Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
The debate about the value of the closer will never be settled, but there is a colorable argument that even the best of them -- Rivera -- is vastly overrated in the court of public opinion.
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That is an argument I personally tend to agree with, but even giving as much possible credit to the role of the closer as possible, heavily weighting specific innings, giving and every single benefit of the doubt to Rivera and then adding some random points to him just because, I still cannot see how one can possibly come to the conclusion that Rivera produced more value than the very best starters of his time.
Removing Clemens is fair game; if you cancel out his steroid years that appear to have started with the Blue Jays as I recall, he's no longer the #1. Slotting Mariano into his place makes no sense when guys who pitched, 4,000, 5,000 innings at a very, very high level are available to choose instead.