The set will consist of players from various eras, from the early 1960s until the early 90s strike. The steroid era produced such insane hitting numbers that those teams don't work as well in a set like this, so that's where we drew the line. Just like we do for a normal season, players will be getting their OB numbers, pitching tiers and Control/charts, point values, and comparative value from the other players in the set. However, for the first time, they will be compared against players from different seasons. Below is an example of a prototype of Robin Yount, with his regular 1982 card compared to what his card will look like in the Classic set.
As you can see, the Classic Robin Yount's overall card is not as good, but it's because he will be going against such prolific hitters at Willie Mays, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Roberto Alomar, Johnny Bench, and others that he did not have to be compared to in 1982. We DID tweak our formulations a bit to allow for great pitchers to remain at higher tiers, and curved the OB allocations as well to reward the better hitting that's inevitably in the game.
Current status: We are in the chart making process now. We will release charts first, to give anyone interested in these cards the opportunity to see what's coming. After all, we are just excited at this (albeit daunting) project and want to give content as we go. As of right now, we have just finalized rosters. We took great seasons for various teams and then assigned the BEST single season for that team a player had as the stats the player will use for their card. For example, the Brewers are based on the 1982 AL Pennant winning Brewers. Robin Yount's best season was 1982, so he'll use that year's stats, but Paul Moliter is using 1987 and Rollie Fingers is using 1981. This way, each team will have its core players at their absolute peaks, compared to each other teams' peak guys as well.
Teams for the Set: As we said earlier, there will be 20 teams of 18 players in the set. Each will correspond to a season or short run of glory that a team had. The "league" set up is as follows:
AL East: New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers
AL West: Oakland A's, California Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals
NL East: New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros
NL West: Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres
Perhaps in the future, we'll be able to add some expansion packs to these teams! We're keeping a surprise which seasons are coming, but some are easy to guess (I.E. THE BIG RED MACHINE).
Other Content: Have no fear, we will still be doing our best to churn out classic teams in the format we have been doing, as well as continuing to induct players into the Hall of Fame. This is just another form of content that we're really excited to try out, as it is definitely our most ambitious concept!
Ordering a Set: No fears, the Classic Set will be a free item! Just like our classic teams, this blog is all about sharing our joy for baseball and this wonderful card game that lets us simulate baseball year round. We just want to provide new experiences with Showdown to folks! Our current set-up isn't the most ideal for printing off large quantities, so when we start producing the full teams, we shall see if we can get a link to more "printer-friendly" set ups.
So in summation: you won't have to order anything, you just have to come to the site and print off whatever teams and players you'd like, including the full 360 player set when all the cards are online.
Timeline: This WILL take a while, as it's obviously a hefty endeavor (and I'll be slow in May for Finals), but keep checking in and we'll be starting with charts, then I'm sure some individual stars, and hopefully getting everything done during the summer months. It'd be really, really cool to see some people getting to use this set for their own drafts, leagues, and entertainment!
Thanks for reading, we hope this idea is as exciting to you as it is to us!
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