1998 Set - NL East

Hey everyone. Been working on a project and wanted to share it with you all. I have built out a 1998 set featuring 700 cards (I know, it's a lot). I will be dropping the cards and a post by each division over the next several weeks (still wrapping up the final four teams).

Some things I want everyone to keep in mind while looking at the cards (and hopefully enjoying):

-I am by no means a photoshop expert, so the quality will not be up to par for everyone (especially Bob). The cuts created by the bot are a lot cleaner but I have done my best given these pictures were taken over 20 years ago and not being well tuned to these skills.

-I tried to use only pictures from 1998 to make cards. This means that it might not be the absolute best pose available to use, but wanted to make it authentic. All in all, I believe that I was not able to do so for about 10-20 cards max.

-Some cards were made by other people (though I did most of them). With that said the style of the cutout does vary on some cards so please keep that in mind.

-I tried to give a variety of guys a card that might not have one from a normal set or another season. I also tried to give some different players the foil treatment that may not have in the original game.

-I did these so many of us could be nostalgic on the magic of the 98 season. What a great year in baseball across the board. I think that a lot of us who fell in love with this game developed our love for the actual game of baseball in the 96-99 stretch. So many fun story lines during the 98 season that I could not pass up making this set.

-Big shout out to Matt for the bot as this would not be possible without it.

-Also big shout out to David and Luke for their help and contributions for making some of the cards in this set.

-I am hoping to have this set uploaded into TTS later this spring/summer (thanks to James).

-Lastly, if anyone thinks that a player should be a foil that I have not designated as one, please feel free to share (foiling seems to be somewhat subjective, which is one of the reasons why making a custom set is fun). The foils I have listed are the ones I am rolling with so tough luck if you do not agree.

Without further delay, we start with the NL East:

1st - Atlanta Braves - 106-56 (lost in the NLCS to San Diego)

A very fun team with a loaded rotation. The Jones card in center is a beast (best outfield defense in the set). Gerald Williams has such a fun chart that I had to make him a foil. Also love the Ryan Klesko card and jersey. John Rocker as a rookie and Kerry Ligtenberg finishing 4th in RoY voting rounds out this squad.

Hitters (foils include Chipper Jones and Gerald Williams)

Pitchers (foils include the amazing rotation of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Denny Neagle):

2nd Place - New York Mets - 88-74

Not as good as the Braves but definitely some fun cards in here. They missed the playoffs by two games to the wild card Cubs. I added some pennant run cards to this set for players called up during the season (like Rocker above), so the Mets feature Piazza and Nomo in this regard. And John Olerud as one of the few 11's in the set is fun for the price.

Hitters (foils include Piazza and Olerud):

Pitchers (foils include Leiter):

3rd Place - Philadelphia Philles - 75-87

Not a whole lot special about this squad. Some fun cards, including Abreu with the best corner defense in the set at +3. Schilling is one of the very few 8 IP starters so another fun card. Rolen producing another beast of a card and Paul Byrd with a very nice chart off in his PR version featuring just his Phillies starts. Lastly, don't forget about Showdown loving Doug Glanville.

Hitters (foils include Scott Rolen and Bobby Abreu):

Pitchers (foils include Curt Schilling):

4th Place - Montreal Expos - 65-97

Another team that is not very good on paper with some very average to below average cards. Obviously Vlad is a beast of a card, but I actually think that Terry Jones would be one of the steals in the draft for his outfield defense and speed at only 30 points (regardless of the 6 ob). The pitching actually is surprisingly solid with a lot of cards available that would most likely be drafted in league play (a lot of Tier 2's and 3's on the board).

Hitters (foils include Vladimir Guerrero):

Pitchers (foils include Ugueth Urbina):

5th place - Florida Marlins - 54-108

Amazing how far down a World Series team can fall in a single season but the Marlins have showed that to us twice. While they have two nice bullpen arms, the hitting lacks a lot of power. There are some fun names on this squad with quite a few players that would later become some Showdown staples and foils.

Hitters (foils include nobody):

Pitchers (foils include Matt Mantai):

There you have it. The NL East. Hope you enjoy.