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!

WORLD SERIES CHAMPS -- 2002 Anaheim Angels (99-63)

Runner-up to the Moneyball A's in the AL West, the Angels won their first World Series in 2002 behind a fun team that played stressful games in front of raucous, rally-monkey-wielding fans. With a pythagorean record of 101 wins, this is a STRONG squad! While the offense lacks a true superstar, Mike Trout or Anthony Rendon-like bat, it features seven OB 8 or better hitters, including some guys capable of knocking the ball out of the yard at a 20+ HR pace. The strength of the team is the rotation, featuring Tier 3 arm after Tier 3 arm, leading up to a bullpen with a couple strong options. Honestly, this team is a deserving champion and has lots of fun options for y'all to add to your teams!

NL PENNANT WINNERS -- 2002 San Francisco Giants (95-66)

Barry Bonds' best chance to win the World Series came with this team, which pushed the Angels to the brink in an epic seven game series. The 2002 MVP put up another absolute monster card in 2002, pushing me to my card making limits with an OB 13 (.582 OBP in real life). Shockingly, his "projected" OBP against Control 3 pitching in only .575... falling short of his real life mark as an OB 13, on at 2!!! Surrounding him are a few studs, and I think Kenny Lofton and Jeff Kent are cards people will happily use in their leagues. The rotation is deep with Tier 3 arms, but the bullpen is the strength thanks to 3/4 of it being Tier 2! Robb Nen isn't as good as his 01 foil, but he's still a shutdown guy. Overall, this is a fun team and (once again) Bonds proves why he broke the Showdown game with his ridiculous stats (this is the season that garnered the famous OB 16 card in the Showdown 2003 set).

ALCS LOSERS -- 2002 Minnesota Twins (94-67)

With 94 wins, the Twins are the "weakest" team in the playoff field, but I really like their varied squad! First, it's super fun having a decent Twins' Ortiz to play with; second, I LOVE this Torii Hunter card. In general, I was hyped to find so many pics from the Twins ALDS victory over the Twins to use. Johan Santana is a deadly starter, albeit with IP 4, and should be picked up frequently by players who love deep bullpens. Overall, this team feels stronger than 94 wins.

NLCS LOSERS -- 2002 St. Louis Cardinals (97-65)

The early 00 Cardinals always had incredibly deep lineups and, here, JD Drew is somehow the seven hitter!!! Vina and Renteria were such a fun 1-2 combo, even if Pujols, Edmonds or Rolen should've been the #2 hitter. Honestly, what a devastating 3-4-5 portion of the lineup, probably the strongest in this 02 collection (maybe the Braves match it with their Jones-Jones-Sheffield combo). I also think Eli Marrero is a fun utility player.... does anyone dare put his C+1 behind the plate?? The Cardinals also have a few strong Tier 2 starters and some good reliever depth to pull from -- overall, a very deep and fun team!

AL EAST CHAMPS -- 2002 New York Yankees (103-59)

The strongest team overall in the 2002 playoffs, the Yankees missed out on their sixth pennant in seven years after winning 103 games. The lineup is absolutely loaded, with a STUD Alfonso Soriano and powerful Jason Giambi providing the best cards. I also love the Jeter-Bernie-Posada cards, and Robin Ventura put together a strong season too. Overall, they've got five OB 9 or better hitters! The rotation is stellar too, featuring a balanced group of Tier 3 and 4 pitchers. In support, another great Mo Rivera card and high control arms behind him. It's no wonder they were the best team in the regular season.

NL EAST CHAMPS -- 2002 Atlanta Braves (101-59)

The best team in the NL, as per usual between 1991 and 2005, the Braves have a deep lineup with star power in the middle to support a great rotation and lights out bullpen. I love their outfield, with Chipper and Sheffield providing OB 10 cards to support a deadly OB 9 from superstar fielding Andruw. If only Javy Lopez had a better season to push this lineup way over the top. The rotation is loaded (again), led by a Tier 2 Maddux and no doubles Glavine. Smoltz moved to the closer role for the first time, a mere Tier 3 but with no doubles. In support, he's got two Tier 1 arms and a Tier 0. Honestly, Braves-Yankees would have been an electric world series and it'd be fun to play it out with these cards!

NL WEST CHAMPS -- 2002 Arizona Diamondbacks (98-64)

The defending champs put together a similar team in 02, albeit with a Luis Gonzalez that lacks 50+ HR power. The lineup is still deep and versatile, and I'm a BIG fan of this All Star Junior Spivey card (really makes me think "what if" with his trade to Milwaukee). Obviously I love putting Craig Counsel into a card too. Steve Finley may be the most draftable of the hitters though, with good defense, speed, OB, and power. Of course, the real strength of this team is their 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation. Featuring foil cards made by Matt, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling are total studs and extremely beautiful cards here. Unfortunately, the 3-4 slots are weak and the bullpen is not particularly strong... this is how the DBacks struggle in a 5 game series: one bad outing from an ace and the team is in BIG TIME jeopardy!

AL WEST CHAMPS -- 2002 Oakland "Moneyball" A's (103-59)

A team immortalized by the film Moneyball, the 2002 A's tied the Yankees for the most wins in baseball with 103 wins. By the Pythagorean numbers, they were a mere 96 win team, showing Billy Beane's great tweaking to push them 7 games over their expected win total. I love their addition of Ray Durham (and think he's a beautiful card, seen in action in the ALDS). Obviously MVP Miguel Tejada (hilariously absent from serious mention in the movie) is a card you'd expect a lot from but.... he's pretty disappointing. Honestly, one of the weaker MVP Seasons and barely better (or worse??) than Eric Chavez. I think I captured OBP studs Hatteberg and Justice well, although it's hard to look at the Yankees' Giambi and think "what if"... he'd have been perfect in the 3 or 4 hole for this team.

Of course, the real strength is the rotation (again, oddly omitted from much mention in the movie), with the superstar triplets of Zito, Hudson and Mulder putting up great cards that any manager could use. The bullpen is a little shaky, but with those monsters (and Tier 3 Lidle), they likely will have decent leads to protect! With a 23-5 record, 2.75 ERA and 1.134 WHIP, Zito earned a Tier 2 for his Cy Young card and I know I'll be adding him to a lot of my teams!

BONUS:
This is a foil version of MVP Tejada that Matt made a few months ago using our previous standard card making formula. Besides looking far superior to the one that I made here, I think it does a great job of illustrating the differences in our new player-charting system for y'all. Which do you think more accurately captures the MVP's 2002 season (.354 OBP, .308 avg, 30 2B and 34 HR in 715 PA)?

Our old calc method projects, vs Control 3 pitcher: 36 HR (6% HR rate) and 48 2B (8%) in 600 PAs

The new calc method projects, vs same C3 pitcher: 30 HR (5% HR rate) and 30 2B (5%) in 600 PAs

In 2002, Tejada had a 4.755% HR rate and a 4.195% 2B rate

As for projected OBP vs a Control 3, old method is .365 OBP, new method is .363

For projected AVG, the old method is expected to have a .300 average and new method is expected to have a .300 average!

This is what's so fun about matching up players with their OB and outs -- you really can play with the OB numbers! Also, we were already really good at projecting OBP and outs on charts ;) 

And there you have it -- the 2002 playoff teams! I hope y'all enjoy, let me know if there's any other seasons you'd like to see like this. I've been talking to Patsen on the discord about making some squads using his wOBA based formula in a similar manner, which should also be cool to test out! Let me know if you prefer this new, "more percentage based" formula that focuses more on nailing the projected outcomes for players using a standard, average pitcher. My personal concern is that they won't actually face "the average" pitcher in league play and, therefore, will underperform compared to their IRL counterparts (whereas I think the old method ends up being pretty close with the slightly inflated XBH rates). Either way, it's been fun trying out and these cards should mesh with the original 00/01 cards even better than ones that I've made before!