The August Monthly Awards Program finished with a flurry of awesome cards, including Lightning Mookie Betts. To start off the September Monthly Awards Program, we know we’ll be getting Lightning Alfonso Soriano at the start of October. It’s a pretty exciting card to see in our futures because Soriano has a wonderful swing this year and a known track record in general in DD.
We also got a new Juicy Pack today and Headliners Set 44, but neither of those drops are as exciting. Let’s get to all the goodies.
UPDATE: With the program coming to an end today, we now get Lightning Bo Bichette as the September Monthly Awards top player.
Table of Contents
Topps Now September (Week 1)
- Topps Now Connor Wong
- Topps Now Matt Duffy
- Topps Now Kyle Bradish
- Topps Now Wilmer Flores
- Topps Now Nick Gordon
Moments
- August 29: Establishing Precedent
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Hit 1 home run
- August 30: Jake Rakes
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 2 XBH
- August 30: All Love For Gordon
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 6 total bases
- September 1: Hits Them In Stride
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Pitch 1 inning
- Do not give up 1 hit
- Strike out 3 batters
- September 1: Kyle Goes The Extra Mile
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Pitch 3 innings
- Do not give up 1 hit
- September 2: That One Is Wong Gone
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
- September 3: Duff Says Enough
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 1 hit
- Tally 1 RBI
- September 4: Wilmer Wills It Fair
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Hit 1 home run
Collection
- Collect 5 Topps Now September players – Topps Now Jack McCarthy
Topps Now September (Week 2)
- Topps Now Hunter Brown
- Topps Now Randal Grichuk
- Topps Now Oscar Gonzalez
Moments
- September 5: Shutout Hunter
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Pitch 3 innings
- Do not give up 1 run
- September 6: Cannot Handle Randal
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
- September 8: YoYo Skills
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 2 XBH
- Hit 1 home run
- September 8: Korbin Burnes
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Strike out 8 batters
- Do not walk 1 batter
- Do not give up 3 hits
- September 9: Oscar Goes Yard
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 2 hits
- Tally 1 XBH
- September 10: The Machine Passes A-Rod
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Hit 1 home run
Collection
- Collect 8 Topps Now September players – Topps Now Yoan Moncada
Topps Now September (Week 3)
- Topps Now Mark Mathias
- Topps Now Jordan Groshans
- Topps Now Luis Rengifo
Moments
- September 13: Rookie Makes History
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Pitch 3 innings
- Do not give up 1 hit
- September 13: Magic Mark
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
- September 15: Jordan Jump-Stars Career
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
- September 16: Leadoff Legend
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 4 total bases
- September 18: deGrominant
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Strike out 6 batters
- Do not give up 1 run
- September 18: Framchise Player
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Strike out 4 batters
- Do not give up 1 run
Collection
- Collect 11 Topps Now September players – Topps Now Joe Ryan
Topps Now September (Week 4)
- Topps Now Matt Vierling
- Topps Now Dean Kremer
- Topps Now Gleyber Torres
Moments
- September 21: See You Later, Gleyber!
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Hit 1 home run
- September 21: Vierling Rings The Bell
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 3 hits
- September 21: Snellzilla
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Strike out 7 batters
- Do not give up 2 hits
- September 22: Wong Gone
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 6 total bases
- September 23: Welcome To The Club
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
- September 23: Kreme Of The Crop
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Pitch 5 innings
- Do not give up 1 run
Collection
- Collect 14 Topps Now September players – Topps Now Kolten Wong
Topps Now September (Week 5)
- Topps Now Ford Proctor
- Topps Now Bryce Elder
- Topps Now Cal Raleigh
Moments
- September 26: Elder The Rookie
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Pitch 5 innings
- Do not give up 1 run
- September 27: Why Not Both
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Tally 6 total bases
- September 29: Ford’s On The Board
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
- September 30: Put On Your Raleigh Cap
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Hit 1 home run
- September 30: Sandy Strikeouts
- Difficulty: Veteran
- Strike out 8 batters
- Do not give up 2 runs
- October 2: The Machine Says Farewell
- Difficulty: Rookie
- Tally 2 XBH
Collection
- Collect 17 Topps Now September players – Topps Now Anthony Santander
Rewards
- 4 points – The Show pack
- 6 points – 500 stubs
- 8 points – Topps Now Connor Wong
- 10 points – Topps Now Matt Duffy
- 12 points – Topps Now Kyle Bradish
- 14 points – Topps Now Wilmer Flores
- 16 points – Topps Now Nick Gordon
- 18 points – The Show pack
- 20 points – 500 stubs
- 24 points – Topps Now Hunter Brown
- 26 points – Topps Now Randal Grichuk
- 28 points – Topps Now Oscar Gonzalez
- 30 points – The Show pack
- 32 points – 500 stubs
- 36 points – Topps Now Mark Mathias
- 38 points – Topps Now Jordan Groshans
- 40 points – Topps Now Luis Rengifo
- 42 points – The Show pack (x2)
- 44 points – 1,000 stubs
- 48 points – Topps Now Matt Vierling
- 50 points – Topps Now Dean Kremer
- 52 points – Topps Now Gleyber Torres
- 54 points – The Show pack (x2)
- 56 points – 1,000 stubs
- 60 points – Topps Now Ford Proctor
- 62 points – Topps Now Bryce Elder
- 64 points – Topps Now Cal Raleigh
- 66 points – Ballin’ Is A Habit pack
- 68 points – The Show pack (x2)
- 70 points – 1,000 stubs
- 73 points – Chicago Cubs Home 1982 uniform
- 75 points – Diamond bat skin
- 80 points – September Monthly Awards 98 overall choice pack
- Monthly Awards Camilo Doval
- Monthly Awards Eloy Jimenez
- Monthly Awards Jose Alvarado
- Monthly Awards Jose Quintana
- Monthly Awards Marcus Semien
- Monthly Awards Seth Brown
- 85 points – Ballin’ Is A Habit pack
- 90 points – September Monthly Awards 98 overall choice pack
- 95 points – Headliners Set 44 pack
- 100 points – The Show pack (x3)
- 105 points – September Monthly Awards 98 overall choice pack
- 110 points – 1,500 stubs
- 120 points – September Monthly Awards 99 overall choice pack
- Monthly Awards Blake Snell
- Monthly Awards Carlos Correa
- Monthly Awards Eduardo Escobar
- 125 points – Headliners Set 49 pack
- 130 points – The Show pack (x10)
- 135 points – September Monthly Awards 99 overall choice pack
- 140 points – 2,500 stubs
- 145 points – Headliners bundle pack (x3)
- 150 points – Five Tool Player Tool Box choice pack
- 155 points – Ballin’ Out Of Control pack
- 160 points – Lightning Alfonso Soriano
Lightning Alfonso Soriano does not come with the juiced speed ratings here, but otherwise it’s quite the card. He has the 2B secondary still, and then he’s going to just absolutely mash the baseball while having 97 fielding and 95 reaction. The defensive woes that can hamper a Soriano card won’t exist here, so he’s going to be a contender for a starting OF or 2B spot at this point.
- 165 points – Headliners bundle pack (x3)
- 170 points – Ballin’ Out Of Control pack
- 175 points – Juicy Set 1 choice pack
- 180 points – Juicy Set 2 choice pack
- 183 points – Diamond universal profile banner
- 185 points – September Monthly Awards Lightning Bo Bichette
Lightning Bo Bichette was the card a lot of us assumed we would be getting. It’s hard to complain about a player many of us have come to enjoy using in DD the last couple seasons. He’s locked in at shortstop, but he’s got maxed out stats against LHP, and he has a 95 arm to go with 76 speed. He’s going to be able to handle shortstop without any questions, and he’s yet another awesome middle infielder to test out during this run of high-end card releases.
- 195 points – September Monthly Awards 98 overall choice pack
- 205 points – September Monthly Awards 98 overall choice pack
- 215 points – September Monthly Awards 98 overall choice pack
- 225 points – September Monthly Awards 99 overall choice pack
- 235 points – Ballin’ Out Of Control pack
- 240 points – Juicy Set 1 choice pack
- 245 points – Juicy Set 2 choice pack
Juicy Set 1
- Milestone Vida Blue
- 2nd Half Heroes Jeff Bagwell
- Milestone Robin Yount
- Finest Jason Heyward
- Finest Richie Ashburn
- Finest Catfish Hunter
- Prime Rod Carew
- 2nd Half Heroes Orlando Cepeda
This Juicy Set 1 feels like a way for SDS to churn out some cards they just don’t have a spot for elsewhere right now. It’s a lot of names people generally don’t like using anyway, and so this set feels like collection fodder more than anything else.
I do like Heyward cards, and so I may check that Finest card out, but he’s not going to work out when you look at those power numbers. Plus, the speed is so unimpressive that it hampers his outstanding fielding a bit. The Milestone Vida Blue card is the only other one that might find a home in some rotations, but I just don’t think Vida’s pitch mix has been able to hold up this year.
Headliners Set 44 Finest Mark Prior
Mark Prior is another one of those cards that has never quite been able to find a home in DD. His pitch mix never seems meta, so he’s just not hard to hit because you don’t get confused enough by his pitches. On top of that, there is no real deception to his delivery. In other words, this feels like more collection fodder to me.
The odds on Headliners packs to pull a diamond are 1:10 (as always), albeit that diamond might not be Finest Mark Prior. In addition, this year you can buy one pack of the Headliners choice pack, which gives you 1:3 odds of pulling a 90+ overall diamond (and of course costs more stubs).