30 for 30 season -- REGULAR SEASON AWARDS!!

 Thank you to everyone who voted on the Awards -- now, onto the award winners!!!

AMERICAN LEAGUE MVP

91.4% VOTE; .327/.452/.673 with 50 HR, 32 2B, 108 RBI, 82 R

30 for 30 AWARDS VOTING

If you want to participate in electing the award winners for the 30 for 30 league, please use THIS LINK RIGHT HERE!!!

Paul Goldschmidt may not be up for any major awards, but his DBacks are going to the playoffs and I love how his card turned out, so enjoy some neat art!

30 for 30 League (PART V -- Regular Season Complete!!)

 2430 games later, the regular season has completed in the 30 for 30 league!!! And as we all expected..... we'll have two more to go before the playoffs -- so get ready for a pair of Game 163s! Enough of this talk, let's get into it:

The Brewers won the NL Central thanks to their pair of superstar aces!

30 for 30 League (PART IV -- 122 games completed)

 Whew, so the next part has been completed and now that we're 122 games down.... the home stretch is in sight!! So let's just get right to it -- stats, standings and leaders, let's go!!

The Royals may be struggling in the standings, but their superstar closer has a shot at the lead in saves

30 for 30 League -- All Star Teams

 92 games are done with the 30 for 30 League and the 750 players have had their stats fully calculated along the way! Now, thanks to fan voting for the starting lineups, it's time to unveil the All Star Squads!!! 

NATIONAL LEAGUE (Starting Lineup)

45.7% of Fan Vote

.323/.370/.561

20 2B, 20 HR, 54 R, 56 RBI 14 SB

30 for 30 League (PART III -- All Star Voting plus Standings/Stats after 92 games)

 92 games have been completed in the full 162 game season in Year 1 of the 30 for 30 league! Thanks to Savard the Goat's simulator, we've got full stats for all the hitters and pitchers.... which lets us do all star voting! So check out the updated standings, enjoy the present narratives, peep the oddball/significant statistical games from Part III.... and then feast your eyes on all the stats/leaderboards before VOTING FOR THE ALL STAR GAME. That's right, below is the link to the Google Form I made to vote for the All Star Game starters. Next weekend, the All Star teams will be announced!

We know Mark McGwire is essentially an All Star lock, but will his teammate Giambi join him on the AL All Stars and are these time-crossed Bash Bros leading the A's back to 1st in the AL West after 92 games?

Now, it's time to see how the standings have fluctuated!

NBA TRADE DEADLINE - 2021-2022

 Today is one of my favorite days in sports, especially for the NBA, outside of Opening Night, the playoffs, and the NBA Finals the trade deadline is so exciting, and today lived up to the hype. New beginnings for players and teams, as well as the fans can try to imagine the way their favorite team or least favorite team, will now look after a roster shakeup. If you're a big NBA fan like me, Woj and Shams were blowing your phone up today and the few days leading up to the deadline with notifications. So what I did was take my NBA Showdown format and much like the MLB Trade Deadline set, I tried to make cards for the players that I believe were the most impactful of those moved this past week. Lets go over the trades

2021 MLB Showdown Set -- Chicago White Sox

The young, flashy and exciting Chicago White Sox broke through as World Series contenders in 2021. While their playoff run ended disappointingly in the ALDS, they look like they'll be a serious threat for the next 3-5 years (especially when every other team in the division looks to be in rebuilding stages in 2022). Despite their young and passionate core, they brought in Tony La Russa to manage. Despite some bumps in the road (and a ton of injuries), they won 97 games! If they run it back this year and get the same amount of production from the bullpen/rotation while staying healthier.... 100+ wins and the chance at greater postseason success, here they come!

I've been giving special throwback cards with each team and thought "hey, let's give some love to the brief time Thome was on the White Sox" because it's the fourth team that comes to mind for me with JIM! and he's the fourth 1B option for the White Sox who comes to mind for me, but that OB 10/HR at 17 combo card is something a dozen or so other teams would kill to be able to plug into 1B but cannot!

30 for 30 League -- PART TWO (62 games standings and stats)

 We're now through 2/5 of the "parts" in our epic 30 for 30 league. If you missed the draft, preseason prediction or part one, you can find them at those links to catch up to what's going on. In Part 2, each team played a home/road split against their four division rivals. 32 games of interdivisional play later, and the standings are crazy and stats are fun! Let's dive into what's happened and the narratives that are afoot approximately 40% through this season.

With four CG shut outs on the year, Montreal's Pedro Martinez is making a Cy Young case... 

are the Expos making a World Series case too?

Now let's get to the standings!

2021 MLB Showdown Set -- Los Angeles Dodgers

 The Dodgers won it all in 2020 and entered 2021 as HUGE favorites to repeat.... and they certainly had all the talent available to do so.... but they couldn't even win the NL West. Instead, their incredible 106 wins (109 in Pythagorean) got them a Wild Card berth. However, they still pushed through to the NLCS before falling to Atlanta. Their rotation is insanely deep, even after expensive free agent Trevor Bauer was suspended. The lineup is deep and filled with stars. Indeed, this is a team that once again leads me to believe that if I was the manager instead of Dave Roberts would have won the World Series!

Especially if they still had Bellinger putting up an MVP-level card circa 2019 rather than a 10 pt Cody B on the bench

2021 MLB Showdown Set -- New York Yankees

 By popular demand, next up is the 2021 New York Yankees! The 2021 squad had to have disappointed fans with its quick postseason exit in the AL Wild Card game after a 92-70 season, but I think baseball fans at large enjoyed the dramatic race for the wild card in the AL East down the stretch. Also, I'm 95% certain that this was the first time since baseball went to six divisions that a single division had FOUR 90+ win teams in one division, that being the 2021 AL East. This version of the Yankees may lack the firepower offensively that we've seen in recent years, but they have some solid On-Base (makes sense for the last team in the AL in swing rate in 2021) guys that I'm sure will be drafted.... plus, as always, some cool foils in Judge and Cole! I'll add that it was neat seeing guys like Rizzo and Gallo get cards for a  new franchise, especially the most iconic in our game.

A-Rod may not have been a Hall of Famer this year, but his 2007 card is one of the best 3B options from this century!

NPB 2021 Pacific League

 The Pacific League was dominated by one man: Yoshinobu Yamamoto. At 22 years old, he won the Sawamura Award (given to the top pitcher in all of the NPB), the Best 9 award, the Pacific League MVP, the pitching triple crown, a gold glove, and the Olympic best pitcher award and gold medal to boot. He helped Orix go from worst to first and end the stranglehold that the Hawks have had on the Pacific League. 

Orix Buffaloes 70-55-18 (1st place Central League, Lost to the Swallows in the Japan Series)

Besides Yamamoto, Orix had the next top 3 MVP vote recepients as well. Sugimoto finished 2nd, Masataka Yoshida 3rd, and Hiroya Miyagi 4th. Yoshida led the PL in batting average, while Sugimoto led in home runs. Yoshida has a really great OB 10 card, maybe you'd want a bit more pop from him since he's only Speed C(13), but he provides a lot for under 500 points. Sugimoto is a good power bat that you'll probably want to have DHing for you. Yuma Mune won the Best 9 and gold glove award at 3B, but he's more solid than spectacular. I like both catchers as viable options. 

Yamamoto's 2021: 18-5, 1.39 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 7 HRs allowed in 193.67 IP, 5.8 H/9, 9.6 K/9, 5.15 K/BB, 6 complete games, 4 shutouts. Here's a video from Pitching Ninja on his curveball 

The pitching is obviously headlined by the Tier 0 Yamamoto, but Hiroya Miyagi was only 19 years old and had an incredible season in his own right (and somehow stole one first place MVP vote from Yamamoto). The rest of the staff has a lot of usable Tier 3 arms, although the closer, Yoshihisa Hirano, is a solid Tier 2 option.  

Best 9: Masataka Yoshida, Yutaro Sugimoto, Yuma Mune, Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Foils: Masataka Yoshida, Yutaro Sugimoto, Yuma Mune, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Hiroya Miyagi

2020/1 Olympians: Masataka Yoshida, Yoshinobu Yamamoto

NPB 2021 Central League

 With the 2021 MLB set release also comes the 2021 NPB set (spring training has already started over in Japan)! It was a more normal season than the Covid shortened 2020 season. Although some special Covid rules still applied (there were no extra inning games), and there was a break mid-season to accommodate the Olympic games. Which, I'm sure if you're reading this then you probably already know that Japan won the Gold medal, albeit against a very watered down field, as the MLB obviously didn't take a break. 

The Japan Series featured 2 teams that went from worst to first between 2020 and 2021, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and the Orix Buffaloes. The Swallows beat the Buffaloes in 6 games to take the championship, their first since 2001. I won't recap the whole series, but a fun note is that former MLBer, Adam Jones, hit a pinch-hit game-winning home run in the 9th inning of Game 5. Catcher for the Swallows, Yuhei Nakamura, took home series MVP.

Quick note about card design, I decided to add the "Best 9" logo to the eighteen winners of the award (nine in each league). The Best 9 award is essentially the equivalent of the All-MLB team, except only with one pitcher rather than seven. I borrowed the design of the logo from Jason M, who some may be familiar with from Discord. I really love his card designs and highly recommend you check them out. Here is a link to his blog. 

Another note before we get to the cards is about the new (—) On-Base position players. While making the set I noticed a handful of players with large amounts of games played, but very few at bats. Koshiro Wada of the Marines is a perfect example. 96 games played (9th most on the team), 24 PAs, and 25 stolen bases, and 25 runs scored. He was a pinch runner and defensive replacement extraordinaire. I wanted a way to bring these players in to the set. The special rule for them is they function like a pitcher hitting. They never have the advantage. We shall see how much of an impact they make in league play. As you will soon find out there's quite a few good bats with speed and/or defensive liabilities. I think the Null On-Base players will be usable.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 73-52-18 (1st place in Central League, Japan Series Champions)

The aforementioned worst to first Swallows had a magical turnaround and season. They had the HR leader and MVP of the league in 21 year old superstar (Munetaka Murakami), four Best 9 winners (tied for the most with the Buffaloes), two Olympians (Murakami and Tetsuto Yamada), and most importantly the Holds leader (Noboru Shimizu). 

Murakami has a monster card for the second season in a row and seems like he's only getting better.  Yamada has a great card although not as great as some of his recent 30-30 seasons. He's still the best second baseman by 60 points, and he won the Olympic MVP Award. Yasutaka Shiomi played his first real full season and put up some great numbers. And Yuhei Nakamura rounds out their Best 9 winners with another solid catcher card. Special mention to fomer MLBers, Nori Aoki (who came back down to earth a bit after a huge 2020 campaign), Domingo Santana, José Osuna, and closer Scott McGough.

While the offense is pretty loaded, the young pitching coming through was really what propelled their turnaround. Yasunobu Okugawa put up a great season at 20 years old. And 24 year old Keiji Takahashi went from a 10 point card in 2019, no card in 2020 (although he was mediocre in his 48 innings), to a delightful 550 point card that is sure to get drafted. And he spun a 133-pitch complete game shut out in Game 2 of the Japan Series. There was also 20 year veteran, Masanori Ishikawa, who provided some steady innings as usual. He's pitched so long that he's faced original Showdown set foil, Tony Batista, when Batista played in Japan. And it led to this incredible clip 

Best 9 winners: Munetaka Murakami, Tetsuto Yamada, Yasutaka Shiomi, Yuhei Nakamura

Foils: Munetaka Murakami, Tetsuto Yamada, Yasutaka Shiomi, Keiji Takahashi, Yasunobu Okugawa, Yuhei Nakamura

2020/1 Olympians: Munetaka Murakami, Tetsuto Yamada

2021 MLB Showdown Set -- San Francisco Giants

 We've seen the two World Series teams, but what about the team that had the best regular season? That would be 107 win San Francisco Giants.... but like the 107 win Astros of 2019, they fell short in the postseason. I've been on record in multiple posts on this blog saying that the 2019 Astros are the greatest on-paper Showdown team that I've seen assembled -- could the Giants come close to them?

It would help if they could use this incredible Barry Bonds from 2001, which I've seen a lot of guys on the discord request the Giants re-sign for a game to restart his Hall of Fame clock. 

Unfortunately, the lineup doesn't feature anyone quite that good: