Another Friday, another Diamond Duos pack dropping into the marketplace. This week, SP Lance Lynn (Chicago White Sox) and 2B Rod Carew (Minnesota Twins) jump into the meta. Let’s take a look at each card.

Diamond Duos Pack 13

2B Rod Carew (Minnesota Twins)

Charisma series Rod Carew brings max-Contact against both sides with respectable enough Power (73 Pow L and 86 Pow R) from the left side. With a maxed out Clutch rating of 125, Carew never wavers with runners in scoring position and should be a lethal bat anywhere in your lineup. Contact hitters have performed well this year and that bodes well for Carew. Combined with 90 Speed, Carew can also cause some havoc on the basepaths although the 82 Steal rating isn’t the strongest. Still, getting 90+ Speed on the basepaths is always a plus.

Carew comes with 81 Fielding at 2B with 1B as a secondary. The Fielding is nothing to write home about but he should be play a decent enough 2B with his Speed. Dead Red, Breaking Ball Hitter, Unfazed and Bad Ball Hitter highlight Carew’s Quirks package and rounds out a solid card.

On release, Charisma Rod Carew (101.74) ranks as the 5th best overall 2B card according to Meta Overall. If you keep it strictly to cards with 2B primary, Carew is the best pure 2B in the game.

SP Lance Lynn (Chicago White Sox)

We get another RHP thrown into the meta mix with this Lance Lynn. On the surface, this card has plenty to like and should attract a fair amount of attention. With H/9 at 114 and BB/9 at 104, Lynn brings elite attributes to the table with a strong 118 Pitching Clutch rating to boot. Pitch mix wise, Lynn has decent enough velocity with the 4-Seamer at 95+ and a Sinker at 93+ MPH. Lynn has a Cutter with 96 Control and 90 Break that has enough of a speed differential from the 4-Seamer that it should prove effective. The Sinker doesn’t possess much Break at 84 but still has solid Control with 93. The off-speed mix is where Lynn falters a bit. The Circle-Change is good enough but there’s not much of a speed differential from the hard stuff. There’s not much Break to the Change either with an 82 rating. Lynn’s breaking ball of choice is a Curveball that’s fairly slow at 82 MPH, but has mediocre Control and Break.

Ultimately, I think Lynn’s lack of a Slider or Slurve makes him a bit less attractive. A lack of Quirks also dampens Lynn’s overall impact. You can probably still make this card work for shorter stints but I don’t know how much long-term success Lynn will have in Ranked.

Charisma Lance Lynn’s 99.78 Meta Overall does have him ranked as the 6th best SP in the game right now. This is the kind of SP that could go either way for me, but I have my reservations despite the fairly high Meta Overall rating.

Do either of these cards make your squad? Let us know!