NBA Showdown - NBA New Season

 It feels like the season just ended for the NBA and the bubble was a success. This is a pro sports record for the shortest offseason among the 4 major sports. 71 days since the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship, and they are partaking in the festivities tonight. I am excited for a new season, as I had said in a previous post, that I will be making the 2020-2021 set for the blog. I figured why not show off some of my early work from last season as a preview of what is to come once this new season comes to an end. So I figured lets start where we left off, and I am going to post the two teams that made the NBA Finals last season, the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers. Hopefully some out there are going to play some games, and if you do please let me know on some feedback, I love hearing results. 

NBA Showdown - Re-Creating the Original Strategy Cards

     Now for all of you that play MLB Showdown with me, or have at least talked about it with me, you know that myself, along with Bob, Jeff and Peter, I do not use strategy cards when playing the MLB version of the great Showdown games. During the pandemic I purchased an NBA showdown starter set and a couple lots of commons off eBay to play some games, check the Harry Potter League I ran, so much fun. Basketball is my absolute favorite sport and with all the down time and the late start to the MLB season, I did some research in recreating NBA showdown. My first iterations are on the site, and unfortunately that iteration will not continue. The great news behind that is because I have found the formulas that I want to make the new seasons versions compatible with the old ones. It may not be 100% the same but I feel will allow them to be played together.  With that being said the 2020-2021 NBA season will bring the first official NBA Showdown set to the blogsite which I am already super excited for. Player cards along with some other variations and concepts to highlight what takes place during this upcoming season. 

Announcing the 2020 Central Division League

 Peter and I are happy to announce our plan for our Central Division league that we are going to be running. Now we came up with a pretty fun schedule where each team will play 6 games vs their in division opponents and 3 games against their opposite division opponents. When we made the 2020 set it was noticeable how close all the teams seemed to be and we wanted to watch the season play out in a 39 game season. We will be tracking full stats, and a secondary sheet was made to act as our "league website" which I am pretty excited about. With the two of us playing games, we are hoping to keep the season moving along at a decent pace and it will be fun to see how the standings shake up in the showdown world. 

6 On-Base/2 Control Challenge

Time to show some love for the poor man Showdown cards. You know, the ones you were always mad about in your booster and draft packs (still no idea what John Valentin 00 brings to the table). Everyone typically builds their teams around high ob/control guys, maybe throwing in one low guy here or there to save some money on points. For this challenge, you must construct your entire roster with lower end guys. A true chance for them to sine!

MLB SHOWDOWN --- TOP 50 BATTERS OVER THE LAST 3 YEARS COMBINED

 While many of us are getting ready to or hopefully already enjoying the 2020 set, I always find myself scratching more itches on card ideas and concepts. I was comparing all the players over the last three years and looking at who had the highest averages of points per the 3 years. It got me thinking, because each season is different, what if I took all the players stats from the last three years and combined them together to have an even deeper data set to run our numbers against. A few trips to fangraphs and back, led me to a master sheet of how these guys would look. The ultra consistent players churned out the best cards as expected. The think that really stood out to me was the fluctuations between OB % for some of the players and seeing them drop to a lower OB and guys that stayed consistent maybe even going up an OB because of where they fell in the rankings. This also gives us a 58 more cards to add to our blind drafts and games so why not look at the great three years of showdown sets, combined into one big group. 

All Decade League -- Regular Season Complete!!

Whew, now that we've cranked out the 2020 Set, I've been able to *finally* get back to the All Decade League. As you hopefully recall, with the help of Savard and his sim skills, I've been running a full 30-team league made up of each MLB franchise's "All Decade" squad to celebrate the decade of Showdown that began with Colby's great work in 2009. You can find the 90 game standings update here and each of the thirty teams under the "All Decade Teams" tab! 

2009 AL MVP Joe Mauer and 2019 NL MVP Cody Bellinger were both impact players in the All Decade league's first season

So without further ado, let's check out the final standings from season 1:

2000 Commons Challenge - Regular Season Recap and Postseason Preview

And thus the regular season has come to an end. Took two months to complete with every team playing 44 games. Had a good time and now for a recap of the regular season:

2020 MLB SHOWDOWN SET --- AL CENTRAL

 WE DID IT!!!! This is the last division of the 2020 MLB set and it feels great to get all the card out for everyone before the World Series is even over. So make your trip to staples, and load up on printer ink cartridge's or just make them print it all for you at your local, library, staples, fed ex , ups store. Best case scenario if you are feeling up to it, and have them laminate them for you as well. The AL Central was an exciting division coming into the season. Last years winners the Minnesota Twins made the improvements to become deeper, adding Kenta Maeda and Josh Donaldson among others to push the Central harder. The Cleveland Indians saw great strides from some young pitchers last season and saw them grow even more this current season. The Chicago White Sox went out and signed a ton of talent to come in and play with all their young up and coming players and  they were ready to compete now (and for the future). In this season, we saw all three of these teams take the division lead at some point and it really came down to the final week of the season to see who would fall where in the standings (and in the playoff picture). 

2020 MLB SHOWDOWN SET --- NL CENTRAL

 The NL Central was the most tightly contested division in baseball this season and four teams from the division made the expanded playoffs. This division would have been fun to see play out over a full 162 game season. Like all the other divisions this division has some great players and some very low players. While no complete superstars in this division offensively, they have some stellar pitching that many teams can benefit from. 

2020 MLB SHOWDOWN SET --- AL WEST

 It is officially World Series Week, and I for one a hyped, the Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Dodgers are going to have an awesome series with lots of showdown star power in the series. In this post were going to look at the AL West and if it wasn't for Tampa Bay, we may have had the worst World Series Showdown team ever. Not because of them being a bunch of cheaters, but because the regular season version of the Astros was not very good... all the averages and on bases dipped from the last couple years (since they must now see how hard it is to hit like every other team in the league when you don't know what is coming). Okay, I have gotten all my Astros bashing out of the way, so let's BANG on through the AL West and see what the studs (and duds tbh) will be joining the set of stars and that have already been released. 

                                               

2020 MLB SHOWDOWN SET --- NL WEST

 It's Friday you know what that means, time for another division of the 2020 set. This time we bring the NL West and the top two teams in this division are mighty impressive. I can't imagine the showdown battles that can be had with these teams. The other three teams bring on plenty of useable players and once again we see the depth of a division. The Dodgers are currently down 3-1 to the Braves in the NLCS, can they use this showdown squad to get this series back to a game 7. 

2020 MLB SHOWDOWN SET --- NL EAST

We're back and better than ever, after unloading the AL East last Friday, this time we are bringing you the NL East, another loaded division full of talent, whether it is in the NL East Champion Atlanta Braves, or the bottom of the standings ladder Washington Nationals, what a sad fall for Washington. The amount of depth in this division truly made it an interesting one in a shortened season. Also this division is loaded with young talent that will keep this division strong for years to come, the obvious Atlanta youth of Acuna, Albies, Fried and Ian Anderson, Miami and its surprising season, including the MLB debut of Sixto Sanchez and his awesome card, the Nationals with Juan Soto and many more in this division will be fun to see the players develop their charts over the years. 

2020 MLB SHOWDOWN SET --- AL EAST

 It is officially here, the beginning of the release of the 2020 MLB Showdown set. Now thanks to some free time the team here has been able to hammer out much of this set faster than usual, and instead of individual team write ups and making you wait, we thought in theme with the crazy season we would do a crazy divisional card drop. So up first is the American League East, personally I wanted to get the New York Yankees done and out for our good friend Rekt after his Yankees dismantled my Indians, as like my way of losing the bet, so hopefully he gets to enjoy his Yankees as well as his divisional rivals first. Also in these write ups, you may see comments from myself (Matt), or the rest of the team that worked on the set, Peter, Jeff and Bob.  So buckle up for the crazy cards of the 2020 shortened season, because like I tried to explain in the announcement post, some of these charts we have never seen before, as player percentages were all kinds of wacky from this season.

ANNOUNCEMENT ------ 2020 MLB SHOWDOWN SET IS COMING

 The opening round of the playoffs is over and has been really exciting. It may have been even more exciting for the collaborators on the 2020 MLB Showdown set because while we got to watch all these games all day long on the TV, we were chatting and charting out this extremely insane 60 game season of the players. We had multiple options, add PAs from last season to this year so it was more like the other years, OR embrace everything that 2020 is and was, and  just use the percentages of only the 2020 season plate appearances and innings pitched. This set will be like no other, and I think in 2020 we deserve that. The cards will still have the classic look, but players walk rates, strike out ratios and home runs are at levels we don't normally see because there was no chance for ups and downs of a long season. So embrace the wacky 2020 set and have some fun with these awesome cards that will be coming soon. 

NBA Showdown - House Cup

 What happens when you have a long Labor Day weekend with a downpour and a Harry Potter Marathon on TV? Well for me, it led to me taking my original NBA Showdown cards, and drafting 4 teams, each named after one of the four different Hogwarts Houses. Each team played a 3 game series against the other 3 teams. I was excited to break these out as it had been a really long time since I had played with them. So here is a break down of the magical action that went down in the Hogwarts Basketball League. 

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: Division Series

  This post brings the latest update in the Sim League series, after the division series. Old posts are below:

1. Introduction to the league and rules
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams
4. Update after Game 40
5. Update after Game 80
6. Update after Game 100
7. All-Stars
8. Update after Game 120
9. Update after Game 141: No-hitter!
10. Update after Game 153
11. Update after Game 159
12. Full Season Update - after Game 162
    
13. Awards and Playoff Preview
    
14. Wild Card Round
    

Stats and standings for the full 162 game, 24-team season are found here. 

In this post, I'll recap the three play-in series. I'll also post matchups for the Division Series, as well as show a bonus custom card. 

2000 Commons Challenge - Pre-Season Post

Wow, we have a lot of turnout for this one. Thanks to everyone participating. 12 teams all competing for the coveted spot of winning it all (sorry, no prize for the winner). Very interesting to see how some teams build their rosters, which players made the cut, which ones did not, etc. 50 players appeared on rosters more than one time. GitRekt and What Smells have the second least amount of unique players, with both only carrying two guys a piece that appear on only their rosters. The ultimate winner for least amount of unique players is Tyrannosaurus Rexes with Whisenant on the lonely island (some love as the cover boy). Island of Misfit Bats was a lineup made exclusively on players not a part of any other rosters.

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: Play-In Rounds

 This post brings the latest update in the Sim League series, after the first playoff round. Old posts are below:

1. Introduction to the league and rules
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams
4. Update after Game 40
5. Update after Game 80
6. Update after Game 100
7. All-Stars
8. Update after Game 120
9. Update after Game 141: No-hitter!
10. Update after Game 153
11. Update after Game 159
12. Full Season Update - after Game 162
    
13. Awards and Playoff Preview
    

Stats and standings for the full 162 game, 24-team season are found here. 

In this post, I'll recap the three play-in series. I'll also post matchups for the Division Series, as well as show a bonus custom card. 

Pre-Wild Card Playoff Round

Before the playoffs could officially begin, the 82-80 Tucson Scorpions met up with the 82-80 Anchorage Huskies in a 3 game series to decide the second wild card spot.

2000 Commons Challenge

 Thanks to Japes for this idea.

 

Here is the quick rundown of the challenge: you must construct the best 20 man roster using only common cards (no foils and no misprints – sorry no 10 ob Andruw Jones).

 

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: Season Awards and Playoff Preview

 This post brings the latest update in the Sim League series. Old posts are below:

1. Introduction to the league and rules
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams
4. Update after Game 40
5. Update after Game 80
6. Update after Game 100
7. All-Stars
8. Update after Game 120
9. Update after Game 141: No-hitter!
10. Update after Game 153
11. Update after Game 159
12. Full Season Update - after Game 162
    

Stats and standings for the full 162 game, 24-team season are found here. 

In this update, I will preview the wild card rounds of the playoffs, and then present the season awards. Thanks to everyone who voted on the awards, as well as those who helped me select team names.

Oakland A’s Moneyball Challenge Series – World Series (Challenge #4)

 In this challenge, you get to take control of the Oakland A’s. Everyone knows Billy Beane as the moneyball man, and this is the chance to rewrite history and win the championship that has alluded the franchise for years. This challenge will consist of four parts, each one relying on the decisions and outcomes of the previous. The challenges are:

1 – Trade Deadline

2 – ALDS

3 – ALCS

4 – World Series

 

Here we go, welcome to the World Series Billy. The thing all 30 teams covet is within reaching distance now. You made the trades to get your squad into this position. Can they finally seal the deal and prove to ownership it’s about time to move out of the Oakland Coliseum?

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: Full Season Update at last!

This post brings the latest update in the Sim League series. Old posts are below:

1. Introduction to the league and rules
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams
4. Update after Game 40
5. Update after Game 80
6. Update after Game 100
7. All-Stars
8. Update after Game 120
9. Update after Game 141: No-hitter!
10. Update after Game 153
11. Update after Game 159

We have now completed the 162 game season! Stats and standings found here. 

24 teams started the season, and 11 remain standing. That's right, there is a tie for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference, and so there will be a play-in round before the official wild card play-in. 

MLB Showdown 200-2001 Sim League: Update after Game 159

This post brings the latest update in the Sim League series. Old posts are below:

1. Introduction to the league and rules
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams
4. Update after Game 40
5. Update after Game 80
6. Update after Game 100
7. All-Stars
8. Update after Game 120
9. Update after Game 141: No-hitter!
10. Update after Game 153

Teams have now played 159 games each, and with 3 games left, there are still a few races coming down to the wire. Full stats after 159 games can be found here. This is a mini-update, so I'm not going to go into as much depth as usual - just wanted to build suspense before posting the full end of season standings. 

2019 Pennant Run Collection

One of the most interesting aspects of the early Showdown sets were the (poorly named) Pennant Run cards, which represented hot stove moves for various existing cards, projecting hot prospects as rookies, and welcoming back studs who missed the previous season with injury. For examples, see Chuck Finley to the Indians and Shawn Green to the Dodgers in 00 PR, Corey Patterson, Albert Pujols, and CC Sabathia in 01 PR, and Andres Galarraga in 00 PR. Plus, it seemed like a fun place for the card creators to make projections and experiment a little.... honestly, I love the idea and how they become quasi-fantasy cards that let fans of teams get their hopes up for the production they'll receive from a prize acquisition in the offseason.

In that vein, we made a couple last season (including the "PR homer boost" given to A-Rod in the 01 PR edition):

Now, we've got a hearty collection of brand new cards for y'all to enjoy while we celebrate the return of baseball. Big shout outs to Matt (artwork on several cards) and Patsen (baseline charting of prospects) for their respective help in crafting these beauties!!!

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: Update after Game 153

This post brings the latest update in the Sim League series. Old posts are below:

1. Introduction to the league and rules
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams
4. Update after Game 40
5. Update after Game 80
6. Update after Game 100
7. All-Stars
8. Update after Game 120
9. Update after Game 141: No-hitter!
   

Teams have now played 153 games each. Full stats after 153 games can be found here. 

ALL DECADE LEAGUE NL All Star Team

The All Decade league All Star break rolls on, as last week we revealed the standings after 90 games and the AL All Star team! Now, we reveal the winner of the "last man" on the AL All Star roster after a hotly contested fan vote and the NL All Star team! Keep an eye out on my twitter for last man in NL polling!

Without further ado, the last member of the AL All Star team:

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: Update after Game 141, plus ***NO-HITTER ALERT***

This post brings the latest update in the Sim League series. Old posts are below:

1. Introduction to the league and rules
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams
4. Update after Game 40
5. Update after Game 80
6. Update after Game 100
7. All-Stars
8. Update after Game 120

Teams have now played 141 games each. Full stats after 141 games can be found here. 

2001 Challenge

Following the fun of the most recent challenge from Win Dance Repeat, it made a few of us think about how much we enjoyed the trading aspect, and then using your new built team to try to make a run with the A's in the playoffs. Peter and I went back and forth about it, before coming up with a fun challenge to test multiple GMs abilities in perfecting a roster. So with that in mind here is my 2001 challenge to those that are brave enough to sign up. Now most of the spots are filled, but there is still one team looking for a GM.
             

MLB Opening Day 2020

Oakland A’s Moneyball Challenge Series – ALCS (Challenge #3)

In this challenge, you get to take control of the Oakland A’s. Everyone knows Billy Beane as the moneyball man, and this is the chance to rewrite history and win the championship that has alluded the franchise for years. This challenge will consist of four parts, each one relying on the decisions and outcomes of the previous. The challenges are:

1 – Trade Deadline

2 – ALDS

3 – ALCS

4 – World Series

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: First 120 Games

We are now done with 120 games in the 2000-2001 MLB Showdown Sim League. If you need a refresher on the previous installments in this series, check below. The link to the full season standings and stats so far is here.

1. Introduction to the league and rules
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams
4. Update after Game 40
5. Update after Game 80
6. Update after Game 100
7. All-Stars

Eastern Conference:

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: All Stars Announced

Thanks to everyone who voted for the All Stars! In this post, I'll reveal the results of the voting, as well as the All-Star Game stats. Here are the previous posts in the Sim League series for those who missed them:

1. Introduction to the League and Rules
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams
4. Update after Game 40
5. Update after Game 80
6. Update after Game 100 (and All-Star ballots)

The all-star game will be played as a best of 9 series, so that each of the five starters on each team will be guaranteed a start. If a team's three outfielders are all LF/RF, one will be allowed to play CF with no fielding penalty. 

Eastern Conference All-Stars

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League 100 Game Update: All-Star Edition

We are now 100 games into the simmed 2000-2001 MLB Showdown season. If you want a refresher on the league, check out the first few posts in the series:

1. Introduction to the league and rules
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams
4. Update after Game 40
5. Update after Game 80

The link to the full stats and standings after 100 games can be found here. In today's update, in lieu of my normal team-by-team recap, I will post standings, leaders, and then post the All-Star ballot for people to vote on. Scroll to the bottom of the post to see the ballots!

ALL DECADE LEAGUE: 90 Game Mark and AL All Stars

Long time, no post on this league -- but here comes the 90 game mark for the ALL DECADE LEAGUE (thanks to the simulation help of Savard the Goat)! If you need a reminder of this league, check out the league preview here!

Big, big, big thank you to Savard for his assistance on this project -- get ready for LOTS of All Decade League stats! Instead of a measly 36 game season, I'll be releasing a FULL 162 game season!!! For more accuracy, each team gained a fifth starter and two more bullpen arms. So get ready for that in the stats.

Oh, 162 games isn't enough for you? ME NEITHER! Thanks to Savard, we're going to be releasing several seasons to show the result variance and show how anything can happen in Showdown! So, without further ado, the standings and stats from the first 90 games of the All Decade League!

MLB Showdown: '70-'74 Preview, Prize cards, Custom rules/additions.

Today I want to follow up with ideas that I briefly mentioned during my last post, and drop a few more small additions to showdown that might help your gaming experience.

One of the things I mentioned last time was tournaments and prize cards.  My league used to run 20-40 game seasons pretty regularly, but as we've gotten older and packed on responsibilities, tournaments became a reasonable option.  Our tournaments vary depending on how many people show up, but they follow the general rule that you play 4 seed games and the top 2 records play a one game championship.  

In addition to prize money, we wanted to add something special to each tournament since we knew we weren't getting together as often as before, so we came up with the idea of tournament prize cards.  These cards are given out to a tournament winner and have the special ability to be used for 1 at bat in any future tournament at no cost.  For example, our first tournament prize card was Hector Espino or "The Mexican Babe Ruth".  Tournament prize cards are typically seasons that wouldn't be covered otherwise  (different leagues, shortened season, playoffs etc), so some possible future examples will be shown in this post.

Oakland A’s Moneyball Challenge Series – ALDS (Challenge #2)

In this challenge, you get to take control of the Oakland A’s. Everyone knows Billy Beane as the moneyball man, and this is the chance to rewrite history and win the championship that has alluded the franchise for years. This challenge will consist of four parts, each one relying on the decisions and outcomes of the previous. The challenges are:

1 – Trade Deadline

2 – ALDS

3 – ALCS

4 – World Series

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: Games 41-80 Update

We are now around the halfway point in the sim league! For earlier posts, check out:

1. Introduction and Rules
2. Eastern Conference Preview
3. Western Conference Preview
4. First 40 Games Recap

The link to the full stats and standings after 80 games can be found here. I'll recap what happened in games 41-80 below. Unless otherwise noted, the stats in the team by team recaps are for games 41-80 only. 

Standings after 80 games

Eastern Conference

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: First 40 Games

Post #4 in the 2000-2001 Sim League brings results from the first 40 games. For a refresher on the league, check out the first three posts:

1. Introduction to the League
2. Eastern Conference Teams
3. Western Conference Teams

The full standings and stats can be found here. I'll recap the first 40 games below. Let me know in the comments what you think about the season so far! 

Eastern Conference

Williams Division 

Providence leads the Williams Division, 2 games ahead of Ottawa, and is the overall #3 seed in the conference. Their rotation has been excellent, led by 2001 Base Pedro Martinez (5-1, 1.77 ERA). Three other starters have pitched very well, 2000 PR Brian Anderson (4-2, 3.38), 2000 PR Vladimir Nunez (2-3, 2.87), and 5th starter 2000 Base Pat Hentgen (6-0, 2.39). Closer 200 Base Alan Embree has been great as well, successfully converting all 12 save opportunities with an 0.77 ERA. The hitting has been decent, with 2000 Base Jim Thome (.279/10 HR/28 RBI) and 2001 Base Gary Sheffield (.291/9/22) hitting for power and 2001 PR Jose Ortiz hitting .324. 

2000 Oakland A’s Moneyball Challenge Series – Trade Deadline (Challenge #1)

In this challenge, you get to take control of the Oakland A’s. Everyone knows Billy Beane as the moneyball man, and this is the chance to rewrite history and win the championship that has alluded the franchise for years. This challenge will consist of four parts, each one relying on the decisions and outcomes of the previous. The challenges are:

1 – Trade Deadline

2 – ALDS

3 – ALCS

4 – World Series

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: Western Conference

Post #3 in the MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League series! Today I will be introducing the Western Conference rosters for the 24 team league. As with last post, let me know in the comments who you think will win each division (and who the two wild cards are).

Prior posts:

1. League Intro
2. Eastern Conference Teams

Willie Mays Division

The four teams in the Mays division are Anchorage, Calgary, Portland, and Vancouver.

1. Anchorage

NBA Showdown: Gameplay

Back with another (hopefully) weekly NBA Showdown blog post giving the ins and outs of the game, maybe some new players or teams even, this week I am going to discuss some of the games I played this weekend, which was 12 total games, bu this series will highlight a three game series between two distinctive neighboring teams. Now I have my original post on the NBA section for the rues of the game. They have been slightly altered as I no longer use the 6th man rule, but if you would like super high scores, go ahead and keep using it. I have been doing tons of play testing recently and the games have been a lot of fun, with a wide spread of scores. Biggest win was by 19 points, and one game resulted in a tie, I was hopeful to have a buzzer beater, but the offensive didn't get their offense score + dice roll over a 20, so the game went to over time and ended by 2 point differential. All the other games basically fell between those two ranges.

MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League: Eastern Conference

Post #2 in the MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League series! Today I will be introducing the Eastern Conference rosters for the 24 team league. If you need a refresher about the league, check out this post where I introduced the concept behind the league.

The Eastern Conference contains 12 teams, in three divisions. Each division is named after a baseball great: Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Hank Aaron. I tried choosing teams based on cities that do not currently have major league franchises, and grouped them geographically as best as possible. 

Note that when listing teams, the lineups are in position order, not the order that they will bat in-game. 

Leave notes in the comments about who you project to win each division!

Introducing the MLB Showdown 2000-2001 Sim League

My biggest frustration with baseball video games as well as MLB Showdown seasons are how the stats don't match up to real-season stats, unless you play a full 162 games. As a result, you frequently see crazy outlier seasons that can only happen with a short schedule.

In video games it is possible to run 162 game seasons if you sim, but in MLB Showdown it takes a very long time of dice rolls to reach this point. 

I am therefore happy to say that I finally have written Python code to allow me to run a full season for my drafted teams. I will be blogging a series of posts in the next few days to weeks that will follow the course of a simulated 162-game season for a drafted 24-team league. Here is the rough outline for how it will progress:

1. This post: Introducing the League and Rules 
2. Introducing the Eastern Conference teams
3. Introducing the Western Conference teams
4. Results after 40 games
5. Results after 80 games
6. Results after 120 games
7. Full season results
8. Full season awards
9. Playoffs (this may be broken down into several posts)

League Format

There are two conferences, Eastern and Western, each with three divisions of four teams, for a total of 24 teams. The team breakdown is shown below:

MLB SHOWDOWN '15-'19 Set

This is my first post and I hope to bring something of value to those who follow showdown.  I want to thank Peter and Bob for inviting me.  Now, on to the set.

Back in 2016 I had established an accurate baseline formula and began toying with the idea of creating my own cards, but struggled with how long it would take me to create so many seasons throughout history.  I finally settled on making half decade mini sets that would satisfy my need to create cards of players throughout history, without losing my mind.  

My first 2 sets were the late 90's and early 00's which I printed and played with my league.  The set I am releasing here is the 2015-2019 as it has the most up to date custom additions to showdown.  I will release the late 90's and early 00's set once I have updated the pitcher defense, bunt, and catcher framing that I added into this set (more on that later).  

For set creation I make only about 1/3 the size of the original showdown sets (about 200/600 cards) with a focus on offense (Starters and Relievers tend to get repetitive once you get past the stars and outliers). 

NBA Showdown: Team Building

I am trying to get better at this blogging thing, and my hope here is to do a weekly or every other week post highlighting a different aspect of my NBA Showdown game. The first one will be team building. First I will go over the team building rules, and finally I will create my own team and we can criticize my roster decisions. We have to see if one of us can become the next great GM and place the right players around each other to create the best team possible.

(IDK when this list was made, but LeBron should still be on this list, I don't care if he was 40 years old, he gives you at least  a one season chance at a ring)

2019-2020 NBA SHOWDOWN FINAL SET

Hey everyone and Happy Fathers Day!, I know personally for me Father's Day and the NBA go hand and hand as there is usually still the NBA Finals going on, and I remember that fateful game 7 in Oracle Arena on Fathers Day in 2016 as my dad and I watched our Cavs bring home their first NBA Championship in dramatic fashion. After debuting my NBA cards and the game I brought along with it, and I am glad so many of you have given it a chance and played a couple games. As I dove deeper into some of the lower level teams, I noticed how unbalanced some of the offense and defensive ratings were, it is simple, a good defensive team will rate better than a bad team. But once taking the league average and team stats into account before the players stats I have finally been able to settle on how I want these cards to play. So with that I am posting all 30 teams from the 2019-2020 NBA season here in this one blog post. The old posts will be removed and for those that printed I urge you to print these for a more balanced game, and better for drafting purposes, also don't worry the last dance bulls will be updated as well. When looking at players the average offense and defense will fall between an 8 and a 10 for players that are of the 3 quarter or more fatigue. So before the NBA begins again, enjoy these 301 cards and maybe start your own NBA season.

MLB Showdown 2002 (playoff edition)

Hello everyone, long time no post from me. Inspired by Matt's amazing new template and his incredible 2005 set, I thought it'd be fun to surprise everyone with a massive new card dump for you guys too! Below you'll find 8 complete teams from the 2002 playoffs. It's probably due to my childhood nostalgia, but I really believe that between 2001-05 may have been the best stretch of baseball from a pure entertainment standpoint in the postseason -- the upset World Series losses by the Yankees, the Bartman game, the Curse being broken, the White Sox dramatic run through the playoffs... and a TON of 100+ win teams contending for titles. Unfortunately, MLB Showdown switched its formula right before the start of these incredible seasons..... so I'm going back and trying to remake some of those epic teams for y'all to incorporate in your collections, drafts, and general cycle of cards you play with!

Also 2002 had a monster Shawn Green season

I decided to start with 2002 because (a) the Moneyball A's were being talked about a lot in my social sphere; (b) Angels were a fun team; (c) Barry Bonds in the early 2000s and his best shot at the title; (d) the first all Wild Card World Series is super fun and should make replaying the postseason fascinating! Honestly, I'd forgotten that the Twins got to the ALCS or that the DBacks followed up their World Series title with another 90+ wins and NL West title. Also..... the Yankees lineup is fire! This set also gave me a chance to try out a tweaked hitting/pitching formula that Matt and I have been cooking up. I hope y'all enjoy these 150ish new cards!

2000 Super Bash Brothers - Foil Edition

We all know how much homers dominated the late 90’s post-strike. Guys were killing the ball left and right.

In this challenge, you want to allow the most home runs. Not to be confused with runs, you want to give up the most dingers as possible.

Veterans’ Challenge Series - Game of Games (Challenge #4)

In a tribute to these heroes, I present Part 4 of the Veterans’ Challenge Series. The series consists of four parts, and ideally you advance to take on the next challenge. Consider it your time in the service. Challenges will stretch from Memorial Day to the 76^th anniversary of the “Day of Days (June 6^th, D-Day).”

In a tribute to D-Day (the “Day of Days”), this is the fourth and final challenge for your military service. This is where all of the hard work comes to a head and you are tested to the fullest. The Veterans are coming at you with everything they have, fielding a fully loaded squad for the last stand.

Veterans’ Challenge Series - In-Field Simulation (Challenge #3)

In a tribute to these heroes, I present Part 3 of the Veterans’ Challenge Series. The series consists of four parts, and ideally you advance to take on the next challenge. Consider it your time in the service. Challenges will stretch from Memorial Day to the 76^th anniversary of the “Day of Days (June 6^th, D-Day).”

Veterans’ Challenge Series - Training Camp (Challenge #2)

Training Camp (Challenge #2)

In a tribute to these heroes, I present Part 2 of the Veterans’ Challenge Series. The series consists of four parts, and ideally you advance to take on the next challenge. Consider it your time in the service. Challenges will stretch from Memorial Day to the 76^th anniversary of the “Day of Days (June 6^th, D-Day).”

Player Comparison Tool

One of the things I love the most about MLB Showdown is doing statistical analysis on my cards and finding ways to optimize roster creation.

This is possible because the engine is much more open than in video games, for example, and because it is relatively simple: an at-bat is determined by two rolls of a 20-sided die, one for the pitch and one for the swing. Therefore, we have a total of 20x20 = 400 possible outcomes of an at-bat between a given batter and a pitcher. By figuring out every possible outcome, we can calculate expected stats for that at-bat.

I designed a simple tool in Google Sheets that will do this calculation and calculate some of the basic hitting stats. I included a link to the tool at the bottom of this blog.  

The tool has three parts, each on their own sheet:

Veterans’ Challenge Series - Boot Camp (Challenge #1)

In a tribute to these heroes, I present Part 1 of the Veterans’ Challenge Series. The series consists of four parts, and you must advance to take on the next challenge. Consider it your time in the service. Challenges will stretch from Memorial Day to the 76^th anniversary of the “Day of Days (June 6^th, D-Day).”

 

Hall of Fame Veterans

9 years ago, I was lucky enough to be at Arlington on Memorial Day. It’s a day I will never forget the rest of my life. Walking around and paying tribute to our heroes on that day is unlike anything I have done. It doesn’t matter what your political views are, we can all take some time to appreciate those who have served our country. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the luxuries in our life like this game we have all gathered on.

Pictured here is one of our fallen I visited on that day. He is a hero back in our hometown, being one of the first casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

1996 Season Preview

Immmm back! Maybe... sometimes? I'm here when I can be. Luckily I've been able to have some free time with the pandemic to get some 1996 cards done for everyone. The set is finally calculated. I keep tinkering with it probably because its my baby. I know.. never tinker! But I had to. Some of our great genius minds on the discord and twitter were able to help me with better statistics. I went from Spd to BsR. I also fixed the IP issue with some of these pitchers going heavy deep making no sense for a 6C guy or 5C. No set can ever be perfect and I know we have some more ideas to make 2020? if they play set better. But at least this was a good test for me to keep tinkering with.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB -- 1997 Colorado Rockies lineup

Today is Bob's birthday -- you know him from his podcast Bourbon over Baseball, amazing league, blind drafts, and being responsible for the amazing design of the 2018 and 1996 sets! To celebrate Bob, I thought I'd surprise him with the 1997 Colorado Rockies lineup! While Bob's a huge Indians fan, the Rockies are (seem to be?) his second favorite team, especially from our formative years in the 90s. As the Indians teams have basically all been made on this site by our ravenous bunch of Cleveland card creators, I decided to create a helping of Colorado cards.

I decided on the 1997 Rockies for one reason and one reason only -- hitting! The Rockies may have only been 83-79, but they finished #1 in runs (923!!), hits, home runs, batting average, and on-base percentage in the National League that season. As a result, they've got an absolutely lethal lineup and figured Bob would love to add them to his collection! Without further ado, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!

The Last Dance -- NBA Showdown 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls

What more can be said about this team, if you have watched the documentary, there is probably nothing new that I can tell you. So this write up will be very brief, but I figured to coincide with the finale of the Last Dance, before I drop the 2019-2020 season cards, I am here to bless you all with the greatness of the end of the Chicago Bulls Dynasty that won 6 rings in 8 years, and the two years they didn't win, Michael Jordan wasn't around the whole season.This team is certainly not as good as some of their other championship teams, which you may or may not be seeing over the coming months, but they still have a formidable big 3, and arguably the greatest player of all time depending on which side of the bed I wake up on that morning.

2000 Foil Challenge - Who's Your Daddy

Since we have so many people talking foils recently (whether deserving/undeserving, overpriced on ebay, etc.) I have decided to come up with a unique and simple challenge: construct the best foil only batting line up from the 2000 deck. Sounds easy right? Let’s see how you will be judged: