Weekly pack content is always something to look forward to in Diamond Dynasty. With the massive amount of content that dropped with Season 2’s launch, these new packs have almost flown under the radar. Let’s remedy that by taking our usual look at the new cards and their affect on the Meta Overall standings.

Diamond Duos Pack 14

This round of Diamond Duos brings us a repeat Future Stars card and a juicy superstar in the new Kaiju series.

SP Eury Perez (Miami Marlins)

A timely call-up lines up with Perez’s 99 overall card debut in MLB The Show 23. One of the most enticing pitching prospects in baseball, Perez roars back into Diamond Dynasty. More pitching options is always a good thing and this Perez card can be an intriguing card to add to your rotation.

Eury Perez features a primary Sinker that runs 95+ MPH and has Outlier attached. He also throws a Circle-Change that he controls well with 93 Control and also has 99 Break. The breaking balls are bit less exciting with the Slurve rolling with 87 Control and 88 Break and the Slider sitting with 79 Control and 84 Break. The Slider/Slurve combination can be a deadly one and there is a 10 MPH speed differential between those two breaking pitches. There’s pretty good speed differential in this pitch mix overall but will it be enough to make Perez a top SP? Not likely, but an Outlier Sinker paired with the Slider/Slurve combination might be worth a look if you need a fresh arm in the rotation.

Future Stars Eury Perez comes with a Meta Overall rating of 97.11 which ranks him as the 11th best SP in the game. This would probably be an instant-sell for me as I’d rather allocate the Stubs elsewhere.

RF Bryce Harper (Philadelphia Phillies)

Stomping in with a massively powerful Kaiju card, Bryce Harper gets a 99 overall in May. Let that sink in. I’ve talked a lot about how much I love the new Sets and Seasons model and this is yet another example why. We don’t have to wait until the end of the year for a 99 overall Bryce Harper. Instead of getting 99 Bryce as a Finest card or as a World Series/Battle Royale reward, we get 99 overall Bryce Harper as a Diamond Duos release. Such a fun change of pace from getting the community favorite cards after the game is basically dead.

This Kaiju Harper is really good, too. This isn’t some slapped together 99 overall. Harper mashes RHP with 116/121 Con/Pow versus RHP and still does well enough against LHP with a 102/90 Con/Pow split. A Clutch rating 0f 120 will help Harper deliver in scoring situations and 74 Speed is decent enough to get around the basepaths pretty well. Defense isn’t Harper’s calling card and the 77 stock Fielding highlights that truth. The big arm is still there with 88 Arm strength and 92 Accuracy so you’ll definitely peel off a fair number of runners that challenge you. That 79 Reaction rating is a bit low for an Outfielder defensively, especially consider the massive amount of options for the OF.

With the average defense, I’m not sure that I’d start this Harper in the outfield but I think he’d be serviceable out there. However, you’ll notice this version of Harper comes with 1B secondary. With Harper returning from injury in real life, there’s been talk that he could moonlight at 1B to avoid the outfield. As of this writing he hasn’t played the position yet and has only played 1B twice in his career, but this is a really cool move by SDS that gives Harper more versatility than he’s ever had defensively. On top of that, obviously we have the DH now so you don’t need to hide Harper in the field anywhere. You can slot him in at DH and be better off for it.

Kaiju Bryce Harper carries a Meta Overall rating of 105.58 which makes him the 3rd best RF in the game. When you factor in all eligible positions, Kaiju Bryce Harper is still the 8th best overall card in the game at those positions. This is a great card overall and should be an offensive force for months to come.

Alter Ego Choice Pack

Another premium pack hit the marketplace this week in the form of the Alter Ego pack. Loaded with Incognito series cards, this pack delivered fresh versions of some big names in Diamond Dynasty. As usual, this pack featured a Base and Rare round which means we’ll quickly highlight the Base before focusing more in-depth on the Rare round.

Base Round

RP Scott Barlow (Kansas City Royals)

CF Richie Ashburn (Philadelphia Phillies)

C Mitch Garver (Texas Rangers)

SP Jim Palmer (Baltimore Orioles)

LF Chris Taylor (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Rare Round

The big boys in the Rare round feature 99 overall debuts for three Diamond Dynasty mainstays.

SP Clayton Kershaw (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Clayton Kershaw brings his usual self into the meta with a Meta Overall rating of 94.82. Not the strongest rating, especially for a Kershaw card, but this isn’t the best version of Kershaw we’ll see. The 4-Seamer sits around 95+ MPH and is backed up by the typically devastating Slider with 97 Control and 99 Break and the Cooperstown Curveball (12-6) at a mind-numbingly slow 71 MPH with 92 Control and 99 Break. There’s a Circle-Change and Sinker in there for good measure. That Slider being a fairly hard Slider makes it a really good pitch to use as a primary pitch. Working off the Slider with the 4-Seamer and Sinker with the Circle-Change in the back pocket will probably be the strongest approach with Kershaw. Despite being known for his Curve, that pitch typically ends up being fairly weak in MLB The Show so you have to proceed with caution when using it. I like using it inside against lefty hitters but it can still be used in sequencing against both sides.

Incognito Clayton Kershaw rates out as the 14th best SP in the game.

CF Willie Mays (San Francisco Giants)

The Say Hey Kid! Willie Mays enters the conversation as another potential outfielder and does so with what I’d consider to be a pretty balanced card overall. 104/101 Contact against LHP and RHP respectively with a 115/110 Power split against those sides is pretty good. Mays does bring an 84 Clutch rating with him which really drives down his ability to make contact with runners on base. That to me makes him an ideal leadoff hitter to avoid the number of situations where you’re seeing that Clutch rating in effect. Known as one of the greatest defenders of all time, this Mays does carry a Diamond shield in CF with a 92 Fielding rating which means Parallel 3 enables the Diamond shield in the corner OF spots as well. Willie Mays also brings 87 Speed with him with a little bit of base stealing threat in him with a 76 Steal rating.

This is another card of a superstar that isn’t anywhere close to the most powerful version we’ve seen. In a sense, this is actually somewhat underwhelming for a Willie Mays card but the fact we’ll definitely see a better version in the future makes that ok with me. I just love the fact that we get to use these players so early in the season. When the “endgame” comes and the cards are all insanely juiced, that will be the time for the uber-attributes. For now, Incognito Willie Mays’ Meta Overall rating of 104.02 makes him the 3rd best overall CF in the game and the 13th best overall OF in the game.

2B Ryne Sandberg (Chicago Cubs)

Rounding out the Rare round is Ryne Sandberg. Sandberg’s max Contact against both sides combined with his decent power (83 Pow L/93 Pow R) and solid Clutch rating of 111 makes him a formidable offensive 2B. Solid Speed at 81 with Diamond Fielding of 92 and all other defensive attributes in the 80’s makes this a solid version of Sandberg. Again, not the best version we’ll ever see of Ryno but plenty good enough to man the keystone. Incognito Ryne Sandberg’s Meta Overall rating of 103.36 makes him the 4th best 2B in the game. He also carries 3B and SS eligibility and grades out as the 11th best card at those positions.

If I ended up with the Rare round in this pack, I’d most likely take Clayton Kershaw. I think he’s a fun pitcher to try and sequence with and despite the attributes not being incredible, the windup still has some funk to it and the meta is still dominated by RHP. That should mean a fair amount of left-on-left matchups which could create an advantage.