2018 MLB SHOWDOW SET - HOUSTON ASTROS

Me again! No you didn't miss a week, the Holidays have consumed Peter so your all in luck and get the former World Series champions the Houston Astros. Don't worry we will be back to normal next week with the NL teams. This years Astros may not be as good as they were last year in terms of offense but the pitching was among the best in the league if not the best. They managed to win 103 games this year and blew through the Indians in the Playoffs. It was difficult to get past Boston's line up as you guys saw last week and they came up short this year. They still are a great team with big name players that I'm sure will get drafted. Make sure to listen to our break down on the Itunes podcast where we go in depth into each player.

Click link below for the Podcast
Itunes Podcast

How did the offense look this year for the Astros.

Greatest Showdown Players at Each Position : Catchers

Hey everyone the latest installment of a blog plan that I have is to look at each position and I made a list of the top 5 point getters in each position. On top of the top 5 in each category, if a position had more than 5 players getting over 600 points I continued the list because it truly is the best of the best. The first position that I will be taking a look at is the catchers position. When you're building or drafting a team do you want the high defensive catcher to scare off the speedy players from running, or would you prefer the power house catcher that you bat clean-up and will hit the ball out of the park for you?

T5  Charles Johnson '01 460pts

2018 MLB SHOWDOW SET - BOSTON RED SOX

Back to the AL. I know I started off with my favorite team last time, but now we can release the best AL team! With a whopping 108 regular season wins and a complete domination of opponents from hitting to pitching it is no wonder the Red Sox took home the World Series title. But in the showdown world how do they measure out. Their team roster is a very impressive 5,610 pts, only second to one other team. They also have this year's AL MVP! Listen to the podcast below to get a more in depth look at the team and creation.

Itunes Podcast

We will start off as usually with the stacked lineup the Red Sox have. And even some late season playoff and world series heroes made the roster.

2018 MLB SHOWDOWN SET -- MILWAUKEE BREWERS

Come now the first National League team in the 2018 set, my personal favorite -- the Milwaukee Brewers! Obviously, I have not had much to root for in my lifetime of Brewers' fandom.  There was attending Miller Park's opening game with great hope that ownership would spend money in 2000, the amazing run to their first playoff berth of my life in 2008 after trading for CC Sabathia, and there was the 2011 team.  That 2011 team was really special, winning the Brewers first NL Central crown and getting to the NLCS (only to lose to my least favorite team, those dastardly Cardinals).  Of course, who could forget the hot, hot start of the 2014 Brewers before they absolutely collapsed down the stretch? However, 2018 took the cake in providing me with excitement and joy. 96 wins, an incredible stretch run to catch the Cubs and knock the Cardinals out of the wild card race, winning the play-in game, sweeping the Rockies, and pushing the vaunted Dodgers to seven games.  So obviously, this had to be the first team I made in the 2018 set!

Also, I had to make a special Christian Yelich card in the Brewers' awesome throwback unis, so enjoy this cool alternate card before the actual team (Yelich's points are a tad high in this one, which was a prototype... think of it as a "cooler uniform tax!").

2002 World Series Champion Anaheim Angels

The 2002 Anaheim Angels won the first championship in the franchises history. They went 99-63 in the regular season and made the playoffs as the wild card team. Garret Anderson has a monster season winning a silver slugger and hit 56 doubles. While the pitching staff allowed the fewest runs in the league. They eliminated the Yankees in the Division Series before taking out he Twins in the ALCS. They met the San Francisco Giants in the World Series and went into game 6 trailing 3-2 in the series and were down 5 runs in game 6 before coming back to win the game and force a game 7.

Line up: Are you ready for some Small Ball? I hope you are if you play as this team, get the speed on base, bunt them over and knock them in. This is an interesting team as they aren't what you would expect from a World Series winner, not a lot of power other than Garret Anderson and Troy Glaus, but a lot of high on-bases to try and get the rallies started.

2018 MLB SHOWDOW SET - CLEVELAND INDIANS

Hello everyone I'mmmmmm backkkkk. I know you must have thought I disappeared or retired. But I was just busy with work and family and creating the 2018 cards for everyone along with Peter and Matt. Over the next few months we hope to release all the 2018 card sets team by team with a little podcast as well. Hopefully all goes well, fingers crossed. We are hoping to release these week  by week to everyone so stay tuned for more teams and feel free to comment below. Haters are welcome.

Here is the link to the Podcast below. A little something to listen to as you look at the cards. (feel free to leave feedback)

PODCAST ITUNES
podcast-2018-cleveland-indians

Since I got a head start I get to start things off. I am working on the AL teams so I jumped on the chance to make my Cleveland Indians first. They had a decent looking year finishing with 91 wins and a 3 guys over 30 Hrs. But those stats can be deceiving. They were in an incredibly weak division and did very poor against over .500 ball clubs. The AL is a very drastic league, featuring multiple 100 win and 100 loss teams. The Indians are lucky right now to be in a weak division and can coast to the playoffs, but as we dive deeper into their cards, you will see they have a very drastic high and low line up, a very amazing starting rotation, and a very crappy bullpen. Typical Indians showdown cards have been red, we decided this year to go with the Navy. Let us know what you think.

Lets start things out with the starting lineup.

2013 Detroit Tigers

The 2013 Detroit Tigers won their third straight American League Central Division Championship with a record of 93-69. The defeated the Oakland Athletics in 5 games and then fell to the Boston Red Sox, whom are already posted on this site, in their third straight ALCS. The regular season team took home plenty of hardware as well. Miguel Cabrera won his second consecutive AL MVP Award, and Max Scherzer won the AL Cy Young, with rookie Jose Iglesias finishing runner up to Wil Myers for AL Rookie of the Year.