Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

With many of my teams I would often get most of my draft choices. (With my lousy historical record it may mean it was because nobody wanted the players I chose) Anyway, today's draft I did not get 8 of my players for a total weighted points of 106, and I get 9th place in waiver priority.
I am not questioning that, as I presume those higher lost more points, but my draft choices left $40,000 cash available. For the 8 I did not get, the replacements leave me with $13,840,000!
It is a $140m preWW2 league which limits replacement options as well, but cannot figure how that can be if players lost should have been replaced by comparable value players?

Lost 5th ranked - Al Simmons $10.48m, got Keller $7.15
Lost 6th ranked - Lajoie $ 8.78m, got Doerr $6.07
Lost 9th ranked - Hubbell $ 8.46m, got Hess $7.70
Lost 11th ranked - Gehrig S 11.89m, got Bottomley $6.80
Lost 12th ranked - Keefe $ 9.42m, got Rudolph $7.93
Lost 16 and 18 but those were reasonably replaced.
Lost 25th ranked - Ira Thomas $ 2.29m, reasonably replaced dollar-wise with Jack Lapp at $2.05 but Thomas defense is 1(-4)e2 T10 pb 6 while Lapp is 3(0)e10 T15 pb7, which hardly seems a balanced replacement.

Those more experienced may question why some of those choices were ranked where they were, and I do have a lot of cash to do something with from free agents. But the thing I question is why the replacements were not more in line with the dollar value of those lost?

Are there more-comparably priced players still sitting on the waiver wire? In other words, a 2B whose price falls between Lajoie and Doerr, or a 1B who falls between Gehrig and Bottomley? If not, I think there's your answer. With the limited player pool in pre-WW2, I'm guessing there just isn't much available once everyone has drafted.

I would concur. With a limited draft pool good players will be drafted by someone and consolations will be further away than they are when all cards are available.

The type consolation prizes you list I would say was common in ATG1 when the player pool was much smaller with fewer superstars. Limiting player pool to a subset probably takes you back to similar parameters.

In fact, I added "It is a $140m preWW2 league which limits replacement options as well" as an edit to what I had previously written. Not sure how system matches players. Since NEL is included in preWW2, Turkey Stearnes at $10.41 is on FA list. His primary position is CF but Simmons is LF, so not sure if that was a barrier to getting Stearnes, whose cost is closer to Simmons than Keller (whose primary position happens to be LF).
Checking 2B seems to confirm it looks more at the primary position than it does the dollars. Calling up FA list there are 4 2B more costly than Doerr, but 2B is not the primary position for any of them. Assuming no one else received a higher priced 2B, Doerr would have been next primary 2B available. I guess that answers it.

And checked other teams and at least half have cash available of $10m or more, one being over $23m.

IIRC, the autodraft does replace by primary position. This has happened to me when trying to draft Frisch's 1921 card to play 2B, and his primary is 3B.

The pitchers are interesting, because it looks as if HAL is looking specifically at lefty or right when selecting a replacement. I hadn't taken notice to that before.

I do not think HAL worries about lefty and righty in autodraft. I have on many occasions drafted only LH starters because I knew my consolations were most likely going to be RH pitchers and end result would be a workable mix.

Primary position is very important in autodraft. If you draft a player with a primary position of LF it does not matter what other positions are on the card or where you might have planned to play him. You will get a consolation of a card with a primary position of LF, not necessarily someone who just happens to have LF on their card.

This can be important when drafting someone like Musial. His primary position is listed as CF. But most likely when I draft him my plan is to play him in LF or FB. If I don't get him though my consolation is going to be a CFer. So I usually also list another card that does have the desired position as primary so I am not left empty handed at the position.

In the autodraft, you are given the next least expensive that plays the same primary position. This can be a problem if you are drafting a player to play a position other than his primary one. In the case where you listed Gehrig 11th, he was probably listed by several other players higher than you, so they got the next least expensive, and next least, and so on . . . which explains the huge gap. The replacement player is given based solely on price; handedness and defense mean nothing. So, if you're trying to pick up a slick-fielding SS as a backup, and he's chosen, and the next most expensive SS is a guy with a good bat and an iron glove . . . well, you get the idea.

Good luck with waivers. Sounds like it might be tough, but I think you'll be able to field a very competent team.

Don't forget, you also get the replacement player that is NOT on anyone draft card, even if it's a lower spot than yours. If you draft Gehrig 2nd and miss him, but I draft Sisler 25th, but he isn't on anyone's card, I still get him and you get some 6 or 7 mil replacement.

Also when you draft that player (draft position) means when you get a replacement.

As an example, say 5 guys drafted Gehrig. one put him 1st, another 2nd.. so forth till the 5th put him 5th.

The first guy gets him
The 2nd get the highest 1B not on a draft that is left
The 3rd now gets the next highest 1B not on a draft that is left
The 4th now gets the next highest 1B not on a draft that is left
The 5th now gets the next highest 1B not on a draft that is left

With a limited pool that could mean a guys millions below where Gehrig is.