League 1, Pick 8
NL East, Pick 3
1902 Blues, 1903 Pirates, 1904 Cubs

In the very early eras, I don't think it's nearly as important of getting to pick first in a division as the later eras. The reason is because you can pretty much complete your roster with 14-16 players, with the third team adding a couple of key pieces. The league 1 draft was going quickly, and when pick #8 came up, it was SteveIzzy's turn to draft. Trading was still open. I had three teams in league 10 and only two in league 1. And since I was scheduled to draft #8 in league 10, and preferred league 1, I made an offer to SteveIzzy to swap my league 10, pick 8 for his league 1, pick 8... and he agreed.

After the trade was accepted, I quickly jumped on the 1902 Cleveland Blues. With so little hitting in the NL (1902-1908), I wanted a team in the NL East and really wanted to make sure I had a shot at one of the Pirates teams with my second pick. Since this was pick #3 in the division, that was now guaranteed. The '02 Blues gives me Nap Lajoie, Bill Bradley, Charlie Hickman, Charlie Hemphill, Ossee Schreckengost, Elmer Flick as well as the favorite cookie SP, Bill Bernhard. Addie Joss isn't terrible either.

Glowguy picked fourth and went with the '02 Pirates team (which I had ranked 1st in the division, due to pitching depth and three great OFs). That actually turned out ok, because the '03 Pirates fit better. I needed Wagner's stud shortstop season. Fred Clarke and Clarence Howeth "Ginger" Beaumont are really good hitting OFs. And Claude Ritchey and Ed Phelps supply the extra ABs I need at 2B and C. Oh, I can also use the 665 IPs that Sam Leever and Deacon Phillippe provide.

With the entire roster pretty much in place, now it's time to look for a team with a couple of key studs I can use. I went with the '04 Cubs, since Mordecai Brown was the best SP left (and a top three SP in the 1902-04 era) while Jake Weimer was the top "second-best" SP left (and is a top 15 SP). Frank Chance allows Hickman to play in the OF.

Prediction: 92-70
When playing in these eras with extremes, I like to have strength where most teams have weaknesses. (For example, in the late 1920-30's era, I loaded up on pitching). The 1902-04 division has some really good hitting options, whereas the 1904-06 and 1906-08 divisions do not (at least not hitting-depth). I don't think my starting pitching is that much worse than the other two divisions, so I really think this team (as well as the other teams in my division) will dominate the N.L. I could see three teams in this league winning 90+ games. In fact, the more I look at this team, the more I like it (I just bumped up the win total 3 games while writing this). The only negative is the batting lineup is a bit right-handed heavy (just lowered wins by 1).

Another round, another set of writeups. At some point I’ll hit my busy season at work and not be able to do these, but for now…

Draft Prep / Research
Unlike last round, when I infamously created a roster for every possible team combination, a brute force method was not feasible here. I needed a way to identify the best teams at a glance. The system I devised was overly complex, significantly flawed and probably not worth the effort expended on it, which at this point should come as a surprise to no one. The carpenter’s mantra is “measure twice, cut once” while mine is more like “rush through one half-assed measure, cut once, figure out that it’s messed up, keep cutting in an ill-fated attempt to fix it that only makes it worse, then decide to just live with the botched result.” Anyone need any carpentry work done?

My goal was to create a system that would separate the proverbial wheat form the chaff. I needed to identify the teams that had the most above average value. Average players are replacement level in this round; a team with 8 great players and 8 crappy players is far more valuable than a team with 16 average players. The system I devised, inspired by a round 2 discussion I had with schwarze about standard deviations (“inspired” in much the same way that some movies are “inspired by true events” – as an aside isn’t the act of completely fabricating a story a “true event”?), consisted of doing the following for each division:

• Load the stats for every player available, minus duplicates
• Calculate salary per plate appearance or inning pitched for each player (using salary rather than OPS to account for defense)
• Calculate the weighted average sal/PA and sal/IP for the division
• Calculate the standard deviation of the sal/PA or sal/IP for each player, setting anyone less than 0 equal to 0
• Multiply those standard deviations by PA or IP to get a total value for each player
• Sum up those values by team
• Divide the team total hitters values by 600 and pitchers values by 145 (assuming 6000 PA and 1450 IP per team, but ensuring that the team totals were whole numbers that are easily comparable)
• Create a roster of above-average players for the top 6 teams in each division

This sounds like a lot of calculations, but it’s all pretty easy to do in Excel. Creating the initial workbook probably took a couple of hours of trial and error. Loading the data and drafting the 6 teams per division took some time, but we had almost 2 months to do so. The overall process took me far less time than I spent on research in round 2.

But is it a good system? I suppose it’s better than nothing. My initial thought was just to rank the teams by salary per 6000 PAs and 1450 IP. My system is better than that, but maybe by 20-25% or so. Probably not worth all of that work. It has several flaws, primarily that it overvalues players whose performance is in the positive tail of the curve. For example, looking at the very first division, League 1 NL East, starting OF 1902 Ed Delahanty gets assigned 2335 points, while 73 PA Duke Farrell gets 647. Delahanty should be worth way more than 3.6x Farrell. Also, my system doesn’t account for the fact that you can draft at most 9 players per real life team. And, of course, using salary rather than ERC# for pitchers was suboptimal because it gives credit for hitting, which pitchers won’t do in this league. But, being the bad metaphorical carpenter that I am (I suppose I’m a better shepherd than a carpenter, although just barely as shown in Round 2), I stuck with my cockamamie system despite its obvious flaws. And it just got its name. When comparing teams in my upcoming writeups, I will refer to Cockamamie System Points, or CSPs.

Top 20 Draft writeups
[Stats are normalized, pitcher stats are ERC#]

Top 20 Draft – pick #1
League 3 – pick #1
NL East – pick #1
1927 Yankees, 1928 Athletics, 1928 Pirates
.326/.415/.542; 2.63

You don’t need a system, cockamamie or otherwise, to tell you that when drafting a single-season team the 1927 Yankees are a good place to start. But in case you did, the Murderers Row Yankees scored a whopping 33 Cockamamie System Points (CSPs), far and away the most across all leagues. By comparison, the 1927 Pirates and 1928 Yankees were next in League 1 NL East in CSPs with 13 apiece. Boasting two of the ten most dominant offensive seasons in baseball history, along with pitching that is as good as any team in this division, these Yankees are the no-brainers to end all no-brainers. The only thing left was to not screw it up, and I don’t think I did. The 1928 A’s have a bunch of nice pieces including an excellent Lefty Grove (278 IP, 2.42) and solid versions of Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane and Max Bishop. The 1928 Pirates add Paul Waner and Pie Traynor to an already potent lineup, and pitcher Burleigh Grimes (353 IP, 2.68) comes with great expectorations. See what I did there? Thank you, ladies and germs. The biggest question with this team is how best to deploy Wilcy Moore, who is a bit tricky because of his high IP and relatively low IP/G. But I think it’ll be fun figuring that out.

Top 20 Draft – pick #2
League 4 – pick #1
NL East – pick #1
1939 Yankees, 1939 Cardinals, 1940 Indians
.317/.398/.524; 2.58

With pick #2 in the Top 20 draft I stayed with the same franchise and picked another of the most dominant teams of all time. According to CSPs the ’39 Yankees had the best offense and best pitching in the division; their 23 CSPs were 8 more than the 1939 and 1940 Reds. Dickey, Gordon, Rolfe and a killer DiMaggio offer excellent production at key positions, and 700+ quality IP are headlined by one of my favorite pitchers of his ilk in the sim: Marius Russo. I was pleasantly surprised that the ’39 Cardinals made it back to me at pick #8. Cockamamie System had them ranked as 4^th best in the division with a great Johnny Mize and Don Padgett (although the latter was probably overrated by CS for low PA reasons mentioned previously) and solid Ducky Medwick and Country Slaughter seasons. Max Lanier makes for a decent closer in this league and Bob Bowman (180 IP, 2.70) should be solid as a long reliever. With the lineup mostly set and needing 500 good IP the final choice was the 1940 Indians, whose Rapid Robert (337 IP, 2.23) is the best full-time starting pitcher in the division. The Tribe also contribute another bullpen arm in Johnny Allen (146 IP, 2.76) plus Hal “hot to” Trosky at 1B and so-so starting shortstop Lou Boudreau. I feel like I might have done something wrong here because my team isn’t quite as dominant as I would’ve expected given the ’39 Yanks starting point (toysboys’ ’40 Reds/’40 Yanks/’38 Red Sox are particularly worrisome) but I still like my chances.

Top 20 Draft – pick #4
League 10 – pick #1
AL Central – pick #1
2019 Astros, 2020 Indians, 2018 Red Sox
.304/.386/.544; 1.77 (no, that’s not a typo)

I was all set to choose the 1969 Orioles here. For one thing, CS told me to. Their 20 CSPs were 5 higher than their next divisional rival. But a tool, after all, is just a tool. And that goes double for a cockamamie one such as this. The more I looked at the 2019 Astros the more I couldn’t pass them up. Their much heralded three 200+ inning dominant pitchers seem like too much of an advantage, especially when paired with great offense in the infield. CS has them as only 1 point better than the 2020 Dodgers, but I think the system fails here because it’s not possible to use all of the great relievers on all of these teams. Besides, I told myself, maybe the ’69 Orioles will drop to my next selection. Fat chance of that; pedrocerrano took them with the very next pick. But I’m still happy with my decision. I know that there are a lot of stacked teams in this division, but I couldn’t believe my luck when the ’20 Indians (Bieber, Plesac, Jose Ramirez) and ’18 Red Sox (Sale, Mookie Betts, JD Martinez) both dropped to me. This team isn’t perfect; the lineup is far too right-handed, Gurriel is a weak starting 1B, Chirinos is worse at catcher, and Blake bleeping Swihart is going to have to start 50 games. But 1450 IP of 1.77 ERC# is going to be tough to beat.

Top 20 Draft – pick #10
League 1 – pick #2
NL Central – pick #1
1906 Cubs, 1906 Browns, 1905 Reds
.321/.396/.454; 2.19

Still in the Top 20 draft and running out of ideas, it was time to return to the tool. According to CS the remaining team with the greatest advantage over its division rivals was the 1906 Cubs. I pretty much suck at the deadball era so I kind of had to take the tool’s word for it. But it made some sense. I mean, they have a bunch of really good SPs, and Frank Chance and Harry Steinfeldt seem to be able to hit some compared to their opponents. But at the end of the day the clincher was the 1906 Cubs real life 116-36 record. For those keeping score at home that’s a really good record. And the thing about drafting a team with a ton of good innings is that you can completely punt pitching with one of your two remaining picks. The Browns included George Stone and also brought enough good innings to combine with the Cubs for a complete staff, which enabled me to add the weak-pitching Reds primarily for the sake of rostering Cy Seymour. Stone and Seymour are two of the five best hitters in the division, which will hopefully be enough to enable me to finish on top.

Top 20 Draft – pick #11
League 3 – pick #3
AL West – pick #1
1937 Yankees, 1937 Tigers, 1937 Bees
.314/.401/.548; 2.67

Geez, I had a lot of picks in the Top 20 draft. As I said, I was running out of ideas here, so I went with my second team in League 3, again featuring my beloved Yankees. I love getting to use another Joseph Paul DiMaggio. I tend not to use him at the cap level at which I normally play ($100M-$110M) because he doesn’t produce at a level commiserate to his salary, but this sort of league is perfect for him. I wish I could’ve seen him play in person, but I’m about 30 years too young to have been able to do so. But from the surviving film clips he looks like the most graceful, natural baseball player ever. His swing, the way he ran, everything. Here’s my all-time favorite baseball stat: in 1941 (the year of his 56-game hitting streak) Joe DiMaggio hit 30 home runs. How many times did he strike out that season? The answer appears at the end of this blurb. In addition to the Yankee Clipper the ’37 Bombers feature the best full-season Bill Dickey, the last great Lou Gehrig season, excellent half-seasons from Selkirk and Henrich, and, oh yeah, the best pitching in the division. What team had the second-best pitching in the division? The 1937 Bees, who I was able to combine with the #3 team in the division in CSPs: the best Gehringer, highest-priced Greenberg, high-powered Rudy York 1937 Tigers. Sure, Greenberg (B/B+ at 1B only) will play RF in the 100 or so games in which York DH’s, but I’m not overly concerned. This team is going to mash, and this team is going to pitch. I expect this to be my best team. PS – in 1941, Joe DiMaggio hit 30 home runs and struck out…13 times. All season. These days there are guys who do that in a bad week. Incredible.

Top 20 Draft – pick #13
League 5 – pick #2
NL Central – pick #1
1954 Indians, 1952 Cardinals, 1954 Dodgers
.309/.390/.506; 2.55

Finally, my last Top 20 pick. I considered three teams here: the 2016 Cubs, taken two picks later by schwarze, the 1964 White Sox, not taken in the Top 20 draft, and these 1954 Indians. It has always been amazing to me that the 1954 Yankees won 103 games in a 154-game schedule, and yet finished eight games out of first place. The ’54 Tribe was a dominant team, until they ran into Willie Mays and the Giants in the World Series. When you hit a ball 450 feet and it’s still caught, that has to feel a bit helpless. But that team was loaded: good starting pitching from Garcia, Wynn, and Lemon, good bullpen arms in Mossi, Newhouser, and Narleski, a great Bobby Avila at second, a great defensive CF in Larry Doby, and an Al Rosen at 3B who actually out-hit my $12M 1953 Rosen in round 2. To that I was able to add the ’52 Cardinals with two excellent relievers in Stu Miller and Al Brazle, plus Stan Musial. With pitching taken care of the 1954 Dodgers brought a dominant Duke Snider, a great starting SS in Pee Wee Reese, and a very good Gil Hodges at first. Sounds like a juggernaut, right? So why is it not? I can’t fully explain it, but footballmm11’s ’53 Dodgers/’52 Phillies/’53 Cardinals team is every bit as good as mine on paper. My one trepidation in choosing the ’54 Indians was that the ’53 Dodgers offense looked dynamite, but I didn’t think that whoever got them would be able to add enough pitching to compete with my team. But it looks like I was wrong. And winterhawk’s ’54 Giants (World Series winners) / ’54 Yankees (103-game winners) / ’52 Indians are no slouches either. This is going to be an excellent division, and one to watch.

This concludes the writeups for my teams from the Top 20 draft. Writeups for my other teams will appear later.

League 2, Pick 8
AL Central, Pick 2
1924 Senators, 1924 Reds, 1924 Giants

League 2 was one of the three leagues that I have three teams in. This was my second team. My first team was in the NL (1916 Red Sox). I knew I wanted two of the three teams in the NL just because the NL is going to crush the AL in the inter-division games, so should I grab the better league now and just kind of tank with my third team (pick #16)? Or should I build the best team I can in the tough hitting-dominated 1920-26 era? I decided on the latter. With one pick to go before my turn came up, my three choices were '24 Robins, 24 Senators & 20 Indians. Well, barracuda3 grabbed the AL Central '24 Robins. I though the overall strength of teams in the AL East & AL West was a lot weaker than the AL Central, so I decided to join barracuda3 and take the '24 Senators. The Senators have 5 usable pitchers for this era, including 3 starters. They even have a solid hitting Goose Goslin to use in the OF. I'm sure I can find enough hitting with my next two picks.

I was hoping one the Reds teams would make it back to me, and 1924 Reds did make it back (footballmm11 took '23 Reds right before me). This pick pretty much filled out the rest of my pitching staff, with Eppa Rixey, Carl Mays, Rube Benton and Pedro Dibut. Offensively, the '24 Reds fill the holes at catcher (Bubles Hargrave), 3B (Babe Pinelli) and OF (Rube Bressler, Edd Roush). The last pick was going to be an offense-only team. As much as I would have liked to grab a Hornsby team, the '24 Giants had exactly what I needed, with George Kelly (1B), Frankie Frisch (2B), Travis Jackson (SS), Ross Youngs (DH), Hank Gowdy/Frank Snyer (C) and RP Claude Jonnard.

Prediction: 86-76
I will be shocked if this team isn't ranked 1st or 2nd in pitching among A.L. teams (1920-26). I will also be shocked if this team isn't ranked near the bottom of the league offensively. This is the 1920's and we don't have any Ruths or Hornsbys on the roster. But we have great pitching, great defense and our home ballpark is Griffith Stadium (-2 for HRs). Good pitching is supposed to beat good offenses, right?

League 8, Pick 10
AL Central, Pick 4
1995 Braves, 1994 Astros, 1996 Mariners

Remember my stupid 1990 A's selection? That was my first team in this league (pick #4). I should have taken one of the Braves teams, but couldn't decide which one, so I figured I'd wait, take whichever Braves team is left and get a higher 2nd round pick. Sure enough, right after I picked the '90 A's, the next four picks were '98 Braves (ybjsports), '96 Braves (ronthegenius), '94 Braves (footballmm11) and '94 Braves (d_rock97). There was one person to pick before my turn and two Braves teams left ('93 Braves and '95 Braves). Glowguy surprised me by taking the '95 Indians next, so now I still had a choice to make. But the '93 Braves would be the 2nd pick in the AL East, while the '95 Braves would be the 4th choice in the AL Central, so that's the pick I made. Besides rostering the best season of the best pitcher on the planet, this team isn't exactly loaded. Based on my next two picks, I will end up having to roster very medicore seasons of Smoltz and Glavine. The '95 Braves hitters are decent, not excellent. Javy Lopez, Fred McGriff, David Justice and Ryan Klesko... not exactly Murderer's Row. And three of those four aren't full-time players.

The reason I waited on the Braves is so I could take the '94 Astros. They have a very strong SP, Doug Drabek, along with three solid relievers (T.Jones, Hudek, Veras). Sadly, I also have to roster Shane Reynolds to get enough SP innings. But, the best thing about this team is Bagwell and Biggio. Also, Ken Caminiti will be my starting 3B. Wait, that's all I get from the '94 Astros? I really didn't think this through.

So with my last pick, I need a SS, two OFs and lots and lots of pitching. I'm sure that will be easy to find with the 12th and last pick of the divisional draft. In retrospect, I should have taken the '95 Dodgers instead of the '94 Astros. Instead, glowguy got a steal to go with his solid '95 Indians offense. Anyway, there were a couple of teams that had two decent SPs available, but those teams didn't have a SS or really much anything else on offense (which I suppose is why those teams were still available). I finally said to myself "F*ck it" and went with all offense. Let's add '96 A-Rod (1.045 ops), '96 Griffey (1.020 ops) and '96 Edgar Martinez (1.059 ops) to an offense with '94 Bagwell (1.201 ops) plus Lopez, Biggio, McGriff, Justice, Caminiti. I may have to play McGriff out of position (OF) just to get everybody in the starting lineup.

Prediction: 69-93
With what is most likely the league's leading offense behind him, '95 Maddux could go 35-5. '94 Doug Drabek could go 20-15 while the rest of the team combines to go 14-73. The defense isn't very good and the relief pitching is suspect. Bagwell, A-Rod and Griffey might all finish in the top 5 in the MVP race. I just need to keep reminding myself that it's ok that some of my teams do not advance to round 4. It's always interesting how different people feel about their hitting/pitching as it relates to their team's overall projected success. I'm sure others (who prefer offense over pitching) would look at this roster and think, this team will crush it offensively and the lower end of the pitching isn't terrible. 90 wins is reasonable.

League 9, Pick 11
AL East, Pick 2
2006 Twins, 2005 Mets, 2005 Cardinals

barracuda3 selected this 2006 Twins team with pick #5, so I was more than happy to grab the AL East version with pick #11, even though I have to play in the 2005 Astros division. Mauer (C), Morneau (1B), Castillo (2B) are the useful hitters while the pitching is deep. 2006 isn't Santana's best season, but it's still good and the Twins bullpen provides 3 pitchers and 242 innings.

With my next pick, I needed a 3B, SS, OFs and more pitching. I could foresee that I wasn't getting 4 good pitchers in this draft, so I wanted 3 really good pitchers. The '05 Mets gave me David Wright, Carlos Beltran , Cliff Floyd and most importantly, Pedro Martinez. I also got 4 RPs / 306 IPs. But crap, I only have 2 starting pitchers so far. There aren't any teams with 2 good starters, so I have to add Tom Glavine's crappy '05 season to the rotation. The third team will need to fill SS, OF, DH and at least one stud SP. The '05 Cardinals fit the bill with Eckstein, Edmonds, L.Walker and a stud Pujols. Chris Carpenter means I have three really good SPs (693 IPs) and one crappy SP (Glavine).

Prediction: 85-77
Oddly enough, I think this team might do better than initally expected. The defense is really good. Carpenter, Santana & Pedro are 3 of the top 10 starting pitchers in this era (2004-06). The bullpen has 342 innings of sub 1.02 whip. The hitting isn't great, but won't be the worst in the league (maybe slightly below average). I think that is enough to get the team above .500 and maybe battling for a wildcard spot if things break right (i.e., 1-run game luck).

League 8, Pick 14
NL Central, Pick 2
1988 Reds/1989 Giants/1990 Blue Jays

No doubt you've picked up on the recurring theme here, but I was really tempted to take the 88 Dodgers here for sentimental reasons and also because I got them to a Game 7 of the WS in the Cooperstown league, indicating they might actually not be all that bad. I also liked the Pirates of this era with Bonds/Bonilla/Van Slyke. I looked at so many other teams in this league that I made myself a little nuts, frankly. I could have talked myself into any division choice. It's funny what influences you, but I was playing in the R2 LCS at this time against kstober's 87-88 Reds/Astros (against my 89-90 Reds-Astros, who bizarrely finished 81-81 and then went on to win a WS somehow, but I digress). His team was frankly better than mine, and as I looked at the 88 Reds they started to grow on me. Plus, chisock took them in the NL East two picks earlier and knows what he's doing in these leagues, so I knew I wasn't out of line with thinking they deserved a pick here.

So the Reds gave me two A+ range infield gloves with speed in Larkin and Sabo, solid OF seasons (and more speed) from E.Davis and Daniels, a very nice Danny Jackson to head the rotation, a good swingman/tandem option in Jose Rijo and two great RP in Dibble and Franco. Lots of options to be sure. For a 2nd team I wanted at least one strong SP option and to fill some lineup spots with big bats. The 89 Giants deliver with Garrelts to join Jackson, thumpers in Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell, another good infield glove in Robby Thompson, and a usable Brett Butler if I need a CF option. The final team was a tough call because I still needed a couple SP and a C at minimum. The 90 Jays weren't the perfect fit because they had strength at positions I already had players (1B,3B,SS), but they at least have half a useful C in Pat Borders, a few rotation options in Stieb, Black and Wells (tandem with Rijo?). As a bonus they've got two more excellent RP in Ward and Henke to give me a really strong pen, and I can upgrade from Sabo to Kelly Gruber at 3B, maybe platoon Tony Fernandez (one of my favorites) with Larkin, and there's always a place to stick a potent Fred McGriff into your lineup.

I like the bullpen, team speed, and infield defense a lot here. The rotation isn't world-beating, but Jackson/Garrelts/Wells-Rijo tandem looks good enough to keep us competitive most of the time. The middle of the order with Clark-Mitchell-McGriff-Gruber-Davis has a lot of pop so we'll play in Riverfront with +1 HR and +2 2B. The tough part, though, is I think the rest of the division will be pretty solid too and I'm unsure if we're any better than them.

League 1, Pick 13
AL East, Pick 3
1909 Cubs, 1908 Pirates, 1908 Tigers

This is my third team in League 1. The 1909 Cubs was ranked first in this division, slightly ahead of 09 A's and 09 PIrates who were the first two picks of this division. I really wanted 1908 Pirates, but couldn't pass up the depth of this Cubs pitching staff (Brown, Overall, Reulbach, Kroh, HIgginbotham = 1167 innings). Chance, Evers & Hofman are usable hitters. Now, I need to hold my breath on the fourth pick.

pedrocerrano jumped into this league at pick#4, but he chose the '08 Giants and '10 A's, which is a strong combination. But I really wanted '08 Honus Wagner, so while sitting in the airport's cell phone lot waiting for my daughter's flight to come in, I quickly snapped up the '08 Pirates. Beside Wagner, this team provided me a 3B (Tommy Leach), two OFs (Fred Clarke, Roy Thomas) and three pitchers (Vic Willis, Howie Camnitz, Irv Young).

When I got home, I started to look at what my next pick should be. That's when I realized that I may have been better off taking the '09 Tigers instead of the '08 Pirates. Although the Tigers SS (Donnie Bush) was a downgrade from Honus, the team would have provided way more offense with Sam Crawford and Ty Cobb (when compared to Fred Clarke / Roy Thomas). Damn. Both the '09 and '10 Tigers went before my turn came up. But, the good news is that the '08 Tigers was still available, so I was able to get a much lesser version of Cobb & Crawford plus Matty McIntyre is an upgrade over my Pirates OFs. Sadly, I don't have any good catcher options so I am starting two guys with OPS of .617 and .556. Ugh.

Prediction: 84-78
This team has A and A+ range at almost every position and combined with my pitching staff, that means this team should be among the top 5 in run suppression. The offense will rely on my four good hitters (Wagner, Crawford, Cobb, McIntyre), but the bottom of the order will struggle to score. Feels like a lot of 2-1 games. Knowing my history in 1-run game luck, I am lowering my win total by 4 games as I write this.

League 9, Pick 18
NL East, Pick 4
2000 Red Sox/2000 Braves/1998 Astros

This was my latest pick in any draft and the only one where I took a 4th team in a division. I strongly considered the 2007 Padres based on (can you guess?) how their pitching dominated the Cooperstown league this past season, and I wasn't surprised to see them go 3 picks later. This era offers a lot of teams with one strong SP and of course the offenses are super-juicy, especially in the NL. There was no doubt that I needed to start with a pick that gave me a hope of fielding a competitive pitching staff, knowing I could always find hitters. Because I had the back-to-back thing here for the only time, I was able to work out several permutations of teams to see which filled the most spots. I didn't want to have to depend on my 3rd team for two rotation spots either, so that made this pretty tricky.

I decided first that I'd grab the super Pedro 2000 season and see where that took me, because all other things being equal having the best SP in the league never hurts (until he gets rocked on occasion and I commiserate with schwarze based on his R2 Pedrofest squad). The Sox also include a stud Nomar, a very good Carl Everett, and a handful of solid RP. Fitting into that mix quite nicely were the 2000 Braves, with a still-solid Maddux and a not-the-worst-4th-starter-imaginable Glavine. Sure, Glavine will post an ERA above 6 in this league, but he will eat the innings as well as anyone else I could have stuck in there. But it's the offense that I really needed from the Braves, with starters coming my way in the Joneses Chipper and Andruw, Javy Lopez, and Andres Galarraga. It took a few days to get back to me, and I was sizing up all sorts of possible fits with all the amazing offenses (some of which came with a useful pitcher or two even). I was pleased to land the 98 Astros to get me the Randy Johnson for my rotation, a couple more solid RP, and three great bats in Biggio, Bagwell, and Alou who will all likely bat in the top 5 of this lineup.

Offense abounds in this league, and I'd like to think mine stacks up there with any of them. Certainly we have depth, with an entire lineup of 20+ homers, but the biggest weakness is it's very righty-heavy. But when your No. 8 hitter has an .895 OPS, that's something you live with. The defense is just OK, and we have a little speed here, but all in all it's a lineup I'm excited about. As noted above, the pitchers will take beatings here even if they are named Maddux, Glavine, and Johnson. And my setup guys are a little low on innings, which means guys like homer-prone Jose Lima have to eat some for me and I can only hope we build 7-run leads before he comes in. I suspect everyone else has similar problems in my division, though. We'll see if we can make any noise.

Draft writeups, League Draft phase
These writeups will appear in league number order.

League 2 Draft – pick #7
AL Central – pick #1
1924 Robins, 1922 Browns, 1924 Cardinals
.338/.407/.528; 2.80

This team provides an interesting test for the Cockamamie System. Earlier I mentioned that when conducting my initial research I drafted rosters for the top six teams in CSPs for each division. My reasoning was that my preferred first round pick in a given division would almost certainly be ranked in the top six, and there was no need to look at teams I’d take second or third until I knew which team I ended up with. In this division I had the first pick and chose the 1924 Robins, who were ranked 8^th in CSPs. Sounds like I disregarded the CS, right? Well, yes and no. The Robins are notable in that they are ranked just 20^th in the division in total salary (per 1450 PAs and 6000 IPs). In other words, this is the sort of team that the system is designed to highlight. I might’ve completely passed over them if I only looked at total salary, but the more I looked at them, the more I liked them. I only used eight of their players, and one of them is a defensive replacement and another a long reliever, so they weren’t high on quantity. But the quality is clearly there. Jack and Zack (Fournier and Wheat) both rake, and Andy High adds versatility by providing good offense at three infield positions. The most valuable player, though, is one Charles Arthur Vance. In the early days of this site there was a user (perhaps one of the crestens?) who would often respond to discussion threads about pitching with just a two-word response: “DAZZY VANCE”. He was crazy, but he was right, and especially for this league. Vance is the best SP in the division, and when combined with two other useful pitchers (Ehrhardt and Doak) and the good hitters I thought that the marginal value was there to make this team the first pick in the AL Central.

I really didn’t know what to expect in terms of teams that would make it back to me for my 2^nd and 3^rd picks. The top ranked team in CSPs was the 1923 Yankees (spoiler alert: Babe Ruth is good) who were taken at #3, and the three best pitching teams (‘24 Senators, ‘23 and ‘24 Reds) were all taken before my pick. So, lo and behold, I had little choice but to go all offense. The 1922 Browns added some fair-to-middling pitching but also George Sisler, who is one of the most consistently productive players in the sim, and a dominant Ken Williams. And the 1924 Cardinals have some guy named Rogers Hornsby. Perhaps my favorite baseball story, probably apocryphal, sometimes misattributed as having been about Ted Williams: one day, a rookie pitcher is facing Rogers Hornsby. The pitcher throws a pitch on the outside corner. The ump calls it a ball. The pitcher throws a pitch on the inside corner. The ump calls it a ball. The pitcher starts complaining that the ump is squeezing him. The ump takes off his mask, steps in front of home plate, and yells to the pitcher: “Young man, when you throw a strike, Mister Hornsby will let you know.”

So how will this talent-laden team fare? This will be another interesting division. Footballmm11’s 1923 Yankees/Reds/Indians look very strong, and schwarze’s 1924 Senators/Reds/Giants will be a referendum on the importance of run prevention versus run scoring. Should be fun.


League 4 Draft – pick #10
AL East – pick #3
1946 Red Sox, 1945 Cubs, 1945 Senators
.317/.404/.474; 2.44

This was my second-lowest pick in any draft this round. Since I already had the 1939 Yankees in the NL, I had to take an AL team. At this point I could either join the 1948 Indians in the Central, the 1948 Indians and 1949 Red Sox in the West, or the 1944 Cardinals in the East. As good as the ’44 Cards are, they’re not as dominant as the ’48 Indians so I went East. While I had the ’45 Cubs ranked higher, I went with the ’46 Red Sox because Ted Williams (.346/.498/.676) is far and away the best offensive player in the division (138 OPS# points above the next full-time player), Doerr and Pesky are very good at key positions, and Tex Hughson should provide halfway decent pitching. I say should because in Round 2 he got lit up like a souse at last call. I was happy that the ’45 Cubs made it to my second pick as they have 500+ innings of good pitching, plus good offense as well as defense in Cavaretta, Hack and Pafko. My lineup mostly set, I went pitching with pick 3 and grabbed the best starting pitcher in the division in Roger Wolff, along with several other useful hurlers. OK, so I have the best pitcher and the best hitter in the division, so how will I do? Unfortunately for me it looks like toysboys’ ’44 Cards/’46 Tigers/’44 Red Sox are the class of the division. My team is tough for me to gauge because it’s the rare barracuda3 pitching and defense focused team, but I’m hoping that I can come in second and compete for the wild card. However, this is going to be a tough league so I’m guessing I’ll fall a bit short of that.


League 6 Draft – pick #2
NL East – pick #1
1964 White Sox, 1964 Braves, 1964 Giants
.304/.377/.501; 2.40

I mentioned earlier that I considered taking the 1964 White Sox with my last pick in the Top 20 phase. Well, lucky me, I had the first post-Top 20 pick in their league and was able to grab them here. I took the NL East version because 1962-1964 has more hitting and doesn’t have the 1965 Dodgers. The ’64 Pale Hose pitching needs no introduction; they’re among the best single-season staffs in history. They also include two scintillating infield defenders in SS Ron Hansen and 3B Pete Ward. I was overjoyed that the 1964 Braves made it to my next selection. I needed offense and the Braves have it with Torre at catcher, Menke at second, and Aaron and Carty in the outfield. The 1964 Giants provided a nice balance to that selection with offense from Mays and Cepeda and pitching from Marichal, Perry, and Don Larsen. However, while I like this team, I don’t love it. I thought I would, as I got the teams that I wanted, but for whatever reason it doesn’t look better on paper than jrig21’s ’64 O’s/’63 Giants/’62 Yankees. He scored a coup there in getting the ’62 Yanks with the final pick in the draft. Well done.


League 7 Draft – pick #4
NL East – pick #2
1975 Dodgers, 1975 Red Sox, 1974 Reds
.297/.377/.491; 2.57

I only had one pick in this league, and only three teams had been chosen when my pick came up, so there were three divisions I could’ve chosen where I would’ve had first pick. I instead chose the NL East because I thought that the 1975 Dodgers were clearly the best available team in the league. They have a huge advantage over most teams because they provide more than 1,000 good innings, so you can completely punt pitching with one of your other two selections. So did this gambit pay off? I have no idea, but I’m a bit underwhelmed with the result. The problem, which I should’ve recognized at the time, is that there was really no available offensive team in this division to make this strategy worthwhile. The ’75 Reds were already gone, and I knew that the ’76 Reds would never make it back to me. The best I could hope for was the 1975 Red Sox, who I ended up getting as I knew I would because they have positively zero pitching so the only person who would possibly draft them would be the one with the ’75 Dodgers. And they’re good, but they’re not all that. Lynn is amazing and always does well for me, Fisk is nice albeit for only half a season and is somewhat superfluous on a roster that ended up with Johnny Bench. Carbo and Cooper are fine in limited roles, and that’s about it. Meh. I knew I’d be able to get the ’74 Reds with my last pick because glowguy already had his Reds team. Which reminds me, twice in this round people selected teams with pick 7 that they should have known that they could get with pick 10 because I had picks 8 and 9 and I already had a team from that franchise. With clones prohibited it would be highly unlikely that anyone would double up on a franchise. Anyway, I think I might have the best team in this division, but it’s quite possible that I don’t and I therefore wish I had just manned up and chosen whatever I thought was the best team in one of the other divisions rather than trying to get cute here.


League 8 Draft – pick #3
AL West – pick #1
1997 Braves, 1997 Rockies, 1998 Padres
.307/.382/.524; 2.36

I really didn’t want anything to do with this league. None of the NL teams appealed to me, and all of the AL divisions promised to be really difficult with all of the good Braves teams. It seemed like it would be a disadvantage to pick first in a division the AL. Cockamamie System said that the best pick would be the 1998 Braves in the AL West. I agreed that they were the most talented team available, but I instead chose the 1997 Braves in the same division, using the same reasoning as I used in League 7: choosing a team with 1,000+ usable innings means that you can punt pitching with one of your other teams. Soon after I made my pick I somewhat questioned my decision to go against CS, as ybjsports gobbled up the AL West ’98 Braves two picks after mine, while there were still two divisions that did not yet have a team drafted. But at the end of the day I think I made the right choice. Why? Because, unlike League 7 NL East, this division has a dominant offensive team with no pitching, and that team is the 1997 Rockies. I knew I’d get them because I knew that no one would risk taking a team with zero usable pitching in the first two rounds. The only person crazy enough to do that is me, and I wasn’t drafting against me. Using that unassailable logic I filled my lineup with the monster Larry Walker season and other nuggets such as Galarraga, Castilla, Burks, and Jeff Reed. I paired them up with the ill-fated 1998 Padres (seriously, the poor Padres, the first two times they make it to the World Series they face the ’84 Tigers, who started the season 35-5 and coasted to the championship, and the 114-win ’98 Yankees) who add a great 257 IP Kevin Brown, the dominant Trevor Hoffman season and 50 home run Greg Vaughn to the mix. I may be wrong, but I think I have the best team in this division, and if it ends up that I’m right then this will have been my proudest strategic achievement of this round.


League 9 Draft – pick #5
AL Central – pick #1
2006 Twins, 2008 Dodgers, 2007 Yankees
.315/.389/.512; 2.40

To me the 2006 Twins were a pretty easy first choice in this division. Mauer is a great player at a position with not many of those, Santana is a very good SP, Liriano provides a great 122 IP, there are several excellent relievers including a lights-out Joe Nathan, and Morneau is very good. CS agreed, rating this team a full 3 points above the second-highest team, the 2006 Mets who somehow were not drafted at all here despite having been the fourth pick in the AL East draft.

With my second and third picks I posted the following:
“I decided a while ago what would be the first team I'd take here, but I've been agonizing for the past hour between which should be the second of my two teams. I was all set to take the team that I like less, both because I think they're better and because they would help other people more so it would be good to take them out of circulation. But then I decided that this is a game and games are supposed to be fun, so screw it, I'm taking the team I like better. You're welcome.”

It took me a minute to remember what that was all about. The first pick, the Dodgers, made sense: several great relievers, a good SP in Derek Lowe, an excellent offensive Manny, a dominant 164 PA Furcal and a solid Ethier. But what was the other team I was talking about but didn’t choose? Oh yeah, the 2008 Red Sox. Very good offensive and defensive 2B and 3B in Pedroia and tGGoW (the Greek God of Walks), solid Drew and Bay in the OF, decent relievers in Papelbon and Delcarmen, and aforementioned Manny who would add nothing since I already had him but on whom I would corner the market and therefore prevent everyone else from using. But nobody ended up using him anyway, and I like my team as constructed with the 2007 Yankees. While they include the worst post-rookie Mariano Rivera season and no other pitching other than Chien-Ming Wang who will probably suck but can be skipped in the postseason if I make it that far, they add a monster A-Rod at third base, solid if unspectacular Cano and Jeter up the middle, and one of my favorite hitters in the sim: Jorge Posada at DH and backing up Mauer. I like my chances here.


League 10 Draft – pick #15
NL East – pick #3
2011 Tigers, 2010 Rangers, 2010 Reds
.312/.383/.513; 2.33

This was my lowest draft pick, but I like the way my team turned out. The 2011 Tigers were a very good starting point with an excellent Verlander and a good Fister (tee hee) in the rotation, a few solid relievers, a dominant Miggy at 1B, a good Avila at catcher backed up by DH-C Victor Martinez, and an acceptable offensive and defensive shortstop in Mister Misplaced H himself, Jhonny Peralta. The 2010 Rangers added a very good SP in Cliff Lee, an OK 4^th starter in CJ Wilson, one of the top 5 offensive players in the division in Josh Hamilton, a nice Nelson Cruz and some solid relievers. The 2010 Reds didn’t add a ton except for excellent offensive Votto who will hopefully not kill me defensively in RF in the 100 or so games he starts there, a couple of useful bullpen arms including 103 IP long reliever Travis Wood, and good glove mediocre bat types in Phillips and Rolen at 2B and 3B and Edmonds and Bruce in the OF. A solid, workmanlike effort and a team that I expect will contend for the division title. I have the division pitching staffs virtually even (2.33, 2.33, 2.37 and 2.39 ERC#s for the first 1450 IP of each team) and I’ll take my chances with my team’s offense. While this was my lowest initial draft pick I'd bet that it won't be my worst team.


These drafts were super fun. Thanks as always to thejuice6 for running an excellent tournament.

League 6, Pick 14
AL West, Pick 3
1974 Reds, 1972 Dodgers, 1972 Cubs

This is my second team in league 6 and it had to be an AL team (1968-74). I didn't want to be in the AL East with pedrocerrano's '69 Orioles juggernaut, so I could either pick 4th in the AL Central or 3rd in the AL West. I chose the AL West because I thought the '74 Reds offense would have a huge advantage over the weak hitting teams in this era. This Reds team had seven starting batters that had OPS+ of 106 or higher, which gave me lots of flexibility. In retrospect, I should have taken the '74 Dodgers which had a ton of pitching plus some usable offensive pieces. Not surprisingly, kstober grabbed them at pick 4.

So this is where researching too many teams cost me. After kstober's double pick on the end, it was my turn. I had a bunch of recent drafts where I was picking on the end and drafting two teams in a row, I did the same thing here. I built a team I really liked using the '72 Dodgers and '74 Braves (to add to my '74 Reds). After doing all the research, I was ready to post my two picks - and that's when I realized I wasn't picking at the end. Due to lack of SP options, the '74 Braves were the better choice, given that I had to wait 4 picks before I could select my third team. But I didn't want to hold things up so instead of posted the '72 Dodgers instead. Other than '72 Sutton, this team really isn't that strong. The offense sucks and Tommy John is ok as an SP3 or SP4. THey have a couple of decent RPs. So of course, the 74 Braves get taken and now I'm scrambling.

At this point, I know this team is going to suck at starting pitching. I decide to roster '74 Don Gullett from my Reds team. I still need another 400-500 innings. Oh, and I need a 3B and some OFs. When I know my team is going to suck anyway, let's go with offense. Losing 10-8 is way more fun than losing 2-0 all the time. Welcome to the team Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Jose Cardenal, Fergie Jenkins, Bill Hands and Rick Reuschel.

Prediction: 73-89
Even had I taken the '74 Braves in round 2 and had a better starting pitching staff, I'm not sure what team I would've taken in round 3 (assuming '72 Dodgers were off the board). Maybe this team was doomed from the start. I absolutely should have taken the '74 Dodgers first and locked up the pitching. Anyway, this team should be above average offensively, but is going to be a bottom 10 pitching staff. Once again, a reminder for myself that it's ok if a few of my teams suck and don't advance to round 4.

League 10, Pick 2
NL West, Pick 1
2015 Dodgers/2015 Blue Jays/2014 Angels

With just one Top 20 pick, it wasn't going to pay off for me to do some complex research to determine the best place to grab a team. I had to go with some instinct and hope for the best. I picked 8th in the draft and only barracuda had taken a team in League 10 by then and in the other league. Seemed like I couldn't go wrong grabbing what I feel is as good a 1-2 starting pitching combination in the sim. Sure it would be great if Kershaw and Greinke combined for a lot more than the 500 innings I can get from them, but those are 500 darn good innings. And no one else can have them, so that's nice, too.

Do the 2015 Dodgers have much more that's appealing? Meh. Jansen is a bit HR-prone but still a strong RP. A-Gon is solid if unspectacular at 1B. There's a great 113 PA from Corey Seager (very helpful, since my other SS has just 534), a couple tolerable catchers, and a few role players who can fit various needs. But this team is going to need 3 more SP and a lot of lineup help. By the time it finally came back to me, almost all the teams I targeted were gone. The 15 Blue Jays, however, were a fine fit for me. In addition to rotation pieces David Price and Marco Estrada and a couple solid bullpen arms, I can pack my lineup with Joey Bats, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, and my man-crush Troy Tulowitzki (you can go find the WISC post I did a couple years ago where I drafted him on several teams for more on that silliness). I still needed a good catcher, 2B, and CF, and that's not the easiest combination to find. I settled for half a catcher, a tolerable 2B, and Mike Trout. Oh, and also a nice 168 IP from Garrett Richards and a couple more strong bullpen pieces in Street and Smith (like the old annual preview, what a nice touch!). It will have to be enough.

What does it all add up to? I like the rotation, of course, and I think the pen is deep and solid. We've got a good defense and a handful of strong bats. The bottom half of the lineup isn't impressive, I don't have a single .300 hitter starting, and the only decent speed comes from Trout. Oh, and my four best hitters are all righties. So, I don't exactly emerge with confidence here. I'd like to think Kershaw-Greinke buys me enough quality starts to survive being maybe a .500 team the rest of the time. I guess we'll find out soon.

Final thoughts:
So there you go. Nine teams, only missing out on League 3. Most of them look pretty good to me as I type these up, and I hope to advance at least 6 of them. Overall, though, I expect that the quality of ownership and the way the draft setup doesn't overly favor teams drafting first will add up to a lot of very competitive races. A 90-loss team or two is certainly not out of the question. Nor do I expect to get to 4 WS again this round. Heck, getting 4 teams into the playoffs might be an achievement. Good luck, everyone!

League 2, Pick 16
NL West, Pick 4
1918 Cubs, 1918 Senators, 1920 Cardinals

I really messed up this team. This was my third team in League 2 and I really didn't want a second team in the pitching-thin AL and I already had a team in the NL East, so my only two choices was to take the 3rd pick in the NL Central (1916-18) or the last pick in the NL West (1918-20). I have no idea why I chose to be in the same league as pedrocerrano, but I decided to play in the NL West so I could make two picks in a row. It was very late on a Tuesday night (past midnight). I spent over an hour trying to figure out which two teams to select with my double pick. I was tired and just wanted to get this pick over with... so without regard to considering what might be available with my third round pick and what positions I would need, I knee-jerked picked two of the top teams in my rankings for this league. mainly due to a couple of stud SPs.

The 1918 Cubs have strong pitching led by Hippo Vaughn and Lefty Tyler plus a couple of short-inning pitchers that are good. The hitting is pretty weak (Merkle, Hollocher, Paskert, O'Farrell). I also wanted a stud Walter Johnson, so I went 1918 Senators. Just like the Cubs, the offense is pretty blah... (Eddie Foster, Clyde Milan, Frank Schulte). Surely, there will be an all-offense-no-pitching team I can draft in round three.

Well, round 3 came and there wasn't really a team that would fill all the gaping holes in my offense, especially at 2B. Since I wasn't holding up the draft, I didn't immediately make this pick, because there just wasn't any obvious pick and I wanted more time to consider my options. I basically waited until all my other drafts were done. I finally settled on the 1920 Cardinals. '20 Hornsby is far my best hitter. Jack Fournier is my next best hitter (.808 ops).

Prediction: 71-91
Remember when I said it's more fun to lose games 10-8 than 2-0. Well, this team definitely falls into the second category. I should have taken the '20 White Sox to go along with the '18 Cubs. I could have gotten a Walter Johnson in round 3. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Not surprisingly, pedrocerrano has an awesome roster with '20 Indians, '20 White Sox and '19 Pirates. He should win 95+ games.

League 3, Pick 16
NL Central, Pick 3
1930 Robins, 1928 Senators, 1929 Athletics

Picking late in a league that has very little pitching is always tough. My first team in league 3 went pitching heavy with '34 Yankees and '32 Reds. This team is following the same formula. My rankings had the '30 Brooklyn Dodgers as the best pitching in this division so that was my pick. I chose the NL Central in order to avoid barracuda's 27 Yankees. Dazzy Vance, Watty Clark and Sloppy Thurston give me almost 600 innings of above average pitching. The position players from this Robins team are better defensively than offensively, but still worth starting (1B Bissonette, SS G.Wright, OF B.Herman, OF Frederick).

With my second pick, I really wanted one of the Philadelphia Athletics teams ('28 or '29) and almost grabbed one here. The '28 A's have a much better version of Lefty Grove, but the '29 team has the better offense. Since d_rock97 already has his A's team, I realized that could wait until round 3 and take whichever A's team glowguy doesn't take. (It was mentioned earlier that many folks that picked 2nd didn't realize they could wait till the third round if the #1 pick was the same franchise). Instead, I grab the best pitching available, the '28 Senators with Garland Braxton, Firpo Marberry, Sam Jones and Bobby Burke. Goose Gosling and Ossie Bluege are the only hitters worth mentioning.

glowguy took the '28 Senators, so I was fine taking the '29 Senators. Jimmie Foxx (1.088 ops), Mickey Cochrane (.887 ops), Max Bishop (.398 obp), Jimmie D*kes (.951 ops) and Al Simmons (1.040 ops) will represent 5/9ths of my starting lineup. Lefty Grove is ok, not great.

Prediction: 86-76
Braxton and Vance are ranked 1st, 3rd and among 1928-30 starting pitchers. Clark, Grove and Jones are in the top 20. So I feel that my pitching is among the best in the division. Although there is no Ruth on the team, I have some really good hitters (Max Bishop is the only hitter below .890 ops). The defense is about average. This team is good enough to lose to barracuda's '27 Yankees in the first round of the playoffs.

LG 1 – 1914 Whales / 1913 Athletics / 1914 Phillies
Pick 1 - I love the Whales pitching staff. It’s practically a complete pitching staff already. Claude Hendrix is a legit ace. He may not be as dominant as 1914 Joe Wood, but he’s got a 100 innings over him. The other 4 starters, Lange, Fisk and Watson will likely be league average – which is not a bad thing as it allows me to upgrade with a later pick or focus on offense for picks 2 and 3. I also get a good OF and one of the best C of the era.
Pick 2 –I was not missing out on the other offensive juggernaut of Collins and Baker. There were other OFs and SS that I could get from a Tigers or Phillies team with pick #3, so I could wait for either of those. They also gave me three pitchers for my bullpen.
Pick 3 – It was between the 1914 Tigers and 1914 Phillies. Phillies had a better offense in Cravath, Becker and Magee. The Tigers had better pitching, but they didn’t have any pitchers that I would have used anyways, so Phillies it was.
This is a good team in my opinion. My hitting is solid 1-9. My only weakness is offense at 1B (110+ OPS), but I got a couple of guys there who can duke it out to see who can win the job. My defense is a bit problematic mostly C’s and D’s. At least this is 1914 and not 1894. I think I’ll do well in my division, not sure how I’ll do against the rest of the league.
Prediction – 88 wins

LG 2 – 1914 Whales / 1914 Phillies / 1914 Athletics
Pick 1 – see above
Pick 2 – see above
Pick 3 – see above
I actually drafted this team first so my league 1 team is a copy of this team. The difference is 1914 vs the 1913 A’s. I got a weaker 1B, The pitchers are worse too. They are slightly better defensively. They’re still pretty good.
Prediction – 86 wins

LG 2 – 1925 Reds / 1925 Cardinals / 1925 Pirates
Pick 1 – the pitching of course. Donohue, Rixey and Luque give me 3 aces. This was a no-brainer. Roush is OK and is an average starting OF for me.
Pick 2 & 3 – back to back – These two teams fit well together. I got most of my offense here including a $12M Hornsby. Sure, I looked at the other Hornsby, but it was a question of quality vs quantity and this Hornsby was not as good defensively, but about equal offensively and the 25 Cards had better versions of Ray Blades and Jim Bottomley. I also got my platoon C in Mike Gonzalez is weak offensively but at least has an A arm which is still important for this era. The Pirates pick gave me an excellent Max Carey, Kiki Cuyler and at least average SS Glenn Wright, 3B Pie Traynor and C Earl Wilson which were needs. I got a 4^th starter in Lee Meadows, but he’s below average and will get pounded.
This team features strong starting pitching and a strong lineup. My bullpen and my 4^th starter are weak and my defense at 2B is bad with Hornsby’s D+/C-.
Prediction – 86 wins

LG 3 – 1934 Yankees / 1936 Pirates / 1934 Tigers
Pick 1 – No choice had 2 true aces, so I took one ace and one average starter (Gomez, Ruffing). But it also came with Lou Gehrig and an old but still productive Babe Ruth.
Pick 2 – I was hoping the 1935 Pirates would fall to me, but Nordawg took them. I thought about taking them with my first pick, but I only really liked a few players and the rest would be scrubs. The 1936 version still gave me the OF, SS and 2^nd starter that I wanted (Waner, Vaughn, Blanton). I knew I could get everything else I wanted from the 34 or 35 Tigers squad and they were so similar that even if Darthdurron took one, I could take the other. Now that I have the Waner brothers, I can now say “Waner, Waner chicken daner”.
Pick 3 – Darth took the 35 squad so the decision had already been made for me. The 34 Tigers gave me the DH, 3^rd and 4^th starters (Greenberg, Bridges, Rowe), C, 2B and 3B that I needed (Cochrane, Gehringer and Owen).
Top heavy lineup. Average pitching. Defense is average.
Prediction – 84 wins

LG 4 – 1940 Reds / 1940 Yankees / 1938 Red Sox
Pick 1 – Got 2 aces and one average starter in Bucky Walters, Paul Derringer and Jim Turner. I got a league average 1B, 3B and C in McCormick, Werber and Lombardi.
Pick 2 – I needed an outfield and I wanted the other Joe D. Got a lot of position players here: CF, LF, RF, 2B in Dimaggio, Henrich, Keller, and Gordon. And a surprisingly good bullpen as well. Also, got my 4^th starter in Russo.
Pick 3 – picked them because I needed a SS, and Joe Cronin was the best available. But it also came with DH Jimmie Foxx. However, that’s it. The others are 5 bench players and a Long A. In retrospect, I should have grabbed the 1935 Giants which chisock grabbed with the next pick. He got a SS, Mel Ott, and 2 useful pitchers.
So that’s two aces, and two average pitchers. I have a good offense and an average defense. There are three good relievers. It’s at least an average team but if I had picked that Giants team it would have been better.
Prediction – 85 wins

Lg 4 – 1944 STL / 1946 DET / 1944 BOS
Pick 1 – I got three good starters (though no aces) in Wilks, Cooper and Lanier. Red Munger is a good setup A. Also got a good CF, LF, C, 3B and SS in Hopp, Musial, Cooper, Kurkowski and Marion. There are no backups on this team. This was an easy pick as I noticed schwarze took them first too.
Pick 2 – The Tigers compliment my first pick with a true ace, a good Long A, DH, 1B and 3B (Newhouser, Trout, Cullenbine, Greenberg and Kell) that can platoon and compete for the job.
Pick 3 – I really like Bob Johnson as my RF and I needed a 2B, which I got Doerr. I did get a 2^nd ace in Tex Hughson. But the rest are scrubs. No regrets here, but this was the best choice available.
A good team all-around. Good hitting, good fielding, good starters, good relievers.
Prediction – 88 wins

LG 5 – 1956 Dodgers / 1958 Braves / 1958 Yankees
Pick 1 – I screwed this one up. I saw Sal Maglie’s combined and partial seasons and thought they were 2 different players. If they were two different players, then this would be a solid 1^st pick. But they aren’t so the best pick was the one that pedrocerrano got: the 1956 Yankees. Also, I think I overrate defense so this teams has lots of good defensive players at 1B, 2B, and 3B but are weak on offense (110-119 OPS+). I ended up getting one ace and one average starter when I thought there was an ace and 2 average starters.
Pick 2 – After realizing my blunder, I needed more pitching. So, I grabbed a #2 SP, 2 long relievers, a closer and a setup. I also got my RF and a platoon DH (Spahn, Rush, Burdette, Robinson, Willey, Aaron and Covington). This was a clear quantity, not quality pick, but I needed to make it.
Pick 3 – This pick nicely filled my holes at SP, C, LF and setup (Ford, Berra/Howard, Mantle and Duren). I was looking for an upgrade at SS over a weak Pee Wee Reese, but I couldn’t find one without sacrificing something else.
Not a bad offense, but there are holes. Defense is solid. Pitching is good, not great.
Prediction – 84 wins

LG 5 – 1956 Indians / 1955 Dodgers / 1954 White Sox
Pick 1 – I wasn’t making the same mistake with the 56 Dodgers, even though they were available and the 56 Yanks were not available as they were taken by schwarze. The 56 Indians however did have an awesome pitching staff in Wynn, Lemon, Score and Maglie (this guy will haunt my dreams). Also got a good closer in Narleski. Unfortunately, the only usable players on the offensive side will be a mediocre DH platoon of Wertz/Colavito.
Pick 2 – I needed offense and this was the best all-around choice. I did think hard about that 55 Braves squad that schwarze took to get that infield, but it didn’t offer much outside of those three guys. My pick netted me Snider, Campanella, Hodges, Furillo, Reese and Robinson.
Pick 3 – I almost took this squad with my #2 pick, so I was elated they were still here. They also fit nicely with my existing team. I got my #4 starter, LF, 2B, 3 solid RPs, 3B platoon and a SS upgrade ( Trucks, Minoso, Fox, Martin, Consuegra, Dorish, Michaels and Carrasquel.
Good defense, average offensively, good starting pitching, average relievers.
Prediction – 86 wins