Mariano Rivera's 99 Card is a Lie.
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So I got Mariano Rivera after his price dropped to go ahead and complete the collection for his inning. After generating my lineup and making some tweaks, he ends up in my bullpen.
Compared to other pitchers with worse stats than he has (whose ERAs are less than one each), his ERA is almost two (ALL of my games are against the CPU, I don't do online stuff).
I figured it wasn't a big deal at first, because with some new pitchers I end up accidentally throwing a piece of cake, and I kept pitching with Rivera in my conquest games to try and decrease his ERA. Except he's giving up a homer (occasionally multi-run bomb) seemingly every other game. I pride myself on effectively locating pitches as accurately as possible, so I find this strange, if not suspicious.
It's like the card is lying to me. 125 H/9? Lie. 99 HR/9? Lie. Pressure Cooker, Stingy, and Grounded quirks? LIES!
I'm guessing this card is the main reason I hear folks saying that the Signature Series cards are trash this year? Because Rivera must be Exhibit A.
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Rivera is one of my best conquest relievers. He is trash online though. Pressure cooker, Stingy, and grounded quirks don't do anything so they aren't lying to you. I've also never hear anyone saying signature series cards are trash either. In a way they are, because all the top used guys from previous years were given Awards cards instead, but you can't really say all signature cards are trash when Chipper, Gossage, Walker, Ted Williams, Bob Feller, and Billy Wagner Absolutely are not trash
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Personally, I love seeing him come out of the bullpen in online games, he is not scary.
Wagner and Gossage give me nightmares.
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vs cpu just throw cutters away out of the zone and offspeed low in the zone. then pound the hard stuff up and in on the hands. Don't leave anything over the middle or anything hard low in the zone or it will be crushed. You can mix sliders low away and cutter low and away and get swinging K's all day.
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I dont think it matters much vs CPU TBH. I can take pretty much any hard throwing bronze or common pitcher that has a slider and get the CPU out as easy as with any 99. I think all those numbers are more for H2H action.
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I personally like Mo a lot, both online and offline. Although I pitch differently with him depending on if it's a human or the cpu that I'm facing.
Online it's the sinker and hard cutter combo, then the change up keeps my opponent off balance.
Offline its alrernating fastballs high and tight, sliders low and away. It's not the most exciting pitching, but it's effective.
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I just seem to have trouble limiting HRs with him and I don't know why. It doesn't cost me the game because I usually build a lead in the first inning.
I think the cutter is the problem, the thing seems to have a mind of its own. If I try throwing it in the corner, it'll slide to the middle occasionally and get smacked out. I'll try using it low and away.
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Both Rivera and Jensen are very frustrating for me they will have a dominant inning followed by a meltdown. Its like a 50/50 chance if I'm going to paint the black or leave it right over the middle. I'm having trouble getting a reliable guy to save games for me. Williams and Chapman are great but even with good input they are out of the zone a lot. Hader is solid against lefties but his lack of pitches means your opponent just sits on one and it is HR. Going to try Prestige Anderson and Hendricks out next.
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Play online with him and you’ll be surprised, he can be way worse than what he is against the cpu
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Couldn't agree more. The second worst 99 reliever, behind Nick Anderson's "Finest" card...
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@SJR15ITFC said in Mariano Rivera's 99 Card is a Lie.:
Couldn't agree more. The second worst 99 reliever, behind Nick Anderson's "Finest" card...
Lol Kirby Yates says hello. Anderson isn't even the worst 99 TA4 finest reliever
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