Mariano Rivera’s All-Time Greatness
The saves alone indicate that Mariano Rivera has been a pretty darn good player over the course of his career, but most of us realize that saves are just as good as wins when evaluating players. Of course, they aren’t all that bad when you are talking about a player’s career, but it’s obviously a much better idea to take a deeper look at the statistics. Now, this post isn’t going to be extremely geeky sabermetric stuff, but it will be more than light on the stats.
What catches my eye from the very beginning is the fact that Super Mariano has the highest ERA+ of all-time. As Garfield said, “Tom Seaver, eat your heart out.” His ERA+ is 206- no, that is not a typo- the next highest total is Pedro Martinez‘s 154. What this means is that Mo might just be the greatest pitcher who ever played, and not just the best reliever.
Alright, alright, I personally don’t think Mo is the best pitcher period, no matter how much I love him and the Yankees. It doesn’t seem feasible that the best pitcher in history could possibly be a guy who only pitches an inning every three games, no matter how much of a high-leverage situation it is. WAR seems to agree with this statement, as Rivera’s 56.1 WAR is tied for 53rd in MLB history. That’s still terrific, because WAR is a counting statistic and not a rate stat. In normal-person talk, that means starters who pitch more innings will have more WAR because they can accumulate more wins.
Almost all of the leaders in WHIP played in the Dead Ball Era, but it’s nice to see Mo slotted just behind the late, great Addie Joss in this statistical category. In case you haven’t got the pattern yet, all these statistics are based on an all-time scale. For the uninitiated, Addie Joss did not retire in 2003.
In other stats, Rivera has given up the sixth least hits per nine innings, he has the 26th best strikeout rate, and he has the fourth best strikeouts to walks ratio in history.
A testament to his nerves of steel, Mariano Rivera has the fifth highest WPA of all-time among all pitchers. Yeah, a reliever is in the top five in a counting statistic. Did I mention that he is the greatest reliever in history? I did? Well my mistake, his greatness has blown my mind to such proportions that I can no longer function properly. Before I become too lucid, I shall stop this post and pass on this mind-blowing experience to you, in the hopes that you too will comprehend the true greatness of a guy we simply refer to as “Mo”. He may very well be one of the top ten greatest pitchers, not just relievers, in history.