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A new program bringing a bunch of new Legends into Diamond Dynasty is a win, no matter how unserious it might be.
Home Run Derby X Program Overview
One week after the release of the 8th Inning in Diamond Dynasty brought dozens of 99 OVR Legends to MLB The Show 25's card-collecting mode, the Home Run Derby X program is doing something new and welcome near the endgame of DD: Bringing new Legends to the game.
Now, many of the 18 players being added in conjunction with the program -- tied to the real-life Home Run Derby X competition operated by Major League Baseball that is staging its finals this weekend -- are maybe more "legends" than fully-fledged legends of the game, Diamond Dynasty's catch-all title of Legends for retired MLB players aside. But this Friday's crop of players is the most significant post-release infusion of players in that category possibly ever in DD, and that alone is a welcome change.
The players in the Home Run Derby X program are as follows, listed alphabetically:
- Rick Ankiel
- Jake Arrieta
- Lorenzo Cain
- Michael Cuddyer
- Ian Desmond
- Jeff Francoeur
- Johnny Gomes
- Adrián Gonzalez
- Eric Hosmer
- Ryan Klesko
- Mike Moustakas
- Daniel Murphy
- Hunter Pence
- Josh Reddick
- Nick Swisher
- Adam Wainwright
- Ryan Zimmerman
- Ben Zobrist
Obviously, that's a batch of players that skews heavily toward the 2000s and 2010s, and has players clustered from a few teams as part of it -- but HRDX itself has Blue Jays, Cardinals, Dodgers, Nationals, Royals, and Yankees representatives in its finals, and most of the former MLB players from those teams are included here, with the exception of the Blue Jays' Kevin Pillar and Devon Travis and the Yankees' Todd Frazier. And the rest of the names are the sort that make for fun additions to DD but maybe don't fit in a pre-release sizzle reel alongside Roger Clemens or Mark McGwire, like Klesko, Moustakas, and Zobrist, all of whom have made an All-Star Game. (Arrieta and Alex Gordon are also among the players here who have other DD cards.)
For the most part, these are also cards with souped-up hitting (and especially Power) but dumbed-down defense and speed to compensate. Zobrist might be the best example: His versatility (which shows up with secondary positions of first, short, and the corner outfield spots along with his primary of second base) was his calling card as a player, but he's only got Gold-level defense and 70 Speed, which makes him an average outfielder at best. And while Ankiel, Arrieta, and Wainwright were all primarily pitchers in their playing careers -- Ankiel's less-heralded years as a journeyman outfielder aside -- their cards here do not have pitching attributes, which is a bit disappointing.
But it is equally clear that the idea is that none of these cards are truly meant to be meta-defining must-haves, so this can just be a fun, low-pressure way -- there's a reward path, there are packs, there's a Showdown, there's a collection -- to get a bunch of names that weren't in Diamond Dynasty into it. And in that regard, it's probably a success at its low stakes.
That said: The really cool move for this would have been to get the slew of softball players also vying for HRDX glory, most notably Oklahoma stars Jocelyn Alo and Tiare Jennings, into DD. And that is what feels like a bigger missed opportunity here.
September Spotlight Program Rolls On With Tanner Bibee
The undercard of Friday's content release is clearly the September Spotlight Drop 2, which is advertised in game with seven words: "September Spotlight: Drop 2 features Tanner Bibee!"
Thrilling!
Bibee, whose 99 OVR Spotlight card tops the drop's XP reward path and honors his first career complete game shutout, is just another good but relatively unspectacular righty starter, but he and Giants catcher Patrick Bailey -- yet another switch-hitting catcher, though one whose defense outshines his bat -- are far and away the two highest-wattage players in this release, which also features Rockies rookie Blaine Crim, bizarrely hot Rangers outfielder Michael Helman, and Red Sox starter Connelly Early, who fanned 11 batters in his Sox debut and currently has a hilarious 493 ERA+ but might end up being a footnote should Boston slip out of the third wild card spot in the American League.re
This is, as I've written maybe a dozen times about the Spotlight program this year, the problem with a program structure that has to honor this or that player in MLB in a given week but largely cannot salute the game's superstars. Giving out a free Shohei Ohtani -- or even issuing a fairly expensive one -- to recognize his 50-homer, 50-strikeout season just isn't in keeping with what Spotlight does, but the players released do have to keep up with power creep, so a player with 11 career MLB innings (Early) now has a higher-OVR card than every Live series player in the game.
It's cool if you're a fan of a specific player or team. It doesn't move the needle much for me.
Other News and Notes
- The Multiplayer 8 program arrived earlier this week and brought with it 99s of Jorge Soler, Carlos Delgado, Mike Mussina, and Austin Riley (because the Braves needed a third 99 OVR third baseman, I guess?) and is topped by 99s of Mookie Betts and Kerry Wood as World Series rewards. New missions for the program and a new Event are set to drop on Tuesday, September 23.
- A new Conquest map is also set for this coming Tuesday.
- Friday, September 26 will welcome a Postseason Past program and September Spotlight Drop 3. It's gonna be a light week, in other words.
