Headliners Set 27 Awards Manny Machado replaces Signature Series Stephen Strasburg (no link, I was on vacation when he came out this week, forgive meeeee) in Headliners packs today. He is a 97 overall.
Between Strasburg and Machado, this is a big uptick in Headliners this week after the Future Stars Logan Gilbert felt like a real valley for the series as a whole. The great part about Diamond Dynasty is how many cheap, amazing cards you can get just by playing the game. The curse is then when the developers actually put cards in stuff like Headliners packs that are totally average to below average, it makes it confusing why they even exist and are in the marketplace. It’s a tricky balance to find because obviously none of us want SDS to trend in the 2K/EA direction with the pay-to-buy cards nature of things, but you still want to make the packs enticing enough to be intrigued by them.
That being said, Awards Manny Machado is already added to my lineup. I love the swing, love the player, and this is a great 3B to me. Versus his Live series card, it’s better in pretty much every way except it’s 10 points lower in the power category vs. LHP. Still, the reverse splits here are good considering how many RHP are meta right now. He has 98 contact and 95 power vs. RHP, and 79 contact and 81 power vs. LHP. He has 95 fielding, 98 arm, and 93 reaction to go with 62 speed. The competition at 3B is stiff so I would understand people either trying him at SS or not using him, but I’m repping this card much like I do Awards Matt Wieters behind the plate because I go for the defense-first guys. I still don’t think defense matters enough in The Show, but I like to pretend it does by using these guys and trying to make it work.
Awards Manny Machado
Here are his ratings:
Here are his quirks:
The odds on the Headliners packs remain the same as always, so good luck if you try getting him in packs as you’ll have a 1:10 chance at a diamond, albeit that diamond might not be Awards Manny Machado.
