2021 Set -- TRADE DEADLINE SPECIAL

 You saw the Hot Stove.... you're hopefully excited for the end of year 2021 set.... but now, enjoy the TRADE DEADLINE edition for the 2021 Set!

This is an idea I've wanted to implement for a while, putting guys dealt at the deadline onto cards for the team they are leaving with their stats to this point of the year making up the card. I think it's fun for several reasons: (a) puts the expectations that teams should have for the guys they just acquired into easy to understand form; (b) let's the worst teams have some fun cards at the end of the season; (c) makes it easy to compare "guy when traded" vs "guy at end of the year" so we can all see if the traded player kept it up, exceeded his previous performance, or didn't live up to the hype. Plus, the more good cards, the better!!

Especially this year, which is the most insane trade deadline class in terms of talent I can remember! Without further ado, let's get into the studs:

1996 Cleveland Indians

Finally we have come to my favorite team. Back in the 90s the tribe was a power house of bats and 1996 is no exception. They have 4 - 10OB hitters. They have 4 foils and a stud of a lineup. Also if the bot went higher than A speed 20 you would see Kenny Lofton breaking that, he had 75 sbs that year. What is interesting to see is the +3 Omar and the random Jeff Kent sighting.

If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger

1996 San Francisco Giants

Alright alright whose ready for another 11OB? I mean that's the only reason you are looking at the 1996 giants right? The rest of the team is average at best and in my opinion below average. But it sure is nice to see a young Bonds.
If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger

1996 Montreal Expos

Trying to keep up with these at 3x a week. Might be a struggle but still going strong right now. Expos are always fun to release. Especially seeing old school Pedro. Some fun old school players. But overall an average at best team.

If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger

1996 Los Angeles Dodgers

 This team has some power houses on it. The dodgers come in with 6 Foils including ROY of the year Todd Hollandsworth. And possibly my favorite looking card in Hideo Nomo. It just fits the card frame so well. Also greg gagne looks like Travis Fryman...I said it!
If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger

2020 NPB Japanese Baseball Set

I'm new here! My name is Kevin. I found this blog a few months back and that's what got me back into Showdown, so I feel honored to be posting on here. I used to work overnights for a sports data company, and some of my responsibilities were recording NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) games, monitoring data feeds, etc. So I've always had an interest in the league and the players. Obviously, with Ohtani's runaway success this year it's made me think a bit about the next big star who could make the jump. 

I also still watch the occassional NPB game for that same company, tracking pitches. Seeing young stars like Munetaka Murakami and Masato Morishita is really what drove me to make this set. In 2020, Murakami was 20 years old and put up very similar numbers to Alex Bregman and Christian Yelich in 2019. So I set off to make a card for him. Then I figured why not just do the Best 9 (an official award given out, similar to an All-pro team) of the Pacific and Central Leagues. But once you've gotten that far, you may as well finish off the whole set. 

Due to Covid the NPB had a shortened season just like the MLB in 2020. However, it wasn’t shortened to the same extremes as the MLB, so there were 120 games played for each team which allowed for cards to be mostly "true".

Shout out and thanks to all the card designers out there (especially those on this blog, Peter, Matt, and Bob) who have shared their secrets, advice, and design input. The Showdown community is truly welcoming and wonderful. 

I welcome any and all feedback or constructive criticism. If something looks off, you see a blatant error, or want to share design tips/input please feel free to comment below or reach out on the Showdown Discord. 

Methodology:

I tried to capture the top 3 starters in IP for each team. Occasionally adding a 4th. I used the most played position player for each team, occasionally bending that rule, as there are quite a few players with multiple position availability. I did my best to line up with players from the MLB 2020 set so that it could play along side that set (or hopefully any set) reasonably well. For example, Jeimer Candelario had a .369 OBP in 2020 and was given 9 OB with 5 outs for his card. Hiroyuki Nakajima had a .369 OBP for the Yomiuri Giants in 2020. So he gets a 9 OB with 5 outs. I would also use the Showdown Bot as a check for points, or OB, HR rate, etc. 

Used the Tier system that Peter and his college buddies pioneered back in 2014 for pitching. I won’t go into detail on that as it’s been covered before. I will say again I tried though that I tried to match the 2020 set to some extent. There are Bieber and Bauer (the top 2 pitchers by points in the 2020 set) “clones,” and I tried to have some bad pitchers even if some other guys may have thrown more innings for their respective teams. 

Fielding...was a unique challenge. Especially since many players played several different positions. I couldn’t find defensive runs saved. But there were some other advanced fielding statistics I was able to track down from a Japanese site. Mostly UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating), but they had a couple of other metrics to supplement that. On this website you could only see qualifying players (unless you paid for a subscription) so if they didn’t qualify in 2020 I would check 2019, 2018, or 2021 and see how they were and try to make my best guess.

For catchers I couldn’t find caught stealing %, however, I did know each catcher’s SB allowed and their innings caught. So Stolen bases allowed per inning took the place of SB% essentially. 

Special note on the ground ball ranges. Simply put...they are huge. Less strikeouts overall than the MLB, and some of these guys have ridiculous ground ball rates. The average ground ball rate for pitchers represented in the set was 60.63%. (Koyo Aoyogi of the Hanshin Tigers had an absurd 78.90% ground ball rate in 120 ⅔ IP). I was initially thinking I may adjust everyone down a ground ball by 1 or 2, but decided to embrace the high ground ball rates to highlight the differences in the NPB and MLB games. I guess we’ll all find out how much infield defense really matters!

Enough about this. Let's get to the cards!

1996 Chicago Cubs

Look at that I just started releasing these and already missed a scheduled release. But hey that's life. Look on the bright side you get the Cubs today. Some solid cards on here. My boy Sammy Sosa as well as the ever consistent Mark Grace. I don't even remember Luis Gonzalez on the Cubs. They only get the one Foil with Steve Trachsel but he's really solid. 
If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger

1996 St. Louis Cardinals

Back at it with the Cardinals today. They kind of remind me of some of the Cardinals from the 00 set. Not just obviously in name but OB also. Also funny to have Andy and Alan Benes here. I didn't know they were on the same team. But give me that Brian Jordan card all day.
If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger 

2019 Bot Set -- AL Central

After this post, we're halfway through the 2019 Bot Set! Arguably the weakest division in the 2019 Set, the AL Central provides two absolute stinkers at the bottom, below-average White Sox, an underachieving Cleveland squad, and a REALLY good Twins team... and it's about time, considering how bad the Twins were in the original 00/01 sets and the 18 set. They're okay in the '20 set, but it's hard to count that shortened year for a lot of fans... so enjoy their swag at the end of the post!

MVP Mauer is obviously a great card.... but at the risk of blasphemy, would he even start at catcher for the 2019 Twins??? 

1996 Milwaukee Brewers

I know of at least one person that has been waiting for this Post! Nothing too crazy here. Some decent pitchers and 1 10OB and some great 90s mustaches. Also tell me... are you taking Ramon Garcia. Very interesting card. If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger 

1996 Atlanta Braves

You guys have probably been waiting for this team to drop. If you weren't you should've been. This team is hot. It reminds me of the dominate pitching staff in the 00' set. This even has the CY Young winner as well. But the team aint half bad either. Let me know what you think. 
If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger

1996 Toronto Blue Jays

In a groove now. Cranking these out in alphabetical order. So Blue Jay are next. Including the first look at the rookie card symbol on a card. Also blang blang the Cy Young winner is in this set. Also I know Tony Castillo should probably be on the white sox but I had him on the set from the beginning so I kept him on this team for this set. If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger

2019 Bot Set -- AL East

 Continuing with the 2019 Bot Set, we've got the American League bEAST. Despite being defending champions, the Red Sox were outclassed by the extremely impressive squads fielded by Tampa Bay and the Yankees in 2019. 

Yankees have featured some ELITE bullpen arms in the 2010s -- will the 100+ win squad of 2019 feature any pitchers as good as 2017 Chad Green? (no, but there's still some studs to draft)

1996 Oakland Athletics

 There is a glitch in the Matrix. Not possible for these posts to continue. Advert your eyes from the hotness that is the Oakland Athletics 1996. Some aren't much to look at but... Mark McGwire seems like enough to swoon over. If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger

1996 Houston Astros

WHAT anther post. Say it can't be true. Inject that 1996 right into my veins!!! 
Well it is true. Another 1996 team is ready to drop. This one has many more players than the Angels. Feast your eyes at the hotness that is Jeff Bagwell...I mean... The Houston Astros.
If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger

2019 Bot Set -- NL East

 Hello everyone -- it's been a while since we posted any Showdown baseball cards! Like many of you, we here at the Greatest MLB Showdown project have been captivated by the true greatest gift to showdown fans in the last twenty years: The MLB Showdown BOT. Like so many of you, we've had an absolute blast using it (see my previous post of best 32 teams in last 30 years)!!! Indeed, the ability to instantly compare cards for players/teams across seasons is intoxicating, and the upload a picture function makes it extremely easy to churn out GORGEOUS cards. 

Recently, it got a bunch of us here thinking: why not try making a whole set out of BOT cards? 

While we love our original 2018 and 2019 sets here, we're aware they were made during our early stages of formula construction and were not made with equalizing stats to other seasons in mind. Thus, it seemed the perfect place to start our test run of an entire set was the 2019 season.... and it didn't disappoint!

So without further ado, we start our 2019 Bot Set with the NL East, home of the World Series Champion Washington Nationals, despite losing this guy in free agency before the season (but he'll still pop up below, just in different colors ;)).

As you can see, he's very similar to our 2018 Harper except for a HUGE difference -- OB 9 instead of OB 10, as he's compared generally across time vs within a single season's bubble. This makes this card more accurate when mixed in with original 00/01 cards, which we enjoy and reckon you dear readers will appreciate more too!

1996 California Angels

 Woa. New phone who dis? I haven't posted in a long long time. Been a very very busy person. But thanks to the Cardbot I think I'm finally able to get my prized 1996 set moving. And I tell you it looks promising. 

Enough chit chat and small talk. You came here to see the set. This is a 480 card set. I had previously set the Foils for my set before using the BOT so some cards may seem like odd foils but just know they were previously a FOIL under my original calculations. If anything is wrong let me know and I can edit at a later date. Follow me on Twitter @bobbumbarger