2018 MLB SHOWDOWN SET -- Atlanta Braves

The Braves found themselves ahead of schedule and on top of the NL East once again in 2018, shocking the baseball world by winning 90 games and comfortably outpacing the favored Washington Nationals. Although their postseason journey was short lived, Atlanta fans can expect more amazing things to come from their young squad, and have plenty of useful/fun cards to pull from the 2018 set! I know Bob is going to be fighting everyone in his league for the chance to draft Acuna. Also, shout out to my good friend Michael, an Atlanta native who loves his Braves! He'll undoubtedly be taking Mikey F and placing him into his starting rotation in our league!

Here's me and Bob's podcast

And now, onto the cards!

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:

Merry Christmas

Hey everyone, I just wanted to stop by and say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to
everyone that follows along on the site. This past year has been a ton of fun creating and blogging along my love of the showdown game. I got to know some great people through this site, and seeing how much it’s grown is so cool. I can’t wait for the next year because I think it will be bigger and better for the blog, so stay tuned, and in the Christmas spirit here is a little stocking stuffer

2018 MLB SHOWDOWN SET -- OAKLAND ATHLETICS

Finally rounding out the AL playoff teams. Everyone's favorite underdog that snuck into the playoffs with the WC had a fantastic MONEY BALL season. Led mostly by over performing players and fielding they finished very well and as a team look pretty decent on paper (mlbshowdown). They have 1 pretty good starter and 1 really good reliever and a handful of high defense high salary players. If you looking for defense in your draft you definitely want to look at Olson, Chapman, and Semien. The athletics had a pretty decent overall OB team but no big 9 or 10 OB players which hurt them overall and as seen in the wild card game hurt them against the Yankees. They do have a lot of power and don't get out much when they get the advantage. So managers should have fun if they get the advantage and that's a decent IF and more fun with Krush Davis. Lets get to the lineup.

Check out the YouTube podcast below. Please like and Subscribe.

2004 ST. Louis Cardinals

Much like the 1998 Yankees that I posted recently, this is another early post from the beginning of the blog site. I took it upon myself to update the cards to look like the rest of them.  So here is the original post, with the newer cards inserted. Although I don't know Kyle, and it isn't posted on his birthday like it was originally, I think we will keep that part too. Happy belated Birthday Kyle!

                                              

New Contributor Mike on the Highest Value Players in Showdown

Hey! My name’s Mike and I am going to start writing my own articles for the site, however first I wanted to introduce myself, my background with showdown, and what my articles will be like in the future.

I’m originally from New Jersey and so needless to say, growing up in the 90s, I am a diehard Yankees fan. One of, if not my earliest memory, is the Yankees winning in ‘96. I was undoubtedly spoiled. 

Andy Pettitte was always my guy (fun fact: he had the most wins in the majors from ’00-’09). 

2018 MLB SHOWDOWN SET -- CHICAGO CUBS

The Cubs won 95 games in 2018, tied for the most in the National League after 162 games.  Unfortunately, they tied with their NL Central rivals to the North, and, after a disappointing game 163, ended up in the Wild Card game, where they lost in 2-1 in a crazy 13 inning game.  Despite only playing a single playoff game, the 2018 Cubs Showdown team is one of the NL's elite and have a salary of 5060 points.  They've got a stellar rotation, solid top end of the bullpen, and a very deep lineup that includes MVP runner-up Javy Baez.  Without further ado, the 2018 Chicago Cubs!