2023 NPB Set Part 2 - Central League

 The Hanshin Tigers ended the Curse of Colonel (Sanders) and took home their first championship since 1985. They were absolutely loaded, they scored the most runs and had the best ERA in the CL. They had the Rookie of the Year and MVP in starting pitcher, Shoki Murakami (oddly though, he didn't win the Best 9 pitcher award...). The Carp were a bit of a surprise and finished 2nd beating out a fairly loaded BayStars team and the vaunted Giants. The Swallows were a very big disappointment in 2023 after making the Japan Series the year before. And the Dragons...well, they're the Dragons.

If you want to follow NPB at all going forward, I can't recommend Yakyu Cosmopolitan and Gaijin Baseball enough. Both are active on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube and are invaluable resources for learning about the NPB, both past and present. 

1st place - Hanshin Tigers (85-53-5) - Won Japan Series in 7 games over the Orix Buffaloes

This team is absolutely stacked. Their usual ace, Koyo Aoyagi, had a rough season overall, but threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings in Game 7 of the Japan Series. New ace, Shoki Murakami, emerged and was absolutely sensational. A 1.75 ERA and 0.74 WHIP with a 9:1 strikeout to walk ratio. He's undersized at 5'8", and a bit old for a rookie, will be 26 next season, but hard to argue with those results. 

Koji Chikamoto led CL position players in WAR with 7.2 (2nd in NPB to Kondoh). He's always really solid, but this year found a more consistent approach to get on base where his speed can wreak havoc. He led the CL in steals in 28 on 31 attempts. He was also the Japan Series MVP as he went 14-29 (.483 AVG). Dude is just a baller, fractured his ribs on a HBP and then made this play.

Another solid contributor that had a banner year for them was Yusuke Ohyama. His .403 OBP led the CL and was second in the NPB only to Kondoh's .431 mark. 

Young star, Teruaki Sato, put up another really solid season. The pop has been there since his debut (3 straight 20 homer seasons to start his career), but this was his best season by OBP and he still maintained that pop (actually set a career high SLG too). He went to Driveline this winter, perhaps he unlocks the next level this season. 

Their worse player by WAR, was American, Sheldon Neuse. He had a -1.5 WAR for the season. But he hit a homer run off Yamamoto in Game 6 of the JS, and then followed that with a 3-run homer off Miyagi in Game 7. And his Showdown card isn't that bad. Certainly not for a team's worst player. 

As good as the team is, their starting pitching is probably their strength. The aforementioned Murakami leads the way, but Hiroto Saiki is a year younger and also put up a sub 2 ERA. Koutaro Ohtake and Masashi Itoh are both lefties that put up very good seasons as well. If they get a return to form next season from their usual ace, Aoyagi, teams will have no reprieve when facing them. 

And of course, their closer, Suguru Iwazaki, put up an elite season as well, just to cap things off.

2023 NPB Set Pt 1 - Pacific League

 

2023 saw a lot of attention for Japanese baseball. It started with Samurai Japan winning the World Baseball Classic in dramatic fashion. And ended with the Hanshin Tigers breaking their Championship curse, another MVP season for Shohei Ohtani, and record breaking contracts for both Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. 

For the Pacific League specifically, it was dominated again by the Orix Buffaloes and Yamamoto. He took home his 3rd straight MVP, Sawamura award, and Triple Crown. But I think we've all heard plenty about him this offseason, so I don't need to go into further depth. The Buffaloes made it to the Japan Series where they fell to the Tigers in 7 games.

Before I discuss players/cards. Any WAR or defensive stats mentioned or defensive stats used to created cards were taken from this site: https://1point02.jp/op/index.aspx
Also check out Yakyu Cosmopolitan and Gaijin Baseball on Twitter and YouTube. Both are invaluable resources for learning about the NPB, both past and present. 

MLB Showdown -- SUPER LEAGUE (year one)

 So to those that follow me on twitter/discord, you know that I celebrated my birthday in the spring with a little "Showdown" battle between the Expos and Nationals at a random small town library, hiding from the hail on a solo hiking adventure:

Well, that quickly changed into me playing out a 31 team league --> 18 man rosters, teams with salary caps of 8000 or 8250 points, depending on how big or small market the team was, since I wanted to play with the best-of-the-best from the previous 20ish years... I made the teams out of players from the original set to the present, with a special little tweak allowing cards of players from before 1999 if they had a card in the original set (so the Royals could use Saberhagen, Yankees/A's used Rickey Henderson, etc.)... because of the massive amount of games I had to play, I didn't keep stats this time beyond the wins and losses, but it made the simulation much less of a chore (and much more of a reward at the end of a hard day on the road). I thought the "big market" squads may dominate because of the small salary cap advantage, but it turns out that at a certain level, the teams are just so incredible that it really just feels like a "who's getting the lucky rolls this time" match up (just like I drew it up ;)). 

Rather than just previewing it and forcing y'all to wait months and months on the simulation, I just jumped right into the games and now, I've got all the regular season results for you! Enjoy!!

1998 Set - AL Central

On to the AL Central next, and boy is this an overall poor division. Only one team over .500 with the Cleveland Indians destroying everyone and running away with it by 9 games. The Tigers, Twins, and Royals are all very sub-average teams with pieces that could be useful given a some talented people around them. A couple of notable cards in here is Jeff's favorite Doug Brocail, Carlos Beltran's late season call up (went on to win the AL RoY in 99), submariner Chad Bradford being amazing for the White Sox, and Farucci's boy Robin Ventura as a +6 third baseman (Luke would never draft him because infield defense is overrated).

1998 Set - AL West

Keeping things on the West Coast, we will move to the AL West (back when there were only four teams in it). A very top loaded division with the Rangers having an immense amount of talent and the bottom dwelling Oakland A's just a couple of seasons away from their Moneyball storyline. A couple of really fun cards in this division, especially given that there were some late season trades and call ups that produced some nice ones.

1998 Set - NL West

It's been a while but as I was looking around the website and discord, thought we could use some fresh content. I finished this set a while ago but never got to posting the last four divisions, so here we go over the next couple of days/weeks.

NBA SHOWDOWN 2023 SET - LOTTERY TEAMS

 The last installment of the 2023 NBA Showdown set. The 10 unfortunate or fortunate teams depending on the goal, that did not make the play-in or playoffs and are in full Victor Wembanyama prayer circle form. The 7'5 French player is said to be the most anticipated player in the draft since LeBron James. Feel like we have heard this before but his size, and ability makes him so versatile and the perfect archetype to the new style on NBA player, length and skill. But enough about the future, let us focus on the present, and at the present these teams have a ton to improve upon if they want to climb the ladder and be in the playoffs and a threat to win a championship.