To start this off I should say that I'm not elite at this game but I'm usually good for a few BR 12-0 runs per year and I got one the other day so I thought I would write a guide on how I draft and people can share strategies. This year is very different from other years with no inside edge boosts so far, 3 batter minimums for pitchers, and stamina that carries over between games so I'll discuss this year in particular and some of the guys that I look for in drafts.

To start, I think that your bronze cards are what makes or breaks a team, especially the 70-74s. The hitters I really like to grab as starters are 2B Keston Hiura, LF Khris Davis, RF Franmil Reyes. As for pitchers, I wouldn't mind grabbing a decent 70-74 lefty starter just so I can use him as a RP when needed. For lefty RPs I like Zach Britton, Jose Alvorado, AJ Minter, Tony Watson, Amir Garret, Jake Diekman, Aaron Bummer, and Tanner Scott. There are fewer bronze rightly RPs I really like to hit but Pat Neshek, Emmanuel Clase. Jordan Hicks, and a few other hard throwers I like.

Now for hitter drafting strategies. I prefer to draft for power over other attributes and 1B, LF and RF are positions you can reliably get a good silver at so I prefer not to draft these positions until a good silver shows up. 2B is by far the hardest to find in my estimation so if I can find a guy like gleyber torres, Howie Kendrick, a good 85-94 diamond, or an infielder with 2B as a secondary I make it a priority to get those guys.

To reduce the risk of missing out on a position of need, I try to make sure I grab at least 6 or 7 guys I want to start before I draft my full lineup so im not relying on luck to get a position of need in the bench spots.

For my rotation, I rarely draft a good or better SP and prefer to only draft 1 or maybe 2 silver SPs so I can save the silvers for the lineup and bullpen. I try to fill my bullpen as much as i can with good bronzes since there are quite a few of them compared to at other positions, and fill the rest of my pen with mostly good silvers. Generally I like to have 2 or 3 LHPs in the bullpen but I could go with 4 if I get some good bronzes or 1 if I have at least 1 LHP starter I can use out of the bullpen. While I try to avoid commons or bad bronzes in the bullpen (since you'll probably need all 7 RPs to make a run at 12-0), all pitchers will struggle so I never take diamonds and only occasionally take golds.

Now to talk about specific rarities. For the diamonds, I'm looking for some big hitters to carry my lineup, preferably at positions other than LF, RF and 1B when possible but if I have to take someone like Thames, Sheffield, Gallo, or Taylor Trammel to name a few I will go there. Gold hitters are more of a crapshoot, but if I can find a good 2B/ C, that would be ideal.

Silvers have really nice hitters at most positions so I'll go and list some of my favorites. I'll update this if I remember more.
C- none, try to get schwarber or a gold/diamond if possible
1B- Encarnacion, Eddie Murray
2B- Howie Kendrick
SS- Tim Anderson, Mondesi
3B- Sano, Moncada
LF- Schwarber(can play C too), Joc, Eloy, Kingman
CF- Hicks
RF- Soler, Conforto

Sorry for the long post and I hope it was helpful. I'll update this as I remember more things

Mantle is probably the best player in the game and getting him also gets you trout, Sheffield, biggio, Wagner, etc to use so if you have the stubs go for him.

On the other hand, the gap between mantle and the other top CFs is pretty small at this point so if stubs are an issue you might be better off with bellinger, Dawson, or Eric Davis in center

Good work on this. If a big collection like that comes im sure we will see cards spike when it becomes confirmed and some cheaper or rarer cards may rise a bit in the long run, but since it happened last year a d people expect it again I don't think things will permanently spike.

Take the damon and Hayward you mentioned. A gold like Damon too me is way overpriced for a collection at 15k, while I could see Hayward staying at 15k or rising a bit after a collection barring a flash sale. 15k for a good like Damon is already very expensive and will upset people so I have to imagine they will release some kind of way to get him if he's needed for a big collection

Bunting used to be a problem when fast guys could bunt for hits easily no matter what you did. At this point though, hunts are easily stopped so if you get "bunt cheesed" that's on you

Has anyone been doing that this year? I think it could make sense, especially if you have both lefty and righty SPs, and/or you have one or two pitchers much better than the others. I just got Kluber to go with Newhouser at the top of my rotation, so I was thinking I could use an opener and then depending on my opponent's skill and lineup, I can choose either Kluber or Newhouser or if I think I'm significantly better or worse than my opponent I can go to one of my back end SPs and save my good guys for a tighter game.

The game was from his pre knuckleball days ('07) and he has very little to do with why the game is being shown but I thought it was funny to see him on TV

People undercutting like that is bad for flippers but not everyone is trying to flip items and the undercutting is actually good for buyers so it's not even a negative thing overall

It sounds like you left a pitcher in for too long and your opponent took advantage of it

I made a thread about this a few days ago and I think a huge reason for this is the lowered pitcher energy which, among other things, makes it harder to hit corners and therefore it's much easier to hit

That might be the most efficient way of getting XP but the best way is just playing the game for your enjoyment and racking up XP along the way

@jiggidyjj_psn said in HOF is on crack:

@jonnydaman_psn said in HOF is on crack:

The best way to hit on HOF is to play on legend and then drop down. I played Edward Cabrera on legend a few days ago and lost, scored maybe 2 runs. The very next game I was on HOF against Cabrera and I think I scored like 12 runs and only struck out a few times.

I usually warm up in conquest on legend, that helps but it's still harder RS on HOF. I'd say that if you have a big game and really want to warm up for HOF, try to play at least a few games of online play on legend

I typically warm up on legend in BP, but have not found a way to BP against Cabrera, something I'm missing? Also how do you warm up against Cabrera or are you referring to his live series card?

No, I warm up against whoever is the opposing pitcher for the team I am playing in conquest. Conquest on legend isn't always as hard as HOF online but at least it's something that you can make progress on and warm up at the same time.

If you have the time or don't care about your online rated record, you can also play an online game on legend settings with MLB teams which is much more effective than playing vs CPU

The best way to hit on HOF is to play on legend and then drop down. I played Edward Cabrera on legend a few days ago and lost, scored maybe 2 runs. The very next game I was on HOF against Cabrera and I think I scored like 12 runs and only struck out a few times.

I usually warm up in conquest on legend, that helps but it's still harder RS on HOF. I'd say that if you have a big game and really want to warm up for HOF, try to play at least a few games of online play on legend

@codywolfgang_xbl said in All Star Program Easy Method:

@dap1234567890 said in All Star Program Easy Method:

Download my stadium "Olde Town Park"... 349' RF - 394' RF/CF - 391' LF/CF - 291' RF @ 5279' altitude... and play O's on Rookie in "vs CPU"...

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

One game with 5 AS players and 4 HRD players, I got...

60+/60 TBs with AS
25+/25 Hs with AS
15+/15 XBHs with AS
25/30 Ks with AS
52/60 TBs with HRD
17/25 Hs with HRD
10+/10 HRs with HRD
13/15 XBHs with HRD

Game Stats

Oh yeah, lots of PXP and XP earned in that game as well.

Let me ask you a question since you seem like you know a lot about the all star situation. Looking at the Ohtani collection….am I looking at accurately that you can do the collection only buying one of 99 Vlad, Peralta, Alonso and Cespedes?

Forgot about Mancini….so two out of the five?

I did it without locking in cespedes or mancini. I'm pretty sure there are 49 total cards but one is Ohtani so you need 46/48. Just make sure you lock in 30 before going all the way so you can use fielder and sandberg for the collection.

@chaos-xx-theory_psn said in 99 Acuna added:

@ryanjm21_psn said in 99 Acuna added:

Acuna's a W but putting free asg and hrd packs in are bullsh*t for the people who already got ohtani

How? You paid a premium to get him ASAP. I'm new but I even knew that they would eventually give these packs away.

If you would've waited, you would've got Ohtani for less than you paid to have him ASAP

I actually just locked the cards in this morning and I'm not really upset. I knew locking them in now was not a great value play, but I'm good on stubs so I was fine with it. If I knew that they would give away packs today I would have held off, but I knew there was a chance somethinng like this would happen

It depends what difficulty you're on. If it's all star or lower, just accept the a strikeout may not be in the cards and they will be able to get hits on good pitches so mix things up and locate just off the zone hoping for weak contact. If it's HOF or higher then still make good pitches, but if it's 0-2 or 1-2 you want to avoid the zone and change speeds because they can't foul off a too early/late swing

@jacksonvance35 said in Vida Blue:

@bhall09_psn said in Vida Blue:

Almost to end of BR program myself, trying to decide between Paxton or Leiter, or selling and getting Vida.

Leiter is the best sp in the game and it isn’t very close

It depends who the opponent is. If you're facing me, lefties are good, but someone like Crochet or deGrom with 102 and good sliders plus a changeup are more effective than a guy that relies on moving fastballs.

I don't really get the appeal of contact swings in BR outside of rare situations. I find that the best way to get outs in BR is throwing it just outside the zone and letting then make weak contact. If you do that, I'd rather have my opponent contact swing that regular or power swing because they'll turn misses into easy outs

@go4stros25_psn said in What to do to get CAP catcher?:

Slick fielding bronze catcher then when you start the game choose the hawk archetype. I choose my crime dog archetype.

Can he actually catch and throw doing that?

You don't even need a pitcher with great control to pitch really well which is the real issue. I've used Bob Feller a lot, who has low BB/9 and control ratings and his stuff is nothing special at this point. I think my K/BB numbers with him are about 136 Ks and 1 BB. I fully support hitting being hard on the upper difficulties but if double digit K games are going to be common then 5+ walk games should be common too

I named mine Beavis and tried to make him look as much like the guy from Beavis and Butthead as I could. His face is pretty horrifying but I think it's accurate