This thread is for people to post comments, strategies, complaints, etc. relating to the 16x16 v21 draft.

After seeing all the nominated players, I quickly realized that there just aren't many usable seasons from the nominated players list, which meant that I needed to make all 9 teammates count. From the 16 nominated players, I figured I would find 3 starting position players which meant 5 teammate position players would be needed. This leaves only 4 pitching teammates. I already had two ('15 Clayton Kershaw & '15 Zach Greinke) thanks to 2015 Juan Uribe ($299K). So I could not afford any relievers as teammates. I had to make those other two pitcher teammates count. I also realized that I was going to have a 6-7 man pitching staff of all starting pitchers, and these pitchers would both start and relieve.

Round 1 - 1972 Tommy John (196, 1.14 whip)
My decision was to draft either '72 John in order to get Don Sutton's stud season (285 IP, 0.91 whip) or take 85 Valenzuela and add Hershiser. I decided Sutton was too good to pass up and John isn't terrible and will be one of my bullpen guys. The downside is that John has lots of good seasons to use and I could've waited on him. But the upside is that he cost less than Fernando, keeping my draft slot a little bit higher.

Round 2 - 2002 Alex Rodriguez (.300, .392, .623)
Like I mentioned earlier, I needed to draft at least 3 position players who could start. A stud A-Rod was definitely a guy I targeted early. I was deciding between 00 and 02. With all the Fergie Jenkins out there, I went with his 57 HR season. I did not anticipate taking any of his teammates, although Ivan Rodriguez had a decent 400-PA option.

Round 3 - 2000 Luis Castillo (.334, .418, .388)
I had both '00 and '03 Castillo targeted for this round. I preferred '03 because of more PA, but I was very happy to get the .334 version. The T.John over Valenzuela choice from round 1 made a difference here, as my lower salary allowed me to grab '00 Castillo ahead of slainte. No teammates of note.

Round 4 - 2002 Andy Pettitte (136 IP, 1.31 whip)
This is maybe where I made a drafting mistake. I had been targeting 1950 Pafko or 1950 Wertz here as my third starting batter. But I hadn't really started attacking where my five teammate hitters were coming from. I discovered this Pettitte had three solid teammates (Jason Giambi .314, .435, .598; Bernie Williams .333, .415, .493; Jorge Posada .268, .370, .468). Plus this version of Pettite was relatively cheap and was the highest ranking Pettitte left on the board, so I grabbed him. Of course, both Pafko and Wertz got picked before my next turn came up. Pettitte isn't terrible, but I'll probably stick him in mopup.

Round 5 - Fergie Jenkins (249 IP, 1.08 whip)
When 1974 Fergie went in round 1, I seriously contemplated taking '78 Jenkins in round 2. But then I realized that there really wasn't much difference between 1978 and a number of other sub 1.10 whip versions (other than HR's). So I patiently waited. But I could wait no longer. I was thrilled he lasted to me this long. And considering 7 more Jenkins got picked over the next round, I was glad I pounced when I did. No teammates, although Jon Matlack (270 IP, 1.12 whip) isn't bad and I am considering him as my last teammate.

Round 6 - 1959 Andy Pafko ($621K)
I still needed more teammates, and I was thrilled when I discovered '59 Pafko not only brought me a stud Hank Aaron season (.355, .401, .636), but he also brought along a very nice Eddie Matthews (.306, .390, .593). The fact that Pafko was super cheap made it a slam dunk pick. So now I have 7 of my 8 starting position players (still needing an OF).

Round 7 - 1995 Fernando Valenzuela ($1.5M)
At this point, I started to map out the rest of my team, trying to figure out where I would be with salary. I needed to save salary and getting the last cheap Fernando was critical. He also brings along a very nice Tony Gwynn season (.368, .404, ..484) in case I decided to go with 6 hitting teammates.

Round 8 - 1951 Vic Wertz (.285, .383, .511)
This was the decision making round for how my team construction was going to end up. I was either taking '51 Wertz and using my 9th teammate slot on a pitcher or I was taking '52 Wertz (.346, .444., .523 in 162 PA) and biting the bullet and going to have to play an extra crappy pitcher. After looking at the numbers, Wertz wasn't that much of a downgrade compared to Gwynn, especially in a HR park. My 8 hitters are locked in.

Round 9 - 1990 Bob Boone ($631K)
I briefly considered taking 1977 Boone and using his teammate Tim McCarver as my catching platoon (dumping Posada), but bheid408 took that '77 version this round. So I needed to save salary. This was the last cheap Boone and I was thrilled to take him. 1990 Brett is a consideration at 1B, but only if I need salary relief from Giambi.

Round 10 - 1987 Dave Henderson ($1.1M)
Again, at this point, I am trying to draft cheap. Plus, as an added bonus, 1987 Rick Reuschel (227 IP, 1.10 whip) is a player I am considering as my 4th pitching teammate.

Round 11 - 2008 Tony Clark ($345K)
For the last couple of rounds, I've had my eye set on 1945 Paul Derringer, but I gambled that he would make it back to me. I wanted to make sure I got an ultra-cheap version of Clark plus his .374 obp will be useful as a pinch hitting option.

Round 12 - 1945 Paul Derringer (225 IP, 1.28 whip)
I was sweating this pick out, as the '33 and '41 version went since my last pick. At the beginning of the draft, I penciled '45 Derringer on my roster and was even considering using Cavaretta and/or Hack as hitting teammates. I plan on starting Derringer and using one of my stud Dodgers as a multi-inning setup/closer type. He's a low HR pitcher (0.34) so I'm hoping he doesn't get too beat up. He also gives me an opton to add Ray Prim (174 IP, 1.00 whip) as my last teammate. Really deciding between Matlack, Reuschel and Prim.

Rounds 13, 14, 15 (Masterson, Hadley, Williams)
I've arranged my roster so no matter who I end up with on these last three picks, I am ok with salary, and there are no otherr teammate options that I can improve on. I may actually end up with 2-3 million of unused salary.

Never really settled on a strategy for the draft. Decided that 5 position payers with one being a backup catcher. Four pitchers including a closer. Overall disappointed in the quality of pitchers nominated but everyone is in the same boat. On the the bright side I have enough innings, somewhere around 2200 even if 1200 of them are ******.

Strategy always flies out the window in these drafts.

I figured early on pitching was the critical thing in this draft. There are two reasons for this. Nominated pitchers are the pits and there are eight of them. That leaves really only four team mate spots left.

I chose 1954 Wertz because there were a lot of good team mates even though none of them were great (Rosen, Avila, Doby on the offensive side. Garcia, Wynn, Mossi on the pitching side. My aim in the draft was to get two more good starters and a closer. That meant a minimum of three offensive starters would have to be nominees.

I got two of my early targets 2013 Uribe (for Kershaw and Jansen), 1953 Pafko (for Spahn and Mathews). By the third round my short list was kitty litter. I shifted gears to drafting the least crappy version of each pitcher. I took a short detour to grab A-Rod in the sixth when it looked like my pick 1994 (for Junior and the Big Unit) would be lost. The rest of the way was not too bumpy. Picked up a couple of pieces that gave me some tough team mate choices.

Salary cap was never a consideration for me in this draft like it has been for me in similar drafts. I will come in at most $124M no matter who my last picks are.

My line-up

C: 1994 Darren Daulton
1B: Platoon Wertz and 2013 Uribe
2B: 1954 Bobby Avila
3B: 1953 Eddie Mathews
SS: 1941 Cecil Travis
OF: 1994 Ken Griffey Jr.
OF: 1991 Dave Henderson
OF: 1953 Andy Pafko

Pitching

SP: 1953 Warren Spahn
SP: 2013 Clayton Kershaw
SP: 1954 Mike Garcia
SP: 1970 Tommy John

CL: 2009 Mariano Rivera

If memory serves me, I have finished dead last in every one of these draft leagues I have joined. I see no reason that won't be the case this time. 1950's pitchers always suck in the Sim and I have two of them. My OF and 1B is weak. I am going into a dog fight with a bunch of pit bulls wearing milkbone underwear.

Effective Pitchers
1362 IP 1.01 WHIP .210 OAV .45 HR/9 $50,422,560
'72 Carlton, '45 Wolff, '11 Kershaw, '97 Clemens, '94 David Cone

Effective Hitters
5309 PA 198 HR .312 .395 .502 $47,643,812
'77 Fisk, '90 Eddie Murray, '04 Luis Castillo, '07 Jeter, '07 Rodriguez, TBD, '47 Pafko, '49 Wertz

My ERA will be very low. My runs scored will be even lower. *sigh*

My line-up

C: Joe Mauer
1B: Todd Helton
2B: Luis Castillo
3B: Eddie Mathews
SS: A-Rod
OF: Andy Pafko
OF: Tony Clark (out of position - but an B-/B wont get hurt too bad)
OF: Joe Dimaggio

Pitching

SP: Joe Horlen
SP: Orel Hershiser
SP: Fergie Jenkins
SP: Tommy John
SP: Fernando Valenzuela

RP: Mariano Rivera
RP: Dennis Eckersley
RP: Cisco Carlos ( ya, that one)

This is my first 16x16 league, although I’ve participated in two 12x12s recently. It’s pretty remarkable how different the strategies are between the two.

I nominated Dave Henderson based on the fact that his cheapest season (1986 BoSox) is super-cheap, and he has two excellent teammates in Clemens and Boggs. This gave me the first pick in the first round. Unfortunately the start of the draft snuck up on me before I had a chance to set up my spreadsheet, so I was kind of flying blind with my first pick.

Round 1 – 1996 Alex Rodriguez
After doing some initial research, I narrowed my selection down to ’85 Fernando and ’96 A-Rod. I decided against Fernando because, while Hershiser would be a nice get, there are other equally good teammates available, and Fernando isn’t THAT much better than nominated players that I could get later in the draft. I mean he’s definitely better than my 11^th round pick, 1947 Masterson, but is he 10 rounds better? Looking at the overall talent available, I thought that this is going to be an offensive league where home run power would definitely play, but with all the wasted salary I probably couldn’t afford both a great offense and great pitching, so I figured I might as well try to have the best offense possible. I decided that to have an elite offense with eight elite offensive players I could only afford one additional pitcher teammate besides Clemens, because A-Rod was the only elite offensive nominee available. I also needed to ensure that I got a shortstop A-Rod because I already had Boggs at 3B, so I decided to use the first overall pick on him. He came with an excellent centerfielder in Griffey and a very elite offensive (albeit crappy defensive) 1B in Edgar Martinez. This got me halfway to a full, high-powered offense, with SS and 3B already spoken for. At this point I was thinking about throwing caution to the wind and using Coors Field, I was so giddy with excitement about my offense. More on that later.

Round 2 – 1998 Luis Castillo
In my quest for an elite offense, I still needed two corner outfielders plus a second baseman and a catcher. Obviously the latter two are more scarce. With plenty of good pitching teammates still available, I decided to once again go offense with this pick. I considered the 2000 Luis Castillo, which would’ve enabled me to use a third pitching teammate, but I decided against it because I didn’t consider him to be good enough offensively to fit in with my offense, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to afford three pitching teammates anyway with the caliber of offense I wanted. Given what happened later perhaps I should have gone with 2000 Castillo, but based on what I knew at the time this decision made sense. I got an excellent offensive catcher in Piazza (whose throwing arm is lousy, but I don’t think there’ll be all that much running in this league, and in Coors I almost hope people run on me) with a cheap teammate who would allow me to gain back a few draft spots that I lost with the A-Rod pick.

Round 3 – 2004 Andy Pettitte
At this point there were still plenty of good pitching teammates available, so I decided to grab another good offensive player while taking a relatively cheap, relatively usable version of a player who has a whole lot of more expensive, less useful versions. I’ve always loved Lance Berkman’s switch-hitting affordability with a normalized .316/.448/.545 slashline. I still like this pick.

Round 4 – 2009 Juan Uribe
The eternal struggle in drafts such as this lies in balancing what pick would make one’s team better with what picks would still be available in the next round. For whatever reason I decided to finally take my other pitching teammate here, namely Tim Lincecum. I also got a good-hitting backup with 400+PAs who can competently play all three non-1B infield positions, which was important since I was still thinking of using Coors Field so I’d need lots of extra PAs. But considering that there were still good pitchers (including a Kershaw or two) with cheaper teammates still available I may have reached here. I do like Lincecum’s low HR/9 though.

Round 5 – 2003 Woody Williams
This pick, in conjunction with my previous one, prompted my “rapturous agony” comment. Once again, I chose an expensive reserve-type player to get the exact player I wanted, almost certainly at least a round earlier than I needed to. But I considered 2003 Pujols to be the very best offensive player still available, and I decided that I couldn’t live without him. I suppose if you’re going to reach and overpay, reach and overpay for .359/.438/.650. But the extra salary for the relatively useless Woody Williams would prove to be a double whammy two rounds later.

Round 6 – 1971 Fergie Jenkins
This is the Jenkins I wanted from the get-go. “A $10M+ Jenkins?” you exclaim befuddledly. “Balderdash!” “Hogwash!” But hear me out. First of all, I was in need of a lot of good innings, and it was clear that on my team Jenkins was going to qualify as good innings. His ERC# and HR/9+ are on the low side for him. But most importantly, this being a non-DH league, in 1971 ol’ Ferguson slugged a whopping .478 with 6 HRs. And, you know, “COORS!!!” Going into this weekend I was targeting a cheap Fernando with this pick (preferably the 1994 one that’s not completely useless) but when two Fergies went in the three picks prior to mine I knew I had to act fast. For if there’s anything that Ernie the cab driver from It’s a Wonderful Life taught me, it’s how to recognize a run, whether it be on a bank or a Jenkins.

Round 7 – 1959 Vic Wertz
Sad trombone. To make my best laid plans come to fruition I really felt like I needed one of the cheap Fernandos here. Seven picks prior to mine there were three of them available. All three went during those seven picks. Once njbigwig took the second one I channeled my inner Ernie and knew I was done for. I had zero doubt that schwarze would take the last one; it was the only thing that made sense. My expensive Woody from two rounds before had finally come back to haunt me. Facing the prospect of having to use an expensive Fernando to go along with the inevitable expensive Derringer and Hadley, I felt I had to downsize my offense at second base. I originally targeted either 1951 Jackie Robinson or 1935 Buddy Myer, but their teammates were now too rich for my blood. So I downshifted and chose a cheap Vic Wertz and his teammate Pete Runnels. Runnels is a nice player, but he’s not significantly better than 2000 Luis Castillo, who would’ve allowed me another pitcher teammate (if I could afford one). If only I had known. And speaking of which, if someone had told me that in the 14^th round the cheap 1955 Pafko and his teammate Hank Aaron with his A+ range at 2B would still be available I might’ve chosen differently here. But nobody tells you these things.

Round 8 – 1927 Bump Hadley
This was your classic “it’s not wasted salary if you actually use it” kind of pick. Given the choice between $4M-$5M of definite suck and $6.5M of hopefully mediocre, I went with the latter. And although by now I had started suspecting that the whole Coors Field thing wasn’t going to happen for me, I figured a low OAV, low HR/9 pitcher (albeit with high BB/9) might play pretty well in this league. We shall see.

Round 9 – 1993 Fernando Valenzuela
What a difference two rounds make…thirty-two little draft picks…Dinah Washington ain’t got nothin’ on me. OK, so maybe she has. Anyway, I figured it was time to take my Fernando medicine here. But what’s interesting (in a very painful way) about this pick is that it comes along with a better offensive (and far better defensive) catcher (Hoiles) than I got with my cheap Castillo pick in the second round. So it turns out that if I had taken the 2000 Castillo I would’ve had a very similar offense, and better pitching, than I ended up with. Assuming I could fit it all in under the cap. Would I have? Much like the question of the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, the world may never know.

Round 10 - 2008 Tony Clark
This was a case where there wasn't really anyone I needed immediately, but I knew that I'd be in trouble if I ended up with one of the two most expensive Clarks. There were plenty of cheap Clarks also available, but I got burned by Fernando so I figured I wasn't taking any chances. If I started a run, all the better. I didn't really do that, but this pick didn't end up hurting me either.

Round 11 - 1947 Walt Masterson
Another "not very good but perhaps just good enough to eke out some wins with my offense" type of guy. The fact that 267 usable innings were available from a nominated player this late in the draft tells me that my offense-first philosophy might've been the way to go after all. Whether I executed this strategy successfully remains to be seen.

Round 12 - 1937 Paul Derringer
Now we're scraping the bottom of the barrel. He'll likely be a long reliever. If he pitches 50-100 innings for me I'll probably be OK. If he pitches 200 I'm probably in trouble. He's better than my Woody Williams though. That Pujols had better be good.

Round 13 – 1946 Andy Pafko
I had been considering taking the 1951 partial season Pafko every round since the 8^th or so, but could never pull the trigger. Finally this round I had decided to do so, but Chisock beat me to him (with the full season version) a few picks prior. Oh well. This one is fine, and assuming I don’t play at Coors he won’t get all that many at bats anyway. All good. By the way, I’ve always really liked the name Andy Pafko. I don’t know why. I just like the way it sounds. Andy Pafko. I wish my name were Andy Pafko. But it’s not. As far as you know.

Round 14 – I really don’t care what year Bob Boone
Since I’m probably not playing at Coors, my 626 PA, bottom of the order in a non-DH league Mike Piazza isn’t going to need a whole lot of rest, so this pick is relatively irrelevant. He’ll get like 40 PAs, mostly in garbage time, and I can afford most of the Boones left so whatevs.

Round 15 – 1986 Tommy John
This one I’m pleasantly surprised about. Not a huge deal, but I was assuming I would take a cheap mop-up John, but I have enough salary cap space left over to afford one who might have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting someone out. Could be useful in those 19-inning games.

So here’s my projected starting lineup, at least against righties:

			B	PA/162	HR	AVG	AVG#	OBP#	SLG#	HR/100	SB	RC27	OPS+	SPD	Salary	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	OF
1	2B	Runnels, Pete	L	696	6	.314	.320	.418	.426	1	6	6.68	.844	62	7,111,687	--	A+/C-	B/B+	--	C-/D+	--
2	3B	Boggs, Wade	L	698	8	.357	.357	.452	.473	1	0	8.98	.925	56	7,335,329	--	--	--	B/C	--	--
3	OF	Berkman, Lance	S	687	30	.316	.316	.448	.545	6	9	9.95	.993	68	6,420,680	--	A+/D-	--	--	--	A/D-
4	OF	Pujols, Albert	R	685	43	.359	.359	.438	.650	7	5	11.79	1.088	62	8,443,689	--	A/D-	--	--	--	B/D+
5	1B	Martinez, Edgar	R	638	26	.327	.318	.452	.563	5	3	10.86	1.015	48	5,749,598	--	D/D-	--	D-/D-	--	--
6	SS	Rodriguez, Alex	R	682	36	.358	.349	.403	.600	6	15	10.25	1.002	70	8,620,200	--	--	--	--	A-/C-	--
7	OF	Griffey Jr., Ken	L	642	49	.303	.295	.381	.597	9	16	9.47	.978	79	8,147,833	--	--	--	--	--	A-/A+
8	C	Piazza, Mike	R	626	32	.328	.328	.389	.556	6	1	8.29	.945	41	5,786,015	B/A+/D+	--	--	--	--	--

I’ll drop Runnels to 8^th against lefties. He should probably hit 8^th against everyone since he’s my weakest hitter, but I dunno. We’ll see. My rotation will probably be Jenkins #1, Clemens Tandem 2A, Hadley Tandem 2B, Lincecum Tandem 3A, Masterson Tandem 3B.

So now for a final word on the whole Coors Field thing. I do not recall ever having used Coors Field in my WhatIf career. I have no idea what constitutes a good Coors Field team. However, here was my reasoning as to why I was going to use it:

“I am focusing on offense, so I won’t be able to afford both a great offense and great starting pitching, especially given all of the extra wasted salary everyone will have to carry. Therefore, my lineup will be better than most but my rotation will be weaker than most, which will be a wash. However, because of the large number of nominated players we all have to draft, everyone’s bullpen will be full of the same weak-*** Derringers and Pettittes and Mastersons and Hadleys. So once we get to the part of the game where we’re all into our mediocre bullpens, my superior offense will give me an advantage. Therefore, my goal should be to get games into the bullpen as quickly as possible. Ergo, Coors Field. Q.E.D.”

I think this is acceptable reasoning. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum…er, Field. I actually don’t think my pitching is all that bad. It’s not great, but if you just look at my top 1,450 innings my team ERC# is 2.63, which is at least a quarter of a run higher than I expected it to be. I’m going to have to crunch some numbers to see what I think the other pitching staffs will look like, but at this point I’m not sure Coors will help me any more than it would hurt me, especially since it’ll make my starting offensive players overly tired. Also, it seems like people may be using more good relievers than I’d anticipated, which negates a lot of my Coors logic. I’ll probably still go with a positive offensive park ('cause offense is fun!), just not one as drastic as Coors Field.

Well, it’s about time I shut up. Good luck to everyone, and thanks to schwarze for running a great draft and a great theme.

Great writeup barracuda3... I laughed a number of times at some of the off-the-wall comments.

To follow up my original post, here are my team stats,,,

C: '02 Posada (SH, .268, .370, .468, 20 HRs), B-/A+/C
1B: '02 Giambi (LH, .314, .435, .598, 41 HRs), A-/D+
2B: '00 Castillo (SH, .334, .418, .388, 62 SBs), B/C
3B: '59 Matthews (LH, .306, .390, .593, 46 HRs), B/C+
SS: '02 Rodriguez (RH, .300, .392, .623, 57 HRs), A/C+
OF: '59 Aaron (RH, .355, .401, ..636, 39 HRs), B/D
OF: '02 B.Williams (SH, .333, .415, .493, 19 HRs), B/B
OF: '51 Wertz (LH, .285, .383, .511, 27 HRs), B+/D+

Total Offense: 5396 PA, .313, .401, .543, 251 HRs, B+/C+ $52.2 million

SP: '72 Sutton RHP, 285 IP, 0.91 whip, 0.43 hr/9
SP: '78 Jenkins RHP, 249 IP 1.08 whip, 0.76 hr/9
SP: '15 Kershaw, LHP, 233 IP, 0.88 whip, 0.58 hr/9
SP: '45 Derringer RHP, 225 IP, 1.28 whip, 0.34 hr/9

RP: '15 Greinke, RHP, 223 IP, 0.84 whip, 0.57 hr/9
RP: '87 Reuschel, RHP, 227 IP, 1.10 whip, 0.52 hr/9
RP: '72 T.John, LHP, 196 IP, 1.14 whip, 0.68 hr/9

Total Pitching 1637 IP, 1.03 whip, 0.55 hr/9, $56.5 million

Obviously, I have more than enough innings but I like having 7 pitching options (plus Pettitte's 1.31 whip in a mopup role). If we make the playoffs, Derringer will get benched and I'll go to 6 pitchers. I'm a little light in plate appearances as Posada (602), Wertz (612) and Castillo (630) will need some rest. And I don't have many backup hitters that I feel good about playing. My defensive range isn't all that great, but all my players are all A or B fielding ratings so very few errors. My effective team salary is $108.7 million.

I am playing in Yankees Stadium III in order to maximize my home run hitting.

Great comments. Didn't have a ton of time with the quarter close at work but I will NEVER miss a Schwarze draft. Okay, I missed v1 but I didn't know about his drafts then.

I was scared of many of the nominated pitchers and wanted no part of Derringer so I got him out of the way ASAP.

At one point, I considered pursuing an outfield of Ted Williams, Bernie Williams and Billy Williams but that fell apart. (I did keep Ted)

Everything was going well as we headed down the stretch, suddenly things started to fall apart. Round 11, when sOHIO4ever took the last "usable" (I use that term loosely) Castillo, the whole thing started to unravel. I felt like a clever Wile E Coyote because I would surely see Castillo slip one more round and take a cheap Henderson, but as it turned out sohio4ever was the Road runner - he handed me an anvil as I stepped off of the cliff. As a Browns and Reds fan, I couldn't imagine that sOHIO4ever would do me wrong but that's why I collect as many options as possible. So I drafted up Plan G. In retrospect I didn't need the Henderson savings but better safe than sorry - did I mention I stepped off of the cliff holding an anvil?

Round 12 all I need to do to accomplish Plan G, is grab a usable 56 Vic Wertz and follow that up with a pitching and hitting upgrade by selecting the 1980 Boone in Round 13, courtesy of Carlton and Schmidt. As each pick comes off the board, I feel as if I dodged a bullet, only one thing stands between me and a completed Plan G is my man, Slainte. For those that don't know it, Slainte is a riot. Over the years, he has made comments and sent site-mails that made me laugh out load at work after reading. But this time, I wasn't laughing "1980 Boone (just for the possibilities...)". I now have the auditors chasing me down for financial statements and I am holding them up for a brilliantly drafted Plan H. The stock price is dropping because Slainte takes the 80 Boone and PedroCerrano texts me to tell me that I am up. Mike Tyson said it best "everyone has plan plan until they get hit in the face".

C - Ivan Rodriguez
1B - Todd Helton
2B - Bobby Doerr
SS - Alex Rodriguez
3B - Mike Schmidt
LF - Ted Williams
CF - Hank Aaron
RF - Vic Wertz

SP - Jim Bunning
SP - Don Sutton
SP - Herb Score
SP - Andy Pettitte
RP - Fergie Jenkins
RP - Tommy John
RP - Woody Willams
CL - None

"I am no different than anybody else with two arms, two legs and 4200 hits" - Pete Rose. Happy birthday Pete!

Schwarze and Barracuda - great write-ups.

Looking back at my draft, three things (mistakes) stand out:

1) Paul Derringer - selecting my player later didn't leave as many options (pitcher only) and the Derringer selection didn't help me much. Although my version is decent, it doesn't come with great teammates (Bucky Walters is good but no Kershaw or Sutton) and the high salary of the other versions probably didn't impact the other owners at this cap ($130M). My version also started me in a poor draft position (14) from which I never recovered. I picked between slots 12 - 15 through round 12.

2) Valenzuela - Knowing I would be using the majority of my teammates on hitters, I wanted to get some usable pitching out of the nominated players. As a result, I selected the 82 Valenzuela in round 2. This was definitely too early as the 86 Valenzuela (very similar) was still available in round 5. Had I moved up my round 3 and 4 picks (61 Wertz and 99 Pettitte) by one round, I would have been able to select the 50 Pakfo in round 4 (and skunk Slainte instead of the other way around). This cost me a third usable hitter and a pitching teammate slot.

3) Acquiring Good SP Teammates - for some reason I just never acquired good SP teammates. Early on I was going after good hitting teammates and the selections that would have given me good SPs either seemed to expensive (which ended up not being true at this cap) or came with nominated player versions that didn't fit with my need for that player. As I result, I never got a better SP option than the Bucky Walters I started with. I ended up using 2 pitching teammates on RPs.

In the end, I have a pretty good lineup that should score plenty of runs but I weak pitching staff that will also give up plenty.

C: 36 Dickey (88 Boone)
1B: 61 Cash
2B: 07 Castillo
SS: 99 Jeter
3B: 09 Rodriguez (15 Uribe)
LF: 36 Gehrig
CF: 99 Bernie Williams
RF: 72 Billy Williams

5656 PAs .331 AVG .419 OBP .546 SLG 241 HRs

SP: 40 Walters
SP: 40 Derringer
SP: 82 Valenzuela
SP: 72 Jenkins
RP: 74 John
RP: 04 Gordon
RP: 99 Rivera

1538 IPs 1.10 WHIP 2.56 ERA .230 OAV .56 HR/9
RP

Ome thing I learned in playing these 16 x 16 and 12 x 12 people aren't usually generous in player selection and strategy really begins in your nominated players. There are two ways to go when nominating a player you either select a player with a low salary so you can protect against the Earl Whitehall getting screwed by picking a bad player early or you pick a player with substantial innings or plate appearances that can anchor your lineup or pitching staff.

In this case I chose a Fergie Jenkins with substantial IP and not many other great seasons. Looking at the other nominees and picking near the bottom I knew I would end up have 5 pitchers (maximum) as teammates and 4 position players (minimum) as teammates of which one always has to be a second catcher which leaves three other posiition players.

Again when I chose Fergie with my initial nomination I got two position players as teammates. 1970 Billy Williams and Jim Hickman. Hickman will be valuable as a right handed home-run hitter to offset the plethera of anticipated left-handed pitching we sill see in this league. With my first two picks in the draft I closed out my starting staff with two SP and two RP as teammates. With my first selection of Bob Boone I got 89 Saberhagen and Montgomery from the Royals. With my second selection of 66 Tommy John (Use as my 4th starter) I got Gary Peters and Hoyt Wilhelm.

I then turned to drafting useable position players. First 97 ARod to play short with another teammate in Griffey. (this filled my three posiiton player teammates). Next I drafted 48 Pafko to play third since I had Arod to play short and no more posiiton player teammates available. I oriiginally had Scheffing from this team as my second catcher but when I drafted Petite later on I grabbed the 2007 Posada who batted in the .330+. (pure luck I picked him up).

I then grabbed Castillo to play second. I was short on AB's for Pafko, Arod, and Castillo I needed a decent reserve so I grabbed Uribe who played all three positions. I then grabbed a decent Clark to play first. If one wasn't available at this point in the draft I would have grabbed a decent Henderson or Wertz and shift Hickman to first.

Now I went to grab the pitchers. I grabbed Derringer and 96 Fernando which gave me my final teammate Trevor Hoffman to close. I did have Bob Locker as my third reliever from my earlier Tommy John pick but dropped him. I picked up Petite which brought Posada. From then on just trying to stay under the cap which I did easily coming in at 126 mil.

My starting lineup is:

2B Luis Castillo .302 .384 50 SB
RF Jim Hickman ..315 .415 32 HR
LF Billy Williams .322 .391 42 HR
CF Ken Griffy Jr .384 .382 56 HR
1b Tony Clark .291 .358 34 HR
C Jorge Posada .338 .426 20 HR
3b Andy Pafko .312 .375 26 HR
SS ARod .300 .350 23 HR

Bench Uribe .283 .327 23 HR
Wertz .288 .376 6 HR
Boone ..274 .351 1 HR
Henderson .241 .310 14 HR

SP Jenkins 313 IP 3.39 .224 OAV 1.04 WIP .86 hr/9
Saberhagen 263 IP 2.16 .216 OAV .96 WIP .45 hr/9
Peters 205 IP 1.98 .212 OAV .98 WIP .48 hr/9
John 223 IP 2.62 .235 OAV 1.13 WIP .52 hr/9

RP Hoffman 88 IP 2.25 .161 OAV .92 WIP .61 Hr/9 42 Saves
Montgomery 92 IP 1.37 .198 OAV ..99 WIP .29 HR/9
Wilhelm 82 IP 1.66 ..178 OAV .83 WIP .66 HR/9

Rest of my pitchers will fill in.

I chose Cleveland Stadium because I wanted something of a Hitters Park and allow for my power. But not give up on my pitching.

These write-ups are excellent! I wish I had the time to put down what's in my head, but every time I look my wife pops out another kid. My strategy this time was to put some time into researching players before the draft, or at least before each pick. That didn't work out. So this is what my strategy turned into: Try to pick last so they don't have to wait for you to pick too long, and do your research late at night once you get into bed. That didn't work out either. I didn't even start looking at teammates until my 98 Williams (Clemens) pick. But y'all should see my wife! My effective salary is under $100M.

The league title says it all, "Best Draft Ever" and I am always in from the start.

My first instinct is to channel my inner Brickyard and nominate a player that has either one cheap or one useable season and will cause salary concerns for my fellow draftees as they try to avoid choking on $7mm plus useless seasons. My first nominee, Willis Hudlin, approximated those qualities but when I reread the rules and noticed the $130 salary cap, I reconsidered. As more and more nominees were listed with few usable season, it became apparent that finding enough quality among nominated players to be roster worthy would be a challenge. I decided that using one less committed roster spot on a throwaway would be wise and I looked to see if there was a usable pitcher (by this time 8 position players had been nominated) that would be a better choice. Andy Pettitte's 2005 season with a good Roger Clemens teammate fit well.

Round 1 - 2006 Luis Castillo - He was one player who I wanted to count on so I looked at his highest PA/162 seasons. The 2006 Twins offer a gold mine of options for teammates so I did not hesitate to take this fairly usable season in when he was available. Mauer at catcher is also a lock.

Round 2 - 2000 ARod - Another must have player from the nominee list I really wanted a SS year. Happy to see 2000 available here.

Round 3 - 1997 Fernando - Even though I thought salary cap would not be an issue, I had to economize somewhere. By this time I did not want to count on any of the still-available Fernando seasons and this cheap season has a nice Tony Gwynn teammate option (but did not make the team)

Round 4 - 1981 Bob Boone - Not only was this one of the cheaper seasons for Boone to be used as a Mauer backup, it comes with a monster Mike Schmidt season to play 3B.

Round 5 - 1950 Masterson - Another combo of a relatively cheap season available with a wide variety of useable Red Sox teammates.

Round 6 - 1928 Hadley - Still looking for potential OFs, I started sniffing around for teammates of pitchers I was not going to depend on that played in big hitting seasons. All of Hadley's cheap seasons and good Yankee teammate seasons were gone by now but I had forgotten about 1928 Braxton as a rotation piece and the Goslin has some pretty impressive numbers as well (he was also a victim of final cuts)

Round 7 - 2005 Tony Clark - The first Clark taken. By now I was planning to collect enough partial seasons of nominated players that could be combined at either 1b or and OF position to allow me to preserve at least one teammate choice somewhere else. Clark and his switch-hitting HR productivity could be fun to watch in this league. Not sure what position he will be asked to play at this point.

Round 8 - 1952 Wertz partial - Another piece to fit in with the Tony Clark choice. By now we are grasping at straws.

Round 9 - 1992 Hendu - Still plenty of Hendu options available but 200k is 200k. Would help move me up the draft order ladder as well.

Round 10 - 2004 Woody Wms - All cheap seasons had just gone in previous rounds so I did not want to miss out on the Cardinal power options like Pujols. Had forgotten about Edmonds who eventually made the team as well.

Round 11 - 1933 Derringer partial. Very low HR allowed total looked irresistable given that I was going to have a power team in a power friendly park. He will get innings.

Round 12 - 1982 Tommy John. So many to choose from. Went with barely usable over cheap. 1981 Yankee season had just been taken but I was happy to settle for this one. Gossage still decent in '82 (but did not make the team)

Round 13 - 1975 Jenkins - WHIP still below 1.20 but a HR allowed landmine.

Round 14 - 2010 Uribe - Really the one that I wanted, given I was not going to be in dire salary cap trouble. Plays 2b/3b/SS and will not be a defensive liablility when I have to rest those starters

Round 15 - 1944 Pafko - Had to fill in some "useable" AB and this was all that was left. I do get 500+ PA with B/A fielding so I will look at the bright side.

Final Roster:

C- 2006 Mauer (1981 Boone)
1b - 2004 Pujols
2b - 2006 Castillo
3b - 1981 Schmidt
SS - 2000 ARod
CF - 2004 Edmonds
LF/RF - 1950 Ted Williams/1952 Wertz/2005 Clark (out of position)/1944 Pafko

will frequently start 6 players with over .600 real life slugging percentage

SP (good) - 2005 Pettitte/2005 Clemens/1928 Braxton
SP (not so good) - 1982 John
SP (weak) - 1975 Jenkins/1933 Derringer
Long relief - 2006 Liriano
Closer - 2006 Nathan

Pitchers that will only play against those owners who nominated them so I can blow up their offense - 1928 Hadley/1997 Valenzuela/2004 Woody/1950 Masterson

I also took Yankee Stadium III (made that choice before schwarze announced his)

Will be a fun team to watch the play-by-play but not so much the standings.