First of all, sincerest thanks to schwarze for just giving us a double dose of the best draft on this site.
Ever since the salary limit was introduced as a 16 x 16 rule (version 2?) I have gained a reputation for only selecting nominees that allow me to first of all select a cheap season that will enable me to draft early in the first round (ideally with a valuable teammate or two) and more importantly punish some owners with a worthless yet costly version to eat up their salary cap. I love finding those players.
This time the rules were massaged to require an all-star season of the nominee, a DH and a generous 130mm cap. I looked at the signup page and the first thing I saw was the Bill Dickey nomination. Immediate first impression - both 1930 and 1931 Ruth/Gehrig combos would have to be available since the first all-star game was in 1933. I went to the draft center and selected "all star season" and then sorted in ascending salaries both for pitchers and hitters. I saw Esteban Loaiza as THE cheapest of any such pitchers at $339,092 and remembered from previous research that he was a qualifier for 16 x 16. This 2004 NYY season didn't have the usual guaranteed time bomb season(s) or give me much to consider by way of teammates (maybe Tom Gordon) but it was sure to put me in position for the Ruth/Gehrig bonanza. Needless to say, schwarze switched to Chipper but I got lazy and left my nomination alone.
Sizing up my needs with the $130mm cap I figured I would budget about $7mm/player for my starting 9 hitters totaling $60-65mm. Also figured on about $50-55mm on usable pitching which would leave a waste tolerance of anywhere from $10-20mm, which could come from anywhere.
Round 1 - 2002 Offerman - Boston. Gives me 2 locks at SP in Pedro and Lowe. This class of nominees only has 7 pitchers and only Randy Johnson offers much at the SP position. Excellent Manny (especially as potential DH) and insurance policy Nomar. Never even looked at Offerman as anything but a punt. Also keeps me in first position for next round.
Round 2 - 1948 Pierce - Did not want to rely on Pierce from the start and with the cheap 63-64 SF versions gone early I was happy to only have to eat less than a million on him. He could get pretty expensive pretty quickly. Waste basket already has 3 players with total spent under $2.4mm
Round 3 - 1999 Mariano - Time to add someone I will actually use. Very strong Rivera year with Jeter a lock addition and Bernie Williams big year very likely. Still in first position for the next round. Was tempted to go with 2001 Big Unit here (and L Gonzo) but decided to stay low and gamble that a useable RJ would fall to the next round.
Matrix appears - Always a highlight!
Round 4 - 1999 Randy Johnson - Very lucky to have this option. Needed to get innings from him since I had already punted Loaiza and Pierce and nothing worthwhile from Blue or Reuschel was left. Wasn't even considering teammates but eventually looked at the roster and found Jay Bell and his 38 HR season on the team. Looks good on paper but HRs in WIS are not a guarantee of success unless something crazy happens like a league full of opposing LH SPs with a propensity to give up the long ball. Wait a minute - look at these RJs, Blues, Pierces. Lock him in at 2b!
Round 5 - 1985 Vida Blue - schwarze took a slightly cheaper version early in round 2. I got really lucky and only had to eat a little over $1mm more three rounds later. Like Pierce, worthless Vidas can get expensive in a hurry. Waste basket now at approximately $4.7mm with 4 salary dumps.
Round 6 - 1988 Brady Anderson - Another fact of life in 16 x 16 is that players with only 16 eligible seasons need extra consideration. Had no plans to use him with all of the available teammate talent out there so it's 4th and long in Bradyville. Total waste a little over $1mm. Taunted redcped and the league that I could selectively use Milacki but really never felt I would have that luxury with all the full-time player holes I needed to fill.
Round 7 - 2000 Chipper - The last of the 300/400/550 Chippers and comes with a usable Maddux. Using both in the current league as Galarraga teammates and both are stinking up the league. Chipper SLG at .378, Maddux WHIP at 1.61. Still, need full time Chipper and a SP so we hope for better things with both this time around.
Round 8 - 1928 Foxx - Really sweated this one out. Love to use Foxx and stubbornly watched all of the mega 1b seasons go by the wayside. By this time only alice (picking first this round) and redcped needed him. alice took the 1942 version with the Ted Williams stud season and I got lucky. I needed the 501 PA and at catcher was a real bonus. Would only have to fill that 200 PA gap with a McCarver pick later on and not waste a teammate choice on a catcher. Also, I am using the 1928 Grove in the other league as a Simmons teammate and he is doing well. Love the low HR/9.
Round 9 - 1997 Burks - Really wanted the 2003 Rolen here with stud Pujols but alice took him right in front of me. Had penciled in the 1994 Burks version (still available) for the strong SLG but by this time I needed to get some usage from nominated players. Plenty of Rolens available to use or punt so 1997 Burks gave me what I needed and provided an option to add Larry Walker and his .720 SLG (he made the team).
Round 10 - 2006 Rolen - Both this Rolen and the 2006 Pujols were not really much worse than the 2003 versions so I decided to commit to both Rolen and Chipper as full time players (one 3b, one DH). Rolen improved 3B defense and Pujols provides solid defense at 1b.
Round 11 - 76 McCarver - Best possible McCarver left to complement Foxx at catcher. .400 OBP an unexpected bonus.
by this time I had pretty much decided to let Rickey be my final piece and probably needed a full season. Plenty of good ones left on the board so I could manage my cap going forward until I was sure I could fit in whichever season I decided to choose.
Round 12 - 1975 Fregosi - Not many cheap Fregosi years left so I grabbed this one under $1mm
Round 13 - 1999 Rickey - I only needed Reuschel and Hoffman in addition to Rickey and figured out the highest total salary for the two that I could get stuck with. That gave me enough to roster this full strong season and my team was done for all intents and purposes.
Round 14 - 2008 Hoffman - Nice 1.04 WHIP. HR/9 about 1.5 time that. Not expecting (or hoping) to get a lot of use out of Trevor.
Round 15 - 1975 Reuschel - Emergency innings eater
Always hopeful at this time of year but I have had teams that I liked after the draft that needed to be put out of it's collective misery before the halfway point. If this team is one of those that needs to be euthenized at least it has an appropriate name: Bedtime for Estebanzo.