Announcing the 2020 Central Division League

 Peter and I are happy to announce our plan for our Central Division league that we are going to be running. Now we came up with a pretty fun schedule where each team will play 6 games vs their in division opponents and 3 games against their opposite division opponents. When we made the 2020 set it was noticeable how close all the teams seemed to be and we wanted to watch the season play out in a 39 game season. We will be tracking full stats, and a secondary sheet was made to act as our "league website" which I am pretty excited about. With the two of us playing games, we are hoping to keep the season moving along at a decent pace and it will be fun to see how the standings shake up in the showdown world. 

This league will be kicking off with games either this Thursday or Friday, as week 1 gets underway. The first series between the Indians and White Sox gives us Dallas Keuchel vs Shane Bieber in game 1 which should be a pitchers duel. One of my goals is to try and play a few games out on the TTS as a Game of the Week type of event but we will see how the fan response is. 

Game 1 Between the White Sox and Indians has happened and It was a thriller. Both aces dueled for their teams and were sitting down everyone that came their way. The White Sox defeated the Indians in game one of the season in a pitchers duel, turned into a slugfest to end the game. The Indians scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 7th inning, and the White Sox come back to tie the game in the top of the 8th behind a grand slam from James McCann. The White Sox scored the winning run in the top of the 9th behind a Jose Abreu single scoring Nick Madrigal. Cal Quantrill gets the loss for the Indians but James Karinchak giving up the grand slam took all the momentum from the Indians. 

Full Game Here

The Bottom of the 7th starts at the 20:50 second mark if you want to watch from the fireworks of the game. Also Sorry for no commentary, I just wanted to see if this would work, maybe next time!!!

Starters Summary

Dallas Keuchel - 6+IP 2ER 9K 4BB 3H

Shane Bieber - 7+IP 2ER 8K 7BB 3H

Scoring Summary

Bot 7. Delino Deshields triples, Jordan Luplow Scores 1-0 CLE

Bot 7. Roberto Perez Sac. Fly, Delino Deshields Scores 2-0 CLE

Bot. 7 Jose Ramirez doubles, Josh Naylor & Cesar Hernandez Score 4-0 CLE

Top 8 James McCann homers, Tim Anderson, Yasmani Grandal, Jose Abreu scores 4-4

Top 9 Jose Abreu Singles, Nick Madrigal scores 5-4 CHW

W: Evan Marshall (1-0)

L: Cal Quantrill (0-1)

S: Alex Colome (1)

Top 10 Batters : The Pirates will get a full season from KeBryan Hayes, will he be enough for them to get some more wins in this season. The Twins and White Sox both have 2 players in the top 10, does this make them the best offensive team front runners?

Player Name	Salary
KE'BRYAN HAYES	570
JOSE ABREU	530
JOSE RAMIREZ	530
NELSON CRUZ	520
JASON HEYWARD	490
SALVADOR PEREZ	480
CURT CASALI	440
JOSH DONALDSON	430
PAUL GOLDSCHMIDT	430
JAMES MCCANN	420

Top 10 Pitchers : The Indians come in with 2 of the top 3 starters, this is big for them in a division that has some really good offense. The Brewers are the only other team with 2 pitchers in the top 10.

Player Name	Salary
TREVOR BAUER	670
SHANE BIEBER	650
ZACH PLESAC	600
DALLAS KEUCHEL	570
YU DARVISH	570
KENTA MAEDA	540
BRAD KELLER	530
KWANG-HYUN KIM	530
BRANDON WOODRUFF	520
CORBIN BURNES	500

Predictions : Matt

AL Central Winner: Chicago White Sox

NL Central Winner: St. Louis Cardinals

AL MVP: Jose Abreu

NL MVP: Nick Castellanos

AL Cy Young: Shane Bieber

NL Cy Young: Trevor Bauer

AL Reliever of the Year: Alex Colome

NL Reliever of the Year: Devin Williams

King of the Central: Chicago White Sox

Predictions : Peter

AL Central Winner: Cleveland Indians

NL Central Winner: St. Louis Cardinals

AL MVP: Jose Ramirez

NL MVP: Christian Yelich

AL Cy Young: Zach Plesac

NL Cy Young: Kyle Hendricks

AL Reliever of the Year: Jesse Hahn

NL Reliever of the Year: Devin Williams

King of the Central: St. Louis Cardinals

Here is the League Website Page also stay tuned to my twitter page @mlbshowdowncup as I will give game and league updates on there as well.

Lets hear your predictions on the awards and divisional winners. What recommendations do you have that may make the league more exciting and interactive? What would you like to see from us?