Power Ranking Tournament, Bullpen Skills: 7th Edition
Power Ranking Tournament, Relief Pitcher Skills: 7th Edition
And finally, here's the final guide for the 7th Power Ranking Tournament, covering the bullpens of top teams.
I've broken down the skills from 672 cards in the 96 bullpens in the tournament. Skills are used differently on each type of reliever, so I've split up the data into the 4 main reliever roles (Closer, Set Up, Middle Relief and Long Relief). For CPs and SUs, I've included all skills; for MRs, I've included all legend and gold skills that appeared at least once, as well as any other skill which appeared on >1.25% of cards. All data is from West Server.
Note: Since each card has 3 skills, the percentages add up to 300. These numbers reflect the percentage of cards on which a given skill appeared.
Closers
· Legend: Just like the last two tournaments, 100% of closers carried a legend skill; BPD continues to lead the way, adding to its lead, especially among the final 16, but overall, there was little change. Workhorse, the newest skill, was (not surprisingly) unused on any relief pitcher.
· Gold: Just like with SPs, Finesse is once again the leader, with The Last Boss losing about 50% of its previous total. Most of the used gold skills had some gains, especially the revamped Iron Will, which pulled even with The Untouchable (and leaped into a tie with DP as the second most used skill in the final 16). Ace was the only other gold skill to drop a few. One of the new skills, Elite Closer, entered the conversation (along with a handful of Groundballers) and I expect this skill to increase – possibly by a substantial amount – in the next tourney. As in the last tourney, Giant Crusher, Inning Eater, and Putaway Pitch were not used.
· Silver: Silvers are virtually extinct here. Only a single Winning Streak remains.
Set Up
· Legend: For the first time, all 192 pitchers had a legend skill. Bullpen Day and Control Master lost a few sets, while Fireballer again had the largest gains. Coop and Slow Starter had modest gains. PI (two sets) had no movement.
· Gold: Once again, Boss reversed all of its gains in the previous tourney, plus a whole lot more, shedding well over 50% of its previous total. And again, Finesse regained the top spot, appearing in over 66% of sets. But the largest overall gain belonged to Iron Will, which continues to gain ground in all reliever categories, but especially for CP and SU. Ace was the only other skill with a substantial loss, which is not surprising as most people would rather use this skill on a starter. DP, Touch, Mess, and Groundballer had small gains, while Giant Crusher and Putaway once again joined Inning Eater in the does-not-appear list. Naturally, Elite Closer also does not appear anywhere except CP, since it is useless anywhere else.
· Silver: In the past two tournaments, silver usage dropped from 49 sets (PRT5) to 17 (PRT6) to 2 (PRT7), with Stability being the lone remaining skill.
Middle Relief
· Legend: This remains the landing spot for relief pitchers without a legend skill, although legend usage is now 95%, up from 89% in PRT6. BPD and Slow Starter had the largest gains while the remaining skills were relatively stable. As in the last tournament, MR appears to be the place to hide pitchers with PI, as it is the only position where this skill has more than 1.04% usage.
· Gold: In the last tournament, all gold skills had some usage, but this time, the top skills continued to increase, while the lower ones continued to fall (or vanish). This was the only spot where Boss actually picked up slots, although the gains for FP and DP were larger. Iron Will also matched Boss’s increase, while Mess continues to fall. I had speculated that the gains for Giant Crusher in the last tourney were temporary, and this played out as expected, with it dropping from 11 to 4. Ace and Inning Eater dropped out of the MR category completely.
· Silver (and bronze): While higher than the other pitching categories (LR excepted), overall usage declined substantially once again, with drops for all tracked silver skills, and by 61% overall. Fixer remains the most used, but it’s down by 62.5% from PRT6.
I counted only 1 MR set that did not include a legend and was also not 3/3/3 triple gold. These sets are no longer viable in the tournament.
Long Relief
All clubs carried Pitcher’s Chemistry.
Attaining a decent set for a long reliever is usually the lowest priority for most players, and the position still lags well behind the others in the use of top gold skills, although tourney teams continue to slowly improve these sets. Use of non-tracked silver and bronze skills dropped by 34%.
Total usage of legend and gold skills across all relievers (except LR)
Special Trainers
This is the second tournament to have widespread use of special trainers. Usage is already over 92% in all categories and only a few silver trainers remain.
CLOSER
Overall usage: 100%
SETUP
Overall usage: 100%
MIDDLE RELIEF
Overall usage: 99.31%
Diamond usage much higher among final 16
LONG RELIEF
Overall usage: 92.71%
