2019 Showdown Cup League Season 2: All Free Agents Team

So I am writing this after the waiver period, and a ton of free agency moves have been made. Some of these guys may get picked up in the time I finish writing this article. But for the fun of it here is the best team I can make with the available players.

Sadly Tim Anderson is the first player to miss the cut

MLB What Ifs

Showdown What Ifs

When doing research for the All Time Mets 2008 Billy Wagner card I came across Joey Devine. Who is Joey Devine you ask? He is the owner of a .59 ERA, .832 WHIP season over 45.2 IP in 2008, and one of the best RP cards you have ever seen. Sadly, after that year he had TJ surgery, and never was able to return to form. This got me thinking, who else out there had a ridiculous season/stretch only to never recapture it due to injury, yips, or some other incident. Presenting, MLB Showdown's What If collection. 

All Time Mets

All Time Mets
(More new Cards!!)

The New York Metropolitans were founded in 1962 to fill the void of the departed Giants and Dodgers, and started out with an atrocious 40-120 in their first regular season. In fact, they never finished better than second to last until the "Miracle Mets" of 1969, giving them the first of two World Series Titles. They have won five NL Pennants, the NL East six times and gotten wild card berths three times. Despite their standing as the "lesser" NYC team, they are going to pack a punch here and will put up a really strong fight to get out of this division.

The Mets have had one of the more consistent logos out there

2020 Lineup Look Ahead: Minnesota Twins

Hey everyone I am back with a new post, when I posted the 2019 LA Angels I looked ahead to their potential 2020 lineup, well today I am back to look at the AL Centrals Minnesota Twins and this deadly lineup that they will be potentially bringing with them.

All Time Phillies

All Time Phillies




The next All Time Team is the Philadelphia Phillies, who came about in 1883, and have won two World Series, seven NL Pennants and 11 NL East titles and have featured yours truly on their jumbotron! This team will reflect their storied history and has quite a few Hall of Famers on it.

All Time Marlins

All Time Marlins with New Cards!


Happy New Year! After a busy holiday season we are back in the swing of things with the Marlins. After being established in 1993, the Marlins hold a meager .462 winning percentage, yet have two World Series trophies to their name. Their team has some absolute studs, but due to their short time in existence and overall lack of competitiveness, they lack the fire power to be a top tier competitor.

Florida Marlins Logo 1993-2011

Showdown Cup Season 2: 2019 Set Fantasy Draft Registration

***League is full, but anyone that missed out, I can put you on a waitlist just in case someone isnt able to draft, and you can step in***

It is officially time, I personally can't wait any longer, and I can tell that a few of you could't either. It is officially time for the 2019 set league to begin. Last years league was so much fun to play and it seems this years league may be even bigger and better. Most rules and regulations of the league will be ran the same as last year with a few changes, such as instead of a minimum of 20 man rosters, you can now have a minimum of 18 players, giving you a little more spending money if you choose to go that route in the team building process.

MLB SHOWDOWN 2019 SET -- Los Angeles Angels

IM BACKKKKKKKKK Did ya miss me?Today I am coming with the Los Angeles Angels, as we move through the 2019 set, I didn't think the Angels were very good this season, minus Mike Trout of course. But this team is not that bad from a showdown perspective. The lineup, obviously you would like to have more 9s and 10s and that will be potentially coming in 2020, but they have a fun lineup to play with, and for you defensive players, you can get yourself a +12 infield and a 5 outfield with the right lineup. Starting pitching shows where they struggled this season, sadly losing Tyler Skaggs isn't helping anything as he was their best pitcher this season before he tragically passed away. Griffin Canning gives hope as a young 23 year old starter who could only improve going forward with Mickey Callaway getting his hands on him, potentially like he did for all the young starters in Cleveland over the years. The bullpen is tons of fun in my opinion, and you can really get creative with how to use them. When the two lower end starters are pitching you can spell them with Felix Pena for 4 IP, while still having 4 other good relievers to use if need be. All around this team has many parts to use to build your team with, curious to see how many end up getting drafted.

Community Submission: Holiday Fun

I received a message from a long time blog follower Gregory, anyone that was in my league for the 2018 set know him better as the General manager of the Bay Bridge Blasters. He wanted to reach out and see if I would share his Holiday Showdown experiences so from here on out, will be in his words.

"In an effort to recreate some of the old magic, I was able to find and stumble across some unopened booster packs, draft packs, and starter decks over the last couple of months. My brother and I were avid fans of the game back in the heyday of 2000 and 2001. With some crafty online searching and bidding I was able to secure a ton of unopened cads, Talk about Christmas!

Long story short, over the last two visits my brother and I have had (we live about 1000 mile apart) we were able to open some packs and play old school style. I wanted to share with you all some of our excitement, so here was the recap of our two leagues:

Through The Years: Alfonso Soriano

Introducing a new style of post, while also being a throwback to the original blog writer Peter, and his Showdown Hall of Fame presentation style. So what I am bringing to you is a look back at a players career for each season that they could have qualified for a card, generally for me that is 400 or more plate appearances. The player that I am starting with, is one of my all-time favorite players Alfonso Soriano. Now I know what a lot of you are thinking, "but Matt he never played for the Indians" I know that is crazy right, a non Indians feature post about a favorite player of mine who never played here in Cleveland. Well here is my explanation for that, my cousin and I used to go downtown in Cleveland when i was between 10-14 years old. We would go to the hotel that the opposing teams stayed at and wait outside after games for players to be returning to their Hotel and try to get autographs. So when the Yankees were coming to town in 2002 we were hoping to snag a Derek Jeter or any of their hall of fame caliber players for an autograph. I was lucky enough to get Alfonso Soriano who was still a young guy, that I really didn't know much about, I mean I didn't even have his pennant run showdown card in 2001, so I  barely knew about him. He was very kind and signed for everyone waiting outside, as we watched the more established veteran players (looking at you Jeter and Clemens) walk by without even acknowledging the fans outside. By taking the time he instantly had a fan in me, and I started paying attention to Soriano's career. He exploded in 2002 onto the scene and was fairly consistent for the most part of his career.

(One of the first cards I ever made there on the left, you can tell by how odd it looks, and a Peter special on the right of Soriano's time in DC)

ALL DECADE LEAGUE PREVIEW

Thank you for sticking with me through the release of all 30 teams "All Decade Showdown Teams".... with a total of 540 cards on those 30 teams!!! Next up for me -- playing out a season with those All Decade teams! This post is going to serve as a massive preview, complete with divisional breakdowns, point breakdowns, power rankings, and predictions from this blog's "experts" and some guest experts! Of course, we can't do a preview of a league without podcasting about it, so listen to us nerd out and make predictions that'll undoubtedly be proven wrong right here:

Check out our podcast on the league here!!

 Potential NL All Star Outfield for the All Decade league???

(Also these "small" images are full sized if you open the image in a new tab!)

If you have your thoughts about this season, let us know in the comments below!! And fear not -- plenty of amazing cards are going to be featured throughout the post to break up the monotony of power rankings and predictions :)