Mariano

[Vintageclout]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

What modern pitcher pitched as well as Mariano, regular season and post season, and threw more innings?

Jay - are you actually implying that Mariano can be compared to Top 10 all-time modern day pitchers like Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, etc., who throttled lineups for 7+ innings per game virtually their entire careers? This is getting beyond silly. Please don’t compare a pitcher who only threw roughly 20-25% of the innings (mostly one inning appearances mind you) tallied by these dominating starters. And, remember that Mariano was a failed starting pitcher, only converted to a relief pitcher because of his recurring issues of being consistently successful over an extended number of innings in a single game. Pitching against the same hitters 3/4 times in a game with dominating success is no simple task, and clearly “light years” tougher than recording 3 outs. I’m not trying to diminish Mariano’s success. As you know, I am a HUGE Yankee fan and worship Rivera who was easily the best all-time performer at his craft. However, his craft doesn’t even come close to measuring up against the task of effectively pitching 7-9 innings per game and roughly 240 innings (give or take) per season.

I do agree with your assessment that the game will continue to change whereby many games will be split with several 2/3 inning pitchers followed by the 1 inning closer. Sad to say, it’s become a game of “specialists”, with Tampa Bay leading the way with this innovative philosophy.