Posted by oldtimer59 on 4/8/2025 1:05:00 PM (view original):
redcped, here are your boxes:
1) CLE at OAk - 9/29/1987
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK198709290.shtml
2) WASH at DET - 6/11/1949
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET194906110.shtml
3) NYY at BALT - 9/30/1999
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL199909301.shtml
4) DET at SLB - 7/24/`1932
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLA/SLA193207242.shtml
5) BOS at BALT - 5/17/1994
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL199405170.shtml
6) STL at CIN - 5/27/1926
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN192605271.shtml
7) PHIL at CHC - 8/27/1904
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN190408270.shtml
8) PITT at STL - 9/4/2007 - NL - Busch Stadium III
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN200709040.shtml
1) P Dennis Eckersley, C Andy Allanson, OF Dave Clark
2) P Fred Hutchinson, P Walt Masterson, P Marv Grissom
3) OF Albert Belle, SS Mike Bordick, 3B Ryan Minor
4) 2B Charlie Gehringer, OF Goose Goslin, P Izzy Goldstein
5) P Roger Clemens, P Mike Mussina, P Lee Smith
6) 3B Les Bell, 2B Specs Torporcer, C Ernie Vick
7) P Carl Lundgren, OF Roy Thomas, C Red Dooin
8) 1B Albert Pujols, P Troy Percival, P Russ Springer, 1B Miguel Cairo
So to tell the story of this build, I have to start with a rabbit hole. As a Jewish person, I spotted the name Izzy Goldstein in the 1932 Tigers-Browns box and immediately had questions. I knew I'd need to go back and find out about this pitcher who appeared in 16 games that season for the Tigers and never again. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find a roster spot for him as he cost $935K for 61 not-so-good innings, and we do have a budget here.
As luck would have it, Izzy made the roster if only so I would have a better reason to tell this story. I didn't have a lot of sub-$1M options anyway, and he fit. That got me to go look at his BB-Ref page to see what I could learn about him. Fortunately, despite his obscurity, SABR's bio project did have an article about him. And he's quite interesting. He is one of three MLB players born in Ukraine for one. He played high school ball with Hank Greenberg, then just missed playing with him again in Detroit. Izzy's only season was 1932. Hank debuted in '33. Izzy served in WW2, spent many years in the New York garment business and retired to Florida. His journey parallels those of many of my family members, though none of them played pro ball or served overseas in the war. He grew up in the Bronx, and my grandfather would be born there about 6 years after him. There's at least a chance my grandpa saw him pitch sometime, but I'll never get the chance to ask him now.
Also, as a final footnote to the Izzy story, as a longtime copy editor I couldn't help but notice a few errors in the biography and sent a detailed email to the SABR bio project with my discoveries. I'll let you know if they change anything, which they certainly should.
OK, so Izzy is just going to be a long reliever for me and not at all important to my success. Let's discuss the team. As the commish noted, I had two boxes where Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina faced each other. I've rostered both versions from 1994, when they were both better. I've also got RP Lee Smith from that box. Would be 3 HOFers, except for those needles injected into Roger's butt and all that jazz. Anyway, they're half the rotation, joined by 1904 Carl Lundgren (not the best of the Cubs hurlers in the Aughts, but solid enough) and Fred Hutchinson of the '49 Tigers. All of them are righties. In fact, my entire roster is righties. The 21 best pitchers available to me were RH, and only 4 lefties appeared at all. None were worth rostering just to have one.
I've got 3 pretty good relievers. Gratefully, a very good Troy Percival and Russ Springer appeared in my final box to salvage the pen. Smith gives up too many HR but is decent. They'll join '87 Eckersley, who wasn't quite his dominant self yet but still pretty good. Also, he threw 116 IP, which gets me a lot of help in the late innings. It adds up to a hair under $40M for pitching and 1,390 IP, which should be good enough in a pitchers park like Busch.
I was able to roster the best or second-best hitter at three infield spots: 1B Albert Pujols (.973 OPS#), 2B Charlie Gehringer (.846), and 3B Les Bell (.894). I didn't want Jeter's weak range even though he crushed the ball in 1999, so instead I'm using the O's SS Mike Bordick (.700) with his A+/A+ fielding. I couldn't afford Bernie Williams' awesome $8.6M season so instead I have Albert Belle (..902), Roy Thomas (.804 with .429 OBP) and Goose Goslin (.846). That's 6 useful hitters at least. I punted on catchers, platooning a few guys who combine for under $4M and will hit 8th. As usual, my bench is as cheap as I could make it.
Busch really punishes sluggers, so I'm a tad concerned about Belle and Pujols getting their shots in. You have to compromise some in this league, and at least they both hit doubles. But for a change I have a solid rotation that should benefit from the park and be among the league's better groups. I think I have enough good innings to stay in a lot of games and a lineup dangerous enough to help us win them. I only left $1,000 on the table, too.