Post your thoughts, strategies, comments from the Savage Draft. What picks did you like? Which players were sniped right in front of you? How did you build your rosters (5 balanced teams? 2 strong teams?)

Going into this draft, my strategy was to build 2-3 World Series Championship caliber teams and not really care about the last couple of teams. Based on the point system (which is highly skewed toward Winning a World Series), I would rather have two World Series championship teams and three 90-loss teams then to have 5 playoff teams that all lose in the first round of the playoffs. (For example, two 95-win teams win the WS + three teams win only 70 games = 560 pts. Five teams all win 90 games, make the playoffs and all lose 3 games to 2 in the first round = 505 points).

Of course, I still will use my early picks on players with 4-5 great seasons, but I have no qualms with taking some 2 or 3-year studs early. And I plan on putting those studs on the same 2-3 teams. Note that I wrote this up as the draft was happening.

Round 1
I drew pick #14. With one pick to go before my turn, I started my research. I had it narrowed to down four starting pitchers… Mordecai Brown, Pedro Martinez, Sandy Koufax or Clayton Kershaw. I generally prefer RH pitching over LH pitching so once Three Finger went on the pick before me, I quickly grabbed Pedro Martinez. His peak seasons of 1999 & 2000 are perfect for my strategy. Of course, Mordecai Brown’s 1908 & 1909 would have been a perfect fit as well.

Round 2
It was late... I was about 3 picks away went I went to sleep. Some of the top pitchers left (with at least 4 good seasons) included Babe Adams, Juan Marichal, Justin Verlander, Kevin Brown and Jacob deGrom. Some of the top hitters left that I was considering included Albert Pujols, Joe Morgan, Eddie Collins, Wade Boggs, Chipper Jones and George Brett. When I woke up, ronthegenius took Babe Adams. I strongly considered taking Justin Verlander here but his HRs scare me. So, it’s going to be a hitter. I’ve never had any luck with Joe Morgan and I feel that 2B is a deeper position than 3B, so it was between Chipper, Brett and Boggs. Brett has the peak 1980 season, but his other seasons always typically underachieve for me. I love Chipper but I’d have to use a few of his poor-fielding seasons at DH. Since I’ve already determined that I will most likely be playing in a negative HR ballpark, Wade Boggs was the obvious choice here.

Round 3
Not surprisingly, Marichal, Verlander, K.Brown and deGrom all went shortly after I took Boggs. With one person in front of me to pick, the top pitchers that I had my eye on were Carl Hubbell and Russ Ford. Hubbell’s 3rd, 4th and 5th best seasons are way better than Ford’s 3rd, 4th and 5th, but Ford’s 1st and 2nd are better than Hubbell’s 1st and 2nd. There are also some really good hitters available, including Joe Morgan (still), Larry Walker, Chuck Klein and Albert Pujols. Which of these players makes it back to me in round 4? Not Hubbell. Not Walker. Not Morgan. Not Pujols. Maybe Russ Ford since his 4th and 5th seasons are unusable. OF is deep enough where I am ok missing out on Larry Walker. Despite my luck with him, Joe Morgan is still very tempting due to his defense and speed. But I love Pujols’ A+++ range at 1B. Fun fact, If you search on 1B (years 1900-2023) with 600+ PA, .320+ AVG#, .400 OBP# and RRF-1B of 11.0+ , exactly nine seasons pop up and four of them are Albert Pujols’ seasons. Despite knowing his HRs won’t translate well, I can’t pass up the 25-30 + plays I expect to get from Albert Pujols on at least 4 of my teams.

Round 4
Of course, Joe Morgan went on the very next pick. Carl Hubbell went early in the fourth round. Chuck Klein got selected three picks in front of me. But Larry Walker is still available. As much as I want Russ Ford for his two peak seasons, I can’t pass up a stud hitter like Walker. Other guys that I am going to be considering next round include Rod Carew, Mickey Cochrane, Lou Boudreau, Luke Appling, along with pitchers Russ Ford and Joe Horlen. And yes, I still plan on playing in a negative-HR park despite grabbing Pujols & Walker early.

Round 5
Cochrane, Appling and Boudreau all got taken. Rod Carew is still on the board. So is one of my favorite sim players, Frankie Frisch. If my strategy were to build five equally *good* teams, then I’d probably take Frisch here, but I just can’t pass up Russ Ford again. His two peak seasons are just too good for my “Build 2-3 World Series Championship teams” strategy. I have noticed the top RPs are flying off the board. I just can’t justify taking a 60-70 inning RP this early. It’s much easier to accept a mediocre RP blowing a ninth inning 3-run lead than a stud RP blowing a ninth inning 3-run lead. With my focus on only 2-3 teams, I feel that I can piece together a decent enough bullpen with multiple picks much later in the draft. If Carew or Frisch is available with my next pick, I may have to take him. If Joe Horlen is still left, I could grab him also.

Round 6
I am three picks away and I am not sure who I want. Calhoop sniped Frankie Frisch from me at the beginning of this round. Rod Carew is still left (if I drafted Carew, I could pair his ‘77 season with ’03 Pujols’ OF season). Jackie Robinson is also available. Craig Biggio and Chase Utley are also still available. See, I told you 2B is deep (It's fine that I missed on Joe Morgan). Joe Horlen is still left but I think I can wait on him as it appears people aren’t really targeting guys with 2 great years. Bernie Williams and Richie Ashburn would be a fine selection as my CF. The best offensive player available is Carl Yastrzemski. There are no catchers I want this early (I was hoping Ted Simmons would last a bit longer). Nomar is the best shortstop on the board with his two peak seasons, which certainly fits my strategy, but Hanley Ramirez and Barry Larkin aren’t that much worse. Also, Dave Bancroft is a nice fit due to his switch hitting and A+++ range. I have no idea where to go with this pick. Maybe the next three picks will help narrow down my choices. Finally, the picks are in: Nomar Garciaparra, Freddie Freeman & Eddie Mathews are off the board. I am going to wait on 2B and SS, so I decided to go with Richie Ashburn over one of my favorites Bernie Williams, to get my leadoff hitter and to lock in my CF defense.

Round 7
Still a way to go before my next pick. Bernie Williams and Carl Yastrzemski just went. Lots of one-year and two-year starting pitchers on the board, so I can wait on those guys. One RP that I was looking at this round was Goose Gossage but he just got taken. The top SS that I am eyeing is switch-hitting range stud, Dave Bancroft. Even though Hanley Ramirez and Barry Larkin are better hitters, I think the switch hitting non-HR hitter will translate better in a pitcher’s park. Plus, one cannot underestimate the significance of all those + plays made. I am going to be offline, so I provide my proxy to mllama54 and it is shortstop, Dave Bancroft. Maybe a bit early, but that's the price to pay for the piece of mind great defense brings.

Round 8
calhoop took Bret Saberhagen this round. This is a great pick if you are looking for a SP with 4-5 solid seasons. I would’ve have grabbed him earlier if I was trying to maximize success for all five teams. There are 7 picks to be made before my next turn. Rod Carew finally got taken (nice pick, mllama54). I still need to fill C, 2B, OF, DH. Still no catcher that I want (maybe Posada later). Jackie Robinson is my favorite 2B and am strongly considering him. OF Ken Williams has two stud seasons and his other three seasons aren’t too shabby. He is in the running for my next pick as well. Manny Ramirez is the perfect DH and has many stud seasons. It will be hard to pass him up. I will probably take one of these three guys. After I realized that 9 of 13 people behind me still needed their 2b, I went with Jackie Robinson. I know both Utley and Biggio have better 4th and 5th best seasons, but I am looking at the peak seasons. I also considered D.J. LeMajieu with this pick. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bunch of 2B and SS go before my next turn.

Round 9
Seven middle infielders went between my last pick and this pick. I’ve had a lot of time to consider this next pick. I’ve done a deep dive analyzing all the SPs with 1-3 strong seasons. The pitchers who I’m considering with my next pick includes Deacon Phillipe (has 5 decent seasons, none great), Joe Horlen (2 great seasons), Fred Toney (one great season, one decent season, three mediocre seasons), Jack Chesbro (one great 488-IP season, four mediocre 330+ IP seasons), Dean Chance (2 strong seasons, one decent season) and Whit Wyatt (2 strong seasons, 2 decent seasons). The #1 hitter on my list is Ken Williams and I fear ronthegenius may grab him soon. If I was balancing all 5 teams, Phillippe would be the pick, but there are a bunch of 2-season guys I can get in the next few rounds. I decided to grab the best hitting outfielder left, Ken Williams. Phillippe should get taken this round. I want to start grabbing the pitchers with 2 seasons before round 16, when the double-picks begin. Since I plan on waiting on catcher, I will start on the pitching next round.

Round 10
Just 22 minutes after posting my Ken Williams pick, ronthegenius posts “Arghhh”. I think I made the right choice. RTG got me back though, grabbing Deacon Phillippe in front of me. I almost took jack Chesbro here due to the shear number of usable innings he provides, but he really only has the one great season. His other seasons don’t move the needle. I compared Joe Horlen and Whit Wyatt. Horlen’s top two seasons are marginally better than Wyatt’s top two (although Wyatt’s got 27 more combined innings), but Wyatt’s got two other usable seasons, while Horlen does not… so there is a chance Horlen may come back to me in the next round. I picked Whit Wyatt. I will also strongly consider Fred Toney with my next pick

Round 11
Both Horlen and Toney got taken. Damn - now I wonder if I should have taken Horlen first. While waiting the 4 hours for Relkcirts to make his pick, I determined that I was taking Robin Roberts here because I could use his low-inning season on my best team (as a RP), while adding some quality innings on my other four teams. I know my 4th and 5th teams won’t be very good, but I’d rather them be “70-wins-not-very-good” than “50-wins-not-very-good”. Finally, after I went to sleep, Relkcirts made his pick. Sure enough, he took Roberts which made sense b/c he needed starting pitching. I defaulted back to Jack Chesbro. I solidified my “Best” team now, with ’00 Pedro, ’10 R.Ford and ’04 Chesbro with Wyatt’s 192-inning 1943 season as my main RP. Chesbro’s other 4 seasons aren’t terrible and will get used.

Round 12
I still wanted to get another stud SP. It was between Tiny Bonham and the player who I ended up taking, Bill Bernard. I currently have Bernard’s 1902 season on team #1 as a second long reliever. That team has 5 very solid pitchers (1478 Ips). The reason why I didn’t waste early round picks on short-inning modern RPs is b/c I planned to use guys like Wyatt & Bernhard as long-relievers. With the DH in effect, I don’t have to worry about pinch hitting. My second best team has ’99 Pedro, ’14 R.Ford, ’41 Wyatt, ’01 Chesbro and ’03 Bernhard. That’s 1312 innings of 1.01 whip. I’ll add more pitching later. I am focusing on getting either Posada or Kauff in the next round.

Round 13
It took quite a bit of time for my next pick to finally arrive. During this time, I had decided that I wanted to get my starting catcher this round. Very few people will be able to get away with drafting just one catcher, and since seven other people didn’t even have their first catcher, that means another 20-25 catchers will still get taken in this draft. Although I had Jorge Posada as the best catcher left, I went with Jason Kendall, because I could get away with using five 600+ PA seasons. And knowing that I would be playing in a negative HR park, Kendall seemed like the better choice.

Round 14
The two pitchers on my list (Tony Bonham & Ferdie Schupp) were still on the board, but they can wait as I wanted to make sure I got Benny Kauff. His two stud seasons really fit my strategy perfectly. Plus, I can move Larry Walker’s poor outfield defense to DH. I really love my offense now. I still need some PA’s at OF and SS (due to a few sub-600 PA seasons by Walker and Bancroft) but that can wait. I will start filling in the pitching staff with my next few picks, as I’m sure others will do once we get to the 2-picks per round (in round 16).

Round 15
With one round before the double-pick rounds begin, I had decided to go after Schupp this round, but alas, Relkcirts grabbed Schupp 3 picks in front of me. Drafting a bunch of SPs with 2-3 strong seasons (and using some as my RPs) means that I will have plenty of innings and can start spreading some decent pitching-seasons to my lesser teams. For example, I don’t need to put the very best seasons of Pedro, Chesbro, R.Ford, Bernard, Wyatt, etc. all on the same team, because I can’t possibly use all 1800+ innings. I start thinking about how best to distribute the player-seasons to get two or three dominant teams. I make this next pick, with this concept in mind – I take Gary Peters. He has three solid seasons (with ERC# between 2.14 and 2.53). I will throw one of his crappy seasons on my best team and use his three best seasons on teams 2, 3, 4.

Round 16
I have been researching RP-only players and wanted to get a couple of guys who I could use on 3-4 teams, with the caveat that the first three seasons must be very good. And I wanted a decent number of innings. Both Tom Gordon and Bobby Shantz fit the profile. Their three best seasons average 72 innings per player with a 1.71 ERC#. As an added bonus, I can use Shantz 295-inning season (2.47 ERC#) on my fourth or fifth team.

Round 17
I had my offense mostly set, but I knew I needed to grab another OF and a SS at some point to supplement some PAs. I was going to wait another round, but some of the guys I had listed as 2nd or 3rd options were going off the board. So, I went after the two guys I had my eye on for the last 4-5 rounds. Shortstop Carlos Guillen has two very strong seasons and can fill in for Dave Bancrofts’s two sub-600 PA seasons. And OF/1B Augie Galan is another favorite of mine with a bunch of high on-base seasons. He’s even got some very good defensive seasons. This was a key pick b/c I really don’t need another offensive player, except maybe catcher (if I want to use Kendall's strong 300-PA season).

Round 18
Since the maximum number of pitchers we can roster is 13, I do have to take one more offensive player, but the next two rounds will be focused on pitching. Most of the pitchers remaining have fewer than 5 good seasons. The best single pitching seasons come from guys that only have 1 or 2 good seasons. To continue my strategy on improving teams 2, 3, 4, I select two more starting pitchers… Tony Bonham and Eppa Rixey. I plan on using Rixey’s best season (1924) on team 3. Bonham’s strong 105-inning season will be used as a reliever on team 2, while his good SP season (1942) will help out team 3.

Round 19
It was very tempting to grab a 400-inning stud like Dave Davenport, but I went with a couple of pitchers with two usable seasons, Steve Ontiveros and Matt Harvey. Steve’s best season (1985) will be on team 1 while his 164-inning season (1994) will be on team 3. Matt Harvey’s best season (2013) will be on team 2.

Round 20
I wanted one more decent RP season for team #1 and decided on Tim Burke. And since I have to draft a hitter with my last pick, I decided to use Jason Kendall’s partial .332-AVG season (1999) instead of a lesser 600+ PA season. I added Ron Hassey to platoon with Kendall. Most of Hassey’s other seasons are decent enough to spot start against RHPs, if necessary.

I really like my offense. I have a bunch of high-average hitters with high OBP and with a little power sprinkled in, but my teams won’t be HR dependent. Pujols, L.Walker and K.Williams are the only players I rostered that have 25+ HRs in a season. My defense has three legitimate A+++ range guys with Pujols, Bancroft, Ashburn. But Jackie Robinson, Wade Boggs, Ken Williams and Benny Kauff are mostly above average defensive players. My SP-seasons that I plan on using on teams 1-2-3 should be as strong as anybody’s. I don’t have those modern stud 10-pitch-per-game RPs, but that’s ok. When a guy like Bill Bernhard, Whit Wyatt or Tiny Bonham comes in to pitch relief, he can go 3-4 innings.

Here are the totals and weighted normalized averages of what I’ll call the “usable” pitchers, for each team. No idea how this compares to other teams.

Team #1
Pitchers: 9
Innings: 1721
ERC#: 1.78
OAV#: .203
WHIP#: 0.94
Performance History ERA: 3.17

Team #2
Pitchers: 10
Innings: 1818
ERC#: 1.98
OAV#: .214
WHIP#: 1.00
Performance History ERA: 3.43

Team #3
Pitchers: 10
Innings: 1801
ERC#: 2.26
OAV#: .222
WHIP#: 1.05
Performance History ERA: 3.73

Team #4
Pitchers: 9
Innings: 1916
ERC#: 2.54
OAV#: .227
WHIP#: 1.11
Performance History ERA: 4.05

Team #5
Pitchers: 9
Innings: 1990
ERC#: 2.66
OAV#: .239
WHIP#: 1.14
Performance History ERA: 4.11

Here are the offensive numbers for each team, based on probable playing time.

Team #1
AVG#: .346
OBP#: .436
SLG#: .530
OPS#: 966

Team #2
AVG#: .336
OBP#: .429
SLG#: .550
OPS#: 979

Team #3
AVG#: .329
OBP#: .418
SLG#: .501
OPS#: 918

Team #4
AVG#: .327
OBP#: .413
SLG#: .491
OPS#: 904

Team #5
AVG#: .319
OBP#: .397
SLG#: .467
OPS#: 864

Once I finalized my rosters, I had to decide how to distribute the teams into the 5 leagues. I don't know how many others are going with the 2-3 strong teams strategy, but I decided to put my best team into League 3, my second best team into League 4 and my third best team into League 5. My fourth team is in League 1, and my worst team is in League 2.

Wow, those are great! Keep ‘em coming guys!

Uh oh…I also went with the 3-4-5-1-2 strategy that schwarze used

The team statistics I built using the "build 3 winners" strategy are below. Not very impressive as above... That's an impressive offense, schwarze
!

Team	B	PA/162	AVG#	OBP#	SLG#	OPS#	2B/100#	3B/100#	HR/100#	Salary
2A STARTERS	0	5547	0.324	0.402	0.555	0.957	5.57	0.29	4.01	$64,344,886
2B STARTERS	0	5815	0.308	0.383	0.506	0.889	5.25	0.47	3.05	$57,116,550
2C STARTERS	0	5583	0.302	0.384	0.506	0.891	4.65	0.57	3.27	$54,312,261
2D STARTERS	0	5856	0.313	0.392	0.496	0.888	5.47	0.45	2.88	$57,348,622
2E STARTERS	0	5599	0.300	0.377	0.497	0.874	5.19	0.44	3.09	$51,373,854

Team	B	IP/162	ERA#	ERC#	OAV#	WHIP#	BB/9#	K/9#	HR/9#	$/IP	Salary
2A STARTERS	0	1421	1.71	1.53	0.183	0.85	1.87	6.77	0.43	$47,832	$67,969,088
2B STARTERS	0	1424	2.17	1.79	0.199	0.91	1.61	7.24	0.52	$41,091	$58,512,962
2C STARTERS	0	1422	2.01	1.89	0.201	0.96	2.01	6.80	0.47	$39,131	$55,643,665
2D STARTERS	0	1391	2.60	2.22	0.215	1.02	1.99	6.58	0.55	$33,711	$46,892,553
2E STARTERS	0	1386	2.52	2.54	0.223	1.10	2.40	6.94	0.47	$30,875	$42,792,199

Your pitching is way better, since you focused on pitching. My hitting is better since most of my early picks were hitters. Most teams will be in between our two extremes. (Also, my pitching numbers would look better if I only included the best 1400-1500 innings - but that would only include 5-6 pitchers).

I went into the draft with 3 basic assumptions ( probable incorrect) they were:
1. I wanted to draft infielders and a catcher early because there would be plenty of quality outfielders.
2. Not counting DH I would only carry 4 bench players and it was more important they play multiple positions,then be great players.
3. I would Draft more than 5 SP, so I could rotate the best years in the SP spot and use other years as Mop Ups, or Long Men.

1. i got scared away from #1 early, because of the early run on SP. That and drafting in the middle of the pack every round cost me Joe Morgan and Albert Pujols

Inf C Bill Dickey 1B/DH Miguel Cabrera/ Jack Fournier 2B Chase Utley ( wanted Morgan) 3B Mike Schmidt SS Honus Wagner

2. Bench C/1B JT Realmuto OF Gary Maddox Late D; Everywhere Chone Figgins & Ben Zobrist

3 SP/Mop/LR Vida Blue, Jim Bunning, John Smoltz, Juan Pizarro, Aaron Nola, Stephen Strasburg, Kevin Appier, Early Wynn

4. OF Picked relatively late Sammy Sosa, ReggieJackson, Billy Williams

Stats
League- HR - RBI— Avg—OBP - Slug—OPS
1 - 377-1433-.319———-.405—-.565—.970
2–. 350-1409–308———.385—.540— .925
3—.332-1285–.308———.387—.521–.911
4—277–1183–.302———-.391–.500–.891
5—331–1265–.309——— .387- .520–.909


League- W-L -S———-IP—-Oav—-Whip—-Era
1.——214-153-64——1960–.207–1.06———2.53
2.——217-121-96——1879–.215—1.13——2.86
3. ——277-160-35——2273-2.21—1.09——2.87
4.——255-139-105——2062-2.28—1.21——3.19
5.——160-87–94———2219-2.27—1.17—-3.05

Updating my batting stats - per team...
.

Team 1	Player	Bats___	PA162___	AVG#____	OBP#____	SLG#____	OPS#____	Defense
C	1986 Ron Hassey	L	393	0.323	0.405	0.468	0.873	B/B/C+
C	1999 Jason Kendall	R	337	0.329	0.421	0.486	0.907	C+/A+/A+
1B	2008 Albert Pujols	R	641	0.358	0.461	0.638	1.099	A-/A+
2B	1949 Jackie Robinson	R	741	0.342	0.429	0.524	0.954	B/B-
3B	1988 Wade Boggs	L	719	0.368	0.478	0.485	0.964	A/D
SS	1921 Dave Bancroft	S	740	0.304	0.384	0.433	0.817	B/A+
LF	1923 Ken Williams	L	689	0.345	0.427	0.620	1.047	C/B+
CF	1958 Richie Ashburn	L	763	0.350	0.441	0.429	0.869	B/A+
RF	1914 Benny Kauff	L	707	0.369	0.448	0.549	0.996	C-/B+
DH	1999 Larry Walker	L	513	0.376	0.451	0.690	1.140
DH	1946 Augie Galan	L	362	0.314	0.451	0.474	0.925
.
Team 2	Player	Bats	PA162	AVG#	OBP#	SLG#	OPS#	Defense
C	1998 Jason Kendall	R	627	0.328	0.410	0.458	0.868	B/A+/C-
C	1980 Ron Hassey	L	453	0.314	0.389	0.437	0.826	A/B/A-
1B	2009 Albert Pujols	R	700	0.329	0.442	0.646	1.087	B-/A+
2B	1951 Jackie Robinson	R	663	0.339	0.428	0.524	0.951	A/B-
3B	1987 Wade Boggs	L	667	0.361	0.458	0.566	1.024	B+/C-
SS	2004 Carlos Guillen	S	583	0.314	0.375	0.516	0.890	B/A-
SS	1925 Dave Bancroft	S	593	0.304	0.390	0.410	0.799	C/A+
LF	1922 Ken Williams	L	714	0.319	0.402	0.620	1.022	C+/A-
CF	1955 Richie Ashburn	L	678	0.340	0.449	0.436	0.885	B/A+
RF	1915 Benny Kauff	L	620	0.346	0.451	0.532	0.982	C-/A+
DH	1997 Larry Walker	L	664	0.366	0.449	0.708	1.157
RF/DH	1945 Augie Galan	L	733	0.306	0.421	0.451	0.872	B/C+
.
Team 3	Player	Bats	PA162	AVG#	OBP#	SLG#	OPS#	Defense
C	2000 Jason Kendall	R	678	0.318	0.405	0.444	0.849	B/A+/C+
1B	2006 Albert Pujols	R	638	0.330	0.428	0.650	1.078	A-/A+
2B	1952 Jackie Robinson	R	674	0.313	0.443	0.469	0.912	C/C
3B	1986 Wade Boggs	L	698	0.357	0.452	0.473	0.925	B/C
SS	2006 Carlos Guillen	S	622	0.314	0.395	0.491	0.886	C/B
SS	1923 Dave Bancroft	S	544	0.292	0.383	0.393	0.776	C-/A+
LF	1917 Benny Kauff	L	678	0.315	0.392	0.416	0.808	B/A
CF	1951 Richie Ashburn	L	749	0.345	0.391	0.422	0.814	B+/A+
RF	2001 Larry Walker	L	601	0.351	0.448	0.642	1.090	B/C-
1B/OF	1943 Augie Galan	L	640	0.289	0.414	0.424	0.839	B+/A+, B/A
DH	1921 Ken Williams	L	680	0.330	0.414	0.548	0.961
.
Team 4	Player	Bats	PA162	AVG#	OBP#	SLG#	OPS#	Defense
C	2003 Jason Kendall	R	665	0.326	0.397	0.398	0.796	B-/A/C-
1B	2004 Albert Pujols	R	692	0.331	0.413	0.638	1.050	B/A+
2B	1950 Jackie Robinson	R	645	0.329	0.419	0.490	0.909	A-/D+
3B	1983 Wade Boggs	L	685	0.359	0.445	0.477	0.922	C/A-
SS	1922 Dave Bancroft	S	784	0.305	0.387	0.407	0.793	C/A+
LF	1944 Augie Galan	L	688	0.319	0.428	0.506	0.933	B+/C-
CF	1954 Richie Ashburn	L	740	0.312	0.438	0.364	0.801	B/A+
RF	1998 Larry Walker	L	524	0.364	0.443	0.616	1.060	B/D+
RF/DH	1918 Benny Kauff	L	385	0.320	0.365	0.466	0.831	D+/A-
DH	1925 Ken Williams	L	490	0.315	0.374	0.601	0.974
.
Team 5	Player	Bats	PA162	AVG#	OBP#	SLG#	OPS#	Defense
C	2004 Jason Kendall	R	663	0.319	0.397	0.370	0.767	B/A+/A
1B	2005 Albert Pujols	R	700	0.330	0.429	0.593	1.022	C+/A+
2B	1948 Jackie Robinson	R	680	0.297	0.365	0.453	0.818	B/B-
3B	1985 Wade Boggs	L	758	0.368	0.451	0.466	0.917	B+/C+
SS	1920 Dave Bancroft	S	708	0.295	0.349	0.400	0.749	B-/A+
LF	1935 Augie Galan	S	787	0.306	0.398	0.463	0.861	B/B
CF	1953 Richie Ashburn	L	739	0.328	0.390	0.394	0.784	A-/A+
RF	1924 Ken Williams	L	511	0.309	0.409	0.525	0.934	C/B
RF/DH	2002 Larry Walker	L	553	0.339	0.420	0.588	1.008	B/C
DH	2007 Carlos Guillen	S	630	0.292	0.352	0.481	0.833

A few years ago someone ran a similiar type of draft a couple of times. It was for only three teams rather than five otherwise it was pretty similiar. My strategy then was to load one team and let the other two fall where they may. As I remember my super team didnt make the playoffs by a lot and my weakest team did. It was all about matchups which was the luck of the division draw.

This time I decided to spread the wealth among all teams based on the following happennings in the draft.

I.) I drew the 19th draft position in the odd rounds and the 6th position in the even rounds.
II.) I knew the big stud pitchers with 4 or 5 good years would be gone by the time it would get to me in the first round. I would just have to see what would fall to me. It was Ted Williams. I had my number three hitter for all five teams.
III.) I am a big believer in doubling down. If I had say drafted a stud starter in the first round, I would have drafted another starter here to build a dynamite starting staff. But since I drafted a big time hitter, I went for another big time batter here. Al Simmons as my cleanup hitter on all 5 of my teams. He only has 472 PA on one team but he batted .390 that year.
IV.) One thing about drafting 6th in the even rounds and 19th in the following odd rounds is you have a lot of time to develop a strategy. I decided between the second and third round I would concentrate my next few picks would be on starting pitching.

V.) I put together a list of 33 starters using ERC+ as my ranking criteria for each of their 5 best seasons. I then sorted their best season from best to worst assigning a value of 1 to 33. I then sorted by their 2nd best season best to worst and assigning a value of 1 to 33. Then repeated the process for their 3rd, 4th, and 5th best season.

VI.) I added each pitchers values together and then sorted the pitchers by their cumulative values.

VII.) As I examined my analysis I looked for at least one 200+ ERC+. I needed depth of numbers in Season 1 to five. Surprisingly to me when my third round pick came around Nolan Ryan was the best available for me. A starter for all five teams.

VIII.) When my next pick came up, I was in the nickel arcade with my grandkids and a whole bunch of other kids. I decided that my safest pick at that point would be Jake Arrietta. He would be a starter for three of my teams and mopup for the other two.

IX.) With time for my next pick, I replaced pitchers who had been drafted off of my list with others. I picked Ron Guidry who will start on all five of my teams.
X.) With no pitcher distinguishing themselves from the others, I decided to go back to hitting. I had my three and four hitters, I decided to look for a leadoof hitter. Tim Raines was still there so I grabbed him.

XI.) Next I grabbed one of my boyhood heroes, Rod Carew. This was interesting as Rod would play first on two teams and second on three. This would make my picks interesting.

XII.) Relievers were jumping off the board. I needed to grab one that could be useful on all five teams. Robb Nen would fit that bill. I wanted closers with over 300+. Nen could close for two teams.

XIII.). 3b were disappearing also. So I went with Ron Santo. Great glove and power. He will start on 4 of my 5 teams.

XIV.) Back to my starting pitching. Jason Schmidt had a 200+ ERC+ but only two other seasons I want to use as a starter. He will mopup on two other teams.

XV.) I had planned on six starters to cover my 20 starters I needed but Lefty Gomez was still there. He could start in four of my five leagues. I now had a 200+ ERC+ starter on 4 of my five teams. I have a second best season on each team. I also have a third best on each team. My fifth team will have Gomez a185+ starter as the ace. Gomez will be mopup on one team. Arrietta mopup on two, and Schmidt mopup on one. I have 900 to 935 starting innings on each team.
XV.) Now was the time for a shortstop. Dick Bartell had a good glove with big time range. He batted over .300 for four years. He will start in four of the five seasons.

XVI.) My next two picks would be my compliments for Carew. Olerud for three seasons at first and Altuve for two seasons at second.

XVII.) My next two picks were for my catcher. Johnny Bassler and Ernie Lombari. They will platoon at catcher which really gives me a .310+ catcher each year.

XVIII.) Now my bullpen for the next 5 picks. I did my analysis on 18 relievers like I did on starters. Except here I am looking for ERC+ over 300 and over 250. Each of my next five met the criteria and can be used on each team. Armando Benitez, BJ Ryan, Ryan Pressly, Blake Treinan, and Roberto Hernandez.

XIX.) My two reserve infielders are Michael Young and Mark Loretta. Mark will start on one team at 2b moving Carew to DH because of his glove. Young will start one team at SS and one team at 3b because of his bat.

XX.)My definition of sniping is if someone grabs your player 5 or 6 picks before you. With 36 to 72 picks before someone grabbing your player 20 picks before you isnt really sniping. I didnt really notice it until my last two rounds. Amazing since there were about ten thousand players left. But Al Dark and Vada Pinson disappeared right before my pick. I panicked and picked my two reserve infielders. Then I lost Ryan Braun. So with my last two picks I picked Mike Donlin as my 4th outfielder and Jeff Nelson as my 8th reliever.

more coming…..

Midge... "Years ago I got tired of great closers getting shellacked in the 9th inning, so I quit using closers."

Guess what. Nothing has changed. That's why you don't see many true RPs on my teams.

Midge... "One time WIS pulled my Vida Blue, who was pitching a no-hitter, and replaced him with Tim Burke, who promptly gave up 4 runs in the 9th."

Uh oh.... I drafted Tim Burke with plans on using his only stud season on my best team.

Since dynamic pricing was introduced a few years ago the reliability of salaries as a performance indicator is very suspect. With having to gauge the value of 5 seasons of a pitcher I needed something else. I decided to concentrate on ERC+. Right or wrong it can be a predictor of performance. It really doesnt matter what the name is but what position they will be filling on the pitching staff so to compare my teams here is a chart showing each pitching fill and the ERC+ for each team.

Pitcher. Team1. Team2. Team3. Team4. Team5
SP1. 202. 249. 223. 220. 185
SP2. 186. 169. 192. 166. 161
SP3. 182. 161. 172. 164. 160
SP4. 144. 160. 139. 140. 145
Closer. 321. 327. 335. 271. 318
Setup1. 239. 264. 222. 200. 210
Setup2. 224. 195. 219. 199. 209
Setup3. 189. 169. 202. 185. 207
Long1. 158. 160. 145. 170. 201
Long2. 145. 148. 132. 144. 175
Long3. 134. 140. 125. 124. 138
Mopup. 116. 135. 129. 139. 124

Same type of thing for hitters. This time I am going by Batting Average by my nine starters for each team (Since I am platooning only at catcher I am listing both of them.) My three other reserves are not listed. It should be noted that with all 65 of my position players I only have 4 below .300 and only one of those is below .298.


Batter. Team1. Team2. Team3. Team4. Team5. Avg
RF. .320. .309. .330. .309. .334. .320
2b. .346. .338. .335. .359. .341. .344
LF. .406. .342. .388. .356. .369. .372
CF. .365. .387. .390. .392. .381. .383
1b. .331. .363. .354. .298. .388. .347
DH. .340. .350. .364. .340. .351. ..349
3b. .313. .312. .300. .313. .322. .312
SS. .320. .306. .310. .314. .308. .312
C1. .346. .323. .342. .307. .298. .323
C2. .333. .334. .305. .330. .343. .329
Avg. .342. .336. .342. .332. .344. .339

The fielding is not terrible but not super either. I would grade it b-/b- overall

Here are my pitching numbers by team (sorted by ERC# within each team)... The last column is their "Performance Review" ERA.
.

Player	Team 1	Throw	IP/162	ERC#__	OAV#__	WHIP#__	HR/9+__	ERC+__	P.R. ERA
Martinez, Pedro	2000 Boston Red Sox	R	217	1.18	0.160	0.69	171	353	2.34
Gordon, Tom	2004 New York Yankees	R	90	1.35	0.177	0.86	230	303	3.51
Burke, Tim	1987 Montreal Expos	R	91	1.41	0.197	0.89	318	278	2.94
Ontiveros, Steve	1985 Oakland Athletics	R	75	1.44	0.174	0.85	201	274	3.27
Shantz, Bobby	1964 Philadelphia Phillies	L	32	1.58	0.208	0.95	267	233	3.51
Bernhard, Bill	1902 Philadelphia Athletics	R	270	1.84	0.215	0.94	150	204	3.08
Ford, Russ	1914 Buffalo Feds	R	266	1.97	0.206	0.96	60	191	3.57
Wyatt, Whit	1943 Brooklyn Dodgers	R	192	1.99	0.210	1.02	140	185	3.40
Chesbro, Jack	1904 NY Highlanders	R	488	2.04	0.221	1.03	159	156	3.21
.
Player	Team 2	T	IP/162	ERC#	OAV#	WHIP#	HR/9+	ERC+	P.R. ERA
Martinez, Pedro	1999 Boston Red Sox	R	214	1.53	0.198	0.87	310	275	3.00
Gordon, Tom	1998 Boston Red Sox	R	80	1.54	0.187	0.98	487	266	3.50
Shantz, Bobby	1959 New York Yankees	L	100	1.83	0.194	1.04	234	211	3.50
Bonham, Tiny	1940 New York Yankees	R	105	1.77	0.219	0.92	200	229	3.53
Ford, Russ	1910 NY Highlanders	R	322	1.79	0.198	0.96	96	186	2.99
Harvey, Matt	2013 New York Mets	R	178	1.83	0.215	0.97	251	206	3.22
Peters, Gary	1966 Chicago White Sox	L	205	2.14	0.224	1.04	175	168	3.70
Wyatt, Whit	1941 Brooklyn Dodgers	R	304	2.19	0.214	1.06	155	173	3.69
Bernhard, Bill	1903 Cleveland Naps	R	192	2.40	0.244	1.11	313	143	3.68
Rixey, Eppa	1932 Cincinnati Reds	L	118	2.58	0.247	1.11	218	150	4.02
.
Player	Team 3	T	IP/162	ERC#	OAV#	WHIP#	HR/9+	ERC+	P.R. ERA
Martinez, Pedro	1997 Montreal Expos	R	242	1.71	0.184	0.92	162	232	3.13
Shantz, Bobby	1963 St. Louis Cardinals	L	80	1.87	0.201	0.96	110	192	3.83
Gordon, Tom	2001 Chicago Cubs	R	46	2.06	0.188	1.06	146	195	3.83
Ontiveros, Steve	1994 Oakland Athletics	R	164	2.08	0.212	0.98	205	201	3.73
Bonham, Tiny	1942 New York Yankees	R	238	2.20	0.240	0.98	100	172	3.91
Peters, Gary	1963 Chicago White Sox	L	243	2.37	0.224	1.11	276	158	3.99
Rixey, Eppa	1924 Cincinnati Reds	L	253	2.37	0.236	1.11	360	164	3.61
Wyatt, Whit	1939 Brooklyn Dodgers	R	116	2.46	0.219	1.15	215	159	4.02
Burke, Tim	1989 Montreal Expos	R	85	2.47	0.234	1.10	110	146	4.35
Chesbro, Jack	1902 Pittsburgh Pirates	R	334	2.65	0.237	1.11	276	129	3.63
.
Player	Team 4	T	IP/162	ERC#	OAV#	WHIP#	HR/9+	ERC+	P.R. ERA
Martinez, Pedro	2002 Boston Red Sox	R	200	1.85	0.197	0.92	187	218	3.41
Gordon, Tom	2005 New York Yankees	R	81	2.32	0.200	1.09	120	173	4.47
Harvey, Matt	2015 New York Mets	R	189	2.46	0.227	1.05	114	156	4.19
Peters, Gary	1967 Chicago White Sox	L	260	2.53	0.212	1.14	142	138	3.73
Shantz, Bobby	1962 St. Louis Cardinals	L	79	2.55	0.211	1.09	98	154	4.25
Chesbro, Jack	1901 Pittsburgh Pirates	R	336	2.64	0.243	1.11	170	137	4.30
Rixey, Eppa	1916 Philadelphia Phillies	L	304	2.64	0.237	1.18	303	123	4.00
Bonham, Tiny	1943 New York Yankees	R	238	2.76	0.243	1.12	73	131	4.30
Wyatt, Whit	1942 Brooklyn Dodgers	R	229	2.79	0.232	1.17	118	129	4.06
.
Player	Team 5	T	IP/162	ERC#	OAV#	WHIP#	HR/9+	ERC+	P.R. ERA
Martinez, Pedro	2003 Boston Red Sox	R	187	2.06	0.212	1.03	330	198	3.67
Shantz, Bobby	1952 Philadelphia Athletics	L	295	2.47	0.230	1.04	95	155	4.47
Burke, Tim	1985 Montreal Expos	R	122	2.50	0.210	1.10	109	149	4.60
Gordon, Tom	2003 Chicago White Sox	R	74	2.54	0.210	1.18	229	160	4.25
Ford, Russ	1911 NY Highlanders	R	300	2.61	0.234	1.16	170	144	3.95
Bonham, Tiny	1946 New York Yankees	R	111	2.77	0.246	1.14	103	137	4.20
Rixey, Eppa	1917 Philadelphia Phillies	L	300	2.78	0.248	1.21	501	116	3.91
Chesbro, Jack	1905 NY Highlanders	R	330	2.93	0.252	1.20	86	106	4.23
Bernhard, Bill	1906 Cleveland Naps	R	271	2.92	0.262	1.19	317	109	4.01