Huh, thought I did one of these, but I don't see it. Probably didn't then, lol.
70M: '86 Angels, '86 Astros, '86 Mets
Keeping with my theme from last year, I've been trying to focus on ERC+, HR/9+ and WHIP+ on the pitching side and OBP+ and SLG+ for hitters. I don't remember which team I started with, the Angels I think, but I already knew the Astros and Mets were good that season too, and I thought it'd be cool to use all three from the same season. The bullpen was pretty good, heavy on Angels and Mets (although I did end up taking Ed Lynch so that I could hit the salary range; I started the rotation with Mike Witt, which in retrospect was maybe not so great because he's not put up the numbers I expected, but then '86 Gooden hasn't really either so idk. I used the keystone combo of Doran and Thon to help reach the Astros' cap, overpaid for Bob Boone at C ... but was able to fill out the lineup with '94 Olerud and '94 Sheffield, who've been solid for me. ('86 George Hendrick has put up surprisingly good numbers, too.) I've had some position fatigue, but it's under control now; this team is hanging around the wild-card race and might be a pleasant surprise.
90M: 1991 Tigers
I always think of Tony Phillips when I think of clone leagues, and I almost always build a Tigers team each year, so I figured this would be my chance: I also knew that Frank Tanana had pitched with Detroit at some point, so I could grab his good Angels seasons and round out the roster with some tolerable pitching. '91 meant Mickey Tettleton and also Cecil Fielder's huge year; Trammell and Whitaker were aging but would be adequate, which I thought would work for 90M. The pitching was a different story: I ended up going with Bill Gullickson as my lone non-Tanana starter, which was a mistake, and my long relievers (Leiter and Searcy) plus the end of Dan Petry's career aren't helping things either. Gleaton and Henneman have been good enough in the bullpen, though, and it turns out if you score enough runs, league-average pitching doesn't hurt that much. The Tananas have been solid; right now I'm 4 games short of the best record among 90M teams and looking good for a playoff spot, even though I'm 2 back in my division.
100M: 1981-1990 Cardinals
Wooee. I thought I'd be able to build a decent team from '88, and I added '84 and went back to 1981 so I could get the '81 Sutter and McWilliams. In retrospect, the '85 Tudor was way too expensive ($11.1M), and of course I'm not getting the numbers from him I thought I would. '89 DeLeon has been great, '82 Andujar has numbers similar to Tudor's ... but '86 Danny Cox is pitching like he's $2M cheaper than anyone else in my rotation, and '83 Quiz is the only decent guy in my pen. That wouldn't be so bad if I had more than one guy in my lineup who was hitting. '85 Pedro Guerrero is doing well, but '89 Lonnie Smith has comparable normalized stats and isn't getting the job done, and the other guys are hitting like they're weaker than Guerrero. As I noted in the league forum, this team might cost me a spot in the second round - given my WISC history, I should probably be pleased that that's even a possibility, but it's disappointing that I seem to have built four-plus solid teams and one big ol' clunker, and it's a franchise I don't even like.
120M: Franchise Soup
Also given my history, I went with Franchise, because it seemed easiest, and why would I need to plan for round two anyway? Haha! In retrospect, I should have expected the occasional IP crunch, since I only drafted 1417 for a 120M league, but things seem under control for now. 1902 Bill Bernhard and '89 Bret Saberhagen are dogs; '95 Randy Johnson and '00 Kevin Brown have been pulling their weight, which is nice since I spent only $56.8M on pitching (normally I lean more toward pitching than hitting). I tried to find lower-K relievers to save some cash, and '14 Joe Smith and '10 Rafael Soriano have been gold mines (WHIP <= 1, OAV < .200). Long relief has been a problem here too, which makes sense since I was digging into lower ERC+, but then one of my worst pitchers has been '06 Cla Meridith, so idk. On the hitting side, I loaded up on power and chose Sicks Stadium to try to cut down on speed and save some IP. It's worked out OK, with four guys topping .380 OBP, and the HRs have been there, but I've been squeezed on 2B and 3B, so I'm not getting the offense I hoped to see. Still, we're three out of the wild-card spot, so if I can pick on some weakened pitching as the season progresses, I might have a chance to squeak this team into the playoffs too.
Variable cap: $125M/ Cs and below
As a member of #overratedfielding, I knew I wasn't going to build a cheaper A or B team, but I wasn't sure an all-D team would be a good idea. After I completely failed on the rules and built a $130M C team, I pulled it back out and started over. Since the cap was similar, I brought over Bernhard and Saberhagen from my $120M team, and guess what? They're doing just fine (although Bernhard needs more run support). I added the '98 Maddux and tempted the normalization gods with '69 Fritz Peterson, but they've both been good rotation members, which is good since the bullpen doesn't have enough IP (I've had to drop a rotation guy in on several occasions). I got a good collection of pitchers with high ERC+ and WHIP+ - '16 Kenley Jansen, '06 BJ Ryan, '00 Robb Nen, etc. - and they're pitching well enough, but 412 bullpen innings just isn't cutting it. I should probably have cut hitting salary a bit and added one more reliever (maybe not a closer, if you believe that WIS has it in for them). At the plate, I figured I'd be able to get some power guys who don't move a lot, or who just have a funny approach to the outfield. Taking a Ruth is always a gamble, but I liked the '28 version, and he's really paid off, with a third again as many HRs as the next-closest player (who is also a '28 Ruth). I didn't realize SBs were as unhelpful as they are now, so I overpaid for '79 Darrell Porter, but at least I can understand him not hitting. '02 Jim Thome has not impressed, but at least my two more expensive old guys ('13 Joe Jackson and '07 Honus Wagner) are doing what I wanted. (1911 Larry Doyle was a "I need a cheap 2B" guy, so I wasn't expecting that much from him.) After a rough stretch, this team is on a good path, and that's good to see.
140M: Triples
In yet another case of a long-time veteran being a bumbling fool, I built a great deadball team, turned it in, and was promptly rejected by a forgiving commissioner. Once I pulled my head out of my butt and rebuilt the team, I stuck with triples for two reasons: because the sim likes deadball guys and deadball guys hit triples, and because I figured doubles and homer teams would both be power-type teams, so other owners would be more likely to counter power teams (and get two for one, sort of) than to counter triples teams. With the deadball guys out of play, I looked for guys with 20 triples to get off to a good start: '20 Rogers Hornsby, '43 Stan Musial, '20 Joe Jackson, and then '41 Jeff Heath at DH. That was 80; '22 Bubbles Hargrave and '32 Charlie Berry as my C platoon got me 16 more. I knew I'd have room to get more balanced hitters, so I got '39 Johnny Mize for his overall bat and '78 Dave Parker to finish the OF. '64 Ron Santo and '82 Robin Yount finished the lineup, and then I basically searched for scrubs with triples to hit 150. On the pitching side, I still looked to keep HR/9 down, keeping '98 Maddux and '16 Jansen from my $125M team. With the DH in play, I knew I'd need more innings, and they'd have to be good ones, so I kept the rotation around $10M per pitcher, adding '53 Spahn, '43 Chandler, and '36 Hubbell. The bullpen got more closers: '97 Doug Jones from my 120M team, '10 Kuo from my $125, then '07 Betancourt, '06 Papelbon, and '12 Kimbrel: significantly higher ERC+ than my 120M team (hmm), plus solid HR/9+ to keep those homer teams off the board. It's been a rousing success: also 4 games short of the best 140M team, which is a nice surprise since I usually struggle at higher caps with DHs ... but it's not because I'm hitting triples. I'm tied for third in runs ... but third in doubles and sixth in HR. The pitching's been pretty good, with the rotation being average but the pen good enough to hold leads, and that's been enough to set me up well. If the innings problem goes away (fatigue is currently under control), this could be a really good team ... but it's tied for first, and two of the eight teams with better records are in this league, so it could also be a solid team that is bounced in the LDS.
I figured I'd do better this year, since I got my thinking squared away for all six teams I built. So far, that's been the case: three teams in a playoff spot, one team a game back, and one team three games back. Those Cardinals will be the death of me. Still, .525 would be my best winning percentage ever in a WISC (last year's .515 is second-best now; best was .520 in, um, 2005), and I've never had more than two teams make the playoffs. As a number of others here can attest, a playoff run can mean the difference between top-24 and out; if I can stay in the hunt, who knows?