Righting Wrongs - 1999 Marlins, Astros and Royals

 


Dennis Springer's last year as a relevant player was 1999, and his 0 Control Showdown card showed why. He was bad that year with the Marlins and he was just as bad if not worse the year before with the expansion Devil Rays. But just one year before he was drafted by Tampa, he had a fairly average type card with the Angels, and that is as good as a guy like Dennis could hope for.


Eusebio was your typical bench catcher for Showdown, no power, ok on-base, no speed but a pretty good bet for defense. Here though he sacrifices a bit of that on-base and gets a much more attractive chart while the defense and speed remain unchanged. Heck, you gotta love it when a C speed in Showdown has triple potential.


Stan Javier still offers that desirable speed, but here he brings the ability to ramp up that speed and have a very nice on-base to go with it. And yes, the man can go deep on this chart.


Jose Lima's 2000 Showdown card wasn't half bad and in a future set he had a decent card as well, but go back just one year and you get the option of a 5 Control Lima with an not that half bad chart. I always enjoyed Lima, so I'll take an opportunity to say IT'S LIMA TIME!


Montgomery had a really bad chart in the 2000 set, but once again we have an example of a Closer who had a lights out season that many young Showdown fans may never had otherwise known about because of the bias they'd have from knowing them just from their bad 1999 card.


And here's another example of a "what a difference a year makes" reliever where a 2000 Showdown card has them at 0 Control while just a season prior had Service at a 5.