MLB Showdown Cards

#Shotsfriday

              We need some fresh blood folks. The pros have taken over the leader board. Find your friends and get them to play #shotsfriday to keep the pros from running away with this one. As incentive to keep the this somewhat competitive I will give 1 extra pick to anyone who has a friend send in a pick to #shotsfriday this week. Have them tag you and you get to pick 2 instead of 1. They also get their own pick (for their own score). Now for the reason for my outburst. A humble Dr Juice @Markrom3 scored some sweet revenge with his pick of Hanley Ramirez against his former team the Marlins. Hanley's first and number 4 for the Doctor. Now to the impressive feats by our pros. @MLBConnoisseur scored his second Single-Double Shot. He had the single from Giancarlo Stanton, A free pick. This was Stanton's second shot of the year. He also scored the double shot with Adam Dunn's pair. That makes a crazy 9 shots for the Connoisseur on the year. The only feat that may rival this is another one of our pros. Brahmin, The Creator, A man I first met on a mountain near Jerusalem praying to God for forgiveness for the Saracen blood he had spilled, @Tomwyliehart. This man has an unrivaled 5 for 5 streak going on the year. 5 weeks, 5 different players with a homer. No one else has more then two on the year consecutively. Here is the kicker, He picked Adam Dunn as well for the double shot. Still not impressed? He had Miguel Cabrera last week so he got him free this week. Dunn now has 5 on the year to lead the player board, Cabrera has 2. @Tomwyliehart has 7 shots in 5 weeks. Send in the picks boys to #shotsfriday because it is becoming a 2 horse race at the top.

                Now that I have spurred you all to action on #shotsfriday I can get back to work. We don't take much of a stance one way or another here on performance enhancing substances. The reality is for us that they have ended the seasons of both Bartolo Colon and Melky Cabrera. This segement won't be about them or potential strategy cards that could be made for certain banned substances. This segement is going to allow us to show off the work of our newest member of the pro-staff around here. @RokTikiTiki has joined our cause to help me with something that I have worked hard to learn but have never mastered. That is making our new cards look good.
                @RokTikiTiki first caught my eye in a facebook group dedicated to MLB Showdown. I often post in their to try and keep up communication with our audience and gain competition for our mock drafts. Players often make their own fan art versions of cards, most of them make cards in the style of the 2002-2005 sets. Not our specialty around here but Showdown is Showdown. I scrolled through one day and say something that looked odd to me. I saw Buster Posey but instead of having some un-godly onbase he only had an 8. It was my Buster Posey from 2011 except it looked much better. Bolder, crisper and with a much better looking photo. My first fan art so I did not think much of it. A few weeks later I saw another of the same make and model but his time Curtis Granderson. I saw the work and I knew I had to have it. The effort we put in to make good charts and a quality 600 player league could no longer be wasted with my recreational creation skills.
                 I got on the hang out with @RokTikiTiki and after some boring talk about our time tables and how things would work logistically I was thrilled to learn that he would take time out of his busy schedule to be our full time Graphics Department. A one man wrecking crew who will make our next set look like something you all can be proud to whip out in front of your friends and slide right next to the old 2000/2001 cards and feel they are equals. Not that the old cards are un-usable but the new ones are beautiful. @RokTikiTiki has been putting in countless hours already pre-making cards so that when we are able to begin working on the charts we can hopefully have the 2012 set out to you all by January 1st, 2013. But back to Colon and Cabrera. Their season's are over and thus we are able to actually complete their cards in their entirety. What better way to turn a potential negative for those two into a positive to all you in the community then to allow them to be the first two players of the 2012 class for you all to see and to be the first sponsored cards that we put out under the new graphics of @RokTikiTiki. Without further ado...

Cabrera 2012 vs 2011 Posey

 Colon 2012 vs Cahill 2011

             The difference is awesome and hopefully much to the liking of you the fans. I hope you all appreciate the hard work that is going in to try and make this be a game you all can be proud of and play again. Hope you continue to follow us because we are excited for the 2012 season and for more great cards. 

Last Fridays Shots

@Markrom3 with Hanley Ramirez

@MLBConnoisseur with Giancarlo Stanton 2

@MLBConnoisseur with Adam Dunn 2

@MLBConnoisseur with Adam Dunn 3

@Tomwyliehart with Miguel Cabrera 2

@Tomwyliehart with Adam Dunn 4

@Tomwyliehart with Adam Dunn 5

Twitter-Board

@MLBCONNOISSEUR:9

@Tomwyliehart:7

@Quicksand3:4

@Markrom:4

@5b_nelson:2
@Eddiezone44:2

@MLBShowdownguru:2

@LU_TX12:1
@Gregleasure:1
@IamPulseivity:1

@RuffRidinNole:1

@Roktikitiki:1

Player-Board
Adam Dunn:5
Curtis Granderson:3

Prince Fielder: 3

Albert Pujols:2

Mark Teixeira:2

Pedro Alvarez:2
Josh Hamilton:2

Michael Morse:2
Mike Trout:2 
Josh Willingham:2
Giancarlo Stanton:2
Miguel Cabrera:2
Brian McCann:1

Jay Bruce:1

Jose Bautista:1 

Robinson Cano:1

Mark Trumbo:1

Hanley Ramirez:1