“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
- Attributed (probably falsely) to Albert Einstein
“Pitching? What’s pitching? Offense is fun! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee……….”
- barracuda3
Many of you are aware that this league came on the heels of a similar 16x16 draft league, also run by schwarze. In that draft my strategy was to use the expensive sub-par pitchers that I had to roster rather than wasting their salary, thereby freeing up enough money to assemble a potent offense which would more than compensate for my mediocre pitching staff by simply outscoring everyone.
My team in that league is currently 15-27.
Oh well, on to the 12x12 league. There’s plenty of pitching available in this league. Maybe I’ll even draft some.
Maybe…
(as always, quoted stats are normalized)
Nomination:
Guy Bush
By the time I chose my player a bunch of early-era nominations had been made, with a lot of good pitchers as teammates. My idea, of course, was to try to assemble as good an offense as possible, so I wanted to choose someone with a good-hitting teammate at a non-offensive position while saddling others with a lot of useless salary. 1936 Guy Bush ($336K), and his colleague
Arky Vaughan (.326/.449/.472) fit the bill nicely. He also has a very nice second teammate, Paul Waner (.363/.442/.518), who throughout much of the draft I was planning on rostering. It’s true that Bush had a lot of useful offensive teammates (including the best offensive shortstop in the sim, the ’35 Vaughan, plus Hack Wilson’s amazing 1930, a great Hornsby season, and a bunch of very good Gabby Hartnetts) but most of these came with very expensive poison pills so I didn’t mind that so much. And my version of Bush came with a low enough salary to net me the third pick in the first round, although my strategy was so different than everyone else’s that I’m not sure how much that mattered.
Round 1:
1934 Alvin Crowder ($1.25M)
Despite being almost identical in concept to the 16x16 draft, to me the strategy in a 12x12 draft is fundamentally different. This is because in a 12x12 you get 13 teammates, while in a 16x16 you only get 9. This means that in a 16x16 you need to use several nominated players, whereas in a 12x12 you can get away with using few, if any, especially in a DH league where pitchers are not pinch-hit for. My plan was simply to waste as little salary as possible while assembling a dominant offense, and to fill in my pitching staff with second-tier pitchers as needed in later rounds. It seemed to me that there was enough decent pitching to go around that this was feasible. As such, this Crowder would’ve been my pick even if I chose first overall. He’s the cheapest available version of a player with many useless and high-priced seasons, who comes with a dominant offensive player (
Charlie Gehringer, .347/.437/.509) at a position where the only other dominant hitter available to me (’27 Hornsby) would come with a $5M Jackson at a position that I already had filled. With Bush and Crowder out of the way I could rest easy about not wasting too much salary the rest of the way, even deferring the choice of the other elephant in the room, Frank Smith, until the end of the draft.
Round 2:
1969 Tito Fuentes ($1.1M)
Having the third overall pick, I mapped out my top 3 selections for the first round. First was the ’34 Crowder. Second was the ’65 Moon, who went second overall. Third was the ’69 Fuentes. I wanted no part of Tito Fuentes, and I was convinced that his cheap seasons would all go early, because his cheap seasons had useful teammates while his expensive, mostly horrendous seasons generally didn’t. Needless to say, I was pleased to get this one in the 2
nd round. Cheapest available Fuentes, who brings along a very usable
Juan Marichal (2.17 ERC) and a potential second teammate in a very powerful Willie McCovey. Ooh, look! I have a pitcher! I have a pitcher!
Round 3:
1962 Wally Moon ($1.2M)
Just as I expected an early Fuentes run that never really materialized, I also expected the same for Moon. I was a little less sure of this, since Moon has several seasons who are usable for most people who don’t fetishize offense the way that I do (which is roughly the way that Russ Meyer fetishizes boobs), but as with Fuentes most of Moon’s cheaper seasons came with good teammates. I was surprised to have my choice of the cheaper ’62 with a lesser Koufax, or the more expensive ’63 with a better, more expensive Sandy. Still in penny-pinching mode, I went with the lesser, yet still useful
Sandy Koufax (2.10 ERC). Things are going smoothly.
Round 4:
1891 Dan Brouthers ($7.6M, .354/.466/.533)
I agonized about this pick a bit. On one hand, I’d worked my way up to first pick in the round and taking a Brouthers would wreck that, and there were plenty of excellent versions still available. But I really liked this one because he had several attractive teammates who would allow me to maintain flexibility later into the draft. There were plenty of great offensive 1B/DH/OFs still around, but the pickings were extremely slim at catcher and third base. Other than perhaps the 1965 Edwards/Pavletich platoon, which I expected to be drafted soon (possibly by me), the 1891
Duke Farrell (.306/.380/.494) seemed to be the best available option at catcher. He wasn’t on my radar pre-draft, but based on his performance history he seems to be (or have been) a cookie of sorts, and his historical production seems to back that up. The 1891 Brouthers would also avail me of 374 PAs of Bill Joyce, whose .313/.455/.527 could platoon with anyone decent to form one of the better third base situations in the league. Finally, I wasn’t planning on using
Charlie Buffinton (437 IP, 2.40 ERC) but it was nice to have all those innings in reserve if needed. Which they would be.
Round 5:
1936 Travis Jackson ($2.1M)
The Brouthers pick dropped me 3 spots in round 5. Not bad. At this point I still needed (at least) 2 OF and a DH, and I started to notice that the dominant OF choices were disappearing. Not at an alarming rate, but quickly enough that I started to need to address the situation. I had been hesitating on taking my Jackson teammate because I thought that enough people would be starting him as their SS that the cheap ones would be around for a bit, but I decided to take mine here to lock in one of the best available versions of
Mel Ott (.319/.444/.586) and also add the possibility of an excellent Carl Hubbell (320 IP, 2.19 ERC) if I ended up not using Waner as my “extra” teammate.
Round 6:
2007 Joe Smith ($0.75M)
The flexibility of my Brouthers pick could only carry me for so long. At some point I needed to address my third base situation. I had targeted 2007
David Wright (.323/.414/.525) from the beginning, but using a lousy Joe Smith on a non-RP teammate would mean forfeiting the chance of having anything resembling a decent bullpen, so I hesitated and held out hope of a Joyce platoon. But my desired platoon partner for Joyce, the 1911 Buck Herzog who was attached to the super-cheap Steinfeldt, was taken in the previous round, and I probably couldn’t spare 2 roster spots on my third base position anyway. So I pulled the trigger on what was clearly the best available third baseman. Given that I needed only 2 OF/DH to fulfill my dream of a lineup consisting of 9 dominant offensive players, I thought I was there. And on some level I was. Until I wasn’t.
Round 7:
1910 Harry Steinfeldt ($2.6M)
Another “flexibility” pick, and one whose flexibility would be utilized every bit as much as my earlier Brouthers pick. The original plan here was to use Jack Pfiester (106 IP, 2.05 ERC) as my primary reliever. But this Steinfeldt provided other options as well. If I needed an OF, Solly Hofman (.329/.406/.485, B/A+) would be a very viable choice, and if I needed more innings Orval Overall (153 IP, 2.42 ERC) or
Mordecai Brown (311 IP, 2.43 ERC) were available. One of my favorite aspects of 12x12 drafts is the “jigsaw puzzle” phenomenon, where you have a large number of possibilities with which to fill your roster, but being allowed to use only one teammate per draftee yields many difficult decisions. In my experience the 16x16 tends to be a lot more linear, with less wiggle room. Well, having all of my puzzle pieces in place, I was about to get jiggy wit’ it.
Round 8:
1961 Don Mossi ($5.7M)
I suspect that a large number of owners in this draft breathed a huge sigh of relief when I made this pick. There were only 12 Mossi versions available, and this one, despite carrying an almost acceptable if you squint really really hard ERC# of 3.26, clearly will not be able to get hitters out in this league (.261 OAV, 0.9 HR/9+), and his extreme salary carried the potential of putting a sizeable dent in anyone’s cap. So why did I draft this albatross? Because he came with the only dominant offensive player left in the draft,
Norm Cash (.365/.486/.656). Did my lineup need him? Do you need to chug that eighth beer at 1:45AM so that you can order that ninth beer when the bartender hollers “last call”? I won’t ask you to answer that question, but I will point out that my roster was also in a situation where there weren’t enough good pitchers left for my team salary to approach $130M if I skimped on my Mossi, so I might as well use that money to enhance my already formidable lineup. But drafting this Mossi and his bloated salary meant needing to use his innings, in addition to the weak Frank Smith innings yet to be drafted. My 12x12 team was suddenly threatening to go the way of my 16x16. And that’s not a good way.
Round 9:
1973 Johnny Edwards ($1.4M)
Given that I had a 644 PA Duke Farrell at catcher I wasn’t going to use my Edwards, so here I took the cheapest available version who happened to come along with a very interesting
Cesar Cedeno (.325/.379/.541) who can field well and run like the wind. Win win.
Round 10:
1904 Shad Barry ($0.6M)
Up to this point, my plan was to use my “extra” teammate on Paul Waner. I could still afford to do this, but in doing so my pitching staff would be pretty bad, even by my standards. As in using all of Mossi’s innings, in addition to using a bunch of the 1907 Frank Smith’s 333 IP of 3.47 ERC just to get Ed Walsh’s 454 IP of 2.39 ERC into the rotation. This was untenable. I had to plan to draft a cheaper Frank Smith and play around with the jigsaw pieces. I moved my extra teammate from Waner to Buffinton, and changed Pfiester to Mordecai Brown. This gave me 1229 IP of combined 2.31 ERC#. Not bad. The rest of my innings are pretty bad, but you can’t have everything. The cost of all of this is downgrading Waner to Barry’s teammate
Roy Thomas (.297/.429/.375, B/A). Not sure how well those walks will play in a league full of deadball pitchers but I don’t think I’ve ever fielded a team with two B/A rated outfielders. Usually my CF is something like B-/D+. But as my 4
th grade teacher Mrs. O’Connell used to say. “variety is the spice of life.” She also used to say that New Jersey was shaped like a beautiful lady; broad on the top, narrow in the middle, then broad a little lower down and then thin in the leg(s). Take her advice, as well as mine given that my last team drafted in a league like this is 15-27, with a grain of salt. Or not. It’s your life.
Round 11:
1914 Frank Smith (184 IP, 3.45 ERC, $4.2M)
You’ll notice that I listed Frank Smith’s stats. Yes, that means I’ll be using him. Even though his ERC is worse that Mossi’s I think he’ll get more people out. You’ll notice that “more” is a relative term. As in “I have more of a chance to win 1 million dollars in the lottery than I do to win 10 million dollars in the lottery.” You’ll also (perhaps) notice that I have pretty much zero relief pitchers on my roster. The good news is that in a DH league pitchers will not be removed for a pinch hitter. My current plan is to use a 2-man tandem rotation, with Marichal and Mordecai Brown forming one tandem and 40 cross-my-fingers-and-pray-really-really-hard pitches per game of Frank Smith giving way to Charlie Buffinton for the other, with Koufax left in reserve to finish games and make a spot start here and there. I hope my lineup will be good enough to compensate for any pitching shortcomings. You’ll notice how well that has worked for me recently, and that “hope” rhymes with “dope”. And “nope”.
Frank Smith’s teammate will be
Johnny Bates (252 PA, .305/.429/.398). I won’t use all of his PAs but he will spell Cedeno once in a while, as Cedeno doesn’t quite have enough PA even to hit 9
th.
For the record, my lineup is:
- Arky Vaughan (.326/.449/.472)
- Charlie Gehringer (.347/.437/.509)
- Dan Brouthers (.354/.466/.533)
- Norm Cash (.365/.486/.656)
- Mel Ott (.319/.444/.586)
- David Wright (.323/.414/.525)
- Duke Farrell (.306/.380/.494)
- Roy Thomas (.297/.429/.375)
- Cesar Cedeno (.325/.379/.541 – hitting 9th because of having only 576 PA)
And, in the interest of full disclosure, my pitching staff is (IP, ERC#)
Tandem 1A: Juan Marichal (300, 2.17)
Tandem 1B: Mordecai Brown (311, 2.43)
Tandem 2A: Frank Smith (184, 3.45, pray he can get at least 6 outs per game)
Tandem 2B: Charlie Buffinton (437 IP, 2.40)
Long A / Spot starter: Sandy Koufax (181, 2.10)
Long B: Don Mossi (an already elaborated upon really bad 241, 3.26), and everyone else whose stats are too terrible to mention.
Mop up: Bush's (37, 5.94) that I have to find a way of using.
Marichal, Brown, Buffinton, Koufax and Frank Smith combine for 1413 IP of 2.46 ERC#. Will this be enough to win some games? We shall see.
Not including Mossi and the 7 nominated non-pitchers I used $111.5M, but since I'll be using some of Bates's PAs and some Mossi innings (don't rub it in) that's probably more like $113M.
Thanks again to schwarze for running the draft and the league. The draft was fun. We'll see how the league goes.