Monday August.13/2012

Mariano Rivera holds the ALL-Time Record for any closer (active or retired) with 608 Saves. Will he come back in 2013 to add to his totals?

Chuck Booth: (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)-  To be a closer in today’s baseball game takes quite the mental fortitude.  There is a lot of psychological warfare one could do to himself in preventing a successful run at saving games.  While I am of the mindset that the relief pitchers of yesteryear seemed to be relied on more for lengthier durations, this does not diminish this stat in any way.  It is hard to acquire the 90-100% save rate that most teams are striving for in a pitching staff.  In any given seasons the average save opportunities average from 45-65 chances to lock a game down.  A lot of this also depends on what team you play for.  There have been several phenomenal stretches put forth by closers of the game in recent vintage.  Who could forget Canadian born Erig Gagne?  This man once saved 85 straight games from 2002-2004.  He is the all-time leader in that category and beat out John Franco’s previous record by an astounding 30 games. Another incredible run was Brad Lidge‘s incredible 2008 season where he did not blow a save opportunity out of 48 games both in the regular season and playoffs.

Sure these guys don’t log 120 innings anymore, or throw for 3 inning saves like Rollie Fingers and Goose Gossage did for many years.  By the way, we can all thank Tony La Russa for the invention of specialists pitchers (Rick Honeycutt, Jesse Orosco anyone?) and the one inning save closers.  La Russa perfected this scenario with former starter Dennis Eckersley coming out of the pen for the Oakland A’s during their powerhouse days in the late 80’s.  Eckersley was so dominant every team tried to duplicate their own bullpens to mock the A’s. 

Before this time had come, relief pitchers were all mostly comprised of young pitchers trying to acclimatize themselves into the Major Leagues first, before earning a spot as a Starting Pitcher.  For example, David Wells was once a relief pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays first and then was promoted to a starting pitcher after he proved he could pitch in the Major Leagues.   In today’s baseball world, relief pitchers are now being drafted out of college and high school as relievers whereas they used to all come from the position of starting pitcher.  It also used to be that relief pitchers were players that graduated to a starter and then could not find success as starters and were sent back to the bullpen once again to stay.  When it came down to it, you had only a couple of chances to perform as a starter.  Maybe it was because there were bigger than life characters like Gossage that make remember these pitchers in such favorable terms.  Maybe it was because we never saw them interviewed on a social media platform like today’s athlete is and the mystery surrounded them made them more feared, or maybe it is because we tend to admire things more when they happened in the past.  I still love the closers role in today’s game and nothing has more drama in a baseball game than trying to nail down the last 3 outs!

In baseball time now, the position is as shaky as ever.  When baseball experts started to really do the research necessary, they have come up with the 9th inning may not even be the most important inning of the game anymore.  Some times the 7th and 8th innings are more important for the pen as that is when the starter is usually lifted when leading the game.  A lot of the time, there is more clear and present danger (in the forms of men on base)-when the relievers first enter the game.  That can be a blog for another day.  I was shocked to see this list.  There are not as many great closers as there used to be in this game.  A lot of these guys are nearing the end of their careers.  Once Mariano Rivera retires, we may never see another guy like him.

Top 10 Active Save Leaders as Of August.11/2012:

1. Mariano Rivera NYY 608

Mariano Rivera has led the league in saves 3 different times and has finished 5 times in the top five for the AL CY Young. He is the ALL-Time Saves Leader, the ALL-Time Games Finished Leader, Has and 0.70 ERA in postseason to go along with another 42 Saves. Rivera is also the active Leader in WHIP (.998), ERA (2.21) and is a 12 time ALL-Star.

2. Francisco Cordero HOU 329: Cordero has cracked the 30 save barrier 7 times and the 40 save barrier a total of 3 times.  His best year was in 2004 for Texas, where he had 49 saves and a 2.13 ERA.  Cordero is a 3 time ALL-Star and has finished 2nd in saves on 3 different occasions.

3. Jason Isringhausen  LAA 300: Jason Isringhausen is a converted starter who finished 4th in Rookie of The Year Voting for the Mets in 1995.  Isringhausen led the National League in saves during the 2004 year and was part of the team that went to the World Series.

4. Francsico Rodriguez MIL 294:  Rodriguez came up during the 2002 for the Angels and was a great set-up man for Troy Percival.  In 2005, he took over as the closer for the Angels in 2005 and proceeded to the league in 3 out of the 4 next seasons.  In 2008, K-Rod set a single season record for saves with 62, breaking the old record of 57 set by Bobby Thigpen in 1993.  He is a 4 time ALL-Star and has 3 AL CY Young Top Finishes.  In 2008, he also led the league in games appeared in.  In 2008 and 2009 he led the league in games finished. 

5. Joe Nathan TEX 284 :

Joe Nathan has never led the league in saves, however he finished in 2nd in the AL for the Twins in 2009. In 2006, Nathan led the league in games finished with 61. Joe Nathan has appeared in 5 ALL-Star Games and has finished in top 5 AL CY Young voting twice.

6. Jose Valverde DET 264:  Valverde has led the league in 3 different years with 3 different clubs.  In 2011, Valverde led the league in Games appeared in and Games Finished.  He also led the league in Games Finished for the Houston Astros in the 2009 Season.  Jose is a 3 time ALL-Star and has 1 top 5 CY Young voting finish.

7. Jonathan Papelbon PHI 244: Papelbon finished 2nd in Rookie of the Year Voting in the 2005 season when he had 35 saves and an 0.92 ERA.  Jonathan has never finished higher than 3rd in saves, yet he is a 5 time ALL-Star.  In 2007, he saved 3 more games during the World Series for the winning Red Sox.

8. Brad Lidge WSH 225:  Lidge has 18 Career Saves in the Post Season to go with his totals.  His best season was the 2008 year where he saves all 41 chances during the season and another 7 straight in the post season.  Lidge finished 4th in NL CY Young Voting that year.  Lidge is also a 2 time ALL-Star.

9. Brian Fuentes STL 204 :  Brian Fuentes took over as the closer in Colorado in 2005.  He racked up 115 saves in his Rockies career.  In 2007, Fuentes was the closer on the World Series appearing Rockies.  In 2009, he took over the closers role for the Angels after the departed K-Rod.  Fuentes ended up leading the league with 48 Saves.  Fuentes is now pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals.

10. Huston Street SD 199:

Huston Street was the 2005 Rookie of the Year for the Oakland Athletics. Street carries a career record of 32-21 (.604) and has an ERA of 2.93. He was named to his 1st ALL-Star Game this year. To date, he has converted all 21 of his save opportunities and has an 0.75 ERA for the San Diego Padres.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com ***

 ***Thank you to our Lead Baseball Writer- Chuck Booth for preparing today’s feature on MLB reports.  To learn more about “The Fastest 30 Ballgames” and Chuck Booth, you can follow Chuck on Twitter (@ChuckBooth3024) and you can also follow Chuck’s website for his Guinness Book of World Record Bid to see all 30 MLB Park in 23 days click here  or on the 30 MLB Parks in 23 days GWR tracker at the Reports click here. To Purchase or read about “The Fastest 30 Ballgames Book, ” please click here ***

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