Your 70M division is brutal

No kidding. 90 wins might be good for 4th.

70M - 82 Expos, 84 Rangers, 02 Angels
I started out wanting a mid-80s Blue Jays team, because I really liked that Moseby-Bell-Barfield outfield, Stieb, Henke, Upshaw, Garcia and Fernandez. And I could not find a single season that worked for me. So I moved on. Landed on the 82 Expos and started off with Raines, Rogers and Reardon and tried to fit talent around them, but couldn't manage to do it well. So I settled on Gullickson and Sanderson, who were both better than average and provided good amounts of innings. Added a cheap Ray Burris to eat innings and meet the salary range. I'm playing the 84 Rangers in a pure replay league and found a few useful bodies there for good value in Buddy Bell (great def at 3b), Larry Parrish with some pop, another strong innings-eating SP in Tanana, an effective reliever in Dave Schmidt, and half an OF platoon with old Mickey Rivers. I thought that was a lot of value for under 20M. Then I tried a lot of combos with the 02 Angels before realizing I couldn't get many of their RP to fit, so I went with the MI combo of Eckstein/Kennedy for average and decent speed and defense, plus a solid Washburn and rookie Lackey to fill out the rotation. Filled the middle of the order with a solid Klesko with power and speed, a pretty productive Carlos Quentin to split the LF job with Rivers, and a very cheap C platoon of Brian Harper and Gregg Zaun. Luke Gregerson (1.95M) is my closer, because I couldn't manage to spend more or find anyone else I could stomach. None of my pitchers can hit much, so that's going to nag at me, too. Here's hoping for something decent to come of it ...

5641 PA .287 avg .350 obp .425 slg 113 hr 152 sb
1454 IP .254 OAVG 1.30 WHIP 3.73 ERA (the mopup guys really bring these numbers up, because they are dreadful)

90M - 1995 Indians with lots of Dennis Martinez
I spent ages looking at teams with .500-.540 records with a pitcher and a hitter I could clone. I started out trying for a Pete Rose team, maybe with Seaver or Carlton, but it got too expensive on the clones to keep the stars he played with around, too. I built a roster I liked out of the 82 Dodgers with Pedro Guerrero and Bob Welch clones (though it was too RH-hitting heavy), and then it was up to anything else to beat it. I built a bunch of rosters, and they all ended up almost exactly the same in the stats and the RH thing worried me a lot after a while. Then I had the idea to look at AL teams in the DH era with a whole lot of offense so I wouldn't need to clone anyone. Landed on the 95 Indians, who are very good top to bottom and have enough PA. The pitching staff featured a very nice bullpen but it was tough to settle on a pitcher to clone. Martinez isn't really all that awesome, but his 90-91-92-93 seasons are pretty consistent and three of them qualify as above average. Can he keep me in enough games to let that deep lineup produce some runs, then hope Jose Mesa doesn't explode? We shall find out.

6229 PA .292 avg .362 obp .481 slg 228 HR 147 SB
1500 IP .232 OAV 1.14 WHIP 2.96 ERA

100M - Braves 1991-2000
Now that I see how many owners went for deadball teams, I'm thinking I'm probably in big trouble here. I toyed with a couple Dodger rosters from the 70s to present, since that's been the team I've followed all that time the best by far. But I didn't really find that the Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey infield looked very impressive as a sim grouping because they're pretty flawed when you look closely. Something pushed me to look at the Braves' long run of success and try to build around that excellent starting rotation and solid collection of relievers. I think the lineup looks good and deep with contact, power and speed: Lopez, Galarraga, Veras, Weiss, Pendleton, Justice, Lofton and Sanders. The pitchers can hit, too, so that's a plus. I have a solid and versatile bench to help mix and match, so I think this will be a bit of a managing job. Who knows? The deadball pitchers might stymie any power and knock a lot of singles and doubles off Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz-Millwood. Hoping for the best, though.

5721 PA .301 AVG .383 OBP .479 SLG 171 HR 222 SB (hitters only)
1546 IP .221 OAV 1.07 WHIP 2.71 ERA

Decades: Boys of 132 Summers
So, the obvious concern is that almost everyone else took Alphabet and I probably erred there. I totally overthought the 2^nd round combination and apparently got it wrong. I was thinking that all of the expansion franchises would have a logjam around the last few decades, but having never tried to build any of these I just had no perspective on what would combine better. If I’m lucky enough to advance, I might be sweating that team a lot.
But in the meantime, maybe this isn’t such a bad squad for now. I started off by building a pitching staff I liked. I’ve had some good results from 3-man rotations and grabbed 05 Mathewson, 12 Wood and 41 Wyatt, all of whom can swing the bat well too. I have 06 Meredith, 11 Adams, 85 Ontiveros and 94 Howe in the pen, and I’ve gotten good seasons from each previously. Plus ’68 Murphy for spot starts and long action to keep me in games here and there. My defense isn’t all that great, which concerns me, but I went for high average guys who hit doubles with good speed. They’re not the best base stealers but there are 5 guys with 80+ speed in the lineup. First time using Billy Hamilton and the ’70 Tommy Harper at 3b. Guys I’ve been pleased with before are ’39 Mize and ’27 Heilmann. ’02 Abreu fit the profile I wanted, too, but I don’t think I’ve used him before. Toss in a couple SH middle infielders in Schoendienst and Aybar, and it looks solid enough.

6015 PA .320 AVG .396 OBP .499 SLG 148 HR 323 SB (hitters only)
1566 IP .207 OAV 0.98 WHIP1.86 ERA

C is for Cookie
I started with the pitching staff again since there was no restriction and built something I liked for about half the cap. Went with another 3-man rotation and almost duplicated the $120M staff at first but decided to vary it up a bit. Have ’12 Walter Johnson and ’10 Russ Ford joining the ’41 Wyatt this time. All handle the bat well, too, continuing that trend. Once again I’ve got Meredith, Adams, Ontiveros and Murphy, but I wanted the ’16 Andrew Miller again after getting a fantastic season out of him once before. I have wanted to use a good Tiny Bonham season again but couldn’t figure out how to use him here, so I settled for a LR/spot starter 1946 season.
Building a bad defensive team is sort of liberating. You set the parameters you want (if my max is C+, then I wanted everyone to be as high as possible and not use D guys if avoidable) and fill up the lineup with the best guy at each spot until you run out of money. It actually worked. I wanted very high averages and guys who get on base well, with emphasis on 2b and 3b but not concerned with HR. I’m expecting bad defenses mostly, so let’s keep the pressure on. The infield is 38 Mize, 52 J. Robinson, 07 Wagner and 1894 G. Davis. 1923 O’Farrell behind the plate. 23 Heilmann, 30 Combs and 28 Ruth patrol the outfield. Have only used Ruth once before, I think. Seemed like a good bargain really under 10M with .461 OBP and .709 SLG and 718 PA. He’s in there every inning, and I like that. Everyone in the lineup is over .400 OBP. Not a speedy team, but I don’t think that will hurt too much.

5894 PA .337 AVG .429 OBP .549 SLG 181 HR 183 SB
1531 IP .197 OAV 0.93 WHIP 1.89 ERA

Double Players
Like many owners, I quickly decided on doubles for the same basic reasons. I feel like reading these other posts backed up that choice. Like the C defenders, I think I made the right call here too. Did I build a good enough team, though? It came together very quickly with the parameters I set for 2B/100 and I basically went with the first roster I built due to a time constraint.

To mix things up, I used a 4-man rotation this time (68 Gibson, 94 Maddux, 89 Saberhagen, 37 Gomez) that really limits walks and allows few homers. Probably should have gone for a little better OAV considering the lineups I’ll be facing. That might be costly in the long run. Bullpen has many usual suspects: 06 Meredith and 11 Adams yet again, plus 16 Jansen, 76 G. Jackson and 07 Moylan. I hope I have enough good innings out there. The more I look at it, the more I wonder. .205 OAV might be too high for this theme, even with a low WHIP and ERA. I’m concerned about Gomez, who seems to have good history because he normalizes well. He might be the key to the staff, because the other rotation guys should be fine.

Not an easy out in the order at all, but then again at this cap there shouldn’t be any wasted spots. But I didn’t build a great defense, and that might bite me (edit: and after reading several posts here I now know it will be my death sentence). Also didn’t look for speed. Want guys who can get on and get doubled in, with the occasional homer to help. Using a lot of guys I hadn’t before. 33 Cochrane at C, 10 Cabrera, 07 Polanco, 96 A-Rod and 00 Cirillo around the infield. 20 Speaker, 00 Giles and 27 Heilmann in the OF, with 07 David Ortiz at DH. Some big doublers on the bench in 47 Ferrell (12 in 105 Abs), 06 Daryle Ward (9 in 104 AB) and 95 Polonia (8 in 60 AB). A couple of these guys have personal connections. Cirillo was the star of our high school rival, and he dominated us every time we faced him, but as a pitcher. His license plate was JC KS YOU. And he sure did. Also set a CIF-Southern Section record for RBI. It’s fun to use him once. And Daryle Ward is from my area and was great friends with one of my old coworkers, who told stories about their HS days all the time. So I tossed him in.

6367 PA .341 AVG .429 OBP .558 SLG 450 2B, 42 3B, 212 HR 74 SB
1617 IP .205 OAV 0.96 WHIP 1.85 ERA

Now that I've read ozomatli's post about using Dennis Martinez clones too ... and being pretty uncomfortable with it, I'm thinking:

A) If he stuck with it, I didn't make a bad choice.
B) If he's that nervous, he probably knows better than I do and we're both doomed.

Posted by barracuda3 on 8/10/2017 1:04:00 PM (view original):
Quote post by discodemo on 8/10/2017 12:13:00 PM:

"By the way, I'll stand on Steve Earle's coffee table and drink Townes Van Zandt's beer..."

Brilliant

This definitely makes me want to fish out some of my old CDs and play homage to these two giants tonight.

Red, keep me updated on how '00 Cirillo is doing. I've been wanting to use him, but there's probably a reason why he's so cheap

70mil: 67 Astros, 78 Padres, 80 Expos

My goto team for this sort of theme is typically the 1980 Montreal Expos. The reason: speed of course, particularly from two players who fit well at this salary level: Rodney Scott and Ron Leflore. Scott is a bad hitter, but he stole 62 bases and his defense at SS is pretty good. Leflore’s defense in the outfield is terrible, but his hitting isn’t bad (ok, actually it is), but he did steal 90+ bases! The 1980 Expos also get me my 1B with Warren Cromartie and one of my starters in Steve Rogers. All I can say is that I’ve had success with the Scott/Leflore combo in the past with exactly this salary cap, so why stop now.

Next up: I needed a decent catcher, but not one who would cost me too much. Gene Tenace is one of my favorites for a 70mil league, and he had one of his typical good defense/decent OBP/terrible batting average seasons for the 1978 Padres. That team had a decent starter in Gaylord Perry and a good reliever in Rollie Fingers, plus Gene Richards in the OF, who had good SB numbers to complement Scott/Leflore.

I still needed a 2B and 3B and another SP. After a bit of searching, the 67 Astros seemed to fit the bill, providing a decent, but not too good Morgan, Asporante at 3B, and Mike Cuellar as my 3^rd starter.

So now, I was free to fill up the rest of my team with one more OF and relievers. Quisenberry and Mahorcic were the relievers and Giancarlo Stanton worked with the remaining salary to be my final OF.

The end result seems to be a team about as good as everyone else’s, stats-wise, but hopefully my stolen bases will carry the day, which usually seems to be a solid strategy in low cap leagues.

Hitting: 5181 PA .270/.360/.403 258 SBs 71 CS
Pitching: 1414 IP, 1.17 WHIP, .243 OAV, 0.58 HR/9

90Mil: 1999 Blue Jays w/extra Docs and Shannons

My strategy was to find a single pitcher who I could clone for pretty much my entire staff. However, the pitcher couldn’t be too good (ie. Pedro or Maddux) since there was no way I could use the really good seasons. I settled on either Saberhagen, Mussina, or Halladay. I almost built a team with the Red Sox (can’t remember which year) with Saberhagen and Shane Mack as my clones. The hitting looked pretty good, but the pitching wasn’t quite there, especially in Fenway Park. I eventually came across the 1999 Blue Jays. The team actually fits very nicely together. They have a good, but not too good season of Carlos Delgado at 1B, and three nice platoons at 2B, SS, and 3B already built in! The OF has a good (but not too good) season of Jose Cruz Jr, and definitely a too good season of Shawn Green. I decided that my hitting clone would be Shannon Stewart of all people, who had a surprising number of good (but not too good) seasons to pull from to fill out my OF. David Segui will be my DH.

As for the pitching, it’s Halladay, Halladay, and Halladay, and the result is a staff with decent numbers, but a scary number of homers given up. I saw early on that Schwarze picked this very team and cloned Halladay as well, but cloned Tony Fernandez instead of Shannon. The fact that Schwarze picked this team gives me hope, but I have no idea how this team will do.

Hitting: 5977 PA .295/.365/.470, 180 HRs, 103 SBs, 38 CS
Pitching: 1501 IP, 1.07 WHIP, .243 OAV, 0.70 HR/9


100Mil: 1913, 1917, 1919 Braves

I knew one thing: I wanted a deadball team. After looking at some of my favorite cookies, I noticed that a surprising amount of them played for the Boston Braves. Fred Snodgrass was a Boston Brave at one time? Really? So was Chief Meyers? And Art Wilson? Who knew! I knew Jake Northrop was, but Ed Walsh? And Art Nehf? Jack Quinn, really? (Ok, Quinn pitched for everyone, but still…). So, I tried them out, and it worked out pretty well for the hitters, although I couldn’t use Snodgrass as it turns out. A shout out to John Titus, who always seems to have a season that works well for me, no matter what the theme! The pitchers were trickier. Ed Walsh, Jake Northrop, and Jack Quinn are wonderful. Dick Rudolph and Tom L. Hughes aren’t quite as wonderful, but still very good. And that’s the problem with the pitching. I have just five good pitchers, so it will be tricky to juggle them appropriately. Nevertheless, I think this team will do well.

Hitting: 5570 PA .311/.390/.447
Pitching: 1497 IP, 0.96 WHIP, .213 OAV, 0.16 HR/9

120mil: Mmm, Noodle Soup

I didn’t really think that hard about this one. I decided rather quickly and blithely, without any empirical evidence, that making an alphabet team combined with one of the other restrictions would be too hard, so I went with the alphabet team in the first round. The team is a standard deadball-heavy team which focuses on doubles and triples and most assuredly not homers. The deadball pitchers don’t give up many homers and the deadball hitters don’t hit very many of them anyway. I’ve generally had success with this sort of team before so I expect to again. This was the first team I built. Nothing much else to say about it.

Hitting: 5800 PA .333/.428/.477 311 2Bs, 91 3Bs, 71 HRs

Pitching: 1461 IP, 0.86 WHIP, .192 OAV, 0.36 HR/9

Variable: You Really Made The Grade… Of A C

I also didn’t think too hard about this one either. A defense I figured was too expensive, plus it was the least amount of money. I didn’t think there was much difference between B and C defense, and D was a bridge too far. So I built a C defense team. I think it was the 2^nd team I built. Barry Bonds will be my CF so that’s always nice. Unless it’s Mickey Mantle. Anyway, the pitchers are the usual deadball cookies that I like. Again, one the decision to go with C was made (and it was made quickly), then this team came together pretty easily.

Hitting: 5467 PA .335/.446/.536 306 2Bs, 71 3Bs, 152 HRs

Pitching: 1522 IP, 0.86 WHIP, .199 OAV, 0.22 HR/9

140Mil: One Trick Ponies

Wow! This one is really a big surprise. Unlike apparently nearly every single owner, especially the ones who have done well in this tournament, I quickly, yes quickly, decided that homers was the way to go!!! Uh oh. My logic was impeccable and the thought process lasted about 5 seconds: No deadball pitchers = no homer suppression (or at least, not enough to suppress them enough to eliminate them). I figured that my homer team would also hit lots of doubles (they do hit 297 of them), and if I could limit the triples, then I’d be fine. Also, if you are going to have an advantage in one of these three things, why not the one that gives you the most bang! Sometimes, a double won’t score you any runs, nor a triple, but hey, those homers… they always score you at least a run, right? With the pitchers in this league available to us, I certainly don’t expect any conga lines of double after double after double, or triple after triple after triple. Now… of course, if the deadballers were still available, then of course I would never dream of picking the homer team, but they aren’t so… homers it is!!!

After looking at the other teams, however, I’m certainly worried because I was not expecting it to be as easy as it apparently was to suppress homers. Some of these teams still have pitchers that give up very few homers, even though none of the pitchers are deadballers. That’s a big concern. Not to mention, of course, all the other reasons that nearly everyone else has already mentioned. Having said all that, my homer team is currently leading their division with a 3-2 record, so… who knows! I must admit it would be pretty cool to be totally right on this one ;-).

Hitting: 6504 PA .315/.444/.559 297 2Bs, 32 3Bs, 302 HRs

Pitching: 1506 IP, 0.85 WHIP, .189 OAV, 0.40 HR/9

Posted by d_rock97 on 8/12/2017 2:15:00 AM (view original):
Red, keep me updated on how '00 Cirillo is doing. I've been wanting to use him, but there's probably a reason why he's so cheap

0 for 8 lol

Posted by d_rock97 on 8/12/2017 2:15:00 AM (view original):
Red, keep me updated on how '00 Cirillo is doing. I've been wanting to use him, but there's probably a reason why he's so cheap

His '00 season has better offensive numbers than the '98 version, which costs $1.5M more. For that i can live with B+/C+...and for a doubles park, '96 would make a decent sub $5M DH...

I liked the statistical comparison brianjw made within his divisions so I decided to do something similar. The first thing I noticed was some huge differences in innings totals... roughly 200-250 inning difference between the high and low IP total within each division. I;m the low total in three of the six leagues.Also, seeing as that i spent well more than 50% of my salary on offense, it's not a surprise I typically have the worst pitching numbers in my divisions.
.

70 Million			Hitting					Pitching
Owner	Team	Ballpark	PA/162	Avg	OBP	Slug	SB	IP/162	WHIP	HR
schwarze	87Hou, 89Cal, 93Mets	Dodger Stadium	5399	0.279	0.352	0.424	187	1348	1.16	85
mick33	68Mets, 80Tex, 88Hou	Astrodome	5276	0.292	0.347	0.401	108	1422	1.14	101
wink0094	89Hou, 94Mon, 96Mil	Astrodome	5347	0.296	0.369	0.440	87	1350	1.15	132
spikeboots	69Mon, 69Hou, 14Tor	Astrodome	5523	0.277	0.350	0.416	127	1588	1.34	133
.
.
90 Million			Hitting					Pitching
Owner	Team	Ballpark	PA/162	Avg	OBP	Slug	SB	IP/162	WHIP	HR
schwarze	1999 Blue Jays	Skydome	6385	0.288	0.365	0.458	122	1464	1.06	111
hacker7	2001 Braves	Turner Field	5455	0.292	0.370	0.471	70	1513	1.16	121
cubbies84	2000 Yankees	Yankee Stadium II	5563	0.283	0.361	0.460	85	1527	1.13	81
knieman	1979 Royals	Royals Stadium	6063	0.288	0.348	0.429	202	1701	1.18	124
.
.
100 Million			Hitting					Pitching
Owner	Team	Ballpark	PA/162	Avg	OBP	Slug	SB	IP/162	WHIP	HR
schwarze	39-48 Cardinals	Sportsman Park III	5786	0.309	0.401	0.472	47	1473	1.06	47
fatboydad54	08-17 Naps	League Park II	5748	0.311	0.381	0.413	271	1611	1.06	16
justinlee_24	10-19 White Sox	Comiskey Park I	5589	0.305	0.368	0.410	227	1375	0.99	14
Relkcirts	08-17 Giants	Polo Grounds V	5810	0.321	0.390	0.444	302	1439	1.06	15
.
.
120 Million			Hitting					Pitching
Owner	Team	Ballpark	PA/162	Avg	OBP	Slug	SB	IP/162	WHIP	HR
schwarze	Alphabet	Target Field	5827	0.337	0.427	0.513	337	1483	0.98	53
daddyzander	Alphabet	Polo Grounds V	5756	0.338	0.423	0.543	125	1577	0.94	33
markeking	Alphabet	Sportsman Park III	5804	0.319	0.437	0.522	114	1581	0.95	39
garmansouth	Decade	Sportsman Park II	6211	0.338	0.440	0.536	202	1671	1.06	70
.
.
Variable Cap			Hitting					Pitching
Owner	Team	Ballpark	PA/162	Avg	OBP	Slug	SB	IP/162	WHIP	HR
schwarze	$125M - C	Target Field	5644	0.373	0.441	0.564	265	1464	0.95	62
tigerrott	$120M - B	Dodger Stadium	6052	0.328	0.422	0.544	112	1521	0.90	17
hacker7	$125M - C	Fenway Park	5893	0.351	0.432	0.535	175	1449	0.87	24
hersheybear	$120M - B	Busch Stadium II	5649	0.340	0.434	0.496	200	1338	0.92	44
.
.
140 Million			Hitting					Pitching
Owner	Team	Ballpark	PA/162	Avg	OBP	Slug	SB	IP/162	WHIP	HR
schwarze	Doubles	Polo Grounds V	6349	0.347	0.443	0.549	65	1531	0.92	68
nordawg	Doubles	Polo Grounds V	6822	0.344	0.425	0.560	83	1730	0.91	114
buddhagamer	Doubles	Polo Grounds V	6519	0.343	0.422	0.533	53	1418	0.90	61
barracuda3	Doubles	National League Park II	6287	0.338	0.438	0.552	46	1451	0.89	52

Those are some tough divisions. Unless some people have drafted slow D-/D- hitters, there should be some high win totals with those stats.

$70M Expansion Ball: 78 Rangers / 80 Padres / 82 Expos (5-4)

This was by far the hardest team to build. In the end, I went with the simple strategy of picking teams that gave me good starting pitchers and lots of stolen bases, as well as an elite arm to prevent other teams from stealing bases on my team. The big weakness of this team is that I am kind of short on Innings Pitched, so I am hoping that mopups + Petco will be enough to prevent my team from getting fatigue issues.

Hitters 5659 PA 0.271/0.344/0.376 74 HR 268 SB
Pitchers 1233 IP 2.73 ERA 1.12 WHIP 0.242 OAV 268 BB 82 HR

$90M Real Team + Clones with DH: 2004 Kevin Brown Yankees (7-2)

I think a lot of people went wrong with this theme by focusing on trying to get a team like the 2008 Atlanta Braves that gives them as many clones as possible. The reality is, the first clone is by far the most important because you can get an entire starting rotation out of it, whereas subsequent clones can only get you a bullpen or better hitters. But very few hitters play enough positions to actually be worthwhile to clone, while being cheap and effective enough to not result in being over the salary cap.

Therefore, when I was trying to build this team, the first question I asked myself is what elite team had no good pitchers on it and was still dominant? And more importantly, is there an over the hill pitcher on the roster who was unquestionably elite in his prime? The late 1990s and early 2000 New York Yankees came to mind immediately. There were actually several over the hill elite pitchers on those Yankee squads, from Roger Clemens to Randy Johnson to Kevin Brown. Kevin Brown is by far the cheapest of the three in the WIS database (and arguably the most effective, too) and the 2004 NYY roster is extremely well balanced, so that was the pick.

Hitters: 6288 PA 0.270/0.355/0.461 241 HR 83 SB
Pitchers: 1416 IP 2.61 ERA 1.11 WHIP 0.230 OAV 368 BB 76 HR

$100M Hitting the Limit Twist: 1910-1919 CWS (6-3)

Show me a single franchise theme based on decades or even a single season one that has twists and allows deadball years, and I will pick the Chicago White Sox pretty much every chance I get. Ed Walsh + Eddie Cicotte is a fearsome starting pitcher rotation, and Joe Jackson + Eddie Collins is a really solid foundation for hitting. Enough said.

Hitters: 5589 PA 0.305/0.368/0.410 30 HR 227 SB
Pitchers: 1375 IP 2.02 ERA 0.99 WHIP 0.221 OAV 279 BB 14 HR

$120M Choose Your Soup: There's No Treasure in Alphabet Soups (3-6)

The key behind this theme is that whichever soup rules you don't conform to in round 1 you must conform to in round 2. And the round 2 results count for twice as much! That means it was important to figure out which soup's rules are the hardest to conform to, and pick that one for round 1. Since there is no player that has a last name starting with X, it kind of figures that Alphabet Soup is pretty hard, particularly when some of the letters don't have a lot of good options.

Once I decided on going with the Alphabet Soup in round 1, I really focused on getting value for my money spent. A lot of the position players I picked have high Runs Created in their Performance History Profile relative to the amount I paid to get the player. Similarly for the pitchers, I picked 1912 Walter Johnson because he is by far the cheapest "true Ace" on a $/IP basis. The 1908 Ed Walsh is also a pretty good bargain, as he has been seemingly overlooked in favor of flashier other pitchers (and his 1910 doppelganger).

Hitters: 5802 PA 0.314/0.407/0.513 179 HR 181 SB
Pitchers: 1441 IP 1.64 ERA 0.91 WHIP 262 BB 17 HR

Variable Cap - Out of Range: Perfect Defense: A+ or Bust (9-0)

I've always been a sucker for building elite all defense teams, and it is something I do from time to time. I had good reasons for doing it this time though, both theme wise and in the larger picture.

The first major reason is that teams with higher salary caps have weaker fielding AND weaker range, which means that weak defense helps offset any advantage from having better hitters or pitchers. This weakness can be exploited by fast teams that are willing to be very aggressive on the basepaths (note: this does not mean you have to steal bases). Once I had decided I was going to only have a $115 million salary cap, it made little sense to not go all the way and go with elite defense...

I also find it pretty odd that teams that picked A as their letter grade then went out and picked live ball pitchers, especially ones that give up home runs or a lot of walks. What's the point of having great range if people are constantly getting free bases or ignoring the defense altogether?

The second major reason is, of course, the salary updates. Most of the Hitters and Pitchers who I picked for this theme have not seen major salary increases since the updates began. In stark contrast, most of the players who would be picked if I weren't going for an all defensive team have seen their price go up significantly. I mean, look at Addie Joss: his price has increased by almost $8 million, probably in the neighbourhood of 60% since the updates began...I guess the bottomline is, my team is almost as good as it would have been before the updates, whereas a standard $125M or $130M team is significantly worse now than it would have been before the updates. This means that defense is a lot more viable strategy than it was before the updates, when buying elite deadball aces was easy and hard countered any defense oriented strategy.

Hitters: 5632 PA 0.292/0.354/0.455 150 HR 138 SB
Pitchers: 1414 IP 1.87 ERA 0.91 WHIP 158 BB 5 HR

$140M XBH with DH: The $140M Home Run Derby (6-3)

I have to admit, I'm surprised by just how many people picked Triples. Triples is by far the lowest outcome hit event in the game, which means that those teams will get less advantage from their home ballpark simply because of how infrequent they occur. That being said, ballparks like Petco exist that dampen everything except Triples, so I suppose that is something that is going for Triples...

When I built this team, I assumed the vast majority would go with either Doubles or Home Runs. Doubles is the obvious and safe choice, but after much thinking I decided to go with the more risky approach for several reasons. The first reason is simple: Home Runs are much more effective at driving in runs than Doubles, yet it is possible to build a team that can hit almost as many home runs as many double hitting teams. The rest of the reasons have to do with how Home runs are suppressed: Deadball pitchers and extreme anti-home run Ballparks. Obviously with the 1920+ restriction, deadballers are not allowed. There are some select starting pitchers after 1920 that are good versus home runs, but they are not common and are usually not picked over other live ball pitchers. As far as anti-home run parks go, Astrodome and Target Field are not legal and Petco / AT & T are only available to Triple hitting teams, which as I discussed above I did not think would be nearly as common as they were. This led me to conclude that Home Run Hitting was actually viable in this theme.

There are a lot of hitters that can hit a lot of home runs. To build a team that collectively hits as many home runs as possible, I needed to pick players who can hit significantly more home runs than any other player at that position. This led me to pay $15 million each for Roger Hornsby and Babe Ruth, because both hit way more home runs than any other player at their position. I then filled out the rest of my roster with other players that had performance history results of around 40 home runs.

Hitters: 6332 PA 0.300/0.401/0.591 393 HR 80 SB
Pitchers: 1532 IP 1.83 ERA 1.00 WHIP 355 BB 29 HR

Posted by DoctorKz on 8/12/2017 5:24:00 PM (view original):

Posted by d_rock97 on 8/12/2017 2:15:00 AM (view original):
Red, keep me updated on how '00 Cirillo is doing. I've been wanting to use him, but there's probably a reason why he's so cheap

His '00 season has better offensive numbers than the '98 version, which costs $1.5M more. For that i can live with B+/C+...and for a doubles park, '96 would make a decent sub $5M DH...

Cirillo is now up to a respectable .293/.362/.463 and shares the league lead with 7 doubles.

Yay! Another Homerun brother to commiserate with!