League 4, AL (White Sox & Tigers)
Pick 3
White Sox- 1917, 1957, 2000, 1967, 1905

The White Sox franchise has lots of pitching available, but not much hitting. But everybody is going to be in the same boat. I knew I wanted two stud pitchers with my top pick, then I could focus on hitting with my next two picks. redcped took the obvious choice with the top pick (1908). I went with 1917 which gets my 565 innings of Cicotte and Russell. Also, Joe Jackson is decent and Buck Weaver can play 3B or SS. Even Happy Felsh (.308 avg, A+ range) could be usable. It turns out I do need him to start in the OF. Solid start.

The White Sox / Tigers split was 6/6 as I expected (hey, I finally got one right!). When it got back to me, the hitting options were really limited. 1920 was the best choice for hitting, but I already used my Group 2 pick.. Doh! So I went with 1957 which gave me Nellie Fox's best year ($8M) and starting quality OFs Minnie Minoso and Larry Doby. Billy Pierce (1.16 whip) is the best pitcher from '57 but my team is so deep in pitching, he and teammate Gerry Staley (1.17 whip) are essentially the worst pitchers on my roster.

In round 3, it was a difficult decision to pass up 1994 Frank Thomas. You may not know this, but I am huge White Sox fan (although I don't watch current baseball like I used to). During that magical '94 season, every Frank Thomas at bat was appointment viewing. I would stop whatever I was doing to watch him. But 1994 just doesn't have enough other useful players. Meanwhile, 2000 gave me the next best Frank Thomas (A/A- to boot), plus my starting catcher (Charles Johnson), and two usable RPs (Foulke, Howry). Sorry, but depth is more important here then getting one stud.

In round 4, I knew I had a lock on my round 5 team (from Group 1), so I could essentially finish my roster now by taking a Group 4 team. I was taking 1905 in round 5 which provided me my starting shortstop (George Davis), my platoon catcher (Ed McFarland) and of course, some really good deadball pitchers (Doc White, Roy Patterson). So I needed to find a Group 4 team that could help me somewhere. Sadly, there really were no significant offensive upgrades with any of the available choices, so I decided to simply pile on more pitching by taking 1967 (which added zero useful hitters). But I now have a pitching staff of Cicotte (1.81 erc#), Horlen (2.08), D.White (2.44), R.Russell (2.60) with RPs Carlos (1.20), Foulke (1.96), Howry (2.56), Patterson (2.46). My mopups are Pierce (2.76) and Staley (2.75).

The offense isn't anything to write home about, but I believe that is the case for most of the White Sox teams. I do have a few good hitters (Thomas, Fox, Joe Jackson, Minoso) and my defense will be among the best in the league. I have one B+ range OF, every other fielder has A- range or better and most of my fielding ratings are B or better (G.Davis C+ is worst).

Prediction: The defense and pitching should result in a lot of 3-2 and 2-1 games. I predict that I will lead the league in ERA and be bottom 5 in runs scored. That formula is typically good enough to produce 86-90 wins. Of course, due to the expected abundance of 1-run games in this league, my 1-run record will go along way toward how close I get to that prediction.

I had six teams qualify for this round. One number one pick, two number two picks, one number seven pick, one number ten pick, and one number eleven pick.

My number one pick Braves.
I took the Maddux year 1994 which had the most additional used parts. McGriff, Lemke, and Justice. Mercker was an ok pick as a long reliever. I needed hitting so what better than to take the 1894 Beaneaters and the .440 hitting Duffy. Merritt will be my starting catcher and McCarthy my DH. Zero pitching though. I then followed with the 1956 Braves. Spahn and Burdette as mediocre starters. Mathews and Logan for my left side of my infield. And Aaron as a platoon with Justice. 2012 and 2002 for chipper as my third outfielder. And Kimbrel as my closer. Having arguably the best SP, the best Closer, and the highest BA for a hitter will have to carry me here. But my catching behind Merritt is so weak.

One of my number two picks The Blue Jays.
I took 1987 and landed Key, Henke, OF Bell, super SS Fernandez, and an useable C Whitt. Again my second round 1993 pick was for hitting. 1b Olerud, 2b Alomar, and OF Henderson. Two good relievers came with Cox and Ward. 1998 netted me an excellent Clemens and my 3b Fernandez. 1984 brought me two starters in Steib and Alexander. Also An excellent defender in Moseby to play center. 2020 was for reserves and long relief. This team has a solid lineup one through five. An excellent one two starting pitchers and one two in the bullpen. Should be competitive in this League.

More later…..

League 4, AL (White Sox & Tigers)
Pick 9
Tigers - 1968, 1945, 1987, 1937, 1908

Having two teams in one league means that I try to pick different franchises, if it makes sense. I couldn't do that in the Giants league or the Red Sox league and I made the decision to take a second Indians team instead of taking a Browns/Orioles team (had 1969 Orioles been available, I would have taken them). Anyway, since I grabbed the White Sox with pick #3, I figured I would try a Tigers team. It's a complete opposite type of team. They have some great hitters, but the pitching is a bit more sporadic. With pick 9, there were already 4 White Sox and 4 Tigers teams taken and I assumed a 6-6 split.

When my pick came up, two deadball/Cobb seasons were taken, along with Verlander's best year (2011) and the 1961 Norm Cash season. Group 2 contains so much hitting that I decided to wait till round 5 on that group. Knowing that I was essentially only going to have a maximum of 8 usable pitchers, I wanted lots of innings from my early SP pick. I can also wait on Group 1 as they have multiple deadball pitcher options. It came down to Newhouser's best year (1946) or Denny McLain's 1968 season. Since Newhouser has two other good years, and there's a possibility that I'm the last person to take a Tigers team, I went with 1968. They also have a good RP (McMahon) and a starting catcher (Freehan). I was really hoping that glowguy (who picked 12th) was going to take a 7th White Sox team, but he foiled my plans by taking Tigers and not surprisingly, he grabbed 1946. He also scooped up another Cobb/deadball season. It now appears that my last two picks will be from Groups 1 and 2.

Disappointed on what could have been, I settle on 1945 (Newhouser & Cullenbine), I don't have much offense yet, but have 668 innings of good SP. By the time it got back to me in round 3, I realized that I needed to fill some positional holes that couldn't be filled with my last two picks. Most notably, shortstop. Not a lot of good shortstops available in these Detroit years. A quick search reveals Alan Trammell's best season is available (1987). Also, Doyle Alexander's magical 89-ip 1.01 whip partial season will represent my best RP. Not much else from 1987.

Holy crap, I got just two seasons left to draft and all I have in my starting lineup is Freehan (C), Trammell (ss) and Cullenbine (of). Thankfully, by round 4, I already know what Group 1 deadball team I will be able to draft. So when my round 4 pick comes up, I can customize the pick to finish my roster. Ironically, I am the very first person to pick a team, from Group 2. 1937 gives me three solid starters... Hank Greenberg (.337/.436/.668), Charlie Gehringer (.371/.458/.520) and Gee Walker (.335/.380/.499). And my last pick, 1905, also gives me three starters... Germany Schafer (A+ range at 3B), Ty Cobb (DH .324 avg) and Matty McIntyre (.392 obp B/A- in OF). Also gives me two key pitchers... Billy Donovan (257 ip, 1.08 whip - also doing a great job coaching the Bulls) and Ed Summers (319 ip, 1.08 whip).

Prediction: I have no idea if this team will be any good. Drafting pitching early means my hitting is the worst among all the Tigers teams. But isn't good pitching supposed to beat good hitting? Don't like my chances against other White Sox teams. Feels like a .500 team if I only played other Tiger teams, so probably below .500.

Looking at these write-ups, it seems like another interesting dilemma was whether to use a late pick on a deep franchise, or be one of a couple people selecting from a potentially weaker franchise.

I usually opted to go with the team fewer owners had picked (O's over Indians, Mariners for the expansion league). I'm regretting my O's pick, as I don't think it will stack up well, but I do like my Mariners team.

After losing out on the Royals one pick before me, I strongly considered going with the Mariners one pick before you. I had a full team built on the assumption that nobody else would take the Mariners. But after taking a closer look at the Angels and Rangers options, I determined a second Mariners team was likely so I scrapped that idea. I really wanted both 2001 and 2014 and just didn't think it was possible to get both. Good luck.

League 1, NL (Giants)
Pick 1
Seasons - 1908, 1921, 1989, 1958, 2009

I mentioned that I had three of the top 12 picks to choose what league I wanted to draft first in. My first two selections were NL-6 (D'backs) and NL-3 (1985 Cardinals). With my last choice, I had to choose from leagues NL1 (Giants), AL-2 (Indians/Orioles), NL-2 (Braves/Reds), AL-3 (A's/Twins) and AL-6 (Expansion teams). Or I could have chosen to pick second in a league already selected. Nothing really jumped out at this point. I thought the Giants had the best "1st pick" option. And that was 1908, allowing me to roster Mathewson's 411-inning 0.84 whip season plus 348 innings of Hooks Wiltse (1.03 whip). This pitching-dominant year surprisingly provided two starting quality hitters (Bresnahan .401 obp and Donlin .334 avg). Now it's a waiting game as 22 more seasons would be taken before my next pick.

With 750+ quality innings already, I could focus on hitting. 1921 provides me two of my favorite switch-hitting A+ range middle infielders (Frisch & Bancroft) and some needed backup catcher ABs (Earl Smith .336 avg). My second pick on the turn needed to include some pitching help. 1989 provides me with 194 innings of Scott Garrelts (1.01 whip) plus the hitting fills two holes with Kevin Mitchell (.635 slug) and Will Clark (.333 avg w/A+ range). It was really hard to pass up on one of the many stud Willie Mays seasons here, but we're hoping one of those gets back to us.

After another long wait, it was finally time to finish my team. Things really couldn't have worked out much better. I get to roster 1958 Willie Mays (.347/.419/.583 A+ range). Although I didn't get a shot at any of those great group 5 Barry Bonds years, 2009 was still on the board late so that gives me Tim Lincecum's best season while Pablo Sandoval (.330) fills the hole at 3B.

Prediction: I love this team's offense despite no Bonds. The defense is strong at the key positions. The starting pitching is really strong. The team's weakness: I don't really have any lock-down RPs, so Garrelts will have to be the 2-3 inning closer while mediocre pitchers like Stu Miller (1.15 whip) and Rosy Ryan (1.17 whip) will soak up long relief innings. I have a feeling this could be one of those teams that wins 85-90 games despite the Exp Win% indicating this is a 100-win team. I see a 20-30 record in 1-run games in my future.

Posted by schwarze on 12/8/2021 12:30:00 PM (view original):
League 1, NL (Giants)
Pick 1
Seasons - 1908, 1921, 1989, 1958, 2009

I mentioned that I had three of the top 12 picks to choose what league I wanted to draft first in. My first two selections were NL-6 (D'backs) and NL-3 (1985 Cardinals). With my last choice, I had to choose from leagues NL1 (Giants), AL-2 (Indians/Orioles), NL-2 (Braves/Reds), AL-3 (A's/Twins) and AL-6 (Expansion teams). Or I could have chosen to pick second in a league already selected. Nothing really jumped out at this point. I thought the Giants had the best "1st pick" option. And that was 1908, allowing me to roster Mathewson's 411-inning 0.84 whip season plus 348 innings of Hooks Wiltse (1.03 whip). This pitching-dominant year surprisingly provided two starting quality hitters (Bresnahan .401 obp and Donlin .334 avg). Now it's a waiting game as 22 more seasons would be taken before my next pick.

With 750+ quality innings already, I could focus on hitting. 1921 provides me two of my favorite switch-hitting A+ range middle infielders (Frisch & Bancroft) and some needed backup catcher ABs (Earl Smith .336 avg). My second pick on the turn needed to include some pitching help. 1989 provides me with 194 innings of Scott Garrelts (1.01 whip) plus the hitting fills two holes with Kevin Mitchell (.635 slug) and Will Clark (.333 avg w/A+ range). It was really hard to pass up on one of the many stud Willie Mays seasons here, but we're hoping one of those gets back to us.

After another long wait, it was finally time to finish my team. Things really couldn't have worked out much better. I get to roster 1958 Willie Mays (.347/.419/.583 A+ range). Although I didn't get a shot at any of those great group 5 Barry Bonds years, 2009 was still on the board late so that gives me Tim Lincecum's best season while Pablo Sandoval (.330) fills the hole at 3B.

Prediction: I love this team's offense despite no Bonds. The defense is strong at the key positions. The starting pitching is really strong. The team's weakness: I don't really have any lock-down RPs, so Garrelts will have to be the 2-3 inning closer while mediocre pitchers like Stu Miller (1.15 whip) and Rosy Ryan (1.17 whip) will soak up long relief innings. I have a feeling this could be one of those teams that wins 85-90 games despite the Exp Win% indicating this is a 100-win team. I see a 20-30 record in 1-run games in my future.

I guess I was right that I could have left 1939 on the board because you wanted a Mays season. I should have looked closer at your options and seen that likelihood and I’d have a far less ugly bullpen today.

League 5, NL (Dodgers)
Pick 7
Seasons - 1930, 1985, 2003, 1969, 1945

This was my lowest "top" pick in all 12 leagues. I really wanted one of my sim favorites, 1924 Dazzy Vance. After 4 picks, 1924 was still on the board. But then 1924 went to nocomm999. So I grabbed 1930, which is Vance's third best year (2.40 erc#). And this year came with three really good hitters... Babe Herman (.393/.455/.678), Johnny Frederick (.334/.383/.524, A/A+) and Glenn Wright (.321/.360/.543 B/A at ss). Dodgers don't have a ton of offense, so I was happy to get three good hitters and a SP in a weak group for SPs. By my second pick, all the Koufax years were gone, '72 Sutton was gone. There are still a lot of Kershaws available, but I went with two favorite of mine, 1985 with Hershiser and Guerrero at 3B. Scioscia's. 407 obp at catcher would work also. Even Niedenfuer 107 innings of 1.03 whip is solid. How did this year last till the middle of round 2?

Round 3 is where I audibled off the obvious pick. Clearly 2013 with a stud Kershaw and Jansen made the most sense, but I opted to sacrifice my SP quality for the reliever quality and went with 2003 (K.Brown & Gagne). No good hitters came with this year, but I just get tired of crushing teams for 7 innings only to continually blow 3, 4, 5+ run leads late. Maybe Gagne can help with that. '13 Jansen had great stats too, but is a bit HR prone. We'll see if this was a mistake.

I considered possibly waiting on my Group 5 pick of 2003 and instead taking 1977 but only one person (Jtpsops) needed a team from Group 3 so I gambled. Sure enough, in round 4, Jtpsops took 1977 (which was the obvious pick). I still needed one more solid SP, so I took 1969 with Bill Singer (1.01 whip) and Claude Osteen (1.14 whip). Sadly, 1969 provided no hitters worth mentioning. I really wanted to grab the last good Duke Snider / Jackie Robinson season (1950) instead, especially since I needed a 2B and an OF, but there was no way 1969 was getting back to me. And I knew DarthDurron would take 1950 (he was the only person who could take a group 2 season and he needed hitters). My backup plan in round 5 was 1945. Eddie Stanky (.417 obp) and Goody Rosen (.325 avg) are downgrades from Jackie and Duke, but I did get to add another sim favorite, Augie Galan (.423 obp).

Prediction: Looking back, I'm fairly certain I should have taken 2013 instead of 2003. As a result, my starting pitching just doesn't seem as good as it should be for being a Dodgers franchise. I have Gagne and Niedenfuer leading the bullpen, so maybe I do well in close games. It feels like my hitting will be above average and my pitching below average. Statistically, feels like a .500 team, but with some 1-run luck, maybe overachieve and win 85-89 games.

Posted by schwarze on 12/8/2021 9:46:00 AM (view original):
After losing out on the Royals one pick before me, I strongly considered going with the Mariners one pick before you. I had a full team built on the assumption that nobody else would take the Mariners. But after taking a closer look at the Angels and Rangers options, I determined a second Mariners team was likely so I scrapped that idea. I really wanted both 2001 and 2014 and just didn't think it was possible to get both. Good luck.

SP definitely ended up being a bit thinner than I expected. I must have counted 3 pitchers from one season during my initial review. Offense and bullpen are loaded though.

League 3A - Athletics

Round 1 - 1931 - I was very happy with this pick. I got an ace, a stud OF, a stud C and a decent 2B and 4th starter.
Round 2 - 2001 - I was the first owner to make a pick from this group, so I got to choose the best one. Got a great 1B, 3B, a decent SS, SP3 and a closer.
Round 3 - 1973 - A good value pick. Got a .900+ OPS# in Reggie Jackson and a 3.63 RF/9 in Billy North. Sal Bando can be a DH. Pina and Fingers are solid in the pen.
Round 4 - 2005 - Here's where things go downhill. There's so many A's teams, that pickins' were pretty thin. I got two good bullpen arms and depth at SS and 2B which I can use to platoon.
Round 5 - 1903. Only 1903 and 1906 were left at this point and I purposely picked this group last because they were pretty similar. But I was happy to get 1903 as it gave me a slightly better 4th starter and Topsy Hartsel which I can use as a platoon DH against righties. Oh and my LongA has 404 innings.

C - 1931 Mickey Cochrane - B
1B - 2001 Jason Giambi - A
2B - 1931 Max Bishop / 2005 Mark Ellis - C
SS - 2001 Miguel Tejada / 2005 Bobby Crosby - C
3B - 2001 Eric Chavez - B
LF - 1931 Al Simmons - A
CF - 1973 Billy North - C
RF - 1973 Reggie Jackson - C
DH - 1903 Topsy Hartsel / 1973 Sal Bando - C
SP1 - 1931 Lefty Grove - A
SP2 - 1931 George Earnshaw - C
SP3 - 2001 Mark Mulder - C
SP4 - 1903 Rube Waddell - C
Bullpen - About an ERC# of 2.3 - B

In conclusion - There were a ton of competition for A's teams vs Twins so it did damper my initial excitement after my first 3 picks. There are no glaring weaknesses but I don't have a great offense nor a great pitching staff. I do have depth since I have 3 platoon situations and a pretty good bullpen. Probably good for 85 wins.

So I have one team in each league, and schwarze has 11 teams just on my side of the brackets. Bizarrely we are only in one division together.

I tried to avoid you...

I wish I could have avoided being in the same division as pedrocerrano in League 6. Our Expos/Nats teams have to duke it out.

My NL 81 hitting/83 pitching team from round 2 was 1-2 overall the entire season. Therefore I tried researching what I'd pick for Round 3 if I ended up with first overall choice. The 1890s Orioles were my clear favorite. I had it planned out with two Hughie Jennings (one at ss and one at 3B), McGraw at DH, Willie Keeler, Joe Kelley, Heinie Reitz, et al.. And the pitching normalizes surprisingly well and the defence (especially range) was good for the era. As well, there is a huge advantage not having to pick against other owners. Alas, my team stumbled a bit down the stretch and ended up second to pedrocerrano. I hoped he'd be scared away by the 1890s pitching and defence but, no, he eventually chose that league with his first pick.

The trouble was that I liked the 1890s Orioles so much I couldn't really sell myself on a second choice. I looked at a lot of combinations but ended up deciding between the 1927 Yankees which I characterized as the obvious choice and the 1935 Pirates. I ended up going with the 27 Yankees but instantly regretted my decision. They have an outstanding group of available players (Ruth, Gehrig, Moore, Combs) but the trouble is there are lots and lots of other great Yankee seasons to compete against - the Mantles, other Ruths and Gehrigs, Dimaggios, etc. So my first pick didn't really corner the market on any hard to draft commodities and I was stuck waiting until the 24th pick to select again. I should have went with the 35 Pirates which, of course, lasted to the 5th selection of its draft and was picked by schwarze on the way to his continued domination of this tourney.

Anyways, back to the Yankees. I knew I needed pitching with my second and third picks and was trying to prioritize low/hr with all the sluggers in the league. I ended up with 1946 which gave me the second best Chandler, a good Ruffing for the bullpen, and a decent Dimaggio and Keller. I also took 1964 which gave me my favorite of the Whitey Fords and a decent Mantle. With the 4th and 5th picks I needed help in the infield and more pitching. 1997 gave me a low/hr-yielding Andy Petitte (although he's not great otherwise) and a passable Derek Jeter season. 2008 gave me a lights-out Rivera and the best of the remaining ARod seasons. In the end, I'm not too happy with this team (especially seeing how I used up the second overall selection to get it) and I'm going to need 27 Ruth and 27 Gehrig to completely outslug the other teams for me to have a chance.

In League 3N I had the second pick. Schwarze took my first choice - the fleet-of-foot and Tudor-led 85 Cardinals on his way to his continued domination of this tourney. I was considering the 48 Cards or the 68 Cards with the next pick but figured that the Phillies would not be as popular as the many great available Cardinal teams, and so decided to go with the 1915 Phillies. I sincerely thought there might be 4 owners fighting for the 6 Philly choices each grouping and 8 Cardinal owners fighting for the 11 Card choices. At the very worst it would be 5 Philly owners and I hoped upon hope there might only be 3. So by taking 1915 and Pete Alexander and a good Gavvy Cravath at DH I was pretty much guaranteed getting one of the elite Delahantys and a pretty good Orth with my second pick. Well, somehow, the Phillies were filled with 6 owners before the end of the first round. I couldn't believe it and, of course, that meant Orth, 81 Schmidt, and the best of the best Delahantys, Hamiltons, Thompsons, and Thomas' were gone by the time the end of round 2 came back to me. I took 1893 which has no pitching but a second tier Delahanty and Hamilton. Most importantly, I knew if I took 1893 I would be in an all-Philly division in the NL East and if I waited and took the chance of getting the 1900 option (which also has a second tier Big Ed and no pitching) that I would be in the NL Central and competing with a couple of those stacked Cardinal teams created by 6 owners selecting from 11 different choices. I then took 1964 to get Chris Short at pitcher (Hey, the picking was slim with the Phils once Alexander was gone and Short has done well for me), Bobby Shantz at closer, and Dick Allen at DH. With my last two picks I ended up without a choice in group 5 and was handed 2005. It provided Rollins at SS and Utley as my second baseman. I had a choice between 1983 and 1978 and was happy enough to settle with 1983 and John Denny who led my Round 2 team to the second overall finish (and the natural quick sweep out of round 1 of the playoffs). 1983 also came with a decent Mike Schmidt. In fact, I think all the Philly teams are going to be very similar with most of likely using Utley, Rollins, Schmidt in the infield, Delahanty in the outfield and either Steve Carlton or Pete Alexander pitching. I worry this team will get bludgeoned in the division by schwarze's 1894 and 1981 Philly-led team on his way to his continued domination of this tourney.

Finally, I had the second choice in 5N which had all of us selecting from the Dodger franchise. With my first pick I took 1941 which might not have been everyone's use of the second pick. But it comes with 300ip of a good Whit Wyatt and strong hitting seasons from Pete Reiser and Dolph Camilli. With my second pick I went with 1962. It has a decent Drysdale and an average Koufax season to add more innings and provided my starting shortstop - the 100+sb Maury Wills. A couple of picks later I added 2014 to snag a good Kershaw. I kind of wanted 2013 Kershaw more and like the relief option and the hitting there but was forecasting I was going to need a second baseman and ended up going with 2014's fleet-footed dee Gordon to pair with Wills. With my final two picks I needed a catcher so took 1998 to get the best available Piazza. I didn't really like any of the options left in group 1 but went with 1903 primarily to add Jimmy Sheckard. I'm not crazy about this team but I don't think any of the Dodger teams are overpowering except for schwarze's on his way to his continued dominance of this tourney.

I could be wrong but I think Ron feels like SCHWARZE is going to continue dominating this tournament...