ALL DECADE BLUE JAYS

Toronto is, without a doubt, another of the teams I've always cheered on. Sure, it's not with the passion I root for the Brewers or Twins, but I've always loved the Blue Jays logo, unis, and memorable players -- especially those 92/93 World Series teams led by Alomar, Olerud, David Cone, etc. etc. etc. I even have a Toronto Roberto Alomar shersey! But I digress.... we're here for the Blue Jays 2010s All Decade team and, to no one's surprise, it has some STARS on it. Primarily, they draw from the 2015 squad that went to the ALCS and probably should have won the World Series. However, 2016's ALCS team is represented too, plus studs like Roy Halladay and Joey Bats from early in the decade and rookie sensations that are going to be starring for Toronto throughout the next one! So without further ado, the defending AL East champions from my previous free-for-all season who got swept in the ALCS, the Toronto Blue Jays!

 Toronto has featured a couple really fun SS players over the years, including some of my favorites from their teams prior to Toronto (and I'm still sad that Tulo didn't continue to star in Canada thanks to injuries... however, a certain rookie phenom/son of my Rockies' shersey player took the SS spot away from these two studs at the last minute!

ALL DECADE ORIOLES

Baltimore has had a rough go of it lately, but they've made a few pushes towards the World Series in the 2010s! This is the first step down in terms of strength of "All Decade" team in a while, but objectively.... what a fun team anyway!!! The offense has speed and lots of interesting charts, the rotation has some unique arms, and that bullpen will be FUN to play with! Honestly, it's pretty incredible to think about what an amazing job Buck Showalter did with Baltimore after examining this team -- he managed the hell out of their pitching and power hitting to reach the playoffs three times (and even win the brutal AL East once, reaching the ALCS) in the decade. As a result, sure... this is definitely going to be the team everyone picks last in the AL East in the All Decade league. But y'know what.... don't count them out completely!

(He didn't make the cut, but I love this power hitting Trumbo card from 2016... 

honorary 19th member of the All decade team)

2019 World Series Sim Showdown Style

I decided to simulate the 2019 World Series with the 2019 charts that I have, (sorry I don't have the cards yet, but the team is hard at work to get them done, and let me tell you, you won't be waiting until the summer to have them all this year) but that information will be coming soon enough. As the hype for the World Series was building I knew I had to play these games out and see how close it can be. First lets look at a breakdown of the teams and how close they are.

ALL DECADE ROCKIES

ROCKTOBER BABY, one of the best times of the year... even if it's been unfortunately rare for my fourth favorite squad -- the Colorado Rockies. Yes, yes, judge me for having power ranked the majority of the majors in order, but I do still have extremely fond feelings for Colorado. My cousins live outside Denver and I inherited *a lot* of clothes from my cousin, Sam -- including tons of Rockies gear. Growing up, I'd alternate between the Brewers and Rockies in the backyard since I had a few purple Rockies shirts and a pretty choice Dante Bichette "shersey" to wear. All that is to say.... I'm a fan! And so is co-creator Bob on this site, so it's pretty awesome to be able to roll out the All Decade Rockies. Sadly, they will be a step down from the last three behemoths that we've presented, but major major major credit to Matthew P for his help on this team, as a lot of guys come from the 2013-2014 Rockies!

 The 2017 Rockies featured slightly better versions of these studs, but their production has remained IMPRESSIVE to close the decade in 2018 and 2019!

ALL DECADE NATIONALS

Next up in the All Decade series, the 2019 NL Pennant winners -- the Washington Nationals!!! NATITUDE is going to make some series noise in the All Decade league, as Washington is bringing a pretty scary squad to the table! Somehow it took them until the veryyyyyy end of the decade to win a postseason series, and their first ever pennant..... and maybe their first World Series in franchise history! They're going to be a balanced, potent team with a surprising bullpen to support the expected powerful lineup and deep/incredible rotation. Honestly.... I think I like this team more than the Astros and Yankees, despite having less OB 10, HR at 17 and less powerful OB 8 hitters than those respective squads. No matter what, it's definitely a team that Nationals fans should have a blast playing with!

 Bryce and Mad Max are both going to be on the All Decade team from other seasons, 

but here's some of their dominant 2018 cards!

ALL DECADE YANKEES

Now this is going to be a bigggggg team! Probably one that gets a lot of heat for some notable omissions as well... but there's only 18 spots on this team, so for a storied franchise like the Yankees, cuts have to be made! The Yankees won the World Series in 2009 and haven't returned to the Fall Classic since then (although they're obviously in a dog fight with Houston for the AL Pennant right now). Despite that, they're LOADED with talent thanks to seven playoff appearances between 2010 and 2019, as well as five seasons of at least 95 wins. Consequently, the greatest franchise in sports will have a chance to add an "All Decade MLB Showdown" title to its 27 rings!

The 2017 Aaron Judge card that Bob made as part of his first ever post for this blog!!

ALL DECADE ASTROS

We're at a BIG TIME squad now, even though nearly all their cards come from the last handful of seasons -- the Houston Astros! As has been well documented at this point, the Astros were DREADFUL for the first half of the decade.... but their "tanking" (which may be over-exaggerated) led to an incredible stretch of success from 2015 through 2019, when Houston put together the best Showdown team in recent memory (and maybe ever).

Here's some bonus cards of really, really excellent Astros cards that didn't make the cut!

Showdown Cup Championship Final Games

We are back with game 4 of the Showdown Cup Championship series with a 2-1 series lead for the Wisconsin Wolves. Feeling a chance to really apply the pressure to Dat Boy X, Craig Counsel is sending out Justin Verlander. What a plan that was for the Wolves as on short rest he fires out a performance of a life time. Verlander has been known as the workhorse his whole career but this was a record setting performance. The Wolves struck first after Jeff McNeil lead off the bottom half of the first with a triple, next batter Trea Turner grounds into a fielders choice and McNeil scored.