Trout the gatekeeper but .....

If Trout is your last one to complete your live series collection or close to it. He ends up being replaced by Mantle. So basically he rides the bench. I guess he could go LF. Minnie Minosa if you have him would be arguably better than trout.

I guess you need to get Trout as one of your first few cards in the game to get a good ROI ( return on investment)

This is exactly why I went after Trout early. I still have Trout in LF while I have Mantle/Sheff in CF/RF.

I have Minnie but prefer Trout still. Minnie just doesn't have the pop but it's up to just personal preference.

I would actually argue cole is the real gatekeeper right now. At least Trout, Bellinger, Arenado, and Scherzer are good enough to somewhat justify their price tag. Cole is worth about 100k more than he is actually worth as a useable card

@the_dragon1912 said in Trout the gatekeeper but .....:

I would actually argue cole is the real gatekeeper right now. At least Trout, Bellinger, Arenado, and Scherzer are good enough to somewhat justify their price tag. Cole is worth about 100k more than he is actually worth as a useable card

Nailed it. Cole is the last card I need, and it is going to be such a waste. The only reason to drop 140k on him is for Mantle and Biggio.

Got lucky and packed Trout about halfway through my grind. Last one I need now is Bellinger.

He will ultimately be on my bench, however one of my goals I’m working on is grinding team affinity for most, maybe all, teams. So at least I’ll get to use all these guys when I’m racking up innings for their teams

Uhhh... I’m definitely not taking trout out of my lineup when I get mantle (just need arenado). I’ve always used trout in my lineup every year. I’ll just run Jackson, mantle and trout in the OF and out sheff at 3b.

I disagree, Trout is really good even on the higher difficulties. I have Trout, Mantle, Reggie Jackson in the OF with Sheffield at 3B. I don't see myself replacing Trout in the lineup until I can get to the prestige XP cards (which will be a while)

I’m almost done with the AL and, yeah, Cole is that last tough pill to swallow. The only thing that eases it a bit is that Giambi probably has a place on a lot of teams - at least as a bench bet.

BTW - can we talk about the fact that Garrett Anderson as the reward for the Angels is a crime against humanity?

@the_dragon1912 said in Trout the gatekeeper but .....:

I would actually argue cole is the real gatekeeper right now. At least Trout, Bellinger, Arenado, and Scherzer are good enough to somewhat justify their price tag. Cole is worth about 100k more than he is actually worth as a useable card

@seannydrama7 said in Trout the gatekeeper but .....:

I’m almost done with the AL and, yeah, Cole is that last tough pill to swallow. The only thing that eases it a bit is that Giambi probably has a place on a lot of teams - at least as a bench bet.

BTW - can we talk about the fact that Garrett Anderson as the reward for the Angels is a crime against humanity?

@the_dragon1912 said in Trout the gatekeeper but .....:

I would actually argue cole is the real gatekeeper right now. At least Trout, Bellinger, Arenado, and Scherzer are good enough to somewhat justify their price tag. Cole is worth about 100k more than he is actually worth as a useable card

Any collection reward for the angels is going to be disappointing, see Garrett Richards a few years ago. Trout is far and away the best Angels player ever and its not particularly close. Angels Vlad or Angels Ryan are the one two that would be remotely worth it as a collection reward but both of their best years and teams they were known for were with other teams

They had a diamond Eckstein a few years back that was sneaky good - even that would be better. Or go with Anderson, but like a 90 version (the dude did get a signature series last year). I just feel like there’s usually a correlation between the expense of the collection and the reward...this one feels especially off.

@the_dragon1912 said in Trout the gatekeeper but .....:

@seannydrama7 said in Trout the gatekeeper but .....:

I’m almost done with the AL and, yeah, Cole is that last tough pill to swallow. The only thing that eases it a bit is that Giambi probably has a place on a lot of teams - at least as a bench bet.

BTW - can we talk about the fact that Garrett Anderson as the reward for the Angels is a crime against humanity?

@the_dragon1912 said in Trout the gatekeeper but .....:

I would actually argue cole is the real gatekeeper right now. At least Trout, Bellinger, Arenado, and Scherzer are good enough to somewhat justify their price tag. Cole is worth about 100k more than he is actually worth as a useable card

Any collection reward for the angels is going to be disappointing, see Garrett Richards a few years ago. Trout is far and away the best Angels player ever and its not particularly close. Angels Vlad or Angels Ryan are the one two that would be remotely worth it as a collection reward but both of their best years and teams they were known for were with other teams