2001 World Series Champion Arizona Diamondbacks

We've got a couple 2001 classic teams coming at you this week, starting with the DBacks! Arizona was made earlier by David, but I remade them in the classic Showdown style! They're definitely a team dependent on their two big aces: Johnson and Schilling. Those two are studs. The hitting is ok, but they've got a BIG gun in Luis Gonzalez. I see him getting walked a lot. Overall, a fun team with some interesting deficiencies that make them a tricky squad to manage.

Lineup: The Diamondbacks have one of the less auspicious lineups we've produced so far. Womack leads off, although most managers would put him 9th thanks to his low OB. He's got plenty of speed though, something noticeably lacking throughout the lineup. Utility superstar and batting stance legend Craig Counsell hits second, giving some solid OB opportunity before the team's superstar comes to the plate. Luis Gonzalez was LEGIT in 2001, clobbering 57 HRs with a .429 OBP. That's a card I can't wait to print and play with. Then Mark Grace adds a decent support card with his 9 OB, and he's followed by the powerful but streaky Reggie Sanders' OB 7/HR at 15 card. Jay Bell is a decent OB 8 and there's a 7-6-7 combo to end things which doesn't have obvious weakness but sure lacks the depth or fear-inducing power of other lineups' bottoms.

Notably absent is Danny Bautista, but he had over 250 less PAs and frankly a worse card than Sanders in regular season stats, so his absence makes the Showdown-version stronger! Anyway, here's the DBacks lineup!

Rotation: This is what got the DBacks to such fast World Series glory. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling are both absolute aces, bringing top level cards with huge strikeout ranges to the table. Their incredible cards sort of speak for themselves, as it's easily the best 1-2 combo of any Showdown team we've made so far. Albie Lopez represents a steep dropoff in the #3 slot, but then there's a really good IP 4 pitcher in Miguel Batista. David made this team when he was just starting out and neither of us are really sure why Batista got a 4 on at 19 for his IP 4... I think it was an attempt to balance his overall low IP thanks to mixing from the bullpen and rotation, but with how weak the bullpen is, I think it's a fair balancing act. Regardless, Batista was a solid pitcher and he'll be a good #4 pitcher, but the bullpen will have to be ready to give plenty of support!

Bullpen: Until making this bullpen, I never full appreciated why Arizona kept pitching Kim for what seemed like every inning in the 2001 World Series. He kept blowing saves and then coming out for another two innings the next night (it felt like, I don't know if he really had that kind of bad luck). But wow, this bullpen is atrocious after Kim. Swindell gives up a HR, there's a Control 1 guy, and the next best pitcher is still a "meh" Tier 3 with low control. Kim isn't so super himself, but he's going to get relied on heavily (especially to support Batista).

Overall: The DBacks definitely come in near the bottom of our Showdown classic teams. They've got the weakest bullpen and a non-intimidating lineup. Of course, the great equalizer is their incredible 1-2 rotation punch of Johnson and Schilling. They can definitely put up at least 2 or 3 runs, which could be all that's needed with those two studs (who definitely always have complete game shutout capability). Should be an interesting team to play with, I would not want to face either of their aces in a one game playoff situation!

As always, here's the "non-foil" versions of their all stars!