Announcing the 2020 Central Division League

 Peter and I are happy to announce our plan for our Central Division league that we are going to be running. Now we came up with a pretty fun schedule where each team will play 6 games vs their in division opponents and 3 games against their opposite division opponents. When we made the 2020 set it was noticeable how close all the teams seemed to be and we wanted to watch the season play out in a 39 game season. We will be tracking full stats, and a secondary sheet was made to act as our "league website" which I am pretty excited about. With the two of us playing games, we are hoping to keep the season moving along at a decent pace and it will be fun to see how the standings shake up in the showdown world. 

2018 Showdown League Update

I am officially 9 weeks into my season, that is a full 162 games that I have played out so far. It has been interesting to see all these teams battle it out, with so many close games ,and walk off wins. A team that is 11-16 could easily be 16-11 had a few rolls gone their way and vice versa. Each team still have 21 games left so no division lead is out of reach and anything can happen on the showdown diamond. But the best thing about the start of week 10, is at the end of week 10 will be the All-Star Game, Strike out Contest and Home Run Derby. All the great followers we have here, I need your help in my all star voting. Linked here in the blog post is a spreadsheet for my All-Star voting, if you would like, please vote for who you think the most deserving players are.

MLB Showdown League -- SEASON 2 PREVIEW

It's back folks, the epic 30 team league using the MLB Showdown 2017 charts and prospects that have been previously discussed.  Going into this season, every team was limited to 5500 points.  Prospects are only a salary hit at 80% of their points (to homage the real life salary benefits of a rookie deal player and to give the teams that were bad a slight leg up).  Moreover, each team gets one player to "improve," aka transform from their 2017 card into their 2018 card.  For example, the Brewers turned Christian Yelich from an OB 9, HR at 19 player worth about 300 points into the 570 point, MVP-winning OB 10, HR at 18 player he is in the 2018 set!

This league is run and played by five individuals -- Peter, Michael, Kyle, Riley and Miles.  Each person "owns" a team per division, in order to incentivize going all out for each division crown. Season 1 was a 30 game season, but Season 2 will be 42 games...... for all 30 MLB teams! That's right, we've simulated 630 Showdown games, recorded all the stats, and now have posted them to the blog!

The Vlad Jr. card being used in our league -- Guerrero earned his "likely" card, which still makes him an absolute tank!

Now that you're widely caught up on the "what" of this league, here's a quick recap of what happened in season 1:

Full 162-Game Season: Summary and Analysis

What's up everybody? It's time to disclose the results of the greatest MLB Showdown undertaking of all time... by me. My buddy Jeff and I decided to play out an entire 162 game season by hand - we rolled every pitch and every swing by hand and manually tracked all the stats that were accumulated over this 4-month ordeal. What a time to be alive!!!

Let's start out with the rules we play by, because we don't follow the official Showdown rules.

1. We used the 2002 set, but only the cards that I owned (which is a lot, but not all of them).
2. Super-Season cards were excluded (so no Pedro, Ricky Henderson, Griffey, etc.)
3. Rosters were 9 hitters, 5 starting pitchers, 4 bullpen, and 6 bench. At around the 120 game mark, we increased rosters to 8 bench just kicks (or because we found some cards lying around and wanted to add them in).
4. No point limit for rosters - we wanted to get as many good players in as we could.
5. Each team would be the "home" team for 5 games, and then it switched. The last 2 games we split at home, so each of us "hosted" 81 games.
6. Relievers could not pitch more than 1 game in a row - so we had to strategically manage our relievers (which basically consisted of us leaving in our starters to eat innings in a blowout loss).
7. No strategy cards were involved.

MLB Showdown League -- MINOR LEAGUES REPORT

The MLB Showdown league's offseason is in full force (played with 2017 set), and it's FINALLY time for the most ambitious/creative addition to our league play -- the prospects!!  The premise is simple.  We took the top 10 ranked prospects going into 2018 for each team, and based on the scouting grades for those prospects, made a "peak potential," "likely," and "disappointing" chart for each prospect.  Yes, that means we created 3 charts for 300 prospects... and yes, it took as long as that sounds!

As an example, here's the peak potential card for Ronald Acuna.  Obviously there's a reason Acuna

 is compared to Trout, as his peak card is similar to some of his monster years.  Acuna's ratings were:

60 hitting, 65 power, 65 speed, 60 field, 60 arm

2018 Season 1 Super Draft World Series

Its been awhile since I have posted about the Super Draft league. To do a short reminder we had 10 teams. 2 Divisions of 5 teams with the best 2 from each division making the playoffs. Teams were 18 player min with optional bench with 5500 points salary cap. For the players in the draft we had 2000, 2000 pennant, 2001, 2001 pennant, 2014, and custom cards all in 00-01 style. It was roughly 2000 cards to draft from. After a grueling 18 game season that took 5+ months to complete because of scheduling we finally have a winner! So I hope all you early voters picked..... the T-800s to win it all. Not many did but the team came through very big when it mattered. The T-800s started off the season 0-4. After a much needed team pep talk and some lineup tweaks he went 10-4 in the next 14 games to finish 10-8 tied for 1st place in the AL Division.

Greatest Game Ever Played?

If anyone read my social media the other day you would know how pumped and crazy I got the last regular season game for the 2018 Super Draft League. Sadly it has come to and end and now the playoffs will begin. But exciting for those following votes are up for certain categories. There should be a new poll each day. Stay tuned for final season results etc. Then up after this season is some drinking tournaments and a new 2018 draft with 16 teams.

Back to the reason I'm writing this. I know it was crazy for me to watch the game that was played but I thought it maybe helpful for some context of what happened for the games and people reading at home to see what happened. This was the last series in the 18 game league. Both teams going were in the same division with same division record. They were 8-8 going into the last 2 game series. If one player wins 2-0 they are into the playoffs as the #2 seed. If a player is 0-2 then he is out and if they split 1-1 they would have to go to a game 3 with the Starting Pitcher 3s on the mound.

The match was between the Mighty Musky Minotaurs and the Rollie Fingers. Nolan Ryan on the mound for MMM and Lance Lynn for Rollie.

MLB Showdown 2017 Season: COMPLETE!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! My friends and I finally finished our 30 game season, using all 30 teams from the 2017 set that we made together! I know it's a little confusing, as this site also has Matt's Showdown Cup and Bob's league with mixed teams from a variety of years going on, so here's a reminder of what this season is:

All the cards in this league are based on the 2017 stats. However, in a twist, we made the rosters as a reflection of the beginning of the 2018 season (so Yelich is on Milwaukee, Stanton on the Yankees, etc etc). So basically, we played the season after the "Pennant Run" update came out! Moreover, we have minor league players -- a system that will be explained in the "off season" when teams get the chance to "develop" them -- that were used as trade chips. Unsurprisingly, the tanking of real life was strongly reflected here and the "haves" bought nearly every useful piece from the "have nots" with their prospects. If all goes according to strategy, the season will be much more balanced next season. In terms of scheduling, it's a 30 game season with teams playing five sets of home-and-home three game series with their division foes and their interleague rival.

So this will be a big, BIG post with lots of information that I hope y'all will enjoy! We've got playoff reports, stats, summaries, and finally giving everyone looks at our minor leaguers! Also, due to the epicness of this post, A LOT more images are going to sprinkled throughout this article, along with all the statistics from our 30 games season for 30 teams.... yeah, we actually played out (with a 20 sided dice or random number generator) all 451 Showdown games by hand!!!

So for illustration, Cozart had a MONSTER season with the Reds in 2017 and then signed with the Angels as a free agent. For our season, Cozart played on the Angels just like he did in real life in 2018 (despite producing a much, much worse card). 

Now without further ado, let's check out the Standings and Playoff Picture first:

Inaugural Showdown Cup Tournament In Review

Well that sure made for a fun end to my summer playing out the first Showdown Cup and crowning the first Champion the 2016 Chicago Cubs whom just dominated the tournament. To me the biggest disappointment in the tournament was the 1995 Atlanta Braves, I felt the pitching staff set them up to be competitive but other than Fred McGriff the offense was not able to get anyone across the plate. I have a feeling if I replayed the tournament with the exact teams all over again there would be a different playoff out look and who knows maybe a different match up presents a different problem for the Cubs. All I know is that I am ready for the second one to come along, but I will get more into that later, first I have some awards to give out.

Picking the Winners: When I sent out the poll prior to the tournament starting two people selected the Cubs to win it all, Myself and Raeyrd69@yahoo.com

Tournament MVP & NL Best Pitcher

Showdown Cup Finals Game 5

Game 5 of the series has wrapped up and we have crowned our very first Showdown Cup champion. The Chicago Cubs of 2016 won the game and the series by a score of 4-1.  The Cubs struck first in the second inning with a RBI double from Jorge Soler and the very next batter Addison Russell belted a 3 run home run giving them their 4-0 lead. The Royal would be shut down until the 9th inning when Lorenzo Cain ripped a triple scoring Ben Zobrist but the Cubs would remove their starter from the game and bring in Aroldis Chapman who would strike out the next two batters and end the series. The bottom half of the Cubs order strikes again and with help from their undefeated pitcher and tournament save leading closer it was too much for the Royals to handle. This was such a fun tournament and I already can't wait to get started on the qualifying with some new teams that should be showing up on the site soon. I hope all of you enjoyed following along as well.

  

Showdown Cup Finals Game 4

We aren't done yet as the royals pulled off the comeback against the Cubs being down 3-1 after the top of the third, they came back to win the game 4-3 on a walk off double from Ben Zobrist. The scrappy never quitting Royals are now down 3-1 in the series and will need a lot of magic to stay alive. The spirit of this team to not give up in this game showed as the pitching staff locked in and didn't allow the Cubs to run away with the game. Now the hard part for the Royals, they must do this 3 more times but they seem up to the challenge.

     

Showdown Cup Finals Game 3

Things are starking to look grim for the 2015 Royals falling down 3-0 to the Cubs in the finals. The Cubs took a 3-0 lead into the 7th inning before Alex Gordon tied the game with a 3 run home run pushing the game into extra innings. In the top of the 11th inning Jorge Soler doubled scoring Anthony Rizzo, this was followed by an Addison Russell single sending in Ben Zobrist pushing the lead out to 5-3. The Cubs closed the game out and took the 3-0 lead looking like we may be crowning our very first Showdown Cup Champion very very soon. For a 3-0 lead this feels so much closer, losing in extras and losing game one 2-1 makes it feel like Kansas City could be in this series. Now they will have to play perfect over the last 4 games to make this a series.

  

Showdown Cup Finals Game 2

Game two is in the books and the Chicago Cubs have taken a 2 games to none lead over the Royals. This one was not as close as game one but the royals still had plenty of chances but couldn't get their runners across. Jake Arrieta remained the only undefeated pitcher in the duel of the starters. They bottom half of the order for the Cubs came up huge scoring 4 runs between their 8 and 9 hitters. This was the key for the Royals, preventing the lower half of the order from getting involved in the scoring. The Royals will look to right the ship when the series shifts to Kansas City for games 3 and 4 of the Showdown Cup.

     

Showdown Cup Finals Game 1

The first game sure started the finals off with a bang. The Royals strike first with an Eric Hosmer single in the top of the first scoring Lorenzo Cain. The Cubs come right back and answer in the bottom half with an Anthony Rizzo single scoring Dexter Fowler. Then in the bottom of the second Javy Baez lead off with a double, followed by a Dexter Fowler single scoring and giving the Cubs a 2-1 lead and they never looked back. From this point forward it was a shut out on both sides with all the pitchers dominating the bats. Some of the things discussed in the preview like for the Royals to keep the lower half of the order in check basically happened. Only one hit but it was the lead off double by Baez to lead to the winning run for the Cubs. A 1-0 series lead for the Cubs gets them off to the right start but if the games all play this close, do not count the scrappy Royals out of it just yet.

        

Showdown Cup Finals Series Preview

Showdown Cup Finals Preview

Here is the preview for the finals of the Showdown Cup. The 2016 Chicago Cubs will be taking on the 2015 Kansas City Royals. I will be breaking down the match ups in this series and look at the ways each team may have an advantage.  Here are the Statistics for both teams throughout the tournament so far. 

Showdown Cup Playoffs RD 2 Wraps Up

I decided to lump the rest of the second round of the playoffs all together in one post leading to game 1 of the finals of the Showdown Cup on Sunday. I will start with the Chicago Cubs knocking off the Marlins in game 5 for a 4-1 series win  beating the 6-5 thanks to an Anthony Rizzo three run home run in the 7th. The Cubs had the best record in tournament play, and will be looking to capture the inaugural showdown cup.

Showdown Cup Playoffs Rd 2 Games 3&4

Two days worth of games come at you today as I fell behind this week. The game 3's gave us the first opportunity to see a potential sweep as the Cubs outlasted the Marlins in a duel 1-0. Kris Bryant hit another home run and Kyle Hendriks threw a complete game 2 hitter with 14 strike outs keeping the Marlins from getting any offense going in the game. The Cubs will now take a 3-0 lead into game four looking for a four game sweep. In the second game of the day we saw the Mariners finally get a win in the series. Ichiro went 4/4 sparking the offense to their 4-2 win.Aaron Sele gave the Mariners 6 innnings on the mound before swinging to their power packed bullpen to shut down the Royals the rest of the way.

Game 3 Player of the Day:

Showdown Cup Playoffs RD 2 Game 2's

The second games of the second round of the playoffs have been completed and we are looking at two 2-0 leads by the number one seeds for each side. Kris Bryant ssems to be breaking out at the right time homering in the first inning and going 3 for 4 in the game. The Marlins had plenty of offensive opportunities but just couldn't get the big hit to knock in any more runs coming up short 5-1. The Royals and Mariners had quite the pitchers duel for the second game in a row. Edison Volquez improved to 5-0 in the tournament and threw a complete game shut out. While Jamie Moyer lost his first game in 6 innings pitched and only allowing 2 hits. Mike Moustakas was the hero of the game blasting a 2 run home run in the top of the 7th sending off Jamie Moyer. Now we stand wit htwo teams in command as we switch locations for the road teams to try and pick up some momentum back and not getting swept hopefully.

Player of the Day:

Showdown Cup RD 2 Playoffs Game 1's

The stage is set for the Semi-Finals and all four teams are ready to make their case on who should be the first ever Showdown Cup Champion. An interesting day with the two games both coming to a final score of 3-1. First game we had was the Marlins visiting the Chicago Cubs with the Cubs pulling out the victory behind another dominant start from Jon Lester. Lester improved to 4-0 in the tournament and the Marlins didn't get their only run until the ninth inning which opened the door for the closer Aroldis Chapman to come into the game. Unlikely hero Jason Heyward provided 2 RBIS on 3 hits for the Cubs in the victory. Over on the American League side the Royals struck early with 2 runs in the third and another in the fourth helping them cruise to a 3-1 victory over the Mariners. Johnny Cueto was stellar with 10 strikeouts over seven innings before making way to the bullpen to shut this game down. In this series if either team has a lead going into the 7th inning it will be interesting to see if a team can comeback against these two dominant bullpens.

Player of the Day:

Showdown Cup Playoffs Game 5's

Three win or go home games today to advance to the next round of the Showdown Cup and we started off with an amazing 10 inning game between the Yankees and Marlins that saw the Marlins advance on a walk off hit by Ivan Rodriguez in the bottom of the 10th. Up next was the Mariners and the Diamondbacks which resulted in a big win for the 01 Mariners as Curt Schilling continued to struggle in the playoffs to keep runs off the board. Finally we had the Royals and Dodgers and we saw the Royals jump out to an early lead from a Alex Gordon Grand Slam en route to a 6 run inning and the Royals advancing over the Dodgers. In what were some very close series, the results didn't change, the team with home field advantage won each series.

Player of the Day: