2015 Blue Jays

Our first season team that didn't win the World Series, and that's because this is the first time (as we turn back the years) in recent years where the best Showdown team was not the World Series champion. Toronto was seemingly constructed to dominate Showdown, with a high On-Base lineup pretty much top to bottom, an elite front end starter without a significant pitching drop off, and an elite closer teamed with solid relievers. In short, like the 2017 Astros and 2016 Cubs, this is a Showdown team without weakness that has talent way over budget, in large part due to blockbuster trades for Troy Tulowitski and David Price. It's still insane to me that this team lost a 7 game series to the Kansas City Royals, who had plenty of OB 9 hitters but three OB 5s and woeful starting pitching before a bullpen that was good, but nowhere near as great as their 2014 bullpen.

Now, it may be a small consolation prize for Toronto fans, but here's the best MLB Showdown team from 2015, the potent and powerful Toronto Blue Jays!

Lineup: Sorry 2016 Cubs, but this is the best lineup of any individual season Showdown team I've assembled so far. Ben Revere is a prototypical leadoff type, with a decent on-base, plenty of speed, and a nice range of extra bits. Following his is an elite murderer's row of hitters -- THREE OB 10, homer at 17 guys! That insane collection of forty HR power (yes, Edwin hit 39, but he got a bump based on ABs to the next tier, don't @ me, it felt right) is an absolute nightmare for any pitching staff. This type of rare power/high on-base is obscene for a Showdown lineup and would be good even without the depth following them! They're supported in the five hole by solid, mainly singles hitter Chris Colabello who provides a good OB 9. Nearly as impressive as the 2-3-4 hitters are what Toronto brings to the 6-7-8 slots -- all OB 8 hitters, all with multiple homers and three doubles slots. On many Showdown teams, any one of these hitters would probably slot into the 2 or 5 hole; but here, they're rounding out the bottom half of the order! It's a shame that Tulo didn't continue the HR and OBP pace he was on in Colorado before coming to Toronto, or this lineup would go from "wow, this is obscene" to "wow, this is unfair!" They're closed out by a speedy OB 6 with good CF defense, operating as a less effective lead off man to swing things back to the top! So feast your eyes on this folks, I still have trouble wrapping my head around how good this lineup was!

Rotation: Toronto's rotation is the weak link of the team, but it's definitely no major liability. Unfortunately, Marcus Stroman only had 6 regular season starts and didn't qualify for a card (too small of a sample size) or they'd gain another Tier 2 arm. As it stands, they've got a true ace in Trade Deadline addition David Price, who went 9-1 with a 2.30 ERA as a Blue Jay. He's supported by very solid Tier 3 starter Marco Estrada, giving them a solid 4 on at 17 with decent strikeouts and a great pop up range. The rotation is rounded out by a pair of Tier 3 guys with 7 IP, although both cards have scary flaws. For Dickey, it's the 2 Control, which is always a risk to send out against lineups with high on-base hitters. Meanwhile, Buehrle gains a Control, but that 19-20 double range will certainly terrify most managers. Overall, it's a good rotation that should always (at its worst) keep the other team from running away with a game, which is all 2015 Toronto's incredible lineup needs as support.

Bullpen: The Blue Jays have an extremely good bullpen, with three Tier 2 Control 4 pitchers highlighting the group. Osuna and Cecil are great value with no doubles and large K ranges, especially for under 200 points. Hendriks may give up a double too, but since that only happens 5% of the time, they should have three really stellar guys. There's Aaron Sanchez and his IP 2 card as well, perfect for bailing out a rough outing from Dickey or Buehrle with a higher control and the ability to bridge the gap to the studs at the backend of the 'pen.

Overall: This team stacks up competitively with the Champion Cubs and Astros teams. The bullpen doesn't have a single weak link and the lineup is amazing. If they're going to lose games, just like in the ALCS, it'll because other teams get to their starters early enough in games. As good as this bullpen is, it won't be effective going 6 or 7 innings in consecutive games. However, in a 7 game series, there's definitely enough pitching (especially with Price) for this offense to take over and topple any of the other Showdown teams we've put out so far! So here they are, your 2015 Best Team in Showdown, the Toronto Blue Jays!

"Non-foil" versions of the stars: