League 4 (1934-45)
Pick 1.15: 1944 Joe Berry (RP)
Picking this late is both good and bad. Mostly bad, but at least you can strategize a bit. This really came down to 4 players: 1934 Hubbell ($10.4m), 1944 Berry ($4.7m), 1941 Ted Williams ($19.0m), and 1935 Arky Vaughan ($12.6m). The problem with the two hitters is they are more expensive than the 14 players taken ahead, so you move to at least 15th and probably 16th next round (depending on what chewy does). Hubbell would put you 11th but he’s a worse pitcher than 5 others and has a bit of a HR issue (.54). Berry at least gets me to 2nd for the time being. That for sure gets me one of the other 3 I’m considering here. So is he good enough? It’s close. I’m not sure the direct trade-off here, but if I take Williams or Vaughan, I’m probably getting somebody equal to or worse than Berry at the end of Round 2. Let’s play it safe and take the pitcher with the best ERC# in this era among pitchers over 55 IP (and 3rd-best overall).
Pick 2.03: 1941 Ted Williams (OF)
Chewy3344 slid under me with Tiny Bonham, so picking 3rd. Picking 3rd does guarantee me one of the other 3 targets I had from last round and turns out that is important as 34 Hubbell and 35 Vaughan are the first two picks of this round. I quickly do a sanity check on other options. 39 Dimaggio is probably the next-best hitter–he’s over 8m dollars cheaper than 41 Williams and has A+ range but he’s obviously a big dropoff with the bat. The best pitchers left are probably 40 Bob Feller and 41 Whit Wyatt. I’m sure both will be long gone by my next pick, but yeah, I can’t pass up 41 Williams again. Think that makes 4 straight drafts that I’ve rostered the top (or at least most expensive) hitter (Hugh Duffy, Cobb, Ruth). (Actually, I guess I took the 2nd-most expensive Ruth last time?)
Pick 3.16: 1945 Ray Prim (SP)
That was a long 28-pick wait. I didn’t even bother tracking who was being taken, it would only be upsetting, haha. Taking stock at my pick, 40 Dimaggio is the best hitter remaining, and he’s pretty intriguing with CF-quality defense and an OPS# over 1.000. Also in consideration are 34 and 38 Vaughan, but even he has a bunch of seasons later on that have quality. There’s a couple Stirnweisses and a Gehringer at 2B, plus a few Greenbergs and 37 Gehrig at 1B/DH. On the pitching side, really two names: 39 Bucky Walters (336 IP, 2.47 ERC#) and 45 Ray Prim. I decided to go with Prim as he had by far the best ERC# (2.12) left of SPs (150+ innings) and he’s a lefty. He gives up a few too many HR (0.57), but as a small bonus his $5.96m salary moves me up a couple slots next round.
Pick 4.14: 1939 Bucky Walters (SP)
I looked all around for this pick. The Vaughans, Greenbergs, Gehrigs, and Strinweisses are still intriguing (the top Gehringer season went). Bucky Walters is still there though and he gives me some bulk to go with the quality I got from Berry and Prim. He’s essentially tied for the best ERC# among available starters but with any extra 50+ innings, so while he’s expensive, I can’t pass him up this time.. I’m banking on being able to cobble together a bunch of hitting platoons to make up for not getting the elite starters. There’s more partial seasons in this era, however, so I’m hopeful it works out.
Pick 5.15: 1937 Hank Greenberg (1B)
I stopped writing this live at this point so this is all after the fact, will see what I can remember! At this point, I’m feeling pretty good about my pitching, which is unusual. There were a few highly rated Greenbergs near the top of my list, but I thought 1937 stood out among them. He’s a better hitter than he was in 1935 and a better fielder than in 1940. Gives me a right-handed bat to complement Ted Williams. I thought at the time I could even play his B/B+ in the OF if needed but he ended up sticking at 1B for me.
Pick 6.15: 1945 Potter, Nels (SP)
1944 Bobby Doerr was the top-rated hitter and there were a couple Billy Herman seasons that rated well but I wasn’t particularly interested in a lighter-hitting right-handed 2B/3B even if his defense was quite good. I could get the Gehringers, Myers, Hacks, and Vaughans later one with good left-handed bats. None of the 1B/OF/DH types stood out either.
I shifted back to pitching with 45 Potter, 40 Passeau, and 44 Trout my main targets. I went with Potter as he had the best ERC# of the group and both Passeau (his own 45 season) and Trout (44 Newhouser, among others) had decent fallback options.
Pick 7.16: 1944 Trout, Dizzy (SP)
Doerr is still there but I just still think I can do fine at 2B later on. I want to really knock out most of my pitching and Trout brings 371 innings of pretty decent quality. This should allow me to start focusing on hitting and have enough time to grab a bunch of non-full-time options to mix and match together in different platoons.
Pick 8.16: 1942 Judnich, Wally (OF)
I actually probably would have finally taken Doerr here but he was finally gone. I thought about some of the great partials like 45 Keller, 37 Selkirk, etc. but it’s a bit too early for them. The best values for me were CF who could hit leadoff and it came down to 42 Judnich and 44 Johnny Hopp. I opted for Judnich–better OBP and Range in exchange for lower BAVG and 40 fewer PA.
Pick 9.16: 1935 Ott, Mel (OF/3B)
I struggled with this pick. I wanted one of the Kellers but there were 3 or 4 versions of him that rated highly and I didn’t want to commit too early. I didn’t love the 3B options overall–Werber, Herman, Hack, etc. Mostly they couldn’t hit. The best hitter (by far) with decent 3B ratings and enough PA was 35 Ott. I didn’t love his C+/D+ but it is certainly reasonable enough. But he was also A/C+ in the OF and (after the Kellers) pretty close to the top option there. So while he probably wouldn’t have been my choice solely as a 3B or solely as an OF, the optionality gave him the nod. In the end, I will probably use him primarily as an OF, but my resulting roster actually has the option to go either way, which is nice.
Pick 10.16: 1942 Biscan, Frank (RP)
This was pretty much a reactionary pick. Four of the top relievers went earlier in the round. Biscan was by far the best ERC# remaining at 1.38 (next-best was 2.01). He has a BB problem (3.50 BB9#) and only 29 innings but if I wanted a stud reliever, he was the last one left.
Pick 11.16: 1938 Brucker, Earle (C)
I know I’m going to piece together a weird 3 or 4-headed catcher but while there are plenty of lefties, the righties are scarcer. Brucker has the perfect amount of PA for the righty-side of the platoon (204 PA) and a big bat (.966 OPS#). I’ll figure out the other side of the catching situation later.
Pick 12.15: 1939 Frey, Lonny (2B)
I finally took stock of where I was at the remaining positions and who was left. I felt comfortable with the depth at the SS and C positions and, well, the lack of depth at 3B (plus my Ott option). Still plenty of outfielders including all the Kellers. But I wanted a good lefty 2B and we were down to two options at my pick–39 Frey and 39 Gehringer. Gehringer was the much better hitter but Frey was the much better fielder (A+ vs D+ range). What ultimately tipped the scales was that I liked 41 Alex Kampouris–he’s a righty 2B with an OPS over 1.000 but just 69 PA. If I could grab him later, that would be enough PA with Frey (614 PA) but likely not enough for Gehringer (who had just 512 PA). So since it was close, I opted for Frey.
Pick 13.14: 1942 Cullenbine, Roy (3B)
I keep moving up! Now 14th. I’m still good waiting on SS and C. While I don’t know what I want to do at 3B, I do know that 42 Cullenbine fits in every scenario–he’s a switch-hitting master with A+ range at third. Only 103 PA but if I go with Ott, he can be the defensive replacement. If I go with a lefty 3B, he can play vs LHP, or vice versa. Or he can just play DH/1B/OF (he’s rated at both 1B and OF as well).
Pick 14.14: 1945 Keller, Charlie (OF)
Finally, one of the Kellers goes (1941) so that’s my cue to not miss out on all of them. 43 Keller is the full-time option, but he’s not that much better than the alternatives (in hindsight, this was exactly right as 38 Earl Averill, who is very similar to 43 Keller, went completely undrafted). When in doubt, get the rare commodity and that’s 45 Keller. OPS# over 1.000 and A+/A- defense. With roster spots not an issue, he’ll be a great part-time player.
Pick 15.13: 1934 Delancey, Bill (C)
I’m not even paying attention to the pitchers at this point. I need lefty-hitting catchers and I likely need two of them. There are two options with more bulk in 36 Phelps and 34 Delancey and then two with fewer PA in 35 Phelps and 37 Cochrane. If I took 36 Phelps, I’d cut off the chance to get his 35 version and I liked Delancey better anyways with a little more pop in his bat.
Pick 16.12: 1941 Vaughan, Arky (SS)
I had been holding off on SS but once bigsteve12 took 39 Vaughan, I decided to act. There were still quite a few owners who needed SS and I didn’t want to get left out of the musical chairs. My 3 left-handed options: 42 Pesky, 40 Vaughan, and 41 Vaughan. I eliminated Pesky as he’s a worse hitter and similar fielder to 40 Vaughan. Between the Vaughans, 40 had better fielding and more PA but 41 had a better bat and the ability to play 3B, which maybe could come in useful. Given I was going to platoon this spot regardless, his 460 PA were plenty.
Pick 17.23: 1937 Cochrane, Mickey (C)
Pick 17.24: 1941 Kampouris, Alex (2B)
There were a handful of small PA guys I was keeping tabs on. At 3B, I decided I could add one or two of guys like 35 Bobby Estalella or 43 Cronin. They solved one of my issues–I needed right-handed hitting–as well as being able to cobble together the short side of a 3B platoon, possible with Cullenbine joining them. However, two other short PA needs took precedence. First, 35 Phelps was taken so I had to grab 37 Cochrane to finish off my catching trio. Second, Kampouris is by far the best 2B option and the best hitter remaining period. He complements Frey nicely, even if only for about 15-20 games this season.
Pick 18.21: 1937 Johnson, Bob (OF)
Pick 18.22: 1939 Elliott, Bob (OF)
This worked out nicely for me. I needed a couple right-handed 1B/OF/DH bats and 4 or 5 of the options went this round. But both these Bobs fit in nicely for me. 39 Elliott only has 149 PA and is a lesser hitter than the other Bob, but his B-/A defense is a perfect fit with Judnich in CF (combined, they’ll have 733 PA). 37 Bob Johnson is the best-hitting righty available to me and plays solid defense for a corner OF (C+/B+).
Pick 19.17: 1940 Hack, Stan (3B)
Pick 19.18: 1943 Cronin, Joe (3B)
Unfortunately, taking the Bobs cost me Estalella at 3B, but 43 Cronin is a fine alternative. At this point, after Cronin, I have 4 spots left. I need two left-handed hitters, a right-handed SS, and my last pitcher. I decided to go with the best lefty 3B out there in 40 Hack. I was debating between him and OF like 38 Averill or 39 Selkirk. Would I rather have Hack with Ott playing OF or Averill/Selkirk with Ott playing 3B? It’s close but while I have some fallback options in the OF (I can play Bob Johnson more, for example), I don’t have any bulk 3B options if the Ott experiment fails. Hack is a fine option and at the very least is a great defensive replacement.
Pick 20.25: 1940 Derringer, Paul (P)
Pick 20.26: 1939 Selkirk, George (OF)
Pick 20.27: 1943 Boudreau, Lou (SS)
Derringer had been the best pitcher left to me for quite some time and his 315 IP are perfect for me–gets me over 1600 so I don’t have to really worry about fatigue. I needed a righty SS and it came down to 45 Lake, 37 Appling, and 43 Boudreau. Lake was the best hitter but Boudreau was the best fielder of the 3 (B+/A) and he came with a bonus of playing catcher. If I’m a little short on PA there, I can easily slide Boudreau there for a bit. My last spot came down to OF, mostly someone to play the other 200 or so PA that Keller can’t versus righties. I narrowed it down to 38 Averill and 39 Selkirk. I had Averill all typed out but I couldn’t pass up Selkirk’s .439 OBP. With him, I now have the choice to lineup my lineup vs RHP two ways: Ott at 3B with Selkirk and Keller in the corners (still need about 200 PA from Hack) or I can put Hack at 3B and Ott/Keller in the corners with Selkirk spelling Keller.
Ballpark: Cinergy Field
I think I chose this for the minus-singles, but plus-doubles and slightly plus HR.
Lineup:
Only Williams, Greenberg and Ott will play every day. I have 8 lefties in my lineup vs RHP and 7 righties vs LHP (including switch-hitting Cullenbine).
| Lineup |
| |
vs LHP |
vs RHP |
| 1 |
CF |
Elliott / Judnich |
RF |
Keller / Selkirk |
| 2 |
1B |
Greenberg |
1B |
Greenberg |
| 3 |
DH |
Williams |
LF / 3B |
Ott |
| 4 |
3B |
Cullenbine + Cronin |
DH |
Williams |
| 5 |
C |
Brucker |
C |
Delancey + Cochrane |
| 6 |
RF |
Johnson |
CF |
Judnich |
| 7 |
LF |
Ott |
3B / LF |
Hack / Selkirk |
| 8 |
SS |
Boudreau |
SS |
Vaughan |
| 9 |
2B |
Kampouris / Frey |
2B |
Frey |