[dishnet34]

One thing I wanted to add in this morning is the content strategy for PT24, as was described by Paul Sporer last night. Here's the transcript from the VOD:

Rob (dishnet): What was the thought process going into the year for PT24? We've done quite a few different things in the past; what are you bringing to the table for 24?

Paul: I would say the main foundation is to focus on individual seasons a bit more. Love PEAK cards, there'll still be plenty of PEAK cards, but I want to highlight premium seasons, put them in focus, and also continually create options for players. There shouldn't just be one "right answer" at every position that everyone's chasing. We want multiple options at every position so you can build your team in different ways. If you want to have a different play style, there should be a way to build a premium team at that level. That's the driving focus there.

(Sarcastically) Of course, there's going to be an inordinate amount of Tigers, I think. (dish starts laughing) I think 75 percent of the launch deck is Tigers, 52 percent of the individual sets are just Tigers-based, so that's a driving force as well. A lot of Deivi Cruzes coming out this year! (End sarcasm)

Rob: I like what you're saying about choices, and I think that's what we've been trying to do in the past, trying to give choices to players for how to build their lineup. You could go with a contact or a big power build, and there's going to be quite a lot of factors that will help you out this year as a player to try to achieve those goals, is that right?

Paul: Absolutely. I saw a question [in chat] about whether there will be a lot of versions of the same player. There can be, but they'll be different. We don't want two diamonds of the same player or two that are too close together. If there's going to be multiples of the same player, they should be vastly different. So, players that have different phases of their career, yeah, there's a chance they'll get 2, 3 cards. But they will be different. I don't want there to be overlap where there's a slight difference here or a slight difference there, otherwise there's no real reason to put that card in.

Rob: I know we can't spoil much, but what are some of the big things you're looking forward to in terms of content this year?

Paul: One of the things you've already kind of hinted that we're going to get into, I think the Pitcher BABIP is going to change the way a lot of pitcher cards are made and what it's going to do. It's going to open up some more avenues for different pitcher cards to be better. There's been some struggles with those certain types of pitchers who are contact management guys that maybe don't have the elite strikeout rates, but put up brilliant seasons or even brilliant careers. The game doesn't always get those guys perfect. At times, we've kind of had to gas them a little bit in their swing and miss, in their Stuff rating, just to make sure they're a playable card, even though that's not the exact route that we would want to take. Now with the Pitcher BABIP category, that's really going to open up the window to give them the cards they deserve in the build they deserve as well.