As always, trying to figure out the unique puzzle that each 16x16 draft is takes time. Going to try to type this up as I go. (Editor's note: I did this mostly in real-time, though some picks I was a round or two behind. I also added in post-draft notes in italics.)
This version appears to be almost the exact opposite of last round. On the pitching side, the 8 nominated players should easily provide the bulk of the innings. In fact, it'll be more of an issue trying to avoid excess innings. On the hitting side, there are three monster hitters in Ruth, Hornsby, and Mantle. With their big salaries--some of which are VERY inflated--plus the big-inning pitchers, the cap will come much more into play.
As for teammates, the big question is can you even use all 9 and if so, where? Catcher and SS, for sure, are two. Replacing Bottomley (1B) and Cuyler (OF) is likely two more. Mathews has a few usable seasons but a few others that aren't great. Even a handful of the Ruth/Mantle/Hornsby triumverate will need to be replaced. On average, I'm predicting about 4-5 teammates on offense per owner. What to do with the rest? A few options:
(1) Upgrade more offensive positions. This would likely require getting some of the cheaper versions of nominated hitters or else salary cap becomes an issue.
(2) Grab part-time hitters. There is a Gates Brown and a couple Bob Hazles out there that would be nice bench options, though not as much impact as a starter would be for using up a teammate.
(3) Grab some relievers. It likely won't make sense to grab a teammate starter and while there aren't a ton of relievers in this era, there are a few that certainly could help.
That doesn't seem to be the best use of teammates, but you can only play the hand your dealt. Grabbing low-salary and short PA/IP nominated players seems important to minimize waste. On the flip side, you don't want to find yourself going too far and not being able to use all of the cap.
Post-draft: Yup, I only got one full-time teammate (SS Lou Boudreau). I used three other teammates as partial/platoon players, one at catcher and two in the OF. I used two more on relievers. My final 3 teammate spots were mostly scrubs to fit under the cap.
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Nominated player: 1967 Ted Abernathy
I was looking at some starters but when Schwarze posted the classified, I was about 60 seconds late and guys like Camilo Pascual and Carl Hubbell were already taken. Abernathy has a great relief season, which I figured would be in short supply. I would pick later in the 1st round, but would likely pick high in the 2nd round, giving me two picks close together and a head start on rounds 3+. I guess someone switched off of Pascual, so I could have switched to him, but I didn't even bother to check.
Post-draft: Happier with this pick than I thought I'd be, though not sure it's the best pick. Getting a really good 107-inning reliever is nice though, but I didn't probably "screw" the rest of the owners enough with his other seasons.
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Pick 1.13: 1946 Ted Lyons
Still not sure how all the salary cap and innings will play out, but there are a LOT of starters in the nominated pool, some with huge innings. I was looking for options where I could both save on innings and salary while also picking up a decent reliever. The main options that popped up were 1941 Howie Pollet (75 IP, 2.39 ERC#), 1945 Bob Feller (81 IP, 2.45 ERC#), and 1946 Ted Lyons (45 IP, 2.49 ERC#). In fact, there are only 5 nominated pitchers that have IP < 100 and ERC# < 3.00--those 3 plus the nominated 1923 Earl Whitehill and another Ted Abernathy (1972) that ronthegenius took earlier in round 1.
I settled on Lyons for a few reasons. For one, it was his only short inning season and he only had one other even close (107 innings). Feller has 4 seasons under 100 innings and Pollet has a few as well plus a bunch more in the mid-100s. For two, Lyons only had one really good starter season left, while Feller had 3-4, so I was pretty likely to end up with a mediocre starter season if I waited on Lyons. Finally, his relief season was cheaper than the other two and had a more palatable 1.79 BB# (though a tad higher HR#, but still under 0.5). This pick also ensured I'd pick pretty high in Round 2.
Post-draft: I think this was a fine pick. In hindsight, maybe I go for a better starting pitcher season, or a cheaper Ruth? But both shedding innings and salary plus picking up a solid reliever is helpful in this version. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I got to use his teammate RP Earl Caldwell, with 96 innings and a 1.70 ERC#.
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Pick 2.2: 1925 Rogers Hornsby
I got to spend more time looking at the lay of the land. I already have 2 pitchers and of the remaining 6, I expect to wait until near the end on 3 of them--Whitehill, Grove, and Spahn. The other three have reasons to go a bit earlier, but none are going to be pressing for awhile with plenty of reasonable options.
So I focused back on the hitting. I don't want to play Alvin Dark or Spud Davis, but I also don't need to burn a pick just yet on a cheap version of them. Dark has a few high-salary versions to avoid but with 22 total versions, 6 of those are out of the picture (Editor's note: This was a spreadsheet error I caught later, as I was double-counting partial/combined seasons...oops! Luckily did not come back to bite me). The current worst case with him is a $4.1m year--I don't want that, but it's much better than the $7.2m version, for example. I'll still want to get a cheaper version here, but think I can wait a bit. Davis should be even less of a worry. He also has 15 picks left but many more small salary seasons. Plus, depending on which catcher teammate I go with, I'll likely need some Davis at-bats to fill-in. I don't want to under- or over-committ at this point.
Next to eliminate are the medium-level talents--Bottomley, Mathews, and Cuyler. All have some playable seasons--Mathews had about 8, while Cuyler and Bottomley have more like 3-5. It would be nice to either get one of those good seasons or, if not, one of their cheapest seasons. I thought about taking a few different cheap seasons. Mathews has two under $1m. Bottomley has a 441 PA season that could be a nice platoon partner as does Cuyler with a 348 PA season. Each of them have some cheaper seasons under $2m as well. But I didn't feel those were as important as solving the high-salary issue of the other three.
That left me with Ruth, Hornsby, and Mantle. Once PrimetimeTW took Mantle's 215 PA season, there were only 400+ PA seasons left for him. Mantle only has one big inflation season, but with 18 total versions, that one can be avoided if needed. he also has a pretty deep group of seasons, so I felt I could wait on him. The Ruths had been going fast, 9 already gone. Ruth also has only 16 seasons so they all need to get drafted and he has 4 seasons with pretty big inflation, all of which are left. Two of them are massive, with salaries in the $25m+ range. Two others are in the $15-19m range, but still with some wasted salary. The final 3 available versions are much cheaper--two are platoon-worthy seasons with 521 and 449 PA. The final season is a 98 PA season that costs less than $500k. I thought long and hard about going with one of the $15-19m seasons--elite players but without SO much wasted salary. Fitting one of the top two salaries would be hard, but at this point if I know I'll get stuck there I have plenty of time to plan.
Hornsby, meanwhile, had something left that Ruth did not--an elite season without much inflation. His two best years are $16m and $20m but with wasted salary. But his 3rd-best season is right there with those two, but costs just $12.3m. It's a step above the next tier of 6 seasons he has (though those are very very good too!). Unlike Ruth, there will actually be at least 5-6 teams that don't start a Hornsby and I didn't want to be one of those. The best available teammate 2B are guys like Lazzeri, Frisch, and Gehringer--solid players to be sure, but far below the best Hornsbys. We'll see if this comes back to bite me on Ruth.
Post-draft: Happy with Hornsby and probably couldn't get both this version of Hornsby and a reasonable Ruth. Maybe the correct play was to go with a less-expensive but still good Ruth here and then get a slightly lesser version of Hornsby next round.
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Pick 3.6: 1941 Howie Pollet
Welp, most of the Ruths went. There are 3 left, with the two huge salaries and the third still coming in at $19m. I thought about taking the cheapest version (1920) but I figure I can also just plan for having to eat the $26.7m version and get a super-stud Ruth. That shifted me back to looking at cheaper options. I thought I was going to land on a cheap Alvin Dark, but there are a few versions there and none of them are actually helpful on the field. They also don't really bring in a good teammate, though 1956 Dark does bring a decent Mays, but he's not the cheapest version so don't want to go there yet.
I ended up circling back to Pollet. There's not risk of getting stuck with a huge salary with him--his biggest salary is just $7.2m but you can actually avoid 4 of his seasons since he has 20 total, so the more realistic downside is about $4.5m. However, now that I'm likely stuck with a huge Ruth salary, those few million could matter. Pollet has one good relief season, with 75 innings at 2.39 ERC# and costs just $2.4m. It also reduced my innings--I'm now on track to get about 1400 from the nominated players, though I'll likely go a little above that since I'm guessing others will draft the lower-inning guys earlier, on average. So I get to save money, reduce innings, and get another good reliever of which there are few. As a small benefit, Johnny Mize is a reasonable 1B teammate. He's not great, but with just 580 PA, he comes with a reasonable $6.0m price tag, which may be all I can afford. As a lefty with good defense (B+/A) and an OBP# over .400, it's a decent option to have.
Post-draft: I think I made the right choice waiting on Ruth versus grabbing the 1920 version here. I did take on a few million in salary but I got to wait until my final pick on Ruth allowing me to get many of the other players I liked/needed. For the most part, I was on the early side of runs and didn't have too many disappointments with missing out on guys I wanted/needed. Mize was a pipe dream, in hindsight, but always good to have options. I did get to use one Pollet teammate, however...Eddie Lake as a pure bench player.
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Pick 4.4: 1939 Carl Hubbell
With the best Hubbell starting seasons and his one cheap season gone, I was staring at a bunch of big-inning seasons with ERC# in the 3s. I already know I'm likely getting big innings from Feller, Grove, and Spahn, plus gonna have to eat innings with Whitehill. Hubbell was the one guy of that group that had a good quality season with lower innings. His HR# is a bit high and I know I'll have a big-HR Ruth, but I get a $4.7m Hubbell instead of a $7-8m one that likely would have worse quality innings and wasted innings. I also was eyeing the best Feller left, the 391 inning, $13m season, but I couldn't pick that until I locked in some lower-inning guys.
Post-draft: Besides the HR issue, I think this was a good pick. Of the 8 pitcher nominations, I'll end up with 2 good starters and 3 releivers. The other 3 are all swingmen of varying degrees--getting this Hubbell gives me a "good" version, with Whitehill mediocre, and Grove a pure mop-up.
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Pick 5.3: 1947 Bob Feller
1946 Feller went as did a couple of the cheaper versions. The best season left for him is 1947 and there's a pretty big dropoff, so I decide to finally lock in my first real starter. As an added bonus, I will be more than happy if his teammate, Lou Boudreau, is my starting SS ($6.9m, .385 OBP#, A/A defense).
Still have more work to do to shed salary. I can wait on Ruth until the end and take whichever $25m+ behemoth is left. I am unlikely to save much money on my 3 remaining pitchers--will likely get Spahn, Grove, and Whitehill for around $20m combined. Mantle and probably Mathews will start for me. So that leaves Dark, Davis, Cuyler, and Bottomley as the places to save on. Cuyler and Bottomley both have some partial seasons that could platoon at 1B or OF, as well as some lower PA seasons that can simply save money. Davis will just be the backup catcher. Dark is likely the spot I need to save the most, especially now that I have a full-season teammate option in Boudreau.
Post-draft: I was able to use SS Lou Boudreau as my lone full-season teammate, in the end. He is a very solid SS with A/A fielding and solid hitting but doesn't break the bank at $6.95m. I'm starting around here to realize the salary crunch will be a little more difficult than I first though, but mostly I'm correct on my outlook at this point.
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Pick 6.3: 1927 Kiki Cuyler
As I start planning more in-depth, fitting everything together and still affording some free agents will be tough. Will probably have to spend multiple teammate spots on pinch-hitters, relievers, and maybe even pure salary-savers. I'm starting to like a Cuyler/Bottomley platoon, with Ruth likely shifting between 1B (when Cuyler starts) and OF (when Bottomley starts). Maybe even a Cuyler/Mantle/Bottomley 3-for-2 platoon. With that in mind, 1927 Cuyler is the best option with his 348 PA and B/A fielding in the OF. He can man CF against lefties and be a defensive replacement when he comes off the bench. It also puts in play someone like 1966 Mantle who has 401 PA and a good hitting season but is not really a centerfielder (A+/D+). Those two plus, say, 1930 or 31 Bottomley gets me around 1300 PA, good enough to cover 2 starting spots.
In addition, Cuyler brings in two potential teammates. Paul Waner has a great 1B/OF season. However, given the presence of Ruth and Waner's bigger salary ($9.7m), I probably won't be able to afford him and don't need his positional versatility. The other is Johnny Miljus, an 80-inning reliever with sub-2.00 ERC# and 0.00 HR#. He is more likely someone I can fit in.
Post-draft: Yes, correct on the teammate spots. I'm happy with this Cuyler pick as he gave me lots of flexibility the rest of the draft, especially with regards to Mantle and CF in general. He's a very solid platoon-mate and he'll likely play against some righties as well, given he's over 300 PA. I certainly didn't get Waner, but I did fit in RP Johnny Miljus, who will help form a great back end to my bullpen.
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Pick 7.2: 1960 Alvin Dark (Braves partial)
The first cheap Alvin Dark goes so it's time to make sure I get one I can live with as I'm planning to use Boudreau or another teammate at SS. The Boudreau I already have as an option has 656 PA so doesn't need a backup. I don't have my Eddie Mathews yet but some of his possible seasons could use a little help. The 2nd-cheapest Alvin Dark season is 160 PA but has a reasonable .721 OPS# (for comparison, that's the 7th-best of his versions) and while he doesn't play SS he plays a passable 3B (B-/D) plus has ratings at 1B and OF. Most importantly, he costs less than a million dollars.
Post-draft: One of the picks I sweated out the most as I really didn't want to have to take on a more expensive version of Dark. His extra versatility to play 1B and OF, plus not be a completely inept at the plate, allowed me to go a little more aggressive elsewhere, such as with Ray Blades and Showboat Fisher. If they are a bit short on PA, I can easily let Dark play a couple games at 1B or the OF. He also let me save some money and get a more potent version of Eddie Mathews, knowing I had some 3B at-bats if needed.
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Pick 8.2: 1934 Lefty Grove
I have 3 pitchers left to draft and I can wait on two of them. Whitehill is going to give me 200-some-odd innings and a salary between $4.3 and $6.5m. Warren Spahn will be my #2 starter and bring me about 300 innings and an ERC# near 3.00. Lefty Grove can go a couple different ways. There are 6 owners still left for Grove. He has two high-inning starter seasons. He has 4 long relief type seasons with ERC# at 4.00+. He also has one season in between with 178 innings but a solid 3.13 ERC#. One other complicating factor is I still haven't locked in my catcher teammate. Grove has a couple Cochrane versions but both are teammates of Grove versions that I prefer not to roster.
Among the 5 hitters I still need, I know I can wait on Ruth and Davis. Mathews will be my starting 3B and while I'd like to avoid his biggest-salary seasons, I can likely wait another round or two at least on him as he has many possibilities. With Dark's season in tow, I can hopefully get a Matthews with closer to 600 PA than 700 and save on some salary. 1955, 1954, 1962, and even 1964 or 65 are all in play.
I'm still liking my 3-for-2 special with Cuyler, Mantle, and Bottomley. With 348 PA from Cuyler, I need about 800-900 from the other two. Mantle doesn't have anything less than 400 so that means I need to avoid any Bottomley seasons with 500+ PA. He only has 16 seasons and 11 of them are high PA. Of the other 5, 1 of them is a no-go (1935, with an OPS# of just .612 but 448 PA, gross). Two of the other 4 would be fine in a platoon (1931 and 1932, both with 350-450 PA and reasonable OPS#, especially '31). The other two are cheap enough that I could get a full-time Mantle and mostly get by. But I really want one of those 4 seasons (1931, 1932, 1922, 1937). For Mantle, he has two super-expensive seasons left. I can avoid one of them for sure as Mantle has 17 total, but I can't get stuck with the other one. I'd also like to avoid his worst season, with a .786 OPS#, D/D- fielding, but still 407 PA. Of the versions left, that leaves 5 I'd be relatively happy with. His 1960 season is the best and most expensive, with 678 PA and CF-level defense. His 1953 season has fewer PA (580) and a slightly lesser bat, but still B/A defense. Both of those are $6m+. The other 3 are cheaper--between $2.7 and $3.7m. His 1967 season is actually 1B only while 1965 is a poor OF fielder (C-/D), and both are okay OPS# but low for Mantle. The other cheap season has my eye though--1966 where he plays A+/D+ in the OF, has a very nice .947 OPS, and just 401 PA. That would pair nicely with, say, 1931 Bottomley. I also still have the catcher teammate issue and none of my top Mantle/Bottomley/Grove choices solve it.
I decide Bottomley is the one I have the least risk waiting on, so I eliminate him. That puts me at a choice for Mantle vs Grove. For Mantle, both the 1953 and 1966 seasons are in the mix. '53 is a better player, can play center, and brings the potential of Yogi Berra. However, he's over $2m more than '66 and rostering him and a $5.2m catcher could be tough. For Grove, I want to avoid his big-inning seasons. That centers me on 1938 (178 IP, 3.13 ERC#), 1941 (141 IP, 4.13 ERC#, 0.56 HR#), and 1934 (117 IP, 4.93 ERC#).
Ultimately, after doing a bit more planning, I'm still in a salary crunch, so I opt for the cheapest Grove. Hopefully he won't need to pitch important innings.
Post-draft: Grove is probably the player I changed the most on. I initially had him penciled in for a good starter season, then shifted to maybe getting a decent long-relief season, and ultimately ended up drafting his cheapest and worst season. I think this was a very helpful pick and I should have realized it sooner as it was so important. The other pitchers didn't have many ways to save on innings and money and this allowed me to actually get only 1500 innings. A more expensive Grove would have really hurt me elsewhere. That said, I also could have really used a better Bottomley and this was the spot I needed to take him, but I think I was correct that it was less important than locking in Grove.
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Pick 9.2: 1930 Jim Bottomley
Ugh, brutal run on Jim Bottomley and then '66 Mantle goes. The lowest PA season for Bottomley left is putrid 1935 season. Every other version remaining has 590+ PA. Similarly, Mantle is running out of cheaper but usable seasons. With 18 total seasons, I can at least avoid his two huge salary seasons, but could be left with $7.5m. Gonna have to scrap the 3-for-2 plan and probably start all 3 of Cuyler, Mantle, and Bottomley with a smaller PA teammate filling in the missing PAs.
After sketching out the scenarios a bit, it looks like I can afford the $7.5m Mantle if needed, so I don't necessarily need to go there. I still considered taking either '60 Mantle or the '53 version, both of which could play almost a full season and man centerfield while providing some pop. I'm also okay with 65 Mantle, but I want to avoid both 1967 (1B only and with Bottomley, I don't have a spot there) and 1951 (407 PA that is almost unplayable), in addition to the two huge salaries.
With Bottomley I was worried there were even more landmines to avoid. There were 7 owners left who needed one and 7 versions left. His best season had 720 PA, which I couldn't use all of them, and so his $5.5m salary would be partly wasted. Three other seasons have OBP# below .337. That left just two years with reasonable PA and solid enough production. I chose the 1930 version over 1924 because it was about $500k cheaper and he has two catcher teammates that could pair with Spud Davis (neither Mancuso or Jimmie Wilson are exciting, but the salary cap crunch is real). He also has Ray Blades as a teammate, who might be useful as a pinch-hitter/platoon in the OF (134 PA, 1.067 OPS#).
Post-draft: My Cuyler/Bottomley/Mantle plan fell through here, but this pick ended up being secretly VERY important to me, and I didn't even know it at the time. As a player himself, it's not as bad as I feared at the time. He'll have to be pretty much my full-time 1B but he hits okay, he's left-handed, and he does it all for only $3.6m. The important part, though, is the teammates. I initially had thought his catcher teammates might be useful, but didn't need them. I did use OF Ray Blades as a very good hitter (he'll be my best hitter after Ruth and Gehrig). But the really important part were two guys I didn't even note at the time--OF George Watkins and OF Showboat Fisher. Because of the extra PA of Bottomley and Mantle plus the salary crunch, I didn't need and couldn't afford a full-time OF, but I did need a really good platoon OF. Both Watkins (477 PA) and Fisher (301) were that. Them and Blades were the three best teammate options with between 100 and 500 PA that I ended up having. Even more importantly, I had BOTH of them. I initially planned for Watkins as he had more PA and could at least fake it at 2B if Hornsby's 650 PA needed a rest. But when I got stuck with the more expensive Ruth, I easily pivoted to Fisher who is $1.4m less and didn't miss a beat. He'll essentially form a platoon with Kiki Cuyler.
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Pick 10.3: 1953 Mickey Mantle
With my Bottomley pick having a near-full season, I prefer not to get a 1B-only Mantle, meaning I'd have to play one out of position. I can't afford his super-expensive seasons either, but his next-two-best seasons both work for me. At the end, I may prefer to have '60 Mantle with the extra 100 or so PA and a bit of extra power, but I decide to play it safer and go cheaper with the '53 version. He still can play center (B/A), has a near .400 OBP#, and as a switch-hitter he can help balance my lineups with Bottomley/Cuyler/etc. need rest. If I end up having a bit extra salary, hopefully that means I can just upgrade one of the teammates I bring in. If I went with the more expensive version, I wouldn't have the opposite option as easily if I got stuck. He also brings a decent Yogi Berra season with him, but I doubt I'll be able to afford him. We'll see.
Post-draft: I was right on Berra, could not afford him. I think going with the cheaper Mantle was the right play at this time. If I had waited, maybe I could have fit in the 1960 version and downgraded Fisher or Blades or someone, but I couldn't risk waiting and this gave me the flexibility I needed and as I mentioned I was able to use the extra salary well.
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Pick 11.4: 1955 Eddie Mathews
I can almost build my full roster now and it will definitely be tight. I've put off Ruth for a while since both versions left are similarly expensive but at this point the slightly cheaper version saves me over $1m. How long can primetimetw and I stare each other down? One problem is whenever I do go for Ruth, I'll move down in the draft order, hurting my chances to get better versions of the other players I need. That said, primetimetw picks ahead of me, so if I wait until the very end, he'll get to pick his Ruth first. Maybe the 14th Round is the spot.
I should have plenty of Spahn options later, but Whitehill is starting to become more of a focus. The cheapest versions are around $5.1m and there's 3 of them. But with just 17 versions total and the most expensive ones at $6.5m to $7.0m, I could lose over a million dollars against the cap. His 1930 version is the best for me as it's the cheapest but also slightly more effective than the other cheap options. The 233 innings are the fewest, but I don't need more innings.
That leaves just Spud Davis and Mathews. With Davis, I'll have plenty of options to match whatever version of him I get with a reasonable enough teammate to form a full-time catcher. For Mathews, though, it is time. I want to get a good starting season as he'll likely hit 4th or 5th for me. However, I do have spare at-bats from Alvin Dark so I don't need the 700+ PA versions of Mathews and I prefer not to take the extra salary. 1954 Mathews went to calhoop a couple round ago leaving 1955 as the best remaining combination. Wtih 648 PA and a $6.7m salary, he's cheaper than the 1953 and 1963 versions. His 1.002 OPS# is one of only 3 of his seasons at that level, and his B-/B- defense is perfectly fine. I had a bit of a scare when primetimetw took a Mathews but he took the 57 version, so I happily grabbed the 55 version here.
Post-draft: Pretty lucky here. In hindsight, probably the best fit of any Mathews for my team and I got him in Round 11. Other versions would have been worse hitters or had leftover PA. While I was focused on fitting everything together with Ruth and Hornsby in tow, I hadn't given as much thought to, you know, actually getting good hitters to drive in Ruth and Hornsby. Mathews will be a great middle of the order hitter behind those two.
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Pick 12.5: 1930 Earl Whitehill
Down to 4 picks: Spahn, Whitehill, Ruth, and Davis. A few Davises have gone and while there are some versions of him that I prefer to others, it's not by much. There are 8 versions of him left and 7 owners who need him. He has 4 versions where he hits reasonably well but has 340-460 PA and a salary in the $2.7m to $4.2m range. Those 4 will need to be paired with a lefty with 200-300 PA (which I have a few options already and may add a couple more with my final picks). The worst version for me is 1936 Davis as he has 423 PA and costs $2.8m but doesn't hit very well. But I can avoid one version, so he'll be the one I avoid. That leaves 3 other versions that don't hit great, but also only have 200-250 PA and cost under $2m. They'll simply be the short-side of the platoon and hit against lefties and potentially be a defensive replacement (1928 Davis, in particular, has an A+ arm).
Ruth is in the same spot. I prefer the 1923 version mostly because it's cheaper but also for the better defense at both 1B and OF (I'll need him to spell Bottomley there for rest and defensive purposes) and higher OBP (vs higher SLG for the 1923 version).
Spahn hasn't been taken since Round 9 so there's 4 of us still waiting, but there are 9 versions left. He'll need to be my #2 starter alongside Feller but he has 7 versions left with an ERC# between 2.86 and 3.14. Most of those are right around $8m (in fact, 4 of them are between $7.9 and $8.1m and another yet is at $8.26m) so there's not much separating them. He'll likely be my last pick.
That means it's Whitehill time. I actually will have only about 1150 innings (depending on the exact version of Spahn that I get) better than Whitehill. That includes my two likely releiver teammates (1946 Earl Caldwell and 1927 Johnny Miljus) but excludes 1934 Lefty Grove (4.93 ERC#) who will be mop-up only. That means Whitehill will have to pitch (at least in the regular season, hopefully I can rest him during the playoffs, should we make it there) as a swing man in long relief and spot starts. Saving money is priority #1, but I'd rather have 233 innings at 3.97 ERC# than 286 at 4.28, for instance. Plus the 1930 version has a respectable HR# (0.36) and is the cheapest version left anyway, but still better than more than half of the remaining versions. The better versions all cost a million dollars or more. Oh, calhoop just picked and took a different version of Whitehill (1925), so I got the 1930 version.
Post-draft: I probably should have given more thought to drafting one of the two $4m Whitehills earlier. While his 4 cheapest versions all went in the first 6 rounds, the $4m ones went in Round 7 and then 10. I had kind of written Whitehill off as pretty similar, which was correct early on, but as things got later the extra million or so of salary difference becomes magnified. Getting the last of the three $5.1m versions was nice and maybe the domino effects of taking the cheaper version in Round 9 or 10 would have hurt elsewhere, but that $800k in savings would have been useful.
Whitehill did end up bringing me part of my catching platoon, with C Pinky Hargrave. He actually had both a partial and combined option, which was nice as I was piecing things together. I ended up using his partial version with fewer PA but a better bat.
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Pick 13.5: 1940 Spud Davis
I know I'm waiting on Spahn until the end so this is between Spud Davis and Ruth. As I mapped out my catching options in even more depth, the 1940 Spud Davis gave me the best way to fit the puzzle pieces. He, himself, is a very good hitter--one of the best options available to me including teammates. He has 341 PA and I'm able to pair him with a handful of teammate options in the 200 PA range. 1927 Earl Smith is just $1.4m but is a lefty with 233 PA and some decent hitting numbers. That gives me 574 PA from my top two catcher options and I can add one of the few scrubs I'll need to use to soak up some catcher at-bats to rest these two. The other Davis options had clunky platoon pairings. Some had too many or too few PA, others weren't potent enough. For instance, I could have paired 1937 or 1939 Spud Davis with 1923 Wally Schang (336 PA) but Schang is worse than 40 Davis and 37/39 Davis are equal/worse than 27 Smith. Not wanting to lose out on the best catching option I could get, I rolled the dice and went with 40 Davis.
Post-draft: Maybe should have gone 1923 Ruth here? But then again, maybe not. I didn't NEED his fielding upgrade over the '21 version and the extra salary ended up being a pretty easy swap out of Watkins for Fisher. I don't actually think the extra 140 PA of Watkins would have been all that material. Getting 1940 Davis probably means my primary catcher is better than it would have been had I waited and that's probably more important than Watkins vs Fisher or 21 vs 23 Ruth.
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Pick 14.5: 1961 Warren Spahn
Pick 15.5: 1921 Babe Ruth
Darn, primetimetw went with 1923 Ruth. That gave me 21 Ruth as my last pick. It's now time to put my whole roster together and pick my Spahn as part of it.
With the more expensive Ruth, I knew my likely adjustment and that was moving from one teammate of Jim Bottomley to another: George Watkins to Showboat Fisher. While I lost at-bats (447 to 301) and some (poor) 2B fielding ability, I gained in cool names, that's for sure. Showboat offset the Ruth salary increase and then some, so I had a few extra dollars to play around with. While I did one last check, I confirmed I am good with 5 teammates: (1) RP Earl Caldwell, (2) RP Johnny Miljus, (3) SS Lou Boudreau, (4) OF Showboat Fisher and (5) OF Ray Blades. I need one more on a catcher and then three scrubs. With the extra cap space, I saw I was able to get a few more catching PA and so I actually moved from 1927 Ear Smith to 1930 Pinky Hargrave. Hargrave has about 50-60 fewer PA but is a better hitter. He and Spud Davis only combine for 511 PA but that should be enough to do the bulk of the important innnigs and all of the playoffs. I added both 1961 Charlie Lau (108 PA, at least has an OBP# of .324!) and 1961 Sammy White ($200k player but has catcher ratings with 72 PA). That's 180 extra catching PA that I can rest my top two guys when needed. My final spot went to Eddie Lake, who has ratings at 2B, SS, and 3B. Alas he hit .106 in his 98 PA so let's hope that no important at-bats actually go to him. But he can rest Hornsby and Boudreau in blowouts.
Post-draft: Spahn ended up being the perfect guy to wait on. Not only did he actually have excess versions (and he actually did, unlike some of the other guys my spreadsheet error thought had more), but he had a bunch of VERY similar options. I could essentially plug in $8m in salary and 280 innings and know I'd get something around that. Technically, I drafted him 14th and not 15th, but that's just because I was the last one on Ruth. Funny enough, he brought me TWO teammates. Though both are scrubs, they were useful ones as they were both catchers--C Charlie Lau (108 PA) and C Sammy White (72 PA) gave me 180 PA behind the plate for jus $680k. That allowed me to upgrade to a better-hitting Hargrave knowing that if needed I at least had some backups to throw in to rest Hargrave and Davis. Lau, in particular, won't embarrass himself out there with a .324 OBP# and C-/B-/D+ ratings.
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Summary:
I ended up with 5580 PA and 1511 IP so very little waste there. Of course, Ruth is about $9m above his normal salary and Hornsby about $1m over his so that's around $10m of excess salary there.
My offense should be very good--I have the best Ruth and one of the top 2-3 Hornsbys. My worst regular is Bottomley, but he's fine. All of my regulars and key platooners have OPS# over .800. I have 4 guys that should play everyday--Ruth, Hornsby, Boudreau, and Mathews. Bottomley (590) and Mantle (580) have close to a full season of PA, but will need some help, some of which will come from stud hitter Ray Blades (134 PA). The final 2 spots will be my catching platoon (Davis/Hargrave) and an OF platoon (Fisher/Cuyler). My deep bench has 4 players with 438 PA combined--Dark will backup 3B, OF, and 1B; Lake will backup 2B and SS; and both Lau and White will backup the catchers.
Defensively, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Hornsby (D+/C-), Bottomley (C+/D+), and two of my RFers (Blades and Fisher) aren't great. My catchers have B+/C+ arms, not terrible but not great. Mathews (B-/B-) and Ruth (C/B) will be fine in corner spots. Boudreau (A/A) and Cuyler/Mantle (both B/A) will give me good SS and CF play.
My pitching will probably be on the weaker side of the league, but my hope is that by not wasting innings and by using Whitehill that I could put that money towards my offense. I have 1161 quality IP with ERC# below 3.00. Nearly 300 of those are stud reliever innnigs by Abernathy, Caldwell, and Miljus with ERC# below 2.00. Another 120 innings are solid relievers (Pollet and Lyons) with ERC# around 2.40 to 2.50. I then have 3 bigger-inning pitchers with ERC# in the high 2s--Feller (315 IP, 2.78 ERC#) and Spahn (277 IP, 2.90 ERC#) will be in the rotation while Hubbell (166 IP, 2.78 ERC#) will flip between long relief and spot starts. Whitehill (233 IP, 3.97 ERC#) will have to pitch, hopefully mostly as a Long B-type. That gets me almost up to 1400 innings (1394 to be exact). My 117 IP, 4.93 ERC# Lefty Grove will be a mop-up and gets me over 1500 innings.
Ballpark: Sportsman's Park (III)
I have a bit of a HR-prone staff with Feller, Spahn, and Hubbell all above 0.50 HR#. However, I also have 21 Ruth plus power in Hornsby, Mathews, Fisher, and others. Most of my power is in lefties and I have plenty of doubles so while I did give some thought to Robison Field (+2 HR to RF, -1 HR to LF), it is just neutral on doubles and is -1 on singles. Sportsman's is pretty neutral on HR but favors them to RF (+1), while being even to LF. It also is +3 for doubles. I didn't do a full analysis but just guessing I'll be above-average in doubles production.
Position players:
$76.7m salary
5580 PA (5302 excluding Lau, Lake, and White)
C Davis/Hargrave
1B Bottomley
2B Hornsby
3B Mathews
SS Boudreau
LF Ruth (switch to 1B when Bottomley needs to rest)
CF Mantle/Cuyler
RF Fisher/Cuyler/Blades
Bench: Dark (3B/1B/OF), Lake (2B/SS), Lau (C), White (C)
Pitching staff:
$43.3m salary
1511 IP (1394 excluding Grove)
Starters: Feller, Spahn
Swingmen: Hubbell, Whitehill
Relief aces: Abernathy, Caldwell, Miljus
Setup: Pollet, Lyons
Mop-up: Grove
1/21/2024 3:24 PM (edited)