MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- Kansas City Royals

We bring you another AL sad house in the Kansas City Royals. Another of the 100 loss teams and another far below par team in the AL Central. Though after reviewing the team its hard to see how they finished behind the Tigers and the White Sox. They seem much better on paper and have much more draftable players on this squad. Though in a whole they are not good and have a very weak back end of the rotation and below par bullpen.

Me and Peter do a quick breakdown on the podcast.

MLB Showdown League -- SEASON 2 PREVIEW

It's back folks, the epic 30 team league using the MLB Showdown 2017 charts and prospects that have been previously discussed.  Going into this season, every team was limited to 5500 points.  Prospects are only a salary hit at 80% of their points (to homage the real life salary benefits of a rookie deal player and to give the teams that were bad a slight leg up).  Moreover, each team gets one player to "improve," aka transform from their 2017 card into their 2018 card.  For example, the Brewers turned Christian Yelich from an OB 9, HR at 19 player worth about 300 points into the 570 point, MVP-winning OB 10, HR at 18 player he is in the 2018 set!

This league is run and played by five individuals -- Peter, Michael, Kyle, Riley and Miles.  Each person "owns" a team per division, in order to incentivize going all out for each division crown. Season 1 was a 30 game season, but Season 2 will be 42 games...... for all 30 MLB teams! That's right, we've simulated 630 Showdown games, recorded all the stats, and now have posted them to the blog!

The Vlad Jr. card being used in our league -- Guerrero earned his "likely" card, which still makes him an absolute tank!

Now that you're widely caught up on the "what" of this league, here's a quick recap of what happened in season 1:

2001 Set Tournament 3/29

The night before the tournament and all the teams should be getting ready for their big opening round games tomorrow and the bracket has been released.

MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- New York Mets

Rejoice ye Showdown faithful, the best individual card is finally, finally here: Jacob DeGrom!  Fans have been waiting, patiently and impatiently alike, for this card to finally get posted... and he does not disappoint! The NL Cy Young winner comes in at 670 points and brings an epic Tier 1 card to the set.  Expect him to get drafted in the first or second round in all drafts!

The rest of the team has bright spots, but is overall very indicative of the Mets' 77-85 record.  As such, I've added some special Pennant Run treats below that can be plugged in -- Cespedes, Cano, Lowrie, Ramos and Diaz! By adding these guys to the squad, the Mets go from a shade under 4000 points to over 5000 points (aka a very strong squad!).  A breakdown of their PR-infused, 2019 team is below.  If the new additions perform at their 2018 levels (which is obviously a big ask) and the rotation stays incredibly strong (a bigger ask considering the Mets tradition of rotation injuries), the Mets have all the makings of an over 90-win ballclub in 2019! 

Listen to Bob and I gush about the Mets (and how pitching tiers work) below!

2001 Set Small Tournament

After the success of the last tournament, I am announcing the 2001 set tournament. Same rules will apply in this tournament. It will begin next Friday and will probably take a few days depending on the amount of teams that enter. So all you managers out there get your calculators and build the next dominant team to qualify for the next showdown cup. Using only the 2001 set make a 20 player team.

MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- Detroit Tigers

If your reading this I already feel sorry for you. If you read the last 2018 set at least you had the pretty good Pirates. But if you read the one before with the Orioles then you should be mentally prepared for another historically bad showdown team. This team was the second worst in terms of points behind the Orioles. The Tigers finished with 1990 total points.... Some of the better teams had 5 players that would beat out the tigers. They only have 2 player who breaks 300 so without them they would be so bad. And they have (in my opinion) the worst player in showdown for 2018 but you will have to listen to the podcast to hear me bitch about that card.

The tigers finished with a record of 64-98 but I'm not sure how they even won that many games with this team. They finished 3rd in the AL central... again no idea how. They are very very bad. They have an aging and injured Miggy as well as now a retired Victor. The future is not bright at this moment for the Tigers and hopefully they are doing a little Astroball to get themselves back into contention.

Me and Peter will break down the Tigers below.

Starting Lineup

2001 Season - First Quarter Update

What's up party people?!?!?!?! After a long stretch of no gameplay, Jeff and I crammed through 20 games over the last few days to reach the 1/4 season mark. I was able to win 13 of the 20 games to put me at 22-18 on the season after a slow 9-11 start. If you want to see the rosters for each team, just click on the link for the season preview right here.

As always, we hand-rolled every pitch and swing over these 40 games, and are keeping our own stats. We don't have the budget to hire an official scorekeeper (my younger brother's price quote was outrageous).

We'll begin with the stats through 40 games - hitting first and pitching after. Please note: we added some new categories this season, runs and "backwards." Backwards represents how many times a hitter has gotten out on his own chart (since I've always counted strikeouts on a hitter's own chart as a strikeout looking, or backwards K).

My Team

Jeff's Team

As you can see, I have outscored Jeff 238-189 on the season despite hitting 10 fewer homers. This makes sense - my lineup consists of more solid contact hitters like Ichiro, Erstad and Grace compared to Jeff's more boom/bust players like Durazo, Gant (or Lord Gant as he is known around my house), and Valentin. Scoring is lower than the 2002 season since OB is topped at 10 (aside from Delgado's 11).

Hitting Notes

I drafted 2 different versions of Brad Ausmus - one from Detroit and one from Houston. The Detroit one is a better card, but he sucked so he was benched for the Houston card and eventually dropped for Jerry Hairston so I can add another pinch runner to my bench. My original plan was to keep 3 catchers and mostly pinch hit for them when it was their time to hit, but the pinch hitters aren't so much better as to actually make a difference. Plus having 2 Ausmus's was kinda cheap. But the commissioner looked into it and said it was fine.

Jeff has gotten out on his own chart a whopping 111 times, led by Pudge and Edgar Martinez at 20 apiece. I have only gotten out on my chart 78 times, with Darin Erstad leading the way at 14, including a 3 game stretch where he got out 6 times on his own chart. This prompted me to fling him across the room where he rudely hit my dog. Sorry Gingersnap, and thanks for not eating the card.

The highlight of the season belongs to an epic power barrage from Lord Gant. After homering 4 times over a 2 game stretch, I proclaimed him Lord Gant, and when it was his turn to hit, I blared my trumpet and announced for the world to hear, "ALL RISE, LORD GANT IS UP TO BAT!" He immediately got the advantage and launched another bomb that finally landed a few minutes ago.

Stolen bases are basically non-existent. With speed maxed at 20 in this set, and with good defensive catchers on both sides, it's not worth the risk. Speed is a factor on getting extra bases though (like scoring from first on a double or from second on a single). I am getting demolished in this area, successfully taking extra bases about 10% of the team while only preventing it about 10% of the time. Very frustrating.

You may be asking yourself how on God's green Earth is Erubial Durazo leading the league in home runs (well, tied with A-Rod and Delgado). Good question! I have no idea what's going on. Hopefully he starts to cool off.

Let's move on to the pitching stats!

My Team

Jeff's Team

And here lies the difference in the season. I focused on starting pitching in the draft, nabbing Tavarez and his godly +6 control, Randy Johnson, and Matt Morris. Jeff focused on bullpen, drafting arguably the 3 strongest reliever cards in Gordon, Nelson, and Sasaki. But his strategy is not paying off so far - I have been able to beat up on Gordon and the rest of his pen, almost nullifying his advantage in that area. Meanwhile, Tavarez and Morris are leading my rotation to a big advantage (4.77 ERA in 270 innings vs 6.70 ERA in 243 innings). This is why I am up 22-18.

Pitching Notes

Tavarez is amazing. Having a +6 out there lets me roll with confidence (even though he's only a 1-14 out). Thanks to his 5-12 ground ball and my infield defense of +9, I am able to turn a lot of double-plays to snuff out rallies.

Matt Morris has also been outstanding for me, with a 6-0 and 6 quality starts out of 8.

Ryan Dempster, Bruce Chen, and Jamey Wright started off the season getting repeatedly shelled outing after outing. Clearly they were not ready for the big leagues, although each of them has started to turn things around lately.

Flash Gordon has been the biggest disappointment. With a +6 control, he was supposed to anchor the bullpen and shut the door for Jeff's team. But he has struggled mightily, weirdly giving up the advantage waaayyy more often than he should. We'll see if he's able to turn things around - Jeff just removed him from the closer role for the time being.

Scott Strickland is ass. I drafted him to be a multi-inning weapon (+5 control) to bridge the gap between my lower-tier starters and Urbina in the 9th. But he can't seem to ever go an outing without giving up at least one run.

The game of the season so far was a duel between aces Tavarez and Park. It was 0-0 entering the 8th, when Jeff finally broke through with a run. In the 9th, I was able to tag Gordon for 2 runs to take the lead. I brought in Urbina for the save in the bottom of the 9th, but he promptly gave up a tying home run. I was able to bounce back and score again in the 10th, only to watch Mike Fetters give up 3 consecutive hits, including a walk-off 2-run double, without recording an out. Fetters was immediately optioned to AAA Albuquerque and Dan Miceli was called up.

Award Races

Here are the top 3 candidates for season-ending awards:

MVP:

1. A-Rod (329/441/684; 15 HRs, 43 RBI; gold-glove defense)
2. Carlos Delgado (358/452/711; 15 HRs, 33 RBI)
3. Erubial Durazo (318/421/662; 15 HRs, 36 RBI)

Jeff voted for Delgado since he his carrying his offense. I voted for A-Rod since he has 10 more RBIs and is a +4 at SS. Plus he's my guy and I'm winning.

Cy Young:

1. Matt Morris (6-0, 3.56 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, 6 QS)
2. Julian Tavarez (4-3, 2.82 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 6 QS)

It's a 2-man race, with Morris the surprise leader. We expected Tav to be one of the best pitchers this season, but Morris's surprisingly strong start gives him the edge.

Rolaids Relief

1. Jeff Nelson
2. Urbina
3. Sasaki

Nelly gets it for being pretty good over a huge workload (39 innings in 40 games). Urbina and Sasaki have the best numbers but in too small a sample size to win the award. Plus Nellyball has been hot of late.


So there you have it. I am reasserting myself as the Showdown king in our group of 2, but we do have 122 games to go. I'll post an update when we are halfway through with stats, analysis, award leaders, and All-Stars.

Feel free to comment below predictions for the rest of the season - who will win between Jeff and I, which players are taken home the hardware, and what crazy outbursts I'll have the next time I get out on my chart with the bases loaded, down by 1.

Until next time!

Joe

2000 Small Tournament Results

Hey everyone the small tournament has been completed and we have a winner, but why should I tell you now.
The opening round match ups were :
Call to the Hall vs Ground n Pound
Wisconsin Wolves vs Team Wilson
Springfield Isotopes vs Punt Starters

The opening round was in order by points, the second round would be determined by the winners and losers each being randomized for a new match up.

MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates were an 82 win team that, while exceeding most preseason expectations, disappointed down the stretch after making a big trade for Chris Archer.  As a Showdown team, they've got a lot of interesting cards that are certainly draft-able in the middle rounds.  Honestly, the only thing really holding them back from being at the Braves/Nationals/DBacks/Rockies type teams that we've rolled out is that top-notch, first or second round pick that everyone craves -- lots of solid guys to add pieces around, but no star.  I really wish I could add McCLUTCH back to this squad to give them that added bit of star power, but it's still a team that can win any single game vs any other team in the 2018 set.... just probably not enough to be a playoff squad!

Lineup:

Small Tournament

Hey everyone, with the success of the monthly challenges, I have a small challenge tournament style for anyone that feels like entering. Using only the 2000s set make a 20 man rostered team for a single elimination tournament. Starting either once I have 8 entries or next Friday depending on the amount of people that would like to join, the tournament will begin.

MLB SHOWDOWN 2018 SET -- Baltimore Orioles

You knew they were coming. Maybe you can't look away like a bad car accident. Maybe that is what the 2018 Baltimore Orioles are... a bad car accident. But now they are finally being released and its not pretty. The American League has a handful of tanking teams... multiple 100 loss tanking teams. The Orioles are 1 of those teams. Far from the days when they were making the playoffs they land in the showdown ranks as the worst overall points team with no upside in sight. What is most sad is the rich history this team has with some really good teams.... Frank Robinson would not be happy seeing this showdown team take the field. Me and Peter breakdown in the podcast on Youtube just how bad they are and if any players are draftable.

Showdown Challenge #2: Foils of War

The first Showdown Challenge, "Gloat For Pedro", was a huge success! Participants mostly scored faster than I expected, but Reddit user patsen29 helpfully broke down the numbers and showed why Pedro struggled to make it through 3 innings, let alone 9. Baez showed up in a lot of lineups and was pretty successful, I'd say he's probably the MVP of the challenge. There were lots of folks who scored in the 1 to 3 inning range, and to me that qualifies as winning this challenge.

The big takeaway is that OB 7's can be smart pickups. And yes, I did participate, although I was very embarrassed with my lineup because I went 7 full innings without scoring.

Anyway, March has finally arrived, and to fill the gap between now and Opening Day, here's another challenge. This one, entitled "Foils of War" will challenge your drafting creativity. Will you draft like the Padres or the Mariners? How well will you fare against yet another hall-of-fame caliber pitcher? There's only one way to find out...