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Team Name: High Scoring Braves 01 32 53 00 23
Ballpark: Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium
Salary: $125,883,784 (6th, NL West)
Draft Position: 13

Round 1 - 2000
Picking 13th, I didn’t get an opportunity to get one of the top Greg Maddux seasons. I was hoping 1997 would slip a little more, but njbigwig finally grabbed them with pick 9. When my turn came up, I considered 2000, 1947, 1953 and 2024. I thought about taking 1947 here due to the scarcity of Group B options. But a quick analysis showed that even though I am getting the eighth best Group D team, there was a huge drop-off after 2000. I thought there was a decent shot at getting 1947 or 1953 early in round 2. Greg Maddux (250 ips, 2.33 erc#) is still a pretty strong SP in 2000 even though it's not among his top five seasons. Tom Glavine (242 ip, 2.87 erc#) is a serviceable SP4 If needed. I also get two really strong hitters in Chipper Jones (.309, .397, .541) and Andruw Jones (.301, .360, .515, A/A+). Javy Lopez (.285, .331, .459) is an acceptable catcher. I basically got 5 usable players with this pick. Note that the next Group D season didn’t get taken until round 3, so I feel justified in picking 2000 here.

Round 2 - 1953
Of course, 1947 went at pick 2.01 and apparently, others ahead of me also wanted 1947 so there was no chance of getting them at pick 2.04. ff09 grabbed 2024 one pick in front of me, making my decision straightforward. The only other season I even considered here was 2022. Although 1953 isn’t super deep, it does have two studs, with Warren Spahn (280 ip, 2.09 erc#) and Eddie Mathews (.300, .402, .613). Yes, I know ’53 Spahn tends to underachieve in the sim, but compared to other Braves SPs, he’s still a top 10 SP for this franchise. That gives me two of the top 15 Braves SPs. Also, I do realize that I now have two starting 3B. One will obviously play DH. Johnny Logan (.273, .326, .398, A-/A-) isn’t great, but he plays good defense and I won’t have to worry about shortstop going forward. Del Crandall (.272, .330, .429, “A” arm) fills the missing PAs at catcher. The second P Ernie Johnson (86 ip, 3.14 erc#) is basically a filler. I told you this team didn’t have a lot of depth. Two studs and 1.5 other very mediocre hitters. Is it better to have 2 studs and not much else or have 4 decent/good players?

Round 3 – 2023
Picking late in round 1 has one key advantage and that is that you get to pick early in both rounds 2 and 3. I was hoping 2022 would be there on my turn, but kstober grabbed this season at pick 2.13. I had narrowed down my choices to 2012 and 2023 when I went to sleep before the end of round 2. Since the teams drafting before me already had their Group E seasons, I could have made my selection that night. But I wanted to sleep on it. This decision would shape my entire season (would I be strong at pitching and weak at hitting or vice versa?). 2012 has the unique feature of providing 282 innings of stud relief pitching (Medlen, Kimbrel, Beachy). There wasn’t a ton of offense from that season or else I would have taken them. I had a long wait for my round 4 pick and feared that any seasons with multiple good offensive players would be taken. I was right as the seasons I would have wanted included 1912, 1933 and 1945. So, I made the decision… “Screw relief pitching”. I am going to go with seven semi-usable SPs and load up on offense. 2023 provides me with three strong batters at positions of need… OF Ronald Acuna Jr. (.345, .419, .578), 2B Ozzie Albies (.287, .339, .496) and 1B Matt Olson (.290, .392, .586). Pitchers Spencer Strider (187 ip, 2.73 erc#) and Max Fried (78 ip, 2.88 erc#) are both very usable. I am now approaching 300 HRs with my starting lineup so it appears that my home park with be Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium.

Round 4 – 1932
I waited a long time for my next pick and I was somewhat vindicated as I watched seasons that I would have wanted to draft hitters from get taken. When my turn finally came, I knew I was going to get either 1901 (Vic Willis) or 1905 (Irv Young) with my last pick so my round 4 pick needed to fill 2 holes…. I needed one more OF and some pitching depth. I knew I was going to end up with Wally Berger as my third OF… the question is which season of Berger? A quick search revealed that 1932 had the best pitchers of the remaining Berger seasons. (And I use the word "best" as a relative term). Note that ’32 Wally Berger (.300, .347, .461, A/A+) wasn’t the best hitting Berger left, but the addition of pitchers Huck Betts (234 ip, 2.93 erc#) and Ben Cantwell (154 ip, 2.74 erc#) provide the pitching depth I was looking for, albeit very mediocre pitching depth. Although I didn’t really need much else, I was able to add a couple of cheaper pinch-hitter / defensive replacement types in outfielders Buck Jordan (.321, .333, .434, B-/A+) and Dutch Holland (.295, .345, .397, A/B).

Round 5 – 1901
Since ff09 didn’t take 1901 or 1905, I had my choice of which deadball SP to add. Both Vic Willis (359 ip, 2.65 erc#) and Irv Young (398, 2.65 erc#) are similar pitchers. Young has more innings but 1901 had one decent hitter that I might find useful, Billy Hamilton (.285, .409, .373). The other 1901 players I added are irrelevant.

Overall Comment
Given my disdain for RPs, I am ok with the strategy of not drafting any good RPs and simply using SPs out of the bullpen. Playing home games at Fulton-County Stadium, there will be a ton of runs scored, so any good RPs I may have drafted would hit their pitch count quickly and be removed prematurely, so having six SPs formed into three Tandems seems like the way to go. Ignoring the three worst pitchers on my roster, I have 1548 innings with an average whip of 1.11 and an average oav of .231. My starting lineup averages .299, .371, .534 with 299 HRs. I have two A+ range outfielders and respectable defense everywhere else. Other than catching platoon (Lopez has 525 pa), my other eight regulars average over 700 PAs each (min 660), so I don’t really have to worry about backups, although Billy Hamilton may get some starts over Berger vs RHP in negative HR parks. Overall, this team feels like an 87-win team that probably has a better expected winning% than actual winning% due to poor 1-run game luck.

Team Name: High Scoring White Sox 20 26 63 90 22
Ballpark: Comiskey Park (I)
Salary: $129,784,860 (1st, NL East)
Draft Position: 3

Round 1 - 1920
The White Sox have a ton of deadball pitching (obviously). Guys like ’08 and ’10 Walsh would be early selections if this were a single player draft. But those seasons have no useful offensive players. The best options have good deadball pitching *and* some offensive punch… a season from the late teens (1917, 1919, 1916) would make for a solid first round pick. I had determined that I would select 1917 with my #3 overall pick. And of course they went one pick before me at #2 overall. 1916 went #1, which I can’t argue with. I looked hard at 1919 but the offense wasn’t quite strong enough plus I’ve never had a lot of luck with ’19 Cicotte. I then looked at 2020. I could add two pretty good hitters and three stud pitchers. My brain was telling me to take 2020 as I could get still a solid deadball pitcher in a later round. But I was worried that all the seasons with good offensive players would get snatched up before my next pick. I then pivoted to 1920. Easily, the best season for hitting, for any White Sox season in history. Of course, I knew this meant I would NOT get any good deadball pitching. Oh well… let’s have some fun. 1920 gives me Joe Jackson (.382, .444, .589), Happy Felsch (.338, .384, .540, B/A), Eddie Collins (.372, .438, .493, B/B+) and a switch-hitting Buck Weaver (.331, .365, .420) who can start at 3B or SS. Ed Cicotte (320 ip, 3.27 erc#) will need some really good run support to win even 10 games.

Round 2 - 1926
The seasons selected right after my 1920 pick included 2020, 1915, 1964 and 1919… all seasons that I would have expected to go early. I’ve taken 1964 in other versions of White Sox drafts. It’s a solid and defensible selection, but I just couldn’t stomach another offense counting on Pete Ward and Ron Hansen. The wait from early round 1 to late round 2 was excruciatingly long as all the seasons I was thought might fall to me were quickly getting scooped up. I really thought 1927 would make it to me in round 2, but footballmm11 grabbed them at pick 2.08. I later found out that at least two others before me wanted 1927 as well, so I was never getting that season. With one pick before my turn, I finally settled on 1940…. then njbigwig texted me that I was up. I refreshed my screen and slowly scrolled down… yep, I knew it - njbigwig took 1940. Damn it! Did I mention that he also took 2020 after I passed on them? He’s basically drafting the seasons that I should have taken. I strongly considered 1991 (for J.McDowell, F.Thomas & Ventura), but there were other Frank Thomas seasons available. I also considered taking 1983 but thought that they might slide to me in round 3. I kept researching... When I searched for the available SPs in Group B, the best season was 1926, by a long shot… and that season also had three really strong hitters, Johnny Mostil (.328, .415, .467, C/A+), Bibb Falk (.345, .415, .477, A/C+) and Willie Kamm (.294, .396, .385, A/A+). The two SPs aren’t great by any means… they just happened to be better than any of the other Group B SPs that were still available. Ted Lyons (301 ips, 3.03 erc#) and Tommy Thomas (264 ip, 3.14 erc#) will have to start a bunch of games for this team. I now have three SPs that I have to use that aren’t very good. Will I be able to score enough runs vs. Ed Walsh, Frank Smith, Ed Cicotte, etc.?

Round 3 – 1963
It was another long wait before my next pick (the disadvantage of picking early in round 1). Of course, 1991 went the pick after I took 1926. Maybe 1983 will make it to me with Hoyt and Fisk. Nope. pedrocerrano grabbed them 3 picks in front of me. Now I am looking at 1966, 1963 or 1965. I need pitching badly. Calhoop grabbed 1966 but njbigwig took 1951… which was another season I looked at but didn’t need as much after taking 1926. I decided I’d rather have ’63 Gary Peters (243 ip, 2.41 erc#) and Hoyt Wilhelm (137 ip, 2.19 erc#) over the two big inning RPs from 1965 (Wilhelm and Fisher). I also got to add some hitters that I really didn’t need. Pete Ward (.295, .353, .482) gives me a decent lefty bat if I wanted to rest Willie Kamm. Joe Cunnigham (.286, .388, .367) gives me a lefty bat with 252 PAs who can get on base. Floyd Robinson (.283, .361, .419) provides extra PAs in the outfield. Really thrilled to finally get some competent pitching.

Round 4 – 1990
Both 1995 and 1997 had really good full-time Frank Thomas seasons but his defense is terrible in those seasons plus I still needed a catcher. I had 1990 locked in before I even selected 1963. Frank Thomas only has 240 PAs but his numbers (.330, .454, .529) are perfect for a league with lots of deadball pitching and negative HR parks. This season of Carlton Fisk (.285, .378, .451, A/A/A) is the second best catching season in White Sox history (500+ PA). I only added Ozie Guillen (A-/B+) for a defensive replacement for Buck Weaver (B/D+), who is my starting shortstop. Bobby Thigpen (89 ip, 2.04 erc#) is my team’s second RP. Eric King (151 ip, 2.91 erc#) is probably better than my three ‘20 & ‘26 SPs and will either spot start or pitch in long relief.

Round 5 – 2022
I considered taking 2017 in round 4, but I knew I would end up with a crappy catcher if I passed on 1990 Fisk last round. So, of course 2017 got taken, as did two other seasons I had on my short list (2006 & 2009). I still some PAs at 1B and as much pitching as I could find. I was the second-to-last person to take a Group E season so the options were few. I narrowed down my choices to 2011, 2012, 2015 & 2022. It was tempting to grab ’12 AJ Pierzynski (lefty-bat, .486 slug) to split time with Fisk, but ’22 Seby Zavala (.270, .347, .382) isn’t terrible and Fisk has 521 PAs. Jose Abreu (.304, .378, .446) will play a decent amount of time at 1B. But the key feature of 2022 is three usable pitchers, including Dylan Cease (184 ip, 2.56 erc#), Liam Hendricks (58 ip, 2.64 erc#) and Reynaldo Lopez (65 ip, 1.74 erc#).

Overall Comment:
I kind of wish I had taken 2020 just to see how my roster would have looked. I ended up in njbigwig’s division so we’ll see just how poor the decision to take 1920 will be. He’ll probably win 95+ games while I lose 90+. I have no real weak spots on offense, so maybe I can get enough hits and walks to force opposing SPs to reach their pitch count early and get into the weaker bullpens. My offensive raw stats are pretty damn good for the White Sox... .333, .404, .477. My defense is pretty good (average B/B+). The pitching is a problem, but my bullpen is way better than my SPs so maybe we are on the right side of all those late-inning comebacks that are commonplace in the sim. Feels like an 81-81 team though.

Team Name: Crappy Brooklyn Pitching 13 28 53 82 24
Ballpark: Ebbets Field
Salary: $136,005,973 (2nd, NL East)
Draft Position: 8

Round 1 - 1953
I picked early (3rd) in the Braves draft, late (13th) in the White Sox draft and now I’m picking smack dab in the middle (8th). I will comment my thoughts of the three different draft positions, at the end of this writeup.

I would’ve taken 1941 if I picked 1st as I love Pete Reiser and Dolph Camilli. Of course, 1924 would’ve been my 2nd choice. eblankenstei took 1941 at pick 3 and thejuice6 took 1924 at pick 5. When my turn came up, I was debating between 1953, 1964 and 1918. Why 1918? Because ’18 Burleigh Grimes went 27-14, 3.59 for me in the first Franchise Draft and won the Cy Young award. Also, Group A has very few good options. 1964 seemed like the knee-jerk obvious choice here with two stud SPs (similar to 2015 which went pick #1). But here’s the problem with 1964. They fall into the same group as all those Duke Snider / Roy Campanella teams. Taking 1964 meant I would most likely end up in the bottom half of the league in offense. 1953 would be a no-brainer top 5 pick if I could take five hitters. Heck, I’m pretty sure I could take start different hitters from this team. But alas, I can only take 3. Had I known that some of the other Duke Snider led 1950’s teams would last until round 3 or later, I would have certainly taken 1918 here. With the Dodgers not having a ton of great hitting, I though those 1950’s seasons would be taken much earlier. Anyway, I ended up with Duke Snider (.336, .419, 627, B+/B+), Roy Campanella (.312, .395, .611) and Carl Furillo (.344, .393, .580) as my hitters. It was hard to leave Jackie Robinson (.329, .425, .502) off the roster, but his defense was awful at 2B and I have other reasonable options at 3B (Jackie's best fielding position). What separated 1953 from the other 1950’s seasons is they have a couple of usable (but not great) pitchers. Clem Labine (117 ip, 2.44 erc#) and Bob Milliken (124 ip, 2.69 erc#) will both end up pitching in long relief.

Round 2 - 1928
When pedrocerrano took 1918 at the end of round 1, I immediately regretted my 1953 pick. I won’t get any Koufax/Dyrsdale pitchers from the 1960’s, I missed the few good deadball pitchers and there aren’t many great pitchers from Group B. I don’t think I can survive with my only decent pitchers coming from just Groups D & E. When my turn came up, although I really wanted 2000 (for Kevin Brown and Gary Sheffield), I knew I had to take 1928 in order to secure the best available SP from Group B, Dazzy Vance (297 ip, 2.19 erc#). I also rostered Watty Clark (207 ip, 2.81 erc#), who may start or who may pitch in mop-up duty. As far as offense, Del Bissonette (.320, .396, 543) is a pretty good 1B option. Harvey Hendrick (.318, .397, .478) is a decent left-handed hitting 3B with below-average defense (D/B+). I originally had Babe Herman (.340, .390, .514, D/D+) on the roster but I ended up with too many OF/DH players so Herman was cut and Johnny Gooch (.317, .361, .366) was added as catching depth (Campanella only has 621 PA).

Round 3 – 1913
I was hoping 2000 would get back to me but Jtpsops grabbed them at pick 2.15. When my turn came, I had a very difficult decision. I had one team from each group that I really wanted and assumed I wouldn’t get whichever two I didn’t pick. 2003 was really intriguing since I could add 400 really strong innings with K.Brown, Gagne & Mota. But I also wanted 1999 (w/Kevin Brown). Although I could legally draft both 1999 and 2003, it wouldn’t make sense since only one Kevin Brown could be rostered. So, I decided to draft neither 1999 or 2003 and instead reviewed the remaining Group A seasons. Both 1901 and 1903 had some nice offensive options, but no pitching. 1908 had a decent big-inning deadball SP (Kaiser Wilhelm) but absolutely no offense. Then I came across 1913. I drafted Ed Reulbach (120 ip, 2.10 erc#) in the previous Dodgers draft and he was did a pretty good job for me. Nap Rucker (283 ip, 2.89 erc#) is a barely usable SP but with low HRs. I still needed a starting 2B. George Cutshaw (.267, .315, .385) is poor offensive player but has A+++ range. He has a 6.28 RRF and I’m trying to figure out how in his one performance review season, he had only 4 “plus” plays in 156 games. Zack Wheat (.301, .335, .430, B/A+) will start a few games in CF and come in for defense in the late innings in games he doesn’t start. Red Smith (.296, .358, .441, C/B) will platoon with Hendrick at 3B. Seriously, no way I thought that my Dodgers starting lineup would include guys like Del Bissonette, George Cutshaw and a platoon of Harvey Hendrick/Red Smith. What have I done?

Round 4 – 1982
Jtpsops grabs 2003 at the end of round 3 (I didn’t expect ’03 Gagne to make it back to me). Holding my breath for 2003. Of course, 1999 gets taken exactly one pick in front of me. Damn it, 3day! I should also note that 1954 went with the last pick of round 3. Had I known that season would’ve lasted that long, I certainly wouldn’t have taken 1953 in round 1. Snider, Hodges and Reese… nice pick mllma54! Anyway, my two choices for this pick are 1982 and 2017. Only one team behind me still needs their Group E season. I still need a ton of pitching. I figured if I lose out on 2017, I can pivot to 2006 or 2024 (I still need a SS). 1982 gives me Jerry Reuss (255 ip, 2.56 erc#) and Steve Howe. But wait, if I instead take Fernando Valenzuela (285 ip, 2.73 erc#), I can go with the all-lefty 4-man rotation (using ’28 Vance as a big-inning setup guy). A quick check at the performance review shows Fernando has performed slightly better than Howe. I know it seems insane taking a SP with a 2.73 erc# over a RP with a 2.13 erc#, but I did it. 1982 does have one starting-quality batter, Pedro Guerrero (.304, .378, .536). Bill Russell (.357 obp) will get some PA’s at SS. Steve Sax (.282, .335, .359, C+/A) may get some starts at 2B (especially if Cutshaw is awful). Now, I get to see if njbigwig snipes the Group E season that I wanted.

Round 5 – 2024
Spoiler alert... Of course njbigwig takes 2017... why wouldn’t he? But I had already mentally prepared for this scenario. 2006 would provide me great range at SS with Rafael Furcal, but that season didn’t have much pitching. I decided to boost the offense by grabbing 2024. Shohei Ohtani (.310, .390, .646) could finish in the top 5 in MVP voting. Getting a stud hitter this late to bat in the middle of my already-strong lineup should be fun. The real reason I drafted 2024 was to get a good-hitting shortstop… Mookie Betts (.289, .372, .491, C/B+). This season isn’t one of the better ones for Freddie Freeman (.282, .378, .476, A/B), but he can be a defensive replacement for Bissonette. With all the great Dodger pitching in the 2020’s, this season might be their weakest. Tyler Glasnow (134 ip, 2.03 erc#) will pitch as a long setup guy or maybe as part of a Tandem. He is quite HR-prone though. In fact, most of the pitchers from the 2024 season are HR prone. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (90 ip, 2.65 erc#) is one of the lower-HR pitchers from the 2024 Dodgers. Note that I did not roster Alex Vesia (66 ip, 1.90 erc#) due to his nearly 5 bb/9 and sub 1.0 ip/g. I don’t care what the erc# is, I refuse to acknowledge that this type of pitcher is very useful.

Overall Comment:
Picking in the middle has the advantage of not having to wait very long in between picks, so I did appreciate that nuance. But of course, you don’t get an early pick at one of the best 3-4 seasons and you also don’t get the advantage of a double pick at either end of the draft where I can select two teams that fit nicely together. As a result, the Dodgers seasons that I selected in the first few rounds had multiple options and I kept altering who was making the roster based on what my next selection was.

Bottom line... I don’t like my team. I don’t know how I can compete against teams with Koufax, Drysdate, Kershaw, Brown, Sutton, etc. while I am starting guys like Nap Rucker and Jerry Reuss. I should finish in the top 5 in runs scored, but should also finish dead last in pitching. Feels like 85-90 losses. Oh well. There’s always the next draft to look forward to.