Legit Diamonds

[BigOscar]

Figured it'd be useful to have a thread for sharing which high diamond players people find are actually worth having, actually play to their great ratings, as so many don't really seem to.

I'd start with that Jose Batista card that is inexplicably a great utility guy. Hits for great power, very good contact and is weirdly good at fielding in secondary position including 3rd base.

Also, Christian Yellich. This card absolutely rakes, more than any other card I've had. So many no doubters, love a lefty swing.

Ichiro and Kenny Lofton are obvious ones, both single machines who will run teams to death. I actually have my CAP with Ichiro's swing as it seems to be a cheat code.

I also find Killibrew to be like Gallo on drugs, everything he hits goes an absolute mile

[Metsaholic230]

I completely rake with the Matt Kemp that you can get from the xp rewards AND he has good fielding stats. I like him better than Ichiro Suzuki because he has power. I have around 30 hrs with him so far. Ichiro is chilling on my bench ever since I pulled Mookie Betts. I have Alomar at SS so Betts has to be in the OF.

The Jose Reyes you can get from the Mets team affinity is a great one as well. I'm only hitting like .270 with him, but I think that's more me than the card. He can fly on the bases and has good fielding stats. I like him better than the Cal Ripken card you get from the xp rewards. I could never hit with Cal for some reason.

[JoshC1977]

Joe Morgan - his swing is SO incredibly fast through the zone. He can get around on inside pitches probably faster than any player I've used. He's no slap hitter either demonstrating great power. He's also fast and a tremendous fielder.

Adam Dunn - I have flashbacks to Episode III and Palpatine screaming, "Power! Unlimited Power!"

Pudge - Divisive card for one reason, he's an opposite field hitter. So, his timing window favors a bit later timing than many other cards. If you try to pull the ball with him...meh (and from watching streams from online guys, it seems many people try to pull everything...thus the negativity about this card). If you're a directional hitter, you can hit nearly everything with a push influence. He's one of those "know what you're getting yourself into" kind of cards - but if you can adapt to him, he's fantastic.

Eric Davis - so so vs righties, near godly vs lefties. He's a great offset for a team featuring a lot of lefty bats (I often go lefty/Davis/lefty in the middle of my lineup). He's also a superb defensive player and has wheels.

Jose Bautista - (see Adam Dunn)

Vida Blue - I can't speak to online effectiveness, but I love his pitch mix, velo, break. Control is tricky but if you can harness him, lights-out

Troy Percival - OK....not a high diamond but he's buried behind the Mike Trout "pay wall". I can't explain it, but I LOVE this card (and I have a bunch of other closers with higher ratings).

[bcruise]

Andruw remains the MVP of my team, hitting .315 as he does damage just about anytime I get his PCI centered on the ball. If I pull on the inner half and get under it it's usually a homer. Leads my team in Hits, HR's, RBI, and BB.

Sig Gwynn has been as advertised, batting .316 and basically never making a mistake in the field despite me playing him in his secondary CF.

Everything's been said about Sig Kershaw that needs to be. Haven't gotten to use him much in RS situations, though - bad luck on the rotation dice roll.

[papadell]

SS Gwynn. The swing is so smooth and he hits sneaky bombs. Very good defender too. But offensively this card just makes solid contact all day.

87 Chipper. Took him with the preorder pack because he's my guy from my team. But holy **** does this card rake. I actually took him out for a while because I put too much stock in his defense and decided to put him back in and all he's done is hit. Clutch too. He's been so good. I think I'm hitting like .440 with him with double digit bombs. Defense hasn't been too bad either.

Vida Blue. This dude is NASTY. And so far he's had the best control of any pitcher I've used. I love this card and the few times I've pulled him to start I went in very confident. And even when giving up early runs I know I'll stay in the game. I think the last 2 games with him I have up 3 early runs and he still went 7 IP and struck out 8+.

Troy Percival. Idk why but this card is dope. I think it's the smooth, quick delivery. Really he's Kimbrel stats and pitch wise but performs so well.

Mike Trout. Dude just rakes with serious power. The combination of speed and defense make him who he is. I pulled him but honestly at this point I feel like he would have been worth the 100k.

I also want to give a shout out to Max Scherzer. I pitched lights out with him when I drew him the other day. Only 1 start but damn is he good. Another smooth delivery with outstanding stuff. Definitely rotating him in on IE days.

[DanH35]

Giambi. The man just murders the baseball. In the past few days in RS, I’ve even homered off SS Kershaw and SS Bumgarner with him.

Jose Reyes. Great defensively, not many balls get up the middle. He’s been super clutch for me, he’ll sneak a bomb in every once in a while. He’s hit a couple game winning homers. I originally had him hitting 8th, but he’s hit so well I moved him to lead off.

[BigOscar]

I'll have to second Morgan and obviously Kershaw, both absolute monsters. Big fan of Zobrist as well, he plays great defence everywhere and hits doubles constantly. I had him at SS for a pretty long time, with Reyes on the bench to pinch run for anyone in my lineup, so Reyes could then move to short and Zobrist could just go wherever the person I pinch ran for was playing. They're a great double act.

[padsfan92]

Funny how Joe Morgan is mentioned so often. I can’t hit with him for the life of me. Will square it up but always goes right to a defender over 100 AB’s and hitting about .170 with him...may need to switch back to 87 Trea Turner

99 Ricky Henderson and Tony Gwynn are hit machines for me.

I rake with 94 Alan Trammel, hitting over .350 with him.

The team affinity Zobrist is a beast for me as well