June Monthly Awards Lightning Yodan Alvarez

Diamond Dynasty - June Monthly Awards Lightning Yordan Alvarez

Chase Becotte

Published: Jul 6, 2022 04:35 pm

Lightning Rafael Devers wrapped up the May Monthly Awards Program, and we roll now into June Topps Now/June Monthly Awards and the reveal of Lightning Chris Sale. Of course, Sale will not be available until the whole program comes out early next month, but we now know one of the main cards we’ll be working towards. On top of that, Edward Cabrera returns to our lives along with four other players in the first week of June Topps Now.

June Topps Now (Week 1)

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Topps Now Christopher Morel
Topps Now Lane Thomas
Topps Now Jameson Taillon
Topps Now Brendan Rodgers
Topps Now Edward Cabrera

Future Stars Edward Cabrera reached meme status last year, so it’s probably worth at least pointing out that he’s returned. He has basically the same arsenal as last year, but he does not lead with the sinker this time around. The sinker is not nearly as dominant velocity-wise, and the control is only 82 on the pitch. Beyond that, he has relatively suspect control overall and a lower H/9 than last year’s card. That being said, we’re probably all going to try him and see if he still has some magic left in that right arm of his.

Beyond Cabrera, you might have tried out Thomas or Rodgers while they were Supercharged last week. I personally enjoyed Rodgers but Thomas did not do anything for me swing-wise. Taillon has incredibly low K/9 numbers but a decent arsenal, and then Morel is another super utility player to maybe throw on your bench.

Moments

May 30: Ain’t No One Hitting Ashby
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Pitch 1 inning
- Strike out 2 batters
- Do not give up 1 run
May 31: More Hits For Morel
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Get on base 2 times
June 1: More Hits For Morel
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Get on base 2 times
June 1: He’s Baaaack
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Strike out 6 batters
June 1: Good Week To Be A Rodgers
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
June 2: The Jameson Is Nearly Perfect
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Pitch 2 innings
- Do not give up 1 hit
- Do not walk 1 batter
- Do not hit 1 batter
June 3: All Aboard The Lane Train
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 2 XBH
June 4: Sweet, Sweet Revenge
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Strike out 4 batters
- Do not give up 1 hit
June 5: Bryce Ties Game With One Swing
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run

June Topps Now (Week 2)

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Topps Now Jose Trevino
Topps Now Taylor Walls
Topps Now Dylan Moore

Moments

June 6: Get On Your Horse
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 2 XBH
June 7: Lean Into It
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
June 10: He’s Done It Again
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Win 1 game
- Tally 1 RBI
June 11: What Moore Could You Want
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Win 1 game
- Tally 1 RBI
June 11: Finish It The Hard Way
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 6 total bases
June 11: Not Tired Of All Rising
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run

Collection

Topps Now Eduardo Escobar (Collect 8 Topps Now June players)

June Topps Now (Week 3)

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Topps Now Spencer Strider
Topps Now Jerar Encarnacion
Topps Now Miles Mikolas
Topps Now Riley Greene

Moments

June 14: The Heartbreaker
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Pitch 1 inning
- Do not give up 1 hit
June 15: Spencer Is Hitting His Stride-r
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Strike out 6 batters
- Do not give up 1 run
June 18: The Grass Is Greener With Riley
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Get on base 2 times
June 19: Grand Debut For Jerar
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 4 total bases
June 19: Jack’s Jacks
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
June 19: Trout Called Game
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run

Collection

Topps Now Jack Suwinski (Collect 12 Topps Now June players)

June Topps Now (Week 4)

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Topps Now Aaron Hicks
Topps Now Michael Chavis
Topps Now Isaac Paredes
Topps Now Cristian Javier

Moments

June 21: Paredes Puts The Rays On His Back
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
June 22: Wjay Can’t Shoehei Do?
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Strike out 6 batters
- Do not give up 1 run
June 23: Chav Is Clutch
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 1 hit
- Tally 1 RBI
June 23: They Come In Threes
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
June 24: Freeman’s Return To Atlanta
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Get on base 2 times
June 25: Javier Leads The Way
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Pitch 2 innings
- Do not give up 1 hit
- Strike out 4 batters

Rewards

4 points – The Show pack
6 points – 500 stubs
8 points – Topps Now Christopher Morel
10 points – Topps Now Lane Thomas
12 points – Topps Now Jameson Taillon
14 points – Topps Now Brendan Rodgers
16 points – Topps Now Edward Cabrera
18 points – The Show pack
20 points – 500 stubs
24 points – Topps Now Jose Trevino

26 points – Topps Now Taylor Walls
28 points – Topps Now Dylan Moore
30 points – The Show pack
32 points – 500 stubs
34 points – Topps Now Spencer Strider
36 points – Topps Now Jerar Encarnacion
38 points – Topps Now Miles Mikolas
40 points – Topps Now Riley Greene
42 points – The Show pack (x2)
44 points – 1,000 stubs

46 points – Topps Now Aaron Hicks
48 points – Topps Now Michael Chavis
50 points – Topps Now Isaac Paredes
52 points – Topps Now Cristian Javier
54 points – The Show pack (x2)
56 points – 1,000 stubs
60 points – Ballin’ Is A Habit pack (x2)
65 points – Diamond bat skin
70 points – Monthly Awards choice pack (93 overall)
- Monthly Awards Brandon Drury
- Monthly Awards Daniel Hudson
- Monthly Awards Jon Berti
- Monthly Awards Jorge Lopez
- Monthly Awards Taijuan Walker
- Monthly Awards Teoscar Hernandez

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75 points – The Show pack (x2)
80 points – Monthly Awards choice pack (93 overall)
85 points – 1,500 stubs
90 points – Headliners Set 25 pack
95 points – Monthly Awards choice pack (93 overall)
100 points – Always Intense 1 choice pack
105 points – The Show pack (x2)
110 points – Monthly Awards choice pack (95 overall)
- June Monthly Awards Bryan Reynolds
- Monthly Awards Jon Gray
- Monthly Awards Kyle Schwarber

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115 points – 1,500 stubs
120 points – Headliners Set 26 pack
125 points – Monthly Awards choice pack (95 overall)
130 points – Always Intense 2 choice pack
135 points – Headliners Set 27 pack
140 points – The Show pack (x5)
145 points – Chicago White Sox Alternate 1999 home uniform
150 points – Lightning Chris Sale

Chris Sale might be one of the most “depends who you play” pitchers of all-time in Diamond Dynasty. It really comes down to how well your opponent sees the release of the pitch from Sale. I have personally always had plenty of success against Sale — even in lefty-lefty matchups — but he is an absolute nightmare if you can’t read the release point.

Whether you hit him or not, this should be a viable pitcher going strictly by ratings, and a pitcher as the retro Lightning reward is usually going to age better than the hitters like Dawson or Rice the prior two months. Sale also has 100 H/9, which is good but reasonable. I’m hopeful we don’t see many 120 H/9 pitchers until very, very late in the year.