I'm kicking myself though, I was under the impression that the 200IP Pedro would warrant a $5m cap decrease. Did I interpret that incorrectly? ha

Posted by chargingryno on 6/6/2020 3:40:00 AM (view original):
I'm kicking myself though, I was under the impression that the 200IP Pedro would warrant a $5m cap decrease. Did I interpret that incorrectly? ha

From the Themes thread: "over either 500 PA/162 or 200 IP/162"

2002 Pedro is not over 200 IP and does not force a 5M reduction

Yeah, I misinterpreted it to be 200 or over. Oh well! :)

Posted by Jtpsops on 6/5/2020 11:59:00 PM (view original):
Interesting to see a deadball staff in the $90M theme. I'm definitely not an expert at this game, but a deadball staff with all D fielders behind them seems like an absolute disaster waiting to happen. I'm curious to see how it works out.

You really didn’t think anyone would take a deadball staff? I tried to do modern pitching but couldn’t fit the cap with the players I really wanted. Ended up going with deadball and went with Bern and Slim right off the bat. Hopefully with all the terrible fielders taking Reulbach and Lundgren who give up walks for days but no hits works in my favor. Time will tell.

Posted by ozomatli on 6/6/2020 12:10:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Jtpsops on 6/5/2020 11:59:00 PM (view original):
Interesting to see a deadball staff in the $90M theme. I'm definitely not an expert at this game, but a deadball staff with all D fielders behind them seems like an absolute disaster waiting to happen. I'm curious to see how it works out.

Final tally:

2000s: 57
Deadball: 39

Of the pre-ranked top 24:
2000s: 12
Deadball: 12

makes me feel better about not pulling the trigger on my Yankee III plan for that league

anybody attempt something like that?

A few people in my league have multiple "HR guys" but no one went all out. Would need to add to my roster validation spreadsheet to check the other three for that.

I'm in your league for that theme so def good for me no one went all out.

Feels like the tide is slowly shifting.

I, for one, am damn excited about Jtpsops' 80 mil team.

Posted by 06gsp on 6/6/2020 5:54:00 AM (view original):

Posted by ozomatli on 6/6/2020 12:10:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Jtpsops on 6/5/2020 11:59:00 PM (view original):
Interesting to see a deadball staff in the $90M theme. I'm definitely not an expert at this game, but a deadball staff with all D fielders behind them seems like an absolute disaster waiting to happen. I'm curious to see how it works out.

Final tally:

2000s: 57
Deadball: 39

Of the pre-ranked top 24:
2000s: 12
Deadball: 12

makes me feel better about not pulling the trigger on my Yankee III plan for that league

anybody attempt something like that?

I feel the same. I had a very similar Yankee III team I built, but chickened out as well

I drafted more stamina than most who posted. I don't like using too many slightly fatigued players. And if i don't need my weaker scrubs much that's a good thing.

$80M One Hit Wonders
Pitching heavy team led by Christy Mathewson and Bill Bernhard. So chosen because I couldn't come up with a good hitting team so I only spent $34.6m there. A little light on stamina because of mediocre hitting and I suspect others may have the same problem. Tully Sparks is my #3 SP. Closing out with Aloma Dibut Littleton. Faul eating up innings, along with three 300k exemptions. Good playoff staff.
None of my hitters are full time. I didn't plan it that way, it's just what my searches turned up. Heinie Peitz is my goto C at low caps, backed up here by Bennett exemption. Infield of Stahoviak German/Robertson Cintron and Borse backed up by Sheldon and Klimchock. Hodgepodge OF of (who are these guys?) Al Libke, Norris Hopper, Ryan Raburn, Bunk Congalton, Pete Compton.
I've done poorly in lowcap the last two seasons but I stubbornly refuse to change my strategy.


$90M 1900-1919 pitchers
Oldtime P seemed right because of the lower costs and low HR and some hitting. Enough to make up for the weaker D. How much extra stamina to account for all the errors? I have 5700+ PA which may be high only because I have mediocre hitting. I spent on super range to protect my pitchers and skate by with 1423 IP which now seems low. South Side Park for the -3 rating should help.
Bill Bernhard the first player selected. Splurged on '04 Mordecai because this is no time to slack on P. Tully Sparks joins Bernhard from the $80m roster so he'd better be good. Cost effective Mcginnity and Cy Morgan. Small pitchers Dumont Glendon Walsh with 3 long B, and 2 mops one who can spot start.
Hitters have a lot of A++ range. Bancroft is an affordable SS with 33 + plays and 739 pa. 3B Frank Baker, 2B Babe Herman. King Kelly catching with 91 speed even tho it's not a speed team. These last three broke the bank but there are plenty of affordable OF. Hal Chase at 1B then Gil Cohn, Bob Johnson, Emmit Heidrick, with part timers Ken Williams and Pete Browning.
I'll pick this team to do the best simply because most people didn't draft extra stamina to account for the extra errors.



$110M 2-X
Several players are 2 years apart so I tried X=2 first. It was so much work drafting 2 teams simultaneously I didn't try any other numbers. Selecting in pairs with a $220M cap before I divided them into 2 teams. I aimed for an average of $40,000 per inning and $10,000 per pa, not counting a few scrubs.This kept me from picking too many expensive players.
Ed Walsh is the Ace though his expensive season was a salary albatross. Mordecai Brown 04 & 06 at #2. Walter Johnson 17-19 beat out a couple other candidates for #3. Cy Morgan 07-09 is easy on the budget in long relief and spot starts. Manship and Jesse Chavez are closers with a mopup season, so I split them. Melancon double closing with help from Poole. Ken Sanders and Charlie Smith fill out a weakish long relief corps, the curse of Ed Walsh.
Cobb 09-07 was one of my first selections. Tony Gwynn when it became obvious this was no power team. Burkett came later when I cleared the budget. Rod Carew was the first hitter that stood out but I later dropped him for Zobrist, huge savings. McCann catching is also cheap enough to fit Honus Wagner and Frank Baker. The bench is weird. With 7 roster spots to fill I have players who are a combination of good PH or backup along with a near 200k season that is usable in a pinch
Which of the two teams to enter round 1? Save the better roster for the more important stage 2,and it's more unbalanced so I can start my best against the top teams. Ballparks i wanted weren't available so I settled on SSP again..$120 M Joss Kersh Kimb Cobb Furk.
This team has some weakness but so might everybody else. i don't know what to expect, just get me to round 2 and my team will rock.


$120M Joss Kersh Kimb Cobb Furc
Joss was a close call I went with quantity over slightly better quality. Kershaw an obvious choice. Kimbrel the lowest salary and high k. Cobb is not the best but in an albatross league it's important to save salary for the peons.Furcal at a hard to fill SS position. Will play a little weaker than an open $120m and looks pitching heavy so I drafted less stamina than a normal $120m league. After paying albies the remaining team is $80m quality at best.
Splurged on Bill Bernhard, already have 550 premier innings so might as well play a pitching team. Low cap mainstays McGinnity and Cy Morgan. Robitaille and Rasmussen in the pen with Sampson and 100ip Benz in long relief. Two near mopup quality, one who can spot start since i don't know how many IP I'll need and don't want to waste money on extra innings.
Heinie Peitz is my low cap Catcher. Complete the infield with Chase Zobrist and Seitzer. OF Cobb joined by Zwilling who I'm not sure I've ever used, with Upick AAA successes Lonnie Smith and John Kruk. 4 bench players of quality because I'll be using them.
Strange team. expecting 95 wins but will probably get 85 I'm an optimist.


$140M Yankees Cubs Tigers

Detroit has some big hitters so they were an easy choice for group C. Now I need two teams with top pitching that doesn't cost too much. Cubs beat out White Sox in group B. First I tried Giants they do well in franchise leagues. But after building the roster they didn't contribute enough for an A column team. So I tried replacing with the Yankees. Babe Ruth and several strong closers. All it cost me was replacing Christy with Russ Ford. Still not happy with the Yanks but I'm done here.
Mediocre rotation of Mordecai Ford and '19 Pete Alexander with spot starters available as needed. Rivera Chapman Robertson and Chad Green closing with help from Saucier. Pineda Fister GJax Ruffing in long relief. Hitting led by '31 Ruth '15 Cobb Heilman and Norm Cash. Infield of Gehringer Jeter and Heinie Zimm. Gabby catching. Gates Brown and Phil Clark PHing.
I took a different approach than most people and reading the writeups has me second guessing. 81-81.

$180M 6 big ones, 13 little ones, $176M

Silver King is an odd choice but he sure makes roster construction a lot easier and saves a ton of dough to buy big hitters. The premier hitters were so much better than <500pa I drafted 4 of them. Walter Johnson is the only other big P though I should've selected ed Walsh. At first I had Kershaw then decided it was better to get the $2 bonuses with small SP. Niggeling, Pineiro in tandems as needed, and Josh Johnson who will mopup when not spot starting. 4 strong setups Green Rivera Ryan Balfour with Soriano wherever needed.
Monster hitters are Ruth Mantle Sisler Speaker. Ted Williams and Nap Lajoie are the best hitters close to 500pa. Tulo Javy and Matt Williams. All backed up by Hazle Possum Phelps Yerkes Mann. and 499pa Denny Lyons is a weird choice but couldn't find a better combination that worked. DH by leftovers Hazle, Ruth when nobody rests, and Lyons with his extra PA.
All depends on the performance of Silver King. Drafting 1600 innings should give me an advantage over the other Silverites but not sure about everybodey else.

I don't know why the thought of using Silver King in the variable cap. It makes sense, take one penalty, get 3 pitchers worth of IP.

I like my team of <200ip tandems, but Im wishing I'd taken a closer look at someone like King

barracuda3 - Oigame Compay!


80M - Highest Salaried Player - Time consuming to put together since you can’t really screen for highest salaried year. Other than that, pretty much an Open League. Kept it to switch-hitters mostly. Deadball SP with Modern RP to help with late inning defense. I think 2019 Ketel Marte will do well and interested to see how 1995 Walt Weiss holds up.
.291/.369/.425
1388IP/1.05WHIP/24HRA


90M – This was an easy decision for me. An 1880s D+ fielder could be a gold glover compared to the rest of his league that year. And then combine them with modern pitchers and their D even improves. Deadball pitchers with D+ defense seems like an unearned nightmare. That’s my opinion but I’m sure others will disagree. Target Field to cut down on opposing team’s HR and enhance deadball hitters’ 2B and 3B.
.301/.361/.428
1442IP/1.09WHIP/109HRA


110M – Just picked +1 from the start. That way could just spend the most time picking the best team and not worry about the year issue. Concentrated on picking the best team I could. I have a $95M round 2 team. I’m not JohnGPF or ballantine you know…
.322/.384/.522
1528IP/.97WHIP/28HRA


120M – Overpriced Studs – Man I struggled with a strategy here. Felt like whoever I chose would get walked 50% of the time anyway so went with the lower priced Ty Cobb. Besides, the deadball pitchers will negate a lot of HR. Plus, he could run. So went with that strategy and built a team with an effective 388SB/89CS. The stud pitchers can prevent hits and walks but not stolen bases. For pitching, used the lower $/IP to balance out the roster better.
.302/.362/.438
1494IP/1.00WHIP/22HRA


140M – Think inside the Box – Worked backwards here. Best of 3^rd tier seemed to be the Twins with Walter Johnson, Johnny Niggeling, Ed Delahanty, and Joe Mauer. Plugged those in and then went to 2^ndTier. Cubs and WS gave great pitching but the A’s offer a strong infield and excellent bullpen. That, I thought, held more value. The 1^stTier teams have everything (which is why I worked backwards), but the Indians seem to fit best.
.352/.419/.538
1582IP/.95WHIP/13HRA


182M – Variable Cap – loved this league. Loved the puzzle of it all. Started with Pitching because it’s harder to find. Seemed like you weren’t going to reach the right amount of innings unless you pull some players above 200IP. Thought about King/Seward etc…. but they’re just not as good as the 402 Alexander and 392 Walsh. Needed a lot of roster spots for hitting platoons so used 4 pitchers at 100-200IP and 4 bullpen spots. Had 15 Spots left for hitters and needed 6000 PA so roughly 400PA/spot. Just went with best hitters I could find in that range with a nod towards average and defense.
.358/.426/.565 Hitting ($12,769/PA)
1663IP/.81WHIP/29 HR Pitching ($60,930/IP)

You guys are all toast this year. I am guaranteed one of the 24 spots in the cage this year and I will tell you why.

Full Disclosure, I honestly don't remember the process I used to select my teams. It has been a rough few months medically for me in 2020. I have had four surgeries since the end of January. In baseball terms I have made a super trade. I traded an overgrown prostrate for an implanted pace maker for my heart. Still not sure what one had to do with the other but again in baseball terms, my overall team is better. My heart problem stemmed from a birth defect that raised its ugly head some 67 years later. My prostrate problem was just a factor of aging.

I wasn't going to enter the WIS championship this year but when the site mail came in early March it was just the medicine I needed to keep myself occupied with something other than medical problems. Part of my medical treatment was some wonderful pain medications which I was taking at the time. And boy did they work for helping me build teams. Three of the teams I created for other leagues all made it to the World Series and two of them won. One of those teams is doing so well now it is an undefeated team in the final four of the TOC. In Juice's tournament all seven of my teams qualified for the next round with four of them in the playoffs. This is the best I have done in WIS since dynamic pricing came into being and I don't remember how I created any of my teams. I created all of my WIS Round 1 teams during that time period. I only had to fix my Variable Cap team before I entered it because I calculated my cap wrong (Math evidently doesn't work on Pain meds.) Anyway with the success I have had in other leagues I did not touch any of these teams I created now that I am in full recovery. When I do make the second round I am going to try refilling those pain meds before I make my teams.

In review, here is what my teams look like.

80 million: Pat Listach and Friends. I like to have balanced teams. Butch Wensloff is my ace from the WWII era. All of my starting pitchers have a salary between 6.44 and 6.99. All of my position players have a salary between 4 and 6 mil with Listach being the highest. I never know about low caps but this should be between 82 and 85 wins.

90 million: Modern Brick Hands. My starting lineup of Milan CF, Sewell SS, Youngs RF, Fournier 1b, Mondesi LF, Higgins 3b, Moore 2b, and Santiago C should generate a few runs. I am also using two of my favorite pitchers at this cap level in Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum. Also Kershaw and Petite being my LH starters. Another 85 - 90 win team I believe.

110 million: Hondo and the Big Cats +1/-1. This team is very similar to the Round 2 team I have waiting for Round 2. Given my state of mind at the time I am sure I just wanted to use + or - one. It looks like I used players I was familiar with. Big Cat Mize, Grove, Hondo Howard, Bonds in the early 90's, Frisch, Carey, Bancroft, and Schang. I don't remember using Arenado before but I have him in there at third. I have Osuna as my closer. Not sure why other than he has two good back to back years. This team will be around 81 -85 wins.

120 million: Red Tys at morning. My studs are Ty Cobb, Red Schoendist, Addie Joss, Koji Uhera, and Clayton Kershaw. Since Harmon Killebrew was my hero growing up I always try to sneak him into one of my teams. I will bat him behind Cobb and hope for lightning to strike. I also have Jose Cruz, Fred McGriff, Javy Lopez, Jerry Mumphrey and Luke Appling starting. My other three SP are Jake Peavy, Alex Wood, and Kershaw. This team is confusing but it should be 81 - 85 wins.

140 million: Athletics Dodging Vicious Tigers. I went for the Dodgers because of their pitching. Combine their pitching with Verlander of the Tigers and Eckersley and Hudson of the A's. The combination of Collins 2b of the As and Cobb CF of the Tigers gives me a dynamite 1-2 combination. The rest of my lineup has Foxx, Cabrera, Greenburg, Simmons, Trammel, and Cochrane. I went with Dodger stadium to optimize my pitching staff. I am counting on 90 -95 victories from this team.

180 million: 174 Trombones led the Parade. I am going with a 6 man starting pitching staff. All with 150 to 198 IP. I have a seven man bullpen. Heavy duty in quality relievers. To get enough PA I went with 4 guys around 700 PA. Speaker, Sisler, Waner, and A-Rod. I will be platooning Chipper, Teddy baseball, and Dennis Lyons between 3b and DH. I will be rotating Nap, Dickey, and Heinie Peitz between 2b and C. My final platoon will be Joe D and Al Simmons in the OF. I am always very confident in my high cap teams. I am playing in Shibe park. I expect this to be my best team with 92 - 97 teams.

Again, I am just happy to be around to participate in the tournament this year. For those in my age category put your big boy pants on and GET YOUR PROSTRATE checked. I had been doing that but still got caught anyway. And you younger guys, bug your Dads, Granddads, and Uncles. The test for prostrate problems has a stigma of being a pain and men avoid it. But let me tell you it is nothing compared to the pain and discomfort of getting it fixed after it becomes a major problem.

Mpitt, your $90M approach/rationale sounds almost identical to mine

Biggest oversight is in $90m most people didn't draft extra stamina to account for all the errors.