Diamond Dynasty - Ring the Bell Event, Jered Weaver Added

For the smaller content drop of the week, we are getting the Ring the Bell Event with a Takashi Okazaki Trevor Hoffman player reward, and then we also get Headliners Set 16 Prime Jered Weaver. The event will be the first 6-inning one of the year (usually not very popular), but the Okazaki series of cards are great looking and this card looks quite meta as well. Let’s dig a bit deeper below.

Ring The Bell Event

• Any hitters
• Any starting pitchers
• Silver or lower relievers
• Max team overall of 90
• 6-inning games
• Quick Counts on
• Difficulty: All-Star
• Free entries (as always)

The event runs until May 31.

With Quick Counts on, we get two firsts of the season here, but I actually generally enjoy Quick Counts in events. It changes the dynamic of the hitter-pitcher duel, which is a good thing for gameplay in small doses. Plus, since so many people are free swingers anyway, it changes the calculus a bit since you get into deeper counts more often than you would in most normal online games. It seems like you’ll obviously just load up with your best starting pitchers and try to grind out as many innings as possible before having to bring in a reliever (or maybe just another SP).

Rewards

• 1 win – The Show pack
• 3 wins – Headliners Set 14 pack
• 5 wins – 2,500 XP, Rewind choice pack
• 7 wins – Headliners Set 15 pack, 2,000 stubs
• 10 wins – Takashi Okazaki Trevor Hoffman, 1,500 XP

With 110 H/9, 117 K/9, and 79 BB/9 we’re looking at rather solid peripherals for Hoffy. The big thing with him is the major speed differential between his circle-change and fastball. On top of that, the speed differentials for things like the cutter and slider are both very intriguing in theory. So you don’t get top-end velocity here, but you’re getting 99 control of the circle-change and solid control of everything else that is not the curveball. If you can get the circle-change motion down, then Hoffy becomes a threat to both LHP and RHP. I would imagine this card ends up playing out a lot like people use Devin Williams.

• 12 wins – Headliners Set 16 pack, 500 stubs
• 15 wins – Ballin’ Is A Habit pack, 1,500 XP
• 18 wins – 2,000 stubs
• 20 wins – Rewind choice pack, 2,500 XP
• 23 wins – The Show pack (x5)
• 25 wins – Ballin’ Is A Habit pack, 2,500 XP
• 27 wins – The Show pack (x5)
• 30 wins – Rewind choice pack, 5,000 XP

Headliners Set 16 Prime Jered Weaver

This is our first diamond Jered Weaver, and I suspect it might be the only diamond Jered Weaver we get since it’s a Prime card. With the gold version, it was hard to say one way or another how he would play out, but you’re getting more velocity than I thought we might with this card, which perhaps boosts his potential just a bit. With Weaver, he has major break on all his pitches, so you’re going to want to really entice people to chase to get this card to work. The peripheral stats are above average for this point in the year, and I think the pitch mix is solid as well. Overall, I don’t have high hopes for this card, but I think SDS at least gave him a chance to succeed.

The odds on Headliners packs to pull a diamond are 1:10 (as always), albeit that diamond might not be Prime Jered Weaver. In addition, this year you can buy one pack of the Headliners choice pack, which gives you 1:3 odds of pulling a 90+ overall diamond (and of course costs more stubs).