Battle Royale Season 3 - Edmonds, Joe Morgan, J.R. Richard

Battle Royale Season 3 in MLB The Show 22 kicks off today, and with it we get the return of Joe Morgan. On top of the Takashi Okazaki Joe Morgan, we have 2nd Half Heroes J.R. Richard as the other Flawless addition. The penultimate reward is a 2nd Half Heroes Jim Edmonds (when are we getting a 2nd Half Heroes collection seems to be a question starting to come up), plus we have a new batch of bronze/silver/gold players in the BR choice packs. Let’s cover all the new goodies below.

Battle Royale Season 3

The new top “Flawless” rewards:

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• Takashi Okazaki Joe Morgan
• 2nd Half Heroes J.R. Richard

With Joe Morgan, this becomes the new “best” 2B outside of the collection Chase Utley going strictly by attributes. Morgan does come with a couple downsides in that he’s only a 2B and has sort of a weird swing. That said, he has 90s contact from both sides of the plate, decent power, 88 vision, 90 fielding, and 90+ speed. He’s a complete player, and he gets the awesome Okazaki treatment on top of that. I don’t usually mess with Morgan cards, but this one will get a trial run at the very least.

2nd Half Heroes J.R. Richard is a little harder to get a read on because he’s still new this year. The first version we used had a dominating fastball but very little control. The control still is not great here, but he continues to have the Outlier 4-seam fastball. Regardless, the three fastballs with a slider combo is not the easiest to use for long stretches. He’s sort of just Emmanuel Clase as a starter. It doesn’t mean he can’t work, but the pitch velocities don’t have a ton of difference, so you really need the cutter to do heavy lifting to keep people off balance.

Rewards

• 5 BR – 500 stubs
• 10 BR – 2,500 XP, Bronze BR choice pack (x2)
  • Rookie Justin Verlander
  • Rookie Jose Ramirez
  • Rookie Grady Sizemore
  • Rookie Lou Brock

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• 15 BR – 500 stubs
• 20 BR – 2,500 XP, The Show pack (x5)
• 25 BR – Silver BR choice pack
  • Topps Now Trea Turner
  • Rookie Zack Wheeler
  • Topps Now Ryan Howard
  • Breakout Brian Wilson

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• 30 BR – Gold BR choice pack
  • Rookie Julio Teheran
  • All-Star Kevin Youkilis
  • Rookie Kenny Lofton
  • Veteran Lee Smith

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• 35 BR – 1,500 stubs
• 40 BR – 2,500 XP, Silver BR choice pack
• 45 BR – Gold BR choice pack
• 50 BR – 2,500 XP, Headliners Set 12 pack
• 55 BR – 1,500 stubs
• 60 BR – 2,500 XP, Bronze BR choice pack (x2)
• 65 BR – 2,500 XP, Silver BR choice pack
• 70 BR – 2,500 XP, Gold BR choice pack
• 75 BR – 2,500 XP, Headliners Set 13 pack
• 80 BR – 2,500 XP, Silver BR choice pack
• 85 BR – 2,500 XP, Gold BR choice pack
• 90 BR – 5,000 XP, 2nd Half Heroes Jim Edmonds

For me, this might be the true “Flawless” reward because I just love Jim Edmonds cards every single season. The swing is undefeated, and I just have lots of confidence with him at the plate. He can play all three OF positions and 1B, and he has maxed out power against RHP. The numbers against LHP are more than serviceable, and you just have to contend with 49 vision. On top of that, of course the fielding stats are very good, but he only has 58 speed so that stings a bit. All that said, I can’t wait to use this card.

• 95 BR – 5,000 XP, The Show pack (x10)
• 100 BR – BR Flawless choice pack
• 110 BR – 3,000 stubs
• 120 BR – Headliners Set 14 pack
• 130 BR – 2,500 XP, The Show pack (x10)
• 140 BR – 3,000 stubs
• 150 BR – 5,000 XP, Ballin’ Is A Habit pack (x5)

Missions

• BR Missions
  • Win 1 BR game – 1 point (repeatable)
  • Go 12-0 – 20 points (repeatable)
  • Win 9+ games in a run – 10 points (repeatable)
  • 4,000 PxP in a single BR entry – 10 points
  • 15 XBH in a single BR entry – 5 points
  • 15,000 PxP in BR games – 15 points
  • 25,000 PxP in BR games – 15 points
  • 20 HR in BR games – 5 points
• Bronze BR-Exclusive Parallel XP Missions
  • Tally 350 PxP with Rookie Justin Verlander – 4 points
  • Tally 250 PxP with Rookie Jose Ramirez – 4 points
  • Tally 250 PxP with Rookie Grady Sizemore – 4 points
  • Tally 250 PxP with Rookie Lou Brock – 4 points
• Silver BR-Exclusive Parallel XP Missions
  • Tally 350 PxP with Topps Now Trea Turner – 4 points
  • Tally 500 PxP with Rookie Zack Wheeler – 4 points
  • Tally 350 PxP with Topps Now Ryan Howard – 4 points
  • Tally 500 PxP with Breakout Brian Wilson – 4 points
• Gold BR-Exclusive Parallel XP Missions
  • Tally 500 PxP with Veteran Lee Smith – 4 points
  • Tally 500 PxP with Rookie Julio Teheran – 4 points
  • Tally 500 PxP with All-Star Kevin Youkilis – 4 points
  • Tally 500 PxP with Rookie Kenny Lofton – 4 points

Bottom Line

This looks like another fun season of BR. In terms of the bronze/silver/gold players, we get to use some players that might be out of our price range right now (Jose Ramirez, Youkilis), and those tiers of players also look like they can fit right in on some of the BR teams we draft. All in all, I think Joe Morgan is the obvious “Flawless” pick to go with in the new season, but Jim Edmonds is the player I want the most from the new program.