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!!!



Old faces, New places -- You know where we had to start: Mookie Betts and Gerrit Cole! These two prized additions to the most potent teams in baseball are expected to lead their respective clubs to their first World Series title in (at least) a decade. Former Yankee Didi may not have a lot of OB, but he's bringing some power to the Phillies. You've got to love the massive doubles range for new Reds OF Castellanos, who will hopefully perform better than Kemp and Puig did for Cincy last year. However, the real lesson of these pennant run cards is how much better the White Sox became during the offseason. By adding Grandal, Encarnacion, and Keuchel, the Chi-Sox massively upgraded their lineup and rotation (especially mixing in a couple prospects below). My sneaky pick for best offseason Showdown move was the Marlins grabbing the super versatile Jonathan Villar (and not just because that neon blue background looks fantastic).

I think Rendon and Donaldson are "must have" cards for draft leagues too. Mixing Donaldson into that lineup keeps the Twins ahead of the White Sox in terms of "whoa" potency at the plate. Ryu also brings a legit ace north of the border (even if he's likely to regress). Speaking of regression, we've got new Rangers starter Corey Kluber, down a control from one of his many Tier 2 cards (2018) after an injury-filled 2019. That said, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the powder blue cut out that Matt made!Get Rekt is going to be excited for another solid MadBum card to use, and he's joined in the desert by Starling, giving the DBacks a pair of fast, powerful Marte hitters at the top of the lineup! Getting back to aesthetics, I'm a huge fan of Marcell Ozuna's neon green arm sleeve that he's been wearing for years and it pops well here too. I think the best looking card in the bunch is Tommy Pham -- I never thought I'd say this, but that brown is SWEET! Also, welcome back Salvi <3 What players are you most excited to use on their new squads?

Projected prospects -- here's nine hot Rookie of the Year candidates! I think they add some real useful cards and get me all the more hyped to see them in action.... plus, I love the way the Jesus and MacKenzie cards turned out. That brown Padres template is going to look sweet in a (knocks on wood) 2020 set! Of these nine guys, I went a little off Patsen's script for Madrigal -- he had him as an OB 7, which he probably will end up being (when he's inevitably called up), but his reputation just has me jonesing for that OB8 (so I upped the outs on his chart to balance it out). Robert is an absolute monster in CF and should be really fun to play with. I know Get Rekt is going to love using Frazier, but I'm looking forward to slotting Gavin Lux into 2B next to Muncy/Seager/Turner with Bellinger in CF. As for Luplow, I think he should only be eligible against LHP.... and you know I had to throw Kyle "hits HRs all the time" Lewis in there! He was a "peak potential" prospect who helped out the Mariners as an OB 7, HR at 15 in my old 2017 Set league w/four friends and I love his power potential. While his OB is still projected to be below .300, he's an upgrade in the Seattle outfield over a lot of the 2018 and 2019 sets! Wrapping it up is another new Reds OF in Akiyama, an affordable piece who is solid across the board; essentially, he's perhaps the most useful for PR card for team-building!

Last, but not least -- and solely for my poor, biased heart -- here's a trio of Brewers relievers from the 2019 season that made their bullpen so deadly down the stretch. You're right to protest based on Houser and Pomeranz's respective full season production, but solely as relievers, both of them put up incredibly Tier 1 cards. Meanwhile, Suter only got 18 IP under his belt.... and he was electric/lights out! So here's his Tier 0, 1/3 IP card to use effectively at the end of a game. Would you spend 200+ points on an IP 1/3 guy? I know I'm tempted!

RP stats: 1.88 ERA, 0.837 WHIP

SP stats: 5.97 ERA, 1.659 WHIP

RP stats: 1.47 ERA, 0.946 WHIP

SP stats: 4.57 ERA, 1.351 WHIP

0.49 ERA, 0.600 WHIP

I hope you enjoyed!! Hopefully we'll get enough games in for us to be able to make a 2020 set, but in the meantime -- stay tuned for more new cards and fun league action!

NEW CARD ALERT: Via special request, added to the PR set (using Patsen's wonderful charting) -