It was announced at the beginning of the month that July would bring two total Weekend Classics. SDS has been pleased with the feedback rolling in from fans, which nestled a "bonus" Weekend Classic of sorts around the All-Star break. This weekend features the originally scheduled Classic and brings two new legends in 99 overall form to the meta.
Awards LF Manny Ramirez (Boston Red Sox) - #3 LF True Overall
Manny has been one of my most wanted legends for years, as I'm sure is the case for many others. One of the earliest Bosses in the game, Manny Ramirez quickly earned endearment with his amazingly smooth swing and no-doubter animations. It was fun using his early card, but most of us were probably salivating at what his future 99 overall card would like.
No disappointment here. A high-contact slugger as he should be, 99 overall Awards Manny Ramirez has elite-everything offensively including 125 Clutch. Perhaps surprisingly, Manny also gets 70 Fielding, 74 Reaction and a pretty strong arm with 88 Strength. Not bad at all, and certainly better than I expected. The stock Speed at 55 pales in comparison to a lot of the speedsters around, but Manny can hold his own in LF well enough that I would consider running him there if I didn't have a more attractive DH option. Quirk-wise, Manny has Bad Ball, Dead Red, and Breaking Ball Hitter which gives him some of the best offensive Quirks available.
Milestone SP Ubaldo Jimenez (Colorado Rockies) - #3 SP True/Meta Overall
The other new Weekend Classic reward is Milestone Ubaldo Jimenez. Another early game favorite of mine, I was running the Cornerstone Ubaldo for quite a while even when higher rated cards came out. The pitch mix was excellent and the stuff was fantastic, and Ubaldo was an absolute joy to pitch with. As he eventually phased out of my rotation, I again looked forward to what a 99 overall version would like.
Seeing as this is a Milestone for a no-hitter, the 113 H/9 is certainly quite nice along with 102 K/9 and 115 Clutch. The 85 BB/9 seems ok, but I do anticipate struggling to locate the off-speed enough that it's worth pointing out. It won't reduce my interest in adding Ubaldo to my rotation, however.
With a 4-Seamer that will touch 100 MPH and an Outlier Sinker, Ubaldo also features a nasty Splitter and Slider/Cutter combo that should work together to keep hitters overpowered and off-balance. Milestone Ubaldo debuts as the #3 SP in both True and Meta Overall.
Headliners 24 - 98 Awards Warren Spahn (Atlanta Braves)
The latest Headliner features Braves' legend Warren Spahn. Even the Headliners are almost at the 99 overall baseline, and I reckon there's not much longer until that happens. As a 98 Awards series, Spahn offers respectable H/9 and Clutch with elite control. The pitch mix is a bit underwhelming, but it can still be fun running Spahn just to see if you can get the sequencing down at times.
Headliners 24 can be purchased in the Show Shop for 7500 Stubs per pack with a purchase limit of five packs per user.
Chase Pack 19 - 99 Retro Finest Jimmy Rollins (Philadelphia Phillies)
The meme-dream is alive as we get another switch-hitter in Chase Pack 19. Retro Finest Jimmy Rollins is the newest premium card, and debuts as the #1 SS in both True Overall and Meta Overall.
This is Rollins' second Retro Finest year featured, after his 2007 season was featured twice previously. You're getting the switch-hitting with 100+ on everything offensively outside of the 90 Power vs RHP, 97 Fielding, and 95 Speed and 92 Stealing. This is a card that can do pretty much everything you need it to on the virtual diamond, and you'll be paying a pretty penny for the ability to do so. As of publication, Rollins was sitting around 350,000 Stubs which seems to be the going rate for the uber popular premium cards upon release.
This is great card and will probably settle near the top of the meta for quite a while.
Chase packs are random drops in standard Show packs, and also come with each 50-pack Show bundle in the Shop as well as randomly placed in various programs and other sources throughout the year.
Are you grinding Weekend Classic or scooping the rewards from the marketplace? Digging into some packs chasing after Rollins? 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.
