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One of baseball's biggest rising stars and one of its fading lights are the Lightning honorees for August in Diamond Dynasty.
Caglianone, Bryant are August Spotlight's Lightning Players
With Jac Caglianone coming into his own in August, the Royals slugger is a predictable — sort of — Lightning player for the August Spotlight Program. Picking Kris Bryant as the Retro Lighting honoree is a lot more head-scratcher than no-brainer, though.
Caglianone may not have much of a shot at AL Rookie of the Year — that's Kevin McGonigle's to lose, at this juncture — but he did lead MLB in both batting average and wRC+ in August, as his card art informs, and the Royals' hoped-for companion to Bobby Witt Jr. as an offensive anchor has clearly arrived. His DD card is unfortunately low on power — just 108/87 against righties and lefties — but has near-perfect Contact (125/115, with 125 Clutch) that should allow Parallel Mods to buoy the bop potential, and makes up for it elsewhere as a defensive weapon, with a 99/95 Arm. And playing that arm at Cags's secondary position of left field is likely to surprise a few opponents.
Bryant, on the other hand, is a bit more well-rounded — every Contact/Power stat is at or above 100 — but has fewer exceptional attributes, with just his Power against lefties (115) starting above 109. He'll be good anywhere he's deployed, and somehow has secondary eligibility everywhere but second base and catcher thanks to being deployed at those positions in the 2016 season if not August 2016 specifically, making him the best of both worlds for Cubs fans who might be disappointed to not see Pete Crow-Armstrong get a second Lightning card for this season.
Unlocking Caglianone requires just the four other August Spotlight XP reward path players — Angel Genao, Gunnar Henderson, Nick Sogard, and Alex Bregman, new on this Friday — while nabbing Bryant takes 13 of the 16 Spotlight Pack players for August. Collecting eight players from those Packs rewards a Corey Seager August Spotlight card that is no slouch as far as lefty hitters or shortstops with noodle arms go.
The 7th Inning Stretch Event Program is maybe the best way to make progress on August Spotlight players, if so desired: It has the usual Event Program structure, and its rewards are August Spotlight Drop 1, 2, 3, and 4 Packs with another August Spotlight Pack with a player from any of the Drops on top. The event is also extra long this go-round: It runs through Tuesday, September 15th at 3 p.m. Eastern.
Other August Spotlight Players of Note
- Drop 4's best reliever is Paul Blackburn, who has 115 or better stats in all H/9, K/9, and Clutch, but throws a 95 MPH sinker as his primary pitch. If that's your bag, get it.
- Gary Sanchez is here, still — unbelievably, he's "only" 33 and his 200th home run gives him more than Kris Bryant, a former NL MVP, does in his career — and he has his usually prodigious Power (115/121) but also a bizarrely great arm (99 Arm Strength and 85 Pop Time) for throwing out would-be base-stealers. Huh!
- Jake Bauers comes in one slot below Bregman on the Spotlight Drop 4 XP reward path, and with an unusual reverse split: He's a lefty who should destroy left-handed pitching (121/115 Contact/Power against southpaws), should shrinkage not be an issue for you on down-and-away divers.
Other News and Notes
- Chase Pack 25's featured player is a 99 OVR Milestone Series Chili Davis, being honored for joining the 350 Home Run Club — not a thing, but whatever — with the Yankees in October 1999. That would be the final home run of Davis's career, in the twilight of his age-39 season, so this card is of course blessed with 83 Speed (which Davis used to steal four bases that season) and great Contact (he hit .269) and Power (19 homers) attributes. At least it'll be expensive as a switch-hitting center fielder!
- Next week's content is set for a Friday of some note: September Spotlight Drop 1, a new Program with a Conquest map, and a roster update with attributes being upgraded and downgraded is all coming on September 11.
- Roberto Clemente Day is September 15, and will — as has been the case in recent years — be celebrated in DD. Expect that to be a Program of some sort with a 99 OVR Clemente as one of its prizes.
