I'm just going to create one thread for all the draft writeups for this Franchise Draft Tournament. It's usually just me and footballmm11 doing these, but others are welcome to add their thoughts.

Braves Draft Recap

Coming into this draft, I didn’t have a specific strategy like taking hitters (or pitchers) early. Picking in the top 3 would’ve been preferable but I drew pick 12. I guess I will just try to draft a balanced team, with an eye on being strong defensively.

Round 1, Pick 12
1964 Joe Torre ($7,545,016)
I was hoping ’08 Chipper would drop to me, but he went to bigsteve12 at 1.06. When my turn came, I had it narrowed down to three players, ’45 Tommy Holmes, ’16 Dick Rudolph and ’97 Greg Maddux. So, of course I took none of these guys. I really wanted to keep my draft spot high in these early rounds, so I started looking at key positions that were a bit weaker. I quickly realized that the catching position on the Braves isn’t very strong and ’64 Torre (.318/.391/.560, A+ arm) was the cream of the crop. His salary would likely keep me drafting in the top 5 next round.

Round 2, pick 4
1945 Tommy Holmes ($8,704,192)
Not surprisingly, ’97 Maddux went one pick after I took Torre. But that would net nocomm999 pick #9 this round… no regrets. At pick #4, both ’16 Rudolph and ’45 Holmes were both still available. I really wanted to take Rudolph since he is one of the few decent deadball SPs on the Braves and has 333 innings. But his .243 oav# scared me off. I love Tommy Holmes (.351/.418/.587) and he has a lefty bat, which is important, especially given that 33 of the top 37 Braves OFs bat right-handed.

Round 3, pick 8
1998 Chipper Jones
The top Maddux seasons available are 1993 and 2000 and I considered taking one of them, but neither versions are doing well in their current respective draft leagues. A couple of Aaron’s top seasons have been taken but there are still plenty of good ones left. I had to get my Chipper season here and ’98 Chipper (.313/.403/.533) is doing fine for my League 10 team. I prefer 1998 over some of his other seasons since his defense (A/C) is decent (only a few minus plays & very few errors). The 707 PAs is a nice bonus.

Round 4, pick 8
2000 Greg Maddux ($8,330,224)
’93 Maddux went to thejuice6 at pick #3.13. I really didn’t consider anybody else with this pick. I have zero pitchers so far and ’00 Maddux (250 ip, 2.33 erc#) is one of the best SPs left, despite his mediocre performance in league 11. I plan on taking a deadball SP in the few rounds.
Round 5, pick 10
1963 Hank Aaron ($7,326,556)
I took a long time to make this pick (almost an hour). My choices were one of the top available deadball SPs (’14 or ’15 Rudolph or ’16 Tyler), ’20 Max Fried, ’55 Aaron (A+ range at 2B), ’57 Aaron (better fielder than ’63 Aaron) and ’19 Ozzie Albies (switch hitting 2B w/ a decent bat). I kept going back and forth and forced myself to pick before an hour elapsed. I finally decided on ’63 Aaron (.328/.404/.596) because his OPS+ was the best available (146).

Round 6, pick 9
1918 Zeb Terry ($1,436,398)
I would have strongly considered taking ’19 Ozzie Albies here but footballmm11 grabbed him at pick two picks before my turn. I’m not ready to grab my deadball pitcher yet. I don’t see any clear cut non-deadball SPs worth taking. There are a bunch of available 1B that I like so no hurry to grab one. All the shortstops are similar (either good hit, bad field or good field, no-hit). In fact, many of the best hitting shortstops are a bit light on PAs (i.e., 500-600). I have my eye on ’26 Bancroft so I checked to see what backup SS I could get. That’s when I saw Zeb Terry (.309/.369.390, A/A). This pick is clearly a reach, but the Zeb gives me flexibility on which SS I can draft later, plus it moves me way up to pick 4 next round.

Round 7, pick 4
1915 Dick Rudolph ($10,323,793)
After making this selection, I quickly found out that I sniped ronthegenius so the Zeb Terry pick to move me in front of RTG was worth it. Good deadball pitching is sparse for this franchise. In fact, there have only been about a half dozen deadball SPs taken through the first six rounds. The innings totals by the draftable deadball SPs don’t really work out to draft two SPs, so I went with a guy with 364 innings. Rudolph’s available 1914 season (2.52 erc#) was rated a little better than his 1915 season (2.66 erc#) but given all the HR hitters in this league, I preferred the 1915 version due to a lower HR frequency (0.18 vs 0.38). Of course, this pick drops me quite a bit in the draft order for next round.

Round 8, pick 10
1973 Davey Johnson ($5,714,324)
This type of player is the exact opposite of what I normally like to draft. A righty power hitter with a low batting average typically underperforms more than other types of hitters. Still, , Johnson (.274/.374/.549, D+/A-) is rated as the second best 2B in franchise history (based on OPS#), only behind ’28 Hornsby. And when comparing him to what’s remaining at the position, he is light years ahead of many of the other bums. If I’m going to play my home games in Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium, I might as well go all-in. The other player I strongly considered here was ’23 Matt Olsen (54 HRs) but if I miss out on Olsen, I can still get a good Freddie Freemen next round. If I miss out on Johnson, I might as well draft a defense only 2B.

Round 9, pick 11
2019 Freddie Freeman ($6,555,740)
I didn’t expect to get Olsen as he went at pick #8.12. Then there was a surprising run on Freddie Freemans. I preferred his 2021 or 2019 seasons but had to settle for 2018. His OPS# isn’t as good as his other seasons but his avg and obp are still solid (.318/.393/.494, B+/A-) and the dropoff at 1B is significant if you want a lefty bat who’s also a good defensive player. At some point, I am going to need to start drafting more pitching.

Round 10, pick 10
1921 Walton Cruise ($4,014,181)
I have a bunch of power hitters but don’t really have enough guys to get on base in front of those power hitters. Cruise only has 427 PAs, but his batting stats (.331/.424/.485) are strong. He will be my left-handed half of an OF or DH platoon. Sadly, I missed out on SP Buzz Capra who went a few picks after I took Cruise.

Round 11, pick 10
1963 Bobby Tiefenauer ($1,181,276)
I was one of the last people to take a RP, so of course I take a guy with 30 innings. Tiefenauer (1.33 erc#, 0.86 whip#, 0.28 hr/9#) will be my closer. I still need two SPs but want to move up the draft order.

Round 12, pick 5
1916 Art Nehf ($3,336,985)
From pick 10 to pick 5. Woo hoo! I almost took Art Nehf last round but wanted to pick in front of ronthegenius. The beauty of adding Nehf (129 ip, 2.72 erc#, 0.12 hr/9#) is that I now have 497 innings of deadball pitching. At this point, I’m not sure if I will use Nehf as a SP or a long RP.

Round 13, pick 4
1922 Johnny Cooney ($946,597)
I now have a second closer with Cooney’s 27 innings (1.72 erc#, 0.96 whip#, 0.00 hr/9#). At this rate, I will need to draft 16 RPs to get enough innings. I see that ’46 Johnny Sain got picked last round. I had been looking at him for a while, but he was awful in the other draft tournament, and that scared me off.

Round 14, pick 2
1999 Andruw Jones ($6,028,658)
When I took Walton Cruise four rounds ago, I had made up my mind to draft this version of Andruw Jones and move ’63 Aaron to DH vs RHP. Jones’ offense (.272/.358/.459, C+/A+) isn’t particularly good, but his range should be good for 30-35 plus plays. I still need a lot of pitching.

Round 15, pick 4
1937 Milt Shoffner ($1,246,472)
Another bullpen piece with < 50 innings. I’ve never used this lefty before but his numbers (46 ip, 2.37 erc#, 1.09 whip#, 0.24 hr/9#, 7.1 ip/g) are decent for what’s left and we move back up to pick #2.

Round 16, pick 2
1964 Rico Carty ($4,384,513)
I almost took ’69 Rico Carty last round to be my DH vs LHP (he went one pick after my Shoffner pick). But luckily, ’64 Carty has pretty much the same stats (.335/.398/.558), albeit in 160 more PAs than the ’64 version. I’m really happy with my offense now. Torre (C), Freeman (1B), D.Johnson (2B), Chipper (3B), shortstop TBD, Holmes (LF), A.Jones (CF), Aaron (DH/RF), Cruise/Torre (RF/DH). Playing home games at Fulton County Stadium, this teams should score a ton of runs,

Round 17, pick 2
1993 Jay Howell ($1,702,333)
1911 Marvin Freeman ($1,370,982)
I need to use these next few rounds to fill out the rest of my pitching staff. Since I have a bunch of short-inning relievers, I have decided to use Art Nehf as a long-reliever, which means I still need to draft two more SPs to go with Maddux and Rudolph. Howell (59 ip, 2.28 erc#) and Freeman (48 ip, 2.34 erc#) are serviceable.

Round 18, pick 1
1998 Tom Glavine ($8,834,422)
1980 Rick Camp ($3,105,996)
I was going to take 1989 Smoltz here as he is having a bit of success on my other Draft League team, but there are multiple seasons of Smoltz left that I can live with as my SP4, so I took the 1988 NL Cy Young winner Tom Glavine (2.81 erc#, 1.20 whip#, 0.40 hr/9#) this round and will wait on ’89 Smoltz. Camp (110 ip, 2.49 erc# 1.14 whip#, 0.25 hr/9#) gives me another long-reliever with a low HR frequency.

Round 19, pick 2
1959 Johnny Logan ($4,465,095)
1997 John Smoltz ($7,701,729)
Bigsteve12 was skipped in round 18 due to the 2-hour rule. I was one pick away from getting ’89 Smoltz (waiting on calhoop) when bigsteve re-surfaced and took ’89 Smoltz. Damn… so close. Well, my contingency was to just take a different Smoltz season so I grabbed his 1997 season (256 ip, 2.77 erc#, 1.15 whip#, 0.60 hr/9#).

At the shortstop position, I considered taking ’26 Dave Boncroft the round he got taken, then ’64 Menke a round before he got taken, then ’07 Renteria the round he got taken… I just kept pushing the position off. Even this late in the draft, a couple of decent shortstops were left… ’48 Alvin Dark (614 pa, .323 avg#, B-/B-) and ’59 Johnny Logan (561 pa, .293/.371/.402, A-/B-) were my top two choices on the board. There just wasn’t enough difference in the offense between these guys and the guys that got drafted 10-12 rounds earlier. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have wasted a pick on Zeb Terry, since Dark has enough PAs where I could have batted him 9th and not taken a backup SS. I should have just taken a RP there. Oh well… live and learn.

Round 20, pick 8
1910 Wilbur Good ($1,158,512)
1977 Joe Nolan ($1,299,476)
1981 Larry McWilliams ($1,958,588)
I didn’t really need much here. I knew I would end up in the AL West, so I went after three pieces that might be helpful. Good is a .341 hitter (102 PA) with A+ range in the OF. Joe Nolan (.281/.375) gives me some extra PA at catcher in case I need to rest Torre. And McWilliams (58 ip, 2.39 erc#, 1.06 whip#, 0.52 hr/9#) provides another lefty bullpen piece and gives my team 1607 innings, which should be enough, even in Fulton County Stadium.

Ballpark:
Once I drafted Torre, Holmes, Chipper, Aaron in the first five rounds, I pretty much locked in Atlanta Fulton County Stadium as my home park. My starting lineup has 269 HRs with a .311/.390/.531 slash line. My pitching staff isn't great but it's low walk and low HR. 1607 innings, 1.10 whip, .237 oav, 0.41 hr/9, 2.0 bb/9. The defense has A++ range with Andruw Jones in CF and A+ arm at catcher with Torre, but nothing special elsewhere. Probably the worst defensive team I've drafted.

Bigwig’s Braves Draft Summary – all figures with be normalized

Looking at the player pool and analyzing my draft position at #9, I wanted Hornsby or one of the three best Greg Maddux seasons (95, 94, or 98) – needless to say, after five picks, the dream was over. Lots of good batters with exceptional gloves are available, there was some “dead ball” pitching available, but I will grab post 1920 starters with plenty of innings to build by pitching staff and circle back for dead ball innings later. (Dead ball innings? Never materialized)

Round 1, Pick 9
1996 John Smoltz ($9,821,561) 254 IPs
Thought of taking one of the remaining Greg Maddux but there were still a number of usable options left so I decided to grab the best John Smoltz decent ERC 2.09 and a HR ratio of .54 which was higher than I’d like but it was a worthwhile sacrifice if I can obtain Maddux with my next pick.

Round 2, Pick 11
1996 Greg Maddux ($8,407,161) 245 IPs
Happy to get a decent Maddux ERC 2.14 with a good HR ratio of .32 to couple with Smoltz. Hated missing out of the good Chipper Jones that came off the board, but there should be plenty of decent third basemen available later with so many Eddie Mathews available. This draft is going exactly as planned.

Round 3, Pick 12
1999 Kevin Millwood ($8,606,160) 228 IPs
This is just about when my precision focus on conducting my draft game plan fell apart, for there was no longer any clear strategy from this point forward. I decided to continue to accumulate starting pitchers. I was lured by Millwood’s 2.04 ERC along with 200+ innings however the HR ratio of .70 was cause for concern. I will need to pick a ballpark that will suppress homeruns. Also, my draft position seems to keep falling.

Round 4, Pick 11
1968 Pat Jarvis ($8,027,490) 256 IPs
I was torn here between Jarvis and the 1969 Phil Niekro. Niekro has been good for me in other leagues and his 285 IPs had some appeal, but Jarvis had a better ERC 2.28 vs 2.38 as well as a better HR ratio .58 vs .62. I decided that if Niekro made it back to me next round I will certainly grab him, mllama54 grabbed Niekro with the very next pick – maybe I am on track?

Round 5, Pick 14
2020 Max Fried ($5,298,435) 151 IPs
Having 983 innings I thought about grabbing a hitter, but all four starters are right-handed, and a good left-handed long relief option was desirable, ERC 2.33 and a low HR ratio of .20.

Round 6, Pick 11
1963 Joe Torre ($5,520,245) 556 PAs
Getting a good glove A/A-/A+ is a plus with an acceptable line of .303/.362/.441 – sign me up.

Round 7, Pick 11
2014 Craig Kimbrel ($2,958,047) 62 IPs
At this point in the draft there is little difference between the great fielding batter available, shooting for pitching and defense. As I turn to my bullpen, Kimbrel will serve as my closer with an ERC 1.48 and a HR ratio of .25.

Round 8, Pick 8
2022 Chris Hammond ($3,223,870) 77 IPs
Still focused on the bullpen, the lefthanded Hammond will serve nicely as a setup man, ERC 1.79 and HR ratio of .09.

Round 9, Pick 5
2013 Luis Avilan ($2,680,084) 65 IPs
Still focused on the bullpen, the lefthanded Avilan will serve nicely as a setup man, ERC 1.68 and HR ratio of .11.

Round 10, Pick 3
2010 Martin Prado ($6,621,091) 651 PAs
The second base pool was getting thin and Prado with his A-/A- glove and a batting line of .311/.353/.450 will serve nicely while batting lower in the order.

Round 11, Pick 3
1963 Eddie Mathews ($7,109,469) 675 PAs
At this point in the draft, everyone except for footballmm11, bheid408 and me already have a Hank Aaron. There are four decent seasons available so I can pencil in the hammer and choose him later. Two picks earlier, footballmm11 snipes me by selecting the 1991 Terry Pendleton stating, and I paraphrase, too good to pass up, ugh so close. I settle on the 1963 Eddie Mathews to fill the hot corner with his A/A glove and batting line of .272/.411/.463.

Round 12, Pick 4
1972 Dusty Baker ($6,146,385) 530 PAs
Baker has a good bat .329/.391/.514 to go along with a B+/A+ glove to serve as a corner outfielder. I plan to pair him, along with Aaron, and a good-fielding, Andruw Jones, since several options are still available.

Round 13, Pick 8
1993 Jeff Blauser ($5,256,801) 710 PAs
Blauser’s shortstop glove B/D is a big negative, but his 710 plate appearances and .304/.402/.427 line with 70 speed, can serve as my leadoff hitter. Kills two birds with one stone, however I plan to draft a defensive replacement for late in a game should my team ever have a lead.

Round 14, Pick 10
1932 Wally Berger ($6,721,242) 673 PAs
I still need outfielders and a first baseman; Berger can serve as either providing me some flexibility with an A+/A+ glove at first and an A/A+ glove in the outfield. Hopefully his .300/.347/.461 line will be acceptable when you consider the great defense.

Round 15, Pick 10
1968 Hank Aaron ($7,565,507) 676 PAs
I felt I couldn’t risk getting sniped by footballmm11 or bheid408, so I pulled the trigger while still waiting on my Andruw Jones. Aaron can also provide flexibility with an A+/A+ glove at first and an A/A- glove in the outfield. Hopefully his .298/.369/.520 line will be acceptable coupled with great defense, a common theme.

Round 16, Pick 14
2002 Andruw Jones ($7,020,679) 668 PAs
Once again, compromising offense .266/.364/.498 for a good defensive glove A/A+.

Round 17, Pick 16 – (the DH round)
1914 Joe Connolly ($4,025,969) 423 PAs
2003 Chipper Jones ($4,875,090) 555 PAs
Combined the two will serve as my DH. Connolly .312/.398/.520 and Jones .305/.401/.499.

Round 18, Pick 15
2013 Andrelton Simmons ($5,810,705) 658 PAs
2010 David Ross ($1,507,398) 145 PAs
Simmons will serve as a defensive replacement A/A+ for Blauser.
Ross will platoon with Torre behind the plate .293/.394/.471 with a C/B/B- glove.

Round 19, Pick 15
2025 Ronald Acuna ($3,473,067) 412 PAs
1957 Don McMahon ($1,679,047) 50 IPs
Acuna can relieve Dusty Baker in the OF, .298/.424/.507 with a B/D+ glove.
McMahon provides long relief ERC 2.47 and HR ratio of ZERO.

Round 20, Pick 16 – (pitching depth)
2020 Jacob Webb ($900,534) 27 IPs
2021 Tyler Matzek ($2,088,732) 63 IPs
2018 Shane Carle ($1,881,277) 63 IPs
Webb will serve a setup, ERC 2.04 and HR ratio of ZERO.
Matzek will serve a setup, ERC 2.45 and HR ratio of .28.
Carle will serve as mop-up, ERC 2.57 and HR ratio of .20.

Ballpark:
Once I decided to go with good pitching and defense, I knew I’d use a park that reduced homeruns, so I decided on Truist Park with a factor of 0.98 1B=1 2B=1 3B=0 LF=minus 1 RF=minus 1
Team Hitting line = .299/.383/.480
Pitching: IPs = 1,541 ERC = 2.13 HR = .40 OAV = .213 WHIP = 1.06 BB = 2.51 K9 = 5.74
Probably one of the best fielding teams I’ve drafted.

Braves Draft: anger about the move from boston
I have a complex history with baseball passion in my family. My fathers mother was a Yankee fan who became a Red Sox fan at some point (I don't know when exactly or why). My uncle is a Yankee fan and my dad a Red Sox fan because of her change in loyalty... so somewhere in the 5 year gap between them paying attention. My mothers father was a HUGE Braves fan. He was called Wally because his swing mimicked Wally Berger's. He refused to say anything nice about the team from the day they moved.

I also have a nice memory of meeting an older gentleman on the AT (1999) who was wearing a Boston Braves hat. He shared his tea with me. When I asked about his hat he told me that the last time he ever watched or listened to a baseball game was the last game the Braves played in Boston (he was there for it.). I appreciated that passion...

Pre-draft plan: Looking at the players there seems to be group of great pitchers and then a ton of average ones. There is also no great reason to jump at the dead ball pitchers as they suffer the same (if not worse) problem. So lets get bats and wait on arms. Also seems there are a lot more RH bats out there so try and get some LH/S hitters.

Round 1, Pick 10:

Mathews, Eddie 1953

7,456,736

With the top two Chippers gone I was looking at Mathews, Torre and the Chipper who can be played at short. Given the number of Chippers I decided to go with Mathews and hope to get Chipper with my next pick... Giving me two guys not exclusively hitting from the right side.

Round 2, Pick 3:

Jones, Chipper 1996

6,287,013

And I get my Chipper.

Round 3, Pick 3:

Berger, Wally 1931

7,627,709

I had to get a good one. Don't want my grandfather haunting me. Hits and plays defense. Can cover first and center (as well as corner of depending on who else I get.) Still hope to surround him with LH bats.

Round 4, Pick 3:

Drew, J.D. 2004

7,129,443

This was a rough round for me... a number of good bats went. But that took away much of the temptation to grab another RH bat. J.D. was a frustrating player to watch... way too much talent for the production, too little passion for the game. I'll still roster him, especially when looking for LH hitting.

Round 5, Pick 4:

Justice, David 1994

4,881,442

Probably waaaaayyyy too early to grab a DH but I want more LH bats and there really doesn't seem to be many options out there. I hope to never have to put him in the field.

Round 6, Pick 1:

Aaron, Hank 1955

6,528,182

Pretty sure Hammerin' Hank will be on every team. Pretty sure most every playable 2B for the Braves is RH. Playing him at 2B will let me try to get another LH OF. Starting to wonder if I should be looking at pitching... but why bother now. Only need C, 1B or CF, and another OF.

Round 7, Pick 2:

Holmes, Tommy 1943

6,326,493

There are better RH bats out there. I want another lefty. He has A/A fielding too so wooo whooo.

Round 8, Pick 4:

Pocoroba, Biff 1977

3,394,643

While I was paying attention elsewhere the LH catching options seemed to thin out. There are plenty of RH options so I grab the SH.

Round 9, Pick 3:

Lopez, Javy 1997

4,037,243

All in on getting bats before arms. This finishes my catching platoon. Need one more to play either 1B or OF. Then I can start drafting pitchers.

Round 10, Pick 2:

Alou, Felipe 1966

6,927,698

I choose the 1B. Andruw Jones has never performed for me. Alou has a good average and power. Very glad that I left the option open for this position. Now he just needs to perform.

Round 11, Pick 2:

Maranville, Rabbit 1929

4,881,483

Now it's time to grab pitching. So I go with Maranville. He will be my super-utility to back up at every position. His B/A at short should do well enough for wherever he plays. Probably a huge waste of a pick in the end but it wouldn't surprise me to face opponents with lesser players at short...

Round 12, Pick 2:

Anderson, Ian 2020

3,799,470

Don't know if my pitching evaluation from the start was right... but it looks like it from the available options. As I am going to likely use very pitching slot so they don't all have to be big innings guys. 87 is a slow start. It is a start though.

Round 13, Pick 2:

Lopez, Reynaldo 2024

4,027,669

Going big on the arms here. 135.2 IP brings my entire staff up to 222.2.

Round 14, Pick 3:

Venters, Jonny 2011

3,525,729

I know Kimbrel got all the attention but Venters was a great part of that bull pen. Racking up the IP with another 88 added in. 310.2. Seems like some teams might have gotten there with 1 pick...

Round 15, Pick 2:

Jay, Joey 1958

3,457,228

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. 102 more IP. Clearing the 400 mark finally. 412.2.

Round 16, Pick 3:

Soriano, Rafael 2009

2,678,318

Is it smart to stick to this plan? 75.2 more IP, 488.1 total. Really racking up the innings.

Round 17, Pick 1:

O'Flaherty, Eric 2011

2,573,685

Smoltz, John 2005

6,320,013

Look! A guy who can fill a spot in the rotation! 73.2 for the bull pen and 230 for a starter. 792 under impressive innings. Pretty sure a last place team runs out 05 Smoltz as their ace.

Round 18, Pick 3:

Crone, Ray 1955

4,156,858

Cooper, Mort 1946

5,604,844

359 IP more from these two. Slowing creeping up the IP chart. 1151 now available. Not that they are good, but they are available.

Round 19, Pick 5:

James, Bill 1914

9,683,231

Nixon, Otis 1999

691,600

Misreading my notes I try to pick the same two I took last round and lots of picks were made before I realized it. Nice job. Not only picking guys already picked but those picked by me. Changed my plan here (I was going to wait to take James till the last round). 352 IP for one player. brings me to a reasonable 1503. Not that they will get outs quickly in those innings. Nixon is fast.

Round 20, Pick 11:

Sanders, Deion 1993

2,256,418

Cabrera, Mauricio 2016

1,137,838

Embree, Alan 1997

1,493,457

More speed and defense from Deion. 84 more IP to help-ish...

End Thoughts:
Very glad I stayed out the AL. Hope to hit my way to some wins in a Boston landmark. Lots of doubles and no suppression of home runs. Go Fenway!.

Not only picking guys already picked but those picked by me.

LMAO

I've been sniped many, many times....but never by myself. That's a good one

Nixon is fast...

Athletics Draft Recap

There are a number of decent deadball SPs, so I don't plan on taking one early. Like the Braves draft, I want to get a balanced team while also keeping my draft position high in the early rounds. The #1 pick in this league is probably the most valuable #1 pick of any of the 16 franchises. Chewy drawing #1 in this league and #2 in the Braves draft is the absolute nuts.

Round 1, Pick 4
1913 Frank Baker ($6,697,127)
Unbelievable. I get to pick as high as 4th and I still don’t get to draft 1912 Frank Baker. Bigsteve12 snipes me in round 1 in both drafts (taking ’08 Chipper in the Braves draft). This also happened in the 1907-1919 draft when ’12 Baker went one pick in front of me. 1912 and 1913 are pretty close statistically with ’12 Baker (.345/.402/.559, C+/A+) slightly better than ’13 Baker (.341/.415/.518, D+/A+) in both offense and defense. The $2.7 million salary difference might end up benefiting me in the long run. My other choices with this early pick include ’35 Foxx, ’71 Blue and ’03 Hudson.

Round 2, pick 3
2003 Tim Hudson ($7,899,543)
Taking Baker moves me up to pick #3. There are a number of good deadball pitchers still available so my plan is to wait until everybody else has enough deadball innings where I can wait until very late. Tim Hudson (240 ip, 2.29 erc#, 1.06 whip#, 0.41 hr/9#) was a no-brainer pick for me as he always seems to pitch well for me. I never really considered anybody else, although maybe I should have considered ’31 Grove, who went one pick after I took Hudson. Grove has 68 more innings than Hudson and has a better erc#.

Round 3, pick 4
1931 Al Simmons
Still picking in the top 5. This selection was a key decision point as it would dictate which direction my team would end up going. I made the assumption that all the players I would pass on here would not make it back to me in round 4. The top two SPs I considered were ’81 McCatty (who crushed it in League 8) and ’02 Waddell (easily the best deadball SP left, also has 330 ips). As far as hitters, ’29 Simmons was a better fielder with 79 more PA than ’31 Simmons (but a slightly worse hitter but with more HRs). I really planned on getting a stud Eddie Collins (wanted ‘09) but there are still a bunch of Collins seasons available. And ’34 Foxx has A+ range and is the best available 1B left. This choice was agonizing. I finally decided on ’31 Simmons (.380, .436, .635) due his value not being tied to hitting HRs. Because of this pick, I have decided to play my home games in Municipal Stadium (-4 for HRs).

Round 4, pick 4
1933 Mickey Cochrane ($6,311,496)
All the players I considered last round were taken. McCatty and Waddell went immediately after I took Simmons. ’29, ’27 and ’26 Al Simmons all went (so ’31 Simmons wasn’t making it back to me). ‘09 Collins and ‘11 Collins went at the end of round 3. And ’34 Foxx went at pick 4.01. So, my next choice for a stud Collins season was 1913, although 1910 is enticing due to his A+ range. 1912 Collins is also still available. Then I looked at the wasteland at the catching position. Somehow, ’33 Cochrane (.316/.452/.511) is still available. Missing out on a top catcher meant I’d be playing a guy like Terry Steinbach. No thanks. If I miss out on Eddie Collins, I can live with Max Bishop or Ray Durham late.

Round 5, pick 2
1951 Eddie Joost ($7,523,757)
Sure enough, all the remaining Eddie Collins seasons got picked. Damn. I strongly considered taking ’81 Rickey Henderson for his A+++ range. I have him in League 8 and although his offense is just ok (.259/.340/.363), he has 37 + plays in CF. But ’80 Henderson is nearly as good and is also available. I can wait one more round for my CF. There are basically two SS left worth anything and both are named Eddie Joost. Which version do I take? The 1949 version (.263/.416//455, B/A) has a slightly better OPS# than the 1951 version (.289/.402/.462, A-/A) but I’d rather have the higher AVG and the better fielder. This pick cost me Rickey Henderson as '80 and '81 both went later this round.

Round 6, pick 5
1909 Jack Coombs ($6,077,035)
This was a key pick for me. Unlike the Braves draft, there are a bunch of usable deadball SPs for this franchise. I was going to wait until everybody had their allotted deadball IPs, then grab a mediocre big-inning deadball pitcher in round 20, but then I did some analysis of the top deadball pitchers left, their inning totals and which deadball pitchers others could still legally draft. I determined that the most valuable deadball pitcher available was ’09 Jack Coombs because his 218 innings could be selected by 9 different people (including me). But if I took him, I could then pair him with one of ’09 Plank, ’13 Bender, ’13 Plank and get to early 500 deadball innings. Only the 4 people who haven't drafted a deadball SP yet could take one of these guys. Coombs (2.71 erc#, .225 oav#, 0.08 hr/9#) isn’t a perfect fit for Municipal Stadium but he should do ok vs HR hitters like Foxx, Giambi and McGwire).

Round 7, pick 7
1909 Eddie Plank ($8,573,911)
As I mentioned, there are still 4 teams that haven’t drafted a deadball SP yet. ’09 Plank (281 ip, 2.54 erc#, 1.14 whip#, 0.06 hr/9#) is the highest SP on the board and I wanted to get him before one of those four teams decided he was too good to pass up. And most importantly, he gives my team 499 deadball innings! In retrospect, I probably could have waited a few rounds.

Round 8, pick 11
1941 Sam Chapman ($6,225,072)
I missed out on the good Rickey Henderson seasons, and I needed a CF with A+ range. I don’t think I’ve ever used Sam Chapman before and I was a bit surprised at how good his real-life numbers are (.320/.371/.540, C-/A+). I have no idea if others were looking at him, but he was ranked pretty high among available OFs, so I jumped on him without much thought. At some point, I need to start grabbing some RPs.

Round 9, pick 11
1952 Ferris Fain ($5,392,773)
One of the benefits of playing in a negative HR park is that I can wait on a player like Fain (.333/.437/.438, D+/B). While others are drafting various seasons of Jason Giambi, Jimmie Foxx and Mark McGwire, I can get a lefty bat with an great AVG and OBP in round 9. I would have preferred ’51 Ferris Fain (.344/.444/.471, C+/B) but 3dayrotation drafted him in round 8. So I decided not to risk it and took him. I think ronthegenius was considering taking '52 Fain.

Round 10, pick 11
2002 Ray Durham ($4,993,186)
The A’s franchise has very few draftable switch-hitters. Durham was only the 3rd switch hitter taken at this point in the draft. I was happy to get one of them here. Once I missed out on Eddie Collins, I had my sights set on Durham (.288/.371/.429, C-/A). I thought Durham was a better option than Max Bishop although I could be wrong. Maybe I reached a little early for Durham as ’28 Bishop (.306/.427/.425, B/D+) was still available here (and didn’t get taken until round 17).

Round 11, pick 11
2001 Mark Mulder ($6,327,875)
I usually don’t lock up my fourth SP this early, but I felt that ’01 Mulder was head and shoulders above any of the other post-deadball SP options. Mulder (230 ip, 2.74 erc#, 1.14 whip#, 0.46 hr/9#) gives me two lefty SPs. I feel good about my four starting pitchers. But I still don’t have a reliever yet.

Round 12, pick 12
2010 Andew Bailey ($1,742,903)
Drafting RPs is so boring. I missed out on all the good ones, so we’ll piece together a rag tag bullpen. Bailey (49 ip, 1.77 erc#, 0.97 whip#, 0.43 hr/9#) is maybe the 50th best RP from this franchise… Sadly, he is my RP1 for me.

Round 13, pick 11
1987 Dennis Eckerlsey ($3,787,035)
Another advantage of playing in a park like Municipal Stadium is that some very good RPs with higher HR rates are often available late. ’87 Eckersley (116 ips, 2.21 erc#, 0.98 whip#, 0.61 hr/9#) is the eighth best RP (based on erc#) with innings totals between 100-180.

Round 14, pick 11
2017 Sean Doolittle ($2,086,525)
Doolittle (51 ip, 1.53 erc#, .188 oav#, 0.87 hr/9#, 0.58 hr/.9#) gives me my first lefty out of the pen and is another cheap player to move me up in the draft order.

Round 15, pick 8
2005 Justin Duchscherer ($2,988,798)
Since I took Eddie Plank in round 7, my draft slot has been pick 11+ every round. After taking three straight RPs, I’m now up to pick 8 and my next two picks should move me up even more as we head into the double-pick rounds. Duchscherer (86 ip, 2.11 erc#, .213 oav#, 1.00 whip#, 0.55 hr/9#) is another guy who lasted a bit longer due to a higher HR total. Yes, I know I do have to play road games and I’m sure all these HR-prone RPs will get lit up.

Round 16, pick 7
2012 Brett Anderson ($1,093,084)
Anderson (35 ip, 2.11 erc#, .229 oav#, 1.06 whip#, 0.18 hr/9#) is my second lefty reliever and is one of the only RPs on my roster that doesn’t have a high HR frequency. Never used him before.

Round 17, pick 6
1980 Dwayne Murphy ($6,673,459)
1982 Mike Davis ($1,077,755)
Let me explain what happened with my illegal pick of 1916 Amos Strunk. My starting lineup was nearly complete with Cochrane (C), Fain (1B), Durham (2B), Baker (3B), Joost (SS), Simmons (LF), Chapman (CF). All I need is one more OF and a DH. I’ve had ’16 Strunk, ’47 B.McCosky and ’80 Dw.Murphy in my team center since round 9. I figure I would get one of these guys, so I wasn’t in any hurry to draft one (although I preferred McCosky or Strunk, as Murphy was a bit of a downgrade offensively). Once I saw that McCosky went in round 16, I figured it was finally time to draft Strunk. Although he was marked down in my spreadsheet as taken, I didn’t even look at that. I have a pretty good memory during drafts and I hadn’t even realized that Strunk was taken all the way back in round 6 (he wasn’t on my radar yet, so it didn't register in my memory). Since I got notified of the illegal pick while I was officiating, I quickly pivoted to Dwayne Murphy (.271, .382, .372, A-/A+). He’s not close offensively to Strunk or McCosky, but his 3.40 RRF will be perfect for CF, moving Chapman to LF and giving me two defensive studs in the OF that should create at least 50 + plays. Had I realized Strunk was taken in round 6, I almost certainly would have drafted McCosky a round or two earlier. Mike Davis is a nice .400 lefty hitter (77 PAs) with A+ range that will give ‘31 Simmons (601 PA) a rest now and then.

Round 18, pick 6
1904 Harry Davis ($3,525,033)
1972 Rollie Fingers ($3,318,108)
Harry Davis (.320/.367/.523) is one of these deadball hitters that normalizes very well, with 42 extra base hits in 400 ABs. He will be the right-handed portion of my DH. Ronthegenius tells me that he was considering taking him. There were a bunch of decent Rollie Fingers seasons in this draft, all with 100+ innings with decent IP/G numbers. I knew I could wait since nobody would be in a hurry to grab a Fingers with a high HR rate. I actually penciled in his 1972 season (117 ip, 2.54 erc#, 1.11 whip#, 0.66 hr/9#) awhile ago and was just waiting for the right time to take him.

Round 19, pick 6
2004 Erubiel Durazo ($4,070,261)
1941 Elmer Valo ($972,461)
I had pegged Durazo as my left-handed DH almost from the start of the draft. I’m a bit surprised he lasted this long. His numbers (.317/.391/.496) are solid and not dependent on HRs. Somehow, I now have two .400 hitters to go along with Al Simmons' .390 season. Valo only has 57 PAs but it will be fun when I play a guy with a .417/.456/.577 slash.

Round 20, pick 4
1953 Joe Astroth ($2,892,024)
2024 Tyler Ferguson ($1,568,091)
1937 Bill Cissell ($817,960)
I really didn't much at this point of the draft. With Mickey Cochrane having 582 PA, I didn’t feel the urgency to grab a backup catcher early. Astroth (.296/.363/.403, A+ arm) is another guy I’ve never used, but I can start him against teams that like to steal bases. He's not terrible offensively. I’ve never even heard of Tyler Ferguson before, but I needed a few more innings. Ferguson (51 ip, 2.40 erc#, .189 oav#, 1.14 whip#, 0.50 hr/9#) walks too many (4.3) so will probably pitch in a mop-up role. I was all set to take ’26 Bill Wambsganss here but got delayed in posting my pick. That delay gave bheid408 time to get his pick in (he was skipped due to 2-hour rule) and he took Wambganss. I really didn’t need anything specific here, so I grabbed a backup 2B who is a better fielder than Durham. Bill Cissell (.265/.358/.350, C/A+) is another guy I’ve never used before.

Ballpark:
A mentioned above, I will be playing home games at Municipal Stadium. I do have some HRs on my team, but most of my guys are in the teens with 25 being the most. But my lineup has a very good overall batting average (.320, .406, .491). I also have a very good defense with three A+++ range guys (Chapman, Murphy, Baker), plus Joost is A-/A at SS. My worst fielder is Fain at 1B (D+/B). My starting pitching feels like it's fairly strong, but maybe that’s because I am comparing them to my Braves pitching. 1475 innings, .222 oav, 1.06 whip, 0.45 hr/9. I feel way better about this team than I do my Braves team. Also, both my A’s team and my Braves team get to play in the AL West, so that can only help, right?

TORREZ THE SPIDER
For anyone who may be wondering, the team name is inspired by Boris the Spider, a Who song from the mid-1960s.

Round 1, Pick 11
1932 Jimmie Foxx
This turned out to be the easiest pick of the draft. The best hitter in the draft -- 1901 Nap Lajoie -- was the first pick. Ten picks later, the second-best hitter in the draft -- '32 Foxx -- was still available. I usually take a pitcher first, but in the late stages of the round, there was no way I was going to take anyone other than Foxx.

Round 2, Pick 15
1908 Eddie Plank
'08 Plank, among the top deadball pitchers in the draft, will serve as my #1 starter. He threw 260 innings, which left plenty room on my pitching for another deadballer without violating the 500-inning limit.

Round 3, Pick 14
1927 Ty Cobb
This is pretty early to select a DH, but hey, this is Ty Cobb, who provides a .357/.440/.482 slash line at a more-than-reasonable $5.43 million salary. Cobb will be the leadoff hitter unless I'm able to draft a productive Rickey Henderson season, in which case Cobb will be the #2 hitter.

Round 4, Pick 11
2015 Sonny Gray
Heading into the draft, it was clear that there wasn't a while lot high-quality starting pitching to be had, which is how I justified taking a pitcher with pedestrian numbers (2.73 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 2.53 ERC#) in the fourth round. The good news is, I'm certain I won't have the only team with a suspect rotation.

Round 5, Pick 10
1927 Mickey Cochrane
Before the round began, I resolved to draft Henderson unless I was able to secure either the 1927 or '29 versions of Cochrane. Kstober opened the fifth round by taking '29 Cochrane, at which point I considered which of Henderson's season's I wanted. However, when it was my turn to pick, '27 Cochrane was still on the board, so I took him without hesitation.

Round 6, Pick 8
1983 Rickey Henderson
For the first time in the draft, I would be choosing in the top half of the round. I celebrated by picking Henderson. In the '83 season, he was an A/A- fielder and sported a .414 on-base percentage. Oh, and he also had 108 stolen bases. Henderson, Cobb and Foxx should be a formidable top of the order.

Round 7, Pick 10
2009 Andrew Bailey
Time to address the bullpen. The A's have had a bunch of A-list relievers through the years, and Bailey's '09 season -- 83 innings, 1.84 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 1.32 ERC# -- is among the best in franchise history.

Round 8, Pick 10
1999 Randy Velarde
I thought about adding another starting pitcher, but the most desirable ones are gone, and what remains appears to be a group of middle-of-the-rotation guys of similar abilities. Meanwhile, my only infielder is Foxx at first base. At second base, even though two top-level Lajoies and a numerous versions of Eddie Collins were taken, some quality players remained. The best option seemed to be '99 Velarde, a B/B+ defender with a .317/.390/.455 slash line.

Round 9, Pick 10
2009 Matt Holliday
'09 Holliday isn't much of an outfielder, but he can hit (.313 average, 24 homers), and he'll fit in nicely in the middle of the batting order.

Round 10, Pick 10
1972 Ken Holtzman
I still need a pair of starting pitchers, and the rotation hasn't been addressed since the fourth round. Two of the top possibilities were 1990 Dave Stewart and '72 Holtzman, both of whom I've used in the past with varying degrees of success. When Stewart was taken with the first pick of the round, I hoped Holtzman would last until it was my turn, and he did.

Round 11, Pick 12
2019 Liam Hendriks
Both shortstop and third base are needs, but more than halfway through the draft, there are still are plethora of quality bullpen options available, and rather than wait until most of them are gone, I decide to add another reliever. I promise myself to take someone to plays the left side of the infield in the next round.

Round 12, Pick 11
1948 Eddie Joost
The top two Joost seasons both went in the fifth round, but this one definitely is usable. '48 Joost's average is just .250, but he has a .393 on-base percentage, 16 homers and B+/A- defensive rating.

Round 13, Pick 12
2014 Fernando Abad
I still need a third baseman, an outfielder and a starting pitcher, but I keep getting drawn to the bullpen, where many impact relievers remain. '14 Abad (1.57 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 1.69 ERC#) could end up as my closer.

Round 14, Pick 12
1990 Jose Canseco
I drafted Canseco almost entirely on the basis of his 37 homers. A glance at the home run numbers of my lineup thus far shows Foxx with 58, Holliday with 24 and nobody else with more than 16. Canseco is a decent fielder with a .271 average and a .371 on-base percentage, but I'm hoping his primary contribution will be to frequently hit the ball out of the park.

Round 15, Pick 12
2025 Sean Newcomb
The only 2025 player in my team, and one of just four in the league, doesn't have the dazzling overall numbers of the other three relievers I've already selected, but I couldn't ignore his 1.75 ERA, especially this late in the draft.

Round 16, Pick 10
1914 Chief Bender
This isn't one of Bender's best seasons, but he was the top available option to serve as a long reliever who might get a handful of starts in the course of the season. The Bender-Plank tandem gives my team 451 innings from deadball hurlers.

Round 17, Pick 10
1946 George Kell
2014 Luke Gregerson
Kell, who completes my starting lineup, is a third baseman with a reliable glove, a .322 average and little to no power. Gregerson should be a useful bullpen piece.

Round 18, Pick 12
1976 Mike Torrez
1999 Ramon Hernandez
Torrez (2.50 ERA, 1.20 WHIP in 268 innings) will be my fourth starter. The fact that he was available in the 18th round is a pretty good indication that he probably will not be a Cy Young Award contender. On the positive side, without him, my team might not have a name. Hernandez is a good-hitting backup who can be expected to get about 100 at-bats.

Round 19, Pick 13
2018 Ramon Laureano
2011 Grant Balfour
Laureano is a backup outfielder with a .299 average and an A/A- defensive rating. Balfour is a reliever with a 2.44 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP in 63 innings. The reason he's was available in the 19th round? He's allowed 1.15 homers per 9 innings.

Round 20, Pick 9
2017 Boog Powell
1967 Ed Charles
1938 Ace Parker
Powell -- not that Boog Powell -- is a reserve outfielder. Charles and Parker are backup infielders. The combined salaries of the trio is less than $2 million, assuring that my team will play in the American League.

Bigwig’s Athletics Draft Summary – all figures with be normalized
Looking at the player pool and analyzing my draft position at lucky #7, I really want the 1935 Jimmie Foxx as my catcher option. There really isn’t a lot of pitching depth and there was enough good dead ball pitching that I felt I could wait if I were lucky enough to get Double XX as my catcher.

Round 1, Pick 7
1935 Jimmie Foxx ($11,627,133) 706 PAs
This was a no-brainer, this pick was made purely with my heart. Sure, my draft position will drop but the world suddenly seems a little brighter! There was a young comedian, John Elroy Sanford, making a name for himself with his nightclub act, but he needed a stage name that would provide him with more notoriety. He utilized his childhood nickname “Red”, which referred to his reddish hair and complexion. And his last name is a tribute to the baseball player Jimmie Foxx, for he was a fan. He doubled the d’s in the nickname, Redd, and Foxx (just like Jimmie) and the comedian, Redd Foxx was born. For those of you younger than I, towards the end of his career Redd Foxx starred in the 70’s TV show Sanford and Son. It was based on the English show Steptoe and Son, Redd Foxx used Sanford because it was his real last name. (…and now you know the rest of the story) Oh, and catcher Jimmie Foxx has a A/B-/B glove with a .336/.448/.626 batting line.

Round 2, Pick 12
2000 Jason Giambi ($9,274,789) 669 PAs
The Athletics have plenty of good hitting first basemen available, but when you scratch Jimmie Foxx from the pool, there really aren’t many left. Need to get Jimmie some support, and from the left side, enter Jason Giambi .326/.465/.617 with an A-/A glove is icing on the cake.

Round 3, Pick 10
1927 Al Simmons ($7,217,033) 482 PAs
I really wanted to get one of Simmon’s full seasons, however mllama54; 3dayrotation, schwarze, and bigstere12 assured that it was not to be - FOUR come off the board within thirteen picks. Simmon’s batting line is .378/.424/.637 with a B+/B- glove, I’ll have to find 30% of my platoon later.

Round 4, Pick 7
1913 Eddie Collins ($7,386,707) 691 PAs
Who is going to get on base in front of Foxx, Giambi, and Simmons? I want to get a good Eddie Collins with a high on base percentage. Three Collins are left 1909, 1911 and 1913, although 1911 is a little light on plate appearances. Naturally footballmm11 snipes the 1909 Collins and DarthDurron takes the 1911 version, and I sweat out the next seven picks to obtain my target. Woo-Hoo. Missing out here, on Collins, would have hurt!

Round 5, Pick 9
1981 Rickey Henderson ($7,650,449) 151 IPs
Lead-off if still unoccupied, could I get one of the Rickey Hendersons? The 1980 and 1981 versions would fit nicely and an exceptional 1993 version with only 407 plate appearances but a .325/.465/.540 line and a decent C/C+ glove is available just need to wait 17 picks. DarthDurron strikes once again, taking the 1993 season and thankfully ff09 had already selected his Henderson in round 2, you knew it was coming… I grab the 1981 Henderson .323/.412/.443 with a C+/A+ glove to man centerfield. 1. Henderson, 2. Collins, 3. Foxx, 4. Giambi, 5. Simmons – life is good.

Round 6, Pick 12
1939 Bob Johnson ($7,132,753) 696 PAs
Need someone to protect Simmons in the order and Bob Johnson will do nicely - .329/.428/.540 with a C/B glove for corner outfield.

Round 7, Pick 13
1958 Bob Cerv ($6,352,428) 602 PAs
Need to fill SS, 3B, OF and DH, oh, and a pitching staff too. LOL Let’s get that last outfielder to extend the lineup even further. Cerv has a B/B glove and a batting line of .309/.374/.592 and 38 homeruns batting 7^th, Yahtzee.

Round 8, Pick 13
2020 Jake Diekman ($2,873,113) 58 IPs
Better grab a LH closer, just in case I find myself with a lead in future games. Diekman, has an ERC = 1.36 and HR ratio of .26, he's a good fit.

Round 9, Pick 12
1989 Mike Moore ($7,074,681) 242 IPs
Getting my first starting pitcher this late has consequences, hopefully we will outscore our opponents. Moore has a HR ratio of .48 and an ERC = 2.60. Almost 300 innings.

Round 10, Pick 13
2003 Barry Zito ($6,603,549) 232 IPs
Zito has an ERC = 2.71 and a HR ratio of .54. 530 innings!

Round 11, Pick 13
1970 Gene Tenace ($2,478,690) 129 PAs
I need someone to platoon with Bob Cerv (600 PAs), so Gene Tenace can catch and move Foxx to DH against LH pitchers. Tenace has a great B/A/A+ glove and excellent .312/.433/.564 batting line.

Round 12, Pick 13
1972 Bert Campaneris ($5,903,776) 712 PAs
I wanted to assure that I had a great defensive shortstop to help my pitching staff. Campy has a nice A-/A+ glove but his line is a dismal .251/.289/.343. I plan to draft another shortstop which will enable me to pinch hit for him at least once a game, if possible.

Round 13, Pick 13
1903 Rube Waddell ($11,368,507) 389 IPs
13-13 glad I’m not superstitious, perhaps I should have drafted Herman Munster of 1313 Mockingbird Lane, but he was with the Dodgers, no? – apologies to those younger than me, once again. I saved my “deadball” starter because there were many available and I knew I could draft someone useful, my ace! 920 innings now. ERC = 2.66 and a solid HR ratio of .14 – hope this is enough.

Round 14, Pick 16
1919 Braggo Roth ($2,066,736) 248 PAs
May have waited too long, but I needed some pitching, Roth will platoon with Simmons. Roth’s glove D+/D+ isn’t ideal however his bat .320/.375/.561 will do.

Round 15, Pick 10
1973 Rollie Fingers ($3,875,862) 127 IPs
I still need innings, meanwhile third base is still open with many options available – I’m going to roll the dice and hope that one of the two Eric Chavez seasons are still there when I decide to fill, “I DON”T KNOW”, third base. Fingers has 127 innings with an ERC = 2.54 and HR ratio of .32. This works, nearly 1,050 innings.

Round 16, Pick 16
2020 J.B. Wendelken ($2,357,343) 68 IPs
Working on the bullpen, Wendelken, setup, offers 68 solid IPs, ERC = 2.19 with HR ratio of .46.

Round 17, Pick 16 – (the bullpen round)
2002 Ricardo Rincon ($1,708,874) 56 IPs
1972 Bob Locker ($2,587,995) 82 IPs
Rincon will serve as setup, ERC = 2.21 and HR ratio of .47.
Locker will serve as long relief, ERC = 2.46 and HR ratio of .12.

Round 18, Pick 15
2008 Brad Ziegler ($1,701,502) 60 IPs
2020 Joakim Soria ($1,968,443) 60 PAs
Ziegler will serve as long relief, ERC = 2.45 and HR ratio of .23.
Soria will serve as long relief, ERC = 2.44 and HR ratio of .25.

Round 19, Pick 15
2002 Eric Chavez ($5,816,827) 412 PAs
2014 Ryan Cook ($1,532,801) 50 IPs
There were plenty of third basemen available in this draft. Lave Cross, two Eric Chavez (2002 & 2003), and two Matt Chapman (2018 & 2019) to fill the eighth spot in the lineup, I prefer one with a better glove. Chavez is more desirable because of the LH bat. In round 18, Kstober snatches the 2003 Chavez with the A/A+ glove, he already had a third baseman in Jimmy D(ykes), what could have been! I select the 2002 Eric Chavez, B/A+ with a .275/.347/.491 line and 34 homeruns.
Ryan Cook will serve as setup, ERC = 2.30 and HR ratio of .45.

Round 20, Pick 16 – (extra shortstop and pitching depth)
2018 Marcus Semien ($5,563,177) 703 PAs
1991 Dennis Eckersley ($2,580,181) 76 IPs
2000 Jim Mecir ($2,628,328) 86 IPs
Semien B/A+ glove, (.261/.323/.371) will play shortstop along with Campaneris allowing me to pinch hit once a game where possible, then slide in Semien for defense.
Eckersley will serve as mop up, ERC = 2.11 and HR ratio of 1.15, what could go wrong as a mop up? I would have selected a mop up pitcher with more innings available – more insight (a.k.a. ranting) on this topic under the ballpark discussion.
Mecir will serve as long relief, ERC 2.55 and HR ratio of .29.

Ballpark:
Once I decided to go with a hitting dominate team, I knew I’d use Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, CA, home of the Athletics during the 2025 season. Shortly after the draft started, I reached out to Schwarze questioning why What-If-Sports has not added that ballpark to their database. What do you mean, IT’S NOT AVAILABLE???? This is a conspiracy to hold back my team. The American League rookie of the year and runner up, (Kurtz and Wilson) played their home games in Sutter Health Park. Luis Severino, critic of the ballpark, had an era of 6.01 at home and 3.02 on the road, with 82 and 80 innings pitched at each. WHIPs of 1.53 vs 1.07; Batting Averages of .288 vs .222; and home runs allowed of 10 vs 6 respectively. Ruth and Gehrig get to use Yankee Stadium III, why can’t Jimmie Foxx have nice things?

Shibe Park, Factor=0.99 1B=2 2B=0 3B=0 LF=0 RF=0
Team Hitting line = .318/.402/.526
Pitching: IPs = 1,586 ERC = 2.49 HR = .37 OAV = .219 WHIP = 1.14 BB = 3.05 K9 = 7.01

As it was commented on both the cards and indians drafts that our league creator had no idea what my approach was... i will share. not that my record in these (or any) league is great...

Cardinals
Pre-draft plan-
In the real world I am very much a "pitching and defense wins championships" kind of guy. It makes being a Yankee fan right now particularly irritating. In this draft I think I can find pitching late (again) and draft bats. It also seems to me that although there are a limited number of great outfielders for this organization there are a ton of great first baseman. I plan on drafting good defensive first baseman as if they were outfielders. I am sure they will handle it well enough... right?

Round 1: Hornsby, Rogers 1925
Not going to take a Musial this early (there are soooo many). Not taking pitching. Drafting a DH right out of the gate seems like a great idea. Who needs that spot later in the draft when looking for a deal? Of course the way some drafts go he might have to play significant time in the field... his bat should make up for his defense if that is necessary. hopefully.

Round 2: Smith, Ozzie 1987
He's no Jeter but I love Ozzie. I want him to hit. I want him to play defense. This version does both. I would have taken 08 Pujols or 27 Frish had they not been grabbed earlier but if Hornsby ends up having to play second at least one half of the middle infield can use their glove.

Round 3: Bottomley, Jim 1925
LH bat with both average and obp. Respectable slugging. I am planning on using him at first but has a B range so he can cover more ground than Stanton in the outfield.

Round 4: Pujols, Albert 2006
Errr... many targets off the board between picks. If I am going to play first baseman out of position I need ones that can play great defense at first. A-/A+ does that. Heck, he might end up being my center fielder... nothing wrong with that right? He looks like a center fielder...

Round 5: Hernandez, Keith 1979
Sniped again. Wanted 2000 Eckstein. Instead I will take another first baseman I can play in the outfield. LH hitter with average, on base and A-/A fielding. Five picks in and I am winning the race for stud first baseman. We are up to three first baseman: one to play first and two in the outfield.

Round 6: Jefferies, Gregg 1993
Doesn't anyone else need a first baseman? I missed out on 22 Goldschmidt. Was actually looking at some of the Edmonds who went. Instead I will take a switch hitter that has a great bat and B/B+ fielding. Looks like Bottomley at first, Jefferies in left, Hernandez in right and Pujols manning center. Should be the best hitting outfield in the league. Where will they end up falling defensively?

Round 7: Schoendienst, Red 1952
I tricked everyone this round and took an infielder. He can play at both second and third. He can hit. He can do it from both sides of the plate. At this point I am thinking he and Smith will hit 8 and 9 in the order. Right now I have 3 switch hitters, 2 rh bats and 2 lefties. Nice balance. High average.

Round 8: McGwire, Mark 1999
Ok. One more first baseman. Doesn't anyone else want one? This one can't play D well enough to move to the outfield. Plan change. I have to play 5 first baseman. I have a SS and a guy who can play either 2B or 3B. I don't want to play a first baseman at Catcher so they will need to cover either 2B or 3B as well as all three OF positions. McGwire is my worst defensively so he stays at first. Pujols is the best so he is now my second baseman. Bottomley in left. I know that at some point I will add a Stan the Man so I will have plenty of AB's to cover every game at all of those positions.

Round 9: McCarver, Tim 1967
I need a catcher. This one hits well from the left side and has a great glove and arm. He is much more than simply a platoon based on PAs. He can work the booth when not playing. He won't be needed to help out at first.

Round 10: Molina, Yadier 2013
Clearly going to have a limited number of bats on my roster. Looking at the pitchers available I will likely use every available slot for arms. Lets grab a RH hitting catcher. This one brings my catching PAs up to over 1000. Will probably put them in the defensive depth chart for second and third so I don't have to worry about drafting another player to help in the infield.

Round 11: Gibson, Bob 1970
I draft a pitcher. Seems pretty good for this late in the draft. Just short of 300 IP. Way better than I thought I would get this late. Wooo hooo.

Round 12: Wainwright, Adam 2021
Yup. This is more what i expected from my pitching. Average. 500.1 total IP.

Round 13: Hudson, Dakota 2020
Better pitching. Less IP. total now up to 609.1 IP.

Round 14: Cox, Danny 1986
Is it good to have more than 200 IP and cost less than $6M? Wish I could say he was going to be used in Mop Up... but will be a starter. 722.1 total IP.

Round 15: Barrett, Red 1945
Real life ERA under 3. 260 IP. 982.1 total IP. Not sure I am feeling great about them... but I do have them.

Round 16: Burk, Sandy 1912 partial
Now that we are approaching the end I will look at the 1901-1919 arms. I can take 500 IP from that group. He doesn't look great but he is better than what is available post 1919. Total 1030.1 IP, 48 pre 1919.

Round 17: Musial, Stan 1958, Beebe, Fred 1906
I was planning on grabbing two more pitchers until I looked at the remaining Musials. This one doesn't help my first base problems but he seems to be significantly better with the bat than the other remaining options. With this choice I will need to grab an outfielder with great defense later but don't need to even consider that players bat or PA total. I might even have "The Man" platoon with "Big Mac" at first and bump up the PH usage... Fred will start. Looks better than some of the guys already on the roster. 1276.1 total IP, 294 from pre 1919.

Round 18: McGee, Willie 1986, Sanchez, Eduardo 2011
Everyone took all the 2b or 3b I wanted to use as defensive replacements over the last few rounds. Guess I will just grab a guy who can play center at the end of games when I am leading. He can also pinch run for my slow first baseman. Sanchez gives me my best 30 IP yet. Super helpful, I know. 1306.1 total.

Round 19 and 20: Muffett, Billy 1957; Perritt, Pol 1912; Whitley, Kodi 2021, Rhodes, Charlie 1908, Thomas, Roy 1978
Just about getting some more arms and IP. Total up to 1588 total. Seems about what is needed. 7597 total PAs. is a bit high but much of the extra are from my defensive replacement in the outfield.

Lineup:
CF (S) Jefferies (.342/.408/.485)
RF (L) Hernandez (.344/.417/.513)
DH (R) Hornsby (.403/.489/.756)
1B (Platoon) Musial (.337/.423/.528) / McGwire (.278/.424/.697)
LF (L) Bottomley (.367/.413/.578)
3B (R) Pujols (.331/.431/.671)
C (Platoon) McCarver (.295/.369/.452) / Molina (.319/.359/.477)
2B (S) Red S. (.303/.347/.424)
SS (S) Smith (.303/.392/.383)

Bench: McGee (and the two guys not starting from platoon)

and now for the Indians. (not the guardians. that's a dumb name.)

Indians
pre-draft plan:
I had two plans depending on who was taken before my first choice. Because 1908 Joss was available I followed the one that involved grabbing pitching first. Salary will not matter. Not at all. No matter what I do I will be near the end every round for a good long while. I thought about naming the team "NO CAP" but didn't know if people who don't work with high school students would know the slang...

Round 1: Joss, Addie 1908
It was very tough to watch so many big bats go between my first and second picks. I just kept looking at the depth at so many of the positions. There were many good bats at every position. All those 12-18 million dollar bats are just overrated, right?

Round 2: Lemon, Bob 1952
28 picks later... I add another 300+ IP guy with good stats. I was debating hard between him or 1920 Coveleski. I decided to go with Lemon and hope no people miss that the 1920 version is outside the dead ball years and he makes it back to me.

Round 3: Feller, Bob 1946
rrrrr... ron IS a genius. He took my pitcher. I guess Feller isn't a bad consolation prize. I finally have an actual three day rotation. 1059 IP for my team now. Pretty sure in the other three drafts of this tournament we were into the late teens before I got to this number. I can move to bats now.

Round 4:Sabathia, C.C. 2008
Ok. I will take another pitcher. Lots of LH IP for my bullpen. Besides 17 Ramirez, 95 Belle, 99 Alomar and 47 Boudreau all went during the round. With this pick I can easily finish my pitching staff with the minimum six slots. I can pick platoons for field positions with little to no concern for cost as it will be tough to drop down on the salary chart.

Round 5: Sewell, Joe 1925
LH bat. Can also play second if I find some good deals on a 2B/SS platoon. Get my infield set as there are still many good outfielders. I have to keep reminding myself of it as they keep going off the board.

Round 6: Ramirez, Jose 2024
Love this guy. Switch hitter. Glove. Bat. 90+ speed. Wooo hooo. Left side of the infield set. Don't worry about all those outfielders... still plenty.

Round 7: Baerga, Carlos 1993
Top 2B on my list. I like him. Another switch hitter.

Round 8: Jamieson, Charlie 1924
Another lefty. This one will play center field. Never used him but his numbers look good...

Round 9: Jackson, Joe 1914
I missed out on all the stud Jacksons. With zero money concerns I am planning on this one platooning at dh (looking at poor fielding Nap to cover the other half.) He should be a nice bat predominantly facing RH pitchers.

Round 10: Doby, Larry 1951
Another guy who cold be a starter as long as there were additional PAs to stick in when he's tuckered out. Without a worry about salary I plan on him being a platoon outfielder. Great bat off the bench when eighties start. There is a nice Justice season out there with my name on it next round. I will grab the RH bats after as there appears to be more.


Round 11: Lajoie, Nap 1912
Noncom took my Justice. A couple of RH bats I liked went to. Guess I will grab my RH DH. Kind of feel like we should all have a Nap.

Round 12: Speaker, Tris 1924
When someone says they have Joe Jackson, Nap Lajoie and Tris Speaker on their roster they aren't talking about these versions. They are my versions.

Round 13: Gonzalez, Juan 2001
RH platoon bat with a bunch of extra PAs. He will platoon with someone and be a big bat off the bench when they try to bring a Lefty in from the bullpen.

Round 14:Flick, Elmer 1906
This is where I was called out for the number of outfielders I was rostering. I gave a full throat-ed defense without including Gonzalez. My revamped defense is as follows:
DH: Nap (R)/Jackson (L) (1073 PA). Can ph and fill in at first, second and all three of positions if needed.
1B: Flick (L) (742 PA) Should be able to play every game.
CF: Jamieson (L) (699) Most every game.
RF: Doby (L)/Gonzalez (R) (1175) Obviously these two have enough to cover any games Speaker/Jamieson need off.
LF: Speaker (L) (609)

Overkill? Sure. Then again as I started with a $22M pitcher I was pretty much guaranteed the NL...

Round 15: Sims, Duke 1970
Round 16: Pytlak, Frankie 1937
Have every position set but catcher. Now I am set there. 886 PA for catcher. All set there.

Round 17: Betancourt, Rafael 2009; Baez, Danys 2001
107 more IP for the bullpen.

Round 18: Karinchak, James 2022; Cabrera, Fernando 2005
70 more...

Round 19: Collamore, Allan 1915; Ryan, Jack 1908
107 more...

Round 20: Riske, David 2005; Metkovich, Catfish 1947; Gimenez, Andres 2021
Somehow I ended up not picking last this round. one more bullpen arm. 1669 IP. The other two are set to be defensive replacements. Catfish is A/A+ at first and B+/A+ in the outfield. Gimenez is A/A+ at second and C+/A at short.

Indians Draft Recap

With a low first round pick, I didn’t expect to get any impact pitchers such as ’08 Joss, ’68 Tiant or ’20 Bieber. I was hoping to get good seasons of Nap Lajoie, Joe Jackson and Tris Speaker with my first three draft picks. I plan on playing in League Park II in order to try and limit HRs. I don’t plan on taking any big HR hitters such as Jim Thome or Albert Belle.

Round 1, Pick 13
1903 Nap Lajoie ($7,120,893)
With two picks to go before my turn, both 1911 and 1912 Joe Jackson seasons are still available. Then they went back-to-back (to bheid408 and ff09). Damn! I can wait a round on Tris Speaker, so my decision was between 1903 and 1904 Nap Lajoie. I was very close to taking the much better hitting Lajoie season (1904) despite being a worse defender. I had 1904 Lajoie all typed in, then I did some quick math. I wanted one of Tris Speaker’s top three full seasons (1923, 1920, 1916) with my next pick. If I took 1904, I would likely be picking sixth in round 2. But if I took ’03 Lajoie (.349, .393, .538, C/A+), I would likely be picking in the top three. That was just enough of a boost to change my pick to 1903. Given my propensity to wait on pitching, having the A+ range at 2B instead of C+ will certainly help.

Round 2, pick 4
1920 Tris Speaker ($10,627,526)
Not surprsingly, njbigwig takes ’04 Lajoie on the very next pick. The next two picks undercut my salary, so I ended up picking fourth this round. I need one of the three picking ahead of me to not take one of the three Speaker seasons I am hoping for. As it turns out, two people passed on Speaker before emanes10 took ’23 Speaker. I quickly grabbed 1920 Speaker (.375, .473, .559, B/B+). My hope is to get Joe Jackson’s 1913 season next round (he might slide since he is a D/D+ fielder).

Round 3, pick 4
1913 Joe Jackson ($7,691,908)
Other players that I might have considered this round included ’94 Kenny Lofton (went at pick 3.01) and 1974 Gaylord Perry (went at pick 3.03), so I didn’t really have a tough decision. I love ’13 Joe Jackson (.377, .462, .576), who has a higher OPS# than ’20 Speaker, but costs nearly $3 million less due to his defense. I got three perfect players for League Park II.

Round 4, pick 2
1913 Willie Mitchell ($7,645,892)
Man, I really wanted ’46 Bob Feller here. He went two picks in front of me (3.16) to 3dayrotation. That really hurt. I considered grabbing the best closer on the Indians, ’24 Emmanuel Clase but the fourth round just seems to early. The Indians have a number of deadball pitching options but many of them have a higher oav# than I would like. Of the deadball SPs left, ’13 Willie Mitchell (232 ip, 2.42 erc#, .207 oav#, 1.15 whip#, 0.07 hr/9#) has a pretty low oav#, so I picked him without much thought. Based on his innings total, I knew that I probably wouldn’t be able to pair him with another deadball SP. But I could grab some decent low-inning deadball SPs for the bullpen.

Round 5, pick 4
1948 Bob Lemon ($11,011,344)
This was a difficult pick. I thought about ’02 Charlie Hickman and his A+ range at 1B. I considered ’16 Jose Ramirez for his A/A defense at SS. I really like ’50 Larry Doby’s offense/defense combination. But I need a pitcher and ’48 Lemon (307 ip, 2.58 erc#, .214 oav#, 1.16 whip#, 0.39 hr/9#) was clearly the best on left, especially given his oav and hr/9. I knew this would drop me significantly in the draft order.

Round 6, pick 11
2001 Steve Karsay ($2,289,710)
I gambled and lost. I wanted to take ’16 Lindor with this pick but also wanted to move up in the draft order while adding a closer-quality pitcher. By keeping track of everybody’s roster, I determined that only three of the six people picking in front of me needed a shortstop so I might be able to grab Lindor at pick #2 next round. Nope… footballmm11 took him at pick 6.14. Well, at least Karsay (44 ip, 1.22 erc#, .186 oav#, 0.84 whip#, 0.15 hr/9#) has all the features I want in a closer.

Round 7, pick 2
1930 Ed Morgan ($6,842,501)
I was going back and forth on taking either a 1B or an OF here. The top OF I was considering was ’34 Earl Averill. The top 1B was ’30 Ed Morgan (.335, .401, .582, C-/A-). ’50 Doby just went at 7.01, so I should probably take the OF here. But there are a bunch of similar choices at OF. The first base position on the Indians is loaded with a bunch of Jim Thome and Hal Trosky seasons. Neither of those players makes sense for a League Park II team. Since high-average 1B’s Charlie Hickman and Lew Fonseca have already been drafted, I couldn’t wait any longer on Ed Morgan.

Round 8, pick 2
1932 Earl Averill ($7,089,099)
Sure enough, both ’31 and ’34 Averill get taken immediately after I took Morgan. Damn. My top choices are now ’32 Averill (.306, .383, .557, C-/A-) and ’93 Kenny Lofton. Given the fact that Averill has 32 HRs and Lofton is more suited for a negative HR park (with better speed and defense), I should’ve taken Lofton here. But Lofton’s ops# is much lower and Averill did hit 37 doubles and 14 triples, so it's not like Averill is dependent on HRs.

Round 9, pick 7
1919 Ray Caldwell ($2,159,792)
I considered taking my third SP here (’16 Kluber), but SPs with higher HR numbers tend to slide in these drafts. I may try to take him next round. It feels like RPs are starting to go and I want to get some good ones. Caldwell (62 ip, 1.87 erc#, .181 oav#, 1.00 whip#, 0.27 hr/9#) isn’t the best RP on the board, but since he’s really a low-inning deadball SP, he can throw more than 10-15 pitchers per appearance. And I move back up to pick #2 next round.

Round 10, pick 2
1951 Minnie Minoso ($5,976,792)
One of the catchers I had my eye on (’07 Victor Martinez) went at pick 9.13 to ff09. I guess I will wait and take Ron Hassey later. I almost took ’16 Corey Kluber here but hardly anybody is taking SPs now, so I can wait one more round. There are a couple of 3B I like, but Minnie Minoso (.327, .415, .501, C-/B- at 3B) seems like a steal. His offense is perfect for my home park. But not his defense.

Round 11, pick 3
1958 Hoyt Wilhelm ($4,624,013)
Of course, '16 Kluber went four picks after I took Minoso. I don’t see any SP that I want and I already have a couple of low-inning RPs, so let’s compromise and take a high-inning RP. Hoyt Wilhelm (139 ip, 2.16 erc#, .209 oav#, 1.09 whip#, 0.35 hr/9#) will pitch a lot in innings 6 thru 8.

Round 12, pick 3
1980 Ron Hassey ($4,297,519)
I thought about forcing myself to take a SP here, but I wanted to get the lefthanded part of my catching platoon before footballmm11 takes him to pair with Bo Diaz. Hassey (.314, .389, .437, A/B/A-) has 453 PAs. I am looking to platoon him with ’84 Chris Bando. But I am also fine grabbing a full-season Victor Martinez (with a bad throwing arm) if Bando gets taken.

Round 13, pick 5
1947 Bob Feller ($9,087,045)
Although I am not getting as many great defensive range guys as I normally do, I still want SPs that have a relatively low oav#. ‘47 Feller (315 ip, 2.78 erc#, .218 oav#, 1.18 whip#, 0.56 hr9#) is similar to ‘48 Lemon (my 5th round pick) in that they both have a high whip due to a high walk rate, but a low oav and low hr/9. This pick gives me 845 innings from just three SPs. That means I can wait a bit for SP4.

Round 14, pick 11
2011 Joe Smith ($2,3176,257)
I went from pick #5 to pick #11 with the Feller pick. I need to add some low-salaried RPs in order to move up in the draft before round 17. Although I never seem to have any luck with Joe Smith (67 ip, 2.17 erc#, .219 oav#, 1.11 whip#, 0.10 hr/9, B+/A+ defense), I was happy to take him this late and a bit surprised he was still around. People love relief pitchers with low oav and extremely low HRs.

Round 15, pick 8
2008 Craig Breslow ($1,725,031)
I was 100% taking 1906 Elmer Flick this round, but 3dayrotation sniped me (again!) and drafted his sixth full-time OF. What is he doing? Damn it! Time for another RP I guess. Breslow (47 ip, 1.99 erc#, .200 oav#, 1.11 whip#, 0.15 hr/9# with A+/A+ defense) is one of the best pitchers below 50 innings in franchise history. Due to his low IP/G, he will be capped at 10 pitches. He’s also my first lefty RP.

Round 16, pick 4
1995 Manny Ramirez ($5,147,551)
So far, I have seven position players. I still need SS, OF and backup C. That Elmer Flick pick really ticked me off – he would’ve been the perfect fit for my League Park II team. I decided to grab my third OF this round. With two picks to go before my turn, I had my preferred OF narrowed down to two choices (’97 Manny Ramirez or ‘14 Michael Brantley). As I was trying to decide which guy to take, bheid408 selects ’97 Ramirez. OK – that makes my decision easy. One pick to go. Then njbigwig selects ’14 Brantley. WTF?! The double-snipe. After throwing a few things, I calmed down. Then, I realized that ’95 Ramirez (.304/.394/.535. C+/D+) wasn’t that much worse than ’97 Ramirez so that’s where I went. I really don’t like how this Indians draft has gone. It seems like I've been sniped on at least half of the rounds.

Round 17, pick 9
1984 Chris Bando ($2,616,939)
1923 Riggs Stephenson ($3,010,604)
Finally, I got a player that I targeted and didn’t get sniped. Bando (260 pa, .290/.379/.496, C/B/B+) is the perfect platoon partner for Hassey (453 PA). He’s also a switch-hitter. Since Lajoie only has 608 PA, I needed a 2B that could field and wouldn’t hurt me on offense. Stephenson (.308/.346/.472) has 347 PA and plays 2B (C+/A), 3B (C/B) and OF (C/B). A perfect bench/role player.

Round 18, pick 5
1957 Herb Score ($1,489,580)
1990 Lucky Wright ($744,634)
In his first two MLB seasons, Herb Score went a combined 36-19 over 477 innings which included All-Star appearances in both seasons and a Rookie of the Year award in 1955. In 1957, Score suffered a career-altering injury when a line-drive off the bat of Yankees' Gil McDougald struck him in the face, breaking facial bones and damaging his right eye, forcing him to miss the rest of the season and ultimately diminishing his once-dominant pitching career. I drafted this injury-shortened season (39 ip, 2.01 erc#, .152 oav#, 1.23 whip#, 0.00 hr/9#, 6.3 bb/9#). Like most of my other pitchers, he walks a bunch of guys but you can’t get a hit off of him. Lucky Wright (30 ip, 2.29 erc#, .236 oav#, 1.10 whip#, 0.00 hr/9#) is another short-inning deadball pitcher. I don’t have to worry about pitch count with either of these two guys.

Round 19, pick 2
1951 Early Wynn ($8,296,073)
1998 Omar Vizquel ($5,425,371)
So, do all the Indians starting pitchers from the 1940’s and 1950’s have problems walking guys? Early Wynn (290 ip, 2.80 erc#, .225 oav#, 1.18 whip#, 0.58 hr/9#) has a bb/9 rate of 3.5, which is the *best* of my four SPs. Once I missed out on the good Lou Boudreau seasons, I knew I would wait until very late to draft my starting shortstop. With all the baserunners my SPs are going to be walking, I need a defensive wizard at SS who is not a complete zero at the plate. Vizquel (.284/.352/,348) has an ops+ below 100 so clearly he’s a below average hitter, but he’s a switch hitter with a decent batting avg and an ok obp. More importantly, his defense is A+/B-. The B- range is not great, but A+ fielding will be helpful. I will get a backup SS next round who can hit if Vizquel is a disaster at the plate. Question. Which is better defensively? Having a guy like Ray Chapman (C/A+) who will make 20-25 plus plays while also committing 40+ errors or a guy like Vizqual (A+/B-) who will have 3-4 plus plays, 3-4 minus plays but fewer than 10 errors?

Round 20, pick 10
2015 Francisco Lindor ($3,662,785)
1929 Joe Sewell ($6,092,985)
1904 Elmer Flick ($5,525,566)
Clearly, I didn’t care about division placement since I spent $15 million on backup hitters. Lindor (.317/.359/.467, B/C) only has 440 PA, but he is clearly a better hitter than Vizquel and may end up playing a lot. Minnie Minoso isn't a great defensive 3B (C-/B-) so I needed one who could play a little defense (and maybe even hit a bit). Sewell (.303/.362/.414, A/B+) is decent enough to maybe even start a few games when Minoso needs rest. This 1904 season of Elmer Flick (.316/.389/.482, C/C) actually has a higher ops# than 3day's 1906 Flick but ’06 Flick is a better defensive player. I could Elmer Flick starting over Manny Ramirez at home against RHP, especially against deadball pitchers.

Ballpark:
Since I didn’t draft HR hitters (by design), League Park II was the obvious choice for my home park? Nap Lajoie, Joe Jackson, Tris Speaker, Elmer Flick and Minnie Minoso are all high-average hitters with minimal power. Earl Averill (32 HRs), Manny Ramirez (31 HRs) and Ed Morgan (26 HRs) are also high average hitters and are the only players on my roster with more than 12 HRs. Overall, my team’s triple slash is .327/.399/.503. On the pitching side, we have 1571 innings, with a high 1.15 whip, a low .210 oav, a high 3.6 bb/9 and a low 0.35 hr/9. This is going to be interesting to see how this team does.

Cardinals Draft Recap

I had low first round draft picks with both franchises during this set of drafts (pick 13 with the Indians and pick 14 with the Cardinals). In coming up with a pre-draft strategy, you have to start with what ballparks are available. The Cardinals franchise has mostly negative offensive parks with only Sportsman being a plus offensive park. Picking near the end of the first round, I was hoping to get ’01 Jesse Burkett and ’85 Willie McGee, the grab one of Stan Musial low HR seasons (1943, 1944 or 1946) in round 3. I would play my home games in either Busch Stadium (-2 HRs) or Busch II (-3 HRs).

Round 1, Pick 14
1901 Jesse Burkett ($8,596,778)
The top 5 SPs (’68 Gibson, ’85 Tudor, ’42 Cooper, ’48 Brecheen and ’04 Nichols) were all taken before my turn, as expected. All the good Rogers Hornsby seasons were taken - I would’ve considered taking 1920 but he went one pick in front of me to DarthDurron. So, my choice is ‘85 McGee or ‘01 Burkett. The salary difference was the deciding factor. McGee’s salary was $1.2 million higher. I thought I would have a much better chance of getting McGee if I picked in the top 3 in round 2, than getting Burkett if I picked 6th or later in round 2. Burkett (.371/.445/.527, D/A-) is crushing it for me in the original Draft Tournament hitting .376 w/190 RBIs and winning the MVP in round 1, league 1 and hitting .377 with 177 RBIs in round 2, league 1.

Round 2, pick 3
1946 Stan Musal ($10,457,737)
What a shock… ronthegenius sniped me. Picking 16th, he went cheap in round 1 with ’79 Garry Templeton and then with pick 2.01, he took ’85 McGee. Now this is where I made a mistake. I took ’46 Musial (.369/.434/.600, B/A-) but I should have waited a round since there are three similar Musial seasons with low HRs. Both 1943 and 1944 seasons went in the middle to late round 3. Big mistake. I could’ve taken ’27 Frisch this round. Stupid.

Round 3, pick 6
1950 Jim Hearn ($5,264,463)
Not only did I miss out on ‘27 Frisch, but I missed out on a bunch of other players I wanted including ’17 Hornsby, ’43 Pollet and ’53 Schoendienst. When my pick came up in this round, and ’43 and ’44 Musial were still sitting there, I got so mad at myself. I decided to punish myself and take a player I have a love/hate relationship with, ’50 Jim Hearn (141 ip, 1.69 erc#, .182 oav#, 0.93 whip#, 0.51 hr/9#). The over/under for number of appearances before a multi-run blowup is 3.5. Bet the under.

Round 4, pick 4
2004 Albert Pujols ($8,739,185)
I really wanted ’09 Pujols here for his .442 obp#, but ronthegenius sniped me again at pick 4.01. I went with the next best Pujols. Even though I plan on playing in a negative HR park, I wanted Pujols A+++ range.

Round 5, pick 5
1952 Stu Miller ($3,396,839)
This is a really weird draft for me. The Cardinals don’t have a lot of really good SPs. There are a bunch of similar players to take at C, 2B, 3B, SS. I already have two OFs so I can wait to take a third OF. I can’t ever remember taking two RPs in the first five rounds before. Stu Miller has some very nice features. He’s a SP so his IP/G is over 7. He’s got 93 IPs with low HRs, a low OAV and has B/A+ defense. I figured that with him and Hearn, I should have innings 7-9 covered.

Round 6, pick 1
1962 Bob Gibson ($8,038,874)
I pegged ’62 Gibson as my first SP about three rounds ago, but I was waiting until other higher rated SPs got taken. Gibson (234 ip, 2.57 erc#, .205 oav#, 1.15 whip#, 0.48 hr/9#) was basically the best SP available. I really like his low oav#, which is his second best (behind his 1968 season).

Round 7, pick 3
1954 Red Schoendienst ($6,491,683)
I wanted 1919 Rogers Hornsby as my starting 2B but njbigwig sniped me a few picks before my turn. I wanted to get my 2B here so my decision was between '54 Schoendienst (.313/.363/.415, B/A+) and ’52 Schoendienst (.309/.350/.429, B-/A+). It was a close call. With his 1952 season, he can also play 3B (C+/A-) but I preferred his better avg/obp season.

Round 8, pick 3
1942 Enos Slaughter ($6,752,466)
Two picks after I took Schoendienst, DarthDurron took Enos Slaughter and I panicked, but then I realized that he took his 1949 season. I really wanted his 1942 season. His hitting stats (.326/.418/.515, B+/C-) is perfect for Busch Stadium. More importantly, he was awesome for me in League 4, hitting .350/.422/.548 with 149 runs scored and 116 RBIs in round 1. In round 2, he finished at .340/.408/.511 with 30 tripes. I love Enos Slaughter.


Round 9, pick 3
1986 Ozzie Smith ($5,798,957)
I basically drafted Ozzie solely for his great defense. His hitting stats are ok (.285/.380/334, A/A). I’ll grab a better offensive shortstop later in the draft. I should’ve waited one more round and instead taken Red Munger, who ronthegenius took one pick after me. 5

Round 10, pick 5
1929 Al Grabowski ($2,224,288)
I have Jim Hearn and Stu Miller to pitch those middle innings, but Grabowski gives me a closer who doesn’t have to worry about pitch count. Grabowski (54 ip, 1.68 erc#, .210 oav#, 0.97 whip#, 0.00 hr/9$) is a SP with IP/G > 8. It’s rare for my bullpen to be better than my starters.

Round 11, pick 3
1972 Ted Simmons ($5,502,703)
When ronthegenius drafted ’78 Ted Simmons in round 9, he asked me why I hadn’t taken Ted Simmons yet (he knows I like Simmons). My answer: There are plenty of decent Ted Simmons seasons still available. After the fifth and sixth Ted Simmons seasons got taken at the end of round 10, I decided it was time. His ’72 season (.311/.343/.474, B+/A/B) doesn’t have a great OBP but I like his batting average and he does have 654 PA, which means I don’t need to draft a backup catcher.

Round 12, pick 5
1908 Fred Beebe ($5,158,881)
Most deadball pitchers tend to have higher oav and lower bb/9. But Fred Beebe (184 ips, 2.65 erc#, .209 oav#, 1.26 whip#, 0.27 hr/9#) does not have a high oav. Of course, the 3.8 bb/9# contributes to his high whip. The fact he only has 184 innings means that I can draft another deadball SP.

Round 13, pick 5
1915 Slim Sallee ($7,499,375)
I really wanted Sallee here and was thrilled that I didn’t get sniped. I really needed his innings (292 ip, 2.70 erc#, .246 oav#, 1.18 whip#, 0.32 hr/9#) despite his higher oav. The Cardinals franchise really doesn’t have a lot of good starting pitching. I only have 710 innings with my three SPs. I may need two more SPs.

Round 14, pick 8
1921 Austin McHenry ($6,491,636)
I can’t believe that I didn’t get sniped on McHenry. I had him queued up for at least three rounds. His stats are so good (,335/.387/.524, C/A-) that I thought I must have missed him getting drafted. I like my Cardinals team way better than my Indians team

Round 15, pick 9
1944 Harry Brecheen ($5,294,426)
It's not that I really wanted ’44 Brecheen (200 ip, 2.84 erc#, .243 oav#, 1.16 whip#, 0.45 hr/9#), but the starting pitching is so bad, that the alternatives are really ugly. Thank God that my bullpen is fairly strong.

Round 16, pick 11
1986 Ricky Horton ($2,992,932)
Speaking of the bullpen, let’s get a big inning lefty reliever. I was actually surprised that Horton (101 ip, 2.27 erc#, .222 oav#, 1.04 whip#, 0.57 hr/9#) was still available. I haven’t been sniped in quite a while. After I made this pick, I realized that I probably should have taken ’85 Cesar Cedeno. He’s one of the best pinch hitters in the entire database. Surely, with 2 picks per person next round, there’s no way he makes it to me.,

Round 17, pick 11
1985 Cesar Cedeno ($2,600,938)
2002 Woody Williams ($2,935,547)
How did ’85 Cedeno (82 pa, .441/.469/.753) make it to me? Maybe because I am not platooning anywhere and I have plenty of innings already? Woody Williams (104 ip, 2.54 erc#, .224 oav#, 1.05 whip#, 0.69 hr/9#) will be my fifth SP and long reliever.

Round 18, pick 10
2024 Ryan Helsley ($2,226,372)
1941 Tommy Brown ($5,818,175)
With these two picks, I really don’t need anything else. Helsley (66 ip, 2.21 erc#, .218 oav#, 1.14 whip#, 0.29 hr/9#) is one of the only modern RPs on my roster. I’m sure he’ll get lit up. Earlier, I mentioned that 3B was very deep…many players decent enough to start in this league. I selected Brown (.308/.364/.417, A-/A-) for his defense and the fact that he is a switch-hitter. There are better hitters available that I may take later. At this point, I don’t really need anything else. I have five discretionary picks left.


Round 19, pick 12
1947 Whitey Kurowski ($5,619,624)
1941 Estel Crabtree ($1,895,129)
The best hitting 3B available is ’47 Whitey Kurowski (.308/.415/.540). His .954 ops# is third best among Cardinals. The only reason his is available this late is his B-/D defense. I can find spots to start him. Crabtree is another pinch hitter or DH type (.344/.440/.514). There are at least four better hitters that went undrafted (’18 Voit, ’23 Mann, ’36 Mize, ‘41 Mize)

Round 20, pick 12
1961 Gene Oliver ($1,421,387)
1996 Rick Honeycutt ($1,411,474)
2014 Jhonny Peralta ($5,307,245)
Oliver (.270/.368/.527, A+ arm) is a backup catcher with some pop and a good arm. He won’t start over Simmons, but now I can pinch hit for Simmons late and have somebody to play catcher. Honeycutt (48 ip, 2.13 erc#, .240 oav#, 1.03 whip#, 0.45 hr/9#) gives me a third lefty RP. Peralta (.269/.343/.443, A/B) provides a backup shortstop in case I need to pinch hit for Ozzie.

Ballpark:
Although Pujols (46 HRs) is my team’s only true HR hitter, I do have a number of double-digit HR hitters so I chose the original Busch Stadium (-2 HRs) as my home park instead of Busch II (-3 HRs). My team batting stats: .322/.393/.496. I hope I have enough innings: 1517 ip, .216 oav, 1.09 whip, 2.6 bb/9, 0.41 hr/9. I think this team can make the playoffs.