Great write-ups. This will be my 30th 16 x 16 with Schwarze (I missed the first one) and I am too embarrassed to even provide a write up. My apologies up front to Jerry Koosman since I had to incorporate his name as part of my team's name. Light in quality IPs (1359 good and 1425 usable) and the only positive is that all of my 8 position players all have 30 or more home runs. Took Riverfront Stadium because "my Reds" had some good success there (75 & 76) and the .90 park factor may help the pitching staff. My eight position players combined have 322 homeruns so PLEASE have your pitching staff cooperate so that I might be able to obtain a .500 record, if the wind is blowing out....

Posted by schwarze on 5/4/2022 10:09:00 AM (view original):
Your pitching is scary. Your offense... well, lots of 2-1 games.

it's 2-0 Im afraid of...

Glad my team will be playing in Target Field. Need to help out HR-prone pitchers like Randy Johnson and John Smoltz. Hoping my team batting average of .332 helps me score enough runs.

Posted by fatguyrd on 5/4/2022 12:50:00 PM (view original):
Postscript
7 of the adults at the,family reunion, including me, have now tested positive for Covid. One case resulted in hospitalization. The rest of us appear to be mild. Vaccinated and boosted. See write up.

Sorry to hear this. Hope you guys all recover quickly. We had one person bring it to a family gathering and infect at least 9 other people.

Posted by schwarze on 5/4/2022 1:54:00 PM (view original):
"I guess the good news was that I moved up two spots in the draft order so I could make my next dumb pick quicker"

"I had taken a photo of his sweater while I was at the HOF, solely for the purpose of posting it in this writeup. But I don't remember how to post my photo. It was a nice sweater."

"I’d like to thank the Academy, my mother, and all the little people who made this possible…"

LMFAO

Does this work?

It's a lousy photo because of the glare, but a nice sweater.

Yes, thanks. It's easiest to see when you right-click on the picture and select "open imagine in a new tab". Thanks for sharing.

Posted by Jtpsops on 5/4/2022 2:28:00 PM (view original):

Posted by fatguyrd on 5/4/2022 12:50:00 PM (view original):
Postscript
7 of the adults at the,family reunion, including me, have now tested positive for Covid. One case resulted in hospitalization. The rest of us appear to be mild. Vaccinated and boosted. See write up.

Sorry to hear this. Hope you guys all recover quickly. We had one person bring it to a family gathering and infect at least 9 other people.

Sorry to hear. Glad it's mild for most of your group. Somehow, I've been lucky enough to avoid getting it. (Well, at least I think so... I've been tested exactly once due to travel requirements, but I've never had symptoms.) Although I am still working from home (since March 2020), I've been to two music concerts in the last two weeks and have been to three NBA games, so it's not like I am staying home and avoiding large crowds. Have a family reunion in Arizona in late-June, going to Vegas for a week in mid-July and will be on a cruise to Greece in October. I'm sure it's inevitable that I will eventually get it. I am vaccinated and boosted and will probably get the second booster shot in early June.

Someone needs to collect and bind, in leather, the 'cuda papers. simply outstanding.

Posted by slainte on 5/4/2022 8:19:00 PM (view original):
Someone needs to collect and bind, in leather, the 'cuda papers. simply outstanding.

“Woulda, ‘Cuda, Shoulda: The Collective Works”

Posted by Jtpsops on 5/4/2022 9:04:00 PM (view original):

Posted by slainte on 5/4/2022 8:19:00 PM (view original):
Someone needs to collect and bind, in leather, the 'cuda papers. simply outstanding.

“Woulda, ‘Cuda, Shoulda: The Collective Works”

That's pretty good.

When I created this Theme idea I had no idea it would be so entertaining and tormenting at the same time. (Thanks cuda).
Kudos to schwarze for taking it over and doing a great job of running it. I wish I had more time to play in it. Hoping an early retirement will provide that here shortly.

Thanks bheid408 for creating such a creative theme and giving me permission to continue it. The only "major" rule change I made was instituting a salary cap. This simple rule changes the entire way people draft. There are other minor variables that I change from version to version just to keep things fresh and interesting. But the main concept of the theme still exists. You summed it up perfectly, "one of the most entertaining and tormenting" draft experiences on this site.

I'm waiting for the dreaded 24x24 :P

I don't need no stinkin’ plan… cause I just won’t follow it anyway.

Initial Choice: 05 Juan Castro.

Was late to the party, had to pick a hitter. My goal was to pick at the beginning and have reasonable but not extremely high cost options at SP, RP and either C or SS. This pick gives me the possibility of rostering Santana, Nathan and Maur. Reasonably safe base to fall back on.

Round 1: 00 Derek Lowe

I felt there were two clear choices to lead this thing off. They went with picks one and two. I wanted Nomar. Great hitter and being short AB’s isn’t a huge deal in this league… and Lowe is a worthy bullpen arm.

How crazy is taking 2000 and aiming for Pedro? It’s only $19M, right?

Round 2: 04 Luis Gonzalez

My plan was to add a good Brown and play a conservative approach. Except that had that 2000 Pedro jumping around in my brain. Then I looked at 1964 Koufax. Could I run out a rotation of: 2000 Pedro, 2004 Johnson, 1964 Koufax, and 2005 Santana? I’ll take this Johnson and then work to get cheap pitchers so I can afford Koufax. Nothing could go wrong, right? Three Lefties and a $52M price tag on 4 teammates…

Round 3, 4, 5: 05 Kevin Brown, 85 Koosman, 56 Abernathy

Ok, clear up cap space. Go cheap. Free up space for the teammate starters. So focused on that (and working too many jobs between going to kids baseball games…) that I completely miss the Koufax years being picked. Seriously missed it. The one I wanted went in ROUND 2. And I didn’t realize it. Slept right through 3 rounds making my picks and not paying attention to who others picked. Blissfully believing I was building the roster I wanted. I would just add that 64 Koufax with my next pick. Possible teammates: Posada, A-rod, Rivera, ???.

Round 6: 07 Utley

Oh.. all the good Koufax gone? Lets hit. I liked Utley as a player. I don’t like him in the SIM. I want my second baseman to run. And be switch hitters. But I guess with Nomar at SS this makes a good partner. Not too fast, not too slow. Hit. But again, how sleepy was I that missed that Koufax was gone?

Round 7: 88 Dwyer

So now my rotation is Pedro, Johnson, Santana, and crap. So let's hit. Cheap Dwyer brings along a CF who was always fun to watch. He never looked like a center fielder but it’s the results that matter. Now it looks like my #2/3/4 hitters will be Pucket, Nomar and A-rod. A little righty heavy but all good bats. Seriously still annoyed that I slept through all the Koufax picks.

Round 8: 83 McGee

Planning on rostering four teammate hitters (Maur, Pucket, Nomar, and A-rod) as well as five teammate pitchers (Pedro, Johnson, Santana, Rivera, and Nathan). That’s nine. All I need is to make sure that I have:

1. Enough nominated players to cover the rest of the positions

2. Enough cap $ to roster them all

3. Enough pitchers innings to cover the 4th starter spot.

Easy enough. Speedy CF with decent bat. Switch hitter. Not a teammate of Koufax.

Round 9 and 10: 20 Frisch, 54 Stephens

Someone is going to be playing out of position innings at first or corner outfield if I am going to maximize usage. Have a left handed part time player in one corner spot, plan on taking another part timer at first. Frisch and Stevens will have to be their platoons. This works. Frisch in left and Stephens at first against lefties? Wasn’t looking for teammates. Didn’t add any (errr… still mad about Koufax.)

Round 11 and 12: 76 Davis, 05 Embree

Cheap. That’s all. Cheap. Didn’t look at any of the teammates. Figured I was all set. Who needs 4 starters?

Round 13: 31 Wilson

Things change a little. The Wilson’s I was looking to take went. Now it looks like the Wilsons will be a little much to take with Maur. I look over the other catchers available to me… there are some good ones in the $3M range. Then I see Maur’s backup from 05. Damn. .311… A+/B/A+? Brings me up to exactly 600 PA? Hit the catcher 9th with no DH? Ok. Let's try that. Guess what? That also frees up some money. And now I see the genius in my round 11 pick. After dropping Maur I drop Nathan and it looks like I can afford 76 Tanana as a starter. The clouds part and angels sing. He’s not Koufax but he’ll do.

Round 14 and 15: 69 Pizarro, 03 McGriff

I already knew which McGriff I would take. He will bat 7th against righties. That’s really all I have to say about him. Because of that all I needed to do with Pizarro was make sure that when I rostered him my cap # worked.

End result:
Pitching:
1,255 "Real" innings
2.44 ERA
.202 OAV
.97 WHIP

244 "crap" innings

Hitting:
Catcher- Wilson
1B- McGriff/Stevens
2b- Utley
3b- A-rod
SS- Nomar
CF- McGee
RF- Puckett
LF- Gonzalez/Frisch

Bench:
Castro, Davis, Dwyer, Redmon

6,267 PA's so most of it will get used... perhaps some of Davis/Dwyer won't.
.298/.360/.562