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What defines a player's prime? For Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show 25, it seems to be "fame about 20 years prior to the release of the game."
Prime Program Releases, Capped by 96 OVR Lance Berkman
Okay: Maybe it's slightly unfair to Lance Berkman and Ian Kinsler, who are the 96 and 95 OVR stars of this Friday's newly-released Prime program in MLB The Show's Diamond Dynasty mode, to point out that they are approximately two decades removed from their best days as big leaguers. But as the cornerstones of a program that is a Sony San Diego stopgap with All-Star festivities now just weeks away, Astros slugger Berkman and Rangers stalwart Kinsler both bring back memories from the 2000s, which is now -- gulp -- almost a full driving-age child's distance from the present at minimum.
That's the point, in part, of the Prime series in Diamond Dynasty: It generally crystallizes something like the best year of a player's career in a single card, and allows for great cards for players who may have fallen just shy of MVP or Cy Young consideration to compete with cards from higher-prestige programs. Berkman's 96 here is tied to his 2004 season, one of three in which he cracked 160 OPS+, but crucially the one of those three with just 30 home runs -- so his 105 Power against righties as a switch-hitter will feel good, but his 80 Power against lefties is going to be a little lacking. 110/100 Contact and 109 Clutch mean Big Puma will stay on the basepaths, though.
Alas, Berkman is the Prime program's collection reward, requiring locking in 16 cards specifically from this Prime program and not previously released Prime series cards to obtain him. Kinsler, whose cards is relatively underwhelming with just two triple-digit stats, is the eight-card tier of the collection unlocks.
The best non-collection Prime cards are a 95 OVR Richie Sexson at the end of the XP reward path that boasts 106/101 Power but works best as a designated hitter thanks to bronze-level defense and 95 OVR Terry Pendleton and Jason Varitek cards from the store packs that max out in different ways: Pendleton's an absurd contact hitter with just 75/70 Power and only 67 Speed; Tek's 114/95 Contact/Power combo is going to shred lefties as a switch-hitting catcher but is behind the curve against righties. At lower OVRs, a 94 OVR XP reward path Michael Young that strongly resembles Pendleton, a trio of workhorse starters -- Jim Kaat, Robin Roberts, and Hal Newhouser -- who all have from 108 to 115 Stamina, a Jesse Chavez that might weirdly be an upper-tier reliever, and a Luis Aparicio that is probably now the best defensive shortstop in Diamond Dynasty.
Progression on the XP reward path comes from the customary mix of moments, parallel XP, and stat missions, and can be totally circumvented by the two pack collections. Those missions will also be temporarily easier for players, as double 4th Inning and parallel XP are available through July 3 at noon Pacific. And while getting the 16 Prime players collected for Berkman is going to be a slog, that has been substantially improved by the inclusion of two Deluxe-tier Prime packs as the Epic rewards for a new Diamond Quest also dropped today. If that isn't the new best Diamond Quest to grind -- if not the best grindable content in all of DD -- I will be quite surprised.
June Spotlight Drop 3 Shines on Nolan Arenado
Remember Nolan Arenado? The Spotlight program does, with the Cardinals third baseman's 300th home run earning a surprisingly good card --100+ stats in all of Contact vs. R/L, Power vs. L, and Batting Clutch to go with his ballyhooed defense, albeit with 43 Speed that reflects this latter stage of his career -- as essentially a celebration of that feat. (A player slashing .242/.309/.391 probably doesn't merit a 95 OVR card without such a milestone -- though, hey, wasn't there a Milestone series once upon a time?) That 95 Arenado caps the XP reward path for Drop 3 of the June Spotlight program.
It's accompanied by 95 OVR Brooks Lee and Jose Soriano cards in the Spotlight Drop 3 pack, and "matched" would have been a terminological inexactitude for comparing these two cards to Arenado when they significantly outstrip him.
Lee is somehow one of the very best hitters in all of Diamond Dynasty, with insane 125/119 Contact and 120 Clutch meaning he's just about maxed out as a contact hitter with no boosts needed, and 107 Power against righties sure to be great as he's a switch-hitter. Did we mention that Lee's a shortstop and has second and third base as secondary positions, making him a Swiss Army infielder who is also a fantastic bench bat?
And then there's Soriano, who has plenty of nasty attributes -- 106 H/9, 109 Pitching Clutch, the optimal 99 Velocity/Break combo that makes for great pitches -- even before considering that his Outlier 1 attaches to a 95 MPH sinker that will play beautifully off his 98 MPH four-seamer. Soriano's been running roughshod of late, so this is a deserved card, but it's also a superb one.
Other Spotlight Drop 3 cards include a Clarke Schmidt with 116 Pitching Clutch, an extremely high number for a starter; a Logan O'Hoppe that should rake against lefties; and a Braxton Fulford that means two of the nine Spotlight series players released so far this June have inexplicably been catchers for a team that has 18 wins in 81 attempts as of press time.
