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In a small tribute to the Big Apple, MLB The Show's latest Program features stars of the Subway Series.
Piazza, Jeter Highlight Subway Series Program
There is obviously slightly more important stuff going on in the world today, on the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, than new Diamond Dynasty content. But San Diego Studio may have threaded the needle on dropping new content in a baseball video game's card-collecting mode with the Subway Series Program, which both pays tribute to the 2000s-era Mets and Yankees who memorably played in both Subway Series games when interleague play was new and in the 2000 World Series and to the ways the Mets and Yankees helped New York begin to heal in the wake of that terrible day.
The Moment you would expect — Mike Piazza's home run to beat the Braves in the Mets' first game after 9/11 — is here. The Program's featured cards are John Franco, Mike Mussina, Derek Jeter, and Piazza, all with art that smartly combines their 2001 Topps cards and a New York Subway-inspired frame around them. It's not a long Program, with just a 50-Star XP reward path that gets players all four of those aforementioned cards, and it can be completed in its entirety with either the various Missions — simple ones for using Mets and Yankees — or finishing the Conquest map.
And, most of all, it's (almost; there is a Jorge Posada in Chase Pack 26, and he's great) fully free, sidestepping any of the drama that came from having a previous Jackie Robinson-centric Program ask players to open their wallets.
As tributes that could be housed in a video game go, it's pretty good. Throwing George W. Bush's famous strike might have been worth the effort, though.
Teo, Woo Lead September's First Spotlight Drop
As I've written about all year, the first Spotlight Drops after month-ending ones for the Spotlight Program have had a bit of a star power problem. So fitting in Teoscar Hernandez and Bryan Woo in September Spotlight Drop 1 is good work by SDS.
The Dodgers' outfield stalwart and playoff performer had a fine first week of September, and thus gets a card that should mash lefties — 120/115 Contact/Power from a righty bat will certainly play — but do little else all that well relative to competition. And if that Teo is fine for a free card, Woo — and Cardinals youngster and utility player Thomas Saggese — are appreciably and fairly better for being in the Spotlight Pack. Woo's combination of a 97 MPH four-seamer and a 95 MPH sinker is going to be tough to deal with, and 116/105 H/9 numbers against righties and lefties is certainly good enough; Saggese can play anywhere in the infield or in left field, and has a lefty-slaying hitting profile and the arm and speed to make it work wherever he's deployed defensively, although left field might be taxing.
The rest of the Drop is not particularly thrilling, though reliever Cooper Hjerpe has some great attributes and a killer sweeper that probably still will not make up for his four-seamer topping out at 91 MPH against human opponents, and Lazaro Montes, who crushed the longest homer in T-Mobile Park history to a part of the stadium I have never seen a ball hit, obviously gets 125 Power against righties as a result.
Roster Update Lends MVP Form to PCA, Diamond Status to Elly, Chourio, MH2
The stretch run of September is not really a time for making sweeping changes in a roster update, as most call-ups that will happen in a give season already have and there's more than 80 percent of a season's performances on most players' books.
But the headline of this roster update undermines that idea with what it has given Cubs center fielder — and NL MVP front-runner — Pete Crow-Armstrong. Namely, that change is a pair of huge bumps to his Power (now 98/80 against righties and lefties, respectively) that boost his OVR three points from 91 to 94. While there's still theoretically time and room for Shohei Ohtani to put together a rally that would earn another NL MVP, PCA's mammoth August, quest for admission to the 40/40 club, and unquestioned spark as the heart of the Cubs, deserved some sort of tribute in DD, and after he got snubbed for August Spotlight honors, this was perhaps the next best thing possible, as it rewards anyone who bought and held PCA with a card that is now worth about 10K Stubs.
The rest of the new Diamonds in this update are mostly stars who have held the status before: Elly De La Cruz, Jackson Chourio, Michael Harris II, and Jesus Luzardo are not exactly no-name players or one-season sensations. Luzardo makes the biggest leap, going from 84 to 87 OVR while also enjoying a temporary Supercharged status thanks to a masterful start against the Braves, while the NL East leaders get Harris back at Diamond level alongside a two-point bump for Chris Sale. Yankees ace Cam Schlittler and former cover athlete Fernando Tatis Jr. also make multi-point jumps within the Diamond tier, while Reds slugger Sal Stewart and Nationals hurler Cade Cavalli hop into Gold via five-point vaults.
The big loser of this update? Julio Rodriguez, down five points and plummeting from an 87 OVR Diamond to an 82 OVR Gold because of a .691 OPS that justifies siphoning points from all his hitting attributes.
Other News and Notes
- Chase Pack 26's aforementioned Jorge Posada might be the new best switch-hitting catcher in a game with no shortage of them. But he's also a sneaky good option at first base, where there are precious few elite switch-hitting options. Expect him to be quite pricy.
- A new Player Program for Jose Altuve celebrating the diminutive Venezuelan's 2,500th hit is now live, and has as its prize what should definitely be the best Altuve of MLB The Show 26, thanks to maxed-out Contact, 86 Speed, and Power that could approach triple digits with Parallel Mods and an Astros theme team. And its Missions are easy enough that grinders will complete them by accident.
- Next week's content in Diamond Dynasty begins with the Roberto Clemente Day Program arriving on Tuesday that is likely to be much like the Subway Series Program in scope and rewards.
- But Friday promises to be a big day in DD: Two new Programs are coming, with a Collection included on the same line of the in-game rundown, and a new Mini Seasons and Diamond Quest tied to one or both will follow. But there is also another Legends and Flashbacks Collection coming, and there's no question that reward should be best-card-in-the-game good at this stage of the DD cycle. (Miiight be a little expensive and labor-intensive, though.)
