Use this thread to talk about why you made the choices you did when building your teams. Maybe make predictions for how well they'll do. I'll add my own at some point as well.

This year, it was important to me that we got above last year's mark of 72 owners participating so I built the themes to attract a wide variety of owners. The low cap themes were a bit more focused on player selection rather than research, since unfamiliarity with low caps causes most owners to need to do research in the first place. To balance that out, the traditionally more straightforward high cap themes were the trickier of the bunch -- they required some research but, more than that, complexity (to varying degrees) and/or strategy.

I agree with the owner poll that the themes this year were about the same difficulty as usual, but perhaps skewed a bit more straightforward. My guess is that we're going to end up with some extremely competitive leagues, especially given the caliber of talent in this year's tournament (the toughest group ever, according to my rankings).

$70M Last + First = Worst (AT&T Park)

My strategy for this team was simple: make it as difficult as possible to score against me, without overspending on my pitching staff. So there were a few things I knew I wanted. A strong A+ arm (ideally > 40% CS) since I expect many teams will be built around stolen bases. Pitching with low HR/9 and low BB/9. A -3 HR park, to further reduce homers. And A+ range wherever I could get it, even if it meant sacrificing some offense or some fielding.
1966 Randy Hundley was an obvious choice at catcher, and I expect we’ll see a lot of him on other teams. My infield is 1919 Hal Chase, 1924 Hughie Critz, 1895 Billy Clingman, and 1978 Paul Molitor. All with A+ range. 1952 Jim Rivera will add A+ range in CF as well. Big question here: will they gave back in errors more than they save in range?

Starting rotation is 1905 Irv Young, 1918 Mike Prendergast, and 1918 Pol Perritt, collectively over 1000 innings. While none of them are particularly good, they will give up very few homers and very few walks. They will allow some hits, but the range on this team will dampen that a bit. The bullpen is a bit thin on innings, so we could end up in trouble there, but in general I feel good about our ability to limit the runs scored against us.

Of course at $70M you are going to sacrifice somewhere, and with this team the real weakness is going to be the offense. Only 4 starters figure to make any meaningful contribution: Critz, Chase, and my 2 studs – 1897 Chick Stahl and 1977 Mitchell Page. There are going to be a lot of games where 4 runs is enough to win, and that’s a good thing because we are very unlikely to score more than that with any regularity. The low cap WISC teams have typically been my worst in years past, and I am certainly not confident that this will break the trend. Hoping to hit .500. Realistically I think we’ll be a bit under that.

Hitters: 5279 PA of .288/.343/.419
Pitchers: 1345 IP (not including scrubs) of 1.10 WHIP and 36 HRA.

$90M Connor’s Babe (Forbes Field)

I didn’t spend too much time thinking about who I wanted on offense. 1885 Connor should rake at this cap, and he’ll throw in a bunch of + plays as well. Pitching was a little more tricky. Although there were fewer than 60 pitchers to choose from, there were several who I felt were comparable in overall value. Of that group, I liked 1919 Babe Adams the best – he has the lowest HR/9 and the lowest BB/9 of the 6-7 pitchers I considered. I see a lot of people like 1914 Hendrix and 2018 deGrom, two others on my short list. We’ll see if Babe proves worth the hunch.

Once those guys were set, my strategy here was very very similar to the $70M. Minimize as many of my opponent’s offensive weapons as possible. With more than $22M spent on those 2 guys, the rest of the team was going to look more like an $80M roster, so I leaned heavily on OL cookies: 1887 Kerins, 1893 Wilmot, etc. This is another team with really strong range (5 A+ range in the starting lineup), so I again was willing to sacrifice a little on OAV with the pitching staff. But I wanted to keep the walks and HR to a minimum again. Nick Altrock and (hello again) Pol Perritt round out the 3 man rotation. Does it concern me that a guy on my $70M team is also starting for me here? Why yes, yes it does.

Strong deep bullpen with lots of the usual low IP starters. Other than Connor, nobody on this team brings a big bat, but the OBP is decent up and down the lineup.

This cap is a sweet spot for most owners, and I expect we’re going to see the same 5-6 starting pitchers among the $9M guys, so I expect this league will be super competitive. Winning more than 85 games will be an achievement here.

Hitters: 5495 PA of .303/.385/.418
Pitchers: 1367 IP (not including scrubs) of 0.97 WHIP and 24 HRA.

$110M Don McMahon? Really? (Comiskey Park I)

I probably should have spent a lot more time on this theme than I did. As I write this, I’m a little embarrassed how simplistic my approach was. It looks like some people anchored on a player they wanted to clone, and then built the roster around that. I went the other way, and just started listing players I knew performed well at this cap, and looked for a combination of franchises that would get me as many of them as I could: Speaker, Frisch, Doyle, Mathewson, Bernhard…all signs pointed to the Indians and Giants.

The third team could have gone in a lot of different directions. I originally wanted 1908 Walsh, so started looking at the White Sox, but ultimately I didn’t end up using him, so in retrospect I’m not sure why I kept them as my third franchise. 1926 Mostil is OK, but certainly not enough reason to anchor on a franchise.

Anyway, thank goodness for baseball-reference’s Multi-Franchise tool. I threw those 3 franchises into the hopper and then starting scanning for players who would waste the minimum salary. Ideally a low PA backup or a low IP pitchers…hello Don McMahon. He gave me the 3 franchises I wanted for about $6M total, and 2 of the 3 versions are actually very useable at this cap. The third (1965) will be a Long B who hopefully won’t pitch much. Happy with this team. Hoping for 90 wins and a playoff spot.

Hitters: 5516 PA of .332/.413/.466
Pitchers: 1358 IP (not including scrubs) of 0.89 WHIP and 62 HRA.

$120M Wait, 8+5=13. That can’t be good. (Jefferson Street Grounds)

Another team I should have spent more time on. Honestly, my approach here may have been even more simplistic than the $110M. I started with one player – 1908 Walsh – and asked “can I build a $120M cap pitching staff around the xxx8s?" Walsh, 1888 Keefe and 1918 Northrop gave me 1100 IP of “yes” and I stopped worrying about the pitching staff. Filled in with a bunch of modern relievers and the 1938 Dean to pitch some long relief.

On offense I started with 1885 Connor again – though I was less anchored to him than I was to Walsh – and looked through my spreadsheets to see how the xxx5s did for offense. Right away the OF jumped out at me: 05 Donlin, 15 Kauff, 85 Raines. 25 Bancroft and 35 Herman gave me the A+ range I wanted in the middle infield, and as with the $110M I stopped searching at that point. I have no doubt that with a couple more hours I could have either improved on the 5s or found a better year combo. Though looking at the rosters in the league I commish, 8/5 does seem to be a popular combo. In a vacuum, this would probably be my strongest team, but I expect others will just as confident, so I’m guessing low 80s win total here.

Hitters: 6133 PA of .334/.412/.485
Pitchers: 1468 IP (not including scrubs) of 0.88 WHIP and 28 HRA.

$130M Power Outage (Wrigley Field)
While I don’t expect to make it to round 2, my drafting strategy for this team included the assumption that I would. I figure that round 2 of this theme will end up including more HR power than you typically see at this cap, so I wanted the flexibility to keep my HR/9 for my pitching staff low in round 2 – which meant I needed it to be really low in round 1. Without giving away too much about who I might roster in round 2, I landed on 0.25 as the max HR/9 for round 1. That seems to be lower than the median, just looking at the other teams in my league, but a few of you went quite a bit lower than that – kudos to you.

Pitching staff is Hubbell, Chandler, Wolff, Brecheen, with a number of the usual suspects in the pen. It concerns me that the WHIP on this team is worse than my $120M, and I may end up kicking myself for either (a) buying too many IP or (b) going a bit too low with the HR/9 and sacrificing WHIP as a result.

On offense, I knew I could put together a very good lineup with a max HR of 10, so then started seeing how low I could go. Ultimately ended up with 8, which seems very low, though I see a few rosters with as little as 5. The 1920s high average hitters dominate my lineup: Speaker, Cobb, Frisch, Roush, Traynor…there’s a Bill Terry thrown in. I expect this team will struggle to reach .500 though, which will likely render any round 2 foresight entirely superfluous. 75-80 wins.

Hitters: 5920 PA of .356/.418/.494 (max HR of 8)
Pitchers: 1562 IP of 0.97 WHIP and 31 HRA. (max HR/9 of 0.241)

Variable Cap $159M Worth of Giants (AT&T Park)

While there were many potential ways to go with this, I very quickly anchored on trying to make a single franchise work. With 25 different seasons, that would put me at $155M, and I figured I would double up in a few seasons, so I started aiming for 20 seasons and a $160M cap. Adding a second franchise would have forced me to use just 10 seasons, and a 3^rd would have limited me to 6-7 seasons, neither of which I was happy about. So really this became of a question of would I be happy with a single franchise roster at $160M. I ended up really liking the Giants roster at that cap, though as I look at some of the other teams, I think I should have given the Cardinals a look. Silver King’s IP total always scares me off of him, but those King/Chamberlain/Caruthers/O’Neill teams of 1887-88 are just loaded…

Anyway, back to the Giants: loaded up on their 19^th century stars (Connor, Ewing, Joyce, Tiernan, Davis, Keefe), added Donlin, Frisch, Bresnahan, Hornsby to round out the lineup. Put Mathewson into the rotation with Keefe and added the ubiquitous Schupp-Toney-Nehf troike from the teens. And at that point I decided to stop looking. I am guessing others will put together a better combination, but I decided that I wasn’t going to improve on this too much by tinkering. I'm most concerned that I left about $4.5M of salary on the table. Doesn't seem like a good idea. High 70s win total.

Hitters: 7060 PA of .354/.429/.516
Pitchers: 1592 IP of 0.86 WHIP and 31 HRA.

70M – First & Last Theme
Team Name: Last Place Finish
Ballpark: Astrodome

I don’t play low cap leagues, so I don’t really have a specific low cap strategy. I just follow my general philosophy for sim leagues. Don’t waste money on HRs. Try to have good range on my infield defense. Get as many switch hitters as possible. Select low whip pitchers that suppress HRs. Because of the limited choices, I would imagine there will be a lot of duplication of players selected. The important thing is to figure out how many innings to draft. The fewer the innings I draft, the better quality I can afford. But drafting too few innings could result in the fatigue death spiral. Because I am drafting good defensive range and I’ll be playing in a pitcher’s park, I decided on 1274 good innings (+52 scrub innings to help manage fatigue). I always start with my pitching staff. I did modify my batters at the last minute (more OBP, less SLG). I almost went with the all SB team (Coleman, Richards, Raines, Cole, Womack, Listach) but the OBP was terrible and it weakened my pitching staff. Roster listed below.

Starting Pitching
’76 Mark Fidrych, 252 ip, 1.08 whip, 0.43 hr/9
’14 Doc Watson, 240 ip, 1.14 whip, 0.12 hr/9
’10 Hippo Vaughn, 238 ip, 1.12 whip, 0.04 hr/9
’14 Rankin Johnson, 231 ip, 1.11 whip, 0.29 hr/9
Other non 200K pitchers include
’90 Tudor, ’45 Beck, 67 ip, ’41 Wynn, ’23 D.Burns, ’02 Condrey
Total Pitching 1274 IPs, 1.10 WHIP, 0.28 HR/9, $34.2 million

Hitting
C: ’48 Gus Niarhos, 300 pa, .268 avg / .404 obp / .338 slug (B+/C+/B)
C: ’12 Yasmani Grandal, 226 pa, .297 / .394 / .469 (B-/A+/D)
C: ’73 Bob Stinson, 134 pa, .261 / .374 / .414 (C/B/D)
1B: ’14 George Burns, 569 pa, .291 / .342 / .389 (D+/A+)
1B: ’86 Kevin Seitzer, 116 pa, .323 / .440 / .448 (C-/A+)
2B: ’04 Miller Huggins, 632 pa, .263 / .377 / . 328 (D+/A-)
3B: ’09 Frank Baker, 642 pa, .305 / .343 / .447 (D+/A)
SS: ’15 Dave Bancroft, 709 pa, .254 / .346 / .330 (C-/A)
OF: ’13 Tillie Schafer, 623 pa, .287 / .369 / .398 (D+/A-)
OF: ’04 Billy Lush, 620 pa, .258 / .359 / .325 (C/B)
OF: ’14 Jimmie Savage, 602 pa, .284 / .372 / .347 (C/D+)
OF: ’18 Bob Bescher, 100 pa, .333 / .487 / .400 (C/D+)
Also have ’05 Hinchman (.415 obp), ’92 D.Hill (.368 obp) to fill in when needed (and pinch hit)
Total: 5402 PA, .279 AVG / .368 OBP / .373 SLG, Salary = $35.4 million

Outlook: I hate this team. I despise low cap leagues. I should have entered my “SB” team. My projected win total is 72-75 wins. Will be happy to hit .500.


90M – Double Eagle Theme
Team Name: Rajah & The Big Train
Ballpark: Griffith Stadium

Just like the $70M theme, there really isn’t anything complicated about this theme. Same roster-building formula as the theme above with the addition of the two $9M players. A little bit more $$$ to spend on the rest of the roster than in the $70M theme and more player choices obviously. I settled in pretty quickly on ’20 Rogers Hornsby for my “Eagle” hitter as I thought he was the best value over $9 million. I wanted to play my home games in a pitcher’s park so I needed to find the right $9+ million pitcher. I strongly considered ’96 Kevin Brown (Joe Robbie Stadium) but thought I could find better value. I finally settled on ’19 Walter Johnson (Griffith Stadium). Other than that, many of the usual cookies.

Starting Pitching
’19 Walter Johnson, 336 ip, 0.99 whip, 0.00 hr/9
’85 Bret Saberhagen, 236 ip, 1.06 whip, 0.73 hr/9
’14 Ray Caldwell, 225 ip, 0.96 whip, 0.21 hr/9
’02 Joe McGinnity, 183 ip, 1.01 whip, 0.06 hr/9
Bullpen
’16 Christy Mathewson, 70 ip, 1.01 whip, 0.41 hr/9
’18 George Smith, 65 ip, 0.96 whip, 0.00 hr/9
’15 Hooks Wiltse, 64 ip, 0.94 whip, 0.15 hr/9
’51 Tom Ferrick, 44 ip, 1.03 whip, 0.65 hr/9
’11 Charlie Smith, 43 ip, 1.03 whip, 0.23 whip
’92 Dennis Rasmussen, 43 ip, 0.94 whip, 0.42 hr/9
’41 Ray Starr, 36 ip, 1.00 whip, 0.26 hr/9
’26 Fred Heimach, 35 ip, 1.04 whip, 0.28 whip
Total Pitching 1380 IPs, 1.00 WHIP, 0.26 HR/9, $44.1 million

Hitting
C: ’21 Wally Schang, 544 pa, .316 avg / .428 obp / .453 slg (C-/C/B+)
C: ’86 Junior Ortiz, 122 pa, .336 / .380 / .391 (C/C+/C-)
1B: ’93 Roger Conner, 743 pa, .305 / .413 / .450 (D/A+)
2B: ’20 Rogers Hornsby, 695, .370 / .431 / .559 (C/A-)
3B: ’97 Bill Joyce, 604 pa, .304 / .441 / .433 (D/A+)
SS: ‘25 Dave Bancroft, 593 pa, .319 / .400 / .426 (C/A+)
OF: ’05 Topsy Hartsel, 738 pa, .274 / .409 / .346 (D/C)
OF: ’43 Roy Cullenbine, 634 pa, .289 / .407 / .404 (B/C)
OF: ’01 Billy Hamilton, 499 pa, .287 / .404 / .356 (C/A)
OF: ’17 Daniel Nava, 214 pa, .301 / .393 / .421 (B/D+)
Also have ’15 Lennox, ’08 D.Bush, ’06 Mowry to fill in when needed (and pinch hit)
Total: 5598 PA, .310 AVG / .413 OBP / .429 SLG, Salary = $45.7 million

Outlook: I ended up rebuilding this team from scratch as I didn’t like the first iteration. I am much happier with this new team as all 8 starting batters are over .400 obp plus very solid defensive range at five key positions (1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CF). All five bench guys will be used to pinch hit and give my starters a day off now and then. I think 90+ wins is definitely a possibility.


110M – 3X Franchise
Team Name: Tris Speaker Trio
Ballpark: Griffith Stadium

I actually built a complete team using Reggie Smith as my anchor, mainly because he’s a switch hitter and I liked the franchises he brought to the table (Red Sox, Cardinals and Dodgers). After a week or so of staring at the roster, I determined I really didn’t like the team because Reggie Smith has too many HRs and has underperformed for me in a recent theme league. Back to the drawing

I really like Tris Speaker and he has a number of good seasons to choose from, but only played for two franchises (Indians & Red Sox). Then I noticed he had one relatively mediocre season with the Washington Senators. What the hell, let’s do it. Welcome to the team ’18 Walter Johnson! Another favorite of mine, ’72 Gaylord Perry makes the team. So many SP choices… Braxton? Kluber? Pedro? C.Young? Nope, let’s go with everybody’s favorite deadball cookie, ’02 Bill Bernhard. Loaded up on some good A++ range defense also (at 1B, 2B & SS).

Starting Pitching
1918 Walter Johnson, 413 ip, 0.95 whip, 0.06 hr/9
1972 Gaylord Perry, 356 ip, 0.98 whip, 0.45 hr/9
1902 Bill Bernhard, 259 ip, 0.94 whip, 0.17 hr/9
Bullpen
1908 Elmer Steele, 125 ip, 0.83 whip, 0.08 hr/9
2013 Clay Buchholz, 108 ip, 1.02 whip, 0.33 hr/9
1915 George Dumont, 43 ip, 0.88 whip, 0.00 hr/9
1911 Charlie Smith, 43 ip, 1.03 whip, 0.23 hr/9
1903 Martin Glendon, 33 ip, 0.98 whip, 0.00 hr/9
1923 Les Howe, 32 ip, 1.00 whip, 0.00 hr/9
1909 Lucky Wright, 30 ip, 1.00 whip, 0.00 hr/9
Total Pitching 1442 IPs, 0.95 WHIP, 0.20 HR/9, $53.1 million

Hitting
C: 1919 Wally Schang, 489 pa, .306 avg / .436 obp / .373 slg (C/C/A-)
C: 1931 Pinky Hargrave, 94 pa, .325 / .393 / .463 (C/D/D+)
C: 1960 Jim Pagliaroni, 81 pa, .306 / .434 / .548 (C/B/D)
1B: 1914 Tris Speaker, 708 pa, .338 / .423 / .503 (C-/A+)
2B: 1903 Nap Lajoie, 608 pa, .344 / .379 / .518 (C/A+)
3B: 1951 Minnie Minoso, 655 pa, .326 / .422 / .500 (C-/B-)
SS: 1917 Ray Chapman, 727 pa, .302 / .370 / .409 (C/A+)
OF: 1923 Tris Speaker, 734 pa, .380 / .469 / .610 (C/B+)
OF: 1927 Tris Speaker, 694 pa, .327 / .395 / .444 (C/B)
OF: 1943 Roy Cullenbine, 634 pa, .289 / .407 / .404 (B/C)
Plus a number of solid pinch hitters, ’69 G.Thomas, ’76 J.Lis, ’04 A.Ojeda, ’60 E.Valo. ’92 D.Hill
Total: 5698 PA, .327 AVG / .413 OBP / .473 SLG, Salary = $56.9 million

Outlook: I really like how this team turned out. I have very strong pitching and defensive range. The offense is good enough to win close low-scoring games. I predict the team will overachieve it’s Expected Win% and finish with 91-92 wins.


120M – Lucky Numbers
Team Name: Hard Six or Hard Eight
Ballpark: National League Park II

I started with the 8’s for pitching because I knew I was using 1908 Ed Walsh in this theme. 1918 Walter Johnson was the next obvious choice. That’s a pretty solid 900 innings to start. I really like the value 2018 Jacob deGrom gives, so he will both start and be used in relief. I filled in the rest of the pitching staff with the best guys from the remaining 19_8 seasons. My guess is 8’s will be a very popular choice for pitchers. I first tried the 1’s for hitting, but just didn’t like the way the team looked. So I went the 6’s as they have a lot of my favorite cookies. Cullenbine/Joyce provide a nice DH platoon with 700+ PA of nearly .500 OBP. Once I finished this team, I didn’t really look at other options.

Starting Pitching
1908 Ed Walsh, 495 ip, 0.86 whip, 0.04 hr/9
1918 Walter Johnson, 413 ip, 0.95 whip, 0.06 hr/9
2018 Jacob deGrom, 217 ip, 0.91 whip, 0.41 hr/9
Bullpen
1998 Randy Johnson, 85 ip, 0.98 whip, 0.43 hr/9
1958 Barry Latman, 51 ip, 0.92 whip, 0.19 hr/9
1938 Dizzy Dean, 80 ip, 0.95 whip, 0.24 hr/9
1988 Bob Milacki, 26 ip, 0.72 whip, 0.36 hr/9
1928 Hal Haid, 50 ip, 1.06 whip, 0.19 hr/9
2008 Sergio Romo, 34 ip, 0.71 whip, 0.79 hr/9
Total Pitching 1451 IPs, 0.91 WHIP, 0.18 HR/9, $59.4 million

Hitting
C: 1906 Roger Bresnahan, 539 pa, .281 avg / .418 obp / .356 slg (C/A/A)
C: 1986 Junior Ortiz, 122 pa, .336 / .380 / .391 (C/C+/C-)
1B: 1956 Wally Moon, 655 pa, .298 / .390 / .469 (D/A+)
2B: 1996 Roberto Alomar, 699 pa, .328 / .411 / .527 (B+/B-)
3B: 1976 Pete Rose, 759 pa, .323 / .404 / .450 (A/D)
SS: 2006 Carlos Guillen, 622 pa, .322 / .400 / .519 (C/B)
OF: 1936 Paul Waner, 701 pa, .373 / .446 / .520 (D+/B)
OF: 1916 Joe Jackson, 694 pa, .341 / .393 / .495 (B-/C+)
OF: 1926 Goose Goslin, 709 pa, .354 / .425 / .524 (C/A-)
DH: 1946 Roy Cullenbine, 441 pa, .335 / .477 / .537
DH: 1896 Bill Joyce, 260 pa, .370 / .500 / .539
Also some 200K scrubs
Total: 6201 PA, .331 AVG / .418 OBP / .491 SLG, Salary = $59.4 million

Outlook: Since I didn’t really investigate all the other options, I’m really not sure how my team will stack up against others. With Ed Walsh and Walter Johnson pitching two thirds of my innings, I would hope we can get to at least 85 wins.


130M – Calm Before the Storm
Team Name: Nobody Homers Here
Ballpark: Astrodome

My goal was to keep the batter HRs and pitcher HR/9 as low as possible while still putting together a decent roster at this cap level. I was able to cobble together an offense where the most HRs hit for any player was 5. And my pitching staff allows no more than 0.19 HR/9. I have to think that I am on the low end of this measure, when compared to other teams.

Starting Pitching
1933 Carl Hubbell, 329 ip, 0.98 whip, 0.17 hr/9
1994 Greg Maddux, 288 ip, 0.90 whip, 0.18 hr/9
1935 Cy Blanton, 270 ip, 1.08 whip, 0.11 hr/9
1981 Dave Righetti, 160 IP, 1.07 whip, 0.09 hr/9
Bullpen
1980 J.R. Richard, 113 ip, 0.92 whip, 0.16 hr/9
1943 Johnny Niggeling, 54 ip, 0.88 whip, 0.00 hr/9
1958 Barry Latman, 51 ip, 0.76 whip, 0.19 hr/9
1967 Carlos Cisco, 42 ip, 0.77 whip, 0.00 hr/9
1970 Vida Blue, 39 ip, 0.83 whip, 0.00 hr/9
1992 Dennis Rasmussen, 38 ip, 0.82 whip, 0.00 hr/9
1931 Bill Harris, 33 ip, 0.97 whip, 0.00 hr/9
Plus one 300K scrub with 0.00 hr/9
Total Pitching (non-scrubs) 1417 IPs, 0.97 WHIP, 0.12 HR/9, $65.8 million

Hitting
C: 1922 Bob O’Farrell, 506 pa, .324 avg / .439 obp / .441 slg (C/C/A+)
C: 1925 Hank Severeid, 131 pa, .367 / .425 / .477 (B+/C-/A-)
1B: 1920 Edd Roush, 689 pa, .339 / .386 / .453 (B/A+)
2B: 1974 Rod Carew, 690 pa, .364 / .433 / .446 (D+/B-)
3B: 1983 Wade Boggs, 685 pa, .361 / .444 / .486 (C/A-)
SS: 1987 Ozzie Smith, 706 pa, .303 / .392 / .383 (A+/B+)
OF: 1936 Paul Waner, 701 pa, .373 / .446 / .520 (D+/B)
OF: 1955 Richie Ashburn, 678 pa, .338 / .449 / .448 (B/A+)
OF: 1922 Ty Cobb, 644 pa, .401 / .462 / .565 (B/B+)
Plus a number of solid pinch hitters, ’01 Raines, ’29 C.Williams, ’84 Nolan
Total: 5759 PA, .348 AVG / .430 OBP / .467 SLG, Salary = $64.0 million

Outlook: This is the one team that I didn’t really tinker with once I got the roster built. Maybe I could have squeezed the pitching HR/9 a little lower. And I know I am overpaying for ‘94 Maddux. My hope is that most other teams have more HRs in their lineup and my pitchers and ballpark will suppress it enough to win close to 90 games. Prediction 89-73.


180M – Variable Cap: Minus XY
Team Name: One Hundred Sixty-Four
Ballpark: League Park (II)

This was a really fun roster to build. Kudos to ozomatli for coming up with this concept. I determined the best strategy was to go with just two seasons and as few franchises as possible. I quickly locked into 1908 in order to get all my deadball pitching plus Honus Wagner. I would expect this season or one of the other good deadball / Honus Wagner seasons to be selected by most people. The hard part was narrowing down which 1908 stud pitchers wouldn’t make the cut. That would be determined once I figure out my hitting season. I first looked at 1927 with Ruth & Gehrig but that team was too HR heavy. I built a team I really liked using 1912 for $164 million and had a roster I liked. Then I pivoted to 1920 ($160M) because the hitting was way better and I wasn’t wasting innings so even thought the salary was lower, I was being more efficient with the salary. I still couldn’t decide which team I liked better, so I entered both teams and used the “SimMatchup” to play these two teams against each other dozens of times (and kept stats). The 1912 team did better, mainly because ‘20 Ruth severely underachieved vs. all the 1908 deadball pitching. I pulled the 1920 team and went back to my original choice, 1912. I do like the 1912 defense better.

Two seasons: 1908, 1912
Eight franchises: Giants, Senators, Indians, Cubs, Red Sox, Pirates, A’s, Tigers
Salary: $180 million - $16 million = $164 million

Main Five Pitchers
1908 Christy Mathewson, 411 ip, 0.84 whip, 0.12 hr/9
1912 Walter Johnson, 394 ip, 0.91 whip, 0.05 hr/9
1908 Addie Joss, 342 ip, 0.81 whip, 0.06 hr/9
1908 Mordecai Brown, 329 ip, 0.84 whip, 0.03 hr/9
1908 Elmer Steele, 125 ip, 0.33 whip, 0.08 hr/9
Other Pitchers (mopup or long relief)
1908 Bill Burns, 176 ip, 0.93 whip, 0.16 hr/9
1908 Jack Ryan, 38 ip, 0.81 whip, 0.76 hr/9
Pitching (Main 5) 1601 IPs, 0.85 WHIP, 0.07 HR/9, $81.0 million

Hitting
C: 1912 Chief Myers, 467 pa, .358 avg / .441 obp / .477 slg (C/B/C)
C: 1912 Rip Williams, 180 pa, .318 / .352 / .439 (B-/A/A+)
1B: 1912 Heinie Zimmerman, 669 pa, .372 / .418 / .571 (D+/A)
2B: 1912 Eddie Collins, 718 pa, .348 / .450 / .5435 (C/B-)
3B: 1912 Frank Baker, 687 pa, .347 / .404 / .541 (C+/A+)
SS: 1908 Honus Wagner, 675 pa, .354 / .415 / .542 (C/A)
OF: 1912 Ty Cobb, 645 pa, .409 / .456 / .584 (D/A-)
OF: 1912 Tris Speaker, 720 pa, .383 / .464 / .567 (C/A+)
OF: 1912 Joe Jackson, 692 pa, .395 / .458 / .579 (D+/C)
Plus pinch hitters, ’12 Olaf Henriksen, ’12 Bobby Veach, ’08 Donnie Bush, ’12 Solly Hofman
Batting (excluding pinch hitters): 5453 PA, .369 AVG / .436 OBP / .537 SLG, Salary = $73.4 million

Outlook: I am guessing that there will a lot of overlap with all the deadball pitching seasons that will undoubtedly be used. It will be interesting to see what the average salary cap is. If my hunch is right and everybody is using a season like 1906, 1908, etc., then I’m not sure what differentiates my team from the other teams and it will come down to luck in 1-run games. But if I happen to be in a league where there are modern players, then I like my chances to win 90+ games.

$70m First & Last
Nothing much to say about this one. Plug in the $/PA and $/IP numbers I calculated and choose a bunch of players I've never used before. Except Aaron Ledesma, a lowcap utility mainstay. Mark "the Bird" Fidrych somehow emerged as the Ace. Rankin Johnson at #2 he's the best I could afford. Then 8 pitchers in the 70-140 inning range looked like the bets value, let the manager sort them out. Had to fix an error that freed up $1million, instead of reworking the whole team I added 2 oldtime .350 hitters Jake Stenzel and Chick Stahl


$90m Albie Averill & Albie deGrom
I looked for albatrosses near the minimum requirements. deGrom seemed like the obvious choice for pitcher. I auditioned infielders before settling on Earl Averill because that roster looked better. After paying the albatrosses this wasn't much more than a lowcap draft. I chose SP pegged as underpriced or overperformers. McGinnity Reulbach Shore and Cy Morgan. add FrankSmith Miljus Robitaille Tuero. A controversial choice is 2 mopups with overperformer Jim Moroney making spot starts.
I skimped on defense. Because of the non-linear pay scale I think defense is overpriced at the lower end. Examples of that are Dmitri Young, Sam Thompson, and part timers and Fothergill Pride EDavis. Bigger spending on infielders Chipper Jones and George Kell. Lowcap frequent flyers (for me) 2B Ben Zobrist and C Heinie Peitz with backup. I like this team.


Every 10 Years 6's & 8's
I'm hooked on deadball pitching so I went straight to 8's. Ed Walsh and Walter Johnson for over 900 innings. Add deGrom and I have no need to look anywhere else. Even our old friend Bob Milacki is here. A slew of low inning RP including several closer quality pitchers.
I don't think there's much difference between the best choices for hitters. I looked at several and chose 6's though it wasn't much more than a coin flip. In order of salary, Cobb Foxx Manush Chipper(ss) Murphy(2b) Clemente Steinfeld Simmons. Cullenbine splitting DH with several bench players.


$110m JackiFournier
Procrastinated, then it wasn't as easy as I expected. Couldn't find a 3-timer I liked. My first thought was Closers but none were consistant across 3 teams. Settled on Jack Fournier while running out of time. He has 2 simworthy Brooklyn years, I took the one with fewer PA so I could use the backup/PH from Yankees. There's a mediocre WhiteSox OF, he's the cost of meeting the theme requirement while getting Sox pitchers.
Ed Walsh and Eddie Cicotte do most of the pitching. couldn't afford Greinke. Much of the bullpen can also spot start, including closers Kershaw and Rich Hill. For those who care, it's Latman Quinn Ruffing Rigney Wolfgang Rau McKeon. Hitters are a motley group of the best I could find for $6-7m, a couple $5m bargains and a couple $600k pinch hitters. In order of value, PGuerrero DixieW JackieRob Posada Aparicio Furillo RegSmith Hoag Carlye.


$130M Calm B4 Storm
Topped out at .20 hr/9. There weren't enough full SP at that level so I overpaid for Maddux 95, drafted Spud Chandler who isn't quite $130m material, and went with 4 lower IP pitchers. Questionable strategy chosen because I'm determined to emphasize round 2. Those 2 pitchers hit better than mendoza, an underrated stat. More pitchers are available with lower IP I suppose because they have less time for reversion to the mean.JR Richard, Schoolboy Rowe, Howie Pollet, and Robin Roberts. Now I need all 13 pitchers slots and some high inning relievers Frohwirth, Ken Sanders, Earl Caldwell and Dale Murray. Niggeling closes. Latman Roark and a mop complete the pen.

HR are practically meaningless. I drafted up to 6 per position. Luke Appling stands out at SS despite his high error count. My old friend Wade Boggs an easy choice at 3rd. New friend Dee Gordon at 2b with speed and glove. O'Farrell has a gun, backed up by the affordable bob montgomery. Not many low power 1B so I went with Phil Cavaretta. Downgraded OF to pay Maddux and still ended up with .370 hitters Paul Waner, Harry Walker, and Wingo Fothergill platooning, Archdeacon PHing.
5590 PA might not be enough because of high BA and OBP so I'm using Veterans Stadium for XBH and to conserve stamina.


$168M Twelve Cardinal Years

Well that was different. Thanks for a unique theme. Single franchise teams offered the highest cap. Cardinals came in at $168m but their best players are overpriced. Is it more efficient to combine 2 franchises for lower cap but bigger player pool? I tried. Giant Dodger team was my 2nd choice and it was a close call. The combo team had fewer weaknesses but the strengths weren't quite as good. 3 team combo is too much of a handicap unless everything falls into place, which it didn't. Ruled out a multi-team 1 or 2 season team couldn;t scrounge up enough hitting. Also considered a straight Giant team.

High IP pitchers are desirable because they leave fewer roster spots to fill, an advantage in this theme. So I looked at Silver King. He brings teammate Elton Chamberlain. I added Bob Gibson a good 2A choice, and John Tudor an affordable 2B choice. Elton will close and spot start. All 4 can pitch deep into games, which is good because the long relievers are nothing special. Stu Miller, Kiki Calero. Joe Hoerner.

Hornsby at 2b, Pujols at 1B, OFers O'Neill and Musial lead the charge. Three regular guys in the lineup, Rolen Simmons Templeton. McGee in place of Medwick because I already have his season. Instead I splurged on pinch hitters Cedeno and Freed . Ledesma at utility.

$70M - Last Shall Be First & First Shall Be Last - PNC Park.
I have experience playing in low-cap leagues so I’m fairly comfortable down here. As I often do at lower caps, I am employing my version of the old “Super Long A” strategy, which is similar to the Opener strategy teams use today. I will use 3 starters - Pug Cavet, Larry Dierker, Joe Niekro - to throw between 40-50 pitches each game. They will be followed by my “aces” - Ernie Shore, John Tudor, and Frank Arellanes. The idea is that it gets my best pitchers (and best values at this level) into as many games as possible. The rest of the bullpen is Haren, Tomko, Warren, Melendez, and DeLeon.I think it’s a solid staff given the restrictions. This type of staff works well at $40M (you all should try $40 at least once in your WIS career). I’ve had success at $60M. Whether or not it works at $70M, or against this field remains to be seen. But I think it gives me a good chance to compete.

On offense, I wanted guys who were going to get hits, looking for AVG#. Buck Weaver, Joe Vosmik, Chris Coghlan, Mike Hargrove, Yuniel Escobar, Homer Summa,and Kevin Stocker all hit over .320. Platoons pretty much everywhere except 2B, 3B, and CF.

I think this team will score runs. The limited player-pool makes it a little harder to judge the pitching staff. But after tinkering more with this team than any other, I think this team will be at least competitive.

Pitching: 1306 IP, 1.07 WHIP, .230 OAV 2.84 ERA

Hitting: 5508 hitter PA, .310/.374/.415

$90M - Shoeless Joe can Hear Hendrix - League Park II
There were 2 challenges that jumped right out at me. How much more than $9M was I willing to spend, and what type of ballpark did I want to play in. These 2 decisions would obviously impact how the rest of the team was constructed.

I settled pretty quickly on Claude Hendrix ($15.4M). Now this is a gamble spending so much above the min but I think it’s worth it. He was one of the top choices according to my criteria at any $/IP, with the added bonus of being just above $40K/IP. I just feel that Hendrix is better at $15M than any combo of pitchers at $9/6M would be. My goal would be to get him around 60 starts. Needing some value at the other rotation spots I decided on tandems. Pug Cavet/Charlie Smith and Drew Smyly/Pascual Perez will round out the rotation. I think Perez can be really good in this spot and could potentially be a full starter if I make the playoffs. King Felix, Mike Warren, Ray Washburn, Reggie Grabowski, Tim Stoddard, and Andy Hansen are the bullpen. I wish this was a little stronger, but I’m banking on Hendrix and Perez carrying this staff.

I originally was going to use Stan Musial as my >$9M player, as he has a few very usable seasons around $9M. But I really didn’t want to play in Sportsman’s Park (or Wrigley). So I pivoted to Joe Jackson ($9.74M) and League Park II. I tried then to fill the rest of my offense with guys who would hit singles and doubles. I went for defense/range up the middle, going with Frankie Frisch, Ozzie Smith, and Mel Almada. Pete Rose plays 3B. Robb Quinlan platoons with Almada, Hargrove/Dmitri Young, Tony Gwynn/Daniel Nava, and Johnny Estrada/Saltalamachia round out the platoons.

Again, I think this team will score runs. Whether the staff after Hendrix and Perez hold up remains to be seen.

Pitching: 1445 IP. 1.03 WHIP, .221 OAV, 2.45 ERA

Hitting: 5557 hitter PA, .330/.397/.452

$110M - Keynote Speakers - League Park II
I messed around with a few guys - Pete Rose, Tim Raines, Randy Johnson - before settling on Tris Speaker. Speaker came to mind after hearing Skunk206 talk about him on a podcast about WIS recently.(Ozomatli did one as well. Both are worth your time if you want to learn about this game) So, if this team works, all credit to him. If it fails, I clearly screwed something up.

So my outfield is made up of Speakers, using Cleveland (1916), Boston (1912), and Washington (1927) seasons. As an added bonus, all 3 are pretty solid defensive players. I chose League Park II again and built an offense for AVG#. Cleveland gave me Lou Boudreau, Nap Lajoie, Heinz Becker, Bob Bescher, Victor Martinez, and Chris Chambliss. From the BoSox I added Mike Stanley, Pete Runnels, Tim Naehring, and Drew Sutton. Tommy Tucker is my lone Washington hitter. This should be a pretty good offensive team for League Park II.

My rotation is led by Walter Johnson (Washington), Gaylord Perry (Cleveland) and Jim Bagby Sr. (Cleveland). You can never go wrong with the classics, and that’s Walter Johnson. Perry should be a solid #2. The bullpen - David Riske and Jack Harshman from Cleveland, Eddie Guardado from Washington/Minnesota, and Ray Collins, Jeff Gray, Keith Foulke, and Charlie Smith from Boston. All the pitchers except the mop up have a BB/9 under 2.2, so the goal is to make the opponents put the ball in play and let my defense do some work while scoring a bunch of runs. (yes, my goal is to score runs on offense and limit them on defense.)

Pitchers: 1593 IP, 0.99 WHIP, .215 OAV, 2.03 ERA

Hitters: 5710 hitter PA, .335/.413/.462

$120M - Aces N’ Eights - League Park II
As I’m sure everyone else did, I tried a number of combinations. Most of them included the 8’s for my pitching staff. Tim Keefe(1888) and Ed Walsh (1908) both were in the top 10 pitchers according to my search criteria, using ERC# as one of the main components. So in this tournament so far I am using a 2-man rotation, 3-man rotation, tandems, and openers. Don’t worry, the 4 man rotations are coming. Keefe and Walsh are both around 500 innings, so they should be able to start every other day with 100 pitches or so.The bullpen, in chronological order: Sport McAllister (1898), Oscar Tuero (1918), Hal Haid (1928), Dizzy Dean (1938), Hoyt Wilhelm (1958), Lindy McDaniel (1968), Randy Myers (1988), Keith Foulke (1998), Matt Capps (2008), and Tommy Milone (2018). This is probably my favorite bullpen so far, which you would expect as the salary cap moves up. Once I built this staff, I knew I was locked in to the 8’s.

For the hitters, I started with the 1’s, partially because I liked the name Aces N’Eights. (editor’s note: NEVER, EVER, pick your team solely because you like the name.) I tried 2, 5, and 7 before circling back to 1 and building an offense I was happy with. Again, in League Park II I was looking for singles and doubles. The hitters: Monk Cline (1891), Honus Wagner (1901), Sam Crawford (1911), Frankie Frisch (1921), Wally Roettger (1931), Frankie Hayes (1941), Richie Ashburn (1951), Ted Martinez (1971), Pete Rose (1981), Wade Boggs (1991), Frank Catalanotto (2001), and Sal Perez (2011).

This group can hit, and should score runs. It is solid defensively, so hopefully we can save runs from the ballpark.

Pitching: 1602 IP, 0.95 WHIP, .208 OAV, 1.97 ERA

Hitting: 6556 hitter PA, .337/.397/.470

$130 - Chicks Dig the Short Ball (<0.46 HR/9, max 7HR) - League Park II

While I was interested in keeping the HR/9 down, I looked at HR/9+ almost as much as HR/9. My 0.46 HR/9 is probably toward the higher end, but the HR/9+ is solid. Plus I don't expect many HRs to be hit, so I don't think it will hurt me too much here. In the unlikely event I reach round 2...
Here is my first 4-man rotation of the WISC - Maddux, Tudor (0.46 HR/9), Horlen, and Joe Wolff. All 4 show up as both strong options and good values based on my search criteria. All four guys are under 2.03 BB/9, so teams will to earn their way on base. The ‘pen consists of Fred Heimach, Barney Schultz, Dick Hall, Joe Sambito, Pat Jarvis, Steve Howe, and Zach Britton. It’s interesting to me that none of these guys appear on my other teams. I tried real hard this year to focus on the best players according to my criteria, and not worry about the name of the player.

It appears I’ve taken up residence in Cleveland, with League Park II yet again. With League Park I can focus on singles and doubles. It also limits HRs (-2 each way) which allowed me to push the HR/9 out a little further than in another park.

The offense again also features some strong defenders, with Frankie Frisch, Tony Fernandez, and Richie Ashburn strong up the middle. Pete Rose plays 1B, Cecil Travis mans 3B. Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker play the corner OF spots. Milt May and Pinky Hargrave split time at C. The bench includes Wilson Delgado, Nyjer Morgan, Jerry Mumphrey, and Woody Williams.

Another strong offense, another solid defense. I’m sensing a pattern here. I like that I’ve been more consistent in my approach to team building this year. I only hope that it’s the right strategy.

I actually built a Round 2 version of this team in the unlikely event I make it past Round 1- not because I think I will but more as an exercise is making sure the first team would work. I am a little concerned that the HR/9 in round 2 could haunt me, but that would be a great problem to solve.

Pitching: 1575 IP, 0.96 WHIP, .211 OAV, 2.04 ERA

Hitting: 6151 hitter PA, .344/.412/.466

Variable Cap - Cleveland Rocks! - League Park II ($156M - Cleveland Frachise/24 different seasons)
I rarely play higher cap leagues and usually struggle to build this team each year in the WISC. This year was no exception. I had a difficult time figuring out the best way to approach it and subsequently went with an easier approach. By the time I post this I will undoubtedly already regret this choice. I half-heartedly tried to mash some great single season teams together - early 1900 Cub (pitching), 1920s Yankees (hitting) and modern teams (bullpen.) I just had no real system, and every time I tried to address shortcomings, either I was compromising, which is bad at this cap level, or I was lowering the cap too far. I also tried a couple of l800s single season teams, but there was too much filler. So I decided to go the straight franchise route. It got me a starting salary of $155M minimum. My first attempt was a Dodger team, lead by Koufax, Greinke, Kershaw, Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider. 2 problems - I didn’t love the offense and I didn’t want to play in either Ebbets or Dodger Stadium. So I moved on to the Yankees. I am a Yankee fan, and when in doubt this is where I lean. So I built my Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Guidry team and was satisfied. The pitching was just about as good as the Dodgers and the hitting was better. It also got me Hilltop Park, which was a plus. This is where I was going to stay. But I couldn’t get over the idea that I was settling here. I was already settling with the Franchise idea. I worked hard this year to break my habits and stick to my plan in the other caps. So back I went and found the Indians, who had similar hitting (higher AVG, lower OBP, similar SLG) and better pitching than the NYY. That means a rotation of Joss, Perry, and the tandem of Sonny Siebert/Corey Kluber. A strong bullpen includes Andrew Miller, Dan Otero, Bob Howry, David Riske, Jack Harshman, Orlando Pena, and Rafael Bettancourt. It also means we’re back in League Park II. I really wish I had the guts to move my $70M team there (it was my original plan) but I was worried I didn’t have enough IP for that much offense.

Joe Jackson and Tris Speaker are back again, as are Nap Lajoie, Lou Boudreau, Victor Martinez, and Bob Bescher. The lineup is bolstered by Al Rosen, Lew Fonseca, and Charlie Jamieson. A strong bench includes: Brian Giles, Jack Kluggman, David Segui, and Les Nunamaker.

This is the team I have the least confidence in, by far. In part because I don’t play well in high caps, and in part because I took the lazy way out. I am sure I will see some of the other team building strategies and wish I had put in more time rather than punting. I don’t think this team is bad but I am worried enough other people will have cracked the code that the $$$ I’m giving up is going to end up crushing me.

Pitching: 1712 IP, 0.91 WHIP, .199 OAV, 2.01 ERA

Hitting: 6280 hitter PA, .357/.425/.514

$70M First/Last

Get as many productive innings without overspending. I know I will be cutting it close on innings. Gus Crock and '11 Pete Alexander get the starts, with '17 Eddie Plank making spot starts and getting long relief duty. The pen has Ehrhardt, Rigney, Noodles Hahn setting up Mike O'Neill.

Offense is Smoot, Kreevich, Hassett, Vosmik, Pinky Whitney too, and a cheap Anson behind the plate. Arky Vaughan and Brent Gates patrol the middle infield.

Praying for few extra inning games. We aren't spectacular, but yours isn't either...this is low cap, so we compete here...

$90M Double Eagle

I'm staying under $10M for the big guns. Musial or Rajah? I went with '44 Stan, although I use '20 Hornsby in another league. I build few 4 SP teams, and wasn't gonna do it here either, but I like a few cheap arms under $7M, so '09 Walsh fronts Plank, Doc Watson and Pol Perritt. Kroh and Griffith eat innings before Dilauro, Rasmussen set up Hallett.

Stenzel gets to play here. John Anderson (who?) plays first. Frisch and Groat are MIF. Some guy named Taffy hits ahead of Simba. Cookie ish Jimmy Brown plays 3rd. We are an OL lunchpail team. I won't ***** if we get 82 wins.

$110M 3x

Speaker is my guy, although I ditched his Senators season for the A's version. I went 1/2A/2B for my rotation, using Cy Young/Bender and Bernhard. Stingy would be good. Joe Berry, Ontiveros, Andrew Bailey, Blue and Hill set up Karsay, but that may get scrambled...

We can get on base, but making it home decides how our season goes. Speaker, Fain and Speaker are up ahead of Avila. Boggs, Goodman, Boudreau and Farrell complete the lineup sheet. We are solid but not oozing confidence. Another lunch box team. A favorable schedule would help.

$120M Lucky Numbers

Polo Grounds V

8 for pitching, 6 for bats

Cy Young, Gruber and an unlikely choice of McNally toe the rubber. I am not thrilled but I went this way. So be it. Even $120M only goes so far. Ol' Diz and Eck set up Doolittle and Joey Devine.

Teddy Ballgame is primary DH. Kevin Mitchell and Beltran get to hit and spell the immortal Johnny Hopp in LF. None other than Elmer Smith leads off. Boggs, The Cobb, George Burns and Billy Herman dot Sparky's lineup card. Honus moves to 3rd, O'Rourke behind the dish. Fun team I threw together. No idea how this fares. None.

$130M Calm before the Storm

Palace of the Fans

Call me crazy. Enjoy your visit. This should be entertaining. We spent a lot on bats. Vance, Mort Cooper and Babe Adams are paid to minimize the damage. We will shop for suits of armor...
Big seasons of Speaker, Appling, Waner, Cobb, Hornsby, Boggs, Cochrane and Carey should keep them busy while we continue the assault. We are against limiting magazine sizes...

Variable Cap

We went down to $152M to get what we wanted...I wanted a good lefty, so I went out and got 1886 Lady Baldwin, all 642 innings. While in my wayback machine I also got King Kelly and Roger Connor. Go big, or stay at home...I went to 1906 for my other SP, Cubs brothers Mordecai Brown and Jack Pfiester. 2001 Mariners donated much of our bullpen.

Offense? Welcome to 1921. We wanted the kitchen sink too, but Babe and his $26M salary were a bit pricey. We did manage to swing a deal for Cobb, Speaker and Heilmann, and they threw in Frisch and Bancroft for our up the middle needs. Fun theme to build.

$70M First and Last: American League Park I
This was the hardest league for me, as I rarely play low-cap leagues. Started by thinking of past great rookies, which led me to Fred Lynn, who is my best field player. Surrounded him with some speedy guys who suck at higher cap leagues. I have no idea if they'll be good here or not.

For pitchers, I wanted plenty of innings, since often at low-cap leagues I end up scraping for innings. I got two big inning guys (Lev Shreve and Case Patten) who really suck, but eat innings. Then I got Seaver (Rookie) and Mussina (Last) to bring sanity to the rotation.

I have no expectation of success with this team.

$90M Double Eagle: South Side Park III
Went with Ted Williams - he always delivers - and Ed Walsh. Just built the best team that I could around them. Definitely stronger offensive lineup than pitching staff, so I chose a pitchers' park instead of Fenway! I like how it turned out, if the pitching holds up.

$110M 3X: Memorial Stadium (Baltimore)
I thought of great players who played for multiple teams and chose Frank Robinson. The Orioles and Dodgers (end of his career) have great pitching, and the Reds have great hitters. Ironically, I only ended up with two Reds (in addition to Frank) in my lineup (Morgan and Casey). Frank Robinson's best year was with the Reds, so their presence will be significant, even if in smaller numbers. Pitchers are almost all Orioles and Dodgers.

$120M Lucky Numbers: Citi Field
8's for hitters and 6's for pitchers. I didn't have any particular strategy on this, other than trial and error. Ended up with a pretty good squad. Marichal, Tanana, Doc White, and Marquard as the rotation with Trevor Hoffman as the closer. Lineup includes McGraw, Gehringer, Williams, Mantle, Bagwell, Yaz, Hollocher, Traynor, and Mauer.

I think this is one of my best teams.

$130M Calm Before the Storm - Coors Field
This was my most "strategic" roster. Even though I have never made it to round two, I was definitely building this team for it. First, I always play in the "Long Ball at Coors" league. Although this is a much lower cap, I know how to win at Coors and picked it as my field. As a result, this team has a lot of power, three guys with 24 HR. For round 2, I'll have everybody 25+ home runs, which will also work well in Coors.

My staff has really low HR/9 (.29 is the highest) to compensate. To win at Coors, you need lots of innings, so I have 1633 IP. In the "Long Ball at Coors" league, I typically have 1800-2000, but in this league, only half the games will be there, so I think I'll be OK.

This is one of the teams I'm happiest with. I hope they don't let me down!

Variable Cap X*Y: Yankee Stadium II
This was another very strategic roster. I ended up going with just one franchise (Yankees) and 9 different years, so I ended up with a cap of $171 Million.

I honestly thought this was a no-brainer decision, since the Yankees have so many great players from over the years. I decided to use 1927 and the gargantuan Gehrig and Ruth seasons/salaries. I don't think I've ever used a $22M position player before, so we'll see if it works. Also have several other high-priced guys, like $17M Chesbro, $14M Mantle, $13M Ford, and $12M Guidry. Throw in Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Wade Boggs, and Mariano Rivera, and it's a really good team.

I have the highest cap in my league, so I guess the pressure is on to win!

$70- Rookies & Retirees (Target Field)

This is my first league ever under $100M. This team looks like garbage to me. Basically, it’s a bunch of singles hitters who don’t walk much, struggle to play solid D, and don’t run fast (but then again, according to Scarface, “Real Gangsta A$$ Ni&&@$ can’t run fast” anyway)

My lineup doesn’t really mesh well. I have to bat guys higher in the order & guys lower in the order than I’d like for PA/stamina purposes. I tinkered with this and all I could come up with was switching out my highest OBP% guy with a higher AVG guy bc he was slated to hit 7^th. (due to few PAs) and I didn’t have the proper bench to cover for him moving up. This wasn’t a solution to the problem I was originally trying to fix, but it was an upgrade of sorts. Maybe, idk..

I have Chipper Jones. I like Chipper Jones. I used to know his aunt. She’s a wonderful person. I truly enjoyed chatting with her while purchasing beer from her at the ripe old age of 19 (I had a big bushy beard, You can’t blame her, really) I’ll always have her back!!

Also, I have no idea what to expect stamina/PAs wise at this cap level. Why not pop my low cap cherry in the big tourney? Gotta learn somehow.

The pitching doesn’t look too bad at this cap, but I’m really not sure what it should look like… I only have 1359 IP.

I win the award for most generic/predictable team name.
Probably should have drafted Boggs!!!!


$90- The Eddie Hendrix Experience (Comiskey Park I)
Claude Hendrix & Eddie Collins

I can’t figure out if I’m doing something crazy by using Hendrix or if he’s going to show up on 60 of the 96 rosters- but it just made sense to me. Maybe it makes no sense at all. Maybe going with deGrom is ideal. Maybe Mathewson, Walsh, or Brown. Or perhaps 1885 Lady Baldwin is the answer?? Nah.. Nah..

After Claude I have 7 guys who throw between 101-189 innings, including guys named Deacon, Mudcat, Slim, & Tiny (beat those names); plus 2 under 50 IP guys. I think the staff looks decent for a $90M cap league (but WTF do I know? Literally. I’ve never played in a $90M cap league). I’ll have to juggle who is getting the starts to keep guys fresh.

I’m paying for extra PAs that won’t be used with Eddie Collins but he’s barely over $9M, plays solid D, hits .360 (normalized) and will never need rest. I was looking for value/$, but that ended up being a flawed search bc of the extra PAs I’m paying for. I didn’t consider this until too late to rebuild my team, but I should have probably built around Musial or a similar player. Collins’ numbers look good, considering D, but he’s only a 6/1 Doubles/Triples guy… which means he’s not good enough.

Ultimately, I ended up with another slap hitting lineup with no HR power and not enough double or triples. ’93 Kenny Lofton plays a solid CF, Collins is good at 2B. The rest of the D is shakey.

I feel like Collins was a mistake

Wait! Kenny Lofton is Hitting 4^th? WTF? WTF? Seriously? Not even the ‘good’ Kenny… And I thought this was going to work? There’s no way this will work… I need to drink less wine next WISC silly season….

Wade Boggs is leading off. He has quite a few useful seasons at various cap levels.

.329/.389/.417


$110- Captain Kenny’s Cleveland Brave Cubs (Turner Field)
Kenny Lofton ’93, ’97, ‘03

I feel pretty good about this team. My thinking behind Lofton? I was sure to have a decent offensive/defensive OF at this cap level and the Indians and Braves have many good players to choose from, including Bernhard who I felt was a perfect pitcher to start my tinkering with at this cap level. The Cubs or Dodgers offered pitching options I needed. The Pirates were also an option. I ended up using The Indians/Braves/Cubs

This team has a nice combination of pitching & defense with decent hitting. The staff is led by the 3 man rotation of ’09 3 Fingers, ’19 Alexander, & ’02 Bernhard. The pen is decent: ’12 Kris Medlen, ’79 Sutter, ’69 Wilhelm, ’05 Howry (listed in order of IPs) and 4 more decent arms giving me 27-36 IP each.
’17 Speaker gives me A+ range in CF flanked by 2 A range Loftons, backed up by a B+ range Lofton. ’44 Boudreau has good range and is sure handed at SS & ’03 Nap steals hits at 2B. A- range at 1B & slightly below avg D at 3B. Noodle armed Javy Lopez is backed up by slightly better than noodle armed Dick Bertell.

I see a pattern developing on offense…. High avg singles hitters…. But this time I have speed on the base paths to take the extra bag on a base hit—Plus we will hit a decent amount of doubles.


$120M- Ten Years After (6s & 4s. No kicker) (Target Field)
Hitter ending with 6. Pitchers ending in 4.
“I’d Love to Save The World”- Alvin Lee

I wanted ‘96 Ed Delahanty in CF. I wanted is use ’86 Anson at C or 1B, or ‘86 Brouthers, or Connor at 1B and/or ’76 Carew at 1B… BUT…I couldn’t afford any of those guys

The lineup still worked out pretty well for me.
’86 Boggs is a perfect leadoff man. I had to ‘settle’ on ’46 Musial instead of Delahanty. ’16 Ty Cobb is cheap and good. ’06 Nap is almost a stud. I’ve been wanting to use ’06 Freddy Sanchez at SS for a while. I had to use cheap ’16 Yadi and his weak arm and borderline hitting behind the plate and a very cheap slap hitting ’76 Willie Montanez at 1B. ’66 Matty Alou is another slap hitting value
My D should be strong even with an A- range guy in CF. Nap will steal a ton of hits without making many errors (B/A+). Sanchez is solid at SS (B/A-). Montanez has A- range at 1B and Boggs won’t boot too many. ’86 Pete Browning should serve well as a cheap DH. My bench is just OK and will be used; my 5-9 hitters will need a breather every once and a while.

I love Wade Boggs

I feel OK about my pitching staff. I went with the pitchers ending in 4 for the value they presented. Claude Hendrix screams value in my opinion. I’ve seen him, ’14 F Hernandez, and ’64 Joe Horlen all perform well in $130M leagues before. I really wanted ’14 Kershaw, but my budget and player pool wouldn’t allow it. Hernandez will do. I also have ’04 3 Fingers. I’m debating on whether to use a 4 man rotation or use Brown to start 13-20 games and use the rest of his IPs from the pen. ’94 Howe, and ’04 Wagner give me 110 IPs of good relief. I also have ‘44 Joe Berry & ’74 Dale Murray eating 190 innings. Those guys might be the X-factors to this whole team. They have an ERC# of 1.65 & 1.68 respectively; Is that good enough to pitch that many important innings of relief at this cap level? I hope so. ’24 Dibut gives me 39 solid innings. I have 58 innings of 2 mops- pure garbage, but I’m hoping I have enough IPs that they will only be used as true mops or in a 15^th inn emergency.


$130M- Colington Crab Killers (Target Field)

The pitching staff is highly suspect after ’94 Maddux, ’68 Gibson, and ’03 Rafael Soriano. I probably thought too much about round 2 when making this staff.

Hitters: .362/.424/.488 (lower when normalized)

I have WBF (Wade Boggs Fetish) (Until I can afford the super expensive Brett or ’21 Hornsby)

Barry Larkin plays excellent D for 100 games. B+ range in CF is weak. I finally have some catchers that can throw runners out!!! Yay!
Average team, probably.

Variable Cap- $166M Cardinals (Busch Stadium)

I screwed up by not using the Yankees…. That’s what it all boils down to.

At first, I was sure you needed 2 teams to maximize the pitching staff and all 8 positions in the field.

I tested 8 different team combinations (Not very many) with many different year combos within each one. I almost settled on an Indians/Cardinals combo ($162-164M), but it had a couple of flaws (Why the F$%k does ’08 Joss cost so much compared to ’10 Walsh?????). I would have had 1 or 2 hitters that were questionable at this cap level, but the defense was superior to the team I entered.

I had a Braves/Cardinals combo that almost worked…..but didn’t.

I had a Red Sox/Cardinals team that I loved but just couldn’t make work @$164M. It had a couple of flaws that were gleaming.

I had a $160M White Sox/Cardinals combo that looked very good, but I was worried about lack of XBH.

I figured out that the Cardinals could survive on their own, if I was willing to play Garry Templeton, who doesn’t belong at this cap level, at SS. Every previous team (combo of 2 teams) I had tried had 1 or more flaw, including at least 1 positional player who was questionable at this cap level. By settling on just 1 franchise, I was able to expand my seasons by double. I ended up with the Cardinals at $166M cap.

My pitching staff is worthy of a $140M cap league, but it is what it is..
Did I mention….. I’m using Silver King for the 1^st time ever? Why not experiment at the highest stakes? It just made too much sense at $43,000/IP & the fact that he eats so many innings that you can limit the number of seasons needed for the staff (In theory)… Plus Elton Chamberlain’s best season is the same year as Sliver’s….

Bob Gibson is my #2.. After that it’s not necessarily good

Seriously, Why does Joss cost so much?

There's a dude in my league with a $173M cap... I'm guessing that team will be pretty good.

My lineup is worthy of a $180M cap league.

Defense pretty much sucks. I do have Templeton robbing a few hits at SS and an ‘OK’ CF in ’46 Musial, but the rest is nothing to be proud of at this cap- or any cap.

My 1-7 hitters are going to feast on the pitching I expect to see in this league, but will it be better than some of the lineups featuring Yankees? I’m afraid it won’t hold up.
I have 2 of the top 6 positional player seasons in the database (’24 Hornsby & ’87 Tip)
3 guys that hit .369 (AVG#) and 1 that hits .359
My 2 catchers are ’89 Jocko & ’39 Padgett
And… ’80 Garry Templeton, who belongs in a $80-100M cap league, if any at all??

382 2B, 101 3B, 169 HR… More walks than strike outs… But still not many walks

I spent a lot of money on offense!!!!!!!
.366/.422/.570

I want to know what cheat code Schwarze has that got him a 1903 Speaker.

$70M Rookies and Farewell Tours

Vince Coleman isn't normally one of my go to players, but when there are very few legal options (like 1966 Randy Hundley) that can adequately stop elite base stealers at a low cap, it's hard not to wind up picking him. Because of that deficit of good arms to catch him, I'm surprised that more people don't have him on their team (at least according to the above write-ups). Chick Stahl the 0.354 hitting average hitter was also a pretty big gimme. Since I didn't like 1966 Randy Hundley very much, I opted to take a gamble that only some of the teams would roster elite base stealers like Vince Coleman (it helps that most of them aren't legal or cost too much) and drafted the trusty old Shawn Wooten to deal with teams that can steal while deploying a more offensively minded catcher (Mitch Meluskey) vs. the other teams. Starting Pitching wise, Pete Alexander and Mark Fidrych are the big guns. This team has only 1200 IP excluding mop ups, but I always feel comfortable at low caps rolling with fewer high quality innings pitched and playing in the cavernous confines of Petco.

Hitting 5525 PA 0.281/0.365/0.415 102 HR 220 SB
Pitching 1226.7 IP 2.53 ERA 1.09 WHIP 0.229 OAV

$90M Babe and Big Ed

The first thing that struck me about this theme is that the $9M rule matters a lot more for the offense than it does for pitching, even accounting for the $40,000/IP requirement. Thus, I knew if I wanted the offense to be decent, I needed to spend more money on the hitting than the pitching. Of all the more expensive players, I've always liked Babe Ruth more than the other hitters, so even though spending on power isn't always the greatest idea, I decided to spend nearly $11 million on him, figuring that the best way to drive yourself in is through a HR. I'm also a huge fan of having platoon options that can steal when money is limited, so I figure I can rack up a lot of SBs when I face weak armed catchers and then bench the base stealers when I face strong armed catchers. As for what happens when they steal and then Babe Ruth hits a HR? Well, I'll worry about that problem...later. I initially thought I'd go with Jacob DeGrom on the pitching side since he was the closest good pitcher to $9M, but in the end I winded up going with the slightly more expensive 1909 Ed Walsh since he is a more cost-effective Deadballer with more IP.

Hitting 5542 PA 0.304/0.378/0.491 176 HR 191 SB
Pitching 1330.7 IP 2.10 ERA 0.99 WHIP 0.215 OAV

$110M It's Miller Time

I initially built a team around Pete Alexander. It was a decent team... but something just didn't feel right spending 1/5 of the salary cap on a player, even one as good as 1915 Pete Alexander. So eventually I scrapped it, and I'm glad that I did. Naturally, I went in the opposite direction and winded up picking a reliever, Andrew Miller. Picking a reliever worked out really well because it allowed me to minimize money spent on the clones (which each had to be on a different franchise) and maximize the money I spent on the other players with less restrictions, particularly when they get to come from the Yankees, Indians and Red Sox, which are three great franchises to have. As a result, this is my favorite team of all six teams I constructed. I'm pretty confident this one is going to do well, and it should also be my best team.

Hitting 5687 PA 0.318/0.389/0.502 141 HR 186 SB
Pitching 1435.7 IP 1.82 ERA 0.92 WHIP 0.200 OAV

$120M Sixes and Eights

I've never loved having to build teams with DH's, because they force me to either spend less money on pitching or reduce the quality of the hitters that I roster. In this case, I went with the former, but it means I'm a little worried about my pitching staff. On the hitting side of things, I'm glad that I got to roster 1916 Ty Cobb and 1936 Paul Waner, and I'm going to see how much damage 1946 Ted Williams and 1996 Jeff Bagwell can do, even if Williams might be a little too reliant on HRs and Bagwell strikes out too much. 1888 Tim Keefe and 1908 Ed Walsh anchor the pitching staff, but the bullpen isn't as strong as I'd like due to spending just shy of $65 million on hitting.

Hitting 6471 PA 0.327/0.412/0.499 143 HR 255 SB
Pitching 1482.0 IP 1.87 ERA 0.94 WHIP 0.202 OAV

$130M Eye of the Storm

I got to admit, I'm very surprised how dedicated people are to keeping their HR/9 allowed so low when people are predictably building high average low HR hitting teams. I think this is a recipe for a lot of these pitchers getting lit up, as there are very few pitchers other than Greg Maddux that can really claim to suppress HR and be also good at pitching vs. everyone else at high caps. In contrast to my above team that was heavily tilted in favor of hitting, this team is sort of the opposite, with 1994 Greg Maddux, 1972 Don Sutton, 1996 Kevin Brown and 2018 Jacob DeGrom. On the offense side of things, I got Frankie Frisch at 2B, Stan Musial,Tris Speaker and Paul Waner in the OF, and a platoon situation at 1B I'm happy with since I hate most of the low HR post-1920 1B options. Although having everyone hit more than 22 HRs in R2 seems steep, as well as having every pitcher with a HR/9 higher than 0.43, I've already built my Round 2 Roster so I know I can manage it.

Hitting 5773 PA 0.333/0.398/0.504 111 HR 126 SB
Pitching 1510.7 IP 1.90 ERA 0.92 WHIP 0.200 OAV

Variable $158M of Bonds/Ruth/Mays

Like rbow and several others, I first contemplated an all Cardinals team due to guys like Silver King, Elton Chamberlain, Tip O'Neill, Bob Gibson, and Stan Musial. However, like rbow noted, a lot of the Cardinals players are overpriced, and despite having a higher salary cap to play with, I found they were not the best team once I started using simmatchup to test out some ideas. Instead, I found myself gravitating towards the Giants, since I could run out Tim Keefe and Christy Mathewson on the starting pitching side while running out Frankie Frisch at 2B, Barry Bonds and Willie Mays at OF, and Roger Connor at 1B. Since I wasn't going to be able to spend everything, I decided to add the Yankees as a Franchise and gain access to Babe Ruth. I particularly like the idea of using Roger Connor to drive in Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth after they have been walked for the umpteenth time. Overall, this team is probably the 2nd best of my six teams, other than my $110M team.

Two Observations about this theme: first off, I prefer having fewer franchises and more years because I didn't want to get stuck with a mediocre player at a position or with a god awful bullpen. The other is that $20+ million position players, while seemingly attractive in this theme, actually produce poor value for money spent. Therefore, I needed multiple very good / elite players rather than just a couple of $20+ million albatross position players, which is far easier to satisfy with many years, few franchises than the other way around. I personally believe that at this high of a salary cap, slightly less salary spent well will beat higher salary cap teams where the salary is spent poorly.

Hitting 6097 PA 0.336/0.435/0.559 222 HR 281 SB
Pitching 1695.7 IP 1.82 ERA 0.90 WHIP 0.195 OAV

Posted by jbohrman on 8/10/2019 3:39:00 PM (view original):
I want to know what cheat code Schwarze has that got him a 1903 Speaker.

Good one. Fixed the typo.

70M – First & Last Theme
General theme here was to run as much as possible - hope that not all teams use the A++ catcher theory. Planted an A++ arm of my own and then built the roster with as much switch hitters and base stealers as possible. Vince Coleman and Tony Womack will bat 1,2. Sacrificed defense but I'm thinking that would be common. As for pitchers, low walks and low HR will always work out in any league.
.267/.336/.387 offense - 1373 IP/1.12 WHIP/.241 OAV/19 HR allowed

90M – Double Eagle Theme
Wanted to use a low $9M hitter and pitcher which would leave more salary for other players. I hate the -3 1B park but the '09 Walsh fits the bill there at barely over $40K/IP. Had DeGrom but switched at last minute. Low HR, low walk Pitchers fill out the roster. Phil Douglas, Red Ames, McGinnity, Reulbach.

Same with hitting. Thought about the $9M Ruth but homers don't normalize well, even for Ruth, so went with '86 Dan Brouthers (.562 performance history slugging sold it there). Switch hitters line the rest of the lineup. Bonilla, Jose Ramirez, Eduardo Escobar, John Anderson, Zobrist and my favorite A++ catcher of all time, switch hitter Buck Rodgers

.304/.370/.506 offense - 1369 IP/1.05 WHIP/.222 OAV


110M – 3X Franchise
Speaker was the easiest choice of the entire tournament. Red Sox, Indians, Senators. Big Train and Bernhard, Shore and Steele. Niggeling closes. Done.

?Speaker, switch hitters Jose Ramirez, Victor Martinez, Lindor, my favorite 2B '54 Bobby Avila, and doubles machine Mickey Vernon at 1st.

.328/.392/.487 offense - 1432 IP/.94 WHIP/.207 OAV

120M – Lucky Numbers
Charted the most appropriate 1900-1920 starting pitchers and wound up looking at 8 and 9. 8 got me Walsh and Johnson and I chose there. I'd imagine many rosters will have those two. I didn't want a bullpen of good not great so I picked up the '98 Maddux and the '48 Brecheen. I added another 100IP with Hal Haid and Hoyt Wilhelm. Managing the pitching will be a bit challenging but worth it.

Built a team with every number but for me it kept coming back to '41 Cecil Travis. He's my favorite SS in the sim because of his price relative to his AVG+. Literally chose 1 because of him. Roberto Alomar, Sam Crawford, Harry Heilmann, Terry Pendleton, an 1891 Duke Farrell A+ switch hitting catcher for $5.5M (who knew?)

.343/.398/.521 offense - 1499 IP/.97 WHIP/.211 OAV

130M – Calm Before the Storm
Round 2 doesn't matter if you can't make it out of round 1. So with that said - It absolutely doesn't matter how many home runs your hitters have. The price difference between an 8 HR hitter and a 25 HR hitter is nothing. So pick the best hitters for the theme and be done with it. You can manage it a little bit - I wouldn't put a 35 HR hitter on the field. But trying to get a low number instead of the hitters you want is a fool's errand. Wound up with 20 HR high ('01 Alomar). Reiser A+ in CF and Munson A+ behind the plate. Then it was high avg, low HR hitters like many of the winning teams in the sim. The 3B combo of Debs Garms and Bill Mueller is a steal for a combined $5.7M

For pitching, topped out at .23 I believe. Cy Blanton, Spud Chandler, Harry Brecheen, Howie Pollet, and some modern day relief pitching. Don't forget - No mop up pitcher

.346/.410/.525 offense - 1438 IP/.99 WHIP/.210 OAV

180M – Variable Cap: Minus XY
Coolest theme ever. I built a million teams with different years and combos. Looked at the A's with Weyhing and Seward, the Giants with Keefe but I didn't think their numbers were good enough. Also, don't leave $ on the table. Don't pad your bench or roster too many innings. To me that's a waste. To maximize every dollar, I found two most important factors. First, you need an expensive catcher. Two, need the Yanks with Ruth and Gehrig. Landed at 5 teams, 4 years, $160M and used every dollar.

C '86 Kelly $16.8
1B '30 Gehrig $11M
2B '10 Lajoie $10.9
SS '57 O'Connell $4.7 (B, A+)
3B '30 Lindstrom $8.1
OF '57 Mantle $14
OF '57 Mays $9.6
OF '30 Ruth $10.9

'08 Mathewson
'08 Joss
'08 Brown
'10 Ford
some decent SetUpB types and lots of Mop Ups since IP is low.

.355/.445/.591 offense - 1404 IP/.84 WHIP/.195 OAV (w/o scrubs)

Cannot say thank you to Schwarze and Ozo enough. I've played this tournament every year and it is always a great time. Thank you both again.

I also want to thank both Schwarze and Ozo for this annual WIS highlight. I can only imagine the amount of effort that goes into not just developing the themes, but then administering them throughout the tournament. It is a thankless job that likely comes with a lot more grief than we all realize. Thanks again guys…at least until Round 2 when you foist upon us another one of those diabolical draft themes. F’n Brickyard GD Kennedy…

2019 WhatifSports Championship (“WISC”)

Goal: Perform well enough to achieve the right to spend a few hundred more hours tinkering with make believe baseball rosters.

Overall Strategy: Maximize Quality per/PA and per/IP, Minimize Waste, Limit Risk

Outlook: Not so good

$70M – [LAST], [FIRST]

Petco Park

Offense: 4873 PA, .309/.389/.432, remote possibility of an occasional HR, a couple SB, defense – poor

Pitching: 1298 IP (w/o scrubs), 1.05 WHIP, .228 OAV

Waste: $66K (6x scrubs and $657 leftover I’d like to use on a gift certificate Wink)

Risk: Obscenely low PA, stone gloves, concrete boots, mediocre bullpen, SP/Long RP’s contagious and deadly disease, high likelihood manager screws things up within the first week.

This was the first team I started working on for the 2019 iteration of the WISC. I’ve cut way back on Sim League teams over the past few years (outside of the WISCs), so I’ve been falling further and further out of touch with the game and how to successfully build a winner. However, the $60M team that I’ve been looking at sitting in TOC purgatory for about three years now tells me I am good enough, smart enough and doggone it, I can do low caps! Seriously, a bunch of you are sitting in that one too, waiting… How is it possible that WIS cannot spit out another 5 freaking $60M teams in three years??? I don’t remember what that WISC theme even was or what round/year it came from, looking like 1900-1999 was blacklisted? Anyone?
Moving on… I essentially built this team straight from the spreadsheet and it really turned into a puzzle to find the balance of crappy hitting with s****y pitching. To be honest, I don’t have any idea how these guys will perform, but they are a helluva lot better than the first version I spit up. I think. Spoiler alert, this will be the only roster you see in this post without Tris Speaker being involved. After all these years, I still love me some Tris Speaker.

SP: 1888 Mickey, 1905 Irv, 1910 Mid-meningitis Addie Joss

Lineup:
C - 2003 Phillips OOP w/ Old Cochrane backing him up
1B – Young 1917 Joe Harris
2B – 2000 Furcal
3B – 1946 Billy Herman w/ ’87 Magadan
SS – 1932 Arky-V
OF – 1977 Page, 1897 Chick, 1899 Ginger

RP: Who really cares? Bob, John, Jake, Jack, a couple of Harry’s and Boom-Boom

Prediction: Between 63 and 95 wins with the corresponding number of losses


$90M – Flying Dutchman and Pitching Dutch man

Citi Field

Offense: 5105 PA, .330/.405/.465, remote possibility of an occasional HR, one lonely base stealer, defense – poor w/ some scattered range

Pitching: 1336 IP (w/o scrubs), 0.96 WHIP, .223 OAV

Waste: $39K (6x scrubs and $982 leftover for the gift certificate)

Risk: Moderately low PA, stone gloves, modern SP, mediocre bullpen, Long RP’s contagious and deadly disease, high likelihood manager screws things up within the first two weeks.

I spent more time tinkering with this team than any of the others, by far, and I don’t think it helped anything. It seems like I put together 12 versions and none stood out. I started out with a Speaker/Walter team that I liked, though I don’t seem to have enough success with the 1914 Speaker that would justify his $9M+ salary and the others above that threshold would just stretch the cap way too thin particularly when combined with a high-IP starter like the Big Train. Eventually I started limiting my search to options that were much closer to $9M – and ended up with the rangy 1901 Honus and not-yet salary screwed up Jacob DeGrom (I know he’s not technically, or even remotely, Dutch but it’s not like Honus could fly so STFU). I did roster another Magadan and again with the terminally ill version of Joss, so the $70M team oozed right into this one. Not necessarily a good thing. First use of Tris Speaker in the 2019 WISC is the 1913 version, which is particularly nice this time of year.

SP: 2018 DeGrom, 2017 Kluber, 1920 Babe, 1942 Tiny

Lineup:
C – 1975 Sanguillen
1B – 1931 Ed Morgan (regretting not going with the more expensive 1917 Sisler here)
2B – 2018 Zobrist
3B – 1990 Magadan (yeah, at 3B, not sure what I was thinking either)
SS – Big Money 1901 Honus
OF – 1913 Speaker, 1944 Dixie and square peg I slammed into the round hole 1999 Roger Cedeno

RP: 2^nd use of a Chick in the WISC (1904 Robit), Sick Addie, Carl, Ralph, Jack, Tom and again a couple Harry’s. I feel like I put a lot of time into looking for RP but always end up with the same dreck.

Prediction: Regret and anguish. 79 wins.


$110M – Tres Tris

League Park II

Offense: 5419 PA, .341/.417/.486, remote possibility of an occasional HR, your D- armed C is safe here, defense – middling w/ some scattered range

Pitching: 1484 IP (including pseudo-scrubs), 0.93 WHIP, .201 OAV

Waste: $122K (5x scrubs and $6 leftover for the gift certificate)

Risk: Kluber, Boudreau and Mauer, stone gloves, mediocre bullpen, pitching will allow some HR, high likelihood manager screws things up within the first half of season.

Going with Tris was a no brainer for me…I love the guy. This has been chronicled before so I won’t get back into it, except for one update. There is some dude on eBay who has been selling t-shirts that say simply, “Got Tris Speaker.” That’s it. What the hell does this mean? Could this posting be directed exclusively at me? What am I missing? Someone is going to respond that there is some new f’ing rapper or something who co-opted Tris’s name and it’s going to really **** me off. Anyway, I bought two of the identical shirts and my wife has finally stopped asking me what they mean. I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed in the number of Speaker related team names that started popping up this morning. It should be comforting knowing that so many of the best owners in the game were thinking the same way that I was, though it wasn’t. On the other hand the rest of you Speaker owners should be concerned… I stuck the Senators’ Speaker at 1B and brought in another favorite 1913 Shoeless Joe. Leading the staff is 1918 WaJo and the ever so irritating cookie BillBern baggins. Lineup includes mediocre versions of Nap Lah-Joooo-Way at 2B and Chicken Man at third. Loub always seems to screw me (get it?!??), but his D and range at short should at least provide some value. Continuing the WISC roster ooze, in addition to Speaker from the $90M team, we have Kluber again and the not-as-good Dutch Leonard who would have been a much better guy to call Dutch man than DeGrom, sigh…hindsight.

SP: 1918 Johnson, 1902 Bernhard, 2017 Kluber, 2018 Sale

Lineup:
C – ’10 Mauer
1B – Tris27
2B – 1912 Lah-Jooo-Way
3B – 1991 Boggs
SS – 1947 Boudreau
OF – Tris13, Tris23, Shoeless

RP: 440 IP split between Cy, Frank, Dutch, Dennis, Dick, George, Charlie and Trevor. No Harry’s was an oversight.
Prediction: Embarrassment by being outperformed by every other Tris Speaker team. 85 losses.



$120M – Big 6/Big 8

Polo V

Offense: 6029 PA, .342/.431/.504, random HRs, SB is not a threat, defense – rostering 3 popular DH options about sums it up, yikes.

Pitching: 1479 IP (w/o scrubs), 0.89 WHIP, .201 OAV

Waste: $473K (5x overpriced scrubs and $2,471 leftover for the gift certificate)

Risk: Poor decision making, crap defense, mediocre bullpen including my WIS kryptonite Eckersley, pitching will allow some HR, high likelihood manager already screwed things up.

I should have either tinkered with this team more, or less. How I stopped where I did is confusing to me, especially after reading Schwarze’s write-up which really followed my thinking almost to a T and looked a lot like what I started this theme with. It is difficult to explain why I ended up here, so I guess I will just make this a suicide note and talk about what I could have done better. Instead of 1918 Walt J, I went with 1998 Maddux and 1968 McNally. True those guys could perform and turn out to be bargains, but they certainly DO NOT limit risk. You know you are getting quality IP with Johnson and a lot of them. Maddux and McNally should do ok, but I’ve seen ol’ Dave round out seasons with 6+ ERAs more times than I can remember. Next, I used 2018 Sale instead of DeGrom. Could work out, might not, risk not minimized. FWIW, I have Sale in a $120M theme right now, and he currently has an ERA nearing 6. Not good Bob, not good. Scooching to the lineup, I have the guy who’s picture is shown when you Search WIS’s knowledge base for “Defensive Liability”, Edgar Martinez starting at 1B. (Did anyone go do the search?) I also swapped in 2016 Altuve at 2B and O’Rourke at C – 2 low OBP options that I am sure to regret. I tried to maximize doubles with the lineup, but that isn’t always a discernable advantage in the Sim. This team is annoying, I’m moving on. Ooze: Speaker, Boggs, Honus, Sale but NO Walter Johnson dammit.

SP: 1908 Walsh, 1998 Maddux, 1968 McNally, 2018 Sale

Lineup:
C – 1886 O’Rourke
1B – 1996 Edgar
2B – 2016 Altuve
3B – 1986 Boggs
SS – 1906 Honus
OF – 1916 Tris, 1936 Chapman, 1926 Heilmann
DH – 1956 Teddy Ballgame

RP: Dennis, Pete and Sam – Dizzy, Mickey and Dupee – Hoyt

Prediction: Disappointment and regret. 86 wins.


$130M – Storm Before the Storm

Target Field

Offense: 5421 PA, .357/.441/.524, Max HR 13, No SB, defense – not a severe liability.

Pitching: 1465 IP (scrubless), 0.90 WHIP, .205 OAV, Max HR/9 0.48

Waste: $156K (3x overpriced scrubs and $717 for the GC)

Risk: Random number generator.

This is a team. Not a whole lot special about this lot that reflects a coherent strategy or an organized/thoughtful plan. My pitching staff gives up way too many home runs (round 2 is going to be a treat), so at least sticking them in Target Field makes sense. Offense is based on high-OBP and XBH guys who walk a ton more than they strikeout – presumably a plus against modernish pitching staffs. Pitching staff should and will be overmatched, I’m afraid, so that’s a downer. I did end up throwing together a workable Round 2 team (jinx anyone?) so I don’t think I’ll be handling a disaster if I make it that far. Ooze: 86 Boggs, Speaker, Shoeless, Arky-V is back, Ed “I wish you were Sisler” Morgan, and Dixie from my $90M team (gulp), Dutch DeGrom, Dizzy and Babe A. also make repeat appearances.

SP: 1997 Maddux, 1999 Pedro, 2015 Arrieta, 2018 DeGrom, 2016 Kershaw

Lineup:
C – Platoon: ’43 Dickey/’39 Padgett
1B – 1931 Not Sisler
2B – 1920 Hornsby
3B – 1986 Chicken Man
SS – 1938 AV
OF – Tris22, ’20 Shoeless, 1944 Dixie-W, 1942 Cullenbine

RP: Babe, Al, Pat, Barney, Dizzy, two Johnny’s, partridge, pear tree.

Prediction: 92-71 (win a play-in 163^rd game to make the playoffs)


Variable Cap – One Fiddy

Fenway

Offense: 5656 PA, .368/.442/.553, Pretty consistent with the rest of my entered teams.

Pitching: 1623 IP (scrubless), 0.90 WHIP, .201 OAV

Waste: $61K (3x overpriced scrubs and $51 for the GC)

Risk: Playing at a $10-$21M salary cap handicap, very overmatched bullpen in a hitter’s park.

I did not attempt to build a single-franchise roster. I should have attempted to build a single-franchise roster. This could be painful. What did I do? Well I pretty much just built what I thought was a good high-cap team, shooting for somewhere in the $160M range – which I thought would be the sweet spot for this theme. I ended up with a decent-to-good $150M team using six franchises (Boston, Minnesota, SF, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Detroit) over five seasons (1909, 1912, 1916, 1927 and 1987). I am still optimistically not sure the extra salary would be all that significant, but when my bullpen gets crushed I will have a different perspective I’m sure. The biggest mistake I made with this one, and I knew I was making it at the time, was to force certain players in no matter the incremental cost (i.e. Walter Johnson and the Minnesota franchise). I just can’t seem to mesh with ol’ Walter this year… 1909 provides Three Finger and Mathewson, plus an above average Honus and Long RP Babe Adams. 1912 brings Walter, Tris, Cobb, Zimmermann OOP at 1B, and Chief Meyers at C. 1916 is another wasted choice as it only adds 150 IP of Ferdie and some platoon C Pas. 1927 could have brought Ruth and Gehrig, but only if I used the Yankees as well, instead I used Detroit’s Heilmann, Giant’s Hornsby and an out of his league Johnny Miljus. 1987 Boggs brings along some even more overmatched relief IP in Doyle, Reuschel and Jeff Robinson. I’m curious to see how many other’s depleted their team’s salary as much as I did. Final ooze tally, those that have previously made appearances are: Hornsby, Boggs, Honus, Speaker (of course), Heilmann, Mr. Walter Johnson (though not enough), Babe A. and Miljus.

SP: 1912 Johnson, 1909 3-Finger, 1909 Mathewson, 1916 Ferdie

Lineup:
C – 1912 Meyers, 1916 McCarty, 1916 Spencer, 1909 Snodgrass
1B – 1912 Zimmerman
2B – 1927 Hornsby
3B – 1987 Boggs
SS – 1909 Wagner
OF – Tris12, 1912 Cobb, 1927 Heilmann

RP: 1909 Babe A., Johnny, Rick, Dixie, Doyle and Jeff D. (don’t call me Jeff) Robinson

Prediction: I can’t imagine this turning out well. 72 wins.


Good luck to all and may the WIS Gods bless your teams - except for those in my Leagues and especially not to those in my Divisions.

Great writeup jborhman! I was laughing out loud quite a bit.

No need to thank me for WISC anymore. It's all ozomatli these days. He's done a fantastic job running things. He's made a few tweaks here and there but has kept the general spirit of the contest true to my original concept.

Also, I have a team in that TOC 60M theme that's at least 6-8 years old (maybe even older - not sure). It was from a 60M WISC theme from long ago.

I also did not ever consider a single franchise team in the $180M variable cap theme. Although I do realize that I could have spent my dollars more efficiently, I also realized that the only way to spend those dollars was to overpay for big HR hitters like Ruth. I firmly believe that there will just be too much deadball pitching in this theme to make those players worth the money.