, unlike most of my picks, I’m fine with this.

Round 10 – 1914 St. Louis Terriers Mordecai Brown (3.25 ERC#, $4.6M)
This pick, on the other hand…

So I had just gotten off a Zoom call with my mother, father, sister, aunt, uncle and cousin. The call went a lot longer than it should have. I saw that the pick before mine came in right after the call started. I was anxious to make my pick even though I didn’t know who I’d take. The cheap Guerreros had started to go, there was one cheap Ordonez left, and there were some cheap and some decent Lindblads available which would surely start being taken soon. But I was nervous about being stuck with the one remaining expensive Brown ($7.6M), who I don’t think will be able to get people out in a way commiserate with his ERC# or salary. I had looked at the ’14 Terriers Brown as being just as good, but cheaper and with fewer innings. So when the Zoom call ended and I saw that he was still available I grabbed him. Of course, there were cheaper Browns still available, and I won’t be using this one for anything more than a long reliever so whether he can get anyone out is immaterial, so I should’ve gone with a cheaper one, or a different player altogether. But I basically didn’t care at this point. This is just more evidence of how mentally checked out of this draft I was.

Round 11 – 2010 Magglio Ordonez (backup, .305/.379/.461, $2.6M)
And here’s the $1M I wasted by taking Brown, beside the opportunity cost from the fact that a cheaper Brown would’ve been available to me in rounds 12 and 13 also.

Round 12 – 1996 Nomar Garciaparra (backup, .235/.262/.439, $520k)
Well, at least I ended up with a cheap Nomar. And he backs up Herr at 2B. When one of the three best picks of your draft is a $500k guy in the 12^th round, you know you’ve made a mess of it.

Round 13 – 1990 Pedro Guerrero (backup, .284/.338/.425, $3.0M)
Remember all those cheap Guerreros I could’ve taken earlier in the draft instead of making stupid picks? Me too. It’s not like I was planning to not use him since round 1. Oh wait I was.

But I finally got a John Tudor (147 IP, 2.33 ERC#, $4.3M) I could afford!!! He’ll be a 25-pitch 2-Man tandem starter and get shelled because he’s a lefty who gives up a lot of hits in a league filled with righty hitters. But his name is Tudor.

Round 14 – 1966 Paul Lindblad (mop up, $1.9M)
I remembered in the nick of time (actually several rounds too late) that there’s no reason to spend money on “quality” for innings you won’t use. Plus, Jack Aker (115 IP, 2.03 ERC#, $3.8M)!!! One unexpected byproduct of this godforsaken draft is that I actually ended up with a bullpen. Now I just need a team to go with it.

Oh, and I also have a pinch-hitter! Tim Talton (.353/.376/.554, $540k) is one of my favorite backup catcher/pinch hitters in the sim, and would’ve been perfect to rest the awesome ’09 Mauer if I weren’t a dumbass.

Round 15 – 2008 Justin Verlander (waste, suck, $4M)
I was hoping that Chisock would want/need to save money, or take his Lindblad, at the end of the 14^th round so I could get the Verlander I preferred, who was more expensive but came with a really good Scherzer that I might’ve been able to use and several good relievers, but why would anything go right for me in this draft?

Epilogue
While I did a lousy job of drafting, at least I think I did a pretty good job of eviscerating my draft performance in this writeup. I think Roger Ebert could’ve done better (to wit, the greatest review in movie review history: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/deuce-bigalow-european-gigolo-2005) but I did OK.

To close, I thank schwarze for running a very smooth draft, in the same way I thanked my periodontist for the root canal he performed on me last month. I’ll try to get ‘em next time.

"Then I noticed his speed rating. 18. Really? 18? What does that even mean? Does he moonwalk to first base? Can he score from second on a triple, or does he get caught in a rundown 30 feet from home? I have no idea, but maybe that’s something I’ll experiment with when I’m 28 games out of first at the All-Star break."

LMFAO

Fantastic writeup barracuda3!

Posted by schwarze on 2/25/2021 12:55:00 PM (view original):
Fantastic writeup barracuda3!

Thanks. At least my draft was good for something.

Great job, barracuda. My goal is to write one of these half as well as you do. Perhaps if I don a hairshirt ...

From that review, a highly worthy gem:

"Schneider was nominated for a 2000 Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor, but lost to Jar-Jar Binks."

Posted by redcped on 2/25/2021 1:35:00 PM (view original):
Great job, barracuda. My goal is to write one of these half as well as you do. Perhaps if I don a hairshirt ...

From that review, a highly worthy gem:

"Schneider was nominated for a 2000 Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor, but lost to Jar-Jar Binks."

That quote that you cited is, in all seriousness, my favorite sentence ever written in the English language. Or, presumably, in any other language.

Posted by barracuda3 on 2/25/2021 3:19:00 PM (view original):

Posted by redcped on 2/25/2021 1:35:00 PM (view original):
Great job, barracuda. My goal is to write one of these half as well as you do. Perhaps if I don a hairshirt ...

From that review, a highly worthy gem:

"Schneider was nominated for a 2000 Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor, but lost to Jar-Jar Binks."

That quote that you cited is, in all seriousness, my favorite sentence ever written in the English language. Or, presumably, in any other language.

Probably why Ebert has a Pulitzer and I do not.

I am fond of any sentence containing the word "oleaginous," which only George Will seems to use anymore. So I reserve the right to select a favorite later.