Your NL Central champions!!! They started slow and ended seemingly even slower, and then bowed out of the postseason almost immediately... but it was still the best Brewers team of my lifetime and continued what's almost inarguably been the greatest 4-year stretch in Brewers history (postseason every season!).
z Winning the AL East and crossing the 100 win threshold for the first time in franchise history, safe to say it was a memorable season for the Tampa Bay Rays! Following up on their AL Pennant win in 2020, most did not expect the Rays to make the postseason again after losing Blake Snell in the offseason... how wrong those pundits were, as this team comfortably secured the title of the toughest, deepest division in baseball! However, the 2021 season may be most remembered for a very specific reason -- the debut of phenom SS Wander Franco (who gets a pretty amazing card below).
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!
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!
The weather outside my still be frightful, and the lockout is not delightful..... but we've got a plethora of new Showdown cards to share -- the entire 2021 Set!!! Once again, this set was made entirely on the MLB Showdown Bot, which is how we made the 2019 remake set too. What does this mean? For starters, it guarantees consistency in point values and across seasons. Not only does this mean guys from 2019 set can easily cross with 2021 and vice versa, but these cards fit seamlessly into the original 2001 set! Thanks to Matt's hard work with cutouts, we've got OVER 700 players coming to the blog over the next few weeks. That's right -- thanks to the speed at which cards can be made/calculated on the BOT, we made a lot of more "marginal" statistical players and, frankly, cards per roster since we could!
Per feedback from you, the readers, we're releasing cards with bleed to make it easier for y'all to use these free cards at home and we're releasing them one team at a time instead of dumping full divisions.
The first team to be released, per tradition, is the World Series champions -- the Atlanta Braves!! Atlanta entered the postseason as the 3 seed in the NL, only winning 88 regular season games, but in a recipe for success straight out of 1995, rode excellent pitching through the postseason and onto breaking the seemingly always heart-breaking curse that's been felt by the city of Atlanta these past 25 years and change. Those 88 wins are also deceptive because the Pythagorean W-L record was 94-68, which is far more indicative of a team's Showdown strength. But speaking of 1995, here's a little treat:
Now, let's get to the most recent champion from the ATL:
