July 16, 2006
Four Hundred Saves
Mariano Rivera picked up the 400th save of his career today. Rivera picked up his first save in 1996. Since then, only Trevor Hoffman earned more. In that same period, no one with at least 700 innings pitched comes close in ERA.
Rivera's great strength is keeping the ball in the park. Again, since going to the bullpen in 1996, he's allowed just 31 home runs. Note that individual pitchers posted 100 seasons of 31 homers or more since 1996.
He earned the save in fitting fashion, going two innings to close the game. That's his 85th save of four outs or more. From 1996 on, that's 30 more saves than any other closer (Keith Foulke has 55). And none of this counts his post-season contributions. A simply amazing career.
Posted by David Pinto at
07:34 PM
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And there were 2 men on base when Mariano came in in
the 8th. He induced 2 ground ball double plays, 1 in the
8th and 1 in the 9th. He struck out World Series champ
Jermaine Dye to end the game and record save 434 including his post season saves. Trevor hasn't worked more than 1 inning in almost 2 years. It would take 2
pitchers on a lot of teams to do what Mariano does. His
first appearance in late inning relief was in the post season in 1995 where he pitched 3 scoreless innings in relief of John Wetteland. I believe he got the
win in that game against Seattle--which of course is different
from a save.
The thing I don't like about Hoffman, is that his innings are so low...but Rivera, he can pitch like the firemen of old! He's a true reliever! Hoffman is just a 1 inning guy, who comes in with the bases clean and leaves with an ERA and a Save.
The yanks should have spent their farnsworth and dotel money on hoffman (not that he would have left the padres)
>> The yanks should have spent their farnsworth and dotel money on hoffman (not that he would have left the padres) >>
Hoffman wants his legacy to be as a closer, regardless of whether he had even left SD or not. If Rivera had left the Yankees (for whatever reason) this past offseason, I think Hoffman would have signed on as the new closer.
