I've been moving slowly on this -- just so much life stuff and the time I do have for showdown has been consumed by the 30 for 30 league. With Hot Stove kicking into full gear and coming up, I figured this was the most efficient way of sharing the remaining cards from the 2021 Set: a full drop of the google folder!
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!
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:
"To feel so desperately that you're right. Yet to fail all the same. Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives"
Likewise, the biggest villain in baseball won its third AL pennant in five years.
Houston has unquestionably been the most hated franchise in baseball since news of its cheating in 2017 became public. They were able to dodge the boobirds and haters in the mostly fan-less 2020 pandemic season, but faced many jeers along the way this year.... and it didn't matter. The big orange villain from Texas cruised to 95 wins (an incredible 101 pythagorean wins!!!) and through its AL competition in the playoffs.
It's odd -- in five seasons, Houston has either gone to the World Series or ALCS every single year. It's an extremely impressive run and Dusty Baker deserves all the credit in the world for what he's been able to do during his two years at the helm. Also the cheating factor is going to have many dismissing this squad's greatness (and their run may be over if Correa leaves this offseason), but this five year stretch is arguably the best five year run of any franchise since the turn of the century... but the lack of finishing in the World Series is a HUGE counter to that argument (even though I'd take their run/teams over the Giants 2010-14 squads).
Speaking of villains, here's prime Beltran...... who also fell short in the postseason for the Astros during his hey-day. Now onto the 2021 Houston Astros:
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:
You saw the Hot Stove.... you're hopefully excited for the end of year 2021 set.... but now, enjoy the TRADE DEADLINE edition for the 2021 Set!
This is an idea I've wanted to implement for a while, putting guys dealt at the deadline onto cards for the team they are leaving with their stats to this point of the year making up the card. I think it's fun for several reasons: (a) puts the expectations that teams should have for the guys they just acquired into easy to understand form; (b) let's the worst teams have some fun cards at the end of the season; (c) makes it easy to compare "guy when traded" vs "guy at end of the year" so we can all see if the traded player kept it up, exceeded his previous performance, or didn't live up to the hype. Plus, the more good cards, the better!!
Especially this year, which is the most insane trade deadline class in terms of talent I can remember! Without further ado, let's get into the studs:
Welcome to the first bunch of cards for the 2021 Set!!! The dream that Matt and I had in the midst of the wait for the 2020 season is finally being realized, as we anticipate releasing the 2021 set in three installments: (1) HOT STOVE; (2) PENNANT RUN; (3) MAIN SET.
Now, this "HOT STOVE" collection of 55 cards functions like the original "Pennant Run" cards of the 00/01 sets -- the hottest players on new teams via free agency/trade, players returning from injury who weren't in the previous set, and expected rookie of year candidates with (optimistic but not completely unrealistic) projected cards. That's right, below you can expect Lindor, Bauer, Tatis, etc etc plus hot prospects like Dylan Carlson and Wander Franco.
For the Pennant Run, we're going to release some cards shortly after the 2021 trade deadline showing how good the moved players have been, with cards made for their stats at that point in the season. For example, if Kris Bryant gets dealt at the deadline, he'll have his card at that point made with him on the Cubs. This let's fans have one last card with a former player and let's the new team see what the expectations should be, and then that player will have his full season stats in the Main Set at year's end on the team he ended the season with.... overall, I like this because it let's bad teams (usually sellers) add some more good cards to their bunch from the season and it lets Pennant Run live up to its name, featuring players who're actually helping during the stretch run! But that's enough of our scheming and what's to come, let's get to the cards y'all really want to see -- the 2021 HOT STOVE collection!!!
STAR PLAYERS
