Round 1
1914 Donie Bush
1922 Casey Stengel
1969 Carl Yastzemski
1898 Jay Hughes
Use the exactly 5 year twist to turn 1917 Eddie Collins into 1912 Eddie Collins

This was the first round of my first draft of this type, so, other than the example pool that TulsaG generated, I really didn’t know what to expect. Bush is a full season shortstop with A+ range and a .378 OBP#, so that seemed good. Stengel provides an excellent (.351/.425/ .553) partial season. Hughes’s 3.01 ERC# seems pretty useless, but the underlying numbers (.238 OAV#, 3.18 BB/9#, 0.20 HR/9+) aren’t too, too bad; he provides 327 innings and maybe he can get a few people out. I understand why at the time I chose Yaz: I wanted another starting player and his OPS and defense are solid. But in hindsight, given the scarcity of good third basemen, perhaps 1983 Carney Lansford, despite only being half a season, might’ve been the right choice here. The final decision was what to do about Collins. His 1917 is relatively lousy. I could’ve twisted him to some of his best seasons (1913-1915), but figured that the “less than 5 year" twist was more valuable than the "exactly 5 year" twist, so I’d rather save that for later and settle for the solid, though clearly lesser, Collins here. Seems logical, right? Spoiler alert...

Round 2
1981 Eddie Murray
2014 Steve Pearce
2010 Roy Oswalt
1997 Mark Clark
2014 Jeurys Familia

I considered re-rolling this. Nothing here is super exciting. The one twist I could’ve used was 1976 Joe Decker to Joe Morgan, but I already had a second baseman so I saved it. Murray is a starting 1B but he combines with Yaz to give me two hitters in my lineup with subpar OBPs. Pearce is a half-season RHH masher who can field and pairs well with Stengel. Oswalt is a useful piece; good enough (212 IP, 2.34 ERC#) to be a starting pitcher but even better (83 IP, 1.73 ERC#) if you can afford to use him as a reliever. Clark and Familia are OK relievers. Not a horrible haul, but I’m not feeling super great about my team right now.

Round 3
1951 Matt Batts
1992 Dwight Smith
Twist 1999 Barry Bonds to 2002
1908 Addie Joss
2006 Josh Johnson

Now that’s more like it! 1908 Joss is one of the best pitchers in the sim [citation needed]. Smith is a good half-season DH. Johnson is a solid (157 IP, 3.23 ERC#) spot starter / long reliever. And Batts is useful because, as a wiser man than I once said, if you don’t have a catcher you have a lot of passed balls. And then there’s that Bonds guy, who I was obviously absolutely ecstatic to get, but...

I’m going to preface the following remarks by thanking TulsaG for creating this unique, creative, enjoyable theme, and for the voluminous work that he has done in running the drafts. I truly appreciate it, as I’m sure everyone who is participating does. But, as I wrote when I originally joined this league, I cannot for the life of me figure out why it is deemed necessary to declare which twist you’re using up front. There is no practical reason for it, except perhaps to inject additional randomness into a process that, in my opinion, already has the sufficient randomness inherent in the assignments of the pools of players. It seems to be frustration for the sake of frustration. And, certainly, frustration is a part of drafts; in fact, it’s among the most fun parts. But in a live draft against other people, any frustration that I feel is due to other people behaving differently than I expect, which I find fascinating. I’m willing to pay that price of frustration for the fascination of seeing how other people think. There is no such cost/benefit here. There’s only randomly generated punishment for making the correct decision. I fail to see how this rule makes this a better league. It’s literally the only thing about this league that I don’t like. /rant

Admittedly, however, even though I didn’t get to use 2004 Bonds or one of the elite Eddie Collins seasons, 2002 Bonds is still pretty sweet...


Round 4
1999 Tony Eusebio
1989 Kevin Mitchell
1983 Pete Ladd
1952 Bob Kelly
1996 Osvaldo Fernandez, twisted to 1996 Alex Fernandez, twisted to 1996 Alex Rodriguez

When I first received this draw, I was fairly certain that I’d re-roll. There was only one impact player on the list, and I didn’t see any way to use any of my remaining (first and last name) twists to improve my team. In fact, I sent TulsaG an email stating that I wanted a re-roll. But that was late Sunday night, and he (understandably) did not open my message. And then I started digging a little deeper. I wouldn’t have even done that except...I have a serious 1989 Kevin Mitchell fetish. He absolutely mashes for me every...single...time.... and I couldn’t deal with the fact I was throwing him back. And the thing is, I needed a third baseman. I had no one on my roster who could play third base. And while referring to what Kevin Mitchell does as "playing third base" might be a loose interpretation, at least he is eligible to stand nearby and watch ground balls roll past him. And absolutely mash. So I started looking at trying to use both name twists on the same player, which I had never previously considered doing. I was hoping to find a good pitcher. I did not. But I did find 1996 A-Rod. Now, I already had a starting shortstop in Donie Bush, but A-Rod would be a significant upgrade there [citation needed]. And while I still had needs elsewhere, there was no guarantee that, if I re-rolled, my final two sets of players would yield as much of an upgrade to my team as Mitchell and A-Rod would, even with the two twists. In other words, an A-Rod in the hand is worth two twists and a Bush. Thanks. I’ll be here all week. Try the veal.

As for the other guys, Eusebio is not great but he’s serviceable, has enough PAs to cover the position with Batts, and unlike Batts can field. He’s also the second-best Portuguese soccer player in history although in hindsight that might be a different Eusebio. Anyway, the rest of my lineup will now be excellent so I’m OK with one hole. Ladd (50 IP, 1.60 ERC#) should actually be a pretty darned good closer in this league, and Bob Kelly provides more decent innings. If I use Oswalt’s 212 IP season, I now only need about 90 good innings, about half a DH and someone who can actually field the ball while playing third base in order to complete my team. And I still have my re-roll available if needed.

Round 5
1973 Bob Montgomery
2024 Emmanuel Rivera
2001 Paul Lo Duca
1987 Tony Gwynn
2016 Jose Quintana

Let’s see...I received no good innings and nobody who can field at third base. Time for a re-roll? Hell, no! Not only did I receive an entire catching situation with Lo Duca (.320/.372/.571, B/A+) and Montgomery (.322/.353/.563), replacing my one weak offensive position with strength, I got one of the best Tony Gwynn seasons (.371/.447/.500, 56 SBs) to further bolster my lineup. Pitching? We don’t need no STEEENKING pitching! Quintana will provide more of my trademark mediocre innings. Rivera is there because in the 9th inning with a lead A/D- is better at third base than D/D-. Or so I’ve heard.

Was I better off keeping my Round 4 draw and using my two twists to get A-Rod? Well, assuming that my re-draw would’ve been the same as my Round 5 draw, I don’t see any places where I could’ve used either twist to improve my team, so I’d be going into my final draw needing to do better (with the two remaining twists) than Mitchell, A-Rod and a closer. Certainly possible, but by no means probable.

How will this team do? Well, they can hit but they can’t pitch. Funny how the guy who I considered fairly useless in Round 1 is my third starter. But man, this team can rake. Should be fun. Again, thanks to TulsaG for all the voodoo that he do so well.

Lineup, projected 6,000 PAs used: normalized .331/.420/.565
Pitching, projected 1,450 IP used: 2.52 ERC#, 1.10 WHIP#
$145.7M salary, ~$13M wasted