2019 NPB Japanese Baseball set Part 2 of 2 Pacific League

Part 2 of 2 will cover the Pacific League. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks finished second to the Saitama Seibu Lions, however, they beat them 4-1 in the playoffs to advance to the Japan Series. Both teams were loaded with 6 foils apiece. The Hawks then swept the Giants in the Japan Series. The league MVP was Tomoya Mori of the Lions, who gives you the rare 10 OB catcher. And the best player in the entire set is on the worst team, so you'll have to make it through everyone to see (or skip to the bottom).  

Saitama Seibu Lions 80-62-1 1st place Pacific League

A really strong team, with some standout cards including the aforementioned MVP, Tomoya Mori. I love the Mori card. You give up a bit of defense at catcher, but you have to love the bat. Shuta Tonosaki is one of my favorite cards from an aesthetics and play perspective. Might be a touch expensive for an 8 OB, but I think you get enough out of him to accept the cost. Hotaka Yamakawa walks a lot and he homers a lot. One of those cards that probably frustrates you, but also can carry your team if he gets hot. Sosuke Genda has another standout defensive card. Shogo Akiyama had a really solid season before he headed stateside to play for the Reds. I know Yuji Kaneko will be drafted early, even if he can only Single+. Zach Neal had a 10 point card in the 2020 set, but was great in 2019 and gets the '00 PR Bret Saberhagen special. 

Foils: Tomoya Mori, Sosuke Genda, Shuta Tonosaki, Hotaka Yamakawa, Shogo Akiyama, Zach Neal

2019 Bot Set -- AL East

 Continuing with the 2019 Bot Set, we've got the American League bEAST. Despite being defending champions, the Red Sox were outclassed by the extremely impressive squads fielded by Tampa Bay and the Yankees in 2019. 

Yankees have featured some ELITE bullpen arms in the 2010s -- will the 100+ win squad of 2019 feature any pitchers as good as 2017 Chad Green? (no, but there's still some studs to draft)

2019 Bot Set -- NL East

 Hello everyone -- it's been a while since we posted any Showdown baseball cards! Like many of you, we here at the Greatest MLB Showdown project have been captivated by the true greatest gift to showdown fans in the last twenty years: The MLB Showdown BOT. Like so many of you, we've had an absolute blast using it (see my previous post of best 32 teams in last 30 years)!!! Indeed, the ability to instantly compare cards for players/teams across seasons is intoxicating, and the upload a picture function makes it extremely easy to churn out GORGEOUS cards. 

Recently, it got a bunch of us here thinking: why not try making a whole set out of BOT cards? 

While we love our original 2018 and 2019 sets here, we're aware they were made during our early stages of formula construction and were not made with equalizing stats to other seasons in mind. Thus, it seemed the perfect place to start our test run of an entire set was the 2019 season.... and it didn't disappoint!

So without further ado, we start our 2019 Bot Set with the NL East, home of the World Series Champion Washington Nationals, despite losing this guy in free agency before the season (but he'll still pop up below, just in different colors ;)).

As you can see, he's very similar to our 2018 Harper except for a HUGE difference -- OB 9 instead of OB 10, as he's compared generally across time vs within a single season's bubble. This makes this card more accurate when mixed in with original 00/01 cards, which we enjoy and reckon you dear readers will appreciate more too!