MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- St. Louis Cardinals

Sorry for the delay, but this is the most fitting team for me to release considering why this post is a couple days late -- I just moved from St. Louis to Chicago! And if you've been paying attention to the weather forecasts, it's been a brutal week to move.  However, I finished up and am snug in the western suburbs of Chi-Town.... and have this farewell gift to the wonderful city of St. Louis: the 2018 St. Louis Cardinals!

Winners of 88 games, the Cardinals were on the cusp of the playoffs before my beloved Brewers swept them in St. Louis (in front of my eyes) down the stretch.  Under Mike Shildt, the Cardinals played 13 games over .500 and surged into the playoff picture after a rough 47-46 start.  Young arms and an MVP push from the leadoff hitter Matt Carpenter propelled them, but ultimately they just fell short.  I'm personally very concerned about this team next year, as the additions of Andrew Miller and Paul Goldschmidt (who'll definitely get Pennant Run cards around spring training) are going to be deadly weapons.  If Schildt can ever figure out that Molina should hit 8th and Bader should move up in the order, watch out!!!  Without further ado, the 2018 Cardinals!

Lineup:

MLB Showdown 2000/2001 House Rules - Bob

Some people have been asking my for house rules. Here they are! let me know if you would change anything. 

Best 1B Comparison

Best First Basemen Comparison

Ok now that I got the ball rolling, these should come out quite quickly (hopefully). As I mentioned in the catcher article, I still have some tinkering to do with how to find the best value players, but by keeping it simple I now have enough to go through each position and identify the best charts and top players efficiently based on my metrics (in case you need a refresher, look here). First base is historically a power position, and based on the card universe we have, that’s definitely the case. 

MLB Showdown Drinking Game

A lot of you have been waiting for this!!!! The official drinking showdown rules and break down. Ok maybe you haven't but you should! A lot of us drink while playing showdown... some more than others. Its finally nice to have official written drinking rules to put to these games. Whats bourbon over baseball without a little inebriation. Below are the written rules for MLB Showdown as well as a very long podcast where we drank the whole time during... what better way to explain the rules then drinking. The podcast is a little long but should be a very nice in depth breakdown of the rules. After reading through them let me know your thoughts. What would you change. What do you like. Let me know your drinking stories.

2018 MLB SHOWDOWN SET -- Los Angeles Angels

Welcome back to the AL for the very high and low Los Angeles Angels. This was a rather interesting set to make. I wanted to use the red backgrounds but it clashed with a lot of the red jerseys so I ended up with the Navy. I have also been experimenting with a different type of variant/rare card which I'm sure you guessed is none other than Mike Trout. I'm sure also everyone is excited to see how Ohtani's card came out and what are the rules with him. Let me know below how you guys would have him in your leagues. Listen to the podcast below to hear me and Peters take on the set and drafting Ohtani.

So we will start with the line up for the 2018 Angels who finished a disappointing 80-82. I think what people are most frustrated with is not getting to see Mike Trout in the playoffs. I, for one, am sad about it. I want to see the best player in baseball and possibly showdown in the best environment. So lets get it together Angels! Like I said a very high and low team in terms of salary and skill. They have decent fielding which will help in the draft but besides Upton, Ohtani, and Trout I don't know who is getting drafted, maybe Simmons?

MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- Colorado Rockies

The final 2018 National League playoff team -- the Colorado Rockies! The Rockies found themselves in the wild card game for a second straight season after tying for the NL West crown through 162 games.  Although they lost game 163 in LA, the Rockies triumphed in an absolute classic over the Cubs in the wild card game and were in the NLDS for the fourth time in franchise history.

The Rockies are going to be led by their stars: Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, and Charlie Blackmon.  Colorado also brings an incredible bullpen to the 2018 set too, with three tier 2 pitchers plus Wade Davis.  I know this is going to be one of Bob's favorite teams in the set, as he's a big fan of the Rockies.  As a fellow fan who grew up with Dante Bichette jersey-shirts and a Todd Helton fanatic, I have to say I'm super pleased with how these cards turned out.  The podcast about this team is at the link!

Without further ado, let's look at the team!

Lineup:

1990 Oakland Athletics

1990 Oakland Athletics: Now while the 1990 Athletics came up on the wrong side of a four game sweep in the World Series this season to the Cincinnati Reds, this team was mighty impressive led by the 1990 American League MVP Rickey Henderson. This was their third straight trip to the World Series, and were favored to win the series. This lineup at the time was stacked with 3 former back to back to back AL Rookies of the year in Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Walt Weiss and a mid season trade for Willie McGee, who ended up winning the NL batting title in the 1990 season even though he finished the year in the American League. This Athletics team over the past three season had won 306 games. This was the third straight year they led the Majors in wins which was a all around sports record that had just been tied by the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and then broken the next year by the Warriors as well.

Line up: Eight of the Athletics nine main post season starters played in at least one all-star game between 1988 and 1990. This shows the depth of a lineup that this team had, the only two non all-stars shown here are Dave Henderson and Walt Weiss. Obviously the strength of this team will be found at the lead-off spot with Rickey Henderson being an all around stud. Once he gets on base Canseco, Baines and McGwire will be looking to knock him in. The lineup isn't the strongest we have seen but all around will score you plenty of runs if you can get Rickey on base with some timely hitting.   

Greatest Game Ever Played?

If anyone read my social media the other day you would know how pumped and crazy I got the last regular season game for the 2018 Super Draft League. Sadly it has come to and end and now the playoffs will begin. But exciting for those following votes are up for certain categories. There should be a new poll each day. Stay tuned for final season results etc. Then up after this season is some drinking tournaments and a new 2018 draft with 16 teams.

Back to the reason I'm writing this. I know it was crazy for me to watch the game that was played but I thought it maybe helpful for some context of what happened for the games and people reading at home to see what happened. This was the last series in the 18 game league. Both teams going were in the same division with same division record. They were 8-8 going into the last 2 game series. If one player wins 2-0 they are into the playoffs as the #2 seed. If a player is 0-2 then he is out and if they split 1-1 they would have to go to a game 3 with the Starting Pitcher 3s on the mound.

The match was between the Mighty Musky Minotaurs and the Rollie Fingers. Nolan Ryan on the mound for MMM and Lance Lynn for Rollie.

1986 New York Mets

The 1986 World Series Champion New York Mets are here in showdown form. In Peters classic set we saw a representation of this team, but the stats were not all from the 1986 season. As he stated in his first post this is the World Series team is remembered from the historic error of Buckner letting the ball go through his legs, leading to a series comeback win for the Mets.

Best Catcher Comparison

Best Catchers Comparison

Sorry for the delay in getting this article out, I’ve had most of it done for some time now, but one of the calculations didn’t present what I felt was correct data, but more on that later. Similar to Matt’s articles, I am starting out with catchers-the position I used to play back in my high school baseball days. I’m going to break it down a few different ways, with the main breakdown being against the AP (Average Pitcher. To see what that looks like, look here). We’ll also do the most valuable based on their expected weighted runs divided by their card points (need a suggestion for an abbreviation here-if anyone comes up with a good one I’ll dedicate to them), and finally a super fun one-if they had the advantage every time. I've occasionally noticed some errors in my charts as reported here so let me know if you see something funky-I'm hoping I was able to grab anything that seemed off. Here's the top Catchers and another chart to give you an idea of where the entire catching population falls.

I’m going to start with the best pure charts, then do against an average pitcher and finish out with the abbreviation to be determined based on Showdown Points.

2018 MLB SHOWDOWN SET -- Tampa Bay Rays

This could have been my favorite NON Cleveland team to make. The team had so much flavor in positions and speed and charts. Could also be that baby blue color that just pops. Its a shame they didn't make the playoffs. You can see why without a truly strong lineup or pitching staff. But they seemed to be a very good above average team just a tier below the heavy hitters. They should do well in a team showdown league and in my opinion they have a handful of guys that can be drafted especially in a deep draft format league. Listen/Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube to see what me and Peter's take on the team is.

They finished a very respectable 90-72 and I think a big part of that is there fielding ability and use of the pitching staff. What are your thoughts on the lineup. They are a very flexible team with very high fielding players. Also one of the most rookie heavy teams if not the most rookie heavy team.

2016 CLEVELAND INDIANS

Happy New Year Everyone, so over the past month I have been remaking some of Peter's early creations into the new format. It is much easier for the 2000 and up teams to find better pictures especially the bullpen pitchers. So here are the 2016 Cleveland Indians along with the original post that accompanied them.