My apologies, Nebhusker for keeping you waiting.

2010 Juan Uribe - $3,974,200

Best drafts on whatifsports. That's even with Whitehill, Hudlin etc.....

I'll finish up with 2002 Uribe (along with 2002 Larry Walker).

Posted by schwarze on 4/5/2018 4:59:00 PM (view original):
Can't wait to do another 16x16 league. My new blacklist rule will be as follows:

(1) Any player taken where the person who nominated him made the playoffs
(2) Any player taken more than once (a reprieve from Earl Whitehill for a while)
(3) Any player taken within the last two versions (a temporary reprieve from Willis Hudlin)

Love these drafts and the smooth way Jeff runs them, not to mention The Matrix.
Ready for the next one when you are!
Officially IN.

I already have a player in mind for the next one. Ready to do it again any time.

ROUND 15
Owner________	Prev. Salary___	Player________	Salary_______	New Salary____
calhoop	46,594,142	61 Friend	5,201,613	51,795,755
redcped	47,546,807	39 Simmons	2,293,574	49,840,381
good_beef	48,797,032	52 Spahn	8,261,420	57,058,452
alice	52,601,461	59 Friend	5,022,200	57,623,661
njbigwig	52,763,784	10 Uribe	3,974,200	56,737,984
mllama54	57,873,945	96 Rhodes	1,257,015	59,130,960
Chisock	57,925,920	31 Hudlin	5,020,294	62,946,214
joerat1	59,663,052	01 Kendall	3,775,525	63,438,577
pedrocerrano	59,674,348	93 Hershiser	6,571,718	66,246,066
shysters3	59,813,928	75 Foli	3,848,070	63,661,998
Donburgh	60,227,370	04 Lowe	3,245,170	63,472,540
osbaseball08	62,177,758	94 Galarraga	5,370,227	67,547,985
schwarze	62,780,640	29 Whitehill	5,747,145	68,527,785
NebHusker	63,345,950	02 Uribe	3,769,745	67,115,695
cholatse	68,364,264	07 Hawkins	1,138,493	69,502,757
slainte	70,707,175	82 McGee	2,597,741	73,304,916

Hitting	Kendall	Galarraga	Biggio	Uribe	Foli	McGee	Simmons	Williams
---------------------	----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------
calhoop	04 Pit	00 Atl	05 Hou	08 ChW	83 Cal	98 StL	28 PhA	61 ChC
redcped	10 KCR	03 SF	93 Hou	12 LAD	81 Pit	92 SF	39 Bos	66 ChC
good_beef	08 Mil	01 Tex	92 Hou	06 ChW	77 Mon	83 StL	36 Det	75 Oak
alice	06 Oak	98 Atl	88 Hou	01 Col	76 Mon	93 SF	43 Bos	76 Oak
njbigwig	00 Pit	91 Mon	07 Hou	10 SF	80 Pit	99 StL	25 PhA	64 ChC
mllama54	03 Pit	86 Mon	89 Hou	09 SF	71 NYM	91 SF	38 Was	74 ChC
Chisock	07 ChC	01 SF	01 Hou	15 NYM	82 Cal	85 StL	40 PhA	62 ChC
joerat1	01 Pit	92 StL	00 Hou	14 LAD	72 Mon	84 StL	24 PhA	70 ChC
pedrocerrano	07 Oak	93 Col	90 Hou	04 ChW	78 NYM	97 StL	30 PhA	72 ChC
shysters3	05 Oak	96 Col	96 Hou	15 LAD	75 Mon	94 SF	29 PhA	68 ChC
Donburgh	98 Pit	85 Mon	94 Hou	03 Col	79 Pit	89 StL	33 ChW	63 ChC
osbaseball08	99 Pit	94 Col	95 Hou	13 LAD	79 NYM	95 Bos	32 PhA	71 ChC
schwarze	02 Pit	90 Mon	98 Hou	11 LAD	84 NYY	90 StL	26 PhA	65 ChC
NebHusker	96 Pit	88 Mon	97 Hou	02 Col	77 SF	96 StL	27 PhA	73 ChC
cholatse	09 Mil	02 Mon	02 Hou	16 Cle	73 Mon	90 Oak	31 PhA	67 ChC
slainte	97 Pit	97 Col	99 Hou	15 Atl	74 Mon	82 StL	34 ChW	69 ChC
.
Pitching	Spahn	Friend	Lowe	Hershiser	Whitehill	Hudlin	Rhodes	Hawkins
---------------------	----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------	----------------
calhoop	59 Mil	61 Pit	99 Bos	90 LAD	38 Cle	26 Cle	08 Sea	95 Min
redcped	65 SF	65 Pit	98 Bos	99 NYM	32 Det	33 Cle	01 Sea	11 Mil
good_beef	52 Bos	57 Pit	12 NYY	97 Cle	27 Det	40 Was	91 Bal	09 Hou
alice	63 Mil	59 Pit	03 Bos	96 Cle	35 Was	28 Cle	97 Bal	03 Min
njbigwig	48 Bos	51 Pit	97 Bos	89 LAD	39 ChC	36 Cle	00 Sea	96 Min
mllama54	53 Mil	53 Pit	06 LAD	98 SF	30 Det	38 Cle	96 Bal	04 ChC
Chisock	57 Mil	64 Pit	08 LAD	92 LAD	24 Det	31 Cle	11 StL	02 Min
joerat1	64 Mil	55 Pit	10 Atl	95 Cle	34 Was	30 Cle	10 Cin	13 NYM
pedrocerrano	54 Mil	60 Pit	00 Bos	93 LAD	23 Det	40 StB	05 Cle	08 Hou
shysters3	61 Mil	56 Pit	12 Cle	91 LAD	37 Cle	40 NYG	98 Bal	00 Min
Donburgh	62 Mil	52 Pit	04 Bos	86 LAD	36 Was	37 Cle	04 Oak	15 Col
osbaseball08	50 Bos	54 Pit	01 Bos	84 LAD	26 Det	39 Cle	11 Tex	15 Tor
schwarze	58 Mil	66 NYY	97 Sea	85 LAD	29 Det	34 Cle	08 Fla	12 Ana
NebHusker	47 Bos	66 NYM	02 Bos	94 LAD	28 Det	40 Cle	09 Cin	05 SF
cholatse	56 Mil	62 Pit	07 LAD	87 LAD	33 Was	35 Cle	03 Sea	07 Col
slainte	46 Bos	63 Pit	11 Atl	88 LAD	25 Det	32 Cle	02 Sea	08 NYY

This draft had its usual twists but I still never envisioned Juan Uribe as my primary 2B and using seven of the eight nominated pitchers.
Round 1 (The “Fun” begins): Nominating Whitehill leaves me with a good draft position (5^th) and I’m assuming that the three cheap Whitehill seasons will be selected first. This leaves one other selection before my pick. NJbigwig and Shysters grab Whitehills with the first two picks and then Good_beef surprises me by taking a cheap Galarraga (with teammates). I’m now sure that calhoop will take the third Whitehill and I’ll get the 99 Lowe (with the 1.83 ERC and a great Nomar). However, calhoop snakes me and grabs the 99 Lowe. Decision time: Lowe vs Hudlin. Definitely looking to resolve one of these SPs, I decide to grab the 00 Lowe (with a 2.75 ERC and a great Nomar; albeit $1M more than the 99 version – thanks dynamic salary repricing). Now hoping that there is not a serious run on cheap Hudlin’s.
Note: Surprisingly, the 38 Whitehill lasts until round 3 where calhoop is still able to grab him after dumping Hershiser for $500K in round 2. I’m starting to like calhoop’s team.

Round 2: Not surprising, the run on cheap Hudlins starts at the end of round 1 into round 2. Luckily, I still get the last $1M version of Hudlin although miss Feller as a teammate by one pick (Thanks Shysters).

Round 3: Still navigating the SP landmines, I decide to take Friend’s second best season and not to dump him.

Rounds 4-6: Having resolved four of the five troublesome SPs, I now have to decide between Hershiser or to start grabbing the good hitters who remain relatively untouched. I decide to take the hitter route. I’m hoping that people will shy away from the big salaries associated with the best versions of Biggio and Simmons, so I start with the 72 Williams in round 4 and follow with the 93 Galarraga in round 5 (love that .370 AVG). Finally, some of the good hitters start coming off the board and in round 6 I need to choose between Simmons and Biggio. Biggio’s best season is still available as are three great versions of Simmons. Having not acquired any teammates with my previous four picks and based on a run of Kendalls in round 6, I decide to take the 30 Simmons and add Grove and Cochrane. The best Biggio goes off the board at the end of round 6.
Looking back, loving that .370 AVG was my biggest mistake. I could have easily grabbed the best Biggio in round 5 and still gotten a very good Galarraga later. There was still a .930 OPS version available in the last round.

Round 7: At this point I have shot up the draft board over the last three rounds; from 4^th/5^th slot to 14^th, and salary is now a concern. I really want to take the best Rhodes available but with the better Kendalls off the board and Cochrane available, I go cheap on the 07 Kendall ($1M) and roll the dice with Rhodes.

Round 8: I get lucky and the 05 Rhodes is still available (along with teammate Bobby Howry).

Rounds 9-10: Salary is still a concern as is the hole at 2B as the rest of the usable Biggios have gone off the board in the previous 2 rounds. There is a really good Knoblauch available with a really cheap Hawkins (95 version) but I have another concern. All my OFs and 1B are short on PAs so I really want a cheap but usable McGee. I decide to grab the 97 McGee and roll the dice with Hawkins, betting that with numerous cheap versions and a couple of usable versions left, he’ll still be there. The rest of round 9 and the beginning of round 10 go well. Then calhoop snakes his way back into the picture and grabs the 95 Hawkins right before my pick. I then decided to take one of the last two usable Hawkins.
The McGee pick was my second mistake. I could have grabbed Knoblauch/Hawkins and still got the similar 96 McGee in round 12.

Round 11: By now, there are only two Hershisers left: the 92 Hershiser (3.78 ERC $4.8M) and the 93 Hershiser (3.28 ERC $6.6M). I start plotting paths to completing my roster based on both versions. Option 1 (92 version): I can use maybe 100 IPs in long relief/mopup and add a teammate as my SP4. Option 2 (93 version): too much salary to write off and just good enough to use as my SP4. I decide I prefer option 1 but still have salary issues and no teammate to use as the SP4. Enter the 78 Foli; the cheapest version available and teammate Craig Swan.

Round 12: Both Hershisers still available but the hole at 2B pops to the front of my brain. With no attractive teammate options available, the best option left to me is the 04 Uribe. He has a decent glove and a .802 OPS and saves me from eating a $3M version. So I grab the 04 Uribe and roll the dice on Hershiser.

Round 13: Not so lucky this time. Chisock selects the 92 Hershiser and forces me to option2 (goodbye Craig Swan). I now turn my attention to 3B. I delayed picking Spahn because there just wasn’t much difference in his seasons but I really wanted a version with a good Eddie Mathews. Having a tolerable version of Santo in my back pocket made the decision to delay easier. When Good_beef and NJbigwig passed on Spahn early in the round I got the 54 Spahn and last good Mathews.

Round 14: With Hershiser now locked as my last pick, the last decision was which way to go with Biggio. The 90 Biggio improved my second catcher position and will allow Kendall (and his .521 OPS) to stay on the bench. It also improved my 2B-SS-3B situation by providing Bill Doran to play a good bit of 2B and allowing Uribe to fill the PA holes at SS and 3B. I also got to curse calhoop one last time for forcing me to spend $1M more on my Garciaparra as I couldn’t fit some of Biggio’s good pitching teammates under the cap.

Final Recap: Using Hershiser as my SP4 means I have relatively little wasted salary (about $7M) but also a weak rotation with a good but not great bullpen. I’m sure all of you will enjoy hitting against them. I like my hitting so hopefully I’ll win a lot of high scoring games. I also promise to do my best to get to the playoffs and banish Whitehill from all future versions.
Roster:

		Player	Year	Salary	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR
C	A/B/B	Mickey Cochrane	1930	$6,497,397	591	.343	.412	.506	10
C	C/B/D+	Craig Biggio	1990	$3,742,601	140	.279	.345	.348	4
1B	C/D+	Andres Galarraga	1993	$5,350,357	506	.370	.404	.594	22
2B	B/C+	Juan Uribe	2004	$4,773,743	553	.279	.322	.479	23
SS	B/B-	Nomar Garciaparra	2000	$9,323,984	599	.365	.423	.568	21
3B	B+/D+	Eddie Mathews	1954	$6,306,721	633	.288	.420	.590	40
IF	A-/D+	Bill Doran	1990	$4,060,946	488	.304	.415	.434	7
IF
OF	C-/C+	Harry Heilmann	1923	$9,886,067	659	.390	.469	.629	18
OF	A/C	Al Simmons	1930	$10,259,042	643	.366	.410	.691	36
OF	B/D-	Billy Williams	1972	$7,181,321	680	.341	.406	.615	37
OF	B-/D-	Willie McGee	1997	$1,814,528	323	.300	.344	.406	3
DH
Total				$69,196,707	5815	.336	.405	.558	221

					IP	WHIP	ERA	OAV	HR/9
SP	A-/D+	Lefty Grove	1930	$10,267,088	307	1.08	2.40	.233	.27
SP	A+/B	Bob Friend	1960	$7,700,965	290	1.15	2.79	.255	.51
SP	C+/B+	Warren Spahn	1954	$7,935,257	299	1.21	3.06	.244	.64
SP	B/A	Orel Hershiser	1993	$6,571,718	216	1.27	3.28	.245	.61
SP
R		Huston Street	2007	$1,968,973	50	0.92	1.69	.186	.72
R		Rafael Betancourt	2005	$2,037,534	68	1.09	2.36	.222	.50
R	A+/B-	Derek Lowe	2000	$2,542,502	92	1.16	2.75	.251	.40
R	B/B	Earl Whitehill	1923	$929,018	35	1.08	2.46	.178	.70
R	C-/C+	Bob Howry	2005	$3,293,779	73	0.89	1.49	.189	.36
R	D/C-	Arthur Rhodes	2005	$1,588,605	44	1.04	1.94	.204	.31
R	A+/C+	LaTroy Hawkins	2008	$1,750,274	63	1.18	2.57	.236	.33
Total				$46,585,713	1537	1.14	2.67	.236	.49

A special thanks to Schwarze for running another great draft and to my friend NJbigwig, who despite his usual maneuvering to pick in front of me every round, never took one of my players. I certainly think that’s a first in 22 versions.
Good luck to all.

Fantastic writeup pedro...

I think the rule you may want to implement again that would prevent people from nominating a Whitehill or a Hudlin is forcing people to use there highest cost nominated players. In this draft if that rule had been in effect and pedrocerrano had nominated Whitehill, he would have had to use $6,562,767 season. He probably would have nominated someone else. I remember when you did it in either the 12 x 12 or a previous 16 x 16 it knocked out all this screw your neighbor nonsense. Don't get me wrong I love this draft because of the draft strategy you need to employ and I still think I did Ok and will still be competitive.

I am just thinking if that rule had been in affect , each nominated player would have had enough bad seasons out of 16 that strategy would still have been involved without nominating total screw your neighbor players.

My congratulations to pedro he drafted a fantastic team (probably the favorite). He worked the system to perfection. I applaud him.

Next version will probably require you to use an all-star season of the player you nominate (which has the bonus of eliminating deadball players)

I approached this draft much differently than past 16x16 drafts. It was quickly obvious to me that my starting lineup would include many of the nominated players since so many of the hitters had many good seasons. So I didn't really focus on getting stud teammates, but instead focusing on keeping salary cap flexibility. My initial nomination 1985 Orel Hershiser gave me teammate options with Scioscia (C), Guerrero (3B) and NIedenfuer (RP).
.
Round 1 - Nominating Hershiser's best year meant that I would be drafting low in round 1. My choices at #13 were one of the cheap Hudlins, the cheap '65 Spahn (to get Marichal) or the cheap Friend. I figured I would end up using Spahn as a SP and there were multiple cheap Hudlins available so I went with 1955 Bob Friend ($585K). No teammates worth mentioning.
.
Round 2 - That moved me up to pick #11 in round 2. All the <$1M Hudlins went off the board. My options at this point was the 2.1M Hudlin, the 2.7M Whitehill or the last Kershaw-related Uribe. I wanted to keep moving up the draft order, so I went with the cheap 2011 Juan Uribe ($1.1M) which got me a nice 233-IP Clayton Kershaw. Part of the strategy of this draft is to figure out which players you were going to take last and allocate the appropriate salary ahead of time. I now knew two of my last picks would be Hudlin and Whitehill and so I would be allocating about $10M for those two spots. That means I better save salary everywhere else.
.
Round 3 - Easy decision here with pick #9 in round three... 1997 Derek Lowe and his $728K salary. He had some nice teammates with Ken Griffey Jr and Randy Johnson, neither of which who I ended using.
.
Round 4 - All the stud nominated hitters are still on the board, so it's time for another salary saving move. At pick #7 in round four, I grabbed 1984 Tim Foli ($598K). I'm pretty sure I am going to be using 5 teammates on pitchers and 4 on hitters (including SS, 3B and probably C). No teammates to consider with this pick.
.
Round 5 - I'm now all the way up to drafting slot #3. I probably should have gone cheap one more time here, because I knew if I went expensive, I would drop a ton and miss out on somebody I really wanted. My choices here were one of the stud versions of Kendall, Simmons, Biggio or Williams. I decided on Williams because I thought I could still get stud verisons of the other guys, and I didn't want a D- Williams having to play for me. I went with 1965 Billy Williams, who gave me another teammate option at 3B with Ron Santo (who I eventually went with over '85 Pedro Guerrero due to Pedro's PA shortage).
.
Round 6 - That pick dropped me to the #6 pick. I was deciding between Biggio and Simmons, but then a couple of Kendall stud seasons went and I should have pivoted and taken Kendall (which would have saved me a teammate spot). But I still had 85 Scioscia as a possibility, so I went 1998 Craig Biggio. He has a nice Bagwell teammate to use if I needed to (I knew I was not going to use Galarraga as a starter) as well as that great 85-IP season of Randy Johnson. Then the Jason Kendall run started and I was full of regret that I didn't pivot. That's ok, I will go with one of his cheaper partials to pair with Scioscia.
.
Round 7 - The three big Al Simmons seasons ('30, '29, ;25) that I wanted all went before my next pick as I dropped from pick 6 to pick 10, so I panicked and grabbed a solid 1926 Al Simmons ($6.9M). Then all the remaining useful Kendall seasons went and I was stuck having to draft a crappy full season of Kendall. Damn. Well, at least the 2002 version has a nice Brian Giles season, so I penciled those two guys onto the roster.
.
Round 8 - I was going back and forth on which Galarraga season to use. He's got a bunch of good teammate options. I finally decided on the '00 version so I could grab Greg Maddux, then calhoop took him right in front of me. (If I had taken Kendall instead of Simmons last round, I am picking before calhoop this round) . So now I was at a crossroads, my next decision would dictate the rest of the draft for me. For awhile, I've had my eye on the Cardinals full season of 1990 Willie McGee. I really like his defense and he puts up surprisingly decent offensive numbers. I also knew that my offense was too right-handed, so I grabbed him, with the intention of playing him at 1B. I also could add the 147-IP season of John Tudor. In this type of league, I typically use shorter-inning SP's as relievers.
.
Round 9 - I finally decided to grab a key teammate, I had pegged 2008 Hanley Ramirez as my starting shortstop and I didn't want to wait any longer, so I grabbed 2008 Arthur Rhodes.
.
Round 10 - I was planning on grabbing my Warren Spahn this round, but the version I wanted (57) got scooped up by Chisock. The other Spahns I would consider using were similar so I waited. I knew I was taking Hudlin and Whitehill later, so my only other choices were Hawkins, Kendall or Galarraga. I still needed more teammates, so I grabbed 2012 LaTroy Hawkins because he was only $645K and he brings along Jared Weaver and Mike Trout seasons, neither which I ended up using.
.
Round 11 - With pick 6, I finally grabbed my Spahn, going with 1958 Warren Spahn. He actually comes with a nice 100+ IP Joey Jay, who I ended up keeping.
.
Round 12 - I had all sort of flexibility with respect to which OF teammate I was using, which catcher strategy I was using (i.e., Scioscia with a cheap Kendall, or 02 Kendall), which Galarraga to use (87 brings along Perez & Burke, 90 brings along D.Martinez). So I decided to wait on that decision. I grabbed 1934 Willis Hudlin, who brought a very nice teammate option in Earl Averill (like him better than 02 Giles cause of defense).
.
Round 13 - I finally figured out a way to get Scioscia on the roster and still get the pitching teammates I wanted. But I needed the cheapest Kendall available and of course shysters3 took him right in front of me (shyster's salary was < 100K lower than mine. Doh!) Back to the drawing board. I instead grabbed 2002 Jason Kendall, his best remaining season left. I ended up not rostering teammate Brian Giles.
.
Round 14 - All along, I was planning on taking 87 Galarraga for teammates Tim Burke and Pascual Perez, but decided I needed more innings, so I went with 1990 Andres Galarraga so I could grab teammate Dennis Martinez. He seemed to be a better option than Jared Weaver.
.
Round 15 - Grabbing 1929 Earl Whitehill, manly because he brings along a catcher who can fill in for the crappy Jason Kendall, switch hitter, Pinky Hargrave. I will save his 221 PA to use against my divisional opponents.

Ironically, I ended up not using any of Hershiser's teammates.

Pos	Def	BATTER	Year	Salary	Bats	PA162	AVG#	OBP#	SLG#	OPS#	HR	SB
C	B-/A-/B+	Kendall, Jason	2002	4,136,113	R	609	0.284	0.349	0.343	0.692	3	15
C	C/C/A	Hargrave, Pinky	1929	2,479,866	S	221	0.318	0.390	0.430	0.820	3	2
1B	D/A	McGee, Willie	1990	5,330,423	S	665	0.328	0.377	0.418	0.795	3	31
2B	B/C+	Biggio, Craig	1998	7,309,988	R	738	0.326	0.402	0.489	0.890	20	50
3B	B-/A	Santo, Ron	1965	6,598,197	R	704	0.292	0.387	0.514	0.902	33	3
SS	C+/B	Ramirez, Hanley	2008	6,964,856	R	697	0.302	0.399	0.524	0.923	33	35
OF	C/A	Averill, Earl	1934	7,544,125	L	739	0.304	0.402	0.560	0.962	31	5
OF	C-/C+	Williams, Billy	1965	6,413,514	L	719	0.322	0.387	0.556	0.943	34	10
OF	B-/B-	Simmons, Al	1926	6,935,656	R	694	0.331	0.381	0.559	0.940	19	11
		TOTAL BATTING		53,712,738		5786	0.312	0.386	0.496	0.883	179	162
		.
Pos	Def	PITCHER	Year	Salary	Thr	IP162	ERC#	OAV#	WHIP#	HR9#	BB9#	K9#
SP	A+/B	Kershaw, Clayton	2011	8,874,295	L	233	2.04	0.212	1.00	0.48	2.1	6.5
SP	D/A+	Hershiser, Orel	1985	9,139,081	R	240	2.12	0.211	1.05	0.28	2.5	5.3
SP	A/B+	Martinez, Dennis	1990	6,619,580	R	226	2.51	0.231	1.08	0.58	2.0	5.4
SP	A/A	Spahn, Warren	1958	9,991,929	L	306	2.89	0.237	1.15	0.73	2.3	4.5
Rel	B/B+	Jay, Joey	1958	3,457,228	R	102	2.13	0.177	1.06	0.60	4.0	6.5
Rel	A/A-	Tudor, John	1990	4,263,706	L	147	2.33	0.228	1.04	0.56	1.9	3.6
Rel	A+/D-	Arthur Rhodes	2008	1,237,743	L	36	2.18	0.225	1.21	0.00	3.9	6.9
Rel	D-/A+	Johnson, Randy	1998	3,705,802	L	85	1.84	0.191	0.98	0.33	2.7	8.0
		TOTAL PITCHING		47,289,364		1,375	2.35	0.219	1.07	0.51	2.4	5.5

The sad thing is the batters I ended up cutting are way better than the offense I am using. Here are some of the players I cut...
.
C - '85 Mike Scioscia .302 avg#, .412 obp#, .424 slg# (C+/A/A-)
1B - '98 Jeff Bagwell .304, 422, .543 (B+/B)
1B - '84 Don Mattingly .343, .382, .529 (A/D+)
3B - '85 Pedro Guerrero .326, .427, .581 (C-/A)
OF - '02 Brian Giles .300, .449, .608 (C/D)
OF - '97 Ken Griffey Jr. .300, .376, .624 (B/A)
OF - '11 Matt Kemp .329, .405, .582 (B/B)
OF - '12 Mike Trout .330, .404, .549 (B+/A+)
DH - '97 Edgar Martinez .326, .449, .530 (D-/D-)

SP - '97 Randy Johnson 213 ip, 2.22 erc#, 1.01 whip#, 0.63 hr9#
SP - '12 Jared Weaver 189, 2.46, 1.04, 0.72
SP - '85 Valenzuela 273, 2.59, 1.17, 0.44
SP - '85 Bob Welch 168, 2.74, 1.08, 0.82
RP - '11 Kenley Jansen, 54, 2.00, 1.07, 0.42
RP - '85 Tom Niedenfuer 107, 2.31, 1.06, 0.48
RP - '26 Howard Ehmke 160, 2.44, 1.14, 0.08
RP - '84 Jay Howell 104, 2.47, 1.16, 0.37

I hadn't done one of these before, so my initial strategy was to go through all the rosters of all the teams and make a list of prominent teammates who had plus seasons I'd like to pick up. I've had a really hectic life lately and did a little less research here than I should have with the competition, so occasionally I just had to go with whatever looked like a decent choice and move on.

My nomination strategy wasn't near as nefarious as others' as Rhodes had plenty of good seasons and teammates. I took the 2001 because it came with Ichiro, Bret Boone as a 2B option if I got a lousy Biggio (or a C or OF version), and a couple other nice RP options in Joel Pineiro and Kaz Sasaki. I ended up using none of them.

Round 1: I targeted players early who could bring me a top-notch SP teammate. Once the two Lowes went off the board ahead of me, I went with 2003 Andres Galarraga, who came with a great and I hoped affordable Barry Bonds and an excellent Jason Schmidt.

Round 2: I stayed with that approach when a run on cheap Hudlins took place just before my pick. I grabbed 1965 Warren Spahn, who came with great teammates in Willie Mays and Juan Marichal. Now I had two SP I could be very happy with, and two studs in the lineup. On the downside, I had not thought ahead that I had three OF I wanted already, hadn't taken any of the ones in the draft, and had no DH slot either. Oops.

Round 3: I couldn't pass up the cheap 2012 Juan Uribe here, because he came with a fine Clayton Kershaw season to complete my SP trifecta and a nice Kenley Jansen, if I could fit him in.

Round 4: Now I've started to realize I only get 25 roster spots and 16 have to be these guys, and I've already wasted 3 of them. And the pickings are getting slim. Without a ton of brilliant analysis, I took the 1999 Orel Hershiser because he was at least halfway decent and had a nice C teammate in Mike Piazza if I needed him.

Round 5: Reality is setting in. I'm going to need to use these pitchers. I take 1998 Derek Lowe, who didn't cost too much and brought me SS Nomar Garciaparra and 1B Mo Vaughn as teammates.

Round 6: I take a not-too-expensive 1933 Willis Hudlin, who also gives me a platoon catcher option in Frankie Pytlak if I need him. The weak innings on my pitching staff are starting to add up, and I'm also realizing that I have to cut a couple of the nice RP I had slotted in to make room for all of them. I almost consider trying to squeeze 13 pitchers in, but since I took cheap Galarraga and Uribe seasons I don't have enough ways to make the PA work with 12 hitters. Sasaki is now gone, soon to be followed by Jansen and Pineiro.

Round 7: The 1965 Bob Friend can be my SP4. It's a better season than what I got from the other draftees. I think there's a solid Clemente season with him, but my OF is already overcrowded so I barely pay attention. Now I know I have to save salary space for a costly Whitehill and a setup guy Hawkins but my pitching is otherwise pretty set.

Round 8: There was a run on Kendalls, and I took the 2010 Jason Kendall here. I can't really recall why except he could platoon and not eat up too much salary.

Round 9: I've given up on having a spot for my '01 Boone, and I need a solid full season 2B. In steps 1993 Craig Biggio.

Round 10: I'm starting to realize one of my OF probably has to go, so I might as well get a nice Simmons or Williams season. A couple Simmons I liked go just before me, so I settle for 1966 Billy Williams, who brings along a fine 3B Ron Santo. Pretty sure I didn't have a great 3B option anywhere else, so that was a helpful pickup.

Round 11: The 2011 LaTroy Hawkins was cheap and reasonably effective. He had a couple decent teammate options in Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, so I started considering options besides Vaughn at 1B. Couldn't really find a way to use Braun though.

Round 12: Now I'm just plugging holes. I have to take a Simmons, but all the seasons I wanted are gone anyway. The 1981 Tim Foli is under $3M and will maybe get 50 PA, but whatever at this point.

Round 13: Another save as much as I can round because I won't get much out of him. It's the 1992 Willie McGee, who might keep me below the cap if I want to use Piazza and Bonds.

Round 14: I was the only one without a Simmons yet, so I took my 1932 Whitehill poison pill.

Round 15: Wrapping it up with 1939 Al Simmons, who can platoon with Billy Williams in one corner OF spot.

Of course by now I've done the math and can't use Bonds-Mays-Ichiro in the OF and have Simmons, McGee and Williams on the bench. I probably could have used one of them at 1B, but that didn't occur to me. I tried a few permutations, and ended up finding a new combination I liked to get a little better LH hitting into the lineup, since with Mays-Santo-Biggio-Nomar I had four full-time righties for sure. That led me to a decision between Vaughn, Fielder and the new arrival into the thought process, 1965 Willie McCovey. This led me to look for a LH catcher to platoon with Kendall, and I came upon beloved Moneyball favorite 1998 Scott Hatteberg, who famously couldn't throw anymore and became the A's 1B instead. But he still had a B arm in '98, so I took it. I didn't expect to see any super speedy teams in this league and a B/C catcher arm combo shouldn't be a liability.

I end up with 14 hitters and 11 pitchers, which means no room for any of the RP I wanted. I decided I'd rather have 600+ PA from a teammate than 70 IP, since there are only 9 of them and they are a precious commodity. So 6 of my regular hitters and top 3 SP are teammates. Getting the bang for the buck. I hate my bullpen, but my offense can rake.

Finally, the ballpark decision. There's not much speed, nor are these 2B-3B hitters much either. My pitchers are going to have to help themselves, at least those who can. I've got to try to maximize the punch from my sluggers, I figure. So I took Bennett Park with +3 HR. My bullpen is going to get ravaged regardless, but maybe we can win the slugfests.

Outlook: I'll be shocked if I finish .500, but that's OK. It was a fun learning experience with this group, and now I know what I have to think about differently next time.