Bob attempt at Challenge #1 -- GLOAT FOR PEDRO

Ok I'm going to try and join in on the fun. If you call facing Pedro 01 fun.... I did a youtube video on Bourbon over Baseball as well to go along with my post. But I'll have the stat lines below. If you need to find the original post of the Challenge look in the Challenge tab or click here.

MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- Arizona Diamondbacks

The Diamondbacks were a contender for the early part of the season, and they brought enough good and very draft-able cards to the table as a result!

I had to make a throwback Goldy, that classic purple pinstripe jersey looks good on Arizona's all-time best 1B

The podcast is available to listen here

2001 Season Preview

It's time, right about that time! Everyone has been blowing up my phone/email/AIM/Myspace, asking me when I was going to write up the preview of the 162 game season with the 01 set between Jeff and myself. ESPN, The Athletic, MLB Network... you name it, and they reached out. So let's dive in!

First off, a couple rule changes to consider that we're implementing this year:

1. When turning double plays, we will be using the entire infield defense. In the 02 season, we only used the SS and 2B defense. I practically begged for this change after watching Omar Vizquel and Roberto Alomar convert double plays with like a 5% success rate.

2. Both teams will have a designated closer. This closer can pitch every single game, as long as they only go 1 inning (or less). The other relievers will not be able to pitch in consecutive games.

3. This season, we will be tracking runs scored for each player and how many times each player makes an out on their own chart. We want to know who to hate.

All other rules carried over from the 02 season. I don't think I'm forgetting anything else (aren't I a great co-commissioner?? I'm really on top of my league!)

My attempt at Challenge #1 -- GLOAT FOR PEDRO

If you haven't seen it, check out the first of Kyle's Challenge Series here.  It's called "Gloat for Pedro," and the challenge is to score quickly against the MLB Showdown 01 Pedro Martinez card!

Now, the rules allow to build players from 00-01 or any of the cards found on this site.... as long as they are On-Base 7 or lower!  So I did it two ways: (1) best possible lineup I could put together under those parameters, and (2) only using cards from the 01 set.  Here we go!

MY "ANSWER" #1: SUPER SEVEN SQUAD

SS Jimmy Rollins - 2007
2B Javy Baez - 2018
DH Trea Turner - 2017
C JT Realmuto - 2017
RF Kris Davis - 2017
1B Ryan Howard - 2008
3B Joey Gallo - 2017
LF Yoenis Cespedes - 2018 >
CF "What if" Marquis Grissom - 1999

Showdown Challenge #1: Gloat For Pedro

Introduction

Welcome to the first Showdown challenge, a new monthly series of challenges meant to keep the game interesting and fun. We’ve all done 5000 point matches or leagues, and while by-the-book Showdown is still as alluring as ever, we often miss out on the subtleties of the game by sticking to tried-and-true parameters. These scenarios will encourage the end user, that’s you, to think outside the box, to use the analytical skills that’s made you so good at crafting the perfect lineup of 9’s and 10’s. The segment is meant to be interactive in nature and, if successful, will enable playground-style shenanigans. So please, fight like Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon. Jab at your opponents like Trevor Bauer jabs at college girls on Twitter. Okay, maybe not that bad. But seriously, we’re a bunch of baseball fans, we should be able to engage in friendly banter with like-minded internet strangers.

Full 162-Game Season: Summary and Analysis

What's up everybody? It's time to disclose the results of the greatest MLB Showdown undertaking of all time... by me. My buddy Jeff and I decided to play out an entire 162 game season by hand - we rolled every pitch and every swing by hand and manually tracked all the stats that were accumulated over this 4-month ordeal. What a time to be alive!!!

Let's start out with the rules we play by, because we don't follow the official Showdown rules.

1. We used the 2002 set, but only the cards that I owned (which is a lot, but not all of them).
2. Super-Season cards were excluded (so no Pedro, Ricky Henderson, Griffey, etc.)
3. Rosters were 9 hitters, 5 starting pitchers, 4 bullpen, and 6 bench. At around the 120 game mark, we increased rosters to 8 bench just kicks (or because we found some cards lying around and wanted to add them in).
4. No point limit for rosters - we wanted to get as many good players in as we could.
5. Each team would be the "home" team for 5 games, and then it switched. The last 2 games we split at home, so each of us "hosted" 81 games.
6. Relievers could not pitch more than 1 game in a row - so we had to strategically manage our relievers (which basically consisted of us leaving in our starters to eat innings in a blowout loss).
7. No strategy cards were involved.

MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- Toronto Blue Jays

Back again! and back to the disappointment that is the AL bottom of the barrel teams. Hopefully everyone was able to read the post prior to this and check out Peters minor league report. Has some fun data in there and really exciting for future players for teams in need.

But lets get to the matter at hand the Toronto Blue Jays. They had a disappointing season overall but didn't finish last thanks to the Orioles. The big thing with this team is how far they have fallen from the days of Bautista, Donaldson, and Encarncion. They are a shell of themselves finishing 73-89 with talks all season more about their minor leagues than the actual team. Well guess what that talk is still going to continue for them this season with Vlad Jr. not going to be on the opening day roster and coming up sometime later like trout did so they can get an extra year on his contract. I for one am more excited about the future with the former stars son's going to be playing. They have Vlad Jr., Biggio, and Bitchette all down in the minors making steam. The team they put on the field last year was just not that exciting and maybe only a handful of draftable players. We will break it down in the podcast below.

The Lineup.

MLB Showdown League -- MINOR LEAGUES REPORT

The MLB Showdown league's offseason is in full force (played with 2017 set), and it's FINALLY time for the most ambitious/creative addition to our league play -- the prospects!!  The premise is simple.  We took the top 10 ranked prospects going into 2018 for each team, and based on the scouting grades for those prospects, made a "peak potential," "likely," and "disappointing" chart for each prospect.  Yes, that means we created 3 charts for 300 prospects... and yes, it took as long as that sounds!

As an example, here's the peak potential card for Ronald Acuna.  Obviously there's a reason Acuna

 is compared to Trout, as his peak card is similar to some of his monster years.  Acuna's ratings were:

60 hitting, 65 power, 65 speed, 60 field, 60 arm

1998 San Diego Padres

I took a little break from the 2018 Set to make another throwback team, this time the 1998 Padres! We haven't done a modern-style Padres team, and the site has never put out a concrete, designed for normal Showdown San Diego Padres squad either (their Classic Set team was made).  Considering how sad their 2018 team was, I figured their debut team should feature the 1998 Padres -- winners of 98 games and the NL Pennant! It was a blast seeing guys who were heavily involved in the original Showdown cards, as well as making 50 HR Greg Vaughn and former Padres' ace, Kevin Brown! Plus, this gave me a chance to dust off the old "pinstripe" background idea for the "foils" on this team, including the franchise's most memorable players -- Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman.  Enjoy!

MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- Washington Nationals

As a fan of the Nationals, the 2018 Washington Nationals had an epic dud of a season, falling well short of the lofty pre-season expectations I had for them. The Nationals were nearly unanimous preseason favorites in the NL East, and looked to finally get over their postseason hump with a new manager.  Their 2017 team was loaded and when my friends and I "played" the 2018 season out with 2017 cards, the Nationals won the NL rather easily.  Unfortunately, the wheels to the wagon fell off.  Their 2018 Showdown team definitely demonstrates that they deserved the hype, and honestly may have a better Showdown squad than 2018 Atlanta (which is frustrating for any Nats fans out there).  I was living in DC for about a month last summer, and it was truly baffling to everyone in the area why the team wasn't performing (outside of the obvious mismanagement by first timer Matt Williams). Let's take a look at their cards, and use them as hope for 2019!

Here's our (rant filled) podcast about the 2018 Nats!

Lineup: The ONLY team in the set with four On-Base 10 hitters, the Nationals have a lethal lineup on paper! Eaton is a stellar player with good, solid contact hitting and decent speed.  He's followed by the sensational Trea Turner, who's back with blazing speed and a slightly higher on-base.  Turner will be a sneaky guy to go above his points value in a draft.  The most prized free agent still on the market hits third, and despite a "down" year that had everyone freaking out nationally and on DC sports talk in June due to his low batting average, Harper still put together a 520 point card in 2018! Dude is an absolute stud and is worth a $300 million deal. Two more on-base 10s are hitting 4th and 5th, including ROY runner up Juan Soto (who could take another step forward this season) and steady 3B Anthony Rendon.  Then they've got a lethal OB 7 in Zimmerman hitting sixth, and Matt Wieters has a low on-base but at least a solid arm at catcher.  They dealt Murphy and ended up with the poor hitting Difo at the 8th spot, but at least they get more defense and speed out of their 2B now!  Overall, a really solid lineup that belongs on a playoff team rather than being released at this stage!

In Memory of Frank Robinson

The baseball world lost a true pioneer today in Frank Robinson, at 83 years old. Frank was a legendary player but also a barrier breaker as he was the first African American manager in Major League Baseball. While he as on the field he is the only player in the history of the league to win a MVP in both the American and National League. The first came in 1961 with the Cincinnati Reds in the National League, and the second came in 1966 with the Baltimore Orioles. Frank Robinson was also inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. There is much to say about his career but I feel we should truly appreciate what he did off the field in trying to bring more equality to the world of sports. Without further adieu I decided to make a card of Frank Robinson from each of his MVP seasons. Lets sit back and enjoy this great person and player and appreciate what he brought to the game in the form of two different styles of player.

Best Third Basemen Comparison

Best Third Basemen Comparison

On to the hot corner! Once again, if you need a refresher on how this works look here..

Third base is a bit closer to 1B than 2B is, with some real power hitters, however they have there is some of the finesse you’ll find at 2B or SS. Some of the greatest in the game played third, let’s see how it translates to their cards!

Baseball Movie List

It's almost time for the baseball season to begin. I don't know about you but I'm excited. Luckily we have all these great Showdown cards to keep everyone going on the off days. I know we have great content coming up this Spring training and through out the year so keep tuned. Me and my league are doing our 1 day drinking tournaments as well as getting prepped for our 16 man league with the 2018 set once its fully released. In the meantime how are we to fill our nights??

Well I for one am going to try to fill them with a plethora of baseball movies. I have put together a big list of baseball movies to get us through this down time through pitchers and catchers reporting and spring training. I will also be reviewing the movies on Twitter @BobBumbarger. You can let me know your thoughts on these as well or any movies I may have missed that aren't on the list. I will start on 2/7/19.

Lets start off with the spring training list to get you warmed up:

Baseball - Ken Burns Documentary 1-12

2018 Season 1 Super Draft World Series

Its been awhile since I have posted about the Super Draft league. To do a short reminder we had 10 teams. 2 Divisions of 5 teams with the best 2 from each division making the playoffs. Teams were 18 player min with optional bench with 5500 points salary cap. For the players in the draft we had 2000, 2000 pennant, 2001, 2001 pennant, 2014, and custom cards all in 00-01 style. It was roughly 2000 cards to draft from. After a grueling 18 game season that took 5+ months to complete because of scheduling we finally have a winner! So I hope all you early voters picked..... the T-800s to win it all. Not many did but the team came through very big when it mattered. The T-800s started off the season 0-4. After a much needed team pep talk and some lineup tweaks he went 10-4 in the next 14 games to finish 10-8 tied for 1st place in the AL Division.

MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- Chicago White Sox

It was only a matter of time till we starting getting to the teams in the AL nobody wants to talk about. But we are going to talk about them. Some of them will find homes on teams. And there are some things to talk about on the team. But on the whole the team is far below par. Hitting exactly 100 loses for the season (62-100) they are exactly what you think they are. Though they have some good prospects coming up as well as talks of landing a big free agent so there is always that. With the line up lets break down the line up. Listen to the podcast below.

PODCAST

Just a heads up on this lineup... there is only one 8 OB batter and that is the highest OB on the team

'92-'93 Toronto Blue Jays

The back-to-back champs are back...in a 2002 style! The '92-'93 Blue Jays have finally made it to showdown form! This was quite the dominant team with a great lineup and solid pitching filled with Hall of Famers. Here's some stats from the teams:

1992:
Record: 96-66
Manager: Pat Gillick
Park: SkyDome
Batting: .263 BA / .333 OBP / 163 HR
Pitching: 3.91 ERA / 1.31 WHIP / 954 SO
Awards: none

1993:
Record: 95-67
Manager: Pat Gillick
Park: SkyDome
Batting: .279 BA / .350 OBP / 159 HR
Pitching: 4.21 ERA / 1.43 WHIP / 1023 SO
Awards: none

LINEUP:
This lineup is sure to put some pressure on your opponents defense, especially if they're using lower control pitchers. This team has 3 OB 10 players as well as an OB 11! This team sure doesn't struggle with with getting on. This team is not the most homerun heavy team, but they will put up some solid doubles and triples. This team also great speed including Henderson and Alomar's 23 speed. The defense is solid and will get the job done without letting down your pitchers. This lineup also features the historic Joe Carter walk off picture card.

Best Second Basemen Comparison

Real world stepped in a bit but I’ll continue to roll these out. If you need a refresher on how this works look here.

Second base has had a wide range of type of players, from the newer age power hitters to shortstops who couldn’t make the throw back in the day. I think this position has a really interesting and diverse population, as you’ll see by the different lists.  

2018 Indians Sim Season

Hey everyone, long time no talk, but I am excited to finally unveil what I have have been working on for the past month or so. I am playing the Cleveland Indians 2018 schedule with their 2018 team that was released on the blog site, if you haven't checked them out yet click here.  Here are some of the specifics for the season that I am running. I built a 5000 point team for every other team in the MLB of 20 players no bench discount from the 2000 and 2001 original sets. The only team that didn't have to follow the 5000 point rule was those damn Yankees and evil George Steinbrenner's open check book. Now I am only playing out the Indians schedule not the other teams, so what I have done is taken the team records from 1999 and 2000 season and added them together to get a win percentage. The records for them from the games I play against them will also count against that same winning percentage. That is how the playoffs will be determined. My goal from this is once a player reaches the same amount of plate appearances and at-bats as they did in the 2018 season is to compare the statistics and see how close they came or if they exceeded their card value. Same with the pitchers and their innings pitched.

I also do not want to be doing write ups for every series or even game until I finally get to the playoffs so my plan is to give in season monthly updates and this will be the first one as I have officially played through the last 2 days of March and through the month of April. I will give a monthly summary on the players and how I feel they have contributed through the month as well. I am excited to see what type of results I will get and hopefully you will be as well.