Battle Royale Season 5 - 2nd Half Heroes Yu Darvish, Milestone Cedric Mullins

Battle Royale Season 5 launches today, replacing Season 4, and that means our two new Flawless rewards are 2nd Half Heroes Yu Darvish and Milestone Cedric Mullins. The other big diamond you will get on the rewards track is a 2nd Half Heroes Mike Napoli, which should excite some folks as well.

Battle Royale Season 5

The new top “Flawless” rewards:

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• 2nd Half Heroes Yu Darvish
• Milestone Cedric Mullins

Looking first at Yu Darvish, I have used gold Darvish this year and had some success with him for certain events and such. He’s a somewhat unique pitcher, and I sort of think of him like a right-handed Cliff Lee at times so he’s got a learning curve. For this version, you’re swapping out his 12-6 curve for a sinker, which is probably a net positive. He’s going to run it up there in the mid-90s, but the issue I see is without the 12-6 curve you don’t have as much speed variations to mix things up. The cutter will be the main pitch to pull that off, so he might work a little like Devin Williams in that way. With 98 H/9, he’s going to rely on the elite control he has on pretty much all his pitches to paint the corners as well.

As for Milestone Cedric Mullins, I expect this card to be much more popular than Darvish. He has one of the quicker swings in the game, and he’s already popular due to a card at launch, so this card will get some run. The attributes are very good all around, though I expected a bit more from the defense on this card. Still, with 80+ speed and fantastic hitting stats against LHP and RHP, he’s going to be a winner. I think this card will be a starter for plenty of squads.

Rewards

• 5 BR – 500 stubs
• 10 BR – 2,500 XP, Bronze BR choice pack (x2)
  • Rookie Christian Yelich
  • Topps Now Albert Pujols
  • Topps Now Tyler Glasnow
  • Veteran Babe Ruth

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• 15 BR – 500 stubs
• 20 BR – 2,500 XP, The Show pack (x5)
• 25 BR – Silver BR choice pack
  • Rookie Akil Baddoo
  • Veteran Andre Dawson
  • Rookie Manny Machado
  • Rookie Max Scherzer

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• 30 BR – 2,500 XP, Gold BR choice pack
  • Rookie Lance Lynn
  • Breakout Ray Durham
  • Topps Now Ian Happ
  • Topps Now Julio Urias

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• 35 BR – 1,500 stubs
• 40 BR – 2,500 XP, Silver BR choice pack
• 45 BR – Gold BR choice pack
• 50 BR – 2,500 XP, Headliners Set 12 pack
• 55 BR – 1,500 stubs
• 60 BR – 2,500 XP, Bronze BR choice pack (x2)
• 65 BR – 2,500 XP, Silver BR choice pack
• 70 BR – 2,500 XP, Gold BR choice pack
• 75 BR – 2,500 XP, Headliners Set 13 pack
• 80 BR – 2,500 XP, Silver BR choice pack
• 85 BR – 2,500 XP, Gold BR choice pack
• 90 BR – 5,000 XP, 2nd Half Heroes Mike Napoli

I’m a little surprised to see the contact numbers on this card, but Napoli did hit .320 that season with an OPS over 1.000 so that does track for being dominant at the catcher position. The defense is obviously not ideal, and the power versus left-handed pitching at only 80 hurts a little. However, this is another card people really enjoyed early in the season, so I suspect he might be able to squeeze onto some benches to at least be another reverse-platoon option. The speed is relatively brutal, but you could also probably use him at 1B and be fine considering players still seem to beat their defensive ratings at that spot. All in all, this is one of the better cards for the penultimate award tier in the BR program.

• 95 points – 5,000 XP, Rewind BR Flawless choice pack
• 100 points – 10,000 XP, BR Flawless choice pack
• 110 BR – 3,000 stubs, The Show pack (x10)
• 120 BR – Headliners Set 14 pack
• 130 BR – 2,500 XP, The Show pack (x10)
• 140 BR – 3,000 stubs
• 150 BR – 5,000 XP, Ballin’ Is A Habit pack (x5)

Missions

• BR Missions
  • Win 1 BR game – 1 point (repeatable)
  • Go 12-0 – 20 points (repeatable)
  • Win 9+ games in a run – 10 points (repeatable)
  • 4,000 PxP in a single BR entry – 10 points
  • 20 hits in a single BR entry – 5 points
  • 15,000 PxP in BR games – 15 points
  • 25,000 PxP in BR games – 15 points
  • 40 XBH in BR games – 10 points
  • 5 BB in BR games – 3 points
  • 5 SB in BR games – 3 points

• Bronze BR-Exclusive Parallel XP Missions
  • Tally 250 PxP with Veteran Babe Ruth – 4 points
  • Tally 350 PxP with Topps Now Albert Pujols – 4 points
  • Tally 250 PxP with Rookie Christian Yelich – 4 points
  • Tally 350 PxP with Topps Now Tyler Glasnow – 4 points
• Silver BR-Exclusive Parallel XP Missions
  • Tally 350 PxP with Rookie Manny Machado – 4 points
  • Tally 350 PxP with Rookie Akil Baddoo – 4 points
  • Tally 500 PxP with Rookie Max Scherzer – 4 points
  • Tally 350 PxP with Veteran Andre Dawson – 4 points
• Gold BR-Exclusive Parallel XP Missions
  • Tally 500 PxP with Topps Now Ian Happ – 4 points
  • Tally 500 PxP with Topps Now Julio Urias – 4 points
  • Tally 500 PxP with Breakout Ray Durham – 4 points
  • Tally 500 PxP with Rookie Lance Lynn – 4 points