With these cards you can plug them into your lineups and rotations as you see fit. The cards have overall ratings and attributes that play into the simulations. Through the game, you can earn "perfect points" which can help you buy more packs. You can also auction off cards for perfect points in the same manner as you would auction off something on eBay, or sell cards to the game immediately for its sell price, or in the auction do a "Buy Now" price for an card, or by setting a minimum on a card.
Like big league rosters my initial team has evolved over the first two months of the season. A season is done in only a week, with the first 6 days of the week being a day for each month. The 7th day, you play head-to-head with teams in the postseason, if you even get that far.
At the end of the week, after the playoffs, your team is suddenly thrusted into another league, which will be according to your competition level. There are 4 tiers of leagues, with many leagues in each tier. You can also check out your progress from season-to-season, with season records and season
results.
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| Standard & Gold packs with their odds of certain card pulls. |
I am currently in the Bronze .330 League. My team, the Traverse City Fighting Tigers (same name as my APBA UAL League team name) started off pretty bad, but we are inching closer and closer, slowly to the .500 mark... In fact, I will be thrilled beyond belief if my team finishes the season with a .500 record in its first season, but not counting fully on it.
We currently sit in last place in the N.C. Central Division at 37-43 (.463), 13.5 games out of first.
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| Your team is like a player trying to get to "The Show". I am on the bottom in B330. |
The tiers are also reminiscent of the big leagues, the Bronze Level (which I am in) is Rookie-Ball, while Silver Level is Single-A, Gold Level is Double-A, Diamond Level is Triple-A & the Perfect Leagues are Major League Baseball, "The Show", and that's the ultimate goal. However your team progresses, they get moved up or fall down a level. I don't plan to jump to another level anytime soon, there are some talented teams in the Bronze Level with multiple Gold & many Silver cards on each roster, and they are still in Rookie Ball... that gives you an idea of the competition, but I am always game for some competition & a good challenge.
By the way, there is more leagues than pictured above, you can scroll from left to right, I am in B-330. There are currently 413 leagues with 12,342 teams!
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| The Leagues: Teams are promoted & demoted. |
At one time, I auctioned my 2018 Future Legends Card of Hunter Greene, earning almost 3,000 perfect points, in which I used to purchase 3 standard packs. If I happened to get to the 5,000 perfect points pack, I would have purchased one gold pack, which you are guaranteed a Gold Card. I still got a Gold card (which Hunter was) in Lance McCullers, Jr though, via the 3 standard packs.
I actually pulled a somewhat rare diamond card in Stephen Strasburg (90 rating) out of my 6 start-up packs, I could sell it to the game for an automatic 4,000 or try to auction off the card. I decided to check its auction stats, and this is what it came up with...
- Average Winning Bid All-Time: 4,555 perfect points
- Average Winning Bid (Last 5 Auctions): 4,700 perfect points
- Highest Winning Bid All-Time: 11,999 perfect points (3 times the actual price of the card).
The chances of pulling a diamond card is 1:150 packs, once again I pulled it in one of my 6 start-up packs. The chances of pulling a 'perfect card' is 1:1000 picks, I heard the Roger Clemens 'perfect card' is a hot commodity.
I really love the historic cards, as you can see above, my Don Mattingly - 1985 All-Star card, his card was done in the 1987 Topps style (one of my absolute favorite Topps Baseball Cards).
Here is a look at some of the interesting cards from my team or reserves section, cards that you don't want on your 25-man roster, stay in the reserves section...
Vern Stephens / 1943 - Historical All-Star (Rating 65)
Vern Stephens has been a huge contributor once I called him up, I stalled for awhile to bring him up, due to his poor defense. I had a better fielder in Maury Wills, plus it's his record breaking steals season from 1962, plus making for a great lead-off man.
Eventually I got sick of Wills' weak bat, put him up for auction, hoping to maybe double his weak 25 perfect points value, and no one picked him up. Stephens, meanwhile has batted .327 with 5 HR & 10 RBI in only 13 games & 55 at-bats, with a 1.111 OPS! Stephens bats 5th in the lineup now, while Wills currently sits on the reserve roster with a .250 batting average & .570 OPS.
Maury Wills / 1962 - Record Breaker (Rating 65)
Carl Mays / 1920 - Unsung Heroes (Rating 61)
Carl Mays is on my big league roster in the 4th slot of the rotation, he is currently 4-6 with a 5.08 ERA, 27 K & 11 BB in 39 innings & 6 starts. Although I am not a fan of his stats, it's understandable facing tougher competition, while I don't mind his off-the-charts 109 for stamina.
Otis Nixon / 1991 - Unsung Heroes (Rating 61)
I was hoping that Otis Nixon would become the lead-off man once I tried to auction off Wills, he was batting good early on, but must have had a bad month, as he is now batting only .211 for the season through 33 games & 114 at-bats, while he only had 9 steals (on pace for 67 games & 18 steals)... well-below his pace that helped him swipe 72 bases for the Braves in 1991 at age 32. I reached back into the minors & called up Scott Podsednik's 2005 Unsung Heroes (Rating 57) in hope that he can do better.
The game also has One Hit Wonder cards, like Harry Kelley's card below. He was part of my rotation until I landed McCullers Jr.
Harry Kelley / 1936 - One Hit Wonder (Rating 60)
Doug Ault / 1977 - Unsung Heroes (Rating 49)
The Doug Ault card won't see the light of day on my big league roster, especially with Don Mattingly at first & Joe Mauer (below) at DH/1B for me. I will keep this card though until I get a better 70's stud, then I will likely sell it for its measily 5 perfect points.
Joe Mauer / Live (Rating 63)
The 'Live' cards are the current MLB players' cards, as you can see I own a bronze rating 63 for Joe Mauer, sure I would love to have an early version of Mauer for sure... but he has done a really good job for me so far. Mauer is batting .289 with 7 HR & 33 RBI, while posting a .382 on-base percentage & .805 OPS.
Plus he looks really cool in the Fighting Tigers' uniforms, don't you agree Eric Berg?!
Eddie Yost / 1952 - Historical All-Star (Rating 62)
At the moment, I have plenty at third base in Yulieski Gurriel, while David Bote can play there, as well as my starting second baseman Jeff McNeil from time to time. I plan to keep this Eddie Yost card in my reserves for now, as good depth to have in my back pocket.
Now onto my team MVP at the moment in Torii Hunter, who by the way is leading the league in All-Star voting for center field.
Hunter's current league rankings (both conferences combined):
- Runs Batted In - 61 (8th)
- Slugging Pct - .571 (8th)
- Doubles - 28 (tied/3rd)
- Triples - 6 (tied/2nd)
- Total Bases - 177 (6th)
- Extra-Base Hits - 47 (tied for 2nd with Barry Bonds)
The Bonds' card by the way, is a Peak / Diamond - Historical Legends (Rating 96), Hunter's card is only a Bronze (68).
Hunter was not the only Traverse City player among the statistical leaders, Jeff McNeil (Rating 68) is currently winning the Second Base job for the All-Star Game, while ranking 4th in batting average (.341) and on-base percentage (.415). Don Mattingly is 7th in runs with 55.
We just purchased Andy Pettitte / 1996 - Historical All-Star (Silver / Rating 77) for 600 perfect points on the auction board, slated to be our 3rd starter behind Strasburg (Diamond 90) & McCullers (Gold 83). Carl Mays and Matt Harvey will pitch from the 4th & 5th slots of the rotation.
By the way, it may come as no surprise, you can also buy perfect points with actual money as well.
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