This is my favorite part of the juice's tournaments. No games have been played yet. No crushing 4-run blown 9th inning leads. No 10-game losing streak where 8 of those losses were by 1-run. There's still hope that your teams may actually be good. We've all built our rosters, and now it's time to see if they are any good.

Here's where we can talk about our draft strategy... what worked... what went wrong. And why in the hell did I draft this team so early?

My general strategy.

For round 4, I did very little pre-draft research. Piggy-backing off of the team-by-team position-by-position work I did in round 3, I simply modified my previous spreadsheet to account for the differences in the league alignment. I didn't try to compare which "years grouping" was more important or anything like that. Maybe if I only had a few teams, I might have done that extra work, but there's just not enough time to do that for all 16 franchises.

Not having any "Top 14" picks actually made life easier, since I didn't have to try and figure out which league I want to be drafting in. However the chips fell in terms of when I was drafting, I would figure it out on the fly.

Generally speaking, I wanted my first round pick to have 4 or 5 usable players preferably with a couple of studs, but it didn't matter what the hitter pitcher split was. Of course, my bias toward starting pitcher mostly drove who my first pick would be, with a few exceptions. After the first round, it became a giant puzzle, trying to find a team that filled the most open holes, while at the same time balancing the decision of quantity vs quality. Is it better to get a round 2 team with one stud and one good player and nothing else vs a team with four decent (but not great) players. You will see which way I leaned when you read my writeups.

Another consideration for me that doesn't apply to many others, is that I have two teams in each league (3 in one league) so I knew I was going to have to play both franchise in a league, so sometimes, my choice of which franchise to pick first was influenced by that. For example, I'd much rather play the Cardinals over the Tigers, but I though the Tigers were less talented and used my earlier pick on them and my later pick on the Cardinals.

The $125 million salary didn't affect me too much, other than the fact, I mostly avoided the ultra-expensive guys (i.e., 27 Yankees), at least in the early rounds... until I could see how my team salary was trending.

And finally, when there wasn't an obvious team to select with my first pick in a league, I would let the division alignment dictate my choice. With pick #5, I certainly didn't want to be the fourth team in a division, and would automatically choose the other franchise.

League 7, Pick #4 (1st pick in the Twins draft, 2nd pick in AL)
Division: AL East
Twins / Senators: 2006, 1945, 1970, 1919, 1931, 1986

The first three picks in league 7 were the '75 Reds, '06 Browns, '15 Phillies. I certainly didn't want to be in a division with '15 Pete Alexander, so I was taking an A.L. team here. I felt the Twins/Senators had more talent than Orioles/Browns mainly due to Walter Johnson. The Orioles just don't have a pitcher that good. I feel like the Twins/Senators teams will be cumulatively better than the Browns/Orioles.

There are so many good Walter Johnson seasons that I knew that I was going to wait until the end of the draft and still get a good one. I think the obvious choice here is the 2006 Twins, mainly because of the scarcity of having a great hitting catcher (Joe Mauer .347/..429.,507). Add in Justin Morneau (.321/.375/.559), Johan Santana (1.00 whip), Francisco Liriano (1.00) and Joe Nathan (0.79), and that's a solid start.

It turns out 7 Senators teams were taken (only 5 Browns teams), so others thought the same thing I did. Three Walter Johnson seasons were taken before my next pick, which is great. That allowed 1945 Senators with Roger Wolff (1.01) and Dutch Leonard (1.13) to fall to me. Excluding all the Walter Johnsons, that gives me two of the top five starting pitchers in the franchise's history and three of the top eleven. The other two players include a mediocre long reliever and a part time outfielder / pinch hitter

But now I need some offense. The Senators/Twins history does not have a lot of great offensive players. I chose 1970 Twins because I wanted a good Harmon Killebrew (.271/.411/.546) and a good Tony Oliva (.325/.364/.514). But this team also gave me my starting 2B, Cesar Tovar (.300/.356/.442 with A+ range). I would've been fine with three starting batters, but I got a bonus with 156 innings of Tom Hall (1.03). This was a key pick for me. I really like how this team has come together. I've filled so many spots, that I don't need a lot with my last three picks, which is good b/c there isn't a lot left.

I still need a starting SS, two starting OFs and whatever bullpen help I can get. The easiest way to get offense is in the 1923-42 group, but five of the seven best seasons have already been selected. I need to get one. I chose 1931 Senators because they filled the SS and OF roles with Joe Cronin (.306/.391/.480) and Sam West (.333/.369/.481 w/A+ range). I also get a nice pinch hitter with a .940 ops and a few ABs at backup catcher.

For my other pick on the round 4-5 turn, I decide to take the best Walter Johnson available. I don't really need much else, so there's no reason to wait, so I grab 1919 Senators to add Walter Johnson's 336 innings of 0.99 whip. I penciled in a 1919 Sam Rice (OF), but eventually upgraded with my next pick.

With the last pick, I decided on the 1986 Twins in order to get the best Kirby Puckett (.328/.366/.537) available and also added Gary Gaetti (.287/.347/.518) more for his defense (B/B+) since Killebrew is a pretty bad fielder.

Outlook: I won't be making exact W-L projections this round, but I do like how this team turned out. I haven't really analyzed the other teams, but I have to think this pitching staff will be ranked among the best in the league. The fielding is solid (except at 3B) and the bullpen has three decent guys. I do think this team is good enough to contend for a playoff spot.

The $125 million salary didn't affect me too much, other than the fact, I mostly avoided the ultra-expensive guys (i.e., 27 Yankees), at least in the early rounds... until I could see how my team salary was trending

I drafted the 27 Yankees. Both Ruth and Gehrig are on my roster. It was not as much trouble as I thought it might be.

League 7, Pick #10 (3rd pick in the Reds draft, 7th pick in the NL)
Division: NL Central
Reds: 1976, 1944, 2014, 1924, 1991, 1920

I mentioned that I tend to draft teams with good starting pitchers early. This is the exception. I really debated between '76 and '77 Reds. I have to admit that my success with the 1976 Reds in round 3 may have influenced this pick. Through the first nine picks of this league, four Phillies teams and two Reds teams have been selected, including the 1975 Reds (pick #1) and the 1923 Reds (pick #7 by barracuda3). I avoided the division with '15 Pete Alexander, but sadly I am in the same division as barracuda3, so my best hope is as a wildcard team. I like the '23 Reds, but I also like the '24 and '25 Reds so I am going to gamble one of these teams comes back to me in round 2. So I went all offense with this pick. I have maybe five starting batters with Joe Morgan (.320/.444/.576), George Foster (.306/.364/.530), Pete Rose (.323/.404/.450), Ken Griffey Sr. (.336/.401/.450) and Devin Mpossibly Dave Concepcion.

Seven of the twelve NL teams are Reds teams, and through eleven Reds teams selected, surprisingly both 1924 and 1925 are still left. Since barracuda3 already has 1923, I can wait another round to decide. I was looking at 1991 (with Rijo and Larkin), but decided on 1944 Reds due to having 500+ innings with two solid SPs... Ed Heusser (1.08) and Bucky Walters (1.12). Also, Frank McCormick .305/.371/.424, A+) can start at 1B.

Well, it's now round round and both 1925 and 1924 are still available. Only two behind me can take a team in this group. Should I gamble? I decide to gamble, mainly because I got those two 1944 SPs and am grabbing a SP with this pick. I take 2014 Reds, which gives me Johnny Cueto (0.96) plust two solid RPs... Aroldis Chapman (0.83) and Jonathan Broxton (1.02). And, believe or it or not, I needed their catcher... Devin Mesoraco (.534 slug) as I somehow didn't get a good Johnny Bench. Now I have to sweat it out.

Bill_James47 grabs 1925 Reds two picks later. Big_dowg tries to take 1923, but he already has 1940, so I have to sweat spinaldog's 4th round pick, but he takes 2022, so 1924 Reds are now mine. I love me some Eppa Rixey (1.12) and Pedro Dibut (0.98). I also get my catcher platoon with Bubbles Hargrave (.301/.370/.,455) plus a part-time player/pinch hitter Rube Bressler (.347/.389/.483). My team is really coming together.

It's now the fifth round and how are the 1991 Reds still on the board? I really don't need him, but I can't pass up Jose Rijo (1.08) and Barry Larkin (.302/.378/.506) is a big upgrade over Concepcion (who I'm keeping due to low PA for Larkin). Rob Dibble (1.12) gives me bullpen depth and Hal Morris (.318/.374/.479) can pinch hit.

All I need for my team is an OF and backup 2B (due to low PA for Joe Morgan) plus some pitching depth. I really wanted to add '05 Cy Seymour, and when kstober first posted his pick (1918), I thought I was getting him. But then I realized 1918 was already taken, so his re-pick of 1905 crushed my dreams. But that's ok, because 1920 Reds provided me my starting OF and backup 2B with one player... one of my favorites, Edd Roush (.339/.386/.453, A+++ at 2B). And amazingly, I am able to add pitching depth with Dolf Luque (1.10) and Buddy Napier (1.10).

Outlook: Should I be worried that I really like this team? I have so much pitching that I almost regret the 1944 pick. I have six 200+ SPs that I like, plus some solid RPs. The offense seems strong and the defense should be above average. I would be disappointed if this team doesn't make the playoffs.

I'll try to get a few of these done, too, because I always enjoy writing and reading them.

I also had none of the top 14 picks, but what I did have were a bunch of No. 8 picks. My 6 picks were Nos. 9, 8, 6, 8, 24, and 8. And lemme tell you, none of those picks at that spot felt like any kind of reward for a solid season in Round 3. Becoming the 4th team in a division loaded with champions feels more like a punishment, That said, the team I started out drafting 24th feels like my worst. So maybe there's no great spot here. But if there is, it sure ain't 8th!

I also didn't prepare much in advance. I scoped out the groupings for the most obvious first picks based on dominant SP, unusual scarcity where a grouping had only a couple really good teams, and a look at which years offered at least 2-3 potential starting hitters. I only had one team in each of my leagues, so from then I just started narrowing down my focus to where I still had my biggest needs and looking a lot at which owners still needed each grouping as we got to the later rounds.

For the most part, the players I expected to wind up as starters from my first couple picks in each draft did stay there, but even as late as my final roster tweaks on a couple of them I found myself rethinking some roles. Salary was basically never an issue with any team. If anything, I was padding some innings and PA at the end because I could.

I don't have a great sense of how my teams compare to my loaded division mates, but I'm hardly optimistic. I'll be really curious to see how many of the teams in the NL Easts go on to advance, and whether drafting in the middle of the pack or even late turned out to give you a better chance. My goal is to move at least 3 of my 6 squads to the next round just to stay in the hunt. With this level of competition, I think that's possibly going to be tough.

League 7, Pick #8 (2nd pick in the Twins draft, 3rd pick in the AL)
Division: AL East
Senators/Twins: 2004, 1988, 1918, 1932, 1946, 1975

This 8th pick offered a choice of being the 3rd team in the AL East with the option of being the 2nd owner of either franchise, or joining barracuda3 in the NL Central with the 3rd Reds or 4th Phillies team. I decided I liked the AL options better and saw the Twins/Senators as a deeper group than the Browns/O's. But what is extremely annoying is when you take the 2nd one this early you have no idea whether you'll wind up in a draft with 3-4 other owners or maybe even 7 or 8. What if a bunch of people preferred the Twins? It could have been a disaster.

I gravitated to the best SP seasons and decided to grab 2004 Twins for Johan Santana and a group of great relievers (headed by Nathan and Rincon). I am, however, fairly certain I misread Joe Mauer's PA for that season and thought I was getting a .900+ OPS starting catcher. Only much later did I discover he only had 122 PA, and I now have a ridiculous 4-man platoon behind the plate. So, I got no starting hitters at all with this pick. Not ideal.

After waiting out the stress of seeing if we'd wind up with 8 Twins teams or only 7, it finally came back to me. I really wanted 1930 for a strong offensive group, but SteveIzzy grabbed them a few picks ahead of me. The 83-02 group felt like it had a standout offensive group in 1988 Twins, with an awesome Kirby Puckett and very usable starters in Hrbek and Gaetti. Frank Viola would make a decent 4th starter, I figured. It's no 1930, though.

At the turn, I went for 1918 Senators to get 413 innings of Walter Johnson even though there were a couple other seasons of his I could have lived with. I was just pretty sure my rotation would drop off badly after WJ and Santana, so might as well go big. There was no hitting worth mentioning on this team, but surprisingly for the era they offered 3 other usable pitchers. Harry Harper won't use many of his 309 innings, but he'll make a fine long man.

For the next two picks, I could strategize around schwarze's remaining needs and first take a team from a group he still needed. That led me to 1932 Senators with solid starters in Joe Cronin and Heinie Manush, the best offense I could still get from that group.

Coming back around, I knew only one other owner still needed a 1963-82 team, but almost everyone needed 1943-62. This was the juncture where I had to decide if I wanted to use that last pick on a Carew at 2B and fill my outfield spots now, or set myself up for one of the mid-60s teams for an Oliva-Battey combination instead. Yeah, this was when I realized I had no better bulk catching option than Tim Laudner and chose to just punt the catchers and fill the rest of the lineup as well as possible. Enter 1946 Senators, with a .357 hitter in Mickey Vernon (displacing Hrbek) and a very solid Stan Spence to join Puckett and Manush in the OF.

Since drock left me '75 Carew and not really having left myself anywhere near as good an option at 2B, I went for 1975 Twins at the end. This also brought along a useful Bert Blyleven as a 3rd starter, plus one of my three solid catchers with under 200 PA in Phil Roof.

Considering this team came from a group of only 7 owners and not 12, I'd expect it to have fewer holes. The top four hitters are all great AVG guys, but it tails off after that with Gaetti, who won't do much against the deadball pitchers and isn't even great with the glove. And as noted, I'll be running some iffy catchers out there about half the time. I'm not exactly confident that Blyleven and Viola are good enough at the back of the rotation either. This just feels like I missed some opportunities to make better picks and with a loaded division will be lucky to get to .500.

League 6, Pick #24 (12th pick in the Braves draft)
Division: NL West
Braves 1993, 2022, 1947, 1964, 1912, 1930

Let's just get this mess out of the way before bed ... On the one hand, having no choice about my team and division was slightly liberating in that I could ignore the Red Sox entirely. Plus, getting a pair of picks at the start isn't the worst thing. But, you know, there's probably a reason why drafting last isn't great.

For my first two squads I grabbed 1993 and 2022 to try to get as much pitching as possible. The two earliest time periods were fairly barren, and most owners avoided them early. The middle years had enough offensive potential to feel less urgent. From 1993, I get something like the 14th-best Greg Maddux season, a Steve Avery I really hope doesn't have to pitch a lot of innings but unfortunately will, a solid Fred McGriff, and a top RP in Greg McMichael. From 2022, I grab 4 pitchers (it was almost 5), though I still don't know how to use Spencer Strider since I have no natural tandem option to pair him with. But at least I've got 7 pitchers now and should still be able to find an offense later.

The next time around, I again decided to leave the earliest groups and load up the lineup. It is kind of nice to be able to pick two teams at once in that situation, because you can pair the seasons that complement each other the best. In this case, it was 1947 and 1964. From 1947, I got a surprisingly still available 305-inning Warren Spahn (notably the ace of my 80M BINGO team in the WISC that's about to start, which means he's probably not going to be great in a 125M league ... but someone has to pitch these innings). Plus a strong 3B season that's not Chipper or Eddie Mathews: one Bob Elliott with a .917 OPS#. From 1964, I've got that Aaron guy, a solid catcher in Joe Torre, and Denis Menke, a decent enough hitter who can slot in at 2B or SS. This is a helpful option to have, because I can't imagine much will be left by my last two picks.

The suspense for the last pick hinged on whether 1912 fell to me, because A++ range 2B Bill Sweeney was far and away my best option there. Thankfully, it did. That left one final tough choice of how to configure my outfield. At this point, I finally noticed how extremely right-handed my lineup was already, and the best remaining hitter for me was one of two Wally Berger seasons. He's also a righty, alas. And so was Sweeney. I'm still not sure how this will all play out, but I decided to keep 2022 Michael Harris as a lefty OF option with a good glove and speed along with an iron-glove and yet another righty bat in Rico Carty. I went with 1930 Braves over 1935 for more offense from Berger though a lesser glove, and I hope that doesn't cause me grief later.

I can't really see this team being competitive, but I'm hopeful that all of us in the West were similarly handicapped by our draft position and somehow I don't lose the 90 games I expect to lose. The defense is mediocre, the unbalanced lineup doesn't hit for much average, and we're short on speed. If Maddux and Spahn somehow pitch well, we might do better than expected. I'm not holding my breath.

Posted by toysboys on 6/9/2023 8:39:00 PM (view original):

The $125 million salary didn't affect me too much, other than the fact, I mostly avoided the ultra-expensive guys (i.e., 27 Yankees), at least in the early rounds... until I could see how my team salary was trending

I drafted the 27 Yankees. Both Ruth and Gehrig are on my roster. It was not as much trouble as I thought it might be.

I have no idea if I'll have time to do any extended writeup, but the one thing that I knew going into this draft was that the cap would only matter in terms of filling out your bench. My gut feeling was that the only team in history that the cap would affect would be the '27 Yankees. However, I created a modified version of my cockamamie system that I used for round 3, and used that to create automated rankings for each team in each group. As an experiment, I assumed the '27 Yankees as a first pick and then randomly chose the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th best team from other groups and looked at the resulting team. It came in just under the cap and looked pretty good. In fact, while I don't think I saved the result of that experiment, it almost certainly ended up being better than the festering pile of crap my actual Yankees team ended up being.

I drafted both '04 Bonds and '22 Hornsby for my Giants & Cardinals teams, respectively. I definitely had to make some concessions in order to get under the cap. Will go more into detail on those writeups.

Posted by barracuda3 on 6/10/2023 11:04:00 AM (view original):

Posted by toysboys on 6/9/2023 8:39:00 PM (view original):

The $125 million salary didn't affect me too much, other than the fact, I mostly avoided the ultra-expensive guys (i.e., 27 Yankees), at least in the early rounds... until I could see how my team salary was trending

I drafted the 27 Yankees. Both Ruth and Gehrig are on my roster. It was not as much trouble as I thought it might be.

I have no idea if I'll have time to do any extended writeup, but the one thing that I knew going into this draft was that the cap would only matter in terms of filling out your bench. My gut feeling was that the only team in history that the cap would affect would be the '27 Yankees. However, I created a modified version of my cockamamie system that I used for round 3, and used that to create automated rankings for each team in each group. As an experiment, I assumed the '27 Yankees as a first pick and then randomly chose the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th best team from other groups and looked at the resulting team. It came in just under the cap and looked pretty good. In fact, while I don't think I saved the result of that experiment, it almost certainly ended up being better than the festering pile of crap my actual Yankees team ended up being.

I'm gonna say that my 27 Yankees team is my best squad. And I'm in every draft except the Braves. I did have to make a cut from Jeter to Rizzuto but it's relatively minor. But my Yankees squad is actually cap appropriate. Off hand it's around 5600 PA and 1450 innings and right up to the cap.

League 5, Pick #8 (4th pick in the AL)
Division: AL East
Naps/Indians 2017, 1974, 1950, 1907, 1998, 1925

Oh hey look, another #8 pick. So this time my choice was to start a Pirates division or plop myself into the AL East shark tank. I don't know exactly why I gave the Pirates little consideration, but my quick research left me feeling there was much better depth in Cleveland. Ask me again when I'm 10 games under .500.

I knew I would need to build a pitching staff out of several groups here and felt confident the 1903-22 group had enough depth to leave until later. The 43-62 group had a lot of strong hitting options, and the 83-02 group also had a lot of offense. It was going to be a long wait until my second pick (6 days, as it turned out, though I meant it more in terms of watching good teams get taken), so I wanted to get at least one of the best franchise pitching seasons and some other pieces I knew would be valuable. I landed on 2017 (barely over 2020) to get a great Corey Kluber and Andrew Miller along with strong offense in switch-hitters Jose Ramirez (for either 2B or 3B, a nice flex if needed) and Francisco Lindor.

When it came back to me, I knew that two of the three teams who had double picks coming before my next one had already taken 1903-22. That took that group off the table for now. I decided to mine the generally weak 63-82 group and take one of the big Gaylord Perry seasons from 72 or 74. He's pretty close to the same guy in each of them, though slightly better in 72. I opted for 1974, however, because there were at least a few useful secondary players. In looking at my final roster, though, I would have been fine with the 72 because all I really got from this team was a PH in Rico Carty and the righty half of a catching combo. If Perry doesn't deliver, I'll be over here in the corner beating myself up.

I was originally planning on grabbing one of the early seasons on the turn, but after a couple of the best 50s teams went I decided to jump on that group and start building a deeper offense now. I went with 1950 for a very strong Larry Doby and a solid Al Rosen (shifting Ramirez to 2B now), along with other usable pieces if needed. Half an offense and still only half a rotation felt a little light for this stage of the draft, but I was counting on the depth of the franchise to pull it together as I knew I'd get some big 90s-era bats and Depression-era pitching help still.

When it got back to me, I first had to decide between the 83-02 or 1903-22 groups, both of which had one owner drafting after me to contend with. I opted to get 361 innings of Addie Joss from 1907 locked down first, feeling pretty good about the various offensive combos I'd have left in the other group. There was a bonus of a useful bullpen piece in someone named Heinie Berger, who absolutely never got teased once for that name. I later found a helpful enough Nap Lajoie with A+ range at 1B and 2B and impressive normalization of some rather dull offensive numbers, too.

Now it was time to pick my Manny and friends. By this point, the options had whittled to 1998 or 2000, both of which had advantages. The 98 group offered a .945 OPS# Manny in addition to a .966 Jim Thome to fill a hole at 1B. I had missed out on any of the decent Sandy Alomar seasons, so I still couldn't improve my catching options. The 2000 Manny is a much better hitter (1.115 OPS#) with just 532 PA and also came with a useful David Justice for the OF. I knew I could get one starting OF from my final 25-42 pick with a handful of strong seasons from the likes of Averill-Heath-Vosmik awaiting me there, so I was better off taking 1998 with a strong Thome and a good enough Manny along with rather importantly Steve Karsay and Mike Jackson to fill out the bullpen.

After football took 1938, there was no one else ahead of me for the 23-42 group and I had to start testing all the permutations with the various good OF seasons and looking for where I still had holes. I had my eyes on an Earl Averill or Jeff Heath from '41 but then went back and saw that 1925 with a 1.000+ OPS Tris Speaker was still on the board. I wish he had more than 545 PA, but I'll take that atop the lineup. I also found the lefty half of my catching combo in a just OK Glenn Myatt and also the temptation of a Joe Sewell season that has me tossing it up at SS between him and Lindor. I was able to roster both easily enough under the cap, so I might play Sewell against deadballers and Lindor against pitchers who give up homers.

It feels surprising to look at my likely lineup and see I might have 3 regular starters off my last team drafted, but there you go. There's a lot of depth in Cleveland, so I feel somewhat reassured that I picked the right group anyway. The problem is everyone in the AL probably had the same benefits, and as I look at a lineup with four guys who hit under .300 in RL I'm not exactly quaking in fear of it. We may go as far as the Joss-Perry-Kluber combo and a few nice bullpen arms can take us, and I'm starting to think that might not be very far at all.

League 4, Pick #6 (3rd pick in the NL)
Division: NL East
Cubs 1909, 1964, 2019, 1989, 1927, 1956

Oh goodie, a 6th pick. What a great opportunity, right? Uh, yeah sure. I can join the 1-2-4 picks in the White Sox camp or leap into the land of Mordecai-loving Cubs from over a century ago. The Cubs seemed the sensible of those options, at least until barracuda3 snatched up the fourth spot in the NL East and you might as well put this team on suicide watch now. It's fun knowing you're playing for 3rd place from the outset, isn't it?

So of course I started off with 1909, which stood out as the best of the pitching-rich 19-aughts remaining. In fact, it basically provided 2/3 of my innings with a whole rotation of Brown-Overall-Reulbach and two bullpen pieces in Kroh and Higginbotham.

Knowing that competing in my division will require being able to hit deadball pitching didn't exactly prove encouraging when one looks at Cubs history. There aren't a lot of high-average bats, and guys like Banks and Sosa hardly look appealing knowing they'll be facing arms like the ones I have. So I guess the strategy the whole rest of this draft was to build an offense with some hope of scoring runs effectively. I don't know that I did it, but I tried my best to salvage some hope. I started with 1964 to get a trio of starting hitters in leadoff man Lou Brock and solid Billy Williams and Ron Santo seasons. We'll just ignore for now that means two leaden gloves in the outfield corners and a need for a great CF still to come. I would have taken 1970, but barracuda3 snatched them one pick before me, alas.

For reasons that are still a little unclear to me, at the turn I took 2019. Already 5 other seasons were gone from that group, and I didn't think much would be left later. There is a strong Anthony Rizzo season to plop at 1B, sure. Kris Bryant plays 3 positions I already have filled with better options, and he plays them all badly too, so there's nowhere for him. I dropped Javy Baez in at SS for now with a B/A glove and a swing with a hole the size of the Sears Tower (or whatever the heck they renamed it). There's a potentially useful catcher in Willson Contreras, but he's never going to hit deadballers. And there's a really nice partial season from Nick Castellanos ... again at a position already locked up. In looking back, I have no idea why I took them. Only Rizzo wound up in a key position ultimately.

After the long wait I decided that with no other good options at 2B it was time to take a Ryne Sandberg. I had narrowed it down to 4 seasons I could be happy with, and both 1984 and 85 went off the board between my picks. That meant pulling the trigger on 1989 or 1990 now because both kstober and schwarze needed this group still. I decided 1989 Sandberg was a little less homer-reliant and a bit better defensively, so 1989 it was. He came with a pair of usable alliterative relievers in Les Lancaster and Pat Perry, but basically this was a Ryno pick.

The slow assembly of a lineup continued in the next round as I took 1927 basically for a CF option in Hack Wilson. Objectively, it's a solid season with a .973 OPS# and A range. He fits the need and hopefully can get a few hits off the various Orvals and Mordecais. A less-than-spectacular Gabby Hartnett emerges as my better option as a starting catcher out of this season, too. Riggs Stephenson can hit, too; in fact, his .344 AVG is the best on my roster. If Brock isn't getting on base enough to make his speed helpful, I could see Riggs stepping in there full time. For now, it's likely a platoon spot for him.

That left the 43-62 group for my last pick. There were at least options I could live with, and I settled on 1956 to upgrade my SS from a won't-hit-a-lick Baez to a won't-hit-much Ernie Banks with a lesser glove. Still not sure that was particularly wise. Everyone else from that team is just roster filler.

In some ways, there's freedom in having your rotation set after the first pick. But it's also very frustrating because there are few hitting seasons that look enticing and you just watch them all disappear off the board. There's a lot of sameness in my lineup. Everyone hit between .290 and .318, and that means we're likely going to be near the league bottom. I've got six guys who hit 27 to 33 homers, all of which is useless against the dominant pitchers in my division. Brock doesn't have a high enough SB% to be a real threat to run even if he gets on base, so I'm basically relying on getting 3 guys on base in an inning to produce a run. And I don't have a shutdown bullpen at all. Pretty much all hope rests on that rotation, the starting point and the only really impressive thing I've got here. This was my "best" pick at 6th, and it feels futile at this point.

League 1, Pick #4 (1st pick in the Giants draft)
Division: NL East
Giants: 1905, 1936, 1950, 2004, 1987, 1978

The first three picks in league 1 were all Yankees (1904, 1928, 1939). In retrospect, maybe I should have gone with 1927 Yankees, but I was worried about the salary cap ramifications. I decided to the grab the first Giants team. I was definitely taking a Christy Mathewson led dead-ball team, and decided on the 1905 Giants thanks to some decent hitting choices that normalize well, including C Roger Bresnahan, 1B Dan McGann (.391 obp) and OF "Turkey" Mike Donlin (.356 avg). I also added Hooks Wiltse (1.11) to replace another SP who I thought I was originally going to roster.

When it got back to me on the 2-3 turn, my two picks were pretty standard, as I didn't have to think too long. I went with 1936 Giants in order to get one of the best seasons for Carl Hubbell (1.06). OF Mel Ott (.328, .448, .588) is my second OF. I also get to add an A+ range SS, with Dick Bartell (.298, .355, .418). I didn't plan to, but ended up replacing Bresnahan with Gus Mancuso (.301/.351/.405) at catcher to due salary issues.

Everybody knows I have a love-hate relations ship with Jim Hearn, so I couldn't pass up 1950 Giants. Besides Jim Hearn (0.88) and short-inning pitcher George Spencer (0.76), I also planned on using their top SP, Larry Jansen, but replaced him at the last minute with Hooks Wiltse. I also grabbed my starting 2B, Eddie Stanky (.460 obp) and 3B, Hank Thompson.(289, .391, .463). My 4 infielders all play very good defense.

Going into the next turn (picks 4-5), I had pretty much my rotation (3 SPs with 950+ ips), and seven starting batters plus a couple of RPs, I really only needed an OF, some backup C at bats and some bullpen help. The amazing 2004 Bonds was still on the board. So I started to figure out if I could afford him. If I didn't spend a lot on the bench, I could squeeze him on the roster. So I selected the 2004 Giants. So, now I have sluggers Barry Bonds (.362/.609/.812), Mel Ott and a bunch of guys with .400 on base percentage. This team also allowed me to add a pretty good Jason Schmidt (1.08) who will probably pitch as a long-reliever / setup guy.

My other pick at the turn needed to give me some cheap RP options. 1987 Giants gives me RPs Rick Reuschel (1.02), Joe Price (0.91) and Craig Lefferts (1.14) all for under $4.5 million combined. And my only non-scrub backup hitter, Kevin Mitchell (.298 pa, 298/.376/.530).

With the last pick of the Giants draft, this is where I realized I needed to shift some things around to get under the cap. Since Bresnahan had only 400 PA, I couldn't find a catcher to fill the missing PA's without spending too much, so I switched to Gus Macuso (594 pa). The pickings were slim, but I found that the 1978 Giants had a decent SP, Ed Halicki (1.06 hip in 199 innings).

Outlook: This roster has six batters with salaries <600K so the bench is very weak. I don't have much power - Bonds & Ott combine for 78 HRs, the rest of the starting lineup combine for 57 HRs, so I am playing in SBC Park just to penalize all the teams with Willie Mays. The outfield defense is pretty weak - Mel Ott (B+/D) will have to play CF. The pitching will be strong but not sure how many runs we'll score. We should lead the league in walks drawn, which probably means we'll lead the league in left on base. Feels like a slightly above average team.

I only had one team this round. 22nd pick in the Red Sox/Braves draft. I saw people letting the expensive Pedro and Madduxes go by due to the cap and was hopeful. Sadly, the last stud ('95 Maddux) went right before my pick.

I opted for the Sox based on the teams left. I had my eye on a couple impact players, like '04/'05 Cy Young and '69 Petrocelli, but couldn't justify taking a team for just 1-2 players. I need to fill lots of holes early. Thankfully I at least had two picks in a row to work some things out.

1939 Red Sox
This team filled quite a few holes on offense, with Foxx, Williams, Doerr and Doc Cramer. Lefty Grove filled a valuable rotation slot, so it seemed like a no-brainer. Cramer would eventually be dropped for bench hitter Lou Finney.

1988 Red Sox
I was hoping to fill a few more holes, but decided to grab a good Boggs and Clemens as impact players. Bob Stanley and Mike Boddicker came along as Setup B guys.

2004 Red Sox
This team filled out my offense with Varitek and Damon, and eventually brought Manny Ramirez for depth as well. Schilling and Foulke were valuable additions to the pitching staff.

1951 Red Sox
I blew it here. I wanted a pitching Ruth season, to take advantage of his bat in that slot as well. I looked at Page 1 and saw 1915-1917 already taken. Turns out I looked at the Braves list. Only 1915 was gone for the Red Sox at that point, and '16 and '17 went before it got back to me. Boneheaded move on my part.

This team brought me an upgraded Williams, freeing me up to take someone else from 1939, a solid Pesky for SS and Vern Stephens as a utility option. Ellis Kinder brings bullpen depth.

1913 Red Sox
'04 and '05 Young were still on the table here, and I was greatly tempted. But Speaker's .363 BA was too tempting. This team also brings a decent Ray Colilns, and Pinch Thomas to backup at C.

1976 Red Sox
Very limited options remaining. I had salary left, so carrying added PAs or IP wasn't going to hurt me. Fergie Jenkins and Rick Wise bring pitching depth, while Fred Lynn deepens my OF options.

This team is well balanced, but has a lot of extra PAs. I'm playing in Fenway to use up some of that, but hopefully I can make it work in my favour with platoons and such.