Posted by footballmm11 on 6/7/2020 10:23:00 PM (view original):
$80m - Station to Station
Busch Stadium (II)
Took a few years hiatus from WIS, was waitlisted for the WIS Championship, and built this team first while I was waitlisted so was just getting my feet wet. I never play open leagues so I do much worse the more open the player pool is. I try to give myself a theme to narrow down the list some.
For this one, I went with a pitcher's park (always safer) and liked Busch. Then tried to find a player and Pujols was way too expensive and his HRs would be killed so went with Adam Wainwright. With hits and especially HRs suppressed, went to work finding players with a ton of walks, and had to fit below Wainwright's salary! For pitchers, I lookd for low-walk guys with high HR as hopefully the park will help there.
Looking back now after a few months back in WIS, I drafted way too many innings and overall just hate this team.
Prediction: 70 wins if we're lucky
$90m - 21st Century = TTO > ROE
PNC Park
Another team I half-built while waitlisted and then forgot what I was going for. Finally figured it out: I went with 2000s pitchers hoping the strikeouts (and walks and HRs) would limit the damage in the field--thus the TTO (three true outcomes) > ROE (reached on error) team name. I'm sure instead my pitchers will be crushed by low-strikeout, high-contact deadball hitters like I went with.
In addition to that, I looked for high-range fielders closer to the D+ end of the spectrum, especially in the IF. Hoping my deadball hitters will put the ball in play and let the opposing team make some errors. But also assume many other teams went with this strategy and will do it much better than I.
Still drafted too many innings probably, though the errors might hurt that so maybe I'm okay.
Prediction: 75 wins
$110m - Name TBD (+/- 2 years)
Angel Stadium
For no good reason, decided on Angel Stadium and started with Mike Trout, who I've never played with before. Also, for no good reason, I decided to do a 2-year gap. Mainly, again, I'm just trying to give my team building some direction since I don't do well with too much freedom. Two years seemed to help with that.
I know lots of people had trouble with this theme but luckily this is where my one skill (database programming) comes in handy. Makes it really easy to find the guys you want/need to fit! I did this theme in one night and I think had $40k leftover combined. That could be considered a #humblebrag except is it bragging if you don't even make it to .500 in the league? I think not.
Opposite Trout, my only righty starter, I grabbed my favorite player growing up, Will Clark, as my only lefty. From there, I grabbed all switch hitters. Again, no good reason, just happened that way at first and then I went with it. Most of my players are similar-quality and salary in their 2 years but I did get a few good mix-and-matches. One was Doc Farrell (who's 1927 is one of my favorite low-PA ones and comes with a $201k partner) and Bob Lillis (who has a nice 81-PA season and a $270k partner) for my SS platooon-mate/mop-up infielder. Also got some nice combos out of my 1B/3B/OF/PH backups with Glenallen Hill, Nyjer Morgan, and Russell Branyan. Branyan especially was nice as he had one year when he could backup 3B when Caminiti is lower on PA and another where he was more 1B and could spell Clark.
Pitching-wise, when in doubt, go with some Dodgers! Got Kershaw, Hershiser, Kevin Brown, and Jansen. Andrew Miller and Steve Howe are my lefties in the pen with Mo Rivera and Doug Jones helping out Kenley.
I'm very proud to end up with two teams so close to the cap. I chose the team with the better Will Clark to start, which is some great analysis.
Prediction: 80 wins
$120m - There's No Lajoie in Mudville
Dodger Stadium
SP - Pedro
Long - Kershaw
RP - Kimbrel
Hitter - Lajoie
Fielder - Robinson
I initially went looking for a ballpark and really wanted a HR-suppressing one but really the only good one is SBC Park but to get that you have to take Bonds! So looked at the other good pitching parks and finally settled on Dodger Stadium which meant Kershaw. As a Dodger fan, that's fine with me!
Well, let's talk Pedro since I guess that was a very unpopular choice. As I mentioned earler in this forum, he was the lowest-inflation, lowest-OAV, highest-HR/9, which was the best fit for Dodger Stadium. Never looked at Joss but that's because I don't know what I'm doing.
Kershaw also was the lowest inflation option and came with the ballpark so easy choice. Glad to see others thought so too!
At reliever, I was between Kimbrel and Uehara but went with Kimbrel for the lower OAV, which as you'll see I was prioritizing in Dodger Stadium.
For my hitters, I looked and the big HR guys but was too scared and so finally debated between Lajoie and Cobb. Mostly went with Lajoie since I could play him in the IF and figured I could find decent OFers easier.
At fielder, was looking at Brooks and Furcal, once I went with Lajoie I figured better to play him at SS so that gave me Brooks.
The rest of my hitters were filled out with guys who DON'T hit doubles or triples, DO hit a lot of singles, and may or may not have HRs. I ended up with Ichiro (can play CF) and Keeler to sit atop my lineup sandwiched around right-hitting Lajoie. My two main power guys are high-average hitters as well in Frank Thomas and Mike Piazza. Filled out with Don Mueller and Johnny Evers as cheap guys, plus some platoon help on the bench.
My rotation was filled out with HIGH ERA guys, since those would be the best values with their XBH knocked down. Then looked for low-OAV out of that group. A bad Koufax season and two guys I've never heard of round out the rotation with Pedro. Some super-high walk but low-OAV pitchers fill out the bullpen in between Long-man Kershaw and closer Kimbrel.
We only have 258 doubles + triples with 74 coming from Lajoie. I do have 150 HRs and 1350 singles. Sounds like a perfect recipe to lose a lot of games to Josses.
Prediction: 77 wins
$140m - Lefty Studs from Cards + Phils + Braves
Robison Field
Like I said, I like making my own theme to help my drafting. I think I went (way) overboard with this one. I started with Robison Field, which is +2 for RF HR but -1 for LF. Then I went looking for the best lefty HR hitters I could find. Maybe a bit TOO restrictive here, yikes.
Anyway, had to start with the Cards for the park so grabbed Musial and Johnny Mize. 221-PA catcher Johnny Schulte has some pop as well and was a nice backup. I grabbed the Phillies to bring in Cy Williams and Chuck Klein. Finally, I figured I needed some pitching so I took the Braves, who also had Eddie Matthews and a nice Chipper Jones season at shortstop.
Turns out I couldn't get up to $140m, lol. Usually we're all stuck trimming salary at the end but I was piling it on in a shopping spree like I was Harry and Lloyd after opening the briefcase. Grabbed Hornsby for 2B, squeezed in the best Carlton season to go along with other stud lefty pitchers (again, hoping this means righty opponents who can't take advantage of the short porch in RF) Spahn and Brecheen plus a Maddux. Finally, I had so much money I just took a Mike Schmidt to be my backup SS/3B/2B and pinch-hitter.
I predict we lead the league in home runs by Ls and also just Ls.
Prediction: 68 wins
7.0.3
I was (unfortunately) pretty accurate on my predictions!
$80m - Station to Station
Prediction: 70 wins if we're lucky
Actual: 78 wins
$90m - 21st Century = TTO > ROE
Prediction: 75 wins
Actual: 81 wins
$110m - One Trout, TWO Trout
Prediction: 80 wins
Actual: 78 wins
$120m - There's No Lajoie in Mudville
Prediction: 77 wins
Actual: 82 wins
$140m - Lefty Studs from Cards + Phils + Braves
Prediction: 68 wins
Actual: 71 wins
$180m - Participation Trophies
Prediction: 85 wins
Actual: 95 wins