An annual rite of spring

By On April 12, 2012 · 3 Comments · In Musings

Mariano Rivera has been an ageless wonder throughout his illustrious career.  He has continued to pitch at an extraordinarily high level well into his 40′s, outlasting pretty much every other great reliever from his era (and many who came after him).  In 2011, at age 41, he posted an ERA below 2, struck out just under a batter per inning, and walked just over a batter every 9 innings, a performance well in line with his historic greatness.

Yet every spring, it seems that Mariano gives us, and his opponents, a brief reminder that he is human.  We saw this on Opening Day against the Rays, when Rivera blew a save and took the loss against the Rays, giving up 2 walks and 3 hits while recording just one out.  As this cheeky post on Deadspin demonstrates, journalists have been speculating about whether these early struggles are a sign that Mariano is washed up for nearly a decade without seeming to learn from their mistakes.  A number of names on Deadspin’s list would not surprise anyone who is familiar with the style and MO of some of the New York media’s most notorious pot-stirrers.

Age is always an easy excuse for any early-season screw-ups, but there are always other legitimate explanations.  Instead, the early-season “struggles” could simply be a sign that Rivera tends to take a little longer than most pitchers to round into form.  This could make sense if Mariano does an abbreviated throwing program in the offseason, and gets less work in spring training.  I have no idea if the former is true, but the latter seems to have been the case for a number of years.  Likely, the purpose here is to help keep Mo healthy after long postseason runs, and save the theoretically limited number of bullets remaining in his arm for meaningful games.

While Mariano had a difficult time on Opening Day, he has already looked better, not only performance-wise, but stuff-wise.  His cutter looked a little flat on Opening Day and his command was a little erratic (by Mo Rivera standards), but by last night’s game, we were more or less back to the Mariano Rivera we are used to seeing.  I see no reason why he won’t continue to be the dominant presence in the back of the Yankee bullpen that he has been for the last 15+ years.  And if this is the year that he decides to hang his spikes up (as he has insinuated), I don’t think a drop in performance will be the factor (mostly because such a decline is unlikely to happen).  I know it is dangerous to have such confidence in a 40+ year-old pitcher to continue pitching at such a high level, but as we have seen throughout his career, Mariano is such an outlier that normal projections don’t really apply.

 
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3 Responses to An annual rite of spring

  1. Steve Sciacco says:
    April 12, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    While citing previous reports of his impending demise is certainly fair game, we should all tread carefully on being too critical. Mariano is the anomaly to end all anomalies. He’s so unique, so outstanding at what he does that those who kept waiting for his demise were simply waiting for him to follow the pattern that just about everyone else has.

    Some reporters have a well deserved rep for harping on the negative, but that doesn’t bother me. Covering the team completely means coming at it from all angles, so its all fair game. But I’d stop short of being overly critical of the Matthews, Marchands and Shermans on this one. This is not the hill you want to die on.

    Reply
    • Eric Schultz says:
      April 12, 2012 at 8:37 pm

      Agreed. I recognize that those guys are doing their jobs, and that often, their job is to stir up controversy and generate discussion/pageviews/retweets. I agree that the 10 years of “is Mariano over the hill” articles shows more about how incredible Mariano Rivera is rather than how bad the NY sports media is.

      Reply
  2. Bryan V says:
    April 12, 2012 at 8:33 pm

    Just like Skip Bayless at ESPN, some people just do a good job of getting their companies exposure. What they say is either meaningless or downright stupid, but they draw attention. As long as people such as you and I can see that idiocy, then it’s all good.

    Reply

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