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In recent years, SDS has brought so many legends to The Show for us to use in Diamond Dynasty. It wasn't long ago that our pool of legends was limited to only a few per team. Now? Almost every team has a good number of legends.
The Show 17 brought us Ken Griffey Jr., Roberto Alomar, Wade Boggs, Jorge Posada, and Jason Giambi among others.
The Show 18 gave us Babe Ruth, Frank Thomas, Mike Piazza, Bob Gibson, Vladimir Guerrero, and Roy Oswalt among a lot more. In fact, I think The Show 18 might have been our biggest jump from year-to-year.
... and of course The Show 19 continued the trend and brought out the big guns with Willie Mays, Rickey Henderson, Ivan Rodriguez, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Cy Young, and Walter Johnson.
With all those legends added, the game has evolved into a baseball fan's dream, especially in Diamond Dynasty where they've found a good balance of time spent and rewarding the player without the feeling that you need to spend money like so many other Ultimate Team card collecting modes. It made a ton of sense for them to target the bats before the arms but I think the next few years should be spent focusing on getting the big name pitching legends that we've been asking for.
It's true that they've added more than a few of baseball history's best hurlers but I still think that the selection of pitching legends is far too small. Obviously they took a huge step the last two years in acquiring rights to some great legends and I'm glad they got the rights to Mark Buehrle, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Robin Roberts, and Al Leiter this year; while last year we got Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Cy Young, and A.J. Burnett. There's no denying that the selection we have already is impressive but imagine a game with all the legends we have now, plus big names like:
Yeah, a few of those guys are unlikely (Clemens and Schilling specifically) but to match the legendary bats of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., and Lou Gehrig, we need the best pitchers the world has ever seen to match. Just adding a few of these legends like Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and Roger Clemens would go so far and further the notion that MLB The Show offers the best Ultimate Team experience of any sports game.
It's exciting to think about the ridiculous matchups we could have and likely will have in the coming years. I could go on for hours talking about players I'd love to see return to or make their debut in The Show. I'm certain the team at Sony San Diego Studios shares this belief and are working on getting a large number of these guys into the game. Even beyond the household names they could build on those by adding other popular pitching legends like:
... and guys that recently retired like:
I finally finished the Live Series collection! This is only the second time I have been able to accomplish this -- the only other being in The Show 17 and I didn't finish that one until late-August/September.
I got super lucky and pulled Mike Trout this year in the middle of April after beating the 2nd Inning Showdown (what a thrill that was for me!) and since then, I've been dead set on getting it done. I thought it would take me until mid-June at first but I put my flipping skills into overdrive the past few weeks, with the last week being especially crazy.
I want to say it was sometime last week (I want to say Wednesday or Thursday) that I bought Gerrit Cole (162K), then I flipped my way to 200K and bought Christian Yelich (39K) and Cody Bellinger (163K), last night I had enough to get Jacob deGrom (108K) so I pulled the trigger.
Today, I spent the entire day getting to 140K Stubs and finally had enough to get Nolan Arenado. I am so proud but I will say I may need to buy a new PS4 controller in the near future as my 'X' button has to be obliterated. My thumb hurts and I think I see the menus when I close my eyes (lmao!)
Anyway, this is going to get pushed down quickly so I'm not sure why I typed so much but I just have to share my experience with my MLB The Show-brethren.
Honestly, now that I'm done... I'll share my method but be warned, it's tedious, boring and you have to be patient sometimes.
Bronze cards are your moneymakers. Sure, you can buy Commons for the 5 or 6 quick-sell price and take advantage when they're selling for around 40-50 Stubs. I did that with a few cards and I mostly stuck to ones that I knew usually sold for more. The biggest thing though is, take advantage of having unlimited buy orders, that alone made flipping so much better for me.
The best advice I ever heard when it came to flipping sounds so simple but it helped me change my mindset, "all profit is good profit." Now, that doesn't mean buy a card for 45 Stubs and sell him at 50 Stubs, but making 40-50 Stubs on each card you flip adds up so quickly. The last two days, I focused on low-bronzes that I could put buy orders in around 25-30 Stubs and then I could sell them for 80-110 Stubs a piece. The more you flip, the more you realize there are certain teams that move much quicker, sell for more, and just have excellent profit margins, but on the flipside, there's teams you want to avoid like the plague! For example, the Angels are a waste of time and personally, I more often than not have been disappointed by Cubs and Cardinals players for whatever reason. Oh, and the Yankees! There isn't much Stubs to be made off the Yankees.
Aside from that, it's all about finding your rhythm. If you place a buy order and the profit margins are nice but by the time you actually get the card, the margins have dropped -- hold onto them! Chances are the price will be back to a healthy profit within the next 6-12 hours.
I hope this helps someone. Good luck guys!
Obviously, these are probably a pretty long way off from releasing (I'm thinking mid-July), I've been thinking about this the past few days and I think Team Affinity 3 should finally be the meaty content drop we've all been waiting for. I think there's a very good chance that Stage 4 will be each team's "Finest" card. This makes sense for a few reasons...
It'll be releasing in the Fall, so in all likelihood late-September/early October, and that is usually the time of year SDS releases The Show's "Finest" series of cards.
Last year, we got a "Finest" series card for each team. Instead of doing packs, I think it makes sense to tie these into Team Affinity.
So, with that said, what could we be getting in stage 3 of Team Affinity? I've got my fingers crossed that we'll get a high-90s (95-98?) Signature Series, Prime, or All-Star cards. If that's what it ends up being, we could see some really sweet cards that I think we've all been patiently waiting for.
I've made a mock-up list of who I think could be included if this is the direction they go in. I could be way off on a lot of these, and hopefully you'll chime in and let me know who we could see for your favorite team. I'm also hoping that the developers will maybe come across this thread and possibly give them some ideas of who we all want to see.
Without further ado, here's my guesses for each team:
Baltimore Orioles Manny Machado - 96 OVR (2015 Prime All-Star)
Boston Red Sox David Ortiz - 96 OVR (2006 Prime Silver Slugger Hardware)
New York Yankees Mariano Rivera - 97 OVR (2005 Prime All-Star)
Tampa Bay Rays David Price - 97 OVR (2012 Prime Cy Young Hardware)
Toronto Blue Jays Josh Donaldson - 98 OVR (2015 Prime AL MVP Hardware)
Chicago White Sox Mark Buehrle - 95 OVR (2005 Prime All-Star)
Cleveland Indians Omar Vizquel - 96 OVR (1999 Prime Gold Glove Hardware)
Detroit Tigers Jack Morris - 95 OVR (1986 Prime Impact Veteran)
Kansas City Royals Zack Greinke - 97 OVR (2009 Prime Cy Young Hardware)
Minnesota Twins Rod Carew - 97 OVR (1977 Prime MVP Hardware)
Los Angeles Angels Vladimir Guerrero - 98 OVR (2004 Prime MVP Hardware)
Oakland Athletics Jason Giambi - 97 OVR (2000 Prime MVP Hardware)
Seattle Mariners Felix Hernandez - 96 OVR (2010 Prime Cy Young Hardware)
Texas Rangers Michael Young - 96 OVR (2004 Prime All-Star)
Houston Astros Mike Scott - 95 OVR (1986 Prime Cy Young Hardware)
Atlanta Braves Andruw Jones - 97 OVR (2005 Prime All-Star)
Miami Marlins Giancarlo Stanton - 97 OVR (2017 Prime MVP Hardware)
Washington Nationals Bryce Harper - 96 OVR (2015 Prime MVP Hardware)
New York Mets Al Leiter - 95 OVR (2000 Prime All-Star)
Philadelphia Phillies Jimmy Rollins - 97 OVR (2007 Prime MVP Hardware)
Chicago Cubs Bruce Sutter - 95 OVR (1979 Prime Cy Young Hardware)
Cincinnati Reds George Foster - 97 OVR (1977 Prime MVP Hardware)
Milwaukee Brewers Ryan Braun - 95 OVR (2011 Prime MVP Hardware)
Pittsburgh Pirates Jason Kendall - 96 OVR (1998 Prime All-Star)
St. Louis Cardinals Adam Wainwright - 96 OVR (2010 Prime All-Star)
Arizona Diamondbacks Steve Finley - 96 OVR (1999 Prime Gold Glove Hardware)
Colorado Rockies Dante Bichette - 95 OVR (1995 Prime All-Star)
Los Angeles Dodgers Orel Hershiser - 97 OVR (1988 Prime Cy Young Hardware)
San Diego Padres Ryan Klesko - 95 OVR (2001 Prime All-Star)
San Francisco Giants Matt Williams - 96 OVR (1994 Prime Gold Glove Hardware)
I'm probably the worst hitter out of all of you and I beat it on my first try.
Although, I will say that I got crazy luck when it came to drafting players in this one. I ended up with a lineup of:
C : Christian Vasquez & Carson Kelly 1B: Matt Olson & Frank Thomas (84) 2B: Gleybar Torres (LS) SS: Jonathan Villar 3B: Bobby Dalbec (FS) LF: Cliff Floyd** CF: Mickey Mantle (99) & Bryan Reynolds (He came up BIG like 3-4 times) RF: Larry Walker & J.D. Martinez
Pitchers I Used: Colin Poche (Silver, LHP from TB Rays) Alec Hanson (Common, former White Sox prospect with good 5-pitch mix) Austen Davis (Common, LHP from Phillies) ...and I can't even remember if I used my actual SP the entire time (I don't think so)
Tips:
Take pitches against Mariano Rivera. Remember, he's a relief pitcher. His stamina is going to start to get brutally low once he hits about 40 pitches. Just survive with enough outs until then and I promise you'll beat him.
Remember to look at each challenge AND THEN set your Perks. For example, if it says you're starting in the 8th inning, you know to use a perk like Spark-Plug where you make better contact in and after the 7th inning. This will save your life.
Personally, I always switch to Directional for Showdowns. It makes it 100x easier for me, for some reason.
Don't draft more than one reliever and starter. I didn't even use my starting pitcher but maybe you will. I'm not certain that they have more challenges.
In my experiences, I've had the most success with the Defibrillator perks; silver gives you a contact boost in even counts (0-0, 1-1, 2-2); gold gives you a contact boost when you are behind in the count (love this one); and the diamond gives you a huge contact boost when you have two strikes. The diamond one is great for a number of reasons, not only can you basically put the controller down until you have 2 strikes but once you do, you can pretty much foul ANYTHING off which is going to raise the pitch count even higher!
I'm also a big fan of the perks that affect exit velocity. In combination with ones that give you a contact boost, you can straight wreck these final bosses.
No, I'm hitting like .200 in Ranked Seasons. I'm not kidding. I get by on my pitching.
If there was one thing definitely worth it for pre-ordering, it was this. It's so nice getting not only two stamps per day towards the free pack but also getting two cards. Yeah, I've never actually gotten anything this year but I'm sure I will get a few pretty decent cards because of this.
With the calendar turned to October and the MLB Postseason in full-swing, we are now well into the back-half of The Show 20's life-cycle and with that, we will soon see the final stage of the Team Affinity programs roll out.
It has been heavily speculated that Team Affinity 4 will likely be Finest Series cards, as the Team Affinity setup lends itself very well to how they've done the Finest Series in the past.
One thing I'd really like to see is similar to how Stage 1 had gold Prospects Series at about halfway to the diamond Face of the Franchise cards, I'm hoping they do the same except instead of golds, give us high-80s/low-90s diamonds. They could be All-Star, Veteran, traditional Postseason, and Breakout series cards -- maybe even a few Primes/SS, too. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to refer to these cards as "henchmen."
So, with all that in mind, I'm going to do my predictions for each team's Finest card, as well as the midway point card. Without further ado, I hope ya'll enjoy and we can spark a discussion on who deserves a card and which players you'd just like to see get one.
Baltimore Orioles Finest: Anthony Santander, RF / 98 OVR Henchman: Nick Markakis, RF / 93 OVR / Breakout Series
Boston Red Sox Finest: Alex Verdugo, RF / 99 OVR Henchman: Andrew Benintendi, LF / 95 OVR / Classic Future Stars Series
New York Yankees Finest:Gerrit Cole, SP / 99 OVR Henchman: David Robertson, CP / 95 OVR / 2011 Prime Series
Tampa Bay Rays Finest: Brandon Lowe, 2B / 99 OVR Henchman: Kevin Kiermaier, CF / 93 OVR / Awards (2015 Gold Glove) Series
Toronto Blue Jays Finest: Hyun-Jin Ryu, SP / 99 OVR Henchman: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 3B / 95 OVR Classic Future Stars Series
Chicago White Sox Finest: Eloy Jimenez, LF / 99 OVR Henchman: Yoan Moncada, 2B / 96 OVR / Classic Future Stars
Cleveland Indians Finest: Francisco Lindor, SS / 99 OVR Henchman: Omar Vizquel, SS / 96 OVR / Signature Series
Detroit Tigers Finest: Jeimer Candelairio, 3B / 99 OVR Henchman: Jack Morris, SP / 94 OVR / Prime Series
Kansas City Royals Finest: Brad Keller, SP / 98 OVR Henchman: Eric Hosmer, 1B / 94 OVR / Prime Series
Minnesota Twins Finest: Kenta Maeda / SP / 99 OVR Henchman: Jose Berrios / SP / 93 OVR / Classic Future Stars
Los Angeles Angels Finest: Dylan Bundy, SP / 99 OVR Henchman: Howie Kendrick, 2B / 93 OVR / Signature Series
Oakland Athletics Finest: Ramon Laureano, CF / 99 OVR Henchman: Marcus Semien, SS / 95 OVR / 2019 Breakout Series
Seattle Mariners Finest: Kyle Lewis, CF / 98 OVR Henchman: Edgar Martinez, 3B / 96 OVR / 1995 Silver Slugger Awards Series
Texas Rangers Finest: Lance Lynn, SP / 99 OVR Henchman: Fergie Jenkins, SP / 95 OVR / 1974 Veteran Series
Houston Astros Finest: George Springer, CF / 99 OVR Henchman: Alex Bregman, 3B / 96 OVR / 2019 Silver Slugger Awards Series
Atlanta Braves Finest: Freddie Freeman, 1B / 99 OVR Henchman: Warren Spahn, SP / 96 OVR / 1957 Cy Young Awards Series
Miami Marlins Finest: Miguel Rojas, SS / 99 OVR Henchman: Cliff Floyd, LF / 96 OVR / Signature Series
New York Mets Finest: Dominic Smith, 1B / 99 OVR Henchman: Matt Harvey, SP / 95 OVR / 2013 Prime Series
Philadelphia Phillies Finest: Zack Wheeler, SP / 99 OVR Henchman: Richie Ashburn, CF / 96 OVR / Signature Series
Washington Nationals Finest: Trea Turner, SS / 99 OVR Henchman: Ryan Zimmermann, 3B / 94 OVR / *Signature Series
Chicago Cubs Finest: Yu Darvish, SP / 99 OVR Henchman: Jake Arrieta, SP / 96 OVR / 2015 Cy Young Awards Series
Cincinnati Reds Finest: Luis Castillo, SP / 99 OVR Henchman: Adam Dunn, LF / 93 OVR / Prime Series
Milwaukee Brewers Finest: Brandon Woodruff, SP / 99 OVR Henchman: Ryan Braun, LF / 96 OVR / 2011 Prime Series
Pittsburgh Pirates Finest: Colin Moran, 3B / 98 OVR Henchman: Willie Stargell, LF / 96 OVR / 1972 Prime Series
St. Louis Cardinals Finest: Kwang Hyun Kim, SP / 98 OVR Henchman: Enos Slaughter, RF / 95 OVR / Signature Series
Arizona Diamondbacks Finest: Zac Gallen, SP / 99 OVR Henchman: A.J. Pollock, CF / 95 OVR / 2015 Gold Glove Awards Series
Colorado Rockies Finest: Nolan Arenado, 3B / 99 OVR Henchman: Carlos Gonzalez, RF / 96 OVR / 2013 Prime Series
Los Angeles Dodgers: Finest: Corey Seager. SS / 99 OVR Henchman: Max Muncy, 1B / 94 OVR / 2018 Breakout Series
San Diego Padres Finest: Dinelson Lamet, SP / 99 OVR Henchman: Kirby Yates, CP / 95 OVR / 2018 Prime Series
San Francisco Giants Finest: Mike Yastrzemski, RF / 99 OVR Henchman: Brandon Crawford, SS / 94 OVR / 2016 Gold Glove Awards Series
I'm the type of player that almost always has a U.S. Conquest map going, so being able to be rewarded with much better cards and in much less time has me back on this game like it was the beginning of April.
Great job, SDS! You continue to nail it when other sports games give us low-effort installments. I absolutely love The Show 20 and it's almost impossible to imagine how it can improve in Diamond Dynasty but I'm sure they'll do it (just please don't go back to anything you had in The Show 18)
Edit: I should add that with DD being such a great experience, I hope they allocate a lot of time to improve Franchise mode. I used to be a huge Franchise mode player but the mode is very stale and lacks the excitement that it should. I hope that is their priority for The Show 21.
I'm going to pull the trigger and buy Gossage. Thank you all for the help on this one!
I wish I would've done the event more and maybe could've saved myself the 500K but it's all good. He seems to be worth the tag.
I've been sitting on about 600K (plus a bunch of Live Series cards saved for Stage 4 of Team Affinity) and I was going to save to get either Roberto Alomar or Casey Mize but that Gossage is tempting. I have yet to face him so I don't have any way of knowing how tough he is to face either.
[Edit] I may end up buying Eddie Mathews if Gossage isn't worth it. Would love to hear some opinions on both of these cards.
Giancarlo Stanton (84) Ozzie Albies (84) Chris Martin (84) Teoscar Hernandez (84) Max Fried (83) Carlos Correa (80)
@sbevans142 said in Think I just played the richest pitching staff ever lol:
How do you know if you are facing 99 wagner or 94?
Go into the pause menu, go to the team statistics (?) then scroll to Billy Wagner's name and hit triangle to bring up the Player Card.
You might also just be able to see which Wagner is if you go to the Opponent's Bullpen screen.
Eh, those Headliner bundles seem screwy.
I'd suggest staying away from them and just buying whatever Headliner you want. I don't think any of the Headliners cost more than 100K.
This has me drawing a blank... hopefully someone can figure it out.
Usually their "hints" are so obvious but I can't think of a single connection that makes sense.
@Hikes83 said in Joe Morgan incoming!!!:
Could be a hardware Mookie
I think we're getting a Postseason 2020 Mookie judging from the fact that he has a Moment in the set that just came out today. I didn't get a look at the attributes but I will when I get a chance. If it's not his Live Series card, I'd say that would signal that it's a near certainty to be one of the rewards for the World Series program.
It's insane that the content has been good enough to not have to go to the emergency "smash the glass for Griffey Jr." button this late in the game's life-cycle.
But I do find it unacceptable that we don't have a 99 overall Willie Mays yet. For people that didn't get him last year, they don't know what they're missing.
@Hubijerk said in It's Time To Revisit Secondary Position Penalties:
@BodamEscapePlan said in It's Time To Revisit Secondary Position Penalties: With the "Quirks/Perks" system, I imagine that it wouldn't be hard to make a Perk that makes it so that they have reduced or even no penalty to their secondary positions. They could call it "Utility-Man" or "Team Player" or something. There ya go, SDS. We have figured this out. I like it. From an actual baseball perspective any shortstop can easily play 3rd or 2nd without really losing anything. Outfield to infield is a really tough sell, and even right or left moving to center is not an easy transition. I think a utility perk for those rare guys that can really exceed at multiple positions makes sense. I also think a decreased penalty for SS moving to 3rd or 2nd makes a lot of sense too though it really hasn't been that big of a deal.
@BodamEscapePlan said in It's Time To Revisit Secondary Position Penalties:
With the "Quirks/Perks" system, I imagine that it wouldn't be hard to make a Perk that makes it so that they have reduced or even no penalty to their secondary positions. They could call it "Utility-Man" or "Team Player" or something. There ya go, SDS. We have figured this out.
With the "Quirks/Perks" system, I imagine that it wouldn't be hard to make a Perk that makes it so that they have reduced or even no penalty to their secondary positions. They could call it "Utility-Man" or "Team Player" or something.
There ya go, SDS. We have figured this out.
I like it. From an actual baseball perspective any shortstop can easily play 3rd or 2nd without really losing anything. Outfield to infield is a really tough sell, and even right or left moving to center is not an easy transition.
I think a utility perk for those rare guys that can really exceed at multiple positions makes sense. I also think a decreased penalty for SS moving to 3rd or 2nd makes a lot of sense too though it really hasn't been that big of a deal.
I would say most people would agree that this would be the simplest route to fixing this issue. Personally, I would love it. I always seem to be playing a shortstop at 2B and a CF in all three of my outfield spots.
I could've sworn that I suggested a cover with Ronald Acuna Jr., Fernando Tatis, Bo Bichette, and Shane Bieber but it must've been in similar topic.
I love the "New School vs. Old School" idea, too.
