The Yankees have the night off tonight before they head up North to take on the Blue Jays, who will no doubt confront the team with a bunch of homers and pitchers who can´t top 89mph on the radar gun. The off-day is important because it will give Alex Rodriguez and his achy back one more night of rest. Hopefully he´ll be back at full force come Tuesday.
In the interim, this seems like a good time for me to launch my annual Mariano Rivera appreciation campaign. I´ve said it before, and I´ll keep saying it so long as he plays, but in a way Yankee fans and analysts alike take Mo for granted. He´s so good, and so good like clockwork, that we don´t focus as much on the actual numbers he´s putting up. There´s good, and then there´s an ERA of 0.00, a FIP of 1.38, a WHIP of 0.480, zero walks and only four hits in 8.1 innings of work. Mo isn´t just off to his usual start, he´s off to one of his best starts, which is saying something. Enjoy the off-night.
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5 Responses to TYA Open Thread | Off Day | Monday April 18, 2011
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TIQ IQ
Mr. Rivera is one of the ten or twelve greatest pitchers in the history of the game.
AMEN…AND A CLASS ACT.. in todays..all about me..this guy is unique.. from day one, till now..i will miss this guy..
Boy am I pissed at the Blue Jays. They lost to Boston 4-1, 8-1, and 9-1 the last three days. Talk about not showing up and don’t tell me Boston is that good cuz the Jays aren’t a bad team. The Yankees need to lay the first hammer down on them tomorrow.
I want to see the Yankees at least 6 games ahead of both teams by May 1, I’m not kidding. Send a message early.
My favorite stat on Mo.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/earned_run_avg_plus_career.shtml
Not only is he #1 and the only pitcher above 200, he’s roughly 1/3 ahead of anyone else on the list, which is close to unfathomable given its populated by the best in the history of the game. While it’s always tough to compare starters and relievers, the argument can be credibly made he’s the greatest pitcher who ever lived.
[...] need to be careful when I boast. In yesterday´s open thread I pointed out Mariano Rivera´s incredible start to the season. In Tuesday night´s game the greatest reliever of all time allowed his first runs of the season, [...]