My Dream Legend Pitcher List for MLB The Show 18

Later today, Sony San Diego Studios will have their most anticipated stream regarding MLB The Show 18 as they cover Diamond Dynasty – the game’s online mode. In my first video game piece here, I covered my hitter wishlist for ’18 and we’ve already seen a pair of them come through with Vladimir Guerrero announced a couple weeks back and Albert Belle revealed just this week. In fact, the developers have had a banner year in legend announcements and we’re still three weeks from release.

In addition to those two, we’ve also learned that Babe Ruth, Bob Gibson, Frank Thomas, and Mike Piazza are on the way. And those are just the uber-stars. I’m plenty excited to see the likes of Joe Torre, Troy Percival, and Benito Santiago get in the game. We’ve been told that 30 new legends in all will be coming into the player pool and 14 have been announced thus far. Check the running list here. My guess for this afternoon’s stream is a big 1990s-2000s era starting pitcher will be revealed. It’s purely a hunch/hope, but that’s where I’m planting my prediction flag. With that in mind, I want to share my top five pitcher wishlist which happens to include guys all from that era. This wasn’t just to match up with my prediction, I’ve had this list put together for a while now, but only recently finished the write ups due to some other projects taking precedent.

Gibson was definitely in my Top 10 and other old schoolers like Sandy Koufax, J.R. Richard, Don Drysdale, and Steve Carlton would undoubtedly get me hyped, but the 90s-00s guys resonate with me more because I grew up watching them pitch. I’m sure some of the younger audience doesn’t even know who Gibson is, let alone have any distant connection to his brilliant work on the mound. My father regaled me with stories of his dominance, including a yarn he regularly spins about the 1968 World Series.

“You know, Paulie, the ’68 Series was the last one of just the AL and NL winners and we [the Detroit Tigers, our hometown & favorite team] won it!” I know, dad, you tell me about it once a year and I f’n love it. Now tell me again how Mickey Stanley – a primary outfielder and the team’s best centerfielder – moved in to play short because his bat was sooo much better than Ray Oyler’s (23 wRC+ in 111 games) and that way none of Stanley, Willie Horton, Jim Northrup, or Al Kaline would have to be benched. Kaline was originally considered for third over Don Wert (66 wRC+ in 150 games), but in the end manager Mayo Smith chose to move Stanley. By the way, the Cardinals blew a 3-1 lead before it was chic.

Anyway, onto the list!

In these profiles, I’ll be citing the stats that will most directly translate to the metrics the game uses to generate the cards. Pitchers get individual ratings in Hits per 9, Strikeouts per 9, Walks per 9, Home Runs per 9 (though it only factors into simulations so I don’t weigh it heavily when considering which cards to pick for a pitcher), Stamina, and Clutch (based on their RISP performance). Then of course there is their arsenal and each pitch gets a velo, control, and break rating. The rate stats are scaled to the era the card comes from or else most of the legends would have terrible K9 ratings.

The legend & flashback cards are part of different series: Rookie (RK), Breakout (BO), Impact Veteran (IV), All-Star (AS), Hardware (HW), and Postseason (PS) – all of which are pretty self-explanatory.

Pedro Martinez | Dodgers, Expos, Red Sox, Mets, Phillies

If I listed my top five hitters and pitchers in a joint top 10, Pedro would be #1. I’m all about the pitchers so this probably isn’t surprising, but I just love the prospects of Pedro’s 2000 in this game, arguably the single greatest pitching season ever. But we’ll get back to that in a moment. Let’s start with a 1993 Dodgers RK card that would be a really nice gold reliever (65 appearances, 2 starts). His walk rate was high (4.8 BB/9), but the strikeout (10.0), hit (6.4), and home run rates (0.4) were fantastic. Per the Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers, he had a fastball/slider/change in 1994 (and the book quotes the Expos media guide) so I imagine that’s what he’d get on a Dodgers rookie card. This would be a great first card to let people get used to using him as they await the stud versions.

If they wanted to escalate in terms of quality as opposed to just going chronologically, they could release the Mets IV card next which would be 2005 when he threw 217 innings with an 8.6 K/9, 1.9 BB/9, 6.6 H/9, and 0.8 HR/9. It’d be a low diamond by rating, but I’m not sure people would be chomping at the bit to use it as he threw 88 mph that year. The changeup still had a 10 mph difference, though, so maybe you can finesse some fools.

Alright, now we get into the filth. Let’s go with a 1996 AS for the Expos. This would be a firm mid-diamond by rating with great stuff as he was well above average in all the key metrics including a 9.2 K/9 that was 4th-best in the league. This would be a great card, but it still wouldn’t be the dream one. That distinction would go to the aforementioned 2000 season. This would be a HW card for his Cy Young campaign.

While the game doesn’t directly input ERA into a card’s value, I can’t go any further without mentioning how stupid his was that year. He posted a 1.74 ERA in the heart of the steroid era! It was a 291 ERA+. He was 191% better than the league that year, folks. Are. You. F’n. Kidding. Me???? He led baseball in ERA (1.74), WHIP (0.74), H/9 (5.3), and K/BB (8.9) and led the AL in K/9 (10.8) and HR/9 (0.7). He was “only” second in the MLB in BB/9 (1.3) and David Wells led (1.2) so that put Martinez second in the AL, too. This card would be a guaranteed 99 and one of the sickest cards possible. Four Pedro cards, all very usable. They could do a Breakout from ‘94 or ‘95, but it really wouldn’t be any different than the AS ’96.

Cards for Martinez: Rookie 1993 (RP), All-Star 1996, Hardware 2000, Impact Veteran 2005

Johan Santana | Twins, Mets

Santana is another great choice because we can get a relief card in addition to the elite starter cards. They can make a relief card off his 2002 or 2003 seasons. He 14 and 18 games, respectively, in those seasons, but also got in plenty of relief work. The 2002 one was better, but it was only 28 innings, compared to 48 in 2003 so I think they’ll that route with the bigger sample and give him a strong silver RP. He had 11.3 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, and 8.3 H/9. He only threw 91 mph on average, but had an obscene 78 mph changeup and strong 81 mph slider. It wouldn’t quite be as dominant as the Chris Sale RP from last year, but it’d be really good even with the lower velo.

Again escalating in order of card quality, we’ll go with an IV Mets card from 2008. It’d be a solid gold (~87 rating). He didn’t miss a ton of bats, but his 7.9 K/9 was still 19th. He also had a 7.9 H/9, but that ranked 10th. His velo was still 91 and still had a dominant changeup, this time up at 80 mph. I think we’ll go with just three cards for Santana otherwise we run the risk of just repeating so let’s drop the biggie here: HW 2004 for his Cy Young season.

He was 3rd in K/9 (10.5), 14th in BB/9 (2.1), and easily 1st in H/9 (6.2). His 0.95 HR/9 sat 31st, but again that doesn’t impact online gameplay so it doesn’t really matter outside of factoring into the rating. This was peak Johan and his velo was sitting 92 so this card would likely be able to pop 94 at its best. The changeup was down at 78 so you’re getting a disgusting 14 mph velo split and then snapping off 83 mph sliders. This would be a helluva lefty!

Cards for Santana: Breakout 2003 (RP), Hardware 2004, Impact Veteran 2008

John Smoltz | Braves, Red Sox, Cardinals

You may be noticing a pattern by now. I definitely focused on starters who could also get a reliever card because I love the diversity it adds to the card pool. Smoltzy bested Pedro and Johan by not only relieving, but putting up three years as a dominant closer on the heels of Tommy John surgery. The only downside – and I use that word lightly – is that all three of the cards I’d make for him would be from the Braves. He had that final season split between Boston and St. Louis, but it’s not worth making a card from that year.

Let’s start with a BO 1989 card (it could also be an AS, but we’re saving that for the relief card). This is where the scaling to era comes in handy. He had a 7.3 K/9, 3.1 BB/9, 6.9 H/9, and 0.6 HR/9. Those first two marks don’t jump off the page in relation to what we see in today’s game, but consider that SP averages that year were 5.3, 3.1, 8.9, and 0.8, respectively. This could is probably a high gold and he might be just a three-pitch arm unless they sneak in a sinker or two-seamer along with the four-seamer, curve, and changeup.

I’m just gonna go chronologically with Smoltz because the Cy Young and reliever cards would both be high diamonds and I’m not going to split hairs over a rating point here or there. So the Cy Young was in 1996 and he was bananas: 2.94 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 9.8 K/9 (MLB-best), 2.0 BB/9, and 7.1 H/9 in an NL-high 253.7 innings. The arsenal is deep with a four-seamer, splitter, circle change, curve, and slider. He technically six pitches per the Neyer/James book, but The Show maxes at five so I had to cut the two-seamer. Just writing this up makes me really want to see Smoltz in the game now and I haven’t even gotten to the reliever.

By the way, for those who don’t play the game, you can’t use an SP Smoltz and RP Smoltz in your lineup at the same time. That’d be cheesy, but at the same it’d kinda be amazing. OK, are you ready for this stupid-good reliever card? It’d probably be a 99 from his 2003 season (AS card). Again, the ratios don’t necessarily matter for the card ratings, but I want to share the sexiness: 1.12 ERA and 0.87 WHIP in 64.3 innings. He fanned 10.2 per nine while walking just 1.1 with 6.7 hits and 0.3 homers allowed per nine. He threw upper-90s (average 97-98) along with a slider, split-finger, and circle change. Gross.

Cards for Smoltz: Breakout 1989, Hardware 1996, All-Star 2003 (RP

Kerry Wood | Cubs, Indians

Oh hey weird, another pick with a reliever card! I think we’re only going with two cards, though. We’ll start with the filthy Rookie of the Year HW card in 1998. It’s basically the same as his AS 2003 and none of the seasons in between are different enough to facilitate another starter card. Even with the high 4.6 BB/9, this is probably still at least a low diamond thanks to MLB-best 12.6 strikeout and 6.3 hit rates. He sat upper-90s with the heater and backed it up with a curve, slider, and change. This would be a really fun card!

Then we fast forward a decade to 2008 for AS reliever card. He was still sitting 95 mph, though it was really just fastball/slider with a show-me curve. He fanned 11.4, trimmed the walk rate down to 2.4, and allowed just 7.3 hits per nine. He allowed just three homers for a nice 0.4 HR/9, too, so this would be a nice mid-diamond (~94). The strikeout rate was 10th among relievers (min. 40 IP) while the walk rate was 25th. The hit rate was 52nd and the homers slotted 22nd.

Cards for Wood: Hardware 1998, All-Star 2008

Ben Sheets| Brewers, Athletics, Braves

OK, let’s finish with someone who was only a starter. I’m not even sure he deserves more than one card, but I just want that one card: AS 2004. He spiked his strikeout rate to a career-best 10.2 while cutting his walk rate to what was at the time a career-best 1.2. He threw 93 mph on average and had a dirty, dirty, dirty curve! Both pitches had a 15+-pitch value. The fastball was at 15.6, slotting 14th while the curveball was at 15.1 tied with Livan Hernandez for the best in baseball. He did have a show-me changeup that sat 85 and they could break his fastball up into four-seamer and two-seamer (or sinker, which he did throw in 2007-08 per the Pitch F/X data) to give him a four-pitch arsenal. This is my most indulgent pick because it doesn’t offer a ton of diversity, but I just wanna spike a crapton of curves on my opponents with that 2004 card!

Card for Sheets: All-Star 2004

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Predictions for today’s stream: Smoltz, Mike Mussina, and Stan Musial. Just hunches. Obviously I really, really, really want Pedro, but I’m not holding my breath for him this year. I will just say, they do have a relationship with MLB Network and maybe that helps them acquire rights of the guys who work there. Maaaaaayyyybbeeee. But to protect myself from disappointment, I’m just going Smoltzy, Moose, and Stan the Man. The stream starts at 4 PM Central on Twitch.

Who would you most like to see in the game on the pitching side? Don’t get hung up on the “legend” aspect and think it must be a Hall of Fame-level guy. There’s plenty of room for Hall of Very Good guys. (If you don’t play the game, don’t worry about maybe posting someone who is already in the game!)