Pittsburgh Pirates: Top Five Cards in MLB The Show

Number Five – 97 Overall Topps Finest 1958 Bill Mazeroski

Bill Mazeroski usually gets a low-end 90-ish overall card for his glove work, like last year with his Gold Glove Awards Series Card, or to celebrate his 1960 World Series Home Run. But this year, they gave him a high-90s Topps Finest card for his 1958 season. In my opinion, this is a really underrated card.

Mazeroski’s 120 contact vs LHP is his best attribute, followed by his 111 plate vision. He also has 93 contact vs RHP, 85 power vs RHP, and 88 power vs LHP. Mazeroski was never a speed demon in his career and he gets a 60 speed attribute. That’s more than fast enough up the middle. Of course, you can’t talk about Mazeroski without talking about his fielding. He has 99 fielding with 97 reaction and 97 arm accuracy. He also has 80 arm strength, which for any infielder in this game is really good and elite at second base.

Most players put a shortstop at second base given that most in-game shortstops have 2B as a secondary position, regardless if they played it in real life or not and there are a boatload more high-end shortstops than second basemen, save for a few names. This Mazeroski card is truly one that gets slept on.

When this card gets to parallel five, you get a second baseman with 98/125 contact and over 90 power vs both sides. Not to mention his speed gets bumped up to 65 and his only fielding stat that isn’t 99 is his arm strength, which would come at an elite-plus 85. The only downside is he can only play second base and there are a ton of middle infield cards in this game that are better than this one, and that’s without adding some all-time greats like Joe Morgan, Ryne Sandberg, Craig Biggio, or Future Star series cards for Nick Gonzales or Nick Yorke.

Number Four – 96 Overall Takashi Okazaki series Honus Wagner

Takashi Okazaki series cards have been some of the best card designs the franchise has ever seen. Heck, they’re some of the best player art renditions ever. Introduced this year to celebrate Shohei Ohtani’s Japanese heritage, the cover athlete for this year’s game, these cards are player cards drawn in a Japanese manga comic art style by manga artist Takashi Okazki. Although they’ll probably release a Honus Wagner 99 overall card with his infamous T206 design later this year, his 96 card is still very good.

Wagner receives 100+ attributes for both his contact vs RHP (109) and vs LHP (106). He only has 70/65 power, but 101 vision which makes him easier to hit with at greater difficulties. He’s also extremely fast with 92 speed. Wagner gets good attributes for his fielding and arm with 87/87 fielding and reaction and 86/78 arm strength and arm accuracy.

The interesting part about this card is he is a center fielder. Wagner did play over 3500 innings in the outfield throughout his storied career, though he was primarily a shortstop. But the thing about this card is he has secondary positions for every position, aside from catcher. That means he gets gold fielding attributes throughout the infield and throughout the outfield.

This Wagner card was a program reward earlier this year, but now can only be attained through the community marketplace. He could make many budget teams and make it on a ton of team’s benches. That speed and positional flexibility make him the kind of guy you want to put on your bench.

Number Three – 99 Overall Milestone Roberto Clemente

Roberto Clemente was released last year into the game, making his MLB The Show franchise debut. They gave him a 99 signature series card, commemorating his career as a whole. This year, they gave him a 99 Milestone series card, commemorating him joining the 3000 hit club.

SDS gave Clemente max contact against both left-handed pitching and right-handed pitching, which is 125. They also gave him solid power at 81 vs RHP and 85 vs LHP. Clemente was never much of a power hitter, but he did have some pop. They also gave him 118 plate vision, which helps with higher difficulties when the plate coverage indicator (PCI) is small and higher ranked players use pitchers with 110+ K/9 and H/9 stats.

Clemente obviously has great fielding stats. He has 95 fielding and reaction with 99 arm strength and arm accuracy, which pretty much means he’s the best fielder in the game. He has secondary positions for centerfield and left field, so he’ll get a diamond fielding bage at both positions with 95 fielding. Clemente only has 72 speed, which is good enough to play in the outfield grass in MLB The Show. In my opinion, he should have 80+ speed. He was never much of a base stealing threat, but he definitely get up to speed once he got going.

The only reason he isn’t higher is because power is the meta when it comes to The Show. The way gameplay works, only 81/85 power is just good enough. Still, this is a good card because of that high vision rating and while his power is low, it can be upgraded once he is paralleled. If a player reaches parallel five with this Clemente card, he’ll have 86/90 power. He’s also a tough card to get for the casual player. You must collect all live series cards for the National League, which is pricey unless you play the game very often. There are also a ton of really good outfield cards in this game.

Number Two – 99 Overall Future Stars Oneil Cruz

Oneil Cruz’s Future Stars series card is insane. Future stars cards project players’ attributes of what they could be in 3 or so years from now. This is one of the newest cards in the game, having gotten it in the most recent Field Of Dreams program. Between his attributes at the plate, his fielding, and obtainability, he’s one of the best shortstops you can get in Diamond Dynasty.

Cruz has massive power, of course. He clocks in with 115 power vs RHP and 112 power vs LHP. His contact isn’t quite as good at 98 vs RHP/93 vs LHP, but it’s still more than playable. The big thing is you get a gold fielding badge at shortstop. He has the 83 fielding with 99 arm strength, so he’ll make the deep throws at short. However, he also has 99 speed, so pretty much anything in his zip code will be fielded.

The only issue is that he will become more difficult to use once players start getting to higher difficulties. He only has 69 vision and good, but not great contact numbers. That means a lot smaller of a PCI once you reach World Series and Hall of Fame difficulties.

Still, the power, the fielding, and the speed make this arguably the best shortstop card in the game right now. Cruz’s future stars card can be obtained for free and just by playing the game and doing missions. He also has the secondary position of third base, so if you already have a top tier shortstop like other future stars like Anthony Volpe and Nolevi Marte, or All-star series Dansby Swanson at shortstop, you can put him at the hot corner. Though he does only have a silver fielding badge until you get to parallel two.

Number One – 99 Overall 2012 Topps Finest Andrew McCutchen

Andrew McCutchen always gets a juiced card. This year, they gave him a 99 overall Topps Finest card to commemorate his 2012 season, which is arguably the best season in the All-Star outfielder’s career. This card is so good, it might be an end-game card for most players.

McCutchen has 100+ attributes for every hitting attribute. 116/125 contact, 106/115 power, 100 plate vision, and 125 clutch, everything you want from an end-game card is there. He’s extremely fast with 87 speed in center field and a fantastic fielder. He has 94 fielding with 93 reaction. While McCutchen was never known for his arm strength, they still gave him 83 arm strength and 87 arm accuracy. Once you get him to parallel one, he gets a diamond fielding badge at every single outfield position, not just center field.

This card paralleled to parallel five is downright insane. He gets 121/125 contact, 111/120 power, 105 vision, 99 fielding, and 88 arm. Along with that his speed reaches well above 90, coming in at 92. He’s already arguably the best outfield card in the game. Getting him to parallel five only solidifies that.

This card is obtained through collection rewards, specifically collecting other flashback cards found throughout the game, receiving vouchers, and redeeming them to unlock this 99 McCutchen card. Even once other 99 overall cards for guys like Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffey Jr., Willie Mays, Mookie Betts, and so on are released, McCutchen is still going to find a home on many teams, even for experienced players who grind the game a lot.

Honorable Mentions

There are a whole lot more 95+ overall cards the Pirates have. Many are currently being used by players in The Show. So let’s give an honorable mention to a few that still deserve some recognition.

95 All-Star David Bednar

Released with the All-Star series of cards, this David Bednar card has over 110 hits per-9 and over 100 Ks-per9. He throws a fastball that averages 97 MPH, a 78 MPH curveball, and 88 MPH splitter. Three pitches with highly varying speeds in this game is very good. Each of his offerings has over 88 break.

97 Signature Series Willie Stargell

Willie Stargell always seems to get the short end of the stick, every year. He has sub-100 power and contact vs LHP, but 111 contact and 115 power vs RHP. This card is a left fielder with 65 fielding and 82 arm, but has first base as a secondary position. He’s still a very good bench/platoon bat for any team though. Plus he gets a silver fielding bage for left field once he gets to parallel five.

95 Overall Future Stars Henry Davis

There aren’t very many good catchers in the game and Henry Davis is one of the best. He has over 88 contact and power against both sides. His 78 vision is good enough, but he only has 75 fielding behind the dish. On the plus side, he has 97/95 arm strength and arm accuracy, along with 80 blocking. Once you get this card to parallel five, you get a diamond fielding badge behind the plate with 93+ hitting attributes.