I wonder how someone would do if...

if he drafted in the ATG VII 12 team league (999mil) the top 4 starters and 2 relievers (so say Maddux, W. Johnson etc. Eckersley etc) then let everyone else draft their 25 players (or 19 players since 6 draft picks made) then made his team from the players remaining?

Now I know you can't do this as the program will just pick a player for you if you fail to choose, but it would be interesting to see.

I did a similar thing in a home league with the cards from 1985-1987, 10 teams, and won 36 games (of a 54 game season) and won the championship.

I basically took defense and stealers, platooned 5 out of 9 hitters, chose the astrodome, and beat everyone handily.

I don't remember all the players I had, but I know I had Mike Scott, Dwight Gooden, Roger Clemens, and a Lefty (I think he was from the Cardinals) as my starters, with I think Orosco and Henke as my relievers, if I remember correctly. my two stand out hitters were Willie Mcgee and Keith Moreland.

If I was to guess, I think it wouldn't work so much in the ATG VII as even if u have the 4 best starters and two best relievers, there are still 50 more behind them that are just as good or close to being just as good. When I won in my home league I faced pitchers that weren't close to being as good as mine, especially in the 4th and 5th spot in my opponents rotation.

what do you think?

what do you think?

think you would still get hit pretty hard.
But you can always try it in a 200 league first;
think there is a likelihood that if you listed your 4 starters at the top followed by your 2 rps that you would get all of them from the auto draft.

Or you can set up a theme that's been done before at lower caps. 12 seasons, everyone gets to set up their entire team on the ILC, in order. So you'd get one chance to get the team you wanted, and a chance to pick 2nd, and so on until it's after 11 teams have been picked. Only 2 teams at a time were running, the subsequent leagues would start at about the 80 game mark.

I don't see it working at a higher cap, but maybe I'm wrong?

I don't see it working at a higher cap, but maybe I'm wrong?

totally agree with that- thought the supposition was for a live league; definitely would work in a non high caps.

200M novices try similar stuff all the time. I do wonder if they come back for more after seeing what happens to them.

great pitching w/ little hitting in high caps doesn't really work out too well with the current game engine.

I do recall a few vets trying it as well, with similar results.

yeah I don't see it working too well, just because of the number of great pitchers in the ATG VII. As I said you could draft 6 great starters and 4 great relievers and you would still have so many great ones left that the strategy wouldn't be too useful, not to mention you would be facing lineups that would be much better than yours.

I did draft pitching first when I did my first ever online draft I got these pitchers:

Walter Johnson
Christy Mathewson
Three Finger Brown
Luis Tiant
Babe Adams
Dennis Eckersley
Goose Gossage
Billy Wagner
Norm Charleton

I got every one I wanted, but I chose the best SP* who also have a high relief rating R5 or R3 in the case of Tiant thinking that Hal would use them in relief situations when they were not fatigued. But this was not really needed. Therefore I did not get Maddux, Walsh, Joss, Alexander or P. Martinez as I didn't choose them.

here are the free agents I think would be the best on the team if I chose now

C
Elston Howard and Sherm Lollar
1b
Bill Terry and Rafael Palmero
2b
Brett Boone and Nelly Foxx
SS
Alan Trammell and Phil Rizzuto
3b
John McGraw and Superman Pennington
RF
Ross Youngs and Chino Smith
CF
Pete Reiser and Kirby Puckett
LF
Jake Stenzel and Max Carey
DH
David Ortiz and Jay Buhner

I am about to find out... do not think it's going to work out well. My hitting is terrible.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1127032