MLB Showdown Cards

#ShotsFriday 

               We have a bit of a tradition around here we like to call Shots Friday. Mainly it involves some fist pumping, loud music and your favorite work appropriate beverage. I favor iced coffee but please don’t let me influence your decisions. The most important thing we do is our own version of fantasy baseball… because we don’t do enough pseudo-fantasy baseball. The game is simple: Pick a player who you think will homer today and tweet or comment the player in to us. You then tweet that players name using the hashtag #ShotsFriday or to me @MLBShowdownGuru. Feel free to add trash talk. The scoring system is pretty simple you get 1 point for every home run your player hits that day. Also for a bonus you get an extra pick the next week for each homer your player hit. If you forget than we will give you the same player from the week before for your extra. The winner this next year gets a free set of 2014 cards in color and gets to design their own 3 custom cards.  Second place gets a free set of 2014 cards in black and white and gets to make 2 custom cards. Third place gets to 5 of each David Cone and Greg Maddux 2000 foils a lowly 1 custom card.

               We use the Friday post to not only talk trash talk and pick players who will hit home runs but also as a catch all to talk about subjects that don’t neatly fit into other days of the week well. Today we are going to unveil last year’s #Shotsfriday winner @Tomwyliehart and his picks for his 3 custom cards. Tom won last year with 10 shots. The next closest player had 5. Tom is our local celebrity for being the creator of MLB Showdown (go check that little white rule book from the starter pack). I am going to tell you that he has a very strong working knowledge of the game of baseball.

Tom comes to us from the world of Magic the Gathering, which is the most successful card game ever. Magic often introduces cards in what they call “cycles”. These are cards that share some common trait with a different twist. Magic has more control over their cards than we do. We for the most part just translate people’s seasons into card form more than creature an original thing. Tom going back to his Magic days found a great “Cycle” for his custom cards the 3 consecutive Rookie of the Years for the Athletics: Canseco 86, McGwire 87, Weiss 88.

Canseco, the most exciting player of the 3 players personality wise, made an exciting Showdown card. His 6, 16-20 HR, 13-15 2B, 12 1B+ for 340 with LF/RF+0. I know nobody likes OB less than a 9 but this guy is exciting. He is 10 points cheaper than a similar Nelson Cruz card from 2011. He is also 10 points cheaper than his 2000 card which is an 8, 16-20 HR as a DH. There is no way we ever could capture all that Canseco meant to the game in a single card (though many of you have made steroid strategy card suggestions that may come close.)

McGwire is my favorite player ever, thanks in large part to the 2000 MLB Showdown card. Tom once made me a McGwire card. I consider it a small honor to get to make him a McGwire card to repay the favor. A 9, 16-20 HR, 15 3B, 13-14 2B for 510 points for a speed C(12), 1B+0. He is the best pure card of the three. His 49 homers is a rookie record. His 70 in 1998 was once a MLB single season record. He would do 2 things that would allow him to always be a quality Showdown card: get to firstbase on walks and put balls over the fence. Canseco and McGwire will forever be linked for their alleged extra-curricular activities together.

Walt Weiss has no known steroid controversies that I am aware of. Weiss had 25 homers (less than Canseco’s 33 in his rookie year and McGwire’s 49). Oh I am sorry that was 25 career homers for Weiss. He would go on to be a productive player. He doesn’t have a single bold number in his offensive stat sheet which is interesting. However he did win the Rookie of the Year and was the starting shortstop for the World Series runner up Athletics. Oh here is his 6, no homer card which many of you will use for his 6 points off the bench. He is oddly similar to his 2000 card where he is a 6 who can’t homer.

Shots Friday Rules

1: Submit your picks via Twitter using #Shotsfriday or @MLBShowdownGuru before the start of a players game.

2: You may switch players if a player is not in a starting line-up.

3: You get 1 point for each home run hit by a player picked for the week.

4: You get 1 extra pick for each home run you got the week before. Example: If you had a player hit a home run the previous week you get 2 picks. The first for it being a new week and another for the bonus. If your player hit two home runs then you would get 3 picks.

5: The contest runs through the end of the regular season.

6: Selecting the winner of the Home Run Derby earns a free pick but not a point.

Prizes

1^st Place: 2014 Color set and 3 custom cards.

2^nd Place: 2014 Black and White set and 2 custom cards.

3^rd Place: 5 David Cone and Greg Maddux 2000 foils