The Hibbing Excelsiors!

Tonight Joe and Jesse came over to do the baseball packs draft. This is the second one that Jesse and I have done, but it feels more official this time with a third party involved. We had Donruss '88 and Score '90 to choose from. Each participant was given one pack of Donruss and one of Score, and was able to decide whether they wanted Score or Donruss for their third and final pack. Joe and I both did two Donruss packs and Jesse opted for two of the 1990 Score.

Just like last time, a few doubles popped up, and when that happens, both managers have to exclude the card involved. Most of the time it's crap players but we had some big names knocked out. I drew Clemens in my first pack. 1987 being one of his better early seasons, he had a 2.97 ERA, struck out 256 batters in 282 innings, went 20-9, had 7 shutouts and an unbelievable 18 complete games. Unfortunately, Joe drew him later on and I had to drop him.

Later, I pulled a Tim Raines Diamond King after Joe had gotten one, and I took what was easily his best player. In 1987 Tim Raines hit .330, stole 50 bases and cracked 18 homers. He'd be a fantasy stud today.

I'm real happy with my team overall. I named them The Hibbing Excelsiors, in honor of the former Brooklyn Excelsiors and Hibbing, Minnesota, the town where Robert Zimmerman grew up. The Excelsiors are strong considering the roster was produced entirely from only three packs.

I've got 1987 Mike Stanley behind the plate, '87 Jack Clark and Alvin Dark will split time between DH and 1B, and a great outfield with 1987 Willie Wilson, 1987 Kal Daniels and a platoon of 1989 Jose Canseco and 1987 Mike Young.

My pitching is arguably better than my offense. With Clemens out of the picture, my ace is 1987 Mark Langston (19 wins, 262 K, 14 complete games). 1989 Chris Bosio is a very solid no.2 starter (15 W, 2.95 ERA in 234 IP, and 8 complete games) and my third starter is a young 1989 Rob Dibble and his 12.8 K/9. 1987 Dave Stieb and fresh faced 1987 Jamie Moyer (still in the big leagues 22 years later!) round out my rotation. 1989 Eric King is my long relief man or spot starter, and I suppose 1987 Bruce Ruffin is too. Seeing as how I had so few good options in the IF and for bench spots on offense, I decided to load up on pitchers. My closer, Mike Schooler, has surprisingly good numbers for a guy I don't remember: 2.81 ERA, 33 Saves, and a 69/19 strike out to walk ratio. 33 saves in 1989 was a lot. A young relief '89 David Wells, slim and mustached, 1987 John Smiley, and '87 Jeff Russell are my final relievers. I was excited when I pulled Wells, but it was before he became the big time, perfect game pitcher he was in the '90s.

Now we're going to pop in our teams at whatifsports.com, set up in a pre-existing league (probably the 1988 American League) and see how are teams fare.