League 5 (1946-59)
Pick 1.13: 1946 Earl Caldwell (RP)
These picks are always hard to figure out how much to sacrifice on this pick to get back on the next one (and maybe a little on the couple after. I generally try to not give up too much but if it’s close, you can sometimes reverse the order you would pick them in–meaning take your 2nd round pick now and 1st round pick with the early 2nd rounder.
On the pitching side, I had 3 or 4 options. One was a big-inning starter like 52 Roberts or 46 Feller, an elite reliever like 46 Caldwell or 59 Shantz, or someone in the middle like 60 Konstanty or 52 Joe Black. The best hitters are, of course, all big salaries and the usual suspects, led by 56 Mantle and 57 Williams. The issue with the hitters and the big-inning pitchers is they would send me way to the back of round 2. Could I still get Caldwell there? Maybe! Picking 13th, I do have to sweat out a few more picks than I’d like until my 2nd Round pick.
I eliminated Konstanty since he was slightly more expensive than 44 Rowe who was already taken, but 52 Black was not. So it came down to Black and Caldwell. I decided on Caldwell as the better quality and lower salary was the tiebreaker. My strong hope is to get 56 Mantle or 57 Williams next pick.
Pick 2.02: 1957 Ted Williams (OF)
56 Mantle went 15th to njbigwig, and at that point I was the lowest salary left. Jtpsops was the last pick of the round and he went under my pick with Barry Latman to get back-to-back picks, but he went with the scarcity pick of 53 Schoendeinst. That made my pick pretty easy. Not only is Williams neck-and-neck with Mantle as the best hitter in this era, he is (relatively) cheaper than the other alternatives due to less inflation (from dynamic pricing) and fewer PA (just 575). The benefit is that $12.3m salary should keep me pretty high again next round. Thrilled with this outcome.
Pick 3.04: 1955 Mickey Mantle (OF)
Some intriguing pitchers are still on the board. Two guys with 350+ innings and ERC# in the low 2.4s (46 Feller and 54 Roberts), 52 Black is still there, and 52 Warren Hacker who is in between them with 195 innings and 2.10 ERC. He does have a bit of a HR problem at 0.78 as does the aforementioned Roberts. The hitters got picked over pretty clean but still some studs left. The top 3 seasons available to me are all Willie Mays (54, 55, and 57), with 58 not too far behind. Next-best are a few Duke Sniders (53, 54, and 55) plus 55 Mantle. Given that 7 of the top 8 are Mays and Snider, I decided to go with the last great Mantle season left. Mays has the A+ range and a little more pop in his top seasons, but this Mantle is the best OBP of this group of 8 hitters and still plays A/A defense and is of course a switch-hitter. We’ll see if one of the Mays or Sniders makes it back to me next round. Or maybe one of the pitchers.
Pick 4.09: 1952 Warren Hacker (SP)
Amazingly, I dropped 5 spots despite my Mantle pick not being all that expensive. But it’s super crowded in the top half of the round with less than $1m separating me from the 4th pick this round. Two Mays and a Snider get picked but also a bunch of the more scarce positions (Campanella, Banks, Mathews). I still have two each of the Sniders and Mays I was looking at last time. 46 Feller went but both Hacker and Roberts are still available–I have a pretty big gap between them and the next tier. I was trying to make this pick quickly so given that I already had two OFs, that I had 4 options I liked still there, and perhaps a bit on tilt by moving down in the round due to such a small amount of salary, I went with Hacker. I passed on Roberts for the salary but also because he has a couple other seasons that I may want later on with big innings.
As for Hacker, the HR may be an issue but at some point he’s worth the gamble. He has 195 innings and a 2.10 ERC#. Of the other pitchers left, the only pitchers with better ERC# have 100 or fewer innings (Shantz is at 100, 1.83). And to find a player with even remotely close to his inning volume, you have to go to 1959 Art Ditmar (213 IP, 2.41 ERC). Even if the HRs make him perform like a 2.20 or 2.30 ERC pitcher, he’s still arguably worth it at this point.
Pick 5.06: 1957 Willie Mays (OF)
I moved back up 3 of the spots I fell. 59 Shantz and a couple other relievers go in between but mostly this was a hitters round. I was sitting pretty towards the end of round 4 but then 3 straight picks went 53 Snider, 55 Snider, 58 Mays. I was a bit bummed I was likely to lose out on the group, but there were still some nice options like 47 Kiner, 48 Dimaggio, 50 Musial, etc. as consolation prizes. But to my surprise, 57 Mays lasted 5 more picks and I jumped at the chance to take him. My OF is certainly filling up, though ideally I’ll slide Williams to DH and it’s hard to complain about Mays, Mantle and Williams as your OF!
Pick 6.11: 1954 Robin Roberts (SP)
Nearly all of the top hitters went in between my two picks–3 Musials, 2 Dimaggios, Aaron, Snider, Mays, Kiner. If I wanted to take a hitter, my main options were 59 Kiner (A+ range and a .413 OBP) or 51 Joost (best SS left with A-/A and .402 OBP). But I’ve been considering 54 Roberts since the 3rd Round and while he also is HR prone like Hacker, he’s the best quality SP left AND has the most innings. I have elite hitters but (a) so will pretty much every other team in this era and (b) none of my 3 hitters so far hit 40+ HRs, so I’ll probably stick this team in a slight-negative HR park to help Roberts and Hacker. I’m sure this will drop me even further down the draft board but at this point, it doesn’t matter much.
Pick 7.12: 1954 Don Mossi (RP)
Kaline and Joost were still there, but with 58 Wilhelm going the pick in front of me, Mossi was by far the best reliever left, combining his sub-2.00 ERC with his volume (98 IP). The drop off from him was much more than if I lost out on Joost, Kaline, etc. plus he moves me back up a few spots, though that’s not a big factor at this point.
Pick 8.10: 1951 Eddie Joost (SS)
Kaline and Joost are both still there. There aren’t really many great lefty shortstops, so I’m going to get a righty at SS and Joost is the best combination of bat and glove.
Pick 9.10: 1958 Pete Runnels (2B)
I was all set to take 1959 Al Kaline, who continues to rate as the best player available by a sizable margin. He has a .413 OBP, A-/A+ defense, and solid 75 speed. But I can’t get over the fact that he’s a right-handed OF with a very good but not elite bat. And with Mays (and Mantle) in tow, the defense will be marginalized a bit. As I was digging through the other positions, I have 2B as pretty deep but they are nearly all right-handed. But 1958 Pete Runnels is actually the best left-handed hitting middle-infielder (cheating a little bit since 53 Schoendeinst is a switch-hitter) for this timeframe, has over 700 PA and a slick glove. To give my lineup a shot at being somewhat balanced, he’s about the best option otherwise I’ll end up with an all-righty infield. Both Runnels and my SS, Joost, are high OBP, low SLG type guys but with a lot of PA so maybe I’ll lead off Runnels vs RHP and bat him 9th vs LHP and do the opposite with Joost.
Pick 10.10: 1959 Al Kaline (OF)
Kaline still hadn’t been taken as my pick approached. I kept looking for reasons not to take him, but this felt like the best pick. Then chewy took Al Kaline, but it ended up being a different version, 1955. At that point, I mistakenly thought I was up and posted my pick before quickly realizing that nocomm999 was before me. Luckily, he went with a relief pitcher. This Kaline is not a super sexy pick–OF is deep, he’s right-handed, not a ton of power. But he’s just pretty good at everything with a .330/.413/.529 normalized slash line, 75 speed, and A-/A+ defense. In fact, he’ll push Mays and his A+ range out to a corner along with Mantle, and Ted Williams to DH. In a perfect world, I’d get a lefty here, but there’s nobody in his ballpark really. The next-closest OPS# among OF with A+ range is nearly 100 points worse. I guess I’m now building a defense team. My current ratings are B+/A- at 2B, A-/A at SS, and A/A, A-/A+, C+/A+ in the OF. Pressure is on for the corner-infield spots.
Pick 11.14: 1957 Eddie Mathews (3B)
Took some time to take quick stock of my team. Needs: C, 1B, 3B, plus a right-handed platoon bat to help spell Williams (575 PA) and Mantle (672) a bit. I have about half my needed innings with 744. Schwarze is stacking up relievers and there are a few decent ones left but all have very few innings. I already have two elite relievers with almost 200 innings between them. As for the starters, could always grab one but there are a bunch of guys bunched together, so even if there’s a run I should be able to hop on and grab one in the next couple rounds.
The best remaining LH catchers are almost all Yogi Berra and he has 7 reasonable seasons left. There is also one 1946 Aaron Robinson season that is a better hitter than Yogi but worse fielder. All of Yogi’s remaining seasons are in the .800s for OPS, with the best at the high end and the worst at the low end, but all are reasonable. The righty counterpart will likely be a Walker Cooper, though there are a couple other similar options as well. By my count, 8 people need a catcher with a few others needing a backup so I should be okay to wait a while here.
At 1B, 1955 Kluszewski stands out as the best option, though he relies on the HR a little too much for my team construction. He’s also a good fielder (A-/B+) but there are lots of other reasonable options here with 9 other LH 1B ranking as better hitters plus a few others close behind. The RH options are not very inspiring. Either way, I’ll wait a bit here and maybe grab someone like 58 Musial later on.
3B has some decent hitting options, but most are right-handed and average fielders at best. If I want a lefty, I have four options: 57 Mathews, 53 Hank Thompson, and two Peskys. The Peskys are both good fielders with good OBP but have SLG under .400. Thompson is the best bat of the bunch, but has D+ range (B/D+). Mathews is the best combination an while he often underperforms, I’m hoping in this league against contemporaries it’ll be less of an issue. He’s a step behind my other fielders but still B+/B- with a .391 OBP. Only 32 HR which makes it one of his least HR-dependent years, which fits well. It may be a better play to wait out the 3B market and take what’s left, but this is the only guy that fits my criteria of good fielder, good hitter, and left-handed bat.
Pick 12.13: 1949 Dave Koslo (SP)
A bit of a run on starting pitchers swept through the league and I figured I should hop on and grab one before too late. Koslo was one a handful of similar pitchers but I liked that he gave me a southpaw starter.
Pick 13.14: 1952 Mike Fornieles (RP)
Pick 14.10: 1950 George Spencer (RP)
I didn’t have as much time during these picks and I felt comfortable with the depth of options at catcher, 1B, and SP. These guys only combine for 55 innings but they were by far the two-best ERC# left. Moved me from 14th to 8th too, if that matters!
Pick 15.08: 1954 Walker Cooper (C)
Pick 16.06: 1946 Aaron Robinson (C)
I actually drafted the full-season Walker Cooper, but I’m going to use the partial. The full season has an extra 18 PA in case I really want them but moreso it only cost $5k more for the optionality. In any case, Cooper was the best right-handed bat for my platoon and while he had a couple similar seasons as well, I chose 1954 now for two reasons: one, his other seasons had more PA which would be excess and two, the dropoff in righty options after his 2-3 seasons was bigger.
As for Robinson, I chose him over Berra for the bat. Cooper has an A- arm so I at least have him as a defensive replacement and Robinson’s defense isn’t terrible (C+/C/C+). The other Berra options available to me had better defense but lower OBP and relied more on HR. These guys combine for just shy of 600 PA so I’ll probably want one more late-round third-string catcher to make sure I have enough PA.
Pick 17.13: 1951 Tom Ferrick (RP)
Pick 17.14: 1951 Ferris Fain (1B)
I almost picked two relievers here with Ferrick and then 58 Humberto Robinson. My thinking was that there are still plenty of options for the 4 hitters I need: right-handed DH, left and right-handed 1B, and extra catcher. I’m also thinking I can get 59 Haddix next round and/or other starters with a bit of a HR problem later in the draft. However, I changed my mind at the last second and went for a lefty 1B. I had two Musials and Fain at the top of my list, so I probably could’ve waited but with double picks starting I didn’t want to risk losing out on all 3 for the most important hitting spot I have left (the other 3 hitters I only need for 200 PA at most) I went with Fain since he has the best OBP and is the least HR-dependent of the three. Plus he’s a better fielder than 58 Musial and much cheaper than 55 Musial.
Pick 18.11: 1959 Harvey Haddix (SP)
Pick 18.12: 1954 Bill Skowron (DH)
A few more SP went and it feels like time to take Haddix, who has a significantly better ERC than the next best starter options. Maybe I’m pushing the HR indifference too far–it’s not like I’m going to be in the Astrodome–but hopefully Haddix’s WHIP suppression will be worth it. For my RH hitters, I like 51 Monte Irvin at 1B where he has A+ range and a .413 OBP, plus he can play OF as well. 50 Dimaggio is in this same bucket (worse OBP, better SLG). But both have full seasons when I only need a couple hundred PA. But I also need a pure DH to platoon with Ted Williams and Bill Skowron is pretty close to the best RH hitter left and only comes with 250 PA, plus not very HR-dependent. This at least gives me a better chance to keep my salary low, if I want to go that path.
Pick 19.15: 1959 Billy O’Dell (P)
Pick 19.16: 1946 Bill Salkeld (C)
I need about 200 innings to get me to 1500 and O’Dell does that plus brings another lefty to the mix. I had 592 PA for my catchers, how many more did I need? There were a couple options below 100, but I felt that might be a touch short depending on how offense goes in this league, so I decided to play it safe. My decision came down to Salkeld the lefty and Johnny Romano as a righty. I went with the lefty and his 211 PA.
Pick 20.19: 1956 Jackie Robinson (1B/UT)
Pick 20.20: 1950 Charlie Keller (OF)
Pick 20.21: 1949 Fred Martin (RP)
Can I actually stay in the AL for once? It was a little tight and I needed to stay under $130m to be absolutely sure. The biggest thing I absolutely needed was a 1B platoon for Ferris Fain. For a few rounds, I had been preferring 1951 Monte Irvin or 1950 Joe Dimaggio, both of whom are D/A+ at 1B with solid OF ratings as well. However, both have full-time seasons and cost well over $6m. Taking either would be a roll of the dice on leagues. I decided to ensure the AL spot, so I opted for 56 Jackie Robinson. He’s certainly a worse hitter than the other two, though he still comes with a .385 OBP. But he’s A+/A- at 1B and can play 2B, 3B, and OF. At 3B, in particular, he’s an upgrade defensively (A-/A) on Mathews.
For the last two spots, I wanted one more left-handed bat and a few insurance innings, but they needed to be cheap. Charlie Keller will actually be my 4th-best bat behind Willliams/Mantle/Mays, though just 68 PA. He only cost $600k. That left me about $2m for my pitcher so I grabbed Fred Martin whose 74 innings were about as many decent ones as I could afford. That gets me to 1587 total, which hopefully should be enough.
Ballpark: Polo Grounds (IV)
I wanted to go with negative HR park but still not kill my hitters who, while not the biggest HR hitters of the era. Polo Ground (IV) has -1 HR to both fields but +1 2B which seems like a reasonable balance. Maybe in future rounds I can upgrade my pitching with better HR suppressors so didn’t want to go -2 or further.
Lineup:
I ended up with fewer platoons that last time–I have full-time starters with 600+ PA at 6 spots (SS, 2B, 3B, and all 3 OF spots). I have pretty clean platoons at the other 3 spots with Williams/Skowron at DH, Fain/Robinson at 1B and Robinson/Cooper at C, though I’ll need to make sure Ted Williams gets all of his PA, of course. Runnels and Joost will rotate batting leadoff and “second leadoff” (the 9th slot) vs LHP and RHP, but otherwise, my lineup will be pretty much the same versus both.
| Lineup |
| |
vs LHP |
vs RHP |
| 1 |
SS |
Joost |
2B |
Runnels |
| 2 |
LF |
Mantle |
LF |
Mantle |
| 3 |
RF |
Mays |
RF |
Mays |
| 4 |
DH |
Williams / Skowron |
DH |
Williams |
| 5 |
CF |
Kaline |
1B |
Fain |
| 6 |
3B |
Mathews |
CF |
Kaline |
| 7 |
1B |
Robinson |
3B |
Mathews |
| 8 |
C |
Cooper |
C |
Robinson |
| 9 |
2B |
Runnels |
SS |
Joost |