Why Mariano Rivera is the Greatest Closer in Baseball History

Statsman
Statsman, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Feb 22, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
When looking for the best closer of all time one pitcher stands out above the rest in almost every category. That pitcher is Mariano Rivera. You can rank the closers in almost any way you'd like, and he is still going to be number one no matter. Have any doubts? I'm going to list a number of key stats and the top five closers in each category (minimum 150 saves).

Percentage of the League ERA (LERA) - probably the most critical stat for evaluating any pitcher. Derived by dividing a pitchers ERA into the League average ERA. The lower the number, the better the pitcher. The lower the number, the better chance the pitcher is giving his team to win games.

1) Mariano Rivera - has pitched to just 50% of LERA in career.

2) Billy Wagner - excellent at 55%.

3) Trevor Hoffman - 67%

3) Troy Percival - 67%

5) Dan Quisenberry - 68%

5) John Wetteland - 68%

5) Armando Benitez - 68%

Career Won-Lost Record - how can people ignore this stat when looking at closers? A Win is a Win and a Loss is a Loss. Closers should not be given any slack for losing games, and deserve credit for winning them.

1) Mariano Rivera - 59-40 (.596)

2) Dan Quisenberry - 56-46 (.549)

3) Eric Gagne - 25-21 (.544)

4) Hoyt Wilhelm - 143-122 (.540)

5) Goose Gossage - 124-107 (.537)

[Notably bad closers include, Troy Percival 30-41 (.423), Randy Myers, 44-63 (.411), Lee Smith, 71-92 (.436), Jose Mesa, 78-106 (.424).]

BB Rate Per 9 Innings - critical stat for any pitcher, but especially a closer who must keep runners off base.

1) Dan Quisenberry - 1.4

2) Dennis Eckersley - 2.0

3) Mariano Rivera - 2.3

4) Trevor Hoffman - 2.5

5) Rollie Fingers - 2.6

K to BB Ratio - a critical stat for a closer, who not only needs to keep runners off base, but also must have the ability to over-power hitters at critical times.

1) Trevor Hoffman - 3.92

2) Billy Wagner - 3.90

3) Mariano Rivera - 3.50

4) Eric Gagne - 3.46

5) Dennis Eckersley - 3.30

Broken Bats - obviously nobody keeps this stat, but RIVERA's total must be in the hundreds. However he spins his cut fastball, it must have a wicked rotation that just saws off bats. His percentage of the LERA is no fluke, as his pitched ball is very difficult to hit as evidenced by the incredible number of bats that are broken by his pitches.

Mariano Rivera is the Greatest Closer of all-time, and one of the Greatest Pitchers in MLB history. His 50% of the LERA is the lowest number I have ever seen for any pitcher, period. He has the best winning percentage of all time for a Closer, and ranks third in both BB per 9 innings and K to BB ratio. He has also been an incredible post-season pitcher.

(For the three years 2002-2004, Eric Gagne was more dominant than any reliever in baseball history. Over the three years he went 13-7 (.650), with 152 saves in 158 chances (96%), while pitching to just 45% of the LERA, with an unbelievable K to BB ratio of 6.33. Unparalleled pitching, but three years does not make a career.)

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  • Steve 9/18/2008

    The stat about Wins and Losses is horribly flawed. Most of the cases where a closer wins, it's a home game, and he blows a save in the top of the inning. Then, his team comes out and wins in the bottom of the 9th. Therefore, a win for a closer most often reflects a terrible outting, where they failed to get the job done. A more meaningful statistic would be Save conversion percentage, which i am sure is still extremely high for Rivera. Additionally, though I agree with this article for the most part, i think that Rivera does not get enough of a rap for his negatives in the postseason. He has 4 rings, but it could have been 5 rings if not for his blown save in Arizona, which would have won a championship. Lest forget, he also had a blown save in '97 against Sandy Alomar of Cleveland. Therefore, Mariano is a Hall of Fame closer, but perhapy not the best of all time. 4 Rings is phenomenal, but 4/5, possibly 4/6 is a knock he deserves criticism over

  • Timmy 8/14/2008

    well Russ...Hoffman gets his saves in San Diego, in front of MAYBE 20,000 people.
    He rarely pitches in the postseason, and doesnt do that well in the postseason anyhow.

    Rivera ptiches in New York, indisputably the toughest stage in baseball. He plays in front of 56,000 fans (guranteed) and all of NYC watching him. Imagine the pressure.
    Not only that but Rivera has been to the postseason pretty much EVRY SINGLE year of his career. and you'd have to be REALLY stupid to argue that he isnt the greatest postseason reliever in history.

    oh and BTW, Mo has 4 rings :P

  • russ 8/8/2007

    i cant stand how people say that mariano rivera is the greates closer ever. Trevor Hoffman has 500+ saves he has the best saves ratio in baseball history. He hold the record for most 20, 30 and 40 plus save seasons. He has the record for most consecutive 30 plus saves seasons. Mariono may be the better post season closer but look at the teams. One plays for the yankees the other the padres. come on now. If trevor hoffman was on the yankees he would be more well known that rivera, and would have more saves, and more post season success. Hoffman has 58 blown saves rivera 57 but hoffman has had more chances than rivera. Rivera would have to go 2 season without allowing a save to be where hoffman is at right now. Hoffman has had more success with a team less successful team. Its to bad that by the time hoffman comes out to play everyone on the eastcoast is asleep.

  • Tom 2/23/2007

    The content in the article was clear and intelligent

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