MLB The Show 24: Team Affinity Chapter 3 Lands in Diamond Dynasty

MLB The Show 24 has struggled to find its identity with content so far. The ups and downs have been well documented and cast a bright light on Team Affinity Chapter 3. With many of the best cards being hidden behind packs and paywalls, hope sprang eternal that we’d get some legitimate boppers.

For the most part, I’d say that’s what we got. Every team gets a 99 overall as we’ve somehow made it to the final stretch of Season 1 in Diamond Dynasty. Established theme teams and Captain boosts will be put to the test in these final weeks and the massive content drop on Friday should make things more interesting.

Let’s take a look at the cards featured in Team Affinity Chapter 3 and highlight some favorites.

American League East

3B Hyper Series Wade Boggs (Boston Red Sox)

SS Hyper Series Brad Miller (Tampa Bay Rays)

2B Hyper Series Brian Roberts (Baltimore Orioles)

2B Hyper Series D.J. LeMahieu (New York Yankees)

CP Hyper Series Tom Henke (Toronto Blue Jays)

National League East

CF Hyper Series Andre Dawson (Washington Nationals)

C Hyper Series Gary Carter (New York Mets)

SP Hyper Series Tom Glavine (Atlanta Braves)

SP Hyper Series Sandy Alcantara (Miami Marlins)

3B Hyper Series Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia Phillies)

American League Central

SP Hyper Series Cliff Lee (Cleveland Guardians)

SP Hyper Series Lucas Giolito (Chicago White Sox)

2B Hyper Series Whit Merrifield (Kansas City Royals)

SS Hyper Series Alan Trammell (Detroit Tigers)

3B Hyper Series Harmon Killebrew (Minnesota Twins)

National League Central

LF Hyper Series Willie Stargell (Pittsburgh Pirates)

SS Hyper Series Robin Yount (Milwaukee Brewers)

CF Hyper Series Eric Davis (Cincinnati Reds)

SP Hyper Series Kerry Wood (Chicago Cubs)

RF Hyper Series Ryan Ludwick (St. Louis Cardinals)

American League West

2B Hyper Series Ian Kinsler (Texas Rangers)

3B Hyper Series Edgar Martinez (Seattle Mariners)

CP Hyper Series Blake Treinen (Oakland Athletics)

1B Hyper Series Jeff Bagwell (Houston Astros)

CF Hyper Series Jim Edmonds (Los Angeles Angels)

National League West

3B Hyper Series Eduardo Escobar (Arizona Diamondbacks)

1B Hyper Series C.J. Cron (Colorado Rockies)

LF Hyper Series Gary Sheffield (Los Angeles Dodgers)

RF Hyper Series Hunter Renfroe (San Diego Padres)

CP Hyper Series Brian Wilson (San Francisco Giants)

Meta Overall Top 5

With an entire drop full of 99 overall cards, the real test for each card was going to be how they respectively squared up with the meta. Some of the best cards in Team Affinity Chapter 3, at least according to Meta Overall, might surprise you.

Willie Stargell leads the pack with a Meta Overall rating of 106.15. Remember, Meta Overall looks at every eligible position for cards and not necessarily their primary position. That helps carry Stargell into the number one spot amongst Chapter 3 cards. As a 1B, Stargell is the #2 overall 1B in the entire game right now. This card is absolutely disgusting offensively with Dead Red (boost versus Fastballs) and 125 Clutch. This version of Stargell even gets 80 Fielding with a decent arm, though that becomes lower and mostly irrelevant if playing 1B. Maybe don’t play this dude in the outfield.

Edgar Martinez is next in the Meta Overall Top 5. Martinez features nearly maxed out hitting attributes, including a full 125 Clutch. He leaves a ton to be desired defensively and is best suited at DH, where he spent most of his actual MLB career. Still, Edgar Martinez ranks just behind Willie Stargell in overall 1B Meta Overall rankings and is Top 10 at 3B. This card, like many others in today’s drop, might be best suited at DH – but is nasty overall.

Harmon Killebrew is the third best card in this drop according to Meta Overall. This one might seem a bit of a head scratcher when compared to other attributes, but Killebrew ranks in the Top 10 at every eligible position. With some of the best hitting Quirks, at the end of the day Killebrew was always going to rank fairly high here.

Jim Edmonds is up next with a Meta Overall rating of 104.64. Edmonds doesn’t hit lefties great but absolutely murders RHP. He also features a relatively low Clutch rating that makes him slightly better against LHP, but significantly worse against RHP. Any Edmonds card will feature stellar Fielding and this version gets a Diamond shield at any eligible position. In terms of swings, Jimmy Edmonds might have one of the most underrated swings in Diamond Dynasty.

Brad Miller wraps up the Meta Overall Top 5 for Team Affinity Chapter 3. Juiced up Miller cards are always popular because he plays every position except Catcher and Pitcher and features disgusting attributes as well. 102/109/100/125/108 across the board is balanced and deadly. Do you like sweeet swings? Well, you get one with Miller. The defensive versatility is mitigated somewhat by a pedestrian 77 Fielding, but that means Miller gets a Silver shield no matter where he plays. With 63 Speed, Miller probably won’t fare the best in the outfield but as always – options are always great.

Did you notice the theme with the Meta Overall Top 5? Every single card at the very top has 1B eligibility. While 1B typically has a pretty deep player pool, top-end meta options have been lacking enough that this content drop completely flipped the meta rankings at the position. This isn’t to say that all the other cards are bad. Quite far from it. Instead, it’s a great example of how content drops can shape the meta. Every card released from now until the end of Season 1 will have a hard time usurping these cards. That is, of course, unless the rest of the cards coming are even more juiced than these.

Positional Strength

Blake Treinen, Tom Henke and Brian Wilson all settle into the Top 5 at CP. CP and RP are interchangeable, obviously, but as far as Closing Pitchers go – these dudes are legit. Treinen more so thanks to his exceptional pitch-mix that features elite velocity and movement. Bullpen pieces are always attractive options for Ranked grinders and these three are solid options.

Beyond Ranked and main squads, these cards become huge additions to their respective theme teams. Remember, Team Captains are already established from the packs we’ve gotten so far this year. Unless SDS changes course, we won’t get any other Team Captains – just niche Captains. With those Captains being Core cards and multiple Wild Cards this year, you can carry these options into the next Season if you choose and not necessarily have to rebuild your entire theme team.

Fan-Favorites

Some big names included in this drop that we haven’t talked about specifically are Gary Sheffield, Eric Davis and Kerry Wood. These aren’t the only other cards that are good – this drop is full of amazing cards. In terms of Diamond Dynasty name value, these are some of the most popular cards when they get released. Wood has big-time stuff that fits in any rotation, Davis has Speed and Power and Sheffield has the coolest batting stance and an amazing swing.

The Closer

Team Affinity Chapter 3 brings a ton of 99 overall cards to Diamond Dynasty. With content being such a bummer this year with the best cards hidden behind real-world dollars, getting a huge drop of free 99 overalls is always a great time. Looking deeper into the drop, however, reveals a huge problem with Diamond Dynasty content in general.

So many of the names in this drop are always the featured Team Affinity rewards. Mike Schmidt, Alan Trammell, Robin Yount, Tom Henke to name a few. Obviously, these are big name players for their respective teams and it’s not a suggestion that they need to disappear from the game altogether. It just makes these drops less exciting when we can predict half of the players that will be featured. Then again, with so many chapters of Team Affinity this year we’re going to get “the predictable” at some point. Let’s just hope we get some more interesting names in future Team Affinity drops.

Looking to grind Team Affinity Chapter 3 as quickly as possible to get some of these cards? We got you covered.

Stay tuned to ShowZone for more in-depth analysis on Team Affinity Chapter 3 as well as the other content released Friday. There was a lot!