Greatest Cleveland Indians

I made a bunch of cards of my favorite team the Cleveland Indians over the past year, and i figured why not share them in case anyone feels like using them. So background on what I did was using a website that listed the players with the highest WAR single seasons for the Indians from 1992-2017. With the number of players that i made i split them up into three different teams, Block C, Wahoo & Script using three different Indians logos. Now i must say i do not make the cards look as amazing as our other creators, but since its just for me to play with and not to sell I can live with the way they look. I've changed my mind multiple times over which way I want to design my cards, and got some inspiration from the 2000-20001 style as well as the 2004 styles for the look of the cards but when rating the players I used what was provided to me from here. So without further ado here is the first team Block C.  As we will see with the other teams as well these teams are loaded. I tried to split them up as evenly as i could but whoever has the hot dice will be the tough team to beat.

The Pitchers

MLB SHOWDOWN LEAGUE: EXPERT PREDICTIONS

Ok, ok so the only thing left before Season One of the MLB Showdown league begins is to make predictions! Remember, 30 game season with the typical playoff system. So let's just jump right in!

Also, for a quick summary of the big picture I know y'all are looking for, our "experts" picked three different champions: Nationals, Brewers, and Indians. On a broader level, the Yankees, Indians, and Nationals were unanimously selected to be division winners, while the Astros, Brewers, Cardinals,  Dodgers, D-Backs, and Red Sox were included in every prognosticator's playoff field.

Regular Season "Expert" Predictions (** = wild card)

Previewing the Rest of the League for the 2018 MLB Showdown Season

Ok, so finals took a huge blow to my preview writing! So to make it up to everyone, here's a massive preview with a bunch of charts for the 2018 season. Plenty of teams will be in here, including the defending champion Astros, the absolutely loaded Indians, Dodgers, D-Backs and (after some trades) Angels, as well as the NL Central's three big contenders in the Cubs, Cardinals, and Brewers. Enjoy these squads, and get ready for expert predictions to come soon before we roll out game results and stats! Remember, this is a league where owners were allowed to trade players before the season started and minor leaguers were involved in trades. There will be a post eventually looking in-depth at the minors and prospects, but that's a big factor in how several superteams and several tanking squads formed.

I hope you're all ready, because it'll be an exciting 30 game season, followed by an epic playoffs and finally the great minor league experiment before a hopefully more parity filled year 2!

Pictured: Astros MVP Jose Altuve, one of the many awesome cards in this league! He was created by @BobBumbarger on Twitter. Follow him for more awesome, 00 style cards that he's rolling out from this league as well as many other cool cards!

Salary Cap

As we know there is an actually salary cap in MLB showdown. This is a good thing, it allows for more fair play and also allows for more of a strategy within the game itself. Most leagues range from 5000-6000 points. I run a 5000 point salary cap league and I'd have to say all the teams see very equal because of this. The key then is to look for the those "steals", the low salary high reward players. After reading this you may be like well Bob stop posting super high salary all star players that nobody can afford... I know I know. But people like those big bomb players haha. And they keep requesting them. But now its time to introduce some other players. Less purple cobras more average joes! Well at least for this week anyway. I did spoil these a little earlier on twitter for those that follow me.

Lets now take a look at Mr. Starlin Castro. He did play with the yankees last year but I put him in his 2018 uniform. He finished 2017 with an OBP of .338 and SLG .454 while only hitting 16 home runs and 63 RBIs. Like I said... average joe.

Flash Back Friday

Its another addition of everyone's favorite blog column!!!!! (I think...) It's Flash Back Friday! So whats on the docket for today's discussion. Well these next 2 cards were requested by a fellow MLB Showdown enthusiast Kevin. So please do not ask me why he picked these 2 players, they would not have been my first choices but they are fun and different. I believe the second player got picked to test an example of OBP methods by the first player. So who are these weird players you ask? None other than Chone Figgins 2009 and Adam Dunn 2007.

Chone had a fantastic year in 2009. It was his only year in his 12 year career that he made the All Star game. In an impressive 729 PA he managed 114 Runs 183 hits 54 RBIs stole 42 bases and had a stellar 101 walks. He only managed to hit 5HRs but that's not important. What is important is that crazy .395 OBP which helps him be a 10 in MLB Showdown. So how did this card turn out?

My buddy Kevin was not too happy about seeing no Home Runs but come on.... 5 HRs in 729 PA.

Then he tasked me with his next guy to test this OBP with walks another walk monster. In his 14 year career he actually had 128 walks in 2002 but only 26 home runs versus the 40 he had in 2007. BOOM! Now you have a guy hitting 40 HRs with 106 RBIs (his highest RBI year) and 101 walks. Now you might say in 2008 his numbers were slightly better but he had 22 less runs. So we are going with a 101 Runs in 2007 with a nice .386 OBP. Again dont ask me too much about this guy I did it as a request. I doubt anyone is drafting this guy. But it is fun to talk about.

As always follow me on Twitter for sneak peaks etc @BobBumbarger

NL Young Guns 2017

Oh my god you're back here again? I must be doing something right... or horribly wrong. I have been tasked with some more 2017 art work. How bout we look at some young guns from the national league. A couple of 24 year olds? One has been in the league since he was 19 and the other just started last year. We are talking about Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins. Both 25 years old now, and Bryce played in 2x as many games as Rhys did last year. But looking at Rhys this year it looks like he could be something special. We already know that Bryce is something special. He has also been a lot of help in my fantasy league this year... muhahahahahaha. Lets look at these 2017 stats...

Not too bad. Obviously Rhys is still very unproven. But if you take this small sample it looks very promising. And Bryce is Bryce... only thing he needs to figure out it how to throw a helmet straight at a pitcher. So lets see how they turned out in Showdown format.

As always follow me on Twitter @BobBumbarger

Albert Pujols 3000th hit

This is a quickie guys but to celebrate Albert Pujols 3000th hit I’d figured I’d share one of his better years with you all in MLB showdown format. He was a monster in 2008 so for another Flashback Friday I give you the 2008 Albert Pujols

As always follow me on Twitter @BobBumbarger

Foil Talk

One thing that makes the old school MLB showdown cards awesome is the cool Foils/Holos (whatever you want to call them). They always had a nice shine to them and showcased the awesome players (most of the time). But how going forward are we as a community meant to make foils? We can de-foil some old magic cards and print on some translucent paper and stick it to them. That could work. But would be very time consuming. Isn't there a way we can just adjust the card itself to make it look "more special". One of my buddies to who plays from New York in an online league showed me some cards he uses from another creator. He simply alters the card itself to make it look "like a foil". This would save on time and money. So I was trying to play with one of the cards I created on different ideas. I chose Corey Kluber because he is awesome and I'm an Indians homer.

Now we must take this card and alter in a way that makes it look like some kind of special alter. I went through a bunch of different options. But the 2 that I settled on were a form of clouding that made the image look like some kind of acid wash and the other being a metal embossed look. I still wish I could get the Emboss to be a gold tone. But for now this is what the options were.

I posted these on my Twitter @BobBumbarger and got some feed back on the images. The idea was the embossed metal look is very appealing but hides what Kluber looks like. I love taking in ideas from the community (never be afraid to suggest something). The idea was suggest why not combine the original with the embossed look. Have Kluber look normal with this embossed altered back ground. So I took a stab at it and I have to say it came out really clean and good looking. Please leave your thoughts below. And as always follow me on Twitter @BobBumbarger