Use this thread to discuss your draft strategy. What went right, what went wrong. How many times did you get sniped? What were your difficult decisions? How many guys are you playing out of position?

I will start. This will take multiple posts, since I have 8 teams. Thankfully, I ceded 4 teams to others, because I can't imagine drafting 12 teams in this format.

Some general thoughts before I get into specific teams.

In League 1, I thought it was more valuable to draft early because the top dead-ball pitchers are extremely valuable, and I didn't think there was a big advantage to being able to pick first in round 5. I could get the bulk of my team in the first four rounds (3 SPs, 7 batters). This turned out to be true as most of the round 5 picks were players that may only have 1 or 2 seasons being used. Basically, we didn't need to worry about relief pitchers. I was able to get picks 2 & 5, as well as 20 & 21.

In League 2, I believe the opposite was true. Because there aren't a bunch of 350-400 inning pitchers, it was important to use more roster spots on usable players. I figured the reliever run would start in round 5. Most of the good starting pitchers and outfielders would be gone by round 4, so it was preferable to be able to pick late in League 2. Apparently, most everybody else figured this out too, since the last 8 draft slots (i.e., 24 thru 17) were selected in the first 11 picks. I was able to get picks 22 & 17, along with picks 3 & 11.

Anyway, as the drafts got underway, it soon became obvious that I would need to play guys out of position or perhaps settle for lesser offensive players who happened to play multi-positions.

Also, I should note that I really tried to ignore all my other teams, when my turn came up on a specific team. I didn't want to let that influence what should be the best pick I can make for the team that is due up. (This wasn't always true with my back-to-back picks, 20-21, in League 1)

League 1, Pick 2
Walter Johnson & Associates
It's easiest if I list the picks first, the positions that I currently have the slotted to play, then go into details on what my thinking was at the time I drafted them. An asterisk means I am playing a guy out of position.

1.02 - Walter Johnson (SP)
2.23 - Hal Newhouser (SP, RP)
3.23 - Jackie Robinson (2B, 3B*, DH vs LH)
4.02 - Earl Averill (OF, OF, OF, DH vs RH)
5.23 - Mickey Cochrane (C)
6.02 - Dolf Luque (SP, RP, RP)
7.23 - Vern Stephens (SS, def at 3B)
8.02 - Jim Hearn (RP)
9.23 - Stan Spence (1B)

In round #1, ronthegenius chose Ed Walsh at pick 1. I would've' taken Walter Johnson at 1.01 so I'm happy to get him at 1.02. I'm going with his 1913 season (364 ip, 0.78 whip). Now the long wait to see who gets back to me.

Before round #2 started, I was hoping to get another SP to lock up my starting rotation. I though maybe Hubbell might slide, but he went to pedrocerrano at 2.01. A total 15 pitchers went in round 1. By the time it got back to me, another 9 pitchers were selected. I was happy to grab one of my sim favorites, Hal Newhouser. His 1945 season has been great for me two rounds in a row. As it turns out, I plan on using his best (1946) season in relief since I have no other lefty pitchers on the roster.

Round #3 saw 14 hitters get taken, including 11 OFs, which makes sense since you can lock up 33% of your starting lineup. I had a couple of OFs in mind and would get to pick again pretty quickly, so I figured I would try and find an impactful middle infielder. That's when I landed on Jackie Robinson. He's got three very good seasons (1949, 1951, 1952). Although I didn't roster any of his 3B-eligible seasons, I do plan on playing one of his seasons at 3B. I figured the other season will be my DH.

The two outfielders I was looking at last round are still here in round #4. So I grab the one who's a bit better defensively - Earl Averill (1931, 1932, 1934, 1936). I realize that 1930's batters don't normalize well, but his raw stats are just too good to pass up. In all four seasons I rostered, he's over 700 PAs, so I will probably platoon his worst season at DH, with Jackie. Through 4 rounds, I have 1000 innings (3 SPs) and 6 starting lineup positions filled. I just need C, 1B, SS. And I need some pitchers to pitch in relief. I have 5 rounds to go - three will be the 3 batting spots, which leaves 2 for pitchers.

In the middle of round 4, barracuda3 did something that was a bit shocking. He grabbed Bill Dickey, a one-position 4-season player. Then in round 5, he grabbed Dave Davenport, a one-season stud, with 4 wasted seasons. This opened my eyes to the fact that it's pretty much impossible to draft a player in round 5 without wasting 3-4 seasons. One of my other teams used it's round 5 pick on Gabby Hartnett. So this team followed suit and grabbed Mickey Cochrane. Any other player I would have taken here would have also wasted 3-4 seasons, so why not take one of the best catchers available.

It's round #6 now, and just about every decent pitcher who has multiple seasons have been drafted. I can fill 1B and SS much later. I decided on a pitcher who I have had success with in the past and has multiple usable seasons. His whips aren't sub-1.00, but Dolf Luque normalizes well and doesn't give up HRs. I decided to use his 1923 season in the starting rotation, while using his next best seasons (1920 & 1925) in long relief.

I have enough innings now and can grab a stud setup/closer next round, so I want to lock up either SS or 1B here. I've had my eyes set on Dolph Camilli as he performs well in the sim (at least in my experience). But toysboys grabbed him just four picks ahead of my next turn. That hurt. I will wait and grab Ripper Collins later. I have compiled a list of shortstops that I can live with. But with Jackie Robinson playing out of position, I want a shortstop who also has a 3B season that I can use as a defensive replacement. Vern Stephens (1949) was the perfect fit and is a solid hitter (.930 ops), although I am not thrilled about his average defense (B/C+). But his 1951 season (.865 ops) is an A/B at third base.

Picking at the end of the draft, I knew any pitcher with one great short-inning season would get snatched up before it got all the way back to me, so in round #8, I selected Jim Hearn. As you all know, I have a love-hate relationship with him. He often disappoints, but I just can't pass up those gaudy numbers (0.88 whip in 132 ips). Now just hoping Ripper Collins makes it back to me.

Damn it! Barracuda3 grabbed the Ripper in the middle of round 8. Jim Hearn better be worth it. There is a big drop off offensively among the remaining 1B, so I decided to grab the best left-handed bat who is a great fielder (11.49 range factor at 1B) - Stan Spence. As my team's worst hitter (.316, .391, .486), he'll bat 9th and hopefully make 35 + plays.

Batting stats (most often used 9-player lineup): .330, .418, .540 ($69.9 million)
Pitching stats (best 1450-1500 innings): 1475 ips, 1.01 whip, .205 oav, 0.22 hr/9 ($63.1 million)

With spots 7-10 available when I picked my slot, I just opted for 7 thinking to just get the best available player in round 1.
That turned into Zack Greinke to bolster the staff, while I was hoping for Arrieta who went right before me. Several options I considered but ultimately decided on Greinke.
While the HR/9 is high, we selected Trevor Bauer in round 2, thinking he was best dominant pitcher on board that had at least an ok 2nd season.
Round 3, I happily selected Nomar knowing I'd have to play him out of position at 2B and possibly 3B until...
Round 4, we were looking at drafting Griffey to fill all 3 OF spots as well as 1B but he went 2 picks ahead of me. Insert Sheffield who has 1 good year as a 3B, planning to use the other 2 in OF and DH. We thought of going RP knowing the run would be coming but opted for Sheff.
Round 5, we went RP and selected Zach Britton. While only 1 dominant year, the other 4 are above average and as an Orioles fan we went with Britton.
In round 6, we weren't sure what direction to go in, so we opted for speed and a good defensive CF in Kenny Lofton.
Round 7, needing innings we took Yu Darvish with a couple of decent seasons that he has.
The plan was to wait for C until round 8, we decided on Jason Kendall. Was going to select Javy Lopez but he underperformed for me in an $80 mil league before so we went the high OBP route with Kendall.
Round 9, we knew we were grabbing another arm. Were leaning Kenta Maeda until he was snagged right before us, so we decided to go with Mike Adams to close games out.
I have no idea how this team will be but all in all, I was happy with our draft. Interested to see everyone else's opinions/strategies they used

League 1 teams

Team A

0 Pick #9
I thought I wanted to pick early in League 1, to get one of the premier deadball pitchers with a ton of innings. With the 1898 cutoff, huge inning guys like Silver King were out, but there were still Walter Johnson, Pete Alexander, Christy Mathewson, etc. This was my 2nd pick in the league, 15th overall (I went with Pick #23 with my first selection). The top picks left were #4 and #6 through 11. The top 3 picks where ronthegenius, schwarze, and barracuda3...and pick #5 was another schwarze. Do I really want to go into those divisions? I decided to go a little later with Pick #9 thinking I could get one of the top few pitchers or one of Ruth/Hornsby, then grab a two-clone pitcher on the way back.

1 Babe Ruth (1B)
Looked at some pitchers like Eddie Plank and Joe Wood but mostly going hitter. Was between Hornsby and Ruth, had Hornsby typed in but ultimately couldn't pass on Ruth.

2 Eddie Plank (SP, Long A)
As I started to look as my pick got closer, I liked a couple of lefty-hitting studs. Ultimately, I got excited about George Sisler...and then he went right in front of me. Joe Jackson was the runner-up, but I decided to go with some pitching. Joe Wood had a bunch of innings but both Eddie Plank and Ferdie Schupp had a better singular season. Plank's the middle ground between the two and has a usable second season, so I went with him.

3 George McQuillan (SP, Setup, Closer)
Finding three useful seasons is hard in this era, outside of OF. That said, you also don't need all 25 spots to be useful given all of the innings and PA available. I looked at Ken Williams and he was the top hitter for me (he went with the very next pick) but George McQuillan stood out. It's hard to find good relief seasons and most of those seasons are one-hit wonders. McQuillan has a great relief season (1.35 ERC# in 46 innings), a good long relief season (2.17 ERC# in 162 innings) and a good big-inning season (2.18 ERC# on 379 innings). Along with Plank I have over 1100 usable innings, which should help my options later in the draft.

4 Sherry Magee (SS, DH, CF platoon, bench)
I was all teed up to pick Luke Appling and then freaking pedrocerrano took him right in front of me (and via proxy too, didn't even have the decency to do it himself!). I took a while to regroup and looked at guys like Ernie Banks, Eddie Matthews, Eddie Joost, Jesse Burkett, Al Rosen, Johnny Mize, and Snuffy Stirnweiss. All had flaws--mostly that it was hard to find gus who could give me two high-level starter seasons without playing out-of-position, taking up easy spots (like DH/1B), or being chronic underperformers. Then I stumbled on Sherry Magee, who has a very usable SS season and two useful OF seasons--one as a B/A centerfielder and the other with a better hitting season to play in the corners. That means I still need C, 2B, 3B, plus two DH/1B/OF seasons. I have 5 picks left and could dedicate 4 picks to those spots, or try to get away with 3 and find someone who can play 2B and 3B.

5 Edd Roush (2B, LF, CF platoon, bench, bench)
At this point, I have 870 very good innings and 1130 solid innings including Plank's 2nd season. Offensively, I still need catcher, 3B, 2B, and 2-3 1B/OF/DH spots. In this early era league, roster spots aren't as precious. I only need to take 1 more pitching spot, though 2 would be nice to get some relief innings. I essentially need 4 types of hitters, so finding one that can double up between C, 2B, 3B, and 1B/OF/DH would be nice.

There really aren't many guys who are worth 5 spots, but Edd Roush has one of the better 2B seasons still left and has some interesting OF seasons. He's a very good fielding OF and all 5 of his seasons will have OBP# of .390 or better. He'll be a nice complement as a lefty hitter with the right-handed Sherry Magee.

6 Earl Smith (Catcher, Catcher, Catcher, Catcher)
Catchers are starting to go and there's some jokes being made about using a 4-or-5 clone pick on a guy you only need one of. Well, in Earl Smith I found a catcher that I'll need all 4 of to fill my catching spot! Smith has two very good partials with OPS# of 1.012 and .937, but they total just 415 PA. The remaining PA will be split between one Earl Smith with a little more pop and one who is the best defender of the group. None of the 4 have more than 290 PA.

7 Al Orth (SP, Long A, mopup)
I still need some innings but not a ton. Offensively, I have Ruth, Roush, and Magee locked in at 3 of the 5 1B/OF/DH spots, but if I can find someone with 2 great-hitting seasons, I can move those guys around to accommodate. Dolph Camilli fits the bill the best (unfortunately, he was taken shortly after this pick). Also looking at names like Babe Herman, Cy Seymour, and Jimmy Sheckard (who can play 3B!). But I've put off pitching long enough and Al Orth gets me most of the way there with a 326 IP season at 2.22 ERC#. He's got two other shorter-inning seasons that may be useful with 0.00 HR# and ERC# under 3.00. I don't need any more innings but can add a reliever later as a luxury.

8 Jimmy Sheckard (3B, RF)
At this point, the one thing I absolutely need is a 3B. I'd also like a little more pop as outside of Ruth, my hitting is more solid than great. Otherwise, any innings I can improve upon would be nice. I was deciding between Cy Seymour, who has one great OF season but his 2nd-best season wouldn't be an upgrade, or Jimmy Sheckard, who is one of the best 3B options left and has an OF season that's similar to Roush/Magee. I decided to go with Seymour as his was the best single-season left and then get a 3B in the next round. Turns out Seymour was already taken like 3 rounds ago and I typed his name in wrong in my spreadsheet! Oops. That made an easy pivot to Sheckard and I'll actually use both of his seasons, one at 3B and one in the OF as it is slightly better than Roush and Magee's 3rd-best seasons.

9 Joe Berry (Setup)
I have a full team, so just looking for the best upgrade I can get. Joe Berry has a 118 IP season with 1.65 ERC#. He does have a much higher HR# than the rest of my staff, but if he doesn't work out I have plenty of other options to roll with instead (such as Orth's #2 and #3 seasons).

Team B

0 Pick #23
I had the 4th selection in this draft and the ronthegenius and schwarze took the top 2 picks with pedrocerrano taking #24. I decided to go to the back end of the draft, not that any of these divisions will be easy, but I avoid schwarze and ron. Probably should have just taken the 3rd pick to get one of the stud pitchers. Oh well.

1 Arky Vaughan (SS)
Initially wanted to go pitcher here, with Eddie Plank and Joe Wood at the top. Then I thought I could maybe get Joe Wood in the 2nd Round and get 2 good seasons with a ton of innings so I shifted back to hitter. I liked Jimmie Foxx for catcher but that passes up his best season. Arky Vaughan is one of the best SS in this era and is at a good 1-spot position (SS) where it's hard to clone.

2 Jimmie Foxx (C, 1B/DH)
I had planned on taking Joe Wood or maybe Chief Bender here for a bunch of innings. But Jimmie Foxx is such a good 2-clone player. You get the best catcher available and his other monster 1B season. Heck, you can even play that at 3B (D/D ratings) if you really want. Screw it, we'll find pitching later!

3 Willie Mays (LF, CF, RF)
Welp, it happened again. I know I need pitching but how can I pass one three seasons of Willie Mays here? He will probably underperform but I still get A+ range across my OF and now have Catcher, SS, CF plus 1B/LF/RF all sewn up. Six picks left and can focus mostly on pitching knowing I only have 2B, 3B, and DH left to find.

4 Harry Brecheen (SP, Long A, Long B, mopup)
Okay, fine, I'll get some pitching. There were some options with more volume like Warren Spahn, Bob Feller, etc, but Brecheen was very good for me last round and has both his elite 1948 season with 246 IP as well as a very good 143 IP campaign from 1943. As filler, his next two seasons will provide about 350 innings with ERC# in high 2s. Will hope to beat that but not a bad backstop.

5 Art Nehf (SP, Setup A, Setup B, mopup, mopup)
I still only need three hitting spots (2B, 3B, DH), so I'm focusing on pitching. Nehf has one of the best single seasons remaining with a 1.74 ERC# in 119 IP. His 2nd and 3rd seasons are very good as well, both under 2.5 ERC#, one a starter (248 IP) and one a reliever (84 IP). His other two seasons are similar to Brecheen with ERC# in the high-2s. I now have 840 innings with sub-2.50 ERC# and plenty of innings in the 2.50 to 3.00 range.

6 Eddie Mathews (3B, 2B platoon, DH platoon, bench)
I've been holding off on Mathews for a while as I don't expect him to perform up to his numbers, but at this point, I need to fill 3 hitting spots and if I can find someone to fill 2 of those, then I can use two of my remaining picks to shore up the pitching staff. Mathews has the best chance to do that as a 3B/DH combo. His lefty bat is welcome as Foxx/Mays make up 5/6 of my current lineup. I know I will regret this pick.

7 Cy Falkenberg (SP, Setup A, Long B)
Falkenberg had both one of the best relief seasons left (52 IP, 1.52 ERC#) and one of the best big-inning starter seasons left (400 IP, 2.48 ERC#). He was the only one that had both, so I was happy to grab him. I now have almost 1300 innings better than 2.50 ERC# and my relief ace. I can either roll with Brecheen/Nehf's lesser seasons as my last couple hundred innings, or try to grab one more starter/relief ace.

8 Lew Fonseca (2B platoon, 1B platoon (with Mathews, Foxx shifts to DH))
My last two picks are almost back-to-back, with just two pedrocerrano picks sandwiched in between. I need a 2B for sure and then a luxury pick. Bobby Doerr is an option but worried about his hitting translating. Nellie Fox is the all-defense option. The best partial season belongs to Lew Fonseca but it's just 335 PA. I looked into pairing it with my 9th round pick, but there wasn't a great pairing. I decided to go with it. Fonseca also brings a solid 1B season that I can use against lefties, moving Foxx to DH, especially if Mathews can't hit. Then again, this also means I'll have to play Mathews out-of-position at 2B against some right-handers. This may be overthinking things, but what the heck.

9 Johnny Niggeling (Closer)
My Fonseca pick does allow me to just go with the best reliever available with the 2nd pick of this round, where I expect lots of relievers to go. Niggeling will be even better than my Falkenberg, supplanting him as our relief ace. Up to 1350 very good innings, so won't have to use too much filler.

League 1, Pick 5
Christy Mathewson & Associates

1.05 - Christy Mathewson (SP)
2.20 - Jack Pfiester (SP, RP)
3.20 - Fred Toney (SP, SP, RP)
4.05 - Goose Goslin (OF, OF, OF, DH)
5.20 - Gabby Hartnett (C)
6.05 - Al Rosen (1B, 3B)
7.20 - Cecil Travis (SS)
8.05 - Nick Maddox (SP, RP)
9.20 - Jim Gilliam (2B)

Ironically, this roster build is very similar to my Walter Johnson team. Basically, I flipped the 3rd and 6th rounds. In round #1, I took the best dead-ball SP available, Christy Mathewson. I decided to use his 1908 season (411 ips, 0.84 whip).

In round #2, I was hoping Joe Jackson would make it to me, but he went to redcped two picks before my turn, So instead, I grabbed the best lefty dead-ball SP available. Jack Pfiester was the call (over Doc White). His 1906 and 1907 seasons are very similar, but based on who I ended up drafting in the later rounds, I decided to use his 1907 season in relief.

I really wanted Ken Williams in round #3, but pedrocerrano crushed my soul by taking him just three picks in front of me. Instead, I decided to be the first team in League 1 to take three pitchers in the first three rounds (ronthegenius, picking after me, would also take three pitchers). I wanted a pitcher who had 3 usable seasons of which one was really strong. Fred Toney was the perfect fit. I will also point out that barracuda3 grabbed Ferdie Schupp last round, and if he got his hands on Toney too, his team would be unbeatable with a lead in the late innings. We couldn't allow that. Toney's two 200+ inning seasons (1915, 1919) aren't dominating but are acceptable. I plan on using both in two different tandems.

It's now time to grab a hitter in round #4. I was returning home from a show that I went to go see with my daughter and her fiancé, while visiting her in Pittsburgh. I was in the backseat, on my phone, trying to find the best hitter with 3-4 solid seasons. I landed on Goose Goslin. Like Earl Averill, who my other team just drafted, Goslin racked up stats in the live-ball era of the late 1920's and 1930's which probably means gross underperformance. His defense is pretty bad too, but he does have one season of C/A-, so that season will play CF. Considering my first three picks were pitchers, at least I have some offense now.

As mentioned previously, any player I take here will result in 3-4 wasted seasons. Since my OF/DH consists of four left-handed bats, I wanted a right-handed-hitting catcher and decided on Gabby Hartnett. Besides catcher, I will also use him to platoon at DH with Goose's short-PA season. It was fun watching the catcher run in rounds 6-7.

It's round #6 now. I have over 1400 innings. I have C, OF & DH filled. I still need 1B, 2B, 3B, SS and have four rounds to go. I'd like to add one more impactful pitcher late, which means I need a multi-position player with this pick. It came down to two options for me. The one I went with was the obvious choice of Al Rosen (1B/3B). His $12M season wasn't going to last any longer. But I also considered going with Dolph Camilli and playing one of his seasons out of position at 2B or 3B. I really like Dolph. Anyway, Rosen's 1B season isn't great offensively, compared to the rest of the league, but you can't argue with his offense at 3B. This begs the question... Which position combination is better defensively? In his '53 season, he's A+/C+ at 1B and B+/A- at 3B. In his '52 season, he's A/D- at 1B and B/D+ at 3B.

In round 7, I am looking at either 2B and SS. More teams need SS than 2B at this point and since I plan on saving the position I don't fill for round 9, I need to make sure I get a guy with 700 PAs in that round. I determine that I prefer the 2B options later than the shortstop options. I could go with a defensive specialist that doesn't hit much or grab the big bat instead. Since I have Hartnett and Rosen, I wanted the lefty who also happens to have the big bat. That's why I selected Cecil Travis. As an added bonus, in his 1935 season, he's rated B/B in the OF, which will be used as a defensive replacement for one of my bad-fielding Goslins.

I will just repeat what I wrote for my other team, since it also applies here. Picking at the end of the draft, I knew any pitcher with one great short-inning season would get snatched up before it got all the way back to me, so in round #8, I selected Nick Maddox. Not only can I use his 1907 season as my closer, but his 1909 season (1.04) is usable, and will be part of one of my two tandems. So I'm basically going with Mathewson (SP1), Maddox/Toney (Tandem 1), Toney/Pfeister (Tandem2) which will leave me Pfeister (LongA), '18 Toney (Setup) and '07 Maddox (Closer) in the bullpen.

It's time to grab my last starting position player, a second baseman. I decide on the good fielding (B/A) switch hitter with a .399 OBP... Jim Gilliam. He'll bat last.

Batting stats (most often used 9-player lineup): .333, .408, .552 ($65.3 million)
Pitching stats (best 1450-1500 innings): 1508 ips, 0.93 whip, .204 oav, 0.08 hr/9 ($59.5 million)

There are a lot of teams that scare me here and a lot of picks that made me grumble. But I will say the one squad I swore the most about was football’s team B team above. I couldn’t believe we let someone grab Foxx in the second round - what an advantage. And then it kept coming, round after round - Mays, Brecheen, Nehf, Falkenberg, Mathews - even one of my favourite closers in round 9. I will give it the jinx kiss of death by proclaiming it the early season favourite.

Let me also comment that I have now discovered what is infinitely more diffiicult than drafting against owners like barracuda3, footballmm11, schwarze, redcped and pedrocerrano - and that is drafting against multiple teams from these guys.
There is no one overlooked. No pleasant surprises that make it back to you. No clever strategies you can imagine that aren’t immediately used by someone else.
Just round after round of soul-snatching torture as you see every good player taken just before it gets back to you.

LOL. I have to say that this was one of the most enjoyable drafts that I have ever participated in. Unlike past rounds, where I could somewhat accurately predict how good or bad teams would be, I have absolutely no clue what teams are going to be good or bad. It's a weird feeling having no idea if my teams are going to finish with 100 wins or 60 wins. Playing guys out of position, using SPs in relief, setting up multiple tandems.... it's chaos!

First of all, huge thank you to Schwarze for giving up one of his spots this round. I botched my round 5 early, but still had a place locked up in this round as long as I didn't lose the last 4 games of the season, and also lose by enough so my exp W% loses a tie break. Well all that happened and I lost my spot, but Schwarze gave me another life.

I had the 18th choice, and wanted to pick in the top 11 of the draft because I felt there were 11 top tier players on my board. I went with the 10th pick as I wanted to have a bit of a choice if it went how I thought. My board ended up being very different than what was picked, mainly because I didn't value pitching as much as everyone else after the top tier got taken early.

Round 1 - Pick 10 - Rogers Hornsby
As Football noted above, after pitchers went in 7 of the first 8 picks, I knew I was going to have whoever was left between Ruth and Hornsby. I thought both would be off the board, so I was thrilled to get Hornsby and fill a middle infield spot right away in a non-clone round. .400 / .500 / .700, in a league with a ton of deadballers, you could argue he's the best hitter available.

Round 2 - George Sisler
As it closed in on my pick, I started to only consider hitters. I could see the premium being put on starting pitching in this draft, so on the one hand I was nervous about leaving my pitcher pick until later, but also I didn't want to reach for a pitcher that wasn't a sure thing with an important second pick. In addition, I thought it made more sense to use the 3-5 clone rounds for pitchers rather than picking infielders and making them play out of position. When Sisler dropped to me, again this seemed like a no-brainer. Perfect round 2 pick as he has 2 super seasons where he hit .400. I can put him at first and DH and have a middle of the order with 3 .400 hitters in a league where pitchers tend to have worse OAV but better home run prevention. My only concern right now is obviously a lack of pitching, but also my right side infield won't be too helpful to whatever pitchers I do end up getting.

Round 3 - Richie Ashburn
Surprise Surprise, I didn't like the pitching options again. What better way to help my future, brutal pitching staff than to take a clone of arguably the best outfielder in the sim. His 3 best seasons are all A+ range with 2 of them A++. My pitchers will give up a lot of hits, but Ashburns might make 100+ plays in the outfield. He's also .340-.350 in all 3 seasons and .440 OBP in 2 of them. Absolutely no power, but pitchers aren't giving up homers in this league anyway.

Round 4 - Hippo Vaughn
I considered a few people here and maybe I had a bit of an innings panic, but 4 Hippos gave me 1,000+ innings with decent home run prevention and some pretty good OAVs. Walks are the problem here, which is something I usually try to stay away from. I have never used him before, and it's possible I will never use him again. But at least, I no longer had any worries about innings.

Round 5 - Travis Jackson
I was planning on going pitcher again here, but I felt a bit of shortstop run coming on, and I really wanted to make sure I helped my pitchers with a good fielder and didn't want to take too much of a hit on offense. Jackson actually has 5 useable seasons, all with B or better fielding, some with A fielding, and most with A range. He also has a season where he plays decent 3B and I didn't know when, or if I was going to cover that spot. He has an OF season too which is nice to have, and one of his A/A seasons I am planning on using as a defensive replacement fand rest for Hornsby to try and keep him in the starting lineup every game. Jackson also has 3 or 4 .300 - .320 average seasons, so I like having 5 of him as I can use him in a lot of rolls. But pitching...

Round 6 - Roy Campanella
Again I felt a position run coming on and I didn't want to miss the boat. After Hartnett and Cochrane and a few others got picked, Campanella was a nice consolation who is great but not elite across the board. I definitely didn't need 4 of him, but whatever. This was the time.

Round 7 - Bob Feller
Feller's stats are a roller coaster, and I predict his season will be as well. He lead the league in everything in 1940 and came close in 1946. His walks are out of control! Will be interested to see if the strikeouts play in this league. He's pretty similar to Hippo in that his OAV is quite good but the walks are just tough to look at. Feller also gives up some homers and I have Ruth and Gehrig in my division. Like I said, this should be interesting. At least now I have innings conerns and don't need another pitcher if I don't want one. Both Hippo and Feller have a pretty good relief season (60 and 80 IP) too.

Round 8 - Stan Hack
I was set to pick a pitcher here to upgrade the rotation, many of the guys I was considering (Vean Gregg, Pollett, Elmer Steele, Fred Anderson) have much better seasons then Hippo or Feller and would become my ace. So I took a chance, there would be something left in the last round and decided to fill my 3B slot. I do have the Travis Jackson to play there, but Hack or Kell would be huge upgrades. I went with Hack because I get 2 of him and both of his good seasons have a great fielding 1B season. I wanted a late game D replacement and rest for Sisler who is <700PA.

Round 9 - Roger Wolff
All my pitching targets went, which hurt. I decided I needed someone to be in the rotation with this pick much more than I needed a great reliever. I really wanted some HR prevention, but most of my options, like Ernie Shore, didn't have the IP I wanted. I decided Wolff was the best season I could find and will have to live with the homers. He is better than Feller and should definitely be in my rotation.

Batting (Starting 9) .364 / .434 With very good defense other than 1B,2B - $89 million
Pitching (best 1450-1500 ip) 1,461 IP, .214 OAV, 1.07 whip, 0.19 HR = $49 million

League 1

1.06 - Mordecai Brown
2.19 - Jack Taylor
3.19 - Hack Wilson
4.06 - Gil McDougald
5.19 - Cy Morgan
6.06 - Roger Bresnahan
7.19 - Dolph Camilli
8.06 - Minnie Minoso
9.19 - Bobby Doerr

Rd 1 - I wanted a big game pitcher since a 300+ IP ace would be a big deal in league 1. Predictably the Joss/Walsh/Johnson/Alexanders were all drafted ahead of me. I could have taken a big hitter like Ruth but I didn't think his homeruns would do particularly well in this deadball dominated league. Brown is a noticeable dropoff from the other pitchers taken before him. But I still think it's a solid pick.

Rd 2 - I had to wait a while for my next pick. Since there is only 2 players for this pick, I figured I could complete my pitching staff with my first two picks and then focus on hitting. I also considered Ed Reulbach who is pound-for-pound a better pitcher. But he only has 429 innings. Jack Taylor is only slightly worse but has 751 innings which would complete my pitching staff. So instead of trying to grab a 4th starter who would likely be worse later on, I took Taylor.

Rd 3 - I really need to get some offense here. Since I have three spots, a stud hitting outfielder who can play all 3 spots fit the bill. Hack Wilson was the best candidate and has good outfield range since he was primarily a centerfielder. Benny Kauff (who went 2 spots later) was my second choice. I did briefly consider Ralph Kiner, but his homeruns won't translate in this deadball league.

Rd 4 - I consider this my most controversial choice. I really needed an infielder. The question is to get a good hitter like Luke Appling and play him out of position at 2B and 3rd? Or get a guy who was a worse hitter but better defensively because he is not out of position? I have experience playing a 1B or OF out of position, but I hold SS and 2B in high esteem when it comes to defense so I went with the latter. Gil McDougald is not a good hitter. I had him in the last round, and he sucked bad. Maybe he just underperformed, but his defense at 2B, SS and 3B are just too good. I knew he would definitely start at SS, but maybe I could upgrade later at 3B and 2B. I ended up doing exactly that which means I probably would have been better off with Appling.

Rd 5 - I knew I wanted to get a pitcher in this spot since I already had my infield and outfield. The only hitting spots I had left were C, 1B and DH and I didn't want 5 of those guys so I'm looking for my bullpen. BTW - I love that cuda drafted Dave Davenport here. I thought it was hilarious and also "well maybe that's not such a bad pick". Cy Morgan has 2 very good years for a total of 368 innings. That takes me to 1348 excellent innings from 5 pitchers. The other three seasons are definitely below average but will mostly be used for Long B / mopup roles. On the bright side, he has an HR/9 of 0 for those 3 seasons. Also considered Joe Benz and Howie Pollet for this pick.

Rd 6 - I'm surprised Bresnahan hadn't been picked at this point and I never considered anyone else for this pick. He's a very good catcher (even if have to use a 3 man platoon to get his best seasons) and can laudably play 1B and OF for his best hitting season. He will end up platooning at 1B against LHP because I ended up with LH Dolph Camilli for my 1B/DH.

Rd 7 - Dolph Camilli was easily the best choice to be my 1B/DH and he has two outstanding seasons and his third will be as a backup. I'm a bit surprised that he fell this far. There were other 1B taken ahead of him that I wouldn't have chosen over him. I also considered Stan Hack because he would have played 1B and 3B for me here, but Camilli was the better overall hitter.

Rd 8 - Stan Hack was still available, but I like Minoso because he was a better hitter. He'll start at 3B, supplanting a McDougald. The other, better hitting Minoso will play LF against LHP, bumping one of the Dolphs' from DH and one of the Hacks' to DH. I really like this pick.

Rd 9 - The question is whether to get 96 innings of Earl Caldwell to be my main setup/closer or Bobby Doerr to upgrade from Gil McDougald at 2B. I took Doerr because I think he'll have a bigger impact than the 96 innings Caldwell has to offer. This also makes my Rd 4 choice of McDougald look not so great. But McDougald will be a good defensive replacement and possible backup if Doerr/Minoso don't perform.

One thing I'm excited about is my miniscule 0.04/HR9 ratio through 2,130 innings. But it's actually higher when you get through my "effective" innings.

Posted by ronthegenius on 10/25/2023 4:50:00 PM (view original):
There are a lot of teams that scare me here and a lot of picks that made me grumble. But I will say the one squad I swore the most about was football’s team B team above. I couldn’t believe we let someone grab Foxx in the second round - what an advantage. And then it kept coming, round after round - Mays, Brecheen, Nehf, Falkenberg, Mathews - even one of my favourite closers in round 9. I will give it the jinx kiss of death by proclaiming it the early season favourite.

Thanks ron, I hate you now for jinxing me

Lg 2

1.09 - Joe Morgan
2.16 - J.R. Richard
3.16 - Manny Machado
4.09 - Gerrit Cole
5.16 - Josh Hader
6.09 - Sammy Sosa
7.16 - Jim Thome
8.09 - Javy Lopez
9.16 - Kenta Maeda

Rd 1 - Predictably, the best pitchers with high IP were already taken. I could have have taken a lower IP guy like Kershaw or Bieber but i decided to go take a look at the position players. I like to find a player who is "head-and-shoulders" above the rest amongst his peers. Joe Morgan plays excellent defense, great obp, steals bases and is head and shoulders above all other 2B at a premium position. The other guy I considered here is George Brett who was taken with the next pick.

Rd 2 - I think it's important to have an ace, especially in a playoff or very important game. JR Richard, despite his 113 innings was that guy. The other 293 innings from his 1979 version are also very good, making this a solid pick. I also considered Jason Schmidt, was was taken not too long afterwards.

Rd 3 - I really wanted to grab Ken Griffey Jr. here. He stood out to me as a guy who had should have been selected already. But I also had my eye on Machado who was one of the top SS and 3B. So I made a list of other OF that i would be willing to take: Sammy Sosa, Fred Lynn, Bernie Williams, Rickey Henderson, Jim Edmonds Aaron Judge and Carlos Beltran. So even if Griffey is the best, those other guys would be pretty good also. But how many guys can you get to be the best at a SS and 3B? Two. A-Rod (taken) and Manny. I could play a SS out of position at 3B, but I couldn't do vice versa. So that left Nomar and Ripken, but with the hit to 3B defense, it was just safer to just take Manny.

Rd 4 - I was really starting to worry about my SP options as that's usually a high priority for me. On my short list was Felix Hernandez, Bret Saberhagen, Nolan Ryan and Gerrit Cole. Well whaddyaknow, all but Cole were taken. Cole has some bad HR/9 numbers, which likely made him drop. Gary Peters was my other choice. He has a lower HR/9, but Cole's best seasons were stronger than Cole's best. Bill_James47 getting him in the 7th round is a good pick.

Rd 5 - I was always going to get my bullpen in this round and apparently a lot of other people thought the same thing. The usual suspects went early: Kenly Jansen, Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon, Troy Perceival....etc. Bullpens are fairly deep in this era and I'm happy with Josh Hader. He even has a few seasons with IP/G's well over 1 which I like. I really didn't consider anyone else once I realized Hader was available.

Rd 6 - I still don't have an outfield and a lot of my targets that I was looking at round 3 had been whittled down. It was between Sosa and Judge. It was fairly even, but Sosa did have an "A" range in there to play CF and overall had more PAs so I went with him. My 4th Sosa will DH vs LHP since my starting DH is left-handed.

Rd 7 - Needed a 1B/DH. I did think about putting in Aaron Judge at 1B. But I went the conservative route and took Thome. Since I have three seasons here, I get access to when Thome played 3B. I don't think he'll get much time there, but if Machado falters, Thome is in. Also considered Harmon Killebrew here. But I like Thome's OBP more.

Rd 8 - I knew this would be the "catcher" round and it did not disappoint. If I had a low pick in this round, I might have grabbed a catcher earlier (I did think about getting Piazza in the 2nd round). But with a 9th overall pick in this round I knew I could get one on my short list. Javy Lopez is a stud and he'll do well.

Rd 9 - I knew I wanted to get a SP here. That's my weakest position and it allows the 3rd Gerrit Cole to pitch in long relief. Kenta Maeda was always my top choice and he was available so I took him. I briefly looked at Dave McNally since he had a lot more innings, but Maeda has a whole 0.50 ERC# better so I went with quality over quantity.

Hmm, I'm not sure my definition of 'enjoyable' matches schwarze's.

Anyways, I have been remiss on submitting write-ups recently due to general craziness at work and home. Let me put some thoughts down here before I get busy elsewhere.

Round 1: I'm down to just one entry left in juice's tourney - partly because I didn't start with the 217 teams schwarze did in the beginning, and mostly because I have sucked at picking good teams along the way. This time, I was fortunate enough to get one of the first four picks.and was happy to take Pick 1 in League 1. However, I honestly did so thinking I was going to take Silver King. He's a huge advantage in this diamond draft format as you can fill half your pitching staff in one go. Of course, as I read the rules more closely, I realized (or, more accurately, reaffirmed) I'm an idiot. I would either have to use King's less useful 1931 season or make another pick. Yes, I always consider Ruth in these situations, but Ed Walsh was the closest I could get to my original Silver King strategy. I've used his 1908 season and 495 innings lots of times to make 60-80 effective starts.

Round 2: I was realistic to know many of my favourite Sim players wouldn't make it back to me with the last pick in round 2, but I honestly thought there was good chance I could grab 2-3 good Carl Hubbell seasons to finish out my starting rotation in the second or third round. Well, that plan didn't even last past pedrocerrano's first pick of round 2. I also thought I could sneak Reb Russell in the third or fourth round and use his strong relief season and some great partial hitting seasons. I was sobered up quickly by pedro (Again!) taking him early. Mel Ott? Ferdie Schupp? Hal Newhouser? All so close, but no, no, no. So I was going to go with George McQuillan and grab a starter and a rare (for League 1) top notch short inning season to use in relief. But......I tried McQuillan in calhoop's original iteration of this diamond draft theme and he disappointed. And I used the 379 ip McQuillan season as part of a Phillie team in one of the earlier rounds of this tourney and he disappointed there as well (and also a reason I now only have one entry left). I thought about Mays, Ken Williams, Medwick & Klein but was determined to stick with pitching. After much deliberation I went with Joe Woods over McQuillan. Yes, I've had better luck with his 1912 season than I have with McQuillan but, mostly, I fell in love with my cute Reb Russell Strategy. While not as good as Russell's hitting seasons, Joe Wood also has a good partial hitting season and I thought I could use that flexibility down the road.

Rounds 3/4: So as Round 3 began, I was resigned to the fact that the hitters listed above wouldn't fall to me at the last pick.(Really starting to hate this round 3 reversal thing) but my sneaky strategy here was going to be Henry Aaron. I love his 1955 season at second base. Well, Barracuda soon killed that dream. I then penciled in Ralph Kiner. He is dominating for me in the WISC 120m league and I figured his relatively low average, poor defense, and all the power-sapping deadball pitching would scare everyone else off away from him. I then got crazy and starting thinking about pairing up Kiner with 3-4 John McGraws. Usually, I stay away from those empty-slugging types but putting McGraw's crazy OBP totals at 3B and DH, hitting before 4 Kiners mashing home runs behind him, had me salivating. But my confidence was crushed by barracuda (Again!) taking Kiner a couple picks beforehand. Arghh. So, I strongly considered Goslin and Frank Baker here but ended up going with Kiner-lite - Hank Greenberg. And now, the idea of McGraw paired up with him somehow didn't quite seem as alluring. So I decided to go with with another pitching selection on the turn. I wanted someone with a strong starting season I could finish my rotation off with and that had another season or two I could use in long relief. The deliberation was between a couple of 1940s era studs - Harry Brecheen or Spud Chandler and I went with the latter but I'm still not sure I made the right decision.

Note - Barracuda ended up pairing McGraw in front of Kiner.....of course, he did.

Rounds 5/6: So, for most of the long wait for the draft to return to me I had Earl Smith and Freddy Lindstrom penciled in as my picks. I could use 5 Smiths to collectively make a decent catcher and Lindstrom would give me both a good third base season and a good CF to go with iron-hand Greenberg in the corner. However, idiot or not, I finally came to the realization (as schwarze and other smarter owners did) that I didn't have to worry about wasted picks on the bench. Maybe 5 effective low plate-appearance Earl Smiths was a cute strategy but grabbing 1930 Gabby Hartnett to hit off any HR-prone pitcher and 1937 Hartnett to hit off any other deadball pitcher and have 2-3 other Hartnetts as glorified batboys was a better strategy overall And, similarly, even though Lindstrom filled two holes, I liked 1905 Cy Seymour as the best remaining hitter so I figured I could use him as my missing outfielder and stash a few other Seymours in the dugout to help with any bench-clearing brawls. Well, after surviving 44 different picks, schwarze crushed the Gabby Hartnett dream just a few picks before mine. I calmed myself by preparing to transition to second catching choice, Mickey Cochrane, when, of course, schwarze (Again!) took him with the pick beforehand. Lots of swearing and reconfiguring later, I made the decision that there wasn't a large gap between catcher choices #s 3-15 and that I could wait to my next picks for that. So I needed someone who could play a couple of positions among 2B/3B and shortstop. I considered Billy Herman and Heinie Zimmerman and toyed with Al Rosen. But, as mentioned in the draft, Rosen let me down last round and, like McQuillan beforehand, I bizarrely carry deep grudges against imaginary SIM baseball players that fail me. So I went with an old RTG favourite - Snuffy Stirnweiss. The debate in the DEAL and DEP drafts is whether 1944 or 1945 Stirnweiss is better (I always vote 45) but now I can use both and still have a couple of Stirnweisses on the bench to carry the gatorade and throw sunflower seeds at others. 1945 Snuffy and his great 2B range is playing second and 1944 Snuffy is going to try playing out of position at 3B.

Rounds 7/8: By now, with 5 Seymours and a couple of Greenbergs in the OF, I have given up the original idea of using Smokey Joe as both pitcher and hitter and am happy to use his decent 1911 season in relief. With 3 rounds left, I am left looking to get a catcher, shortstop, and a closer. All of those catcher choices #s 3-15 considered above did end up going except one....and I was happy enough to take Walker Cooper. I then figured any closer types would not make it back to me with the last overall pick in round 9 so I took Jake Northrop to start round 8. 1918 Northrop will be my closer and 1919 Northrop can be the bullpen catcher.

Round 9: It's the last round and I need a shortstop with enough plate appearances to play the entire season. I had originally hoped for Vern Stephens but schwarze surprised me by snagging him at the end of round 7. Eddie Joost was my number 2 choice but ybjsports took him off the board. In the end, with the final overall pick in the draft, I went with 1960 Luis Aparicio. Not much of a hitter but great glove, good range, and good speed. There are not a lot of effective base stealers in League 1 but I ended up with two of them in Aparicio and 44 Stirnweiss.

I can't really do a strategy writeup since I didn't have a strategy. I don't think I was able to spend more than 90 seconds on choosing my draft slots or researching any of my picks in the first three or four rounds. Once I had time to do some research I had some fun, but I think the damage had already been done at that point. I'll be happy if one of my teams advances to the final round, but I'm not counting on it.

I am interested in seeing how all of the out-of-position players end up doing. I didn't go that route but there were probably instances where I should have.