Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past 36 hours or so, you know that Mariano Rivera got his 602nd save yesterday. As a former and currently-sometime Yankees fan (they like to win and I like winning), and also having a six degrees of Kevin Bacon association with the Rivera family, this was really cool to follow.
This article from HardballTalk somewhat encapsulates how I feel about the “save” statistic. You can probably look up the MLB.com or wikipedia definition yourself, but basically a reliever has to conform to various arbitrary criteria in order to record a “save.” I often mock this statistic as I think it’s useless and prevents managers from leveraging their relievers properly because they’re either set in their philosophies that certain relievers must always be used in certain innings, or because their relievers want to rack up “saves” for more money. It was both amusing and sad to see the stupidity of the save statistic find its way into a great moment in baseball history as we see in the quote below:
“I couldn’t believe they were cheering me for hitting into a double play,” Swisher said. “I said: ‘Whoa, what’s this? And then I looked at the bullpen and saw Mo coming out and I said: ‘Now I get it!’ This was the greatest double play of my life.”
“Runners at first and second…it was unbelievable,” Rivera said. “I don’t ever want my teammates to do bad so I can pitch, but this time I was happy for the opportunity. I’m listening to the fans and I said: ‘Wow, these guys are into it!’”
I did make several jokes yesterday about this, when the Yankees were up big on the Twins and then threatening again late in the game. I bet if the Yanks had kept the big lead, we wouldn’t have even seen Rivera yesterday.
I love Mariano Rivera, and I think he’ll go into the Hall of Fame with no obstacles. But I really do hate the “save” statistic.
Comments
I like the part where in order to publish this article, I had to “save” it first (dying laughing)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]I like the part where in order to publish this article, I had to “save” it first (dying laughing)[/quote]Sooooo arbitrary.
binkyQuote Reply
I think Chris Perez got a save earlier this season with a five run lead, the bases loaded, and the tying run on deck. I was like, “really?”
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Then there was one from maybe a season or two ago where one team was blowing out the other 30-3 and the reliever came in and got a three-inning “save”…I want to say it was a Rangers game. I dig that protecting a one-run lead against the Yankees with Granderson-Teixiera-ARod due up is tough stuff, but if they want this stat to be a bit more legitimate, they have to change the criteria somehow.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I saw a tweet yesterday, I think from Jay Jaffe, along the lines of “Saves are overrated. Mariano Rivera is not.”
MishQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]I like the part where in order to publish this article, I had to “save” it first (dying laughing)[/quote](dying laughing) in order to add tags you have to save it first. You can publish it before saving for what it’s worth.
Good article, RC.
mb21Quote Reply
If anything, the save statistic underrates Rivera. He’s significantly better than Hoffman. Not even close.
mb21Quote Reply
Mo’s best year was 1996, when he only had 5 saves and was John Wetteland’s setup man. The reason it was his best year is that he was allowed to pitch over 100 innings, while remaining effective. After he was promoted to the closer, he was reserved mainly for the ninth inning in save situations. Being shoehorned into the closer role has prevented him from reaching his true potential, I believe.
ACTQuote Reply
It’s really too bad he wasn’t allowed to start more than that one season (sort of like Marmol) but sometimes the baseball minds know more than the stats folk do and turning Rivera into a reliever was a stroke of genius in retrospect. I sort of wonder how his cutter would fare if he were to try to throw it more than once through the order, but it’s plenty effective in the one inning of work he puts in.
Rice CubeQuote Reply