This is always my favorite thread. Reading how others built their teams, and why. If you have time, please share your roster building strategies.

$60M Theme
Everybody Chien-Ming Wang Chung Tonight
Ballpark: The Astrodome
The most important factor when building low cap themes is determining the right number of innings to roster. Roster too many innings, and you give up a talent advantage. Roster too few innings, and the fatigue death spiral will kill you. I know some low-cap experts can get away with 1200 innings or even lower, but I’m no low cap expert. With no $200K scrubs available to rest the good pitchers, I decided to go with 1300 innings, while using all thirteen pitching slots, including four SPs (with 210-233 ips each) - '43 Dutch Leonard, '06 Chien-Ming Wang, '02 Ned Garvin & '06 Greg Maddux. Six of my nine RPs have fewer than 45 innings, and nearly my entire bullpen consists of short-inning SPs. I spent $29.9 million on my pitching staff.

Offensively, I didn’t have any specific strategy such as drafting stolen bases or triples hitters. Like most of my teams, I did try to roster as many switch hitters as possible. I ended up with six switch hitters in my starting lineup, including '14 Brayan Pena (C), '92 Tommy Tucker (1B), '19 Asdrubal Cabrera (3B), '97 Tony Phillips (LF), '04 Billy Lush (CF) and '96 Ruben Sierra (RF). '21 Whit Merrifield (2B) and '19 David Fletcher (SS) are my other two regular batters. I am platooning at three positions (C, 3B, OF) with four players ('17 Jeimer Candelario, '05 Jose Cruz Jr., '02 Angel Echevarria, '83 John Wockenfuss) . I drafted 5328 PAs which is 666 PAs per lineup spot. I hope that is enough.

I named my team after one of my favorite low-cap starting pitchers. For whatever reason, Chien-Ming Wang always seems to pitch way better in the sim than his real life stats would indicate.

Total Batting Stats: 5328 pa, .274 avg, .349 obp, .390 slug, $30.1 million
Total Pitching Stats: 1301 ip, 3.08 era, .256 oav, 1.18 whip, 0.40 hr/9, $29.9 million

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$90M Theme
Failed Experiment, 1917-21
Ballpark: Comiskey Park
I built 6 different rosters, but I couldn’t decide which roster I liked the best. Since I started building these teams a long time ago, I decided that I had time to throw these teams into a full-season league and see how they did against each other. But here’s the problem. There is no 6-team full-season league option. Instead of trying to build 6 new teams, I figured I would put these six teams into a 12-team league, with 2 identical versions of each team (with identical settings). This would be perfect as now I have twice as many data points to work with and it will iron out any variance. I forgot to switch from inter-league play to just intra-league play, so there was crossover play, which muddied things a bit. But that’s not why this was a failed experiment. Without identifying the years I used, I will post the standings. For simplicity, I will call these teams, A, B, C, D, E, F.

East Division
Team C à 89-73, 22-19 in 1-run games, .565 Exp Win%
Team E à 84-78, 34-21 in 1-run games, .493 Exp Win%
Team A à 78-84, 15-24 in 1-run games, .504 Exp Win%
Team D à 77-85, 18-26 in 1-run games, .470 Exp Win%
Team B à 77-85, 17-21 in 1-run games, .443Exp Win%
Team F à 74-88, 25-21 in 1-run games, .475 Exp Win%

West Division
Team F à 92-70, 24-13 in 1-run games, .556 Exp Win%
Team B à 88-74, 23-21 in 1-run games, .511 Exp Win%
Team A à 88-74, 29-25 in 1-run games, .543 Exp Win%
Team E à 80-82, 21-27 in 1-run games, .488 Exp Win%
Team D à 74-88, 14-23 in 1-run games, .494 Exp Win%
Team C à 71-91, 20-21 in 1-run games, .463 Exp Win%

What the f*ck? Each team has two identical rosters, with identical settings. Team “C” finishes 1st in one division and last in the other. Team “F” finishes 1st in one division and last in the other. Does this game have that much randomness? Team “A finished in 3rd place in both leagues, so maybe “A” is the answer.

At the all-star break, I was set to go with Team A (both versions were over .500, both in actual win% and expected). But then, both versions kind of sputtered in the second half, although the West version of Team A got hot at the end. With about 25-30 games to go in the season, I was all set to take Team C, but the West Team C went on a 1-17 run down the stretch. For what it’s worth, Team “F” beat Team “C” in the World Series in 6 games.

So, what did I ultimately decide on? Well, team F is a modern team with some HR hitters and I didn’t feel comfortable using them against what I assumed would be a number of dead-ball teams. Plus, this team had the worst range of my six teams, although it did have a bunch of switch hitters. I really felt good about Team C and after digging into the stats of the individual players of Team C (on both rosters), I ended up making some tweaks to Team C’s roster and entered a modified version of Team C.

So essentially, I ran a 12-team simulation, only I didn't enter any of the six teams (as originally built).

OK – so who is on my team? Here is my starting lineup.

C - 1921 Wally Schang (replaces 1919 Steve O’Neill)
1B - 1919 George Sisler (replaces 1919 Fred Luderus)
2B - 1919 Rogers Hornsby (replaces 1921 Eddie Collins)
3B - 1920 Buck Weaver (original)
SS- 1920 Dave Bancroft (replaces 1919 Roger Peckinpaugh)
OF - 1921 Max Carey (original)
OF - 1921 Zack Wheat (original)
OF - 1917 Clyde Milan (original)
Got some new backups too, but not that important

Pitching
SP - 1918 Carl Mays (original)
SP - 1917 Babe Ruth (original)
SP - 1920 Jesse Barnes (replaces 1920 Burleigh Grimes)
RP – 1918 Jack Quinn (original)
RP – 1918 Carmen Hill (original)
RP – 1918 Roy Mitchell (original)
RP – 1919 Ray Caldwell (original)
RP – 1921 Al Mamaux (original)
RP – 1921 Red Shea (original)
Plus two mop-up guys

So what I determined from analyzing the stats is that Carl Mays and Babe Ruth both pitched well (and both also hit really well). Burleigh Grimes (who I drafted for his bat) was not very good (on both teams). I saved almost $3 million by downgrading him to Jesse Barnes, allowing me to upgrade my weakest hitters. Schang, Sisler, Hornsby are huge upgrades while Bancroft is probably a slight downgrade compared to Peckinpaugh but he saved me some salary as I will be using a 514-PA version along with a couple of backups to play SS.

Total Batting Stats (excl. scrubs): 5549 pa, .315 avg, .377 obp, .428 slug, $44.4 million
Total Pitching Stats (excl scrubs): 1346 ip, 2.22 era, .220 oav, 1.06 whip, 0.13 hr/9, 44.8 million

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$100M Theme
BIg Ed & The Switch Hitters
Ballpark: Busch Stadium
I built this team when I was in Las Vegas - I worked on it every morning before I went to go play poker. Not sure why I felt it was important to mention this, but I built one roster and liked it enough to not bother trying a second build. I could have come up with a fantastic team had this been a slightly higher cap, but at $100M, I had to settle on some lesser seasons of players I really like. The color key is Red = Teammate, Blue = Clones Player, Green = Team Selected.

This theme is very tricky. Where do I even start? I decided the single best value at a $100M cap is 1908 Ed Walsh, so I started with him as one of my seven teammates. My first grid player was a cheap scrub, Billy Purtell, who played for the 1908 White Sox and the 1911 Red Sox. I have the Red Sox on the top left corner and the White Sox on the top left side. Of course, the White Sox’ history is full of decent pitching options. At first, I thought about Hoyt Wilhelm since his Braves season would put Greg Maddux into play but I chose a different direction with RP Don McMahon. I selected his 1967 White Sox season (92 ip, 1.82 erc#) so I could add teammate SP 1967 Joe Horlen (258 ip, 2.08 erc#). I also rostered McMahon’s 1973 Giants season (31 ip, 1.52 erc#) and that opened up the availability of some key Giants players I wanted to add.

So now I have the Giants as my middle team on the top. I immediately went to Frankie Frish, which meant that the second franchise on the left side would be St. Louis Cardinals. With a $100M salary cap, Frisch’s 1921, 1924 and 1927 seasons are just too expensive, so I am using his 1922 Giants season (.310, .376, .426) at 3B and his 1930 Cardinals season (.323, .390, .486) at 2B. His 1922 teammate will be my starting shortstop, 1922 Dave Bancroft (.305, .387, .407, A++ range). He is a bit expensive ($6.8M) for this cap level, so hopefully his range will make up for it.

Sticking with the switch-hitting theme, I found the perfect grid player for my Red Sox / Cardinals square. I am rostering Reggie Smith’s 1969 Red Sox season (.319, .372, .534) and his 1975 Cardinals season (.305, .383, .495). His teammate is one of my favorite catchers, 1975 Ted Simmons (.335, .397, .498).

At this point, I have four franchises selected and four grid boxes filled. I still need a 1B, one OF, one SP, a bunch of RPs, and some backup PAs for Reggie Smith as his two seasons that I selected have only 550 & 607 PAs. I started looking at RPs. I still could’ve gone the Wilhelm/Braves route for my third franchise along the top row, but frankly, Hoyt Wilhelm always disappoints me in the sim. Instead, I went with short-inning SP, Jack Quinn. His 1918 White Sox season (67 ip, 1.67 erc#) allows me to add his teammate 1918 Joe Jackson (102 pa, .359, .428, .525) to pinch hit and play a little OF. Quinn has another usable short-inning season with the 1913 Braves (61 ip, 2.76 erc#).

Using baseball-reference, I started searching through all the players who played with the Cardinals and Braves. I found Bernard Gilkey. I didn’t want any of his full seasons. But I liked his two partial seasons, 1990 Cardinals (72 pa, .300, .379, .484) and 2001 Braves (121 pa, .274, .338, .366). Both have cheap salaries. But the main reason I selected Gilkey is to add my final SP, 2001 Greg Maddux (233 ip, 2.55 erc#). Yes, I wish I could afford a better version, but at only $6.8 million, I could certainly do a lot worse. If I could add just $5 million more to the salary cap, I could have rostered a better Frankie Frisch and a better Greg Maddux.

The next step was to get my starting 1B and third starting OF. I really wanted to add Roger Connor using my Giants column, and I figured out a way to do this. I rostered his 1888 Giants season (.304, .414, .511) and plan on playing him out of position in RF (he’s a C/A at 1B so he shouldn’t hurt me too much defensively). And Conner’s other season will come from the 1892 Phillies (.304, .427, .492). No teammates worth using here.

So now, my third franchise on the lower left side of the grid is the Phillies. Now, I just need to add a bunch of RPs using Red Sox/Phillies and Braves/Phillies. I have about $7.2 million of salary left to do this and I need about 200 innings. I basically drafted the best RPs I could find/afford. My Red Sox / Phillies player is Sparkly Lyle. His 1967 Red Sox season (44 ip, 2.84 erc#) is ok. The other Spark Lyle (’82 Phillies) is a scrub. My Braves/Phillies player is Gene Garber. I added his 1981 Braves season (96 ip, 2.37 erc#) in order to add my final teammate, 1981 Al Hrabosky (52 ip, 1.84 erc#). 1978 Phillies Gene Garber (39 ip, 1.85 erc#) is the final piece.

Total Batting Stats (excl scrubs): 5649 pa, .315 avg, .391 obp, .474 slug, $48.5 million
Total Pitching Stats (excl scrubs): 1462 ip, 1.98 era, .213 oav, 0.95 whip, 0.31 hr/9, $50.7 million

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$120M Theme
Build a Better Box for Round 2
Ballpark: Comiskey Park
In last year’s tournament, for the Bingo theme (which was used in both rounds), I didn’t do any research for my round 2 roster build, figuring that I would worry about it later, if I advanced. That round 2 team didn’t fare very well (barely getting over .500 and missing the playoffs). So, in this year’s 2-round theme, I built my Round 2 roster first. This was important because there really aren’t a ton of great pitchers for a $120M cap. Color key: Red = Teammate, Blue - Box player.

This is where I started. I went with ’78 Guidry (Box 2), ’36 Hubbell (Box 1), ’67 Horlen (Box 5) and ’23 Luque (Box 6). Yes, I realize this adds up to almost 1200 innings, so I will have to manage my pitching staff to make sure my SPs can also pitch out of the bullpen. The teammates include starting catcher ’23 Bubbles Hargrave (468 pa, .320, .412, .515), backup middle infielder ’36 Mark Koenig and relievers ’67 Don McMahon (92 ip, 1.82 erc#), ’67 Cisco Carlos (42 ip, 1.20 erc#) and ’78 Jay Johnstone (scrub).

For my offense, I decided to draft high-average guys with good range and avoid HR hitters. Of course, that starts with Box 8 second baseman ’24 Frankie Frisch (.317, .383, .463, A++) and Box 10 shortstop ’21 Dave Bancroft (.304, .384, .433, A++). Box 9 provides my most expensive hitter, first baseman ’30 Bill Terry (.377, .434, .587, A+). Terry’s teammate is my starting 3B, ’30 Freddy Lindstrom (.355, .407, .541), giving me two starting batters, not listed in the boxes. Bancroft’s teammate is short-inning pitcher, ’21 Red Shea (34 ip, 2.33 erc#), while Frisch’s teammate is ’24 Dinty Gearin (scrub).

Since I have 2 starting batters not listed in the boxes, I need some cheap versions of box players. Box 4 catcher ’46 Bill Dickey (165 pa, .265, .358, .375) will spell Bubbles. More importantly, Dickey’s teammate, ’46 Red Ruffing (65 ip, 1.66 erc#) gives me another solid arm out of the pen.

My outfield consists of ’26 Al Simmons (Box 3), ’21 Ty Cobb (Box 11) and ’21 Max Carey (Box 7). All three are high-average hitters with good defense. Carey should get 25-30 plus plays in CF. Two of their teammates are decent… ’21 Larry Woodall (98 pa, .345, .392, .424) will play some catcher. ’26 Fred Heimach (35 ip, 2.11 erc#) is another warm body to pitch. ’21 Johnny Mokan is an extra OF.

That leaves one box and the 3B position. Luckily, ’20 Pie Traynor is cheap (<300K) and his teammate, ’20 Johnny Meador is also a cheap scrub.

Total Batting Stats (excl scrubs): 5746 pa, .347 avg, .410 obp, .519 slug, $63.0 million
Total Pitching Stats (excl scrubs): 1457 ip, 1.99 era, .213 oav, 1.01 whip, 0.29 hr/9, $55.6 million

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$160M Theme
All of My Favorite Players
Ballpark: South Side Park III
This was a fun and interesting build. Doing some quick math, if you picked the midpoint of each salary range (i.e., 500K, 1.5M, 2.5M, etc.), that would get you to $144 million, leaving $16M for your last player. Color key: Blue = Pitchers, Red = Hitters.

I started with 1908 Ed Walsh again (I can’t help myself), realizing that I would need to select a bunch of players at the low end of the salary range due to Walsh’s $19.6 million salary. I created a spreadsheet with a formula to let me know how much wiggle room I had, as I selected each player. Walsh puts me $3.6M over that midpoint, so I needed to pick some guys near the bottom end of each salary range to make it fit. I started with pitching. ’99 Pedro Martinez ($11.3 million) and ’85 Lady Baldwin ($11.1) would be starting pitchers 2A and 2B. That saved $600K when compared to the midpoint of $11.5M. Some other pitchers at the low end of the range that I rostered included ’19 Art Nehf ($6.1), ’21 Corbin Burnes ($7.1), ’67 Cisco Carlos ($3.1), ’21 Jacob deGrom ($6.1), ’18 Jake Northtop ($3.4) and ’92 Dennis Rasmussen ($2.0). In total, this saved me another $2.2 million. I also added ’20 Tony Gonsolin ($5.7) and ’20 Trevor Rosenthal ($2.6), which cost me an extra $300K. So I am rolling out with these eleven pitchers, all but Rosenthal can throw more than 10 pitchers per appearance. Overall, I’m still $1.1 million over where I need to be.

On the hitting side, I started looking at some of my favorite high cap players and gravitated to those guys with a salary just above the low-end of the salary range. Some of my favorites making the roster include ’24 Frankie Frisch ($8.0), ’44 Stan Musial ($9.1), ’08 Chipper Jones ($8.2), ’10 Ty Cobb ($10.1), ’47 Ted Williams ($10.4). With this $1.7 million savings, I am now +$0.6 million better than the midpoint and now can afford some guys at the midpoint or even a bit higher. With this in mind, I quickly added my all-time favorite high-cap player, ’85 Roger Connor ($9.9). Shortstop ‘97 George Davis ($7.5) gives my team another switch hitter. I still need a catcher, a DH and some bench guys. I’ve used this DH platoon in other leagues with success, so I will use it again here - ’46 Roy Cullenbine ($4.7) and ’44 Dick Wakefield ($4.0) will split time at DH. Instead of running out a 2-3 player catching platoon, I decided to go cheap at catcher with ’91 Duke Farrell ($5.6). That gives me six switch hitters in my starting lineup. My only non-switch-hitters are leftues Cobb, Musial and T.Williams.

All that’s left is the four cheap guys. I need some PAs to spell Chipper at 3B. ’91 Bret Barbarie ($1.8) is a favorite of mine (also a swtich-hitter). I need a few OF plate appearances since Cobb only has 621 PA. Also, a defensive replacement for Ted Williams would be nice. I added ’95 Dwayne Hosey ($1.3) and ’46 Dave Philley ($0.9). At this point, I have about 400K left, so ’92 Jocko Fields is my last player and is simply a backup catcher who probably won't play.

I built only this one roster and didn’t tinker with it once I was finished.

Total Batting Stats (excl. scrub): 6503 pa, .348 avg, .439 obp, .534 slug, $81.6 million
Total Pitching Stats: 1642 ip, 1.68 era, .195 oav, 0.86 whip, 0.19 hr/9, $78.0 million

I'm not going to comment on how I think each team will do. Way too hard with sharp group of guys. My aggregate expectations are 3 will be playoffs teams, 3 probably won't be.

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$255M Theme
What Can Brown Do For You
Yankee Stadium III
My writeup on my draft is in the other thread.

WISC #1 - AVG=ERA

The $600k rule effectively means no mop-up pitchers and plenty of part time players (such as platoons), as 200k bunch scrubs aren't a possibility. I went for as many cookies (like Whit Merrifield at 2B, and Elston Howard/Brayan Pena at C) as I possibly could, but as usual at low caps I find myself with low IP and low PA. I'm relying on my tried and true "Petco means quality over quantity" approach to work here, but if it doesn't work there could be major fatigue problems. I guess I can always sacrifice Tom Thomas, who costs just over 600k, if I become desperate...

Hitting: 5044 PA 0.266/0.332/0.393 93HR 212SB
Pitching: 1217 IP 2.68 ERA 1.06 WHIP 0.240 OAV 68HR

WISC #2 - Ruth's Post WW1 5 Year Plan

I initially thought I was going to go super modern, like say 2018-2022 or 2019-2023. And then I simmed it up against a 1918-1922 team and watched the super modern era team get smoked over a simulated 162 game season (the 1918-1922 had like a 0.640 winning % against the modern guys). 1918 has a crazy amount of good, affordable bullpen pitchers available, and with Babe Adams and Pete Alexander as SPs, and Frankie Frisch, Babe Ruth, Ken Williams and Max Carey for offense, this team is terrifying to behold. This team could very well be the best team in the league.

Hitting: 5569 PA 0.311/0.375/0.436 72HR 194SB
Pitching: 1344 IP 2.23 ERA 1.00 WHIP 0.231 OAV 21HR

WISC #3 - Speaker/Alexander/Bernhard

The teamname kind of tips off what my 3 core clone players are. That determined 5 of my 6 franchises to be Athletics, Cardinals, Cubs, Indians, and Red Sox. And since I wanted to add Ken Williams as my other starting OF and bench OF, that determined the last franchise to be the Orioles. With all 6 franchises determined, I now just had to figure out the rest of the clones. The Cardinals franchise meant I could make Jim Bottomley as the Cardinals/Orioles player, and bring in Frankie Frisch as his teammate. For relief pitching/starting pitching, I picked Dennis Eckersley, Andrew Miller, and Chris Martin as 3 other clones.

That allowed me to build the vast majority of the roster, leaving just one clone to go and not a lot of salary to play with. And that was the most difficult part of this build - finding a clone that will fit under the salary cap when he has to have played for the exact two franchises you need (Orioles/Athletics in this case) is extremely annoying and time consuming. I thought I was screwed for a while until one day I got lucky and hit upon Jake Fox, a backup catcher (and I did need backup catcher PA). Overall, I'm very happy with this team, and I have high hopes they'll be the best team in the league given how much trouble other owners seemed to have with this theme.

Hitting: 5822 PA 0.311/0.382/0.506 152HR 162SB
Pitching: 1398 IP 2.25 ERA 0.97 WHIP 0.221 OAV 58HR

WISC #4 - Who Needs Stephens or North?

The first round version of this theme at $100M was horrible, just a torture to try and build the roster. Surprisingly, the same was not true at $120M. That didn't make this theme a walk in the park, but it was nothing like last time. My strategy in R1 had been to leave my options open for R2, so that certainly helped.

I decided to go with Koufax/Tiant/Brecheen as my main SPs, picked a RP from the other SP box (Robin Roberts, since relief options are at a premium in this theme). I went with Jim Bottomley at 1B, Frankie Frisch at 2B, Mike Schmidt at 3B, and then picked Earl Averill and Willie Mays at OF since those were the options left (the other elite OFs were blocked by the Koufax/Tiant picks). I then picked garbage versions of Vern Stephens in the SS box and Billy North in the other OF box, and picked the 79 version of Ted Simmons at C so that I could then pick Billy Williams as my other OF and Gary Templeton at SS.

Hitting: 6121 PA 0.320/0.384/0.541 228HR 151SB
Pitching: 1469 IP 2.04 ERA 0.96 WHIP 0.202 OAV 67HR

WISC #5 - The Big Train's Ark

I knew I wanted my 25th player to be an elite big inning deadballer (and one who didn't play in a super hitter friendly park), as the theme's rules for pitching staffs clearly favors low IP elite modern day pitchers that tend to give up more HRs. I selected 1912 Walter Johnson, who costs $19.47M and that meant I needed to scrimp and save in all the other brackets. Luckily, there are several players who help in that regard, like 1928 Babe Ruth and 1915 Ty Cobb who costs just over $10M or the "Super Milacki" 2021 Jacob DeGrom who costs just over $6M.

2015 Zack Greinke, 2016 Clayton Kershaw and 2020 Dinelson Lamet round out the SPs, while 1896 Ed Delahanty at OF, 1886 Dan Brouthers at 1B, and 1927 Harry Heilmann at DH round out the other notable starting positional players. Catcher was platooned between a 337 PA Jason Kendall who can throw out would be base stealers and a decent hitting 1954 Smoky Burgess. For the playoffs, DeGrom isn't my only "Game 7" starter on my roster - I also have Milacki and Rich Hill. Having multiple bullets was an immensely successful strategy for me in the $140M theme in R1, as my epic series with 06gsp demonstrated.

Hitting: 6548 PA 0.357/0.443/0.559 160HR 317SB
Pitching: 1501 IP 1.58 ERA 0.80 WHIP 0.175 OAV 67HR

WISC #6 - Pedro's Misfits

There really isn't that much strategy to talk about here, other than that I wanted to make sure I had an elite bullpen (that's the easiest way to differentiate yourself in a high cap draft league), and that I wasn't going to massively overdraft PA and IP (this is not a successful strategy unless you plan to go into Coors or some other massive offensive boosting ballpark).

Other than that, I just wanted to make sure I didn't accidentally screw myself (which I could have several times, but caught myself), got enough quality innings at SP, and didn't get totally hosed into taking a bad player at a position of scarcity (like 2B, 3B or SS). I think I accomplished that, even though I had to change my plans several times during the draft. Some flexibility isn't a bad thing - I know schwarze took that idea to the next level by creating huge uncertainty for others in what his roster was going to look like. I didn't really worry about my salary, since picking at the top of the draft pretty much guaranteed I was going to be among the highest salary rosters.

Oh, I almost forgot - one interesting thing was at the very beginning of the draft - whether to draft Pedro or Maddux with the 1st pick. I actually like Maddux better, but picking Maddux meant immediately ruling out any option to draft 2020-2023 players, and that meant I was picking Pedro.

The teams in this league are going to be so much worse than the ones in the $160M.

Hitting: 6785 PA 0.315/0.403/0.581 367HR 188SB
Pitching: 1474 IP 2.02 ERA 0.87 WHIP 0.177 OAV 104HR

Now that all leagues are full, I added my 90M writeup.

60M - The Sixth Sheik’s Sheep’s Sick
My feeling about this team is about the same as my ability to say my team name out loud 10 times fast. I have no idea whether it will be any good because I haven’t the foggiest idea what a good $60M team looks like. I’m pretty sure I’ve never used any of these seasons for any of my offensive players, and the only pitchers I’ve ever used are <$1M mainstays Larry Jaster and Dave Ford. I used 2021 Merrifield because I figured almost everyone else will, and chose a primary catcher (1916 Schang) with an A+ arm for the same reason. My other catcher is someone named Victor Caratini. We’re playing in Braves Field because if all else fails I like to choose a stadium that I can visit on my way home from work, if we pretend that it still existed and any of this was real. It’s also near one of those Amazon.com locations where you can drop off returns by scanning a QR code and putting the product in one of those safe deposit box kind of things, which I’m sure people would not have been able to imagine when Braves Field was still there. I don’t know what else to say, except that I hope these guys can finish around .500 or so.

5256 PA, .274/.358/.412
1306 IP, 2.98 ERC#, 0.43 HR/9+


90M – Nineteen Tweens
One of the exercises that I undergo in drafting low-to-mid cap teams is to figure out how many IP I want to draft, how much in total I want to spend on pitching, calculate $/IP, and then see what kind of starting pitching I can get for that amount. Doing so usually yields pitchers in the 1910-1919 range. In this case the majority of the SPs were in the early half of that decade, so I drafted a team from those years. My other thought was to draft the best team I could from post-2017, or post-dynamic pricing. On paper the two teams looked similar, with the former team having better pitching and the latter having equally better hitting. However, the hitting advantage for the latter was almost completely due to home run power, and in my experience, in any league where home run power can be negated (such as this one) it largely will be. So boring baseball it will be. Drafting a team with 57 RL HRs saddens me, but exactly one third of those come from the great Gavvy Cravath, who hopefully will surpass his RL total. Steve Evans is the other star hitter. The rotation includes Babe Adams, Tom L. Hughes, and a Ray Caldwell / Ed Reulbach tandem. We’re playing in South End Grounds for the same reasons noted in the paragraph above except it doesn’t have an Amazon.com drop-off location. For reasons that I cannot possibly fathom, I kind of like this team even though I drafted too many innings. I’m probably wrong.

5431 PA, .315/.406/.472
1425 IP, 2.21 ERC#, 0.31 HR/9+ for the first 1400 of those innings


100M – Griddy, Not Priddy
Earl Grant, head coach of the Boston College men’s basketball team, uses the mantra “gritty, not pretty” to describe his team’s style of play. They have to play that way, because there’s no way BC ever out-talents the heavyweights (or middleweights, even) of the ACC. Kind of like me in this tournament filled with WhatIf superstars. Will any of my teams have the grit to hang with the big boys? I guess we’ll find out. Peeking ahead at his already posted writeup, I see that I had the same thought as one WISC heavyweight, schwarze, in wanting to anchor my pitching staff with 1908 Walsh. I rostered him via teammate Frank Smith, who in addition to his cap-appropriate 318 IP 1908 has a 30 IP 1910 Red Sox season that can be used as a serviceable Long B. The Red Sox yielded two of my $100M cap favorites: SS Eddie Lake, who also has a cheap Cardinals season that enables 1941 Johnny Mize, and 3B Kung Fu Panda, who adds the Giants to complete the y-axis of my grid. Moving across the Pale-hosed x-axis I added the Braves version of Hoyt Wilhelm, whose 1967 White Sox season also brings along 258 IP Joe Horlen. Braves/Cardinals gives me one very good season and one decent half-season of J.D. Drew, and Braves/Giants yields 656 PAs of Ernie Lombardi at catcher as well as the weak link of my team, primary 2B 1946 Buddy Blattner whoever that is. In my final column, Morrie Martin has an acceptable Long A season with the White Sox, and his cheap Dodgers season enables a Dodgers column with a Dodgers/Cardinals duo of Reggie Smith seasons, and my home (Ebbets) field. The final cell in the grid is populated by Eric Young, whose ’97 will provide 175 PAs of welcome respite from the smooth stylings of the aforementioned Blattner. My primary roster looks pretty good to me, but I’ll also be using some of the cheap guys who are not included in these numbers, so I’m not sure how this will all play out.

5353 PA, .304/.397/.506 (plus 277 PA of suckitude not included)
1384 IP, 2.00 ERC#, 0.23 HR/9+ (plus 63 IP of mop-up not included)


120M – And a fighter by his trade
This team’s name is the logical follow-up to round 1’s “In the clearing stands a boxer”. I think it makes sense to look at this team by box, in the approximate order in which I filled them.

Box 2 – Ron Guidry. LHP2 was a choice between Koufax, Guidry and Blue. I really wanted Musial from Blue’s box 3, and Koufax’s box 1 had Hubbell and Vance to choose from, so Guidry it was. Possibly the biggest gamble I’m taking with this team is Guidry’s teammate Goose Gossage, whose 2.18 ERC# seems fine as a Long A but whose 3.95 BB/9# and 0.56 HR/9+ might be problematic.

Box 3 – Stan Musial. His 1943 is a perfect CF and leadoff hitter at this cap, and comes with one of the best available teammates in Pollet. If Brecheen weren’t in one of the other boxes I would’ve been able to avoid using Gossage, but oh well.

Box 4 – Harry Heilmann. The only OF2s I liked were Al Simmons, Kiner, and Heilmann, and Simmons is in Musial’s box while I prefer to use Kiner as a 1B. Teammate Earl Whitehill will serve as a Long B.

Box 5 – Joe Horlen. I purposely saved Horlen for round 2, which is fine I guess. I wanted him both because he’s one of the better SPs available and because he has an excellent RP teammate in 132 IP, 1.87 ERC# Hoyt Wilhelm. However, in hindsight I wish I had at least considered using Chance from box 6, which would’ve enabled me to use Cochrane or Newhouser from box 5.

Box 1 – Carl Hubbell. My original thought was to use Dazzy Vance here, but the only LHP1s that I liked were Newhouser and Hubbell, and I’d already filled box 5 with Horlen. Of course, if I had used Chance instead of Horlen…

Box 7 – Babe Adams. With Guidry, Hubbell, and a tandem of Horlen and Pollet my starting rotation was set, so here I grabbed an excellent closer who also yields 1924 Kiki Cuyler as most (546 PA) of a starting outfielder.

Box 8 – Joe Sewell. There weren’t many shortstops available who I like at this cap. The best Vaughan is too expensive and I don’t love any of the other guys available. Sewell is a defensive liability but gets on base. His teammate Joe Connolly is a solid pinch-hitter.

Box 6 – Gabby Hartnett, Box 10 – Red Schoendienst. My original plan was to use Fisk at C and Eddie Collins at 2B, but I liked this combo better because my shortstop can’t field so I suppose my second baseman should be able to.

Box 11 – Sunny Jim Bottomley. I was running out of boxes here. I wanted a lefthanded hitter at 1B and he fit the cap. Teammate Orsatti will fill in for Cuyler occasionally in LF.

Box 9 – Brooks Robinson. I don’t like him, but the only available 3B who I like at this cap were George Brett and Dick Allen, and they were in boxes from which I needed starting pitching. My original plan was to save money here by using 1965, but I later figured out that by juggling things around I could afford the much superior 1964, which gives me two solid RPs in Hall and Haddix.

Box 12 – Billy North. My team was complete at this point. 1978 North is a cheap pinch-runner, and teammate Dwayne Murphy is a cheap benchwarmer.

My lineup didn’t end up being especially homer-heavy, and my bullpen is somewhat homer-prone, so I decided to play in League Park II to maximize my offense’s singles and doubles. I think I like this team which is often the kiss of death.

5450 PA, .340/.412/.555 (starters, Orsatti, and 39 PA of Connolly)
1458 IP, 1.89 ERC#, 0.37 HR/9+ (not including 62 IP of mop-up)


160M – When it rains, it pours
Again, I think it makes sense to look at this team by salary slot.

12M+ 1912 Walter Johnson. I thought about ’94 Maddux here, but I think I went with Big Train because I wanted more innings out of my high salary guy. I cannot for the life of me remember the last time I used a Walter Johnson season so I have no idea how this will work. I also don’t love Griffith Stadium but I probably need it.

$11M – 1920 George Sisler, 1885 Lady Baldwin. I prefer the other Sisler but he’s over $12M. I like Baldwin because he’s a lefty so I can pair him with a righty for a platoon-busting tandem.

$10M – 1928 Rogers Hornsby, 1908 Honus Wagner. 1928 is my favorite Hornsby for the money. He’s a little short on PAs but that’s easily remedied in a league like this one. I had trouble justifying using anyone but Wagner at SS at this cap.

$9M – 1902 Bill Bernhard, 1895 Sam Thompson. Bernhard serves as the other half of the platoon-busting tandem, and I love me some Sam Thompson. Dude always rakes.

$8M – 2008 Chipper Jones, 1954 Ted Williams. The best Chipper is low on PAs but we’ll fix that later. Splinter’s .512 OBP# and 1.151 OPS# look great to me, especially at this price.

$7M – 1893 Billy Hamilton, 1918 Fred Toney. Hamilton is my primary CF although he’s another low-PA guy. Toney will 20-pitch tandem with The Big Train, though he’ll occasionally need to be swapped out for one of my long relievers.

$6M – 1895 Jack Clements, 1894 Bill Joyce. At this cap, especially in a DH league, I can’t fathom using any other catching situation than the Clements/Milligan platoon. Any extra PAs can sub in at DH. It’s so perfect that I wouldn’t consider anyone else. Joyce works well as the primary DH and occasional fill-in for Chipper at 3B.

$5M – 1889 Jocko Milligan, 2020 Devin Williams. Time to start in on the bullpen with one of the best.

$4M – 2006 Joe Nathan, 2020 Liam Hendricks. More bullpen.

$3M – 2006 Cla Meredith, 2001 Joel Pineiro. Ditto, with Pineiro providing much-needed length.

$2M – 2020 Cesar Valdez, 2018 Tommy Pham. With his 1.59 IP/G, Valdez is my favorite of the 2020 closers. I seriously don’t know what I would’ve done with this team if we had to choose players from 25 different seasons. Pham (A+/D+) will be Hamilton’s platoon partner in CF because I’m just that insane. Remember that George Harrison song “When We Was Fab”? Literally every time I see Tommy Pham’s name I automatically sing that refrain in my head, substituting Pham for Fab. Because I’m just that insane.

$1M – 1990 Bill Doran, 1952 Mike Fornieles. Doran is a perfect fill-in for Hornsby, and Fornieles provides multiple IP/G in a setup B role.

< $1M – 2017 Jeremy Hazelbaker, 1974 Steve Kline. Hazelbaker is a backup OF who can hit, and Kline is a mop-up who might occasionally be able to get someone out.

Did I draft enough innings here? Possibly not. But if I did then this team is probably OK.

6058 PA, .367/.454/.607
1449 IP, 1.54 ERC#, 0.18 HR/9+ (not including 26 Kline mop-up IP)


[EDIT] Draft league commentary has been added to the draft commentary thread.

Overview
Well, I’m sincerely just happy to be here. Through much of Round 1, I was way outside the Cage until going on a good second-half run to secure a spot comfortably enough. I’d be thrilled to wind up in the top 10, which seems possible at least with twice the points available this round. The problem is my confidence in some of these teams isn’t so high.

I do like a couple of these teams reasonably well, which is surely a bad sign. I liked the way my draft went, and then I managed to spend enough to wind up in the side with most of the top 10 owners. So that probably won’t go so well. And after checking all the rosters, I don’t see anything special about my teams that gives me great confidence.

Anyway, I named all my teams after a piece of dialogue from a movie or TV show that mentions a name shared by one (or more) of my players. See if you can identify all of them!


60M
This Is My Trusted Servant, Patsy

I really had no overarching strategy other than to figure out the optimal $/IP and $/PA range to work from and try to find some value knowing we’d be playing in a pitchers’ park to stretch the innings and PA. I suspect most people did something pretty similar and that we’ll see a whole lot of Safeco, Petco, and Astro(dome) in this league.

I didn’t particularly worry about pitchers who gave up a lot of HR, emphasizing lower WHIP and trying not to use guys who can only throw 10 pitches either. Four of the 6 guys in the bullpen are starters and can be stretched out as needed. With a couple exceptions, these are basically all pitchers I’ve never used before (or at least these seasons of theirs). Walks are pretty low all around as are strikeouts, but they’ll give up some hits.

My rule on offense was not to spend over $4M on anyone and try to spread the funds around as best I could. I wanted decent defense up the middle and good speed through the lineup. I doubt I’ll be the only owner using 2021 Whit Merrifield at 2B (spoiler alert: he’s on 12 teams!), but I’d be surprised if anyone else has a Tom Brookens, quite possibly the least notable member of those 80s Tigers infields (spoiler alert: he’s mine, all mine!). One way to make the 600K minimum work for me was to split up the catching into three players (originally I tried to do it with four, but I needed one more roster spot elsewhere). So I have a lefty, and righty, and a switch-hitter each with about 200 PA. One has a good arm that I might try to deploy if we face any super speedy squads. My concern is there will be a lot of speedy squads, and my D arms will get run over when they start.

I don’t know how anyone can look at a 60M team and think it’s good, so I’ll just have to hope it’s capable of being in the .500 range. I’d be perfectly happy with 85 wins here, but I’m a little worried we’ll end up closer to 70.

5063 PA, .264/.333/.385, 253 2B, 52 3B, 83 HR, 161/90 SB
1304 IP, 2.81 ERA, .249 OAV, 1.11 WHIP, 0.43 HR/9

90M:
Sorry About That, Chief

I tinkered with a few timeframes and wound up building 5 teams for this theme: 1885-89, 1911-15, 1914-18, 1965-69, and 2019-23. I narrowed down my final choice to 1911-15 and 2019-23, and it’s virtually certain I blew the decision. I say this because even as I’m typing this out I am still waffling and trying to convince myself.

So let’s look at the plusses of each option. The deadball team features homer-killing pitching with three ace starters and a slew of guys in the pen who won’t suffer in-game fatigue. The defense has great range. We can hit a lot of singles and triples. We have plenty of PA and IP, good L/R balance, some OK team speed, and a decent bench.

Now for the minuses. The deadballers have no one who can be trusted to steal, won’t hit homers even against modern pitching, don’t have any stalwart bullpen arms, and they’re gonna make a lot of errors.

The modern team has 5 switch hitters starting (and 3 more on the bench) and good speed, plus 3 guys who steal at very high percentages and will be very useful in that regard. A few guys can hit homers, but they shouldn’t be totally useless against deadball arms either. I was able to construct a pitching staff with 3 L/R tandems that I find can be effective at times, plus load up the pen with studs. The staff has a great K/BB ratio, too.

On the down side, this team is tight on both PA and IP, so that’s a concern. The range is not so hot, which would be fine if I were facing only other modern hitting teams that my pitchers can whiff. Not sure the combo will be as effective facing old-time hitters, and there are bound to be plenty of those in the league.

By now, I’ve pretty much talked myself into the deadball team because it feels like a safer way to go. Less risk of major fatigue. More likely to match up well against different eras. Sure to repress homers significantly. Now I’ll wager there will be at least one team using modern years that will outperform my team, though it’s pretty certain the same would happen the other way too. I am sure others landed on my timeframe with the great value SP and Federal League additions. (Spoiler alert: It seems many owners went just a little bit later with 1918 as a hub year, making me wonder if I discarded my 14-18 team too soon or just didn’t keep trying enough combos. Oh well, no going back now.)

So, who’s on this team now that I’ve picked it? The rotation will be 1915 Dave Davenport, 1914 Russ Ford, and 1911 Vean Gregg. Davenport and Ford are among the best $/IP values who fit at this cap, and I’m banking on this rotation to carry the team. The bullpen includes the usual suspects from the era (Wolfgang, Weilman, Wiltse, and some guys whose last name doesn’t start with W just for variety).

The lineup has 4 lefties and 4 righties, so though I discarded the switch-heavy team at least it’s balanced. Three of the top bats are 1912 LH outfielders: Zack Wheat, Chief Wilson, and Sam Crawford. 1913 Frank Baker is not a terrible dropoff from his beloved 1912 season that costs $2.7M more and was out of range for this cap (but is on my 160M roster). Top righty bats include 1B 1911 Jim Delahanty, whom I’ve never used, and C 1911 Chief Meyers (a bigger dropoff from his better 1912 season, alas). I took as good a glove combo as I could manage up the middle with C/A+ 2B 1913 George Cutshaw and SS 1914 Buck Herzog (the Buck not banned, and I often get them mixed up). Crawford is the only guy in the field below B+ range, and he’s wayyyyy below at D-, but one iron glove should be survivable.

Since triples are our best hitting weapon, I wanted a park that favored them well. But any park above +1 there had other issues that made it a bad fit. So I settled for Griffith Stadium (-2 on HR just to further frustrate modern teams) with a 0.94 PF to help the pitchers generally.

5626 PA, .309/.368/.443, 236 2B, 130 3B, 58 HR, 233/236 SB
1375 IP, 2.00 ERA, .211 OAV, 1.00 WHIP, 0.17 HR/9

100M:
Mind You Don’t Cut Yourself, Mordecai

Whose idea was this infernal theme anyway? Oh yeah, well never mind that then.

I ran a variation of this theme once as an open league, and there was a great deal of grumbling about the difficulty of building a team that worked. I found it kind of fun that time, and perhaps that’s because I narrowed down the categories each owner could choose from in building their grid. Sometimes options are a kindness. Also, in that version, there were 3 stat categories so you only needed to clone 6 players. I do think it’s harder to clone 9 and have unlimited franchise options, ultimately. But it’s a Round 2 theme, and it should be harder than most. So yeah, let’s go with that.

My first attempt at this roster failed. I got it to about 15-16 spots filled and realized the salary would never work. When I tried to undo a couple of my choices, nothing seemed to work right anymore. I started over but did retain my first player, Max Scherzer. Except this time I used a Nats season and his Dodgers partial instead of a Tigers season. I then proceeded to get a 2x2 square finished in a corner of the grid (Dodgers and Braves down, Expos/Nats and White Sox across) to make sure all those team combos worked and then started extending out my third franchises on each row. I went back to one of my original players in version one to do it by tabbing Frankie Frisch to play 2B and 3B and bring the Cardinals and Giants. This helped because I was now using 5 original franchises and just the one expansion, so I had more options everywhere.

Anyway, I had the whole thing down to two players, which would normally just be filling in that last clone on the grid. Except my two slots were for a SS and a LH reliever, and even Shohei isn’t ever going to be one of those. After much rejiggering, I narrowed it down to needing a catcher clone who would still only be a platoon half. Of course, there weren’t that many catchers with two short seasons who played for the Cardinals and Nats, let alone good ones, so I had to force Matt Wieters in as a very unsatisfying compromise so as not to have to tear up any more of the team.

Once it was done, it was done. I am not building a second one for comparison. I had about 250K left over and used it to upgrade one bench hitter to get within 100K of the cap, and that’s gonna have to do. So, is this team any good? No clue! But did I mention it’s done and it works?

Here’s how it worked out:
Max Scherzer (2017 Nats and 2021 Dodgers) + 2017 Sean Doolittle
Whit Wyatt (1935 White Sox and 1941 Dodgers) + 1941 Pete Reiser
Casey Stengel (1921 Giants and 1912 Dodgers) + 1921 Irish Meusel
Mike Mordecai (1998 Expos and 1995 Braves)
Hoyt Wilhelm (1966 White Sox and 1969 Braves) + 1966 Gary Peters
Warren Spahn (1965 Giants and 1953 Braves) + 1953 Johnny Logan
Matt Wieters (2018 Nats and 2020 Cardinals)
Jack Fournier (1912 White Sox and 1921 Cardinals) + 1912 Ted Easterly
Frankie Frisch (1922 Giants and 1928 Cardinals) + 1928 Chick Hafey

Having Mordecai and Stengel filling 4 bench spots turned out to be a good way to use guys who had one strong season. I wound up using teammates for my whole starting outfield, since there’s basically always options for outfielders. I wound up with 5 high average hitters, not too much home run power, decent speed, a good L-R-S balance, and a solid defense. I haven’t the foggiest idea if it’s a competitive lineup.

The pitching staff only worked out to use 10 guys, and two of them suck (the extra Wyatt and Spahn seasons). My four SP have more innings than I need, so one of them will regularly be providing long relief. I just couldn’t find the energy to try again for a more logical construction. I think it’s a pretty solid four, though. The bullpen has just the four late-inning guys in two Wilhelms, Doolittle and Scherzer, and that’s probably not enough. So Spahn will have to get into some games and hopefully Wyatt gets into even fewer. With 1,397 IP, it’s not like there’s enough cushion so I won’t need them. I’m sure other people figured out rosters without much dead weight, and they’ll likely be rewarded for it.

For a ballpark, I initially wanted to go with a plus 1B park to help my high-AVG bats, but after writing up my pitching concerns decided that it was better to help those guys out more than anything. So we’ll play in Busch Stadium II (0.94 PF with -3 HR).

5734 PA, .311/.371/.468, 267 2B, 84 3B, 120 HR, 125/106 SB
1397 IP, 2.44 ERA, .209 OAV, 1.02 WHIP, 0.60 HR/9

120M
Dave, I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That

My Round 1 box team was my worst. It would be nice to think I’ve done this version well enough to redeem myself … I started out by looking for relief pitchers I could use as teammates because the options in this era are less than plentiful. I went with Gary Peters to bring along two 1966 relievers in Hoyt Wilhelm and Bob Locker. I took 1980 Mike Schmidt to get Tug McGraw. And I took 1972 Don Sutton to get Jim Brewer. That was enough to get started on the remaining pieces at least knowing I’d have 4 solid arms down there.

I filled out my rotation with 1978 Ron Guidry and 1943 Whit Wyatt. It’s hard to find fault with a 1-2 of Sutton and Guidry, and the other two guys aren’t slackers. So I feel like it’s a worthy rotation at this cap, even if the pen isn’t quite as strong as I’d normally want. I added 3 other relievers as long man types, plus a mopup, and at 1470 IP I feel we are more than covered.

I had saved two switch-hitting high-range middle infielders who work well at this cap, so 1927 Frankie Frisch and 1921 Dave Bancroft locked in early. Along with Schmidt (A range) and 1928 Jim Bottomley (B+), the infield can rack up a good number of plus plays.

I also used box players across the outfield, with 1967 Carl Yastrzemski, 1967 Roberto Clemente, and 1970 Reggie Smith. Behind the plate I’ve got 1964 Elston Howard, and I’m using his backup Johnny Blanchard, too. Everyone else on the bench is under 400K.

It feels like a solid lineup with lots of balance, three switch-hitters, decent speed, and excellent defense (though why this game hates Clemente with the glove mystifies me).

5853 PA, .316/.383/.524, 263 2B, 82 3B, 215 HR, 120/78 SB
1470 IP, 2.09 ERA, .200 OAV, 0.97 WHIP, 0.43 HR/9

160M
Pedro Offers You His Protection

I realized pretty quickly that the best approach here would be to start with my 25th player to set my salary limitations and establish my ballpark. I knew it would be a pitcher, and the only question was what salary range was reasonable in order to meet the rest of the roster needs. I settled on 2000 Pedro and Fenway Park so I could build a doubles-heavy team. From there a great deal of tinkering ensued as I searched for the right blend of players whose salaries fell in the lower half of their million-dollar ranges. I did still manage to use 5 guys in the upper halves, so it wasn’t an excessively tight limitation.

In retrospect, I might wind up regretting only getting ~230 innings out of my expensive player while others get nearly twice that out of a deadballer, but I do like the pitching staff anyway. You’ve got to take some risks in Round 2, I figure. If I make the playoffs, I’ve got lots of stud Pedro available.

The best way to assemble a rotation that worked with the salary limits turned out to be three sets of tandems, a strategy I’ve used on occasion. This allowed me to use guys in the 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 groups, and it’s all from recent years. Pedro will pair with 2018 Chris Sale, 2015 Clayton Kershaw with 2020 Tony Gonsolin, and 2020 Dinelson Lamet with 2022 Justin Verlander. The bullpen includes six guys to handle the ends of games as needed (2020 Liam Hendriks, 2007 Heath Bell, 1995 Norm Charlton, 2020 Brad Hand, 1915 Hooks Wiltse, 1919 Ray Caldwell), plus a mopup. I pushed up to 1,522 innings even with this talent level in hopes of limiting fatigue because I know the offenses will be loaded and I’m in a hitters’ park.

I only took 12 hitters because I could cover the needed backups with two players and took a defensive OF replacement to complete the group. At the $11M level are 1997 Larry Walker and 1896 Ed Delahanty. 1946 Stan Musial is my $10M batter. 1948 Ted Williams and 1912 Frank Baker are $9M guys. 2011 Troy Tulowitzki is at $8M, and 1903 Nap Lajoie is at $7M. I’ve got 1936 Bill Dickey in the $6M group, and 1908 Ty Cobb as a $5M player.

6290 PA, .348/.418/.570, 419 2B, 118 3B, 191 HR, 199/152 SB
1522 IP, 2.01 ERA, .184 OAV, 0.86 WHIP, 0.53 HR/9

Oh and the 255M team is called "Hi, I'm Larry." Did you get all the references? SM me if you need clues.

Oh and the 255M team is called "Hi, I'm Larry." Did you get all the references?

I got the 60, 90 and 120. I guessed the 160 correctly even though I've never watched that movie all the way through because I find it painfully unentertaining. I didn't know the 100; the only movie I know that has a character named Mordecai is High Plains Drifter and I was pretty sure it wasn't that. I didn't get the 255 although I should have. The next line would've given it away.

Posted by barracuda3 on 9/10/2024 12:01:00 PM (view original):

Oh and the 255M team is called "Hi, I'm Larry." Did you get all the references?

I got the 60, 90 and 120. I guessed the 160 correctly even though I've never watched that movie all the way through because I find it painfully unentertaining. I didn't know the 100; the only movie I know that has a character named Mordecai is High Plains Drifter and I was pretty sure it wasn't that. I didn't get the 255 although I should have. The next line would've given it away.

No spoilers yet. My hint is "Coen Brothers"

I only got Pedro Offers you his Protection. I had to look up the other ones.

PS: barracuda3, I know approximately where LA Wrigley Field once existed, so I can drive by that landmark. I lived less than a mile from it at one point, but the park was long gone already. Pretty sure it's where they filmed the old Home Run Derby show, so it's been preserved in that footage at least. I'd imagine several other movies/TV shows used it over the years, too. I'm pretty sure Mr. Ed ran the bases at Dodger Stadium, though.

Posted by toysboys on 9/10/2024 1:04:00 PM (view original):
I only got Pedro Offers you his Protection. I had to look up the other ones.

We need to work on your must-see list.

Without giving away the answers your references are dated 1975, 1965, 1987, 1968, 2004, and 1983. I was born in 1976 so it makes sense I would only get the one from 2004.

Posted by redcped on 9/10/2024 1:29:00 PM (view original):
PS: barracuda3, I know approximately where LA Wrigley Field once existed, so I can drive by that landmark. I lived less than a mile from it at one point, but the park was long gone already. Pretty sure it's where they filmed the old Home Run Derby show, so it's been preserved in that footage at least. I'd imagine several other movies/TV shows used it over the years, too. I'm pretty sure Mr. Ed ran the bases at Dodger Stadium, though.

As you can tell I have a soft spot in my heart for the sites of former baseball stadiums. So much baseball history has been, or is in the process of being, forgotten, and the memory would be aided in many cases by a simple historical marker commemorating places where such history was made. Braves Field is a welcome exception to this rule; there is a plaque outside of what is now Nickerson Field on the campus of Boston University, stating that the Boston Braves used to play there. And on the site of what was the pre-Fenway home of the Americans / Red Sox, Huntington Avenue Grounds, on what is now the campus of Northeastern University, there is a statue of Cy Young where the pitcher's mound was and a plaque of home plate where that was. But the site of the Congress Street Grounds, at which there is now a building that until recently housed a very renowned restaurant and cocktail bar and is likely passed by thousands of pedestrians per day, has no such marker. Congress Street Grounds was the home of the Boston Reds, who won the Player's League in 1890 and the American Association in 1891, making them the only major league team in history to win the league championship in every year of their existence. Additionally, it was the home of the Boston Beaneaters for two months in 1894 when their home field (South End Grounds) was damaged in a fire, and in a game there Bobby Lowe became the first major league player to hit 4 home runs in one game. This is serious baseball history, and no one in Boston knows anything about it.

Similarly, I have a friend who owns a bar in Providence, Rhode Island that's a few blocks from the site of the Messer Street Grounds, former home of the Providence Grays, who were National League champions in 1879 and 1884. In 1884 Old Hoss Radbourn won 59 (some say 60) games for them. There's no historical marker at the site, and I'll be 90% of the sports fans in Providence don't even know that there was ever a major league team there, and a good one at that.

Speaking of the Providence Grays and commemorating baseball history, there is a nice plaque at Hanlan’s Point on Toronto Island of Babe Ruth’s first ever professional home run. In early 1914, before he was called up the Red Sox as a teenager, Ruth was on the Providence Grays and hit one out against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

And it’s been many years since I was at the Mall of America, but they used to have the home plate from the old Metropolitan stadium incorporated into the amusement park in its original location. They also have a red seat on the wall that you can see from the roller coaster where Killebrew’s 500 foot+ home run landed. I thought that was kind of cool.