BASEBALL C4 HERALD NEWS Tuesday, September 20, 2011 A cutter above Mariano Rivera becomes baseball’s all-time saves leader Active saves leaders The Yankees’ Mariano Rivera is now No. 1 on the all-time saves list after passing Trevor Hoffman. Rivera’s success as a closer can be defined by one signature pitch – a sharp-moving, mid-90s cut-fastball that has baffled opposing hitters for the past two decades. Signed by the Yankees in 1990 as an amateur free agent, Rivera made his major league debut in 1995 as a starting pitcher. After struggling in that role and being moved to the bullpen, he had a breakthrough season in 1996 as the setup man for John Wetteland. Rivera took over the closer’s role in 1997 and established himself as one of baseball’s elite relievers, leading the major leagues in saves in 1999, 2001 and 2004. He has been instrumental in the Yankees’ five world championship seasons of 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009. Rk 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Player Mariano Rivera Francisco Cordero Jason Isringhausen Francisco Rodriguez Joe Nathan Jose Valverde Brad Lidge Jonathan Papelbon Brian Fuentes Huston Street Saves 602 323 300 291 260 239 223 218 199 178 Note: Except for Rivera, stats are as of Sunday’s games Games by catcher 598 Jorge Posada Joe Girardi 137 Jose Molina 59 John Flaherty 50 Russell Martin 49 Francisco Cervelli 48 Other 103 All-time saves leaders Posada Girardi Rk 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Molina Note: Five games during his career, he has pitched to two catchers Rivera against batters Minimum 10 at bats Most effective AB Ray Durham 26 Alex Rios 15 Marty Cordova 12 Carlos Pena 11 Dustin Pedroia 10 Tony Clark 10 A.J. Pierzynski 14 Terry Steinbach 13 Matt Lawton 13 Scott Hatteberg 13 H 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 BA .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .071 .077 .077 .077 Least effective Edgar Martinez Magglio Ordonez Roberto Alomar Sandy Alomar Bill Mueller Hank Blalock Darin Erstad Paul Konerko Mo Vaughn Aubrey Huff Todd Zeile AB 16 14 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 20 10 H 10 7 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 8 4 BA .625 .500 .455 .455 .455 .417 .417 .417 .417 .400 .400 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Player Mariano Rivera Trevor Hoffman Lee Smith John Franco Billy Wagner Dennis Eckersley* Jeff Reardon Troy Percival Randy Myers Rollie Fingers* John Wetteland Roberto Hernandez Francisco Cordero Jose Mesa Todd Jones Rick Aguilera Robb Nen Tom Henke Rich Gossage* Jeff Montgomery Saves 602 601 478 424 422 390 367 358 347 341 330 326 323 323 319 318 314 311 310 304 *Inducted into the Hall of Fame Yankee saves leaders Rk 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Player Mariano Rivera Dave Righetti Rich Gossage* Sparky Lyle Johnny Murphy Saves 602 224 151 141 104 *Inducted into the Hall of Fame Durham Rios Martinez Ordonez Saves by month 83 March/April 117 June 102 July 112 August 90 Sept./Oct. Saves by season 53 50 45 43 43 40 36 36 34 28 Saves vs. opponent 70 For an interactive look at Mariano Rivera’s stats go to northjersey.com 98 May 39 44 43 33 30 5 ’96 54 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 59 ’11 48 41 35 30 29 35 32 27 37 34 20 8 4 2 ARI ATL BAL BOS CHC Sources: RetroSheets.com, MLB.com 3 CWS CIN 6 3 CLE COL DET FLA 3 HOU KC LAA 1 4 LAD MIL 5 MIN NYM OAK PHI 0 PIT 3 2 SD SF 4 3 SEA STL TB TEX TOR WSH R.L.REBACH/STAFF ARTIST Exit Sandman BASEBALL Tuesday, October 1, 2013 HERALD NEWS C5 Mariano Rivera closes out a career Saves vs. strikeouts The man who has come to define his position, Rivera leaves a legacy beyond the number of saves he recorded. A Yankee for his entire 19-year career and their closer for the past 17 years, he dominated the ninth inning with a mixture of fastballs: two-seamers, four-seamers and his signature cutter. The bottom line is when he came into the game, it was usually over for the opposing team. Rivera ends his career as the all-time saves leader, and he is among the top three closers in strikeouts. Saves Strikeouts 1300 1200 1251 1173 1133 1100 Pitch selection In the beginning, fastball dominated Rivera’s repertoire. Gradually, the cutter developed and then became the dominant pitch. 1000 100% 900 Slider Cutter Fastball 80 60 800 40 20 700 0 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 652 601 600 Note: Pitch type has only been tracked since 2002. 500 The cutter Held and thrown with the same motion as his four-seam fastball, Rivera manipulates the movement of this pitch by adjusting the pressure of his fingers. 478 Horizontal drop Four-seam fastball Cutter 400 300 200 100 Vertical break 0 Mariano Trevor Rivera Hoffman (19 years) (18 years) Lee Smith (18 years) Still making saves The top four active saves leaders behind Rivera 700 Making outs Mariano Rivera One of the marks of Rivera’s legacy was his efficiency. He pitched in 1,035 games as the Yankee closer, even though some apperances were not save situations. In almost half of those games, he faced the minimum number of batters. (19 years) 600 550 More than minimum faced Minimum batters faced 652 650 One inning or less* More than one inning* All games* 500 393 56 449 450 448 138 586 400 *As a closer 350 341 Strikeouts 300 In 393 appearances of one inning or less, where Rivera faced the minimum number of batters, here is how many batters he struck out: Three Two 3 batters 127 One 62 None 1 batter 200 9 150 18 100 4 1 5 153 286 250 2 batters 14 304 50 0 Saves vs. opponent 79 Joe Nathan (13 years) Francisco Rodriquez (12 years) Jose Valverde (11 years) Jon Papelbon (9 years) 64 58 54 43 37 31 30 36 40 37 35 28 20 8 4 ARI 3 4 ATL BAL BOS CHC CWS CIN Sources: baseball-reference.com, MLB.com, fangraphs.com 5 CLE COL 5 DET HOU KC LAA 3 6 LAD MIA 4 MIL MIN NYM OAK 5 0 4 PHI PIT SD SEA 2 3 SF STL 4 TB TEX TOR WSH R.L. REBACH/STAFF ARTIST