Takashi Okazaki Babe Ruth Collection, Plus Future Stars Begins

With the DD update today, we get the Takashi Okazaki Babe Ruth collection, Future Stars Liover Peguero, a new event, and new Mini Seasons rewards. The Babe Ruth collection is slightly less brutal than expected, but we’re still being jobbed a bit when it comes to using the new Mini Seasons mode to its full extent. Let’s jump into everything below.

Takashi Okazaki Babe Ruth Collection

So it’s not a 99 (presumably the mega collection on Friday will be then), but the big man here is still a 97 overall with super impressive hitting stats (and not terrible fielding or speed!). We get full outfield flexibility with Babe, and then you can still shove him at 1B as well. He has 100+ hitting stats all around, 125 discipline, 72 fielding, and even 57 speed to not be hopeless out in the field or on the bases. The 97 overall means he’s not leaps and bounds better than the Takashi Okazaki Delgado card out there, but this is not the final Babe Ruth card, and he’s still quite good for a card for this moment in time. If he just had 1B eligibility, this maybe would not be super impressive because we’re maybe getting a Paul Goldschmidt for the Monthly Awards Program in the near future (1B is an embarrassment of riches), but this flexibility gives him some legs.

As for the cost, it’s expensive but not horrendously so due to more Okazaki cards still coming and only needing one of the Maddux or Delgado cards as of now. If you take into account the pre-order bonus and other ways to get Okazaki cards so far, you would technically only need to buy 3-4 cards to get Ruth right now, which is still pricey because Delgado is 200K, but there’s more cards coming so with a little patience you could probably finish this for under 100K stubs soon enough. All in all, since we basically knew Ruth would be the collection reward, the only mystery was the cost and overall rating, and I think both ended up coming in below expectations.

Headliners Set 18 – Future Stars Liover Peguero

Future Stars Liover Peguero is a card that looks good today but maybe looks less impressive on Friday when the Future Stars Program begins. We’re about to get a slew of 95 overall players, but as of now, he’s a really well-rounded position player. Shortstops are still in demand, and here you’re getting the all-around player who maybe does not quite reach elite status in any one spot. His stats against LHP are where he’s best, and he’s also got 85 speed to make his defensive stats even more impressive. He is 6-foot-1, which is not Oneil Cruz status, but still relatively tall for the middle infield.

The odds on Headliners packs to pull a diamond are 1:10 (as always), albeit that diamond might not be Future Stars Liover Peguero. 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).

Better Later Than Never Event

• No lineup restrictions
• Max team overall of 92
• 3-inning games
• All-Star difficulty
• Free entries (as always)

This program runs until June 7, and it coincides with the start of Double XP to wrap up the Halladay and Friends Program.

Rewards

• 1 win – The Show pack
• 3 wins – Headliners Set 15 pack
• 5 wins – Headliners Set 16 pack, 1,500 XP
• 7 wins – Rewind Events choice pack
• 10 wins – 2nd Half Heroes Cliff Lee, 2,000 XP

2nd Half Heroes Cliff Lee may end up being more important for a collection than anything else. We’re still light on 2nd Half Heroes cards so this and the Rollins below will be nice for that. Cliff Lee is collection fodder for many folks because they just don’t trust him to get outs most of the time. His pitch mix perfectly viable, and he has great control, so I tend to do okay with him, but usually his top-end cards are the only ones that end up getting used, and I don’t think this is quite that. His 83 H/9 is dicey, and he does not have overwhelming velocity, so we shall see here.

• 12 wins – Headliners Set 17 pack, 500 stubs
• 15 wins – 2nd Half Heroes Jimmy Rollins, 2,000 XP

Rollins cards are tough because he’s a switch hitter who just usually does not seem that impressive for a switch hitter with most of his cards. This is a 94 overall, but if we just look at Future Stars Liover Peguero, it’s hard to get behind this one as being super meaningful. That said, good speed and fielding on a switch hitter who can hit LHP is not nothing. It’s just I think fans of Rollins will be hoping for one more card that gives him “starter” status.

• 18 wins – 2,000 stubs
• 20 wins – Rewind Events 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 Events pack, 5,000 XP

New Mini Seasons Begins

The downside of the update today is we still got no new player with our Mini Seasons refresh. On top of that, while we got a couple interesting rewards that are somewhat unique to the mode for now, even those are nothing special. I understood not getting a new player last month while the mode was potentially still buggy. However, now it’s a bit weird that SDS is not putting more support behind its newest mode (and best new selling point for offline DD folks).

New Rewards

• Win a title – Takashi Okazaki choice pack
• Tally 60 total bases with Faces of the Franchise players – The Show pack (x5)
• Tally 30 runs with any players – The Show pack (x5)
• Tally 15 sac flies in a single season with Legend players – Headliners Set 17 pack
• Tally 25 hits with bronze players in a single season on Veteran or higher – BR bronze choice pack (which also presumably means these will soon be a thing again in BR)
• Tally 50 strikeouts with any silver pitchers in a single season on Veteran or higher – BR silver choice pack
• Win 10 games with gold pitchers in a single season while playing on All-Star or higher – Gold BR choice pack
• You Live Streaming (mystery mission) – Earn 1,500 PxP with Live Series players
• Doc Ordered A Chair (mystery mission) – Get five strike outs with any Halladay cards in a single game