Fall Stars Featured Program

San Diego Studios announced their newest addition to Diamond Dynasty, the Fall Stars Featured Program. Though we don’t quite yet have a Showdown or an Event for this new program, we do have a live series roster update, a sizable new conquest map, as well as many more new goodies in the program itself.

This program has some of the best cards to date in the game. That may be true of every program that drops, however, this one is for the record books. Some of the highlights include a Takashi Okazaki Ken Griffey Jr., Finest Chris Sale, and Signature Series Babe Ruth. Get five of nine of these bosses as you grind program XP. There are even a handful of henchman that should be more than collection filler. Let’s dive right into the pile of leaves and get down to business with these fall stars bosses.

Babe Ruth

Signature Series Babe Ruth is the long-waited successor of the original collection reward for his 97 Takashi Okazaki card. With Ruth’s smooth swing, this is going to be a top hitting card in the game. He has 125 power and 125 contact vs both sides. No need to parallel! Unless, of course you want that gold defense in right field at P5. Though Ruth isn’t very fast (64 speed) and doesn’t have great fielding, he still remains to be one of the best corner outfield options in the game.

At the very least he will be replacing Larry Walker and Juan Soto as the best lefty home run hitters in the game. His first base eligibility is HUGE, in fact his True Overall is higher there than anywhere else at 110.86, ranking fourth behind LOTF Hank Aaron, Takashi Okazaki Jimmie Fox, and Milestone Albert Pujols. Out of all right fielders and first baseman, Ruth is 11th in Meta Overall at 92.73. Hide him at first or stick him in the outfield, Ruth is a very viable option to choose.

Bob Gibson

Finest Bob Gibson is another card that has been waiting for an upgrade from his 90 All-Star card. This card is still used competitively online, so the upgrade to his finest card will be a natural fit for many rotations. Gibson has a very solid pitch mix, with 99 mph fastball mixed in with a slider, sinker, curve, and change. That’s multiple sets of pitches to tunnel, as well as good breaking stuff. Though he doesn’t have an incredibly high H/9 (110) and K/9 (106), this card at higher parallels will be a problem.

Gibson is deceptive and will continue to be extremely hard to hit. His BB/9, which we now know has an extremely large impact on control as seen through Scann’s research, is a bit low at 88 but it’s definitely workable. Fun fact: he also is a diamond fielder at parallel one. He is also fifth in Meta Overall in starting pitchers, behind only Finest Johnny Cueto, Milestone Nolan Ryan, Finest Corey Kluber, and the top spot is another boss in this fall series program. We’ll get to him soon. All in all, Gibson is a very solid option to pick up and plug in right away to your squad.

Chris Sale

Finest Chris Sale is also another bump up from his infamous 96 overall lightning throwback monthly moments card. This card is still used to this day. Getting an upgraded version is unfair; Sale might be the very best pitcher in the game. He has incredible stats, 120 H/9 and 118 K/9. Get to parallel 5 those are close to being maxed out. SDS also gave him 100 BB/9, which is incredible and a huge upgrade from the mediocre 80 BB/9 on his previous card. His pitch assortment is simple but effective. Four seam, slider, circle change, and sinker. It’s the way that the ball comes out of his hand that’s so hard to pick up that makes him so hard to hit.

This is one of those cards that with stats aside, his animations make him an elite starter. The numbers don’t lie either – he is ranked first overall in Meta Overall for all starters in the game. Sale is a no-brainer. If you’re craving another southpaw sweep him up ASAP.

Dennis Eckersley

Rounding out all the pitchers, we have an oldie but a goodie, Takashi Okazaki Dennis Eckersley. Eckersely did have a 92 overall All-Star card, but at this point in the game there were better reliever options. But, this upgrade was worth the wait. He has near perfect stats, coming in at a 125 H/9, 120 K/9, and 125 BB/9. At P5 this card has perfect stats across the board. Add in his deceptive stuff, including a slider, sinker, four-seam, and curveball, it doesn’t matter that his speed tops out at 95. This is one of, if not the, best relievers in the game. The mix of control and deception with his pitch selection makes up for the lack of velocity on his stuff.

He has the highest True Overall in the game amongst all relievers and closers, and the 11th Meta Overall. He is ranked a little bit lower amongst his peers, but that’s more of the metric considering his velocity to be subpar. But it’s always a good thing to have an arm in the pen who can slow things down after starting someone who throws heat. Eckersley will likely replace Takashi Okazaki Rollie Fingers for many, or just be a dynamic duo out of the pen. Dennis the Menace is an excellent target to zone in on.

Francisco Lindor

Perhaps unconventional, Finest Francisco Lindor sneakily becomes one of the best shortstops in the game. Though Finest Barry Larkin and Finest Jimmy Rollins remain king, Lindor is arguably the third best shortstop in the game. Firstly, lets touch on his swing. It’s smooth. It reminds me of Future Stars Pete-Crow Armstrong, but from both sides of the plate. This slightly makes up for the lackluster contact against right, starting off with 95. But the rest of his hitting stats are strong, coming in at 114 contact vs left, 105 power vs right, and 103 power vs left. Add that in diamond defense and 76 speed, this card is nothing to scoff at.

He ranks sixth overall in Meta Overall amongst shortstops sitting at 88.93. His only real weakness is not having a secondary position, but with that diamond defense he will be just fine in the infield even out-of-position. For many that don’t have J-Roll who are looking for some switch hitting in the lineup or even off their bench, Lindor is a superb substitute.

Jimmie Foxx

Takashi Okazaki Jimmie Foxx is what one may call an endgame card. His 95 OVR Postseason card was alright, but had poor power and mediocre defense. This Foxx blows his predecessor out of the water. Akin to Takashi Okazaki Ruth, he has 125 contact and power vs both sides across the board. No grinding for PXP required! He is stuck on silver defense, which is a little disappointing, but you’re not getting this card to play defense. Foxx is a first-base primary and can also play catcher or third base. It’s that catcher secondary that’s extremely intriguing and will likely cause a conundrum for those currently running LOTF Jorge Posada or Ivan Rodriguez behind the dish. In fact, his Meta Overall at catcher is five points higher than either of his ratings at first or third base.

He ranks fourth in Meta Overall at catcher, trailing only I-Rod, Finest Joe Torre, and another boss from this program. The only glaring weakness with this card is that he is a push hitter, which is difficult for some to use because of the lack of pull power and inconsistency with hitting in general. Albeit, Foxx’s position versatility and bat will be hard to ignore.

Joe Mauer

Finest Joe Mauer is the other catcher in this program and for lack of better words… he is freaking good. His 96 OVR collection reward card for the cover athlete series is still used to this day, and though there are better overall catchers now, people used him because of that sweet swing and excellent defense. His finest version is perfect on contact from both sides at 125 apiece. He still does have lower power vs left, coming in at 92, but his power vs right being 115 makes up for that. He of course has diamond defense, high vision, and the unfortunate low speed. However with amazing contact and defense, Mauer ranks first in Meta Overall amongst all eligible catchers.

It’s disappointing that he doesn’t have a first-base secondary like his previous card did, but at this point there are so many better first base options that it’s forgivable. Joe Schmoe will be a favorite and a common site to see in lineups moving forward.

Ken Griffey Jr.

Takashi Okazaki Ken Griffey Jr. is the best card in MLB the Show. Okay, maybe that’s a little bit of exaggeration, but this card more than makes up for the Griffey program fiasco that was had a few months back. This Griffey card goes crazy. His splits are 122 contact and 125 power vs right, and 111 contact and 121 power vs left. Parallel these up and you can get pretty near max hitting stats. Amongst all outfielders at any position The Kid ranks first in Meta Overall by a stunning four points, beating out the likes of Aaron Judge’s Milestone card. He’s the real deal. High vision, diamond defense, and 90 speed, with that beautiful swing of his makes him the superior choice in these boss packs.

Vladimir Guerrero

Last but surely not least, we have dead-ball hitter Finest Vladimir Guerrero Sr. The father of current Toronto Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr., his dad was even better. His last card, the 97 OVR second half hero, was expensive and many have not been able to afford to try him out. But this card will push many to reconsider their right field spot, with Mookie Betts and Aaron Judge having been the top options as of late. His 125 contact vs both sides and 104 power vs right and 125 power vs left make him an extremely balanced hitter. It’s doubtful that one will be able to even notice the lower power vs right that simply because of how wide his PCI will be.

His swing is violent but effective, one of the better swings in the game. Though he only gets gold defense in right field, his 99 arm strength will make opponents think twice before running on him. Also having excellent vision and sneaky speed, Guererro is one of the best outfielders in the game. He ranks fourth in Meta Overall amongst all outfielders, only trailing Milestone Honus Wagner, Milestone Aaron Judge, and Ken Griffey Jr. Vladdy is a must havvey!

The Program

The program itself isn’t too shabby. There are a good mix of options to gain gameplay XP as well as locking in collections as well. The program has a total of a million attainable XP over the next four weeks. Let’s go over each of the different tasks:

Keep up with your daily moments! Nothing new. Easy 3,000 XP a pop.

Next, we have our featured program moments, where you get to test drive each of the new bosses in two separate moments. It’s not too difficult, they’re all set on veteran and are pretty easily attainable. The only difficult one may be the three strikeouts in a row without allowing a baserunner with Chris Sale, but it’s Chris Sale. It’s doable.

Next we have the legend and flashback missions for week 1. Along with all the program henchman, the accumulation of PXP with Postseason, Finest, Signature, and Takashi Okazaki players allows for 42k attainable XP towards the Fall Stars tasks.

After that are collections. Here you can still lock in the Xtreme rewards for 30k XP each. September Monthly rewards Bo Bichette and Milestone Aaron Judge are worth 15k XP apiece. If there was any program to lock in these cards, this would be the one.

There is also the typical divisional exchanges. Grabbing a handful of live series cards to submit for XP rewards can be helpful even if a bit pricey to get ahead on in-program rewards – don’t forget to use our exchanges page linked here  to be as efficient with your stubs as possible. There’s also the typical March to October XP available.

Then we have the Widow Conquest, which is worth 45k XP for completion. Yes, it’s shaped like a black widow spider. If you’re looking for the conquest cheat sheet, it’s linked here. Everyone likes packs! There are 10 strongholds to conquer, so this one will be somewhat of a grind, but the rewards and gameplay XP are always worth it.

Henchmen

Can’t forget the attainable henchmen in the program, so let’s at least mention each of these free cards.

• 98 Milestone Whitey Ford
• 97 Postseason Madison Bumgarner
• 99 Finest Willie Stargell
• 99 Finest Joe Carter
• 99 Finest Kirk Gibson
• 99 Finest Luis Gonzalez

Neither Ford or Bumgarner really push the needle and are more likely collection fodder than cards making your diamond dynasty team long term, but some of these finest cards are really solid bench pieces. The cream of the crop is Luis Gonzalez, who will be giving 99 Prime Larry Walker a run for his money as one of the better lefty power bats in the game. With 125/117/125/125 splits and gold defense in right field, Gonzalez may as well be a regular boss that everyone can attain. Hopefully these free henchmen will help in collection runs at Finest GOATs George Brett, Andrew McCutchen, and Jimmy Rollins.

Final Thoughts

A good amount of players went diamond today for the last live series update of the regular season. Some big names include Albert Pujols, Carlos Correra, and Pete Alonso. There will be another roster update after the playoffs, but these are the rosters for now.

San Diego Studios also announced that until October 11th at midnight PST that 20 pack bundles now include a guaranteed chase pack. If you’re looking to rip some base packs on a budget, get on that quickly.

The Fall Stars Program is arguably some of the best content that MLB the Show has ever dropped. All of these amazing cards will impact so many lineups and give many players a chance at drastically improving their squad. Exciting times are ahead!