Looks like we're finishing up on the draft so I thought I'd kick off a conversation about draft strategies.

My plan for the draft was to build the strongest rotation possible so I drafted SPs with my first 4 picks. After that I focused on the positions I thought would be hardest to fill. I then focused on the bullpen. I used my last picks to fill in the roster. I'd say my goal is to be really good for all 5 seasons but my best chance of winning would be season 2.

The one thing about this draft is gave me some odd insight into the salary structure at whatif that I hadn't noticed before. For example, it seems to weigh pitchers with more innings over quality. For another, it seems to rate speed based on SB success rate. And defense must be based on error rate or something because I couldn't understand how a guy could fluctuate so much from year to year. And how a guy with great speed wouldn't have an A for range.

I am ALL IN for year 2. That was my strategy. While I hope to be competitive for all 5, the odds of "most wins" is very small, so I chose one yr to line up every players best year

since not everyone has 5 great years, I chose to pick an early yr to do that, then I can draft a one yr wonder here and there in later seasons to replace guys as they fall off


For pitchers my keys were low OAV and avoid HRs
YEAR TWO rotation will be:
1986 Mike Scott
1978 Ron Guidry
1985 John Tudor
2015 Jake Arrieta
1988 Pascual Perez

(Somebody nabbed 1985 Gooden before I could!)

bullpen includes low whip, high K seasons from Eckersley, Andrew Miller, Brad Lidge, Pat Neshek, Randy Myers, great 1984 John Denny season, and Jose Fernandez might be closer. Year Two pitching staff has opp OAV of .194 and whip of 0.93

best years for this lineup (with a few exceptions I tried to find high OBP....avoid high K hitters)
c Molina, 1b Palmeiro, 2b Alfonzo, 3b Youkilis, ss Renteria, of Sheffield, of Salmon, of, Juan Gonzalez

bench includes David Ortiz and .340 Hubie Brooks season, backup catcher is Javy Lopez. Melvin Mora .340 too. I discoverd some great late career Frank Robinson seasons that might be a steal for bench. Year Two offense has .960 OPS

I mean come on....we have to be good in year 2 right?? We better. Year One might be ugly

what a marvelous idea for a league. Difficult to come up with something new and exciting after all these years. Bravo

That's quite the rotation! I would have preferred an 80s rotation but went with the best guys available to me and they were Lolich, Hunter, Wood, Tiant and Koosman all from the 70s.

I went with a strategy of using a bigger ballpark with plus singles, doubles and triples and then drafted a fast OF with good defense. For that reason I focused on WHIP over OAV. I don't know if it'll translate, but that was my thinking.

I really don't think I'll be drafting going forward. Everyone I drafted has really good 5 seasons. In hindsight, maybe I should have drafted guys with better 3 year windows, but when Arrieta and some other short timers went, I didn't have much faith in what was left for the draft going forward.

I'm really interested to see how things play out. I don't usually play in high/no cap leagues, but I'm guessing each team will be like an all-star team. So just because I seem to have the greatest bullpen ever assembled, I'm guessing everyone else has one as well.

When I first started out I was thinking 5 year guys, but quickly discovered that it wasnt necessary, there will be plenty of good pieces left over. Only 5 of my hitters will play all 5 years.
I used the SEE BALL...........HIT BALL........OVER FENCE offensive strategy. My 8 starters have 325 HRs.
For pitching I used a jigsaw puzzle approach. My first pick(Clemens) isnt that great in years 2 and 4, so I looked for someone to fit into that slot. I will use another SP A in years 1 and 4, then SP B in years 2 and 3. I have a couple of year5 SP lined up(including Derek Lowe).

Love that so far the strategies are different. Hope that continues.

My strategy was to acquire 4 starting pitchers that had 5 consecutive quality years. When the opportunity arose to trade for an additional 2nd round pick at the cost of my 3rd and 4th round pick, I took it. After 5 rounds I had Johan Santana, Curt Schilling, Dave Stieb, and David Cone. Only Stieb had a bad year (his 5th) in the years I am going to use them. Unfortunately, most of the great power hitters were gone by then. So I drafted a lot of high batting average players with moderate to low power, again with the emphasis on 5 good consecutive years. I don't think there will be any good pitchers left in year five, so I grabbed Dock Ellis To use in the pen yrs 1-4 and replace Stieb in year 5. We'll see if this works out.. The lack of home run hitters did lead me to select the worst park for hr's as my home field. I may not win any championships with this strategy, but I hope to be in the hunt for the most wins after 5 years

I went with Power and OBP the best I could. Most of my pitchers have 3-4 really good seasons, so I have several to fit together to hopefully give me 4-5 solid starters each year with at least 2 excellent relievers. Somehow I ended with a bunch of Lefties on my staff, and much of my power, so hopefully went with a park that heavily favors lefty bats.

Posted by grayfoxx on 3/5/2016 5:03:00 PM (view original):
When I first started out I was thinking 5 year guys, but quickly discovered that it wasnt necessary, there will be plenty of good pieces left over. Only 5 of my hitters will play all 5 years.
I used the SEE BALL...........HIT BALL........OVER FENCE offensive strategy. My 8 starters have 325 HRs.
For pitching I used a jigsaw puzzle approach. My first pick(Clemens) isnt that great in years 2 and 4, so I looked for someone to fit into that slot. I will use another SP A in years 1 and 4, then SP B in years 2 and 3. I have a couple of year5 SP lined up(including Derek Lowe).

Sounds similar to what I have planned. Most of my pitchers are good for 4-5 years, but I added a couple more at the back of the draft specifically to be good then.

I went and got 5-year guys, but I will be improving them with some 1-year wonders -- such as the Davey Johnson pick, only going to be around 1 year instead of starting Franco.

Also HRs. Lots of HRs. In Atlanta Fulton County.