Ranked Seasons 4 in MLB The Show 22 Diamond Dynasty launched today (replacing Season 3), and it seems like SDS has finally settled in to a model they will be sticking with for rewards the rest of the way. In addition, Awards Javy Baez and 2nd Half Heroes Vladimir Guerrero are the new World Series rewards.
Diamond Dynasty – Ranked Seasons 4
The four new cards are Awards Javy Baez and 2nd Half Heroes Vladimir Guerrero at the World Series level, and then All-Star Rod Carew and Postseason Brooks Robinson at the Pennant Race level.
Rewards (Road To WS)
Spring Training – Play 1 game
- Bronze live series player
- 100 stubs
Regular Season – 200 points
- Silver live series player
- 300 stubs
All-Star – 400 points
- Silver live series player
- Silver nameplate and icon
- 600 stubs
Pennant Race – 500 points
- Choice of diamond Ron Guidry/Luis Aparicio/Rod Carew/Brooks Robinson
- Gold nameplate and icon
- 1,000 stubs
The biggest thing here might be that Brooks Robinson will be a cheap Postseason card if you’re still trying to get to George Brett. Both these cards have been in DD for years now, so you should know by now if you can hit with the weird Carew stance or cope with Robinson’s iffy offense to get a great glove out there.
Wild Card – 600 points
- Gold Live Series player
- Gold nameplate and icon
- 1,500 stubs
Division Series – 700 points
- Diamond bat skin
- Gold nameplate and icon
- 2,000 stubs
Championship Series – 800 points
- Gold Live Series player
- The Show pack (x5)
- Diamond nameplate and icon
- 3,000 stubs
World Series – 900 points
- Choice of Milestone Takashi Okazaki Greg Maddux, 2nd Half Heroes Vladimir Guerrero, Awards Javy Baez
- Diamond nameplate and icon
- 4,000 stubs
First off, take note that Javy Baez is a 2B primary even though the card art has shortstop on it. That said, it is the right call because he did play primarily 2B that season. However, it does hurt the potential to play him at SS just a bit because he won’t have diamond defense there by default (he would need P5 I believe). This means he may not be able to squeeze in over Marte or one or two others if you want to roll with him now at 2B. I will happily still use him at 2B because he’s got one of my favorite swings in the entire game.
With Vladimir Guerrero, the big thing here is he gets much better defense than usual on a card. People have generally always liked his swing, but his defense has kept him out of many lineups. You’re getting gold defense here in the corners, and so you get a complete player more or less. I am one of the few who never hits that well with Vlad Sr. so I may not use him, but I actually do think he’s technically the “better” card of the two new World Series rewards.
Bonus – 1,000 points
- 5,000 stubs
- 10 The Show packs
Bonus – 1,100 points
- 10,000 stubs
- 20 The Show packs
Bonus – 1,200 points
- 20,000 stubs
- 50 The Show packs
Rewards Structure For Total Innings
SDS has now settled into a rewards structure for the second month in a row for the first time this year. They did not update any of the Headliners packs, which is a bit strange, nor did they update the rewards beyond the World Series pack. They could have maybe at least tweaked those elements, but otherwise this is still solid value for innings played.
- Play 25 innings – Ballin’ Is A Habit pack
- Play 50 innings – The Show pack, 5,000 XP
- Play 75 innings – 2,000 stubs
- Play 100 innings – The Show pack (x5), 5,000 XP
- Play 125 innings – Headliners Set 15 pack
- Play 145 innings – Rewind Pennant Race pack, 7,500 XP
- Play 150 innings – Pennant Race pack, 7,500 XP
- Play 175 innings – 2,000 stubs
- Play 200 innings – Headliners Set 16 pack, 5,000 XP
- Play 225 innings – Ballin’ Is A Habit pack, 7,500 XP
- Play 250 innings – The Show pack (x10), 10,000 XP
- Play 275 innings – Rewind World Series pack, 7,500 XP
- Play 300 innings – World Series pack, 15,000 XP
- Play 350 innings – The Show pack (x5), 5,000 XP
- Play 400 innings – Ballin’ Is A Habit pack (x5), 5,000 XP
- Play 450 innings – 5,000 stubs
- Play 475 innings – Big Dog Set 1 pack, 7,500 XP
- Play 500 innings – Big Dog Set 2 pack, 7,500 XP
- Play 550 innings – Big Dog Set 3 pack, 7,500 XP
- Play 600 innings – The Show pack (x20), 10,000 XP
Bottom Line
I would say both World Series rewards are good cards, and Javy Baez might serve as another chance to get an Awards card for certain collections. Overall, I would say both these cards should age better than the ones last month, but I don’t think either one becomes an “obvious” starter at their positions in the current meta. I will be choosing Javy Baez in my pack, but I think technically Vladimir Guerrero is the better card if I look at the entire landscape of DD right now.
