2014: Best Lineup, Rotation, Bullpen

2014 was a strange season for Showdown teams, without a clearly dominate squad to turn into a team. The Giants won their third title in five seasons, after winning a mere 88 games. They beat the Royals in the World Series, another team that failed to win 90 games. Thus, the most fun way to go about this season (since spoiler alert, a "San Fran Dynasty" post is coming down the pipeline) is to make the best lineup, best rotation, and best bullpen from the season.

Read on to find out what teams made the cut following the season, although I'll give y'all a spoiler for the Rotation with this fun card since the A's had the best Pythagorean W-L from the season (99 wins) despite only winning 88 games.

Lineup: It was neck and neck between the Angels and Tigers, but the Angels pulled it out thanks to a lineup that features every hitter being at least an On-Base 7. The LA Angels led the Major Leagues in total runs scored and in wins for 2014, mostly thanks to an incredible card put together by Mike Trout (surprise surprise). He's not supported by any other stars or even any other lethal threats, although the pure depth and ability to keep innings going that all these 7s and 8s provides is nice. The lineup is (basically) the one used by the Angels in the ALDS (which they got swept in), except Collin Cowgill subbed in for the awful CJ Cron. Honestly, the batting order Scioscia utilized was terrible (used the pretty weak hitting Kendricks, Freese, and Aybar as 4-5-6 while hitting their arguably second best hitter in the nine hole and fourth best guy 7th).... So I reordered the batting order into a more sensible configuration. It was nice seeing Pujols and Hamilton -- two of the most disappointing free agent signings of all-time, period -- put together useful cards that aren't embarrassments. Iannetta is a stud of a catcher and since this team really lacks speed, may as well just get a guy on base ahead of Trout and Pujols' power! Kole Calhoun has some good extra base pop, but the real strength of the 5 thru 9 hitters is having enough 7/8 OBs to earn a couple more charts than some teams. Overall, this lineup is definitely weaker than the Blue Jays, Cubs, or Astros teams put out, even though this is the only one without a singly OB 6 or lower.

Rotation: Wow, this Oakland rotation is fearsome. They added All Stars Jon Lester and Jeff Samardzija before the trade deadline to team with their frontline starters Sonny Gray and Scott Kazmir. Such aggressive trades were notable because they were so unlike Mr. Moneyball, Billy Beane. Besides going with two Tier 2 and two Tier 3 pitchers, having three IP 7 guys is huge. Lester is a tank to start off the rotation, Oakland getting every bit the ace they signed up for at the trade deadline. If only, IF ONLY, he was able to pick off batters and prevent Royals baserunners from running wild in the wild card game!! Fortunately for Oakland, that's not as big of an issue in Showdown! Samardzija adds his career best Showdown card and it's a catch. Control 3 on at 19 for 7 innings gives managers great a card that should dominate medium to low OB lineups before turning it over to your best relievers. The fairly large GB range is nice too. Sonny Gray was a revelation this season and puts together a very nice Tier 3. If for some reason Samardzija struggles with control and has to be removed early, Oakland can easily rely on Gray to go deep and give the bullpen rest the next night. Rounding out the rotation is Kazmir, who gives the rotation THREE 2014 All Star pitchers among their four man rotation. Kazmir is basically David Cone with an extra single, which is extreme quality for a #4 pitcher.

Bullpen: This was the easiest "best of" choice in this year, as the Kansas City Royals rode their bullpen all the way to Game 7 of the World Series. They've got *three* Tier 1 pitchers to toss out there, rolling out Herrera -- Davis -- Holland as a nearly untouchable 7-8-9 combination. If only Brandon Finnegan had pitched more in the regular season, they could've had four lights out relievers, but they'll settle for the unspectacular Aaron Crow (M-I-Z) in the garbage time reliever role. Moreover, being able to go "Control 4 to Control 5 to Control 6" really sparked some weird bit of joy in me and it's a drafting strategy I'm going to attempt. Overall, this is definitely the scariest "big 3" in a bullpen, but the 2017 Astros definitely have a strong argument as the best bullpen released so far with their two IP 2 pitchers and greater depth (sorry A-C). However, end of the day, I'm taking this bunch because it's got THREE TIER ONE pitchers!!! I can get Holland and Davis through two innings easily, thank you very much! Honestly, this is such an amazing weapon and I think the strongest unit on this "Best of 2014" set up.

Overall: In the end, I'd honestly take the 2015 Blue Jays, 2016 Cubs, or 2017 Astros to triumph in a 7 game series over this collection of baseball's best units in 2014. However, there's a lot of fun cards here to like and I liked adding some variety to the cut out/card making process. I think the A's secondary cards look neat but their primary green ones are great (especially with a yellow jersey), while it's always great to give y'all some more Mike Trout. Also, enjoy the "non-foil" versions of certain players below! More importantly, do you like this format of piecemeal unit selections or full on single teams more? Let us know!