Prior to this year, repetitive, unchanging lineups had been one of Diamond Dynasty's biggest drawbacks on the PlayStation 4. Whether you were facing squads full of 99-rated created players in MLB 14, or were seeing teams stacked with the same dozen or so diamond-tier studs in MLB 15, the lack of lineup diversity was making Diamond Dynasty matches significantly less fun to play. To solve this problem for MLB 16, The Show developer Sony San Diego partnered with the data research company Inside Edge to alter MLB players' attributes every day based on their actual hitter/pitcher matchups.

As a result, cheap bronze-tier players like Lucas Duda, Kyle Schwarber, Oliver Perez and Tom Wilhelmsen have spent lots of time on my team in Diamond Dynasty's first two weeks, which is something that probably wouldn't have happened without Inside Edge's ratings boosts. Some silver-tier players like Yordano Ventura, Carlos Carrasco, Corey Dickerson and Luis Valbuena were even boosted into the gold tier for a few days of low-budget bliss -- they all cost several thousands less than an actual gold card. Thanks to Inside Edge, users no longer need to spend five to six digits of in-game currency to field an All-Star-caliber lineup each day. All anyone needs to compete in unrestricted online play is a team of bronze/silver players who happen to have four-star or five-star Inside Edge matchups.


Inside Edge has caused some confusion in the Diamond Dynasty community, with many users wondering how these ratings boosts are being calculated. This forum post from an Inside Edge representative explains how the daily star ratings work:

Some Diamond Dynasty fans feel that a 20-point attribute boost for a five-star Inside Edge matchup is a bit extreme. But if that's what it takes to make silver-tier and bronze-tier cards worth keeping in your collection (versus selling them on the market or feeding them to your created player), then I don't mind the double-digit ratings increases one bit. Especially since they're only affecting players' core hitting and pitching abilities, with all fielding, athleticism and intangible categories going untouched. Corey Dickerson might have 99 contact and 89 power on a five-star day, but he's still going to be burdened with his usual 48 speed, plus clumsy fielding ratings in the 50s and 60s. Jake Diekman's K/9 rating might hit 99 on occasion, but he'll still be a wild man on the mound because his clutch and control ratings will remain in the 50s and 60s. Inside Edge isn't eliminating MLB players' negatives, it's simply accentuating their positives.