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.