Posted by Jtpsops on 5/31/2021 1:24:00 PM (view original):
Am I the only one struggling with getting up to the cap?

Apparently, everybody has already entered their roster.

KENNETH DALE HOLTZMAN
Crosley Field

Round 0 – 1978 Ken Holtzman (not used)
I had a number of viable options for my player nomination. I won’t mention any particular names, because I may use them later – one player in particular would be extremely devious. I ultimately decided on Holtzman for a couple of reasons. I get to use 1978 Ron Guidry (272 ip, .193 oav, 0.95 whip, 0.43 hr/9). The season I nominated is relatively cheap. More importantly, Holtzman has only 16 seasons and some are not very good. Even in his “good” seasons, he gives up too many HRs. He has five seasons over $6 million and all must be drafted. The red color-coded players represents Teammates that I am rostering.

Round 1.7 – 2009 Zack Greinke (229, .230, 1.07, 0.43)
I really wanted the 2019 Greinke/Verlander/Cole trifecta but figured I had no chance with me picking 7th (he went pick #2). My $700K Holtzman was only good for 7th pick. My next choice was ‘67 Skowron but he went pick #4. I contemplated ‘13 or ‘14 Greinke to get Kershaw, but I have a feeling LHPs will not perform well in this theme. I also was very close to taking ‘64 Skowron, but decided to save the teammate spot and go with 2009 Greinke instead (he’s not that much worse than ’64 Horlen). No good teammate options here. The Blue color-code represents that the drafted player will be a full-time player for me.

Round 2.11 – 2006 Miguel Cabrera (676 pa, .339 / .430 / .568)
Picking Greinke dropped me 4 spots in the order and I would be picking in the bottom half of the draft pretty much the rest of the time. This was a brutal round. A number of options I was looking at went in front of me, including ’59 Shantz, ’64 Skowron, ’11 Cabrera and ’12 Cabrera. With one pick to go, I finally settled on taking ’66 Skowron. Boom – calhoop takes him. Sh*t, now what? I strongly considered the cheap ’13 or ’14 Soriano or the last cheap Skowron (’67 Angels) but my gut tells me that salary may not be a big issue since there aren’t that many high-priced studs available. Since I really don’t want to roster three expensive first baseman, I take the best 3B-eligible Cabrera available. No teammates to really consider. I hate my team. ronthegenius hates my team. This draft is not going as planned.

Round 3.13 – 1972 Woodie Fryman (not used)
With another high-priced draft pick, I am now drafting near the end of the round. With about 6 picks left before it’s my turn, I finally settle on ’03 Renteria as my next choice. Boom – barracuda takes him. I just realized barracuda has taken all three guys I had ranked first on my list for that round. It’s almost liked he’s hacked into my PC and stole my spreadsheet. I definitely like his team better than mine at this point. At least we are in opposite leagues. Now I am looking at getting a third SP. The ’58 Ford / ’58 Mantle combo (via Skowron) is very enticing but that costs me $3.8M of wasted Skowron salary. I finally decide on ’72 Fryman in order to get 1972 Steve Carlton (360, .206, 0.99, 0.44). Plus I get the Fryman pick out of the way (cheaply) and won’t have to worry about rostering one of his $4M seasons. Wait, I just realized that I now have two LH SP. Didn’t I just say LHPs aren’t going to do well in this league? I am all over the place with my thought process.

Round 4.13 – 2013 Alfonso Soriano (243, .256 / .325 / .525)
Low-OBP high-slugging RH hitters generally don’t perform well in the sim, so I don’t want to have to use Alfonso Soriano as a regular. I really was hoping that the cheap 2014 Soriano would make it back to me (to get the stud RP, Betances) but slainte took him a few picks after my Fryman pick. I settle on a slightly more expensive 2013 Soriano season. He does provide a decent 2B teammate with 2013 Robinson Cano (681, .314 / .383 / .516). Also, my version of Soriano does have 243 PA of .525 slugging, so he can pinch hit and provide some emergency PAs in the outfield if I fall short the required plate appearances. Purple means a part-time starter.

Round 5.11 – 2002 Edgar Renteria (609, .305 / .364 / .439)
I am eyeing 2008 Ryan Dempster as my SP4, but I think I can wait another round. Since I tentatively plan on using teammates to start at C, 2B and two OF positions, I need to start Renteria at SS which means I can’t afford to roster a sub-600 PA season. Although I didn’t get his good 2003 season, I am happy to get 2002 in round 5. This version is not as good of a fielder as 2004 (which got picked right after me), but 2002 is a much better hitter. He also brings along 2002 Jason Isringhausen (66, .199, 0.98, 0.00). I may even add 2002 Jim Edmonds (576, .311 / .420 / . 561) depending on what I do in the outfield with Brock and Callison. I'd prefer not to start them both. (Edmonds is color-coded so I did end up rostering him).

Round 6.10 – 1959 Bill Skowron (326, .298 / .349 / .539)
I had the foresight to grab a 3B-eligible Miguel Cabrera early and know that I will start Mark Grace at 1B so I need to save some salary with Skowron. I missed all Skowron’s super cheap seasons. 1959 was his second cheapest season left ($2.6M), but it’s actually usable and comes with a strong, yet affordable $7M Mickey Mantle season – which I ended up not using. I am now eyeing Mark Grace’s sub 600-PA 1989 season since this Skowron can start a few games. I decided to wait one more round on '08 Dempster. If I miss him, I will be stuck having to start one of Bobo's seasons.

Round 7.11 – 2008 Ryan Dempster (207, .227, 1.21, 0.61)
Despite those mediocre stats listed above, this guy was the best nominated SP left on the board. He'll be my SP#4 and probably won't sniff the playoffs if I get that far. I actually considered waiting one more round on Dempster and taking ’62 Callison instead, but Callison has three decent full-time seasons to choose from, so I decided to not risk losing Dempster. This pick was key for a couple of reasons. (1) I don’t get stuck with a $3-4M crappy Dempster season like others will. (2) He is my SP#4, which saves me a teammate spot. (3) He provides a nice teammate in 2008 Rich Harden (149, .183, 1.06, 0.67). I could have used his better quality 71-IP version but needed the quantity over the quality. Of course, ’62 Callision is taken 2 picks later, and I immediately regretted this pick.

Round 8.13 – 1978 Lou Brock (not used)
I really struggled over who I wanted to take in this round. I finally made up my mind to take one of the two ’64 Bobby Shantz cheap seasons, but of course barracuda3 hacked into my spreadsheet again, and grabbed the Cubs version, followed by joerat1 taking the Cardinals version on the next pick. Damn it! So now I have to decide what to do with Brock and Callison. Only one decent full season left of Callison (’65). Do I really want to start both Brock and Callison in the OF? And if so, which Brock do I take? Was looking at ’75 with Ted Simmons’ best hitting season. But with all the Lou Brocks running around, I don’t really want a "D" armed catcher. So instead, I punt on Brock and take his cheap $1.2M season, and grab a decent-armed 1978 Ted Simmons (604, .287 / .377 / .512, A- arm). We’ll roll the dice on Collison. I have a backup plan if ’65 Collison gets taken.

Round 9.12 – 1994 Juan Samuel (213, .309 / .364 / .559)
Adding ’02 Jim Edmonds to my lineup (instead of starting Brock) really cuts into my salary cap, so I need to save some money. Was looking to add ’33 Picinich (315K) with this pick, but 3dayrotation takes him at the beginning of this round. Also, the last decent full-season Callison was taken this round, so it’s time to enact plan B. There are some expensive seasons of Juan Samual that will get drafted… I don’t want any of them. There are a number of garbage $1M seasons that could help with the salary cap. I’ll pass. Instead, I will draft Samuel's best hitting season (.923 OPS), albeit in only 213 PA. But he can fill in the missing PA that ’02 Edmonds is missing and possibly start some since I won't have a full-time Callison (targeting '61). Now I just need to make sure I draft ’61 Callison. Also, with this pick, I can replace Edmonds with Samuel's teammate, ’94 Tony Phillips, if I need to save salary.

Round 10.11 – 2010 Jamie Moyer (112, .240, 1.10, 1.61)
I almost grabbed ‘61 Callison here but this Moyer isn’t terrible and brings along a teammate that I really need, 2010 Roy Oswalt (83, .186, 0.90, 0.65). And yes, you read that stat line right – this Moyer allows 1.61 hr/9. I didn’t say he was good - just not terrible. His 1.10 whip and 112 innings means that I can use him in long relief and just hope the HRs he allows are solo shots. Did you know that Jamie Moyer holds the MLB record for oldest pitcher to start a game, at 49 years old? I needed a separate color (Orange) for Moyer. He's not really a guy I am counting on, but will be the pitcher I use when games are out of hand. So he'll play - but I am not counting him in my stats (listed below).

Round 11.11 – 1989 Mark Grace (596, .314 / .405 / .457)
I was finally going to take ’61 Callison here but determined that there isn’t that much difference in his remaining few seasons. Instead, I noticed a number of folks still needed their Mark Grace – so I’m going to grab the best one now - which turned out to be a good move since Pedrocerrano was probably taking this version on the next pick. For the first time since the draft started, I am starting to feel better about my team.

Round 12.11 – 1961 Johnny Callison (566, .266 / .363 / .418)
OK - now I will take '61 Callison. He's a lefty bat and .363 OBP is decent for this late in the draft. I plan on using a three-man platoon as my third OF spot with Callison, Soriano and Samuel. The latter two have better slugging, Callison has the better OBP.

Round 13.12 – 1958 Bobby Shantz
I gambled on this pick. I have been eyeing '58 Shantz since I drafted ’59 Skowron. I drafted Skowron assuming I was going to use ‘59 Mantle. But deep down, I really wanted the better 1958 Mantle Mantle (688, .304 / .443 / .592). I had to make sure I had enough salary space to upgrade. There were three cheaper Shantz’ left so maybe I could have waited, but I really didn’t have any salary concerns with my last two picks.

Round 14.13 – 1925 Val Picinich
Round 15.12 – 1937 Bob Newsom
I pretty much had my 25-man roster set after the Shantz pick, so these two players really didn't matter. Note that for a long time, I was planning on taking '43 Newsom (Dodgers) in order to add Whit Wyatt to my roster - to use as a relief pitcher, but ronthegenius grabbed him in round 9. Also, for a little while, I was worried about getting stuck with an expensive Newsom, but once barracuda took the $6.7M 1944 Newsom, I was guaranteed to get a cheap Newsom.

PITCHING STATS
.

Good Pitchers	Throws	IP162___	ERC#___	OAV#___	WHIP#___	HR9#___	BB9#__	K9#__	Salary
Carlton, Steve	L	360	2.05	0.214	1.03	0.42	2.3	6.9	13,925,133
Guidry, Ron	L	272	1.73	0.194	0.95	0.40	2.4	8.4	12,865,041
Greinke, Zack	R	229	2.21	0.227	1.05	0.31	2.0	6.7	8,171,383
Dempster, Ryan	R	207	2.87	0.228	1.20	0.47	3.2	6.0	5,988,529
Harden, Rich	R	149	2.07	0.184	1.05	0.52	3.6	7.3	5,473,585
Oswalt, Roy	R	83	1.73	0.190	0.90	0.54	2.3	5.7	3,191,164
Isringhausen, Jason	R	66	1.55	0.201	0.98	0.00	2.4	6.7	2,983,989
	Total	1366	2.10	0.209	1.03	0.40	2.5	7.0	52,598,824
Long Relief / Mopup	Throws	IP162	ERC#	OAV#	WHIP#	HR9#	BB9#	K9#	Salary
Moyer, Jamie	L	112	3.44	0.243	1.11	1.40	1.6	4.1	2,414,475

HITTING STATS
.

Starting Lineup	Pos__	Bats	PA162__	HR___	AVG#____	OBP#____	SLG#____	OPS#____	Defense	Salary
Simmons, Ted	C	S	604	22	0.291	0.382	0.517	0.899	B/B+/A-	6,078,827
Grace, Mark	1B	L	596	13	0.323	0.414	0.466	0.880	A-/B-	5,342,203
Cano, Robinson	2B	L	681	27	0.318	0.388	0.504	0.892	A/D+	6,113,693
Cabrera, Miguel	3B	R	676	26	0.337	0.428	0.544	0.972	B-/D+	6,730,012
Renteria, Edgar	SS	R	609	11	0.307	0.363	0.425	0.788	B/C-	4,520,062
Edmonds, Jim	OF	L	576	28	0.313	0.419	0.547	0.965	B/A	6,596,356
Mantle, Mickey	OF	S	673	31	0.290	0.394	0.513	0.907	A/A	7,748,565
Callison, Johnny	OF	L	566	9	0.266	0.364	0.406	0.770	C-/D+	3,293,975
Part-Time Players
Skowron, Bill	1B	R	326	15	0.303	0.352	0.538	0.890	B/B-	2,633,194
Samuel, Juan	OF	R	213	5	0.303	0.356	0.532	0.888	A+/B-	2,370,408
Soriano, Alfonso	OF	R	243	17	0.259	0.330	0.514	0.843	C/C+	1,796,674
Total (weighted)					0.305	0.391	0.495	0.886		53,223,969

Posted by schwarze on 6/1/2021 3:50:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Jtpsops on 5/31/2021 1:24:00 PM (view original):
Am I the only one struggling with getting up to the cap?

Apparently, everybody has already entered their roster.

Be in shortly

Initial choice: 2000 Soriano at $201,288

Came in late with a choice but ended up with a guy who just wasn’t as good a second baseman as some people thought… especially himself, so he became an outfielder. His bat wasn’t as good in the outfield. Should have gotten on base more if he wanted to be a real star. Figured some people would have a poor defender at second, some a low OBP outfielder… Teammates: Posada, Williams, Rivera

Plan: Christmas Day

It seems like every one of these drafts has started with me targeting specific teammates and then having to drop them. Time for a new plan. This time I decided to take players with two goals in mind; don’t end up with bad pitching from required players and don’t end up with too many 8 hole hitters. Don’t even look at teammates until after the pick is made. It was like Christmas every pick. There should be good enough players available in the end, right?

Guiding principles for this draft:

1. Focus on drafting pitchers first to avoid piling up lots of bad innings

2. Leave Bobo till last… so many seasons

3. Embrace having to use players out of position so pick good defense where possible

Round 1, Pick 1: 1998 Dempster $543,296

Sometimes being a Yankee fan in New England is amusing… especially when you listen to sports talk radio. Wanted nothing to do with many of “Dumpster’s” seasons. Probably won’t use any of his 55 innings but I continue to pick first. Christmas presents to get excited about: Piazza and Sheffield.

Round 2, Pick 1: 2012 Moyer $513,469

Watched some very good seasons of players going off the board and it was tempting to grab one of them… but no, stick to the plan. Moyer was way more valuable in real life than sim life. Now I have 109 innings I likely won’t use at a little over $1 million but feel like between these two many will end up with more useless or mop up innings at a much higher cost. Christmas presents worthy of notice: Marco Scutaro (2b, 3b and ss with a good bat). How were there not more worthy bats in Colorado? Felt like your rich uncle deciding you were too old for $100 cash in your Christmass card and instead he gives you a $5 Dunkins card.

Round 3, Pick 1: 1978 Holtzman $525,428

Third pitcher at low cost useless innings. Almost half way through the nominated pitchers and have 163 bad innings. Presents: A lump of coal. At least I don’t have great players I will have to drop from my plans later, right?

Round 4, Pick 1: 1972 Fryman $3,121,708

I spent a little money. Very little when compared to the rest of the league. If we had revenue sharing I would be in a great position. 119 innings with a 2.06 ERA added to what will be my actual bullpen. Christmas gifts: Duke Sims as a great hitting back up catcher and Mickey Lolich to start.

Round 5, Pick 1: 1962 Shantz $2,173,526

Another reliever I can use. 79 IP with a sub 2 ERA. Christmas gifts: A pair of strong relievers and a possible 5th starter in Turk Farrell. Starting to question this approach…

Round 6, Pick 1: 1964 Brock $4,279,554

With only Bobo and Greinke left I move on to hitters. Bobo is being picked at the end to see what I can fit into my total and although some of Greinke’s seasons are better than others, not many that are left are great. Likely they will be my last two picks. Brock seems like an odd duck in the sim… how does someone with that much speed have such bad defensive range? Did he always run 6 feet in the wrong direction before turning and trying to get back to the ball? This season gives me a very good hitting platoon version who I can pair with another pick later. Christmas gifts: Curt Flood and a not so great year of Bob Gibson.

Round 7, Pick 1: 1989 Samuel $2,539,258

The other half of the platoon right away? Much better on the defensive side. Nowhere near as good at the plate. I will either need a teammate 2b or play someone out of position there. Christmas gifts: Switch hitting Howard Johnson, Roger McDowell to relieve and Sid Fernandez as a starter.

Round 8, Pick 2: 1997 Renteria $4,375,718

Second pick? Come on, I wanted to stay first all draft. Not jumping up and down about this one, but he can hit some and can play the position some. Wasn’t sure what to do with many of the seasons left. Christmas gifts: Kevin Brown, starter.

Round 9, Pick 2: 1933 Picinich $314,899

Hopefully I won’t have to use him for a single game… Christmas gifts: Can I twist Dutch Leonard? No? Great. Nothing. Starting to worry about this approach. Can I even begin to use all my cash?

Round 10, Pick 1: 1967 Callison $4,019,939

On top of worrying about my approach for teammates I am also worried about my defense. If I am going to have Brock play half the time in one corner and a first baseman in the other I need someone with range to cover center. Christmas gifts: Dick Allen (3b) and Jim Bunning (sp).

Round 11, Pick 1: 1991 Mark Grace $5,544,887

More Defense. A-/A+ should play well out of position. These non-traditional bats at positions we have too many players nominated are tough in these leagues. Christmas gifts: Sandburg and Maddux.

First Roster Check:

For the first time I started to really put together my roster. Crap. In every other draft there have been teammates I wanted very much to roster that I never could. This time I am looking at a huge pile of cash and nowhere to spend it. I need to find a way to spend cash. Having a flashback to my worst draft here when I got stuck with an $18 M Mantle. That time I had to give up everything to roster him. This time it looks like I will give up a pile of cash if I can’t roster him. I am very concerned about the rest of the round waiting for it to get back to me.

Round 12, Pick 1: 1956 Skowron, $4,265,833

Thank you all. Now I can use all my money. I had planned on taking a better defensive version so I could put him at third or outfield with Grace at the other and Cabrera at first. No more. I had to pick my own… Christmas gift: very expensive Mantle, Yogi and Whitey Ford.

Round 13, Pick 2: 1953 Newsome, $480,240

Didn’t really matter what Greinke I get and I have free choice of remaining Cabreras. If there had been a good season left for him I would have been happy to take it no matter the price. Wasn’t feeling it so I went cheap. Christmas gifts: Nada

Round 14 and 15: 2016 Grenkie, $3,503,593, 2008 Cabrera $4,627,036

Finished the draft early because it was just me for these two. Grenkie will slide into a mop up role. Cabrerra will man first. Christmas gifts: Goldschmidt if he were anything but a first baseman, and Ordonez

Final Thoughts:

My team should hit. My pitchers should struggle. I think that the Christmas approach left me with a flawed team but had I picked an initial player with a stud pitching season it would look very different. My infield likely won’t win any gold gloves (since none of them will get the Jeter treatment) but I managed to get the out of position subtractions down… Renteria moving from short to second, Williams from outfield to third and Grace from first to outfield.

Final Roster:

C: 2000 Jorge Posada (S)

1B: 2008 Miguel Cabrera (R)

2B: 1997 Edgar Renteria (R)

3B: 2000 Bernie Williams (S)

SS: 1989 Howard Johnson (S)

LF: 1964 Lou Brock (L)/1956 Bill Skowron (R)

CF: 1956 Mickey Mantle (S)

RF: 1991 Mark Grace (L)

Useful bench: 1989 Juan Samuel (R), 1967 Johnny Callison (L)

SP1: 1967 Jim Bunning (R)

SP2: 1989 Sid Fernandez (L)

SP3: 1956 Whitey Ford (L)

SP4: 1997 Kevin Brown (R)

Mop Up: 2016 Zach Greinke

Long: 1964 Turk Farrell (R)

Set up: 1972 Woodie Fryman (L)

Closer: 1962 Bobby Shantz (L)

Brock, Stock, and (Bat)Barrel
Sportsman Field

Round 0 – 1968 Lou Brock
I snagged the last open spot in the league when I came across it in the Classifieds. I remembered the theme from way back in 2009/2010 (but the memories came back much more intensely once the draft started and I re-experienced the frustration and strategy this league involves) Anyways, I then spent a couple of hours that night researching for a nomination. I came across Lou Brock fairly quickly looking at the 1968 Cardinals and Bob Gibson. I’m also using the 68 Brock in one of Schwarze’s Quick pick leagues and he has been OK. But I thought I could do better (i.e more devious in screwing everyone else) and kept looking. The next 20 or so players I came up with I then found were on the blacklist. I looked a little more the next morning and came across a pitcher but then saw that all the pitching nominations were full at that time. So, in resignation, I went back to Brock. He’s an incredibly bad fielder for all his speed but the 68 version normalizes well, is fairly cheap for a 700 pa regular, and has 60 doubles/triples. And, of course, it comes with top of the rotation Gibson. I also thought I might use Joe Hoerner as a reliever and maybe, worse came to worse, Curt Flood in CF. Turns out I didn’t need them.

Round 1.12 – 2013 Zack Greinke

I knew I didn’t want Grace, Skowron, and Cabrera all playing first base, so I prioritized one of Cabrera’s third base seasons. So I considered 2012 Miguel here, but I also realized that the pitching options were fairly poor using the nominated players so I was sure I was going to go with someone in the first round with a good pitching teammate. First choice was 1919 Picinich and his Big Train teammate. But he went early, as did another choice, 67 Skowron (with Horlen and Cisco Carlos or Carlos Cisco or whatever his name is, I always get it mixed up). When it came to me I was deciding between 2013 or 2014 Greinke (and Kershaw) or 64 Skowron (and Horlen). I was leaning Skowron and also using 1964 Hansen (and his A+ fielding) at shortstop. But at the last second I switched and went with 2013 Greinke. He’s somewhat usable as one of my tandem fourth starters and has a great Kershaw teammate (Schwarze hadn’t tipped me off that left hand pitching would suck here). I also targeted 2013 Hanley Ramirez as a shortstop teammate (not many PA but great hitting stats). I figured I could use him in platoon with whatever Renteria I ended up with. I also thought Kenley Jansen might make the team as a Reliever (he didn’t)

Round 2.12 – 2005 Miguel Cabrera
I was thinking 1972 Fryman here and pairing Steve Carlton with Bob Gibson as a pair of 300+ip studs to lead the rotation with Kershaw and Greinke. But, as stated above, I really wanted a Cabrera that could play third base. Of course, barracuda took 2012 Cabrera early in the round. But that was OK, I could still go with 2006 Cabrera and be happy. Of course, schwarze took him with the pick before mine as I was typing in the name myself to post. Aaargghh. What to do - Fryman/Carlton or the distant third choice of 2005 Cabrera? I went with the latter. No teammates to help here and his range is worse than Brock’s but at least his glove works somewhat and I won’t end up with three fulltime first basemen.


Round 3.14 – 2002 Soriano
I never thought 72 Fryman would make it back to me after turning him down last round. But then pick after pick it started to seem plausible. 17 picks pass by and I figured it was destiny and didn’t bother researching much of a plan B. But then, for the second straight round, schwarze crushed me with the pick directly before mine. Aaarrghh. It definitely hurts worse when your choice gets snagged with the preceding pick rather than 11 spots previously.
I considered some cheap seasons of one of the crappy pitchers but figured I didn’t really want an outfield of Brock, Callison and Soriano. I figured I would be using at least one teammate there and I also didn’t like any of the Juan Samuel seasons left. So I wanted to use Soriano at second base – namely the 2002 or 2003 Yankee version (again, schwarze didn’t tip me off that low OBP high slugging right handed hitting sucks here). Both had some good teammates I thought I might end up using but the 2002 version was a slightly better hitter and had 90 doubles/home runs. I also ended up using 2002 Bernie Williams in CF and 2002 Posada as my main catcher so this pick had some value. 2002 Rivera was another consideration as a teammate but wasn’t needed.

Round 4.16 – 1976 Holtzman
Of course, the consequences of picking the top of the line Soriano with the last pick is that it moved me to the bottom of the draft order. Seven Holtzmans went this round and I was last to join the party. He will hopefully only pitch in mop-up but the remaining Holtzmans were a lot more expensive. As well, I have had decent success with 76 Grant Jackson so I targeted him here as a teammate.

Round 5.15 – 1992 Samuel
I couldn’t afford to spend money on Samuel with an expensive Soriano already pegged for second. As well, I was looking at 92 Rasmussen as another option for my relief core knowing, at this point, that I couldn’t be relying on any of the Shantz, Fryman, Dempster, or Newsom seasons to help there.

Round 6.13 – 1995 Mark Grace

This was always my first choice for first base since the beginning. Love his high doubles and OBP to fit in with what I was building with my other hitters. But his other seasons are slightly comparable and there was lots of Skowron seasons to use at first so I was content to wait. But when schwarze went with 59 Skowron and his limited ab in this round, I realized he would be wanting Grace to start and I figured it wasn’t worth it getting cute. So I jumped at securing Grace to bat second or third in my lineup.

Round 7.15 – 1963 Callison
Like the last pick, I decided to avoid fooling around and just take what I considered the best of the remaining nominated hitters available. So 1963 Callison come on down and be my starting right fielder.

Round 8.15 – 2003 Moyer
Time to think of some pitching. Not much quality remaining at this point. I had been targeting 1943 Whit Wyatt (courtesy of 43 Newsom) as the best of the options for a few rounds but decided to go with 2003 Moyer here instead. Moyer is semi-usable in tandem with 2013 Greinke and I really wanted 2003 Soriano to complete my bullpen ideas. I also love 2003 Mike Cameron and figured I might use him and his crazy range in CF if I ended up not being able to afford Mantle or Bernie or someone else.

Round 9.16 – 1943 Newsom
Back to the end of the round, but 43 Newsom made it back to me so I decided not tempt fate any further and grab him and Whit Wyatt to finish off the starting rotation. 1958 Ford was my plan B if Newsom was selected. Plan C was the horrifying idea of using nominated pitchers in both third and fourth rotation slots. I’m glad Plan A worked.

Round 10.15 – 2005 Dempster
Round 11.16 1973 Fryman
Round 12.15 1958 Skowron
Round 13.16 2008 Renteria
Round 14.16 1956 Shantz
Round 15:16 1922 Picinich
The final 6 picks were mostly about saving as much money as possible at that point. I knew I needed a Renteria to platoon with Hanley Ramirez at short but by now they were all fairly similar. I was also hoping for a better Picinich to platoon at catcher but someone had to end up being my last pick so I got the putrid 1922 version. I don’t plan on using Fryman, Shantz or Dempster in any meaningful way and Skowron is a pinch hitter with an abundance of plate appearances but every team is going to have a lot of wasted innings and at bats.
I toyed with different versions of Berra and a few other catchers but remained with 2002 Posada as he has a fairly cheap price, lots of doubles and OBP, and over 600 pa so I won’t need to use Picinich much. Of course, he will allow every other Brock to steal 218 bases.
The difference in price between 56 Shantz and 52 or 53 Shantz allowed me to go from Mike Cameron in CF to Bernie Williams. But I’m not sure if the increase in hitting and especially in OBP will outweigh the loss in fielding.

Starting Rotation
68 Gibson
13 Kershaw
43 Wyatt
13 Greinke/ 03 Moyer/43 Newsom

Bullpen
03 Soriano
76 Jackson
92 Rasmussen
Ugly Pitching Options: 76 Holtzman/ 73 Fryman / 05 Dempster / 56 Shantz

LineUp
68 Brock LF
95 Grace 1B
63 Callison RF
02 Williams CF
05 Cabrera 3B
02 Soriano 2B
02 Posada C
13 Ramirez / 08 Renteria SS

I’m happy enough with the pitching and think the offence is passable but I usually prioritize fielding with my teams and this team won’t be winning any gold gloves. In fact with an infield of Cabrera, Soriano, a bad Renteria, and Ramirez I will be petitioning the league Commissioner to allow my extra Skowron to play as a fifth infielder.

Another installment of the world’s greatest draft is in the books. Some day we need to do this draft live via Zoom call, and have 2 or 3 owners who are 16x16 veterans, but who are not participating, attend to provide running commentary. Maybe broadcast it on The Ocho.

As usual, stats shown for draftees and teammates in this writeup will be normalized. In addition to my commentary I’ll assign each of my picks a letter grade, and cite any additional notes I made with each pick.

Nomination – 1958 Johnny Callison (75 PA, .301/.356/.458, C/B, $561K)
“at least I’ll have a closer…”

When it was announced that divisional alignment would be based on order of nomination, I decided to hold off and name an outfielder late. I figured that while there wouldn’t be any super-onerous pitcher nominations because of the large blacklist, the pitchers would still be nominated first and yield somewhat of an advantage. But if I had realized that Holtzman was available I would’ve immediately jumped in with him. I could have SWORN that he had been used in the past. I would’ve bet large sums of money on it. I was so sure of it that I didn’t bother to check the list. I don’t understand it. Maybe someone previously had nominated him, and then I did all the research, and then they switched? Dunno, but that was a damn good nomination.

As for my nomination: meh. I definitely wanted someone cheap so I could draft near the top of the first round, and I wanted someone with a lot of mediocre starting seasons. Callison fits the bill, plus my version is a decent pinch-hitter and defensive OF. Where he’s less useful is on the teammate side. It probably says a lot about me that with my nominations I tend to focus more on not giving everyone else good teammates rather than giving myself good ones. This is likely to my detriment. But as I mentioned when I made the nomination, at least I got a closer out of the deal, the WIS-famous Barry Latman. Who, of course, I didn’t end up using. If memory serves this is the third straight league of this type where I didn’t use any teammates of my nominee. The previous two leagues had enough available teammate talent that this didn’t hurt me. This time I think it will.
Grade: C-

Round 1 – 1967 Bill Skowron (scrub, $363K)
“Let's see. I can do the prudent thing or the imprudent thing. Well, prudence doesn't make for good writeups, and let's face it, the writeup is what I'm here for.”

Wow did I get that comment wrong. More on that later.

Callison got me the 4^th overall pick. As I expected, the majority of the nominations and first round picks centered on acquiring premium pitcher teammates. Premium pitchers don’t fit into my #INWIYUI strategy (which, for the uninitiated, stands for It’s Not Wasted If You Use It and refers to being willing to use lesser nominated pitchers instead of wasting their salary, leaving more salary cap space available to build a dominant offense and yielding a better overall team with less waste). With my first round pick I wanted to stay near the top of the draft and also get a few usable teammates. What I really liked about Skowron was that he was the one guy in the draft that I absolutely knew I would not be using in a significant way, so being able to get a cheap season of his out of the way was very desirable. Plus he came with no fewer than five usable pitchers. I knew immediately that I would use Joe Horlen (258 IP, 2.08 ERC#, $8.7M), who has precisely the talent and salary level to be used as a front-of-the-rotation starter along with the #INWIYUI guys. Also included was Gary Peters, a serviceable third starter type for this league who I was planning on rostering for most of this draft. Skowron also came with three relievers: WIS-immortal Cisco Carlos, a solid 89 IP Wilhelm, and an excellent Don McMahon (92 IP, 1.82 ERC#, $3.5M). I only used the latter, but having the flexibility was nice.

Seems like a great pick then. But the problem was that for #INWIYUI to work you have to be able to build a dominant offense, and with these nominated players that was pretty much impossible. An optimal #INWIYUI team would be something like $65M starting offense, $45M pitching, $10M waste. Even using the $18M Mantle you probably couldn’t get to a $65M offense in this league unless you used 6 or 7 offensive teammates, which would yield way too much waste and a sub-sub-$45M pitching staff. If you didn’t get a top Mantle you couldn’t even get close to $65M, and taking a non-Yankee Skowron eliminated all but one premium Mantle. At the beginning of this draft I deluded myself into believing that if I could get the $14M Mantle that comes along with a mediocre Schantz (and I was convinced that I would) I could make it work, but the numbers simply weren’t there. The majority of the premium players available in this draft were pitchers, and the offensive players available in this draft were cheap enough that you’d be able to afford those premium pitchers, so the hive mind generally got the nominations and the beginning of this draft right while I got it wrong.

But while I got it wrong, at least I didn’t get it catastrophically wrong. I’ve always maintained that you cannot win a league in the first round of a draft, but you can definitely lose one there. And I almost did. The “prudent” pick from my initial comment? Believe it or not, it was the 2008 Dempster. You see, in my spreadsheet there’s a section that calculates the number and salaries of wasted seasons and highlights the largest danger areas. Well, Dempster was considered the biggest danger (even above Holtzman, who had more potential #INWIYUI seasons) so I was all set to take the one useful Dempster, which would’ve doomed me. Fortunately, at the last moment I recognized that the spreadsheet is a tool rather than a rule and decided to trust my gut. Whew.
Grade: B-

Round 2 – 2011 Miguel Cabrera (688 PA, .347/.451/.573, C/B-, $7.4M)
“I keep trying to talk myself out of this pick, but it keeps not working.”

The Skowron pick moved me up to second pick in the second round. At some point later in round one I decided to estimate what my team’s offense could reasonably end up looking like. It failed to reach $60M, even with the $14M Mantle that I was still sure I would be able to draft in the 5^th round or so. That exercise told me that #INWIYUI was dead, and that I needed to get as many of the best versions of nominated offensive teammates as I could just to build a good offense. I therefore felt that I needed a premium Cabrera.

The conventional wisdom would’ve been to take a third baseman Cabrera here, later adding a good Grace to play 1B and freeing up an extra teammate slot for a pitcher or second baseman. But I went with the 2011 for three reasons: he was the absolute best Cabrera available, quality third base teammates were more plentiful, of higher quality, and attached to more desirable nominated seasons than the second baseman teammates, and this Cabrera came with a premium Justin Verlander (251 IP, 1.90 ERC#, $10.0M) along with an excellent 70 IP Fister that I didn’t end up using. He also added two excellent possibilities at starting catcher: Victor Martinez and Alex Avila (551 PA, .298/.392/.493, A/A+/B, $5.2M). I chose Avila because he has a better arm, which I usually don’t care about when I’m not in a league where literally every team has a Lou Brock. I kept trying to talk myself out of this pick because taking a third baseman Cabrera made more strategic sense, but I think I got this one right.
Grade: A-

Round 3 – 2003 Edgar Renteria (663 PA, .331/.392/.462, B+/D, $5.7M)
“This round did not go the way I expected it to at all.”

The Cabrera pick dropped me five slots, which was not a surprise. What was surprising was that two players that I had included in the offense experiment conducted in the previous round were taken before my next pick: 1957 Schantz (Mantle) and 2001 Grace (L. Gonzalez). Now it was absolutely imperative that I get as much offense as possible out of my position player draftees. At this point I already knew that I’d be starting versions of Cabrera, Renteria, and Brock. The question was what to do about second base. Should I try to get a cheap Samuel and a cheap Soriano, and get a good second baseman teammate? Or should I start Samuel or Soriano there and preserve a 5^th teammate slot for a pitcher? With this pick I very strongly considered the cheap 2013 Soriano, which would come with a very good Cano to play second. I’d then draft the good (but only 543 PA) 2007 Renteria the following round, who would come with an excellent Chipper Jones. My offense would have been better had I done this, but I’d have to play D/D- Cano at SS for about 15 games, D/D- Avila at third for roughly the same, and play whatever crappy Samuel and Picinich I ended up with in those games, PLUS I’d lose the extra pitcher teammate slot. So instead I took the best full-season Renteria available, who happened to come with the best offensive player still available to me, OF Albert Pujols (685 PA, .359/.438/.650, B/D+). Again, I think I got this one right.
Grade: A

Round 4 – 1971 Lou Brock (720 PA, .318/.392/.433, D/D-, $5.1M)
“Please sitemail.”

The reason for the “please sitemail” became more apparent next round. As for the reason for this pick: I was fully on my “get the best possible version of each drafted position player you’re going to use” kick, and this was the only Brock I wanted. There were many other similarly priced Brocks, but they all have significantly lower OBPs. Why use a Brock if not at the top of the order, and why use a guy at the top of the order if he has a mediocre OBP? This one also comes with a potent offensive third baseman Joe Torre (707 PA, .369/.428/.564, C+/D, $8.2M), albeit one who plays defense like one of those big wooden windmills on the mini golf course: he stands in one place and waves his arms around and sometimes prevents balls from getting through to the outfield. So was this the right pick? Maybe. I also needed a starting second baseman Soriano (I’d now decided to punt Samuel until the endgame because he has a lot of cheap seasons) and there were only two decent ones left. This was a gamble, but a reasonable one. But I felt better about it before the 118 SB Brock lasted into the 10^th round.
Grade: B

Round 5 – 2005 Alfonso Soriano (682 PA, .266/.309/.490, C/C+, $4.9M)
“I'm at the Fisher Cats - Sea Dogs game. I promise I'll be able to sitemail all this week but if someone could sitemail again for me I'd appreciate it.”

Ah, Manchester NH. One of my favorite cities in New England. While its “ManchVegas” moniker was granted facetiously, it’s filled with great restaurants, bars, and breweries set on the Merrimack River amidst the permanence of beautiful old brick mill buildings. Great place for a quick getaway, especially when that includes watching live baseball for the first time in almost two years.

Four picks before mine the prognosis for this pick was looking good, but two of those four ended up being the two Sorianos that I wanted. This one is considerably worse, but on the plus side he is 30/32 in SBs and isn’t the worst defensive player ever. A ~$2.5M Soriano followed by a starting Samuel in the endgame probably would’ve made more sense here in hindsight, but at this point I just wanted to be done with second base.
Grade: C

Round 6 – 1979 Woodie Fryman (59 IP, 3.47 ERC#, $1.2M)
“I suppose the time has finally come to draft a pitcher. Or, in this case, a belly-itcher.”

My comment instead should have been “if Woodie had gone right to the police this would never had happened.”

I hadn’t paid much attention to saving salary since round 1. I figured it was time to start doing so here. I think it was around this point that I realized that I’d be better served using three teammate starting pitchers and two relievers rather than vice versa, and I’d need to be able to save some money to be able to do that. The only notable teammate he has is Gary Carter, who is really good at throwing out runners but so mediocre offensively that I won’t use him, especially with that weak-sauce Soriano already in my lineup. Save some salary, move up 3 spots in the draft order next round, and add a guy who might not be totally abysmal if he has to be used as a long reliver. Fine.
Grade: B

Round 7 – 2012 Zack Greinke (123 IP, 3.05 ERC#, $3.1M)
(no comment)

I like this pick a lot. I like it even better with the elimination of the 2020 Greinke from consideration. I am not being critical of schwarze’s decision when I say this, but if I had been planning on drafting the 2020 Greinke man would I be ******.

This Greinke is a useful long reliever, and it’s nice to have as many guys on your roster who might be able to get a hitter or two out as possible. He also brings along a quite good Ryan Braun, who I have never used but was planning on rostering here for a good long while.
Grade: A-

Round 8 – 1964 Bobby Shantz (61 IP, 2.83 ERC#, $1.5M)
“The 16x16 is the only $120M league where you think things like "that 2.83 ERC# lefthanded reliever looks really useful."”

Ain’t that the truth. He’s actually my third best reliever. He brought with him a nice Ron Santo that I’d probably be better off using but that would require caring about defense so oh well.
Grade: A-

Round 9 – 2006 Ryan Dempster (75 IP, 3.98 ERC#, $1.6M)
“Congrats to Landry19 for making the first pick of this draft that made me curse out loud.”

The pick in question here was his 1989 Moyer selection, who was cheap and came along with an excellent Nolan Ryan who would’ve looked great as my third starter. It was also Landry19 who chose the ’57 Shantz and his teammate the $14M Mantle, meaning that he made the only two picks of this draft that fundamentally changed the way my team would end up looking.

The curse in question was an F-bomb.

With that Ryan gone, and not being as interested in the 1990 version (at least at that time), I just went straight salary savings here.
Grade: B

Round 10 – 1944 Bobo Newsom (279 IP, 3.13 ERC#, $6.7M)
“Time for me to take my 4th starter. As Eve was tempted by the apple, I am by the Berry.”

This pick is simultaneously one of my favorites of the draft and the best evidence that I screwed up the draft. Don’t get me wrong: I believe this Bobo will get hitters out well enough as a 4^th starter that he’ll win some games. It’s more the fact that I can afford him that’s the problem. I ended up with one of the costliest Holtzmans who I won’t use, and an expensive Grace who I won’t use, plus various other detritus, and I can still afford to pay almost $7M for 279 IP of Bobo. That shouldn’t happen.

But Bobo himself was not the primary reason for this pick. The reason I wanted him here was his teammate Joe Berry (118 IP, 1.65 ERC#, $4.7M), who was by far the most valuable reliever available to me. If you’re only going to use two teammate slots for relievers, it’s nice if one of them gives you 118 lights-out innings.
Grade: B+

Round 11 – 1989 Juan Samuel (219 PA, .254/.319/.401, B+/B+, $1.7M)
“Because when your starting centerfielder is Albert Pujols, you'll need a defensive replacement.”

In my writeup for my 16x16 Fred Lynn team recently, in explaining my nominee I wrote “…plus, I often tend to neglect defense, but with these pitchers I’ll need all the defense I can get so I figured I’d lock in a good CF so I don’t end up with like a B-/D+ there…”

You probably thought I was kidding. While I ended up not using Pujols in CF, I was ready to do so, and the guy I'm using there is only marginally better.

This is probably the only pick in my draft that was unequivocally the proper choice, so while it’s tempting to assign this a B+ to match his fielding and range I’m gonna go ahead and give this one:
Grade: A

Round 12 – 1929 Val Picinich (weak-hitting backup, C/C-/A-, $2.5M)
“And now, to complete the worst defensive outfield in the history of organized baseball, Babe Herman joins the club along with...”

Before commenting on this pick, I should note that every one of these drafts seems to have one player’s name who prompts a line from a song or a movie or something to get repeated in my head every time I read it. In the last league I named my team “Running on Ehmke”, which naturally brought to mind the Jackson Browne song 3 times a day. This draft, I cannot look at the name Val Picinich without at least thinking, if not saying out loud, in my best Yogi Bear voice, “hey Boo Boo…let’s see what’s in that pic-in-ich basket…”

As I mentioned a few rounds ago, I was all set to use the 2012 Braun as one of my starting outfielders. But here I got to a point where I really didn’t have anyone else left to spend my money on so I opted for a slight upgrade. The major positive here was that Babe Herman hits lefthanded; if I had used Braun instead my starting lineup would have had six righties and two lefties. The negative is that my starting outfield would now be D/D+, B/D+, D/D-. I wanted a lefty hitter, but the only other good LHH OF available to me who could also play defense was the 2004 Ichiro, but his $9.8M salary combined with his $3.5M useless Moyer was too much for me to afford.
Grade: C

Round 13 – 1998 Mark Grace (698 PA, .310/.400/.456, B+/C, $5.4M)
“As long as I'm going to overpay for a pinch-hitter, it might as well be a good pinch-hitter.”

Somehow, in the 13^th round I ended up with the sixth-best Mark Grace. Does this mean that I should have taken a third baseman Cabrera back in round 2? I have no idea.

By now you’ve probably noticed that I didn’t list the stats for Babe Herman above. About 15 minutes after I made the Picinich pick I realized that many of the remaining Grace seasons came with good Sammy Sosa (722 PA, .308/.376/.634, C/B-, $7.7M) seasons where he can even play a little defense. I’ve never used any Sosa, and normally wouldn’t even consider it, but I think there will be enough pitchers in this league who give up some homers that it might work. Plus he’ll start in CF for me. When you’re drafting Sosa for his defense you’re probably in trouble.

In order to afford Sosa I’d need to shuffle some things around, but fortunately I was able to do that. The bad news is that doing so made my previous pick seem much worse. There had been much better Picinichs available for similar prices, but I took that one thinking that I was using Herman. Picinich will only get about 100 PAs for me so it’s not a big deal, but still annoying.
Grade: B

Rounds 14 and 15 – 1969 Ken Holtzman (262 IP, 3.56 ERC#, $6.1M), 1990 Jamie Moyer (scrub, $1.8M)

Luckily for me the cheaper of the two remaining Holtzmans (the other was $6.9M) dropped to me in the 14^th round. I knew at this point that I would get the final remaining Moyer. There was one cheaper one left but this one came with my eventual third starter, Nolan Ryan (204 IP, 2.26 ERC#, $7.1M). I had been planning on using Gary Peters here for most of the draft, but Ryan was cheaper and better suited for the ballpark I chose. The fact that he has fewer innings than Peters probably means that we’ll be seeing a bit more of Fryman or Holtzman than I’d originally intended, though.
Grades: B/B+

Conclusion
Given that my team is offense oriented, my starting pitchers are all righthanded, and all of my power hitters are also righties, I decided to use Hilltop Park. I’ve never used it before, but I generally suck at choosing stadiums so I’m guessing it’s the wrong choice.

Starting Lineup (assuming 90 PA for Picinich) .324/.396/.535
Pitching staff (excluding Long B/Mop Up) 1,445 IP, 2.40 ERC#
$54M offense, $47M pitching, and $19M waste, a far cry from my desired 65/45/10.

Assigning 16 points to my nomination grade, 15 points to my first round pick, 14 to second, etc., my grade average was 7.99, or almost exactly a B. If my nomination had been decent it would’ve been a B+. This mirrors how I feel about this draft. I don’t feel like I made any major blunders, but I also don’t feel great about this team. It’s probably missing one more great player, who I should’ve gotten from my nomination. This feels like an 85-win second-place team to me, which isn’t good enough. But it should be a fun league. Thanks as always to schwarze for running this always great draft.

"Even using the $18M Mantle you probably couldn’t get to a $65M offense in this league unless you used 6 or 7 offensive teammates..."

hold my beer... $71,036,913

Mantle, B. Williams, Ho-Jo, and Posada ( $40,868,501 combined).

and i agree manch-vagas is underrated... though as i drive through it everyday i prefer to head elsewhere for a good meal

By $65M I meant starting players only. Your 9 starters are about $64M, and even then there are a few hundred plate appearances between Brock and Skowron that won't be used, so I'd call that a $62M offense. Which, admittedly, is still higher than I expected anyone to get to.

IMO the Hanover Street Chophouse is just a half-step below a world class steakhouse, and Cotton and Mint Bistro are both really good at what they do. And of course, the Red Arrow is pretty much the quintessential diner.

Great writeups guys! Hope more are coming.

Posted by barracuda3 on 6/2/2021 1:18:00 PM (view original):
By $65M I meant starting players only. Your 9 starters are about $64M, and even then there are a few hundred plate appearances between Brock and Skowron that won't be used, so I'd call that a $62M offense. Which, admittedly, is still higher than I expected anyone to get to.

IMO the Hanover Street Chophouse is just a half-step below a world class steakhouse, and Cotton and Mint Bistro are both really good at what they do. And of course, the Red Arrow is pretty much the quintessential diner.

10 starters because of the platoon... and because I am in mile high and have looked at some of the pitching staffs out there i am pretty sure i will be using many of those ab's

I played a version of this league once before, but imy name is not on any of the past seasons, so it must have been run by someone else. While finishing in my usual last place i did learn to start with low price guys who had teammates you like.

Not necessarily in order.
1. nominated 62 Bobby Shantz - teammate Bob Gibson
2. Took C 1921 Val Picinich to get rid of him - Teammate 1921 Sam Rice
3. Now i wanted a real catcher, took 54 Bill Skowron teammate - 54 Yogi Berra
4.This pick was purely sentimental for a Philly guy. !964 Johnny Callison gives me my all time favorite 1964 Dick Allen.
5. 1967 Ken Holtzman looks like a decent bullpen piece and gives me 1967 Fergie Jenkins\
6.By the same process 1997 Jamie Moyer gets me 1997 Randy Johnson
7. Needing a 1B i liked 2009 Miguel Cabrerra best
9.Around now i decided to get all the pitchers to fill out the staff/
9. On one of my last picks i took 2011 A. Soriano to get SS Stirling Castro
Guys I missed because i was watching my money 72 Carlton and Mantle.even though they were on my pre draft list. With 4 Phillies in my top 16 I’m expecting
another last place finish.
Wound Up with:
Line Up
1.65 Brock CF
2. 21 Rice LF
3. 54 Berra C
4. 09 Cabrerra 1B
5. 64 Allen 3B
6. 65 Callison RF
7. 85 Samuel 2B
8. 11 Castro SS
Rotation
97 Johnson
'62 Gibson
67 Jenkins
78 Steve Rogers
08 Greinke
Bullpen
set Ups - 67 Holtzman & 62 Schantz
closer Don Carmen

Not sure why I am still participating in the 16x16 as my latest versions I have had bad results but I love this draft concept. So take my strategy accordingly.

The only way to get a good player and teammate is to nominate him. The last time I went for a low cost nominee it was the Brickyard Kennedy draft. I believe I chose Smoltz with an early pick to get a Maddux. The first round run on Kennedy took place and I was screwed. Never again.

So I selected Cabrera after debating between him and Pujolis as my nominee. I selected his best hitting 3b year which brought along mad Max’s Cy Young winning year and Benoit’s good Tiger closer year. Last version I nominated Verlander and his statistically best year sucked for me so I am hoping Scherzer does better.

I couldn’t believe the 64 Skowern White Sox year was available when I picked 15th. But I jumped on it. Three teammates Horlen, And 250+ relief innings of quality relief with Wilhelm and Fisher. Skowern was also usable as a pinch hitter.

Might as well use all six of the available pitching teammates so I chose the 2009 Renteria to grab my third quality starter in Tim Lincecum. Scherzer, Horlen, and Lincecum as starters and Wilhelm, Fisher, and Benoit in the bullpen. I just wish the next format would change to draft 6 pitchers and 10 position players. That would allow 7 pitcher teammates and the 10th position player would be a catcher since we currently have to fill one of our teammate positions with a catcher.

I still needed a lot. I knew Brock would net me a catcher with Simmons. But how many at bats would I need. My next two picks would cover the catching position. I got the A+ arm with 690 pa in Simmons. I then took a Picinich who brought along a .360+ hitting Lefty Odoul.

My lineup was shaping up but using a .250 hitting Renteria at short was ugly. And who was going to be my 4th starter with the mess that was left at this point. One pick filled both. 1996 Moyer and a .350+ hitting shortstop A-Rod. So now all my teammates were taken. I still needed to select Soriano for second. So I took one with a bunch of home runs. I needed a Callison. I took a .300 version with a B/B+ fielding to play center. I needed a Grace to play first with Skowern. I took one with a .321+ BA.

The rest of my picks were to save moolah on the six remaining pitchers. I also picked Samuel to back OF, 2b, and 3b with pinch running capabilities.

My offense should be ok. My sp should be ok. My defense will be uh oh. My primary bullpen is ok but only three deep with 300+ innings. The other 6 bums in the bullpen will determine how I will do. I am about 400 thousand under the cap limit.

My starting lineup
1. Brock LF
2. Grace 1b
3. Odoul Rf
4. Cabrera 3b
5. Rodriguez Ss
6. Simmons C
7. Callison Cf
8. Soriano 2b
PH Skowern
PR Samuel

SP1 Moyer
SP2 Scherzer
SP3 Lincecum
SP4 Horlen

Cl Benoit
Setup Wilhelm
Long. Fisher

Nominee (revised for no good reason) - 1996 Edgar Renteria - Marlins - 471 PA - $4,549,744 (only numbers that matter)

Originally I had staked a claim on 2015 Greinke (with 2015 Kershaw teammate) as a strong nomination. I should have looked closer at who else was nominated and drawn the conclusion that a $120mm salary cap was not going to be the issue that it sometimes is this time around and kept it. Not being one to stand prosperity, I switched to a SS who only had 471 PA, which would require some sort of roster management and none of the other nominees were going to be any help. First of many idiot moves. 1996 Kevin Brown is a favorite and more affordable than any of the 2 Dodger studs and 1996 Sheffield has some strong, reasonably priced numbers as well. I expected that his salary would put me in the middle of the pack even though all of the nominee seasons were right there to be analyzed and someone got lazy.

Round 1 - I picked 13th in Round 1. Once the draft began getting close to my pick, I thought that maybe 2013 Greinke would slip and all would be forgiven. RTG returned from a lengthy hiatus to snag him with pick #12 and it soon became clear that this draft was going to be painful. With my pick, I took 1959 Bobby Shantz - NYY, who has a very usable 100 innings and can offer some second-tier teammates (Berra, Ditmar, subpar 1959 Mantle) if I needed them.

Round 2 - 1966 Bill Skowron - CWS. With 3 first basemen in the nominee list, I knew instinctively that I needed to minimize redundant salary. I liked the pitching teammate options, as well (1996 Gary Peters and stud RP Hoyt Wilhelm, who failed to make the team because at the end of the draft I was fully biased to pitching quantity over quality)

Round 3 - 1977 Ken Holtzman - NYY. Under $750k was really all that mattered but there was unexpected potential with a 1977 Munson upgrade from Berra as well as a decent 1977 Guidry, who made the team because of his IP). Munson was beaten out at the very end of the draft.

Round 4 - 2003 Mark Grace - AZ - $423k. I had missed out on all of the stud Cabrera 3b seasons and this was by far the cheapest Grace to complement the first base redundancy avoidance mentioned in my Round 2 discussion. Potential teammates were 2003 Valverde (not enough innings to even be considered) 2003 Cintron to help make up for the low PA Renteria fiasco. With teammate usage at such a premium it thankfully never got down to that for us.

Round 5 - 1978 Woody Fryman -Cubs - $608k - I am on a hot streak punting salary. On the other hand, I am not getting anyone useful out of the nominated players. No teammates for consideration

Round 6 - 1959 Johnny Callison - CWS - $399k. I really did not ever factor in a useable Callison so I hit the reflex button again and went cheap. There is 1959 Nellie Fox with A/A fielding to consider here as well and he eventually made the team,

Round 7 - 1983 Juan Samuel - Phil - $590k - Punting another position player but also potentially filling the 3b void with a 40HR Mike Schmidt. Power hitters should do well here but this Schmidt isn't really that great at bat or in the field. What I did not expect to find was CYA winner 1983 John Denny with a modest 1.16 WHIP but only 0.33 HR/9 allowed and 243 IP.

Round 8 - 2016 Miguel Cabrera- Det (1b/3b) - Finally a good position player! He also has a 3b fielding rating (D-/D-) if I want to live dangerously (like I'm not already)

Round 9 - 2006 Alfonso Soriano - Wash Nats - 46 HRS is all I am seeing and it is good enough for me. No teammate options

Round 10 - 2000 Jamie Moyer - Sea. A relatively cheap Moyer and pretty unusable. Of course, there is the 2000 ARod here who will find a place on the field somewhere. First thought is to play him at 2b mostly (and move back to SS to spell Renteria for the 200 PA he is lacking). But I eventually chickened out and followed the NYY real-life example and switched him to 3b. Fox keeps his roster spot, Schmidt loses his.

Round 11 - 2010 Zack Greinke - KC - It is only Round 11 and it is clear that the salary cap will not be any kind of a deterrent. Just trying to find the most usable Class C players and this is the Greinke we wind up with. Yes, he also makes the rotation.

Round 12 - 1946 Bobo Newsom - Wash - Same story as Round 10. 188 IP and low 0.25 HR/9. Looking at the bright side

Round 13 - 1923 Val Picinich - Red Sox - The most expensive Picinich and a decent OBP and the most PA in his career. Why not, we are rolling in dough since we will not have to pay very many good players

Round 14 - 1975 Lou Brock - St Louis. I had been looking at Brock all throughout the last few rounds and all of the ones I didn't need were being taken. My options here were: 1963 Cubs (with long innings Dick Ellsworth), 1975 Cardinals (with 1975 Ted Simmons upgrade at catcher but D arm) and 1977 (another good Simmons with a better arm but the Brock is not as good)

Round 15 - 2010 Ryan Dempster - Cubs - May not play at all, may start opening day. Not sure it really makes a difference.

Playing at modern Yankee Stadium (III) to max out my potential against Moyer in particular. His total HRs allowed may be a record that will never be broken

Like the moon and the stars and the sun…

I love these drafts and always look forward to them plus Schwarze always does a terrific job. The timing could not be any better for the extended tax season had just ended and my son (who I helped tutor) had just graduated college. Now if you ask my son, he might use the word “torture”, but I’ll stick with “tutor” I subscribe to the Pete Rose approach to life (minus the gambling) and work harder than everyone else. As a result, I was relieved that I now have my ample free time and was in high spirits so I nominated Bobo Newsom that would provide many options for all of you. This is a definite change from the search for the next Earl Whitehill or Brickyard Kennedy, but like John Lennon, I was counting on some (good) instant karma for this draft. The cheap Newsom provided no teammates but provided me with the third pick in round one. The stats referenced will be on a normalized basis.

Round 1.3 – 1919 Val Picinich - $2,255,794 (.271/.317/.413) with 279 PAs. I normally dodge the land mines early in the draft, but with the extensive blacklist, I was hoping it was not as imperative this time around. Already my good karma is paying off for I get to pick before my friend, PedroCerrano, for we often bump heads. How could I pass on Walter Johnson (ERC 1.92) with 336 IPs and a homerun factor of zero - plus a catcher with an A- arm to help deter Lou Brock? I also considered a good Greinke here because you have to use some of the nominees – I promise a good Greinke will be my next pick. Hopefully the $2M salary won’t drop me too much.

Round 2.6 – 2012 Miguel Cabrera - $7,555,969 (.334/.398/.592) third base A-/C-. I know what you’re thinking what happened to Greinke with my next pick? Well, I slipped down three spots and Pedro jumped ahead of me to grab the last Greinke that I considered here. The 2017 version of Greinke is tempting but I wanted to start to unravel the 1B log jam with Grace, Skowron and Cabrera. No real teammates and the $7.5M will drop me down some more but I have my third baseman.

Round 3.9 – 2017 Zach Greinke - $6,115,919 (ERC 2.65) with 202 IPs. The 2.65 ERC should play okay but the .79 HR ratio is concerning. No real teammates to consider and I am going to slide down again with a later pick however I am excited with the progress thus far. As it turns out, I end up using JD Martinez (.308/.378/.671) and Archie Bradley (ERC 2.02) – highlights the need to collect good options.

Round 4.12 – “follow the leader” also known as “I hate these guys”. I knew Holtzman was going to be an issue and I wanted to remove the obstacle hopefully with a cheap version because as Tom Petty used to say, “I’m free falling” to a last pick in these rounds. Unfortunately, FOUR other owners (including Pedro) felt the same way taking their Holtzman in this round. Alice got us started, then fatguyrd, I was convinced that Pedro was going to select the 72 Holtzman (to get Catfish Hunter) that I even posted that “Pedro was fishing this morning” after a modest delay with his pick. But like Fatguyrd, Pedro takes a cheap Holtzman too. Then Jtpsops joins the party and after sweating out three additional picks I take the 1972 Ken Holtzman for a mere $7,101,566 with an ERC of 2.93 and 278 IPs. Catfish Hunter (1.93 ERC) and 309 IPs has an elevated (no pun intended) HR factor of .65 but not a bad bookend with Walter Johnson (ERC 1.92), just hope I can fit their collective $25.4M in salary. This pick also includes a fast, slick fielding Bert Campaneris (.251/.289/.343) A-/A+ glove and 52 steals. Collecting options, surely I could upgrade – as it turns out I did not due mainly to my next pick. After four rounds, I am very pleased with the progress of the draft. My apologies to joerat1 and RTG (ronthegenius – welcome back) for skunking you guys in this round. Let us not displace our anger and hold grudges for this agony was generated by Schwarze’s nomination – just saying. LOL (Nice pick)

Round 5.13 – “you can’t win without team-work” – 1961 Bill Skowron - $4,020,343 (.271/.318/.466) with 607 PAs. Must have a first baseman and Skowron has more power than Grace. In fact, Skowron’s 28 HRs in ’61 was his career high but the biggest appeal are the teammates!! In the King James translation of Psalm 23:5 it states, “the teammate cup runneth over”. Okay, I admit it, I am taking profound liberties here for I know that baseball was only mentioned in the bible as part of Genesis 1:1 – “In the Big Inning…” but I digress. A nice (B+/A/A+) Elston Howard (.352/.387/543), Roger Maris (.273/.372/.614), Luis Arroyo (ERC 2.11), and do I have the audacity to believe that I can fit a $11.4M (B/A) Mickey Mantle (.321/.448/.681) with $25.4M tied up with Walter Johnson and Catfish Hunter? The answer is YES!! (maybe)

Round 6.15 – 1971 Woody Fryman - $3,777,507 (ERC 3.03) 150 innings of usable long relief. No teammates.

Round 7.14 – 2011 Edgar Renteria - $1,506,190 (purely a salary dump) No teammates.

Round 8.12 – 1960 Johnny Callison - $2,489,301 (salary dump – defensive replacement B+/C+) No teammates.

Round 9.13 – 2003 Ryan Dempster - $1,696,125 (salary dump) No teammates.

Round 10.13 – (cheapest Grace left) 1988 Mark Grace - $3,393,248 (.304/.381/.414) will platoon some with Skowron at first base. No teammates.

Round 11.13 – 2007 Alfonso Soriano - $5,300,158 (.297/.335/.539) with 617 ABs and a C+/B outfield glove. At this point I am counting on an expensive Mantle, added a Soriano with power and speed, and plan to add Lou Brock later to complete the OF, need to get cheap versions of nominated players to fit my big-ticket players (Walter Johnson, Catfish Hunter, and Mickey Mantle). No teammates here with Soriano.

Round 12.13 – 1961 Bobby Shantz - $2,101,844 (purely a salary dump) Possible outfield upgrade with Roberto Clemente. (Went in a different direction)

Round 13.13 – (Mockingbird Lane) 1986 Jamie Moyer - $1,076,041 (purely a salary dump) No teammates. Here at this spot (pun intended), I wish I could have drafted a good Herman Munster from 1313 Mockingbird Lane, although the green moster would be destroyed! (Yes, I’m at Fenway) Great episode by the way.

Round 14.11 – 1977 Lou Brock - $2,609,634, a decent pinch runner here. Calhoop selected the 1975 Brock that I wanted to complete my outfield just 8 picks earlier. In round 10, Calhoop selected the 2000 Jamie Moyer that I was going to select to team up with A-Rod for SS. Guess Calhoop missed the cosmic waves of karma being way up in the California Mountains. Oh well, time for plan K (plans A-J were already used). No teammates. Cheapest Brock available to me.

Round 15.11 – 1984 Juan Samuel - $4,901,784. Since I couldn’t use Brock in the OF, I have to use Samuel at 2B. Luckily Samuel and his 72 stolen bases and 52 from Camperanis will offset the loss from not starting a Brock. Teammate Tim Corcoran’s 248 plate appearances (.345/.445/.492) will complete the OF with the 2017 JD Martinez and his 489 plate appearances (.308/.378/.671).

Bobo's Boo-Boos
C – Elston Howard B+/A/A+ (.352/.387/.543) & Val Picinich C/B+/A- (.271/.328/.413)
1B – Bill Skowron B/B- (.271/.318/.466) & Mark Grace D+/C (.304/.381/.414)
2B – Juan Samuel D/A- (.276/.312/.499) 72 Stolen Bases
SS – Bert Campaneris A-/A (.251/.289/.343) 52 Stolen Bases
3B – Miguel Cabrera A-/C- (.334/.398/.592)
OF – Alfonso Soriano C+/B (.297/.335/.539)
OF – Mickey Mantle B/A (.321/.448/.681)
OF – JD Martinez C+/D+ (.308/.378/.671) & Tim Corcoran C/D- (.345/.445/.492)
OF – Johnny Callison B+/C+ $2.5M
PR – Lou Brock 94 speed $2.6M
MIA – Edgar Renteria $1.5M

SP – Walter Johnson (ERC 1.92)
SP – Catfish Hunter (ERC 1.93)
SP – Ken Holtzman (ERC 2.93)
LG – Woodie Fryman (ERC 3.03)
UP – Zach Greinke (ERC 2.65)
UP – Luis Arroyo (ERC 2.11)
CL – Archie Bradley (ERC 2.02)
Mop – Bobby Shantz (ERC 3.49) 33 innings of his 94 innings at $2.1M
MIA – Ryan Dempster $1.7M
MIA – Jaime Moyer $1.1M

MGR – Bobo Newsom - $266K

Playing at Fenway Park to take advantage of my right handed bats, with four left handed pitchers being nominated.