(The following is being syndicated from The Captain’s Blog).
One of baseball’s most enduring modern myths revolves around the notion that Mariano Rivera has dominated as a closer by using only one pitch. Although Rivera does rely heavily on his much heralded cutter, he also judiciously uses a pinpoint fastball to keep the hitters honest. According to fangraphs.com, Rivera has thrown his fastball as much as 56.6% of the time (2006) and as infrequently as 7.1% (2009). Because the accuracy of pitch identification becomes more questionable the further back you go, some of the figures presented in the chart below need to be taken with a grain of salt, but even if you rely on only the more recent data, the point holds. Rivera isn’t a one-trick pony.
Mariano Rivera’s Fastball/Cutter Ratio
| Season | Fastball | Cutter |
| 2004 | 48.4% (93.5) | 47.5% (93.0) |
| 2005 | 44.1% (93.4) | 54.8% (93.0) |
| 2006 | 56.6% (93.8) | 43.4% (93.2) |
| 2007 | 26.7% (93.6) | 73.2% (93.2) |
| 2008 | 18.0% (93.1) | 82.0% (92.8) |
| 2009 | 7.1% (91.7) | 92.9% (91.3) |
| 2010 | 15.1% (92.2) | 84.9% (91.1) |
Source: fangraphs.com
Quite frankly, it really doesn’t matter how many pitches Rivera throws because his dominance speaks for itself. Still, it is nice to have a better understanding of his wizardry, and a recent video analysis done by ESPN’s Sport Science does an excellent job providing an explanation.
According to former major league pitcher and pitching coach Tom House, Rivera really throws four or five different pitches (including variations on his fastball), but what makes him very unique is every single one emanates from almost exactly the same arm slot. Because Rivera doesn’t vary his arm angle, it appears as if he is throwing one pitch, but, as major league hitters have found out the hard way over the past 16 years, looks can be deceiving. About the only difference between Rivera’s fastball and cutter is the spin he puts on them, but this change only manifests itself in the last 10 feet of the ball’s flight. In other words, swinging a bat against Rivera is nothing more than a guessing game.
Mariano Rivera’s Consisent Arm Slot
Source: ESPN Sport Science
Although many have labeled Rivera’s approach as simple, in reality, it is quite literarily a very complex slight of hand. Like any good magician, the Yankees’ closer makes the batters see what they want, and then when they least expect it, he pulls the rabbit out of his hat. That’s why it’s important to note that Rivera doesn’t rely on power or changes of speed. Instead, his amazing career has been built on the last 10 feet his pitches travel. And, as long as he can maintain that level of deception, there’s every reason to believe he can continue be an extremely effective reliever.
Rivera’s success can’t really be defined by one concept or another. In fact, the earthly bounds of science are probably much too limited to capture his true greatness. Instead, it makes more sense to suspend belief and enjoy his sustainable excellence before we are all forced to suffer through the trials of a mortal closer.
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12 Responses to Cutter Above: A Video Analysis of Mariano Rivera
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TIQ IQ
They showed this to Mariano and he couldn’t disagree more…
He said he only throws the one pitch, he said he doesn’t try and throw different versions by squeezing on different points of his fingers and he said he doesn’t pay attention to if he is changing where he holds the cutter on the seams.
It was actually really funny, he was watchign the video with this weird look on his face the whole time and then he leans over to the Baseball tonight host and said “this is crazy” and then they started talking about how he “knows nothing about this stuff” and Mariano basically said all I do “is grab the ball and throw”.
Mo also repeated the fact that he always thought of this pitch as his normal 4 seam fastball and that it just has always moved this way and he never tried and create a cutter.
I’d like to see the video of Rivera’s reaction, especially because I can’t imagine he doesn’t think there is a difference between his fastball and his cutter. Judging just by the way the Yankee catchers set up would imply Rivera knows he is throwing two different types of pitches.
Do you know when it aired?
He didn’t say there was no difference in his cutter and 4 seam, he said that he grew up throwing a cutter but always thinking that it was a 4 seamer and he was told he was throwing a cutter at some point in the minor league system.
He was making the distinction that he didn’t grow up throwing a 4 seam fastball and then invented a cutter… In fact I have heard him talk about this before he said in an interview a few years ago that he one day he was playing catch in the outfield and the guy he was throwing too kept getting mad because the ball was moving so much and he was having a hard time catching it, he told Mo to stop throwing it that way and throw a 4 seam and Mo said he was throwing a 4 seam but he just has always had movement like that on it and that’s when the Mariano Cutter became known to the start of what would be the world.
I tried to edit my post to put in the air date of the show and once again today it won’t let me edit, it wouldn’t let me edit all day yesterday either.
It aird yesterday on baseball tonight but it was around 2 PM ET.
Found it William.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6188165
As I said he refutes the idea that he throws “4 or 5 different pitches” although I know Rivera throws a 4 and maybe even a 2 seam fastball I’m pretty sure they were talking “4 or 5 different’ cutters or cutter like pitches and he obviously doesn’t.
Thanks…it is interesting to hear Mariano break himself down, but I don’t think he really contradicts the video. In fact, it kind of makes sense. Because he doesn’t really try to do anything different, it accentuates the slight of hand that makes him so deceptive. If he was actually trying to make the ball do something drastically different, the batters would likely pick up on it.
Also, even if Mo’s really pitch count is only 2 or 3 (not 4 or 5), it still means he doesn’t simply fire cutter after cutter, which seems to be what so many people think he does.
I thought the video was trying to over do things a lot, they were trying to say he throws 4 or 5 different cutters which he doesn’t, he simply throws cutters to different points in the zone and the video did make it seem like he was trying to manipulate ball to cut in different ways.
All I know is the video was a lot longer and not nearly as good as “get the ball throw it go home” which may be the best quote ever.
His look watching that video was priceless though, he looked like he was thinking it was cool but way to in depth.
I inferred from the video that Rivera throws four pitches, meaning one cutter and three variations on the fastball (two-seam, four-seam, and perhaps one thrown as kind of a change). If so, I don’t think that’s entirely inaccurate. We know Mo throws a cutter and four seamer most of the time, but he also uses a sinking fastball on occasion and his velocity varies enough to suggest he may be taking a little off at times.
If, however, they really were implying he throws four cutters, I would agree it’s inaccurate. Having said that, Mariano’s confusion doesn’t necessarily refute the video. Athletes for whom things come easy often have little understanding of what makes them so good. For every Ted Williams who is a scientific about his craft, there are so many more who are instinctual.
If the introduction to the video had been the science of Mariano Rivera I would have probably thought they meant he throws 4 or 5 different pitches, they said though it was the science of Mariano Rivera’s cutter, so when they are talking about that one pitch I just assumed they meant 4 or 5 different cutters. It could be my fault for assuming.
He did straight up say he doesn’t throw 4 or 5 pitches when asked, I don’t expect him to know the science of how he pitches but I would expect him to know how many pitches he throws, maybe he is trying to throw people off but I don’t see it.
William, Mo’s reaction doesn’t surprise me one bit. You may recall that in the first few years after Mo was called up, Torre and Stottlemeyer actually tried to correct Mo’s “problem” with his fastball moving too much. They worked on it in bullpen session after bullpen session trying to get his fastball to straighten out, thinking it would give him better control. Eventually, they just gave up.
Mo’s story is resally weird isn’t it? He gives no credit to himself for the pitch and just explains it as just something he naturally does and god, to think that he for lack of a better word stumbled upon perhaps the greatest pitch of all time is amazing.
I wonder how the first conversation went when someone tried to explain to Rivera he wasn’t throwing a 4 seamer.