Remembering a Showdown Great

                Baseball gives us so much. For many of us the only thing we get to take with us from the game is our memories of it. For many of us we take those memories and put them in a bottle and pour them out later. Sometimes that bottle is a stat or a replay. Other times the bottle is a hat or a jersey. We like to think around here we make you guys one more bottle. The thing we make bottles for most often is individual players. Recently news broke Jason Giambi will no longer be giving us memories as a player. For that I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on what is inside the Jason Giambi memory bottle.

#TriviaThursday - 2/19/15

Congratulations to @Averey25 for having the correct answer to last week's #TriviaThursday question.  It was a fun one to come up with.

Before we get to this week's question, just a reminder of the rules.  Please review them so we are all on the same page:

1) All questions will be baseball questions, sometimes relating directly to MLB Showdown, but not always.
2) While it is impossible to regulate this, please refrain from using an internet search engine to find the answer.  If you know it, congratulations!  If you have a fairly educated guess, give it a shot.  We ask for your honesty in following this guideline.
3) Twitter answers must include the hashtag #TriviaThursday and be sent to me @RokTikiTiki in order to be counted.  Those sent to @MLBShowdownGuru do not count.
4) If no correct guess is made by the following Wednesday at noon ET, there will be no winner for that week.  A hint will be added on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday until there is a correct guess or the Wednesday deadline is reached.

Now, to this week's question:

What an Off-season!

This has been a spectacular off-season of big moves in baseball.  From Oakland having an apparent fire sale to the Padres being involved in signings or trades for some of the biggest names to move, everyone seemed to be involved in one way or another.  With the first round of pitchers and catchers reporting tomorrow, it begs the question: which team had the best off-season?

Which team had the best off-season?

Arizona Diamondbacks Atlanta Braves Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Cincinnati Reds Cleveland Indians Colorado Rockies Detroit Tigers

Houston Astros Kansas City Royals Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Los Angeles Dodgers Miami Marlins Milwaukee Brewers Minnesota Twins New York Mets New York Yankees Oakland Athletics

Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants Seattle Mariners St. Louis Cardinals Tampa Bay Rays Texas Rangers Toronto Blue Jays Washington Nationals

poll

#TriviaThursday - 2/12/15

We have had good participation on #TriviaThursday.  Last week, we had four correct guesses (Omar Vizquel was the correct answer, btw).  The first correct guess was from (and point for the week goes to) @JMoeller05 again for his third point on the years.  Current standings are:

@JMoeller5 -3
@Averey25 - 1
@kris_barnes7 - 1

This week, we have a five part answer to the question.  All five parts of the answer must be answered correctly to earn the point for this week.

#TriviaThursday - 2/5/15

@JMoeller5 got his second #TriviaThursday question correct with pointing out that Carl Yastrzemski was the last player to get a hit off of Satchell Paige.  That moves him into 1st place alone with two correct answers on the season.

This week's question is about a more recent player:

'Big Game James' Still Without a Home

Well many people (including myself) feel the nickname isn't fitting of the player, James Shields is still sitting out on the free agent market.  While his postseason numbers weren't great, he had a very solid 2014 season, which leads me to wonder why he hasn't signed with anyone.

So the question now is, who is going to sign him?

Where will James Shields start next season?

AL East (Baltimore, Boston, New York, Tampa Bay, Toronto)

AL Central (Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Minnesota)

AL West (Houston, Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Texas)

NL East (Atlanta, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Washington)

NL Central (Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, St. Louis)

NL West (Arizona, Colorado, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco)

No team will sign him before the season starts

Poll Maker

Be sure to comment below or tweet to us!

#TriviaThursday - January 29th, 2015

Last week, the first guess was the correct one as @JMoeller5 correctly guess Ken Griffey Jr as the answer to the question:

43 times in Major League history has a player hit 50 or more home runs in a season. Of those, there were 14 times where a player hit 50+ homers and did not lead all of MLB in home runs. Who is the only player to hit 50+ home runs in more than one season but never lead the majors in that category in a single season?

This week, I watched back the first game of a doubleheader from the day the Colorado Rockies retired Todd Helton's number 17 on MLB.TV.  It got me thinking about players retiring and what some of them did in their last at-bat or their last pitching appearance.  It seems everyone knows what Ted Williams did in his last at-bat (home run), so I went in search of a lesser-known 'last'.