Sorare MLB Market Watch – 01.04.23
Happy New Year everyone! We have officially entered the year where we get our first full season of Sorare Baseball action!
As always, read on for a breakdown of the top news for the week, plus my current favorite buy and sell out there on the market.
5 Quick Hits
Even in the offseason, there is always news to stay up to date on. That’s why I am planning to broaden my search and bring you the five things I find most important for Sorare managers to know for each week. Plus, “News and Notes” needed a rebrand, so feast your eyes on “5 Quick Hits” 👇
1. Nicolas Julia - Thread on 2023
There is a lot of good stuff here from the big guy over at Sorare. Most notably, there appears to be an increased focus on new users for the coming year, both on marketing to them (the part about the US markets), onboarding them (each fan is a general manager), and keeping them engaged (simplifying UI/UX and improving the reward experience).
All in all, the thread is definitely worth a look, and I am very much looking forward to tracking these developments as they roll through. Both as an engaged fan, and as a Product-person in my own right.
2. Sorare in the States came to a screen near you - on Sorare TV
Gotta shout out TrippinB, one of the Sorare in the States boys here! Branching out from the podcast and YouTube world to a screen near you. Well done!
If you are somehow reading this and don’t know about all the good stuff available from the Sorare in the States crew, you can check them out on Twitter, on the Podcast page, and now on the Sorare TV streams on YouTube.
3. Swag Giveaways
The above tweet is just one of many where we saw signed memorabilia given away to Sorare fans to end the year.
I include it here because it is:
a) cool, and
b) keeping with the theme of “merge fantasy with reality” which I wrote about last week.
I love it when you can see continued progress toward goals like this. Hopefully, this is just the beginning.
4. Trade Model Improvements on SorareData
My favorite data and analytics platform for Sorare cards just got a little better.
With their recent update, you can now use the trade builder tool to scout potential trades and trade partners easier. This is especially true if you were already using a watchlist in SorareData to begin with. Now, that watchlist can help you filter down a manager’s collection to the players you care about.
As with any trade builder, just be careful to consider more than just the current value of the cards that you are trading. But that is a rant for a future article.
5. Autobid feature hits Sorare NBA
I saved the best, or at least most divisive, news for last. With reactions ranging from “this is awful” to “what a wonderful feature” it seems only time will tell if we see this gain enough traction on the NBA product to be added to MLB.
Personally, I was surprised this feature wasn’t in the product to begin with, since it has become a standard on services such as eBay.
My gut reaction is that this will lead to slightly higher floor prices for cards, and will make nighttime auctions more manageable to participate in.
Short-Term Flip & Long-Term Buy
We are going to play a “who’s that Pokémon” kind of game today, with two players of the same position and relatively similar statistical profiles - yet one is a buy and one is a sell.
Yu Darvish - SP
Ltd average: .013 | Rare average: .0355
Yu is, and has always been, filthy when he is healthy. In the best possible sense of the word. And last year he was relatively healthy, pitching 194.2 innings for 16 wins and a solid 9.1 k/9. None of this is bad.
However, he’s always a bit of an injury risk, and at age 36 I would gladly look to move on from him once the season starts (no, don’t do it right now).
All that being said, he can still offer a lot to your team in the short term, so don’t sell just to sell.
Pablo Lopez - SP
Ltd average: .0027 | Rare average: .0199
The other side of the coin today is Pablo Lopez. A first-half beast last year who faded a bit down the stretch, he still turned in 180 innings pitched, 10 wins, and an 8.7 k/9. In his age 26 season.
Yes, you heard me right, the guy is just 26 and has flashed some nasty stuff of his own thus far.
Season-long stats aren’t really the right focus here anyway. Sure, they are important, but if he can piece together another half-season like 2022, you have a fantastic starter at bargain basement prices that you can simply bench if his endurance fades again.