Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

I consider myself to be a good autodrafter. I'm a greedy drafter, so the goal is always to get a solid foundation for a team AND to finish at or near the top of the waiver queue. Like many veteran players, with the player pool being so large, I rarely put subs on my autodraft list, instead focusing on lower priced versions of star players.

I've always preferred the post WWII card set, as I grew up watching many of those players on TV. I spent more than a few Summer Saturday afternoons watching this week in baseball called by Mel Allen and the followup MLB "Game of the Week" broadcast by sportscaster legends Curt Gowdy, Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek, and later Jack Buck, Dick Enberg, Vin Scully, and Bob Costas. Occasionally, Sandy Koufax would do color work, which was typically bland, but always a treat due to his vast knowledge of the game and high intelligence.

So when I saw a $140 mil post WWII no DH league, I jumped in, despite not recalling previously playing in a $140 mil post WWII league or a $140 mil no DH league. I was a little concerned, from a competitive standpoint, with the number of inexperienced players in the league.

Although I missed on 8 draft picks, the foundation for my team is solid. As usual, I need to shore up relief pitching and the bench.

I've noticed in previous seasons that the manager finishing last in waiver priority generally seems to have made some off the wall picks, selecting players nobody else wanted, or alternatively (and less likely), got extremely lucky. In my 280 or so previous teams, I don't EVER recall finishing last in waiver priority. Until now.

So my question is, did I miss the boat on those drafted or did I just get lucky?

The links to my team and the league, are below:

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1473383

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/league/435229

My missed draft picks are below, with the consolation prize in parentheses:

Greinke (Higuera)
Franco (Marshall)
Arroyo (Chambers)
Regan (Acker)
E. Howard (M. Bailey)
Pujols (Gentile)
Biggio (H. Reynolds)
J. Dimaggio (Lynn, since dropped)

I would hypothesize that, seeing as there are several relatively inexperienced players in the league, there was a whole lotta Bonds and Ruth going 1-2, and so a whole lotta people missing out on those high-priced players, pushing them up the waivers list.

It's a post WWII league, so no Ruth or any of his contemporaries. My hypothesis is that, like many other leagues using less than the entire ATG8 player pool, a lot of managers scrambled for lefty bats early. Also, a common mistake of newer players is to go too heavy too early for relief pitching. I saw some of that as well.

Lastly, it looks like I caught a break as to the ballparks in the league. There's just one other righty park. The remaining parks are 2 lefty parks, 4 smallball parks, 3 neutral parks and 1 boomer park. Apparently, there was just less competition for good righty hitters.

That doesn't give much of an explanation for my good starting pitching. Perhaps managers listed the highest priced lefty righty combination, or some variation thereof, of starting pitchers (righties Maddux & Martinez, lefties Koufax and Kershaw) early. My starters fall just below that, in the next tier.

Your hypothesis is much stronger than mine, especially since I goofed on the player set!

I've finished first a lot in waiver priority. I've also finished last a lot. Back in ATG II-IV it seemed like Nev and I were always trying to finish first in waivers; usually he got it. Back then having the first pick in waivers really meant something. Now I think it is more cap dependent. With 24 team leagues, I know that the lower my waivers pick, the better my draft. That is pretty close to an absolute. Extrapolating from that, caps that shrink the player pool the most are where I prefer to finish last or close to last in waivers. That pretty much includes any league 140M and up and also at 60 M. At 80M and 100M, I don't even have a preference anymore. If I had to pick one, I guess it would be to be toward the bottom in waiver priority. Many of my teams at these caps depend on obtaining specific key bargains and if I don't get enough of them, well then it is back to the drawing board regarding my planned theme for the team. Also at lower caps I do try to draft specific subs. Putting some of these guys toward the bottom of your draft card automatically bumps you up in the waiver priority. In a team that drafted last night, an 80M dh with a frenzy, I put Gipson 9th as having him saved me some not inconsiderable money on subs and allowed me to have an 11 man pitching staff. So, as is pretty much always the case with Strat, lots of different ways to successfully skin the proverbial cat.

I rarely finish in the first half of the waiver priority, and have probably finished last in waiver priority in a third of the leagues where it mattered. But as Druid has frequently posted here, I have my own drummer. I understand how to game the system to move up in waiver priority, but I'd rather get the 8th best guy at a position in the AD than the 13th best guy in waivers. Silly me.

But Bernie's system is the only way to go in 140 MM leagues. The depth of talent is better than it was, but still there are levels. And so many people are using $225 million for top end AD leagues that you rarely need to do this any more.