Diamond Dynasty Ranked Seasons 5 Delivers Awards Cody Bellinger and Finest Leiter

Ranked Seasons 5 in MLB The Show 22 Diamond Dynasty emerged tonight (replacing Season 4), and we’re getting two big-time players who have starred in DD before in Awards Cody Bellinger and Finest Al Leiter.

Diamond Dynasty – Ranked Seasons 5

The four new cards are Awards Cody Bellinger and Finest Al Leiter at the World Series level, and then Milestone Billy Hamilton and All-Star Greg Holland at the Pennant Race level.

Rewards (Road To WS)

Spring Training – Play 1 game

• Bronze live series player
• 100 stubs

Regular Season – 200 points

• Silver live series player
• 300 stubs

All-Star – 400 points

• Silver live series player
• Silver nameplate and icon
• 600 stubs

Pennant Race – 500 points

• Choice of diamond Billy Hamilton, Greg Holland, Rod Carew, or Brooks Robinson
• Gold nameplate and icon
• 1,000 stubs

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Awards Billy Hamilton comes with the expected 99 speed, so he’ll be a good option to pinch run or play in the outfield if need be. This is the sort of card I always hope for with the Pennant Race level — just give me someone who fills a role. With All-Star Greg Holland, his slider and splitter means he’s like a David Bednar/Edwin Diaz or someone like that. I doubt he’ll find a role in many bullpens but is a decent enough arm.

Wild Card – 600 points

• Gold Live Series player
• Gold nameplate and icon
• 1,500 stubs

Division Series – 700 points

• Diamond bat skin
• Gold nameplate and icon
• 2,000 stubs

Championship Series – 800 points

• Gold Live Series player
• The Show pack (x5)
• Diamond nameplate and icon
• 3,000 stubs

World Series – 900 points

• Choice of Awards Cody Bellinger, Finest Al Leiter, 2nd Half Heroes Vladimir Guerrero, Awards Javy Baez
• Diamond nameplate and icon
• 4,000 stubs

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With Awards Cody Bellinger, you’re getting elite power from both sides and solid enough contact to go with a 97 arm. He also has 86 speed, so he can play all three outfield positions or be a unique threat on defense at 1B. The vision is 56 and striking out will generally be a concern, but folks should trust in the swing if they like Bellinger.

As for Finest Al Leiter, others seems to have more success with him than I do. That said, he has a meta pitch mix, and he has 87+ control of everything but the slider. With 102 H/9 and solid attributes across the board, I’m hopeful this card will once again be a hit for Leiter fans out there. It’s also worth noting the influx of Finest cards we’re getting as of late, so we should probably assume a Finest collection will hit sometime soon.

Bonus – 1,000 points

• 5,000 stubs
• 10 The Show packs

Bonus – 1,100 points

• 10,000 stubs
• 20 The Show packs

Bonus – 1,200 points

• 20,000 stubs
• 50 The Show packs

Rewards Structure For Total Innings

The rewards structure was sweetened a bit for this season. You now need to play just 250 innings to get to the World Series reward (down from 300). The Headliners packs and XP totals were also tweaked at various junctures. The other packs you get were also updated, so now there is a Ballin’ Is Out Of Control pack, a Legends Takashi pack (the Soriano version), a Home Run Derby pack, and an All-Star Game pack to earn in this program.

• Play 25 innings – 2,500 XP, Ballin’ Is A Habit pack
• Play 50 innings – The Show pack, 5,000 XP
• Play 75 innings – 2,000 stubs, Headliners Set 27
• Play 100 innings – The Show pack (x5), 5,000 XP
• Play 115 Innings – Rewind Pennant Race pack, 7,500 XP
• Play 125 innings – Pennant Race choice pack, 7,500 XP
• Play 150 innings – The Show pack (x5), 5,000 XP
• Play 175 innings – Headliners Set 29 pack, 2,000 stubs
• Play 225 innings – Rewind World Series pack, 7,500 XP
• Play 250 innings – World Series pack, 15,000 XP
• Play 275 innings – The Show pack (x10), 7,500 XP
• Play 300 innings – Headliners Set 25 pack, 7,500 XP
• Play 325 innings – The Show pack (x10), 5,000 XP
• Play 350 innings – Ballin’ Out Of Control pack, 5,000 XP
• Play 400 innings – Legends Takashi Okazaki pack, 5,000 XP
• Play 450 innings – Home Run Derby pack, 5,000 stubs
• Play 475 innings – All-Star Game pack, 7,500 XP
• Play 500 innings – Always Intense 1 pack, 7,500 XP
• Play 550 innings – Always Intense 2 pack, 7,500 XP
• Play 600 innings – The Show pack (x20), 10,000 XP

Bottom Line

I think this month is the most balanced we have seen all year in terms of the breakdown of which player folks can choose to take at the World Series level. I think Finest Al Leiter and Awards Cody Bellinger should both be in the running — rather than there being an obvious choice. On top of that, this is just about the first place we’ve seen All-Star Game packs and Home Run Derby packs show up following their introduction. By the time you get to the needed innings, those packs will probably be “free” in other parts of DD, but for now it’s a novelty to see them here. Shrinking down the innings requirements is smart as well as this is about the point of the year where people start leaving the game either out of boredom or because Madden and other sports games are getting closer to releasing.