Diamond Dynasty - Lightning Mookie Betts Highlights August Monthly Awards

Chase Becotte

Published: Sep 9, 2022 04:00 pm

With Austin Riley finishing up his moment in the sun, we look ahead now with the August Monthly Awards and the first featured player being Lightning Jim Thome. Topps Now Week 1 is smaller than the usual first batch for the new program as well. It only has three players, and then one collection reward.

August Topps Now (Week 1)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Topps Now Miguel Vargas
Topps Now Jordan Montgomery
Topps Now Eddie Rosario

I always like when we get to see some fresh faces for the Topps Now players, and two of the three hit that here with Montgomery and Vargas. I think Montgomery is mildly intriguing due to the pitch mix being decent, but he might have some issues with velocity differentials. Eddie Rosario should be a familiar face for DD fans as he had a sick card last year. This one isn’t incredible or anything, but he’s be fine as a platoon option if you love his swing.

Moments

August 2: Mateo Uses Some Muscle
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 2 XBH
August 2: Rosario Records Go-Ahead Knock
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 2 RBI
August 3: San Diego Welcomes Soto
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Get on base 3 times
August 3: Miguel Makes Great First Impression
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 2 hits
- Tally 1 XBH
August 6: Monty’s Revenge Game
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Pitch 2 innings
- Strike out 1 batter
- Do not give up 1 run
August 7: Bellinger Helps Sweep Padres
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 2 hits
- Hit 1 HR

Collection

Topps Now Jorge Mateo – Collect 3 Topps Now August players

We may have a new go-to super utility option here. Mateo can play just about every position and has 99 everything for speed purposes.

August Topps Now (Week 2)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Topps Now Thairo Estrada
Topps Now Michael Kopech
Topps Now Joey Meneses
Topps Now Drew Rasmussen
Topps Now Vaughn Grissom

Moments

August 9: Man Oh Man Oh Manny
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
August 10: Grissom’s Grand Debut
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
August 10: Meneses Makes Nats History
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 4 total bases
August 12: Kopech Shines
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Strike out 11 batters
- Do not give up 1 run
August 14: Lindor Sets Mets Record
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 1 RBI
August 14: Nearly Perfect
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Pitch 1 inning
- Do not walk 1 batter
- Do not give up 1 hit
- Do not hit 1 batter
August 14: No Stopping The Machine
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
August 14: Thairo The Hero
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run

August Topps Now (Week 3)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Topps Now Oswaldo Cabrera
Topps Now Patrick Sandoval
Topps Now Dustin May

Moments

August 16: Rhys Won’t Cease
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 6 total bases
August 17: From The Jaws Of Defeat
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Hit 1 home run
August 17: New King Of Queens
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
August 18: Welcome To The Bronx
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 1 XBH
August 19: Patrick Maddux Sandoval
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Pitch 4 innings
- Do not give up 1 run
August 20: He May Be A Problem
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Pitch 2 innings
- Do not give up 1 run
- Strike out 4 batters

Collection

Topps Now Rhys Hoskins – Collect 11 Topps Now August players

August Topps Now (Week 4)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Topps Now Kyle Stowers
Topps Now Nathaniel Lowe
Topps Now Corey Dickerson

Moments

August 22: Max Passes Pedro
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Strike out 2 batters
- Do not walk 1 batter
- Do not give up 1 hit
August 24: Julio Records Rodriguez
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Hit 1 home run
August 24: Lowe In High Elevation
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 6 total bases
August 25: All Glory To Corey
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 3 hits
August 25: Light Stower Power
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Hit 1 home run
August 27: Cy Young Caliber
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Strike out 10 batters
- Do not give up 2 runs

Rewards

2 points – Cleveland Home Alternate 1994 uniform
4 points – The Show pack
6 points – 500 stubs
8 points – Topps Now Miguel Vargas
10 points – Topps Now Jordan Montgomery
12 points – Topps Now Eddie Rosario
14 points – The Show pack
16 points – 500 stubs
18 points – Topps Now Thairo Estrada
20 points – Topps Now Michael Kopech

24 points – Topps Now Joey Meneses
26 points – Topps Now Drew Rasmussen
28 points – Topps Now Vaughn Grissom
30 points – The Show pack
32 points – 500 stubs
36 points – Topps Now Oswaldo Cabrera
38 points – Topps Now Patrick Sandoval
40 points – Topps Now Dustin May
42 points – The Show pack (x2)
44 points – 1,000 stubs

48 points – Topps Now Kyle Stowers
50 points – Topps Now Nathaniel Lowe
52 points – Topps Now Corey Dickerson
54 points – The Show pack (x2)
56 points – 1,000 stubs
60 points – Ballin’ Is A Habit pack (x2)
65 points – Diamond bat skin
70 points – August Monthly Awards (96 overall)
- Monthly Awards Alexis Diaz
- Monthly Awards Christian Walker
- Monthly Awards George Kirby
- Monthly Awards Jeff McNeil
- Monthly Awards Lars Nootbaar
- Monthly Awards Peter Fairbanks

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

75 points – Ballin’ Is A Habit pack
80 points – August Monthly Awards (96 overall)
85 points – Headliners Set 41 pack
90 points – The Show pack (x2)
95 points – August Monthly Awards (96 overall)
100 points – 1,000 stubs
105 points – Headliners Set 42 pack
110 points – August Monthly Awards (98 overall)
- Monthly Awards Alex Bregman
- Monthly Awards Randy Arozarena
- Monthly Awards Zac Gallen

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

115 points – Headliners Set 43 pack
120 points – The Show pack (x5)
125 points – August Monthly Awards (98 overall)
130 points – 2,500 stubs
135 points – Headliners Set 44 pack
140 points – Legends Takashi Okazaki pack
145 points – Ballin’ Out Of Control pack
150 points – Lightning Jim Thome

Last month, I would say Craig Biggio held up well as we waited to get our hands on him. With Thome, he goes into a loaded 3B position, so by default he probably won’t be worth the wait. However, it’s not a slight against this card as he certainly has some impressive hitting attributes. He maxes out his stats against RHP, and the platoon splits are not so brutal that you can’t use him against LHP. Plus, he is a 3B primary here so he will have a little more cache than he would at 1B, even if the defensive numbers are nothing great.

Ultimately, the defense and speed will probably bring his appeal down enough, but it’s hard to find this sort of power at 3B in a general sense. In fact, I have not looked too deeply at the numbers, but he probably has the top power at 3B as of today as it does beat out Lightning Austin Riley in that regard.

160 points – Home Run Derby pack
165 points – 2022 All-Star Game pack
170 points – Five Tool Player Tool Box pack
175 points – August Lightning Awards Mookie Betts

Another monster card arrives here with Lightning Mookie Betts. It’s easy to sell most folks on a Betts card either way, but he comes equipped here with a 2B secondary on top of having sick all-around stats. The 72 speed is the only slight negative, but I think this is another easy starter on most teams as of today. As should be the case, this is the best Lightning player we have received all year.