The calendar has flipped yet again and the dog days of August are upon us. As we sprint through the tail-end of summer, we get a chance to relive July with the latest Monthly Awards program in MLB The Show 23. Top honors go to Cody Bellinger after his torrid July and we get a few other interesting names in this program. Let’s take a look.
MLB The Show 23 July Monthly Awards Program Breakdown
You’ll need to accrue 100 program stars in order to unlock Cody Bellinger and complete the program. This quicker grind versus the 150 star programs is one of the better mid-cycle changes SDS has ever made. Grinding out to 150 program stars felt, well, too grindy. This is quicker, more fun and gets us to the reward which is the entire point of the program. Ultimately, the structure of the program follows the template SDS has been using where players have full choice in how they go about completing it. We’ll outline how to get 100 program stars before looking at some of the cards.
How To Complete July Monthly Awards Program
Optional
The current even is still the Turn It Up A Notch Event that launched with the Extreme Program. If you haven’t tackled it yet, you can feasibly kill two birds with one stone here. While there’s no mission in Extreme that pays out program stars with Event wins, you will earn 1 program star in the July Monthly Awards Program with each win. Where you’ll make progress in both programs is earning the Event rewards if you haven’t done so. You have until August 11 to collect the three Event rewards for progress in Extreme. Or you could turn those cards into quite a bit of Stubs if completing the Extreme collection doesn’t interest you. Either way, you’ll make out very well for yourself and make progress in the Monthly Awards Program.
Topps Now Collection
As usual, there’s a collection within the Monthly Awards Program that rewards you 10 program stars upon completion. If you completed all of the Topps Now content in July, then you’ll have all the cards required and can earn the 10 program stars immediately. This will earn you both Captains and have you well on your way to being able to grind out the stat and PXP missions. If you haven’t completed July’s Topps Now content yet, I highly recommend you do as you’ll earn XP for your time as well as other rewards. Plus, it’s hard to turn down 10 easy program stars for completing content that won’t take too long.
Moments
Within this program you’ll find twenty-three total Moments that pay out a combined 46 program stars. That’s nearly half the required stars and with the collection stars, you’re more than halfway to Bellinger within a fairly quick amount of time. Progress on the Moments will earn you the various card and choice pack rewards, helping you fill out your July Monthly Squad that you’ll be able to grind with. Once you activate the respective Captains (Walker Buehler and Yuli Gurriel) you’ll actually have a pretty beefy team to pulverize the CPU with. It’ll even be competitive enough to use online if you prefer playing that way.
Stat/PXP Missions
Unless you mindlessly grind the Event, you’ll be needing to complete some of these missions attached to the program. If you’re like me and you’ll be completing this program completely offline, then these will be the final steps you’ll be taking to unlock Bellinger. The stat missions are as follows and make note that the Captains do count towards your missions:
- Get on base 50 times with July Monthly Awards cards
- Get 15 XBH with July Monthly Awards cards
- Get 3 Quality Starts with July Monthly Awards cards
- Get 30 Strikeouts with July Monthly Awards pitchers
Each of these missions pay out a total of 5 program stars. These typically take a bit longer than the individual PXP missions, but since the program only requires 100 program stars it ultimately helps the grind end a bit sooner.
The PXP missions are as follows:
- Tally 500 PXP with Captain Walker Buehler
- Tally 200 PXP with Captain Yuli Gurriel
- Tally 1,000 PXP with July Monthly Awards hitters
- Tally 1,000 PXP with July Monthly Awards pitchers
- Tally 5,000 PXP with July Monthly Awards cards
The Captain and hitter/pitcher missions pay out 5 program stars each, while the cumulative Monthly PXP mission pays out 15 program stars.
Ultimately, choose your path and you’ll have this program completed in no time. I’m going to go back and complete the July Topps Now content and then tackle all the Moments. Once I have all my program cards, I’ll build a July Monthly Squad and jump into a Conquest map to start knocking out missions. I might even jump into a Legend CPU game or two just for fun. No matter what you like doing in The Show, you can do it here and make progress.
Highlight Heroes
This program has some fun names that will get better cards than they’ll probably ever see again, but there’s a couple specific cards that stand out. Bobby Witt Jr. will almost certainly see some amazing cards during his career, but this highlighted card is free.
RP Joel Payamps (Milwaukee Brewers)
Meta Overall rating: 90.69
First up is RP Joel Payamps. Considered a throw-in during the big Sean Murphy three-team trade, Payamps has had a stellar season and gets a card for his efforts. With 125 H/9 and 117 BB/9, Payamps has an elite combination of major face-value attributes. A primary Slider with max Control and max Break pairs extremely well with the Sinker and 4-Seamer that both hit 95+ MPH. That speed differential between the Slider and Sinker should be quite effective with the 4-Seamer available to paint when needed. Not to be forgotten, Payamps also has a Circle-Change with 88 Control and 96 Break which rates out pretty well. Sitting at 88 MPH with good depth, it provides a chance to tunnel with the Slider and ultimately make Payamps a really fun reliever to use.
SS Bobby Witt Jr. (Kansas City Royals)
Meta Overall rating: 98.42; 3B: 100.03
The other card I want to specifically highlight is Bobby Witt Jr. One of the most exciting young players in baseball, Witt Jr. shows up with a pretty balanced card that can be a starting SS for many DD squads. With a truly balanced 102/108/102/100 CON/PWR split between righty and lefty pitchers, Witt also carries a 125 Clutch rating which skyrockets his offensive value with runners in scoring position. Defensively, Witt Jr. is a Silver shield at SS but he also has 99 Speed with 90 Arm Strength which should offset the 78 Reaction enough to make him more than playable at SS. He also has 3B eligibility if you want to use him there, but I think he’d be absolutely fine at SS for you.
CF Cody Bellinger (Chicago Cubs) – July Player of the Month
Meta Overall rating: 104.80; 1B: 107.27, LF: 106.11, RF: 104.89 – 56th best overall card
DD darling Bellinger is immortalized with the July Player of the Month honors. Anytime there’s a 99 overall Bellinger dropped, a fair amount of hype will surely ensue. Known for his sweet in-game swing, Bellinger often also features some decent positional versatility on top of the big offensive numbers.
That’s…not quite what this card is. But also not too far off. Basically, this card is lacking the major power that Bellinger often receives. For example, the 98 overall Awards version last year featured 111 PWR L and 116 PWR R. Bellinger’s 99 overall Milestone version had 125 PWR against both LHP and RHP. Does this mean the 99 overall July Player of the Month card is bad? Not at all. But comparing cards is what we do here and it’s fun to look at these things.
The Lightning Bellinger does feature max Contact against both sides with 125 Clutch to go with it. That’s obviously fantastic. Considering Bellinger has that amazing swing as well, you’ll still hit a fair amount of bombs. Still though, with Power barely sneaking over the 100+ threshold it’s a noticeable different from prior Bellinger cards.
Bellinger gets his Diamond shield in CF stock with the ability to carry the Diamond shield to 1B, LF and RF once he reaches Parallel 5. This Bellinger also gets 85 Speed stock which actually comes in a bit higher than that Milestone version last year. Suffice to say, the attributes on this Belli card are perfectly fine though a bit disappointing in the Power department.
One other important note about this card: Bellinger has a single Quirk and it sucks. Day Player isn’t exactly the most impactful Quirk in the game which does drag down Bellinger’s ultimate Meta Overall standing.
That’s it for the July Monthly Awards Program! Are you excited for Cody Bellinger? Are any of the other cards sleepers that will start on your squad? Let us know in the comments!
Cory Wayne Dell
Cory has been writing about all things baseball and gaming since 2022 and has been featured at Operation Sports as well as cited by Forbes. Cory is also a multi-instrumentalist and founder of the band Cargocastle. Cargocastle's latest single, "Truth and Reconciliation," is available on Spotify and all major streaming platforms. Cory is also the author of Shadow of a Monster, a personal memoir currently seeking publication.
