2012 San Francisco Giants

Here we go with another World Series Championship team, the 2012 San Francisco Giants. The Giants went 94-68 in the regular season before sweeping the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. When I was creating these cards it was somewhere in the middle where I learned about the shadow and glow for the cards, so some do not have them but from here on out I believe they will all have that glow.

2014: Best Lineup, Rotation, Bullpen

2014 was a strange season for Showdown teams, without a clearly dominate squad to turn into a team. The Giants won their third title in five seasons, after winning a mere 88 games. They beat the Royals in the World Series, another team that failed to win 90 games. Thus, the most fun way to go about this season (since spoiler alert, a "San Fran Dynasty" post is coming down the pipeline) is to make the best lineup, best rotation, and best bullpen from the season.

Read on to find out what teams made the cut following the season, although I'll give y'all a spoiler for the Rotation with this fun card since the A's had the best Pythagorean W-L from the season (99 wins) despite only winning 88 games.

A Walk Through The Hall of Fame

This write up is focusing on some of the legends of the games past, while I could go on and on forever choosing legends to create, I chose 7 from the past that were dangerous with the bat. 

***UPDATE*** George Brett card has been fixed

First up is Ernie Banks and his 1959 MVP season. He won back to back MVPs in 58 & 59 and i chose 59 due to his higher on-base percentage. He put up 25 double as well as 45 home runs to go along with 143 RBIs. This baseball hall of famer was a 14 time all-star and gold glove winner.

By Request:

This might be one of the oddest post I've made... But when you take requests you get what you get. One of my buddies who will be in my 2018 draft league as you sure to see later (team name "The Butch Huskeys) really loves his Indians. He really loves his odd pitching Indians and mostly lefties. I was then tasked with getting these players together with Mr. Dave Bush to make them into the cards you will see. But be warned these are very odd and in most cases a very small sample size to work with. We had a tweak a few details with the sample size being so small on some of them. But if you are a fan of really off Indians pitchers mostly one and done kind of guys this is the post for you.

Lets get things started in the way back. Back in 2003 with Indians lefty Jason Stanford.

Mostly a starter though did come out of the bullpen 5 times. This Indians started posted a 1-3 record with a 3.60 ERA had a 2:1 strike out to walk ratio and a whip of 1.28. Nothing too crazy but did pretty good for the Indians that year. He pitched the following year then disappeared till 2007.

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

Happy College World Series!!! Watching the games over the past week, I got an idea that I really enjoy and hope you do too -- to put various cards in their "college" forms. Now, I didn't make cards that actually reflect players college stats, because (a) small sample sizes, (b) the competition makes it hard to make cards that you can actually use without being too unrealistic or too useless either way. So to compromise, these are basically "special edition" versions of cards. So the card below is the 2012 Buster Posey card (his MVP season), but with his Florida State image and logos/colors. 

As a special treat to memorialize the CWS, we changed the "skins" of a card at every position, plus two Starters, a Reliever, and one very special bonus! Not only will these be fun alternate cards, but some are from player's seasons that haven't been published on this blog yet! I hope you enjoy the walk down memory lane as well as adding some very unique cards to your set. Let me know if you'd like to see more of these "college cards" (or other more unique, "special edition" sets) in the future -- honestly this was a blast to make and I can't personally wait to play with them!

Buster's 2012 MVP Card is the one we selected for the College World Series special, harkening back to Posey's dominate days at Florida State. His senior season at FSU, Posey had a .463 AVG and .566 OBP!!! Posey also hit 26 HR in just over 300 PAs. These stats were accomplished while catching, dude was an absolute beast! 

On-Base Percent Update

Two weeks have passed since I did my write up on the race of a 11 or 10 On-Base and just after two weeks there have been a lot of changes. Mike Trout pushed his was from third to first and Joey Votto remained in second  as our two potential 11 OBs. The numbers are starting to lower as were hitting close to mid season and guys percentages are slowly dropping. The best will shine through and a few second half surges will send a few into the discussion.

2015 Blue Jays

Our first season team that didn't win the World Series, and that's because this is the first time (as we turn back the years) in recent years where the best Showdown team was not the World Series champion. Toronto was seemingly constructed to dominate Showdown, with a high On-Base lineup pretty much top to bottom, an elite front end starter without a significant pitching drop off, and an elite closer teamed with solid relievers. In short, like the 2017 Astros and 2016 Cubs, this is a Showdown team without weakness that has talent way over budget, in large part due to blockbuster trades for Troy Tulowitski and David Price. It's still insane to me that this team lost a 7 game series to the Kansas City Royals, who had plenty of OB 9 hitters but three OB 5s and woeful starting pitching before a bullpen that was good, but nowhere near as great as their 2014 bullpen.

Now, it may be a small consolation prize for Toronto fans, but here's the best MLB Showdown team from 2015, the potent and powerful Toronto Blue Jays!

Ivy Edition: Kris Bryant

Bob had a really fun idea and I had some spare minutes to plug in the background, so check out the 2017 Kris Bryant card in IVY form! What would you think about this background being used for the Cubs in 2018? Too busy or iconic? Do you prefer unique teams/players, or do you like uniformity? What other teams would you like to see done in a special "ballpark" style? Hope you enjoy this gem regardless!

Flashback Friday: Bo Jackson

Everyone knows about the legendary Bo Jackson, the Heisman winner who dominated Tecmo Bowl and the NFL while being an elite enough baseball players to make an All Star game. Perhaps the best two-sport athlete we've ever seen, Bo's career was unfortunately and famously cut short due to a football injury. I'd write more, but I have a feeling we've all seen his 30 for 30 by now (and if you haven't, definitely watch it!). 

Bo's best baseball season came in 1989, when he made the All Star game and bashed 32 HRs in 515 ABs while stealing 26 bases. Jackson finished tenth in the MVP voting as KC won 92 games. During his four real years with the Royals from 1987 thru 1990, Jackson clobbered 107 HRs while hitting a respectable .252. If Bo had taken a few more walks (and struck out less), his card would be greatly improved. However, as it stands, Bo mixes great power with elite defense and top-notch speed, Bo Jackson's a valuable asset to slide into a corner outfield slot for only 300 points. 

THROWback Thursday: David Price

I figured for at least this Thursday and next (possibly more going into the future), it'd be fun to utilize Thursday as the day for looking at star pitchers who've been fantastic for several teams. While I want to eventually do guys like David Cone, Nolan Ryan, and especially Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson, I wanted to start with a more recent ace: David Price!

Price has pitched for four teams this decade, including a fun stretch in 2013-2016 where he put up a card for a different team every single year! So I'm giving you David Price's fun run through the American League, starting with his first team: Tampa Bay!

2012

Some Of My Favorites

Now that i am playing around with making cards in the old showdown style, its given me a chance to go back and make some of my favorite players over the last 15 years that didn't get the proper showdown treatment.

World Series Wednesday: 2016 Cubs

They were the first team published in full on this site, and they're back in the epic, original MLB Showdown 2000 style! Some of the cards have been slightly adjusted, so look out for that as well. It's amazing how good the 2016 Cubs and 2017 Astros both were, with the Cubs winning 103 games (and being a 107 win team according to Baseball Reference's Pythagorean model). They're one of the more balanced teams in the game, featuring an amazing FOUR On-Base 10 hitters to start off the lineup, a rotation with two aces and without a weak link, and a strong, deep bullpen with an absolute lights out closer. As with the 2017 Astros, this Cubs team is a 17 man roster with 9 hitters, 4 starters, and 4 bullpen guys. Unfortunately, David Ross didn't make the showdown card cut, but his heart is still with us (and his card is in the original post!).

Above: the 2016 NL MVP -- absolute slugger to plug into the hot corner!

Mixing The New Cards With The Originals

Hello everyone, I just wanted to stop by and share some of my team building experiences with mixing in the cards that have been made on this site, along with the 2000 set. For fun I threw together two teams, of course you know its coming one was the Cleveland Indians, and the other was the Houston Astros. To me the cards look fantastic when printed off, the only problem I have run into is the points do print a little blurry so I try to write it down on the back of the card so I don't forget. Same with the charts sometimes. Other then that everything else looks fantastic.

First lets look at the Houston Astros, i used the world series team as a base and sprinkled in some of the 2000 set cards.

The Card that Broke MLB Showdown

This site makes MLB Showdown cards with the 00/01 MLB Showdown formulas and emulates the design style of the 00 set. However, there were four more sets of original MLB Showdown cards after the 01 set, just with a very different calculus involved. Instead of a high of OB 11, it became OB 14 and on-base numbers as a whole went way up (while charts became more tame to account for batters getting their own charts more frequently). Some may say this design change was a way to add more dynamic gameplay, but we here at Greatest MLB Showdown project point to one player's amazing, untouchable, possibly illegally enhanced 2001 season of Barry Bonds, the season where the original MLB Showdown cards shifted their formulas. Well, we decided to make the 2001 Barry Bonds card according to original MLB Showdown calculations.

Pictured: the MLB Showdown 2002 card for the 73-HR Barry Bonds, aka the card that broke MLB Showdown

Bob Gibson

Bob Gibson's 1968 season is the stuff of legend. It's been at the top of every "greatest season of pitching" list I've ever read. With a 1.12 ERA, and averaging nearly a complete game every start, Gibson's season has been linked to MLB lowering the pitching mound. He was the most dominate pitcher of the "Year of the Pitcher."

It's finally time for Gibson to get a 00-style MLB Showdown card. Needless to say, he basically broke the scale, flying way past Pedro Martinez and 1981 Nolan Ryan, reaching an incredible Tier 0 card while having an IP 9. He's costly, but since you won't be using any bullpen for his starts, I'd say he's worth it!

Twins Superstars

As you may or may not know from the 1991 Twins team post, we've got a fan of the Twins working at the site. Thus, it was a no brainer to make perhaps the two most iconic Twins best players in the past three decades in Joe Mauer and Kirby Puckett for our set. We figured we'd release the original cards before they both get the pinstripe treatment next week. And then what the heck, why not add in former MVP Justin Morneau while we're at it?? Enjoy!

Nolan Ryan's incredible 1981 season

Today I want to honor one of the all-time legends: Nolan Ryan! Known for his strikeouts, longevity, and knack for throwing no-hitters, Ryan always pops up in the "Name the Top Ten Pitchers of All-Time" discussion. Oddly enough, despite his prodigious strikeout numbers and normally respectable ERA, Ryan never won a Cy Young. However, he should have in 1981.

That season, which was shortened by strike, Ryan led the majors with an incredible 1.69 ERA. He went 11-5 in his 21 starts, striking out over 8 batters per 9 innings and absolutely baffling foes in the NL. Yes, this was the season Fernando Valenzuela came onto the scene and wowed the baseball world. However, with his only sub-2 ERA season, all-time superstar Nolan Ryan deserved the Cy Young! Without further ado, here's 1981 Nolan Ryan's Showdown card, with two backgrounds:

Hope you enjoy and keep checking us out for more fun, free MLB Showdown cards to play with!

2017 World Series Champs in MLB 2000 Form!!!

As you may or may not know from reading this blog, we love to celebrate the best players and (especially) the best teams here at the Greatest MLB Showdown blog. We've given you the 2016 Cubs, the 1998 Yankees, we're still rolling out the Classic Set.... we've also given you a spattering of cards in the original, MLB Showdown 2000 set style.... but we've yet to give you a complete World Series champion team in that much adored original style -- until now!

Flashback Friday: The Phearsome Phillies Rotation

In honor of flashback Friday, I went with a set of pitchers I've been waiting to make for some time! Not to mention I had a hankering for a few more pinstripe cards, this time with a red team (definitely trying the White Sox next). Moreover, this site has definitely not put out a lot of Phillies cards over the years, so this post is for you Phillies fans out there!

In 2010, the Phillies assembled arguably the best rotation of the century. Roy Halladay (who would win the 2010 Cy Young and finish second in the 2011 voting), former Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, current Ace and postseason hero Cole Hamels, and at the trade deadline, three time all star and former NL ERA leader Roy Oswalt. Unsurprisingly, the Phillies won a combined 199 games in 2010 and 2011. In 2010, Halladay had a 2.44 ERA and won the Cy Young. Oswalt finished the year with a 2.76 ERA and led the majors in WHIP after an incredible 12 starts in Philly with a 0.895 WHIP and 1.74 ERA. In 2011, Lee and Hamels both had sub-3.00 ERAs. Lee had over 9 k/9 and Hamels had a sub-1.00 WHIP. They're coming at you in order of point values, which happens to nicely go correspondingly with decreasing Control amounts! Enjoy

Classic Set: 1986 New York Mets

It's finally time for the 108 win, Curse-keeping New York Mets! The Mets are led by perhaps the best starting pitcher in the Classic Set, Dwight Gooden. Gooden's card is based around his 1985 season, but he was the ace for the 1986 Mets too. Of course, the '86 Mets are not remembered by most for their dominant regular season and knocking off a lethal Mike Scott-Nolan Ryan duo for the NL Pennant. No, the Mets are remembered for coming back from a 3-2 World Series deficit after Buckner let the ball go through his legs in Game 6. Their World Series win is one of baseball's all-time classic World Series, and rightfully so. However, this was not a team that lucked into a championship -- the 1986 Mets were one of the best squads in history and I'm pumped to bring you their Classic Set collection!

Reminder -- not everyone is based on their 1986 stats (and took the best years of players from the 1986 team to make the strongest squad possible) and the cards are made relative to other Classic Set players, so some skills are depreciated from where they'd be compared to a pure 1986 set. Alright, without further ado, enjoy!

Playing with Pinstripes

As an old-school Brewers fan, the only team we've ever really had to remember fondly is the 1982 Brewers. Harvey's Wallbangers won the AL Pennent and lost the World Series in 7 games, but you would think they went 150-12 and swept the playoffs by the way they're idolized in Milwaukee. The two biggest stars on that team were future Hall of Famers Robin Yount and Paul Molitor, icons to me growing up. Therefore, they had to be the players I tested out pinstripe backgrounds on! I went side-by-side with the traditional showdown look to give it a real feel, but I'm definitely partial to a good pinstriped background!

Secondary Colors

So I've been testing this out and I need to work on my fonts. Fortunately, I have some cards to use from Bob to play around with, which explains why some have better looking fonts than others. Anyway, here's some fun alternate backing cards to add some sizzle to your Showdown collection!

2012 Ryan Braun: Even though he won the MVP in 2011, I went with the 2012 version that hit 41 Homers while keeping A speed and blasting a ton of doubles too. Too bad the PED bust will forever taint this card, but it'd still be a bunch of fun to lock into a lineup's #3 hole. An all around stud card!

Taking a Stab at the Classic MLB Showdown look

Inspired by Bob's amazing work recreating the 2000 set, I designed to take a spin at it with one of my favorite moments in baseball history -- when the Brewers had Zach Grienke. The Classic Set Mets are coming soon (still in my usual, unique style), but I'm hoping to create some more like this fine card over the next few months! I'm not thrilled with all my font choices, and the spacing needs work, but I'm definitely proud of the unique wheat-colored background I gave Zach and the overall card for a first attempt quickly thrown together in between bar prep lectures. I think there's too many bland navy blue and red cards, so anytime I get the chance to spice a card up like this in the future, I'm going to take it! Anyway, enjoy and happy Tuesday!

2018 MLB Season Race For A 10 On-Base

As the 2018 season is in full swing we are seeing the leaders in the different statistical categories start to take shape. When building a team I was always big on more 10 On-base hitters than the power game. So based on the spreadsheet shared with me for card creating says the ideal amount of 11/10 on-base hitters is 2 11's and 19 10's. So looking at the current leaders here is a look at what we could potentially  be seeing come the end of the season when we are making the new set of cards.

Flash Back Friday

Finally a flash back Friday to go with my team!! There have been a lot of amazing Indians posts lately I'm hoping to add to that with my 00 version of my buddies favorite year for the one and only speedster Kenny Lofton. The year we are talking about isn't the 1994 season where he finished 4th in the MVP voting batting .349. Nor the the 1995 season that sent the Indians to the World Series where he had 13 triples and 54 stolen bases. I'm talking about the crazy 1996 where he hit 14 Home runs which is impressive for him and batted .317. But the best stat is his 75 stolen bases literally Willie Mays Hayes haha. He had 210 hits that year and had a pretty good OBP of .372. I grew up watching him steal every base on the diamond and robbing home runs! So how does his card stack up? Let me know your thoughts.

 As always follow me on Twitter @BobBumbarger

Classic New York Yankees

To be completely honest, it was nearly impossible to pick a Yankees team to template for the Classic Set. We knew we wanted it to be pre-strike, so we kicked out the 90s dynasty from the running (and made the 1998 Yankees in another post, check it out here if you haven't already!). In the end, it came down to the World Series champions in the 1970s with Reggie Jackson or the early 1960s squads that crushed the opposition in 1961 and 1962. Thanks to the epic HR chase for sixty one homers in 1961, the early 60s Bombers got the nod. I'm sure we'll eventually bring the 1970s Yankees to life, but enjoy this truly classic team that's part of our Classic Set.

It's been a while, so a reminder that the teams here are part of one set of classic teams. That's why the hitter's On-Base may be a little lower than normal and the pitchers aren't quite what you'd think -- they're all being compared to players from some of the greatest teams of all time for one comprehensive set. Also, next up will be the Classic Set Mets thanks to popular demand, so keep an eye out for that post soon!

That said, enjoy baseball's most classic team's offering, which obviously features several can't miss stars, like Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford.

Royals at Twins, Season One kicks off!

The first series of the first season of the Greatest MLB Showdown League was absolute annihilation, as the Twins swept the visiting Royals in convincing fashion.

Series MVP Miguel Sano's 2017 All Star card, he's only an  OB 8 in this league but still had a ton of pop against the weak Royals

So here on the blog, we plan on giving you game recaps, but also provide links to the actual game stats if you're curious, which can be found at the link below:

Greatest Cleveland Indians: Team Script I

The final part of my three team series, and I am happy to share this final team with one of my favorite cards for a showdown team, 2006 Grady Sizemore.

Starters

Greatest Cleveland Indians: Team Wahoo

Part Two of my three team series is here with Team Wahoo. 

The Starters

Gold Glove

Oh hey everyone! or no-one... depending on if people read this. Its Sunday!! and the weekend is over. Time to get back on the grind and its sad. Luckily for you I have a few cards to show you to put you in a better mood. Now remember I do the artwork for these. David Bush has been doing the stats for the 2017/208 cards. I only say this because the card I'm about to show I have a feeling I will see some hate for! In 2000-2001 3B fielding went from 0-3. There were some +3 studs that really drove up the salary. Nobody has ever broke that +3 barrier. But there has to be a first. How about a guy that from day 1 in the league was a gold glover. How about winning it 5 straight times! How bout doing that while also hitting with the bat. Who? Nolan Arenado! If anyone that is playing now deserves the +4 3B it has to be him. So lets take a look at his card.

What do you guys think? Does he hold up to the hype? As always follow me on Twitter @BobBumbarger