This is my fifth. WISC. Last year I finished 10^th in Round One, and 22^nd in Round Two. My personal and work life interfered with Round Two team building, or I might have done better. I used the following principles last year in Round One.

1. Left is right. Not just LHB, but also a LHP who can occasionally start (watch the IP/G on these guys)
2. Huck the Fomers.
3. To err is human, to range divine.
4. Pay attention to your bench.
5. Have at least two low leverage pitchers. You can put them on Mopup or (my favorite) specialist.
6. Make sure to give your pitchers enough appearances so they can pitch their full number of innings without blowing up.

I made four changes to my philosophy this year.

1. I went a little heavier on homers, especially at the higher caps.
2. My lineup selections adhere to what I call the Big Six principle, after Mathewson. I spend extra on the first six lineup spots, relying on OBP for 1-2, OPS for 3-4 and SLG for 5-6. The last two spots are salary dumps at SS and C with good defense and AVG, but not much else.
3. I chose pitchers with lower OAV with significantly higher ERA and slightly higher WHIP and HR/9#. I hope this approach will help negate opponents’ BA, 2B and 3B by allowing fewer hits.
4. I spent extra on three relievers to give me good closer options. I spent less on the next 3-5 relievers as setup men.

In addition to the slash stats, I will include RC, which is AB*OBP*SLG and RA, which is ERA/9*IP. RC and RA are inexact, but I at least wanted to see improvement as the cap got higher.
WISC 80M – Top Dollar – This was a fun theme. I departed from my usual strategy of relying on deadball starters and chose Randy Jones. I picked Max Bishop to lead off, followed by Ned Hanlon. Bill Madlock and Tom McCreery are 3-4, then Harry Lumley and Bill Phillips are 5-6. Deivi Cruz and Kenji Johjima are 7-8. I think my pitching is stronger than my other five teams. Hitting is barely above average. If my variable cap team disappoints this will be my best team.
.304/.370/.438/5436 PA. 786 RC
2.60/1.06/.223/1378.2 IP. 398 RA
Estimated wins - 92
WISC 90M Pitching and (no) defense – I chose 21^st century pitchers, because their lower OAV means fewer errors. Billy Hamilton and Ty Cobb 1-2. Could not resist Bill Joyce at 3 even though he had 17 HR which is high. Ed Morgan 4, Fred Carroll 5, Buck Ewing 6, and playing 2B, Hub Collins 7 and playing SS, Wally Schang 8. Roy Foster is RHB OF but 23 HR is a lot. Rotation is Felix Hernandez, James Shields, Jered Weaver and Greg Maddux. This is a fairly strong team.
.312/.399/.467/5514 PA. 892 RC
2.73/1.04/.221/1448.1 IP. 439 RA
Estimated wins - 91
WISC 110M Progressive/Regressive. I thought I could do well in this theme, because I did very well in the 110M theme last year, and I mostly play progressive leagues. I wanted 08 Walsh and 17 Cicotte, and 19 Cicotte was clearly the next best option, so I chose the Two Gap Technique. 06 Walsh was a better option than 10 Walsh, who is overpriced for this cap. I saved 08 Walsh for Round Two, so to compensate for 06 Walsh’s lack of innings and lower quality, I stacked my good reliever seasons on this team. Big Ed will have to carry the staff in Round Two. I liked my hitters. McGraw Hamilton are 1-2, Cobb and Lajoie are 3-4, Cap Anson and Cy Seymour are 5-6 and Butch Henline and Omar Vizquel are 7-8. I don’t think this team is nearly as good as last year’s team. I think it is slightly below average
.339/.412/.471/5813 PA. 985 RC
2.01/0.93/.202/1439 IP. 312 RA
Estimated Wins - 89
WISC 120M Overpriced Studs
I could not figure out this theme. I thought it was best to pick Gehrig, Furcal, Joss, Kershaw and Uehara, but I’m not confident that was right, especially Gehrig since he has so much power. If he is not an HR/RBI machine, this team is in big trouble. I had major problems putting a team together around the studs. Toby Harrah and Ty Cobb are 1-2, Gehrig and Denny Lyons are 3-4, Harry Rice and Fred Carroll are 5-6 and Furcal and Johnny Bassler are 7 and 9. I moved Bassler to 9 because he has good OBP but low PA. My attempt to put a pitching staff together was terrible. Also, I felt my team was low on stamina, so I added OF Jim Lillie to the team. He’s horrible, but has lots of PAs and should allow Cobb and Rice to rest frequently. Bob Ewing is the workhorse SP behind Joss. I did the same thing with the pitching staff and took, Fin Wilson. If I don’t need those two very much I wasted quite a bit of salary on them. This is my worst team.
.294/.385/.451/5527 PA. 823 RC
2.20/0.96/.224/1532 IP. 374 RA
Estimated Wins - 83
WISC 140M Think Inside the (Franchise) Box
I thought the Twins were essential to get Walter Johnson. I like the White Sox and Pirates, but I don’t think they’re right at this cap. I went with the Cardinals and Red Sox. Wade Boggs and Tris Speaker are 1-2, Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby 3-4, Ed Delahanty of the Senators 5, Rod Carew fits surprisingly well at 6, and Yadier Molina and Ozzie Smith at 7-8. They are two of my favorite salary dumps. 3 players have over 20 homers (Hornsby, Williams and Molina), so that could be a problem. Walter Johnson and Cy Young are the 1-2 punch, with Chris Sale and Howie Pollet taking a few turns in the rotation. Having two main SP and 1 or 2 spot starters was common for me this year. I repeated this formula at the 110, 120 and variable caps also.
.347/.427/.520/5608 PA. 1077 RC
1.84/0.88/.196/1549.2 IP. 316 RA
Estimated Wins - 87
WISC 167M – Platoon!!
I chose not to use Silver King. I got burned [D1] with him last year. Unless you have the defense and park to support him, he will struggle at this level, and that’s a mistake I didn’t want to repeat. Mordecai Brown and Claude Hendrix are my two SP. Clayton Kershaw and Jim Hearn back them up. I saved 16M with my bullpen. John McGraw and Ty Cobb are 1-2, Williams (55 vintage = 439 PA) and Hornsby are 3-4. Ed Delahanty and much maligned Jeff Bagwell are 5-6. 2007 Barry Bonds and 1946 Roy Cullenbine are 7 at DH and replacing Williams in LF at times (477 and 441 PA respectively) Bubbles Hargrave and Edgar Renteria are 8-9 with 468 and 471 PA respectively. My other three scrubs had 557 PA combined and saved me 6M. This team could be really good if they score lots of runs, but Williams, Hornsby, Bagwell and Bonds must produce the power numbers, Cullenbine less so.
.354/.464/.581/6212 PA. 1368 RC
1.61/0.84/.184/1647.1 IP. 294 RA
Estimated Wins - 93
Strengths: Pitching, good contact and OBP hitters.
Weaknesses: Defense is barely adequate but I do have C with A+ arms, not much speed, perhaps too much power, pitchers have high ERA, fatigue should not be a major issue but I may have too many IP/PA, especially in the 120M theme.
X factor: HR at the higher caps. If that move backfires, I’ll be missing Round 2.
I had 556 regular season wins in Round 1 last year, but I outperformed expectations. I expect some mean regression this year. I predict 535 regular season wins, which combined with some playoff luck will get me into Round 2. I have a good chance to make the cage again, but I am by no means a lock.

Most of my non-WISC life on this site is progressive leagues and I never play OLs so you won't see any Marwin Gonzaleses (Gonazali?) here. We are hopeful that we can somehow make it to Round 2 for the 3rd year in a row but something, something, Law of Averages, something, something. Props to d_rock for picking me in his Round 1 top 10...I think he's already been mathematically eliminated.

Like schwarze and others, I really should have taken better notes when I built these 4-6 weeks ago so I might resort to #alternatefacts when explaining my thinking or lack thereof.

80 mil--Top of the Food Chain (Astrodome)
Hitting--294/376/430, 302 SB
Pitching--1337 IP, 1.06 WHIP, .227 OAV, 54 HR
If you go back and read my yearly writeups (but why would you) you'd see that my low cap strategy is ALWAYS the same. Speed, speed and more speed. It worked last year as I stole (see what I did there) a WS win in round 1 at 70 mil (and then proceeded to get annihilated in the round 2 low cap--which is kind of a recurring theme). I even stole (rimshot) a couple guys from that Round 1 theme in Mitchell Page and Tony Womack. Jonathan Villar is pricey at this cap but brings a lot to the table, including a little defense and we filled out the lineup with Ferris Fain, Dave Collins (um, at least he's a switch hitter?), Gibson, Tenace (and his A+ arm) and Eduardo Nunez. The numbers aren't gaudy but hopefully the speed will help.
For pitching, I just focused on a tight $/IP window--which got me 82 Niekro and the Astrodome plus Frank Arellanes, who I've used in previous WISC low-caps, Guy Morton and perennial favorite Tiny Bonham (you'll see him again). The bullpen is a bit suspect but I was out of money at that point.

90 mil-21st Century Stonehands (Target Field)
Hitters-337/390/486, 73 HR
Pitchers-1413 IP, 1.04 WHIP, .197 OAV, 1674 Ks
Modern pitching seemed like a no-brainer for two reasons...error reduction, as has been discussed ad nauseum already in this thread...and high Ks, figuring my guys will make fewer errors if fewer balls are in play. Hence my K-heavy staff anchored by 14 Cueto, 13 Darvish and 18 Cole, Folty and Nola. They do give up some dingers so we grabbed Target Field to minimize, particularly because our hitters are allergic to the longball.
For hitters, I focused on BA# (again, figuring that balls in play are good here) and good range on defense. All my starters (except Dave Foutz and Bob Caruthers...who both have A range as a pitchers!) have A or A+ range in the field. 90 McGee will play between the aforementioned two and hopefully cover a lot of ground. An infield of King Kelly, Charlie Hickman, Billy Herman Long (or maybe that's two guys?) and the always-censored Jimmy ***** will hopefully be good enough.

110 mil--Noah's Ark (2x2) (Shea Stadium)
Hitters--314/408/515, 191 HR, 191 SB (that's got to be a sign, right?)
Pitchers--1386 IP, 0.95 WHIP, .204 OAV, 93 HR
I started with pitchers here and quickly gravitated toward the 2-gap, which gave me 13/15 Kershaw, 98/96 Maddux and 97/99 Pedro. And I'm also partial to 42/40 Tiny Bonham so I'll use the starter version here and hopefully the relief version in Rd. 2 Ben Sheets will be my round 2 rotation add but that does mean that I'm using his kinda crappy 2006 season as Long A. Probably should have worked a little harder on this theme, which should be in my salary sweet spot. I love 09/11 Mike Adams as a closer and added Roberto Osuna, Paul Mitchell (for my hair), and some dude named Edgmer Escalona, who I'm trotting out as my Opening Day starter.
For hitters, I just looked for quality guys who had similar seasons two years apart, which got me 01/99 Piazza, 08/06 Berkman, 21/23 Frisch (who seems to have fallen out of favor among the WISC elite?), 13/11 Baker, 51/49 Joost, 85/87 Raines for some speed and 04/02 Manny and 56/58 Ted for some power. Looks ok on paper but seems to pale in comparison to most other 110 teams I've read about so far.

120 mil--Furc Al These Rules (Dodger Stadium)
Hitters--299/388/444
Pitchers--1398 IP, 0.91 WHIP, .208 OAV
This was kind of a fun theme. Furcal was the easiest choice since I wanted a good defensive SS with speed and I added Lajoie as my hitter cookie because he had good range and I figured it would be easier to fill in the outfield. Kershaw was a no-brainer and I've had bad experiences with Kimbrel so I took Koji. Then, like brianjw, I tried to calculate the most valuable starting pitcher by determining their runs saved/$ divided by the park factor multiplied by the number of letters in their last name. And then, I just said **** it and took Joss because he had the most innings.
The real challenge was what the hell to do with the rest of the team--which mostly meant convincing my brain that this was really a 90 mil league and yes, it was OK to draft Joe Ferguson and Mike Prendergast (well, maybe not Mike Prendergast but I had him in the 140 teammate draft debacle in last year's round 2 and he didn't suck too much). Since I already had Nap and Furcal, I tried to draft speed and range for the rest of my lineup, led by 1920 Max Carey. Added Werber at 3b, Raines and a cheap Rickey on the corners, and Ferris Fain again at 1b (I love that guy. Save Ferris!) My other two quality starters are 42 Bonham again and 20 Babe Adams, who is a good value with Dick Hall setting up Koji in the pen. Hoping to win a lot of low-scoring games.

140 mil--Dodging White Socked Tigers (Tiger Stadium)
Hitters--358/434/585, 236 HR, 129 SB
Pitchers--1509 IP, 0.87 WHIP, .193 OAV, 53 HR
This looks like a good team on paper, but in my heart of hearts, I know that I took way too many HRs, given the plethora of deadballers we're going to face. I know I tried other combos and can't quite remember how I ended up here. I know I wanted the 15 Kershaw/Greinke combo (even though Grienke was horrible for me in the WISC last year...what can I say, I'm a slow learner) so that got me the Dodgers in bucket one and I could add the usual bullpen suspects (Saito, Kuo, Hill) and Piazza's monster season behind the plate. I also like Joe Horlen, so I added the White Sox from Bucket 2, which also got me Walsh, Collins, Carlos, Latman and the Big Hurt (even though he will normalize into Bolivian, to quote jfranco77 quoting Mike Tyson). And I'm partial to the Tigers, having grown up going to dozens of game down at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull and that gets me Cobb, Miggy, Trammell, Greenberg and Heilmann plus Doug Fister. Also gets me Tiger Stadium, which might get me an extra HR or two. But mostly, I foresee disaster here.

Hurricane Hazle and Friends (173) (Tiger Stadium)
Hitters--352/444/635, 340 HR
Pitchers--1437 IP, 0.81 WHIP, .182 OAV 31 HR allowed
See my comments in the 140. Not sure why I drafted so many HRs...I have a thing for OPS, I guess. Even trying Tiger Stadium again..if nothing else, I'm persistent. Never thought about Silver King but knew I'd need one big IP guy so took 08 Walsh again. I've got 3 sub-100 IP guys to go with the usual mid-range studs (kershaw, toney, elton, 09 adams) so I'm +1 on that end. Figured I'd need two big hitters to get the requisite PAs, so I took 87 Boggs and 27 Ruth (probably the wrong Ruth, but his #s are ridiculous). Only one sub-200 PA guy (the aforementioned Hazle) so that got me to a comfortable 173. A lot of the usual platoons here Clements/Jocko at catcher, Tulo/Hanley at SS, Nap/Shumpert at 2b, Votto/McGwire (I am gonna regret picking steroid boy, I'm sure) at 1b and then a mess of Williams, Simmons, Aaron, Cravath and Hazle covering the other two OF positions and the DH slot.

So I've certainly never considered myself a great player here, heck, I'd probably be barely above a replacement level owner. Now add in some years away and well I feel like I'm going to get a rude re-introduction to WIS. Hoping to learn a few things from the top talent and their strategies and maybe see if I can finally take a step towards the top in 2021.

$80m - The (Pla)Toon Squad: When I played on here in the past, I never spent enough time learning who/what worked in the lower caps. I'm sure it will be obvious when the games start, that this and the 90m league are where I have lots to take in from you all. Apparently I never learned even quite where to start with these caps because I read the write-ups and go, "Wow, this looks like a different language to me". I generally like to figure out pitching first and from past WISC failures, remember that if your pitching fatigues it can sabotage even the best 1/2 to 2/3 of a season...so I went with a shocking strategy of 5 SP. Not really knowing how I was going to search for the best seasons, I started with finding some modern arms that I thought would perform well against the weaker line-ups at this cap. That only brought me 2 SP (Nola and Gray) and 2 RP (Osuna and Melancon). From there it was just kind of plug in stat ranges I hoped to find, and kind of mixed and matched from there. Ended up 59 Wilhelm, 90 Zane Smith, and 44 Heusser to trot out a pretty non-descript 5 man rotation. Offense, the only thing I remembered was that I always seemed to lose lots of 1-2 run games to teams that had a guy or 3 who could hit the ball real far. So I was determined to make sure I had at least a couple and actually got to 3 25+ HR guys in 17 K.Davis, 19 E.Jimenez, and 05 Mench. From there, I figured platoons was kind of the way to go to make the salary work with enough PA. With Aaron Nola our highest priced player, we'll be enjoying Citizens Bank Park, which is fairly neutral. It never even occurred to me to base my high $ guy on the stadium he would be attached to.
Offense: .274 avg/.333 obp/.779 ops/187 HR Pitching: 1452.3 IP, 2.42 ERA, 1.05 Whip, .219 oav, 0.52 HR/9
Projection: 70-75 wins

$90m - Modern Arm Marvels: Again, not a cap I was ever real talented with, but at least the theme gave me some direction. Knowing that I start with pitching and seeing my 2 options, I immediately went modern thinking the higher K/9 arms would be needed to help offset the terrible defense. I also figured the higher HR/9 may not hurt as much in this league...we'll see. Not a 5 man rotation here, per se, but 3 true SP and 4 others I can tandem or interchange to get me through. 12 Verlander, 04 Schmidt, 10 Oswalt will get regular turns, with 18 Snell, 18 Morton, 08 Harden, and 14 deGrom getting to fill the other starts. Went all power arms and as low oav as I could afford in the pen, finding 10 Strasburg, 08 Balfour, 19 Glasnow, and 11 Mike Adams to close games out. I'd liked to have added a garbage arm for mopup, but I needed all the hitters I could get. On offense, I again decided the best way to try to get the most out of the cash left was to go straight platoon, as I only have 4 guys with over 500 ABs. Again, thinking the modern arms would be the strategy, I tried to take advantage of others doing that by having HRs on my team. 10 of the 14 have double digit homers, led by 31 apiece from Jose Guillen and Renato Nunez, coupled with 25 from Marcus Thames in 370 PA and 22 from Fernando Tatis Jr in 372 PA and I'm hoping this team finds more success than I'm accustomed to. Playing in Rogers Centre to give a small bump to my HR guys, though I was too chicken to go all in on a massive HR bump park.
Offense:.300 avg/.355 obp/ .844 ops; 211 HR Pitching: 1546 IP, 2.54 ERA, .202 oav, 1.04 whip, 0.71 HR/9
Projection: 82-86 wins

110m - By the Grace of Santana: I did this team last because I knew building 2 teams at the same time, using the same players, but in differing years would drive me nuts. And well it did. I'm actually not sure that the 2nd version of the team fits the cap...but you have to think you are making rd 2 for that to matter much. I think 1 small tinker would make it work from the version I left, so it would be a nice problem to worry about. I only considered +/- 1 year because until about 1 day to go before the deadline, that is how I read theme rule...just that you had to go either up or down that 1 year. It's probably just as well, because this was the hardest team for me to build and that usually leads bad results.
As usual, I started with pitching and while the cap was higher here, I tried to find some of the deadball era arms to counter what I thought may be the intro of the homerun to opposing lineups. Decided I didn't want to try to build around massive salaries of the best, but to use what I hope will be serviceable seasons that don't quite cost as much. That got me to 05 Joss...and thats it. I had jumped in some theme leagues while working on these teams and tried to pick the brains of those leagues and see which pitchers were successful and which seemed to struggle. Somehow that put me on 85 Tudor and Johan Santana's 2 good years as the basis of the rest of the rotation. Took 19 Fred Toney to get his RP season for rd 2 and the opposite strategy with Babe Adams and that basically fills out the rotation between the 2 teams. Bullpen I just tried to find guys who I could mix and match salaries and still have some effectiveness. Ended up with a collection of Melancon, Mike Adams, Rivera, Smoltz and Papelbon to lead the way. On offense, a terrible mish-mash of players. This may have ended up as just the most random collection of pieces due to tinkering to make to teams that fit the cap. I went through a ton of players and ended up with a lineup that has a little speed, a little power but will likely not score enough against the better pitching here.
Ballpark: Polo Grounds (V) - looking to play more to my pitching than hitting
Offense: .294 avg/.355 obp/.818 ops/187 HR/180 SB Pitching: 1574 IP, 2.05 ERA, 0.98 Whip, .215 oav, 0.42 HR/9
Predition: pain...66-70 wins

120m - Addie's Bail Bonds: When I started, I thought I'd just take the cheapest stud from each group and build from what was left. Then, I started building and decided I may need to be more open minded. Knew I wanted Joss's innings and I ended up wanting Bonds obp and hr. Beyond that, I treated the offense like the 80 and 90m leagues looking for platoons that would hopefully get me enough PA. Again I prioritized getting some guys with pop, which is probably either going to pay off big or relegate me to a bottom 25 finish. On the pitching side, I thought I may see some more cheap pop guys to go with the studs, though after thinking about it now, that probably isn't the case. I went mostly older pitching with just Eck, Mo, and Damaso Marte as modern arms.
Ballpark: Oakland Coliseum - Figured I'd play to my pitching at home.
Offense: .282 avg/.352 obp/.814 ops/233 HR Pitching: 1432 IP, 1.94 ERA, 0.98 Whip, .219 oav, 0.23 HR/9
Prediction: 74-78 wins

140m - Cash's Kitties from the Windy Bronx City: I think I enjoyed building this one the most. Went through lots of combinations...filling in partial rosters from each franchise to see where the holes were. I really wanted to use the Twins for Walter, Mauer, and Target Field, but I never found partners I thought good enough. On about combination 6 or 7, I found the Yankees on my radar because of the bullpen arms I could get out of them. Once I settled on that, it was a matter of figuring out where I was going to get SP from in group 2 and 3. This is where the Twins would have helped, but pairing them with the Yankees made me want the Yankee hitters and that blew up my bullpen. Ultimately settled on the Cubs and Tigers...hoping my Cubs deadballers would be a solid, if unspectacular choice, and the Tigers bring plenty of offense with Cobb, Cash, Heilmann, and Miggy. I figured out how to get Ruth and Mantle on this team even...just used some of their non glory years efforts to help fill a platoon spot in the OF. I got a little boost from seeing that Rbow went with the same combo, though he knifed that quickly by his prediction of 81-81.
Ballpark: Yankee Stadium I - tried to kind of stay mostly neutral with the park
Offense: .336 avg/.411 obp/.955 ops/221 HR/81 3B Pitching: 1573.3 IP, 1.79 ERA, 0.90 Whip, .181 Oav, 0.30 HR/9
Prediction: 80-85 wins

180m/variable - (Out)Field of Dreams: I wasn't quite sure how to approach this at first, but settled on my theme basically throughout this first round...PLATOON!!! I figured on the pitching side first, deciding I could probably find a lot of deadball/modern combos to put together that had under 200 IP. I knew that is how I would manage the cap (which from many other write ups, seems I ended up way on the low end). Went Mathewson and Ford as my 2 full SP...beyond that, its tandem time: Sale, Kershaw, Chamberlain, Pedro, and Babe Adams will all likely get a look. Went with for under 100 IP arms to get a little cash back...on paper, this pitching staff should be elite, in reality it will probably be a raging dumpster fire. (The Silver King strategy sounds like it may have been a good one...too bad my time away made me forget him) On offense, I decided I wanted a full time OF and I'd platoon the rest. Picked the OF a little with the heart instead of maybe what would be the best, but I'm hoping the trio of Cobb, Musial, and Ichiro at the top causes fits for the righties in this league. As for the platoons, I tried to find guys who could get on base and wouldn't kill me in the field. Feel like this team, if the offense does enough, is my best shot at a 90 win team.
Ballpark: Comiskey Park (I) Figured we got lots of singles and and my 2 best hitters had a ton of triples. Also should help keep the ball in the park against homer teams.
Offense: .347 avg/.409 obp/.935 ops/172 HR/Cobb-Musial 44 3Bs Pitching: 1715 IP, 1.60 ERA, 0.80 Whip, .183 Oav, 0.26 HR/9
Prediction: 88-92 wins

Thanks Ozomatli for all your time and energy running this. It has been enjoyable to be back and hopefully this goes better than I expect.

Wanted to get an earlier start on these write-ups, but storms last Wednesday afternoon in the Philly area knocked our power out for 4 days. Didn’t want to do this on my phone, so better late than never…

80M: Braxton Orta Do Well
Hitting: 5481 PA, .303/.382/.431
Pitching: 1333 IP, .222 OAV / 1.01 WHIP / 67 HR (33 mop-up innings)

I enjoy the lower caps more than the higher caps, so this was an enjoyable theme. My goal was to maximize my starting pitching (within reason) and then fill in the rest. Went with 1928 Garland Braxton as the staff ace which also allowed me to use Griffith Stadium. Then the next five pitchers are between 142-193 IP and will start with some occasional relief thrown in; I have used Braxton plus 1969 Dick Bosman, 2016 Kyle Hendricks, 1908 Bill Burns, and 2008 Justin Duchscherer previously at higher caps and they have held their own. Hopefully 1979 John Fulgham can do the same. The relievers are nothing to write home about; five (including one mop-up) have between 28-33 IP and the remaining two have 48 and 58 IP respectively. It will be the big six pitchers that determine this team’s fate.

Unlike most of the high inning pitchers who I have used on previous occasions, I am mainly going with a bunch of hitters who I have never or rarely used before:
C: three headed monster all just under 250 PA (2001 Shawn Wooten / 1997 George Williams / 1955 Bobby Hoffman)
1B: 1887 Otto Schomberg
2B: 1975 Jorge Orta (who gets the honor of a mention in the team name)
SS: 1920 Buck Weaver
3B: 1950 Tommy Glaviano
OF: 1913 Burt Shotten
OF: 1958 Bob Skinner
OF: 1972 Richie Scheinblum
Super sub: 1934 Ollie Bejma, who can play a decent 2B/3B/SS/OF, and gets me 334 PA for under 1.9M

90M: Still More 90M WISC Deadball Pitchers…
Hitting: 5719 PA, .306/.383/.429
Pitching: 1385 IP, .218 OAV / 0.94 WHIP / 15 HR (31 mop-up innings)

This was the team I spent the least amount of time on. I tend to gravitate to the modern pitchers, but I wasn’t getting what I liked when I tried to make a staff. So I went back to round 1 of the 2019 WISC where my team for the 90M cap (had to use a pitcher and hitter at 9M+ salary) had a pitching staff anchored by 1908 Christy Mathewson and was supported by five other pitchers in the 135-183 IP range. All but one were from the 1900-1919 era (1902 Joe McGinnity, 1908 Bill Burns, 1906 Roy Patterson, 1914 Ernie Shore), so I just brought all of them back, added another 300+ innings across six other pitchers and decided to roll the dice. That team did go 99-63 and won the WS so we should at least be pretty competitive.

There are some very good hitters in the bunch (led by 1947 Harry Walker, 1937 Billy Herman, 1977 Mitchell Page, and 1990 Willie McGee), and a lot of high OBP guys. I’ve got A+ range everywhere except for catcher (and both are A arms) and the corner OFs (Walker and Page). The offense is solid, but in the end it’ll be how far Mathewson can take this team with his 60-65 starts.

110M: +/-3: Big Train, Mathewson, Kershaw…
Hitting: 5695 PA, .326/.404/.477
Pitching: 1473 IP, .215 OAV / 0.98 WHIP / 45 HR (129 mop-up innings)

This was the theme that I had the most fun with. I started looking at great combinations of starting pitching (having multiple seasons that you’d really want to use) and found that you could get a lot with +/-3 (wondering how many other squads went +/-3 (or higher)). Settled on Walter Johnson (1918/1915), Christy Mathewson (1908/1905), and Clayton Kershaw (2013/2016) to anchor the staff. Of course, there was going to be an imbalance of innings, so I looked for another starter that would be available with a low inning crappy season 3 years apart. And that is how I discovered that 1888 Lady Baldwin (66 IP for <650K) would fit in perfectly during round 1 and then (assuming I make the cage) for round 2, I can use his fantastic 1885 season. Found some solid bullpen arms for both potential seasons in Jonathan Papelbon, Mark Melacon, Steve Howe, and Pat Neshek. Then finished off with some mop-up guys; the hardest part was finding a pitcher with sub-250K (Edwin Nunez 1988/1991) seasons three seasons apart!

I was able to come up with a really solid lineup without having to sacrifice all that much defense (except in the case of Ross Youngs):
C: (1889/1992) Buck Ewing [+ 2001 Shawn Wooten in round 2]
1B: (1909/1912) Nap Lajoie
2B: (1999/1996) Roberto Alomar
SS: (1995/1992) Barry Larkin
3B: (1986/1983) Wade Boggs
OF: (1901/1898) Ed Delhanty
OF: (1924/1921) Tris Speaker
OF: (1924/1921) Ross Youngs

It was a challenge to balance the two teams, but I’m very happy with both squads. I think this will be my strongest team in round 1.

120M: What the Heck, Eck?
Hitting: 5565 PA, .314/.377/.450
Pitching: 1342 IP, .211 OAV / 0.91 WHIP / 52 HR (35 mop-up innings)

I went with Maddux, Kershaw, Eckersley, Furcal, and Cobb. The rest of the roster is similar to what you’d find at a low cap (80M?) league. I brought back 1928 Garland Braxton for another go around and will also be using 1902 Bill Bernhard for the very first time. Five relievers with <40 IP and 54 IP from 1995 Kirk Rueter will supplement Eckersley, and there will be flexibility with Kershaw + 2014 Carlos Carrasco.

On offense, other than Cobb and Furcal, the next most expensive hitter is 1925 Frankie Frisch at just under 5M. It’s not going to be a high scoring team, but hopefully the pitching along with the ballpark (Oakland Coliseum through Eckersley) will result in a lot of low scoring affairs. Really curious to see how much variability there will be in records given the drafting of the five (somewhat) overpriced players…

140M: Giants + White Sox + Braves = ???
Hitting: 5954 PA, .349/.419/.557
Pitching: 1488 IP, .208 OAV / 0.90 WHIP / 24 HR (56 mop-up innings)

Hoping that 1908 Ed Walsh + 1909 Christy Mathewson + 1994 Greg Maddux + lots of solid relievers will do the trick. Lineup seems solid, though at this cap I always start to wonder will the team really hit enough. 2008 Chipper Jones always hits well, hopefully he leads the way.

Variable Cap (176M): Spirit of 176
Hitting: 6715 PA, .384/.457/.589
Pitching: 1494 IP, .189 OAV / 0.86 WHIP / 47 HR

I got to 176M through the following manner:
Pitchers:
1912 Walter Johnson (394 IP)
Four pitchers (2002 Pedro, 2018 Sale, 2016 Kershaw, 1909 Babe Adams) between 100-200 IP
Six relievers < 100 IP

Hitters:
1895 Hughie Jennings (764 PA) + 1894 Hugh Duffy (744 PA) + 1921 Rogers Hornsby (714 PA)
Nine hitters between 439 PA (1914 Ty Cobb & 1955 Ted Williams) and 499 PA (1899 Denny Lyons)
Two hitters < 200 PA (including Bob Hazle, who will probably be on almost everyone's squad!)

I’m cautiously optimistic about this team; I have previously struggled a bit at the higher caps (it killed me last year in round 2), but I think this group will compete.

Can’t believe the WISC is starting overnight. Good luck to everyone!

Last year, my basic stategy was to celebrate the golden anniversary of the very eventful year 1969. I used a different event as a theme for the creation of all of 6 of my teams. (Building the Steel Curtain, The Eagle has Landed, recording of Give Peace a Shantz, Easy Rider, Tommy and Volunteers (now more relevant in this current moment than maybe ever). Did not make it to Round 2, yet again, but enjoyed building and playing my teams

This year I will move up a year and celebrate the golden anniversary of 1970 but on a more distilled basis. Two very similar events occurred that year - the release of Workingman's Dead on June14 and American Beauty on November 1.

80mm - Make Good Money

From the analytical perspective, my first step was to work on pitching and create a 3-man rotation staff (300 to 350 innings each at about $30k/IP) supported by a couple of long relievers (100 to 150 innings each) and a group of short innings guys I could rotate in to close. All favoring low HR/9, of course. Came up with one of my favorites, 1919 Jesse Barnes, as my biggest splurge (and subsequently picked up the Polo Grounds with a +3 for doubles). 1907 Ed Karger and 1976 Randy Jones were added to the rotation. To fit into my theme within a theme, which always overrides logic, I had to have Steve Howe (who joined Yes in 1970 - not the Dead but my other favorite band in that era) as a tribute player as well as John Cumberland as a scrub <300k since Cumberland Blues is the song from Workingman's Dead where the lyric "make good money five dollars a day" comes from. On the batting side, I looked for doubles hitters that were affordable. Earl Webb was locked in and I paid up for Nicholas Castellanos. Everyone else pretty much fit the full-season-slightly-below-$5mm mold

90mm - Drop of Dew

Sugar Magnolia celebrates the subject of the song in the lyric "she can wade in a drop of dew". This theme is based on a whole lot of dropping going on in the field by D+ or worse fielders. Of course, there was a different type of "whole lot of dropping going on" at the live shows where the material from these two albums was being introduced. Building this team was pretty much adhering to the formula of finding the best fielding range players to accompany those D+ or worse qualifiers. I was surprised to find several affordable options with A or better range at all positions. For pitching, I used the modern option (2000-2019) because I seem to remember in the back of my mind a rumor that modern pitchers made fielders better in the SIM for some reason. It also allowed me to pay up for 2016 Kershaw as a long reliever (and spot starter if there is ever a must-win game). Happy with the staff as a whole and had to find a place for a Garcia on one of these teams (hello 2015 Jaime). Chose Safeco field to call home to help the poor fielders

110mm - Reference your number for X

First of all, I could not resist trying to make this team name requirement my literal team name. Once I started looking at using 10 (=X in roman numerals) as my basis I started liking it a lot. First of all, I would be able to build rosters with both 1909 and 1919 Babe Adams for starters. The key word here is "build" (not necessary play) since I am seed #46. No big deal though, it's all about the team building in WISC anyway. The second thing about the logistics of using 10 was that it was easy to know which seasons I was looking for doing my searches. I actually love both of these teams which have very little waste. So then how do I factor "X" into my celebration of 1970? Drifting away from music for a moment and going into film, the 1970 Best Picture went to Midnight Cowboy, which happened to be X-rated at the time. Let's go with that and of course, the next must-have player has to be Jimmie Foxx. Greg Maddux also fits the X theme as well. This is also 2020 which is MMXX keeping with the roman numeral sub-theme. I already have XX in Foxx. Welcoming Mickey Mantle for the MM. Getting back to the film connections, Trevor Hoffman is added to honor Dustin who played Ratso Rizzo., Next we need to go with Buck-y Walters and Grant Jackson (nicknamed Buck) to honor the John Buck charcter played by Jon Voigt. Let's take this free-association game one more degree of separation to include a lyric from Uncle John's Band "it's a buck dancers choice my friend". In SF history background. 1970 celebrated the first anniversary of the infamous O'Farrell Theatre which among other things is credited as the prototype of the modern gentlemens club. Yes, Bob O'Farrell finds his way onto this team as well.

These are my players: C (Bob O'Farrell and Mickey Cochrane), 1b (Jimmie Foxx), 2b (Eddie Collins), 3b (Wade Boggs), SS (Luke Appling and Arky Vaughan), OF (Mickey Mantle, Rickey, Elmer Valo, Riggs Stephenson, Tito Francona), scrub IF (Jose Vizcaino). Both Joe Wood and Bucky Walters are pitchers on one team and hitters on the other. Pitching staff - (Babe Adams, Sandy Koufax, Carl Hubbell, Saberhagen, Hoffman, Mariano, Buddy Groom, Maddux, Hoyt Wilhelm and Grant Jackson.

120mm Jossica Albatross.

Although Joss was definitely my choice in this SP group since his $/IP were much lower than the other 2 options, I would have taken him anyway to be able to use this team name. A fun fact that I was unaware of is that Marvel received the official registration for the trademark for Fantastic Four (Jessica's biggest movie) from the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1970 according to Wikipedia, although they had used the theme in years prior. For what it's worth, In other bird news from 1970, an unlikely story, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was number one on the bestseller list for several weeks, not that that factored into the roster. Went with Kershaw without hesitation for Long Reliever and also to be able to use Dodger Stadium. All of the closers are brutally expensive and similar in overall cost so I went with Eck for no particular reason. Cobb was my best option for my ballpark and I like his fielding better. As for the weak-hitting expensive selection I wanted a high range SS like Furcal over any of the other options. The rest of the roster is average guys that fit under the cap. I did miss the opportunity to reference the lyric "It's the same story the crow told me, it's the only one he knows" as another bird reference by taking either George Crowe or Mark Fidrych and would have picked both if I had done this write-up earlier. Finally, the alternative team name was the song that included the lyric (Uncle Joss Band).

140mm. Chi, NY, Detroit All on the same street.

As soon as I saw that both New York teams, both Chicago teams and Detroit were all in different categories my search stopped there. For those that know the closing tune on American Beauty, Truckin's, you will recognize the condensation of the lyric "Chicago, NY, Detroit and it;'s all in the same street". I took Yankees over Giants (Dickey, Gehrig, Dimaggio, cheap Cullenbine, Chesbro, Betances, Chad Green, Mariano and Steve Howe). White Sox over Cubs (Walsh, Joe Jackson, Dave Philley, Roy Patterson, Wilhelm and Latman. For the Tigers I took Bassler, Cochrane, Cobb, Helimann, Gehringer, George Kell, W Hernandez, Gates Brown and Coot Veal. Of course, we will be playing our games at Comerican Beauty Park in Detroit. Games start on 6/9. Let's "hang it up and see what tomorrow brings".

Variable (175mm) Ridin' That Train

This was the Rubiks Cube of this year's round 1 and I loved building this team as a tribute to Casey Jones. Strategically, I wanted to avoid as many 5 million dollar penalties and add as many 2 million dollar salary additions as I could but there are just not enough roster spots to field a team without a certain amount of high-inning and/or high PA players. I was able to get all my PAs from 14 players in the 200-500 range and 2 others under 200. For pitching I went with 3 pitchers in the 342-395 range for my only 3 penalty players on the roster, 3 pitchers in 140-150 range and 3 under 100. Total cap effect brought me to 175, which should be enough. Of course, it was equally important to get the right players on the roster. Obviously Casey Stengel and Chipper Jones are along for the ride. Of course we will be Riding that Train with the Big Train Walter Johnson a starter along with Uncle Joss Band redux, Addie. Maybe I should have paid tribute to Hendrix who died in 1970 by bringing in Claude for the 3rd starter but decided to recognize another guitar playing Rider from 1970 just making a name for himself with the James Gang Rides again album. Ed Walsh gets the nod to honor Joe Walsh. Finally, Casey Jones met his demise in an accident in Vaughan, Mississippi and Arky is here to commemorate. If I could do it all over again I would have corrected my biggest oversight and added a mopup Cannonball Titcomb to represent the name of Casey's locomotive. Bummer! Finally, and very serendipitously, Casey Jones gained a reputation for and a love of transporting passengers as an engineer at the Chicago Worlds Fair (aka World's Columbian Exposition) which started in May, 1893. West Side Grounds II also opened for business that same month less than 10 miles away from his route and we are calling it home.

X = 10 is pretty impressive

I'm officially rooting for calhoop. Great job.

Posted by ozomatli on 6/8/2020 6:08:00 PM (view original):
Whoops — schwarze, can you send in a support ticket? Should've caught that. My bad

I'm really losing it. Sending ticket this morning.

Its okay, I went and missed a guy who played another position, after talking about how much of a pain it was to check guys who played other positions.

whoop whoop

I think calhoop did a whole lot of dropping while selecting his teams. Interesting reasons.

Better watch that speed on his Variable team.

Posted by redcped on 6/9/2020 11:00:00 AM (view original):
Better watch that speed on his Variable team.

You know that notion just crossed my mind.

Great writeups today. Although Morning Dew isn't on either album, I had to give it a spin after reading this.

Love, love, love Calhoop's writeups. Was trying out some new music this morning (or, new to me) in The DamnWells and The National, but now I think I'm going to switch back to the Dead.

I'm going to be controversial here and say that I prefer The National to The Dead, and this is coming from a 60 year old dude who saw The Dead 6 times back in the day. But I also prefer The Replacements to The Beatles, so you probably shouldn't listen to me.