$255 Million - Quick Drafts (Post-Deadball, Pre-Steroid Era Edition)
There will be six independent 4-person drafts. The top six finishers from round 1 will be captains who make the initial choices. Starting with the 1st place owner, they will pick two consecutive seasons which they will draft from (i.e., 1984-85). The #2 owner will pick a different set of two consecutive seasons (no overlap). Same for #3, #4, #5 and #6. These six “2-season-groups” will each represent a different division (aligned chronologically) and there will be a 4-person draft from each of these groups.

Once these six divisions (drafting groups) are determined, the #7 ranked owner can choose to enter into any of the six divisions. They will pick 3rd in whichever division they are in (since the captain is picking 4th). The #8 ranked owner then can choose to enter into any of the six divisions. If they pick the same division as owner #7, they would pick 2nd in round 1. If they entered a different division than owner #7, they would pick 3rd. This process continues until all six divisions have four owners. The owners ranked lower will typically get to pick 1st or 2nd in their respective drafts. This should incentivize the captains from picking a season with one clear stud player.

The drafts will be 20 rounds:
Rounds 1-16, 1 player (16)
Rounds 17-18, 2 players (4)
Rounds 19-20, 3 players (6)
That’s 26 picks, because you would also draft a ballpark (must be in use from at least one of your 2 seasons)

The division drafts will be serpentine (1-4, 4-1, 1-4) and the six captains will draft last in round 1. When a player is drafted, he is off the board for that draft (the person drafting does not have to specify which season he is using).

Seasons: 1920-1990
DH: Yes
Clones: No
Ballpark: Draft any stadium in use during your two seasons
Alignment: chronological
Combined seasons: You can use partial or combined seasons
300K exceptions: No
Team name: No restrictions

The top 6 owners during round 1 are as follows:

1 _JJP_
2 hebdomad
3 redcped
4 discodemo
5 jfranco77
6 ozomatli

The draft to pick your 2 seasons can begin now.

I will create six separate threads once the six time periods are determined. I need one volunteer from each league to display the picks and create an alpha list.

I'll take 1985 & 1986.

1968 & 1969

Those were two of my top sets, so I guess I’m on the right track.

Let’s go with 1963 and 1964.

Yeah, that's why I'm generally not a fan of these limited year-based leagues. Some player pools are just better than others. Inherent advantage and disadvantage for folks, especially when everyone involved is a sharp owner. Less about skill / understanding of the game.

For example whoever joins my division will have a worse chance of doing well in the league than whoever joins any of the others. Not because I'm any better than the guys drafting in front of me, but because the people who join me will be building their teams from a worse selection of players.

That assumes everyone picking ahead of you picks the “right” pair of seasons. Quality is subjective so you may actually end up selecting better overall seasons to draft from.

Quality is not subjective in a game based in mathematics (if you play in one of thejuice6's tournaments you'd rather have the 1927 Yankees than the 1899 Spiders, if you play in a franchise league you'd rather have the Cardinals than the Diamondbacks). So far the three season-sets chosen have been my top 3 (like I said, these are top owners — it’d be different if this was not the WISC). But I can deal with a handicap.

1980 and 1981

Don't mean to hold things up, I'll post mine tonight. Lots of family stuff today and since other people are impacted by my choices too I'd rather not just pick any old seasons.

I'm going to go with 1924-25

And I'll close us out with 1965-66 for whoever else wants the dregs