If someone asked me to rank all of the closers in Major League Baseball in terms of talent and effectiveness, the top of my list would probably look something like this:
Mariano Rivera
Jonathan Papelbon
Joe Nathan
Going into this postseason, it seemed like the only area in which the Twins could challenge the Yankees was at closer, while the Red Sox had a major advantage over the Angels in the bullpen due to Papelbon. As it turned out, Papelbon turned in the worst outing of his career at the most inopportune time, while Nathan blew one game and put a second far out of reach. These outcomes just made me appreciate Mariano even more.
Yes, Mariano has blown some postseason games, but that is bound to happen to a pitcher put into that situation so frequently. For some perspective, note that Papelbon’s playoff ERA is now worse than Mariano’s on the strength of one poor outing (1.00 to .74). Mo has never had a postseason performance like that one, in all his years pitching out of the Yankees’ bullpen. Nathan has been every bit as good as Mo statistically over the last 5 years. However, he now moves into the ever growing cadre of great regular season closers who could not get it done when October rolled around. Mo has managed to dominate in the playoffs for 14 years, and has never looked as rattled as Nathan did Friday night. So here is to Mariano Rivera. Hopefully he keeps this up for a long time.
Related posts:
Could not agree more. For some prespective check out http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/riverma01.shtml and http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/papeljo01.shtml?redir and http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/nathajo01.shtml
Rivera has been so good for so long is what is amazing. And most of his saves he came in for over one inning and many of them are the one-run nail biting variety not the 3 out 3 run lead type.
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
I love Mariano but wasn’t he on the mound when we lost to the Bosox 4 in a row, The Diamondbacks, Cleveland and Seattle?
His body of work as a hole is unbelievable but post season somewhat mixed for an all-time great.
I do blame Posada for some of that, though now Posada sets up outside against lefties with 2 strikes, something he didn’t do for 5 years.Additionally, Mariano was great early on going upstairs with 2 strikes also but Posada doesn’t call that either.
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
Moshe Mandel Reply:
October 12th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Stop with blaming Posada for everything, it just comes off as ridiculous. And his playoff record is not mixed, he has just had more chances. He has the lowest playoff ERA of anty pitcher with more than 30 innings or so. He was on the mound for 2 of the losses to Boston, and in one he came with a runner on 3rd and no one out and gave up a sac. He did not blow a game to Seattle as far as I know.
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
Joe O Reply:
October 13th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Against Seattle in ‘95 I beleive he was the last man left in the Pen when the Yanks went to Jack Mcdowell instead. He gave up the homer to Alomar in game 4 of ‘97 at Cleve in the 8th to tie it, he made a critical throwing error in game 7 of the ‘01 world series (yanks turn the routine dp games pretty much over), and his mistake to Boston in ‘04 game 4 (with a 3-0 series lead) was a leadoff walk (followed by SB and a single). As Moshe pointed out the other game he came in against boston with a runner on 3rd and noone out in the 8th. Other than the cleveland game it wasn’t really his pitching that cost us a series. Contrast that with the fact that he played huge roles in getting us to the playoffs each year and winning 4 titles and 6 pennants. Has he been perfect? No, but noone has and just looking at the closers from this weekend makes you appreciate him even more. He has never blown a 2 run lead in a playoff game. Also don’t forget what he did to Boston in ‘03 (ALCS MVP with 3 relief innings to get the win in game 7).
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
Look at Huston Street tonight. Mo’s truly the greatest.
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
Who gave up the walk off hit to win it, wasn’t it Mariano?
Wasn’t he on the mound against Cleveland also?
I know he had the lead in the 9th against Arizona.
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
Moshe Mandel Reply:
October 12th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
No, it wasn’t Mariano, and you are entirely missing the point. He has been the best postseason pitcher ever. He happens to be in in tied or one run games, so any mistake will be magnified. The fact that he has been in the playoffs in 13 seasons and you can count the mistakes on one hand is mind boggling.
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
Not really.
I’ve seen other relievers just as dominant in their careers.Just played in WS though which is why not segregating playoffs from WS is ridculous.
Mantle is still the All time leader in HR’s and every one was in the WS.If they had playoffs he’d have hit 100.
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
The other Chris H Reply:
October 13th, 2009 at 1:30 am
Who is a better closer that you personally saw play before the “playoffs” were around and they just played world series?
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
The other SteveS Reply:
October 13th, 2009 at 8:16 am
End of discussion. Lefty just pushed the BS-meter into the red.
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
If anything I was expecting the Papelbon blown save! He has been shaky all year and was just begging for a lot of saves to be blown that just barley got pulled out against non playoff teams, so I figured coming into the playoffs he wouldn’t have a great post season. I also don’t understand why everyone was so impressed with Boston’s pen, they started out strong yes but for the most part they all got used way to much and got blown out towards the end and a good deal of them have never been go to guys in the playoffs.
(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]