AL Cy Young

Rivera: 1.07 ERA, .750 WHIP, 377 ERA+

Better than either Soria or Soriano except for saves, because Rivera has had only 31 opps and has 29 saves.
If ERA, ERA+ and WHIP are more important than wins for a starter, then they are more important than saves for a reliever.

 

Rivera is easily the best at his position/role during his career so it is a little odd that he he may never win Cy Young. There have been several guys who had monster years, like Thigpen, Gagne, F Rodriguez. but career wise Rivera dominates. i think it's a little like Scott Stevens never winning the Norris, although he had to contend with all time greats like Borque and Lidstrom. i think the similarity is the guts and clutch play in the postseason. if you're an NHL goalie in an elimination game you want Scott Stevens in front of you. if you're a manager in the postseason you want to have Mariano Rivera to call on in the last inning.

 

Sorry, but that's a terrible analogy. At no time has Scott Stevens been considered the best d-man in the NHL. And at no time has Riveira not been considered the best reliever in the game, despite the occasional freak seasons from some of the guys you have mentioned.

 

Not exactly the same thing. Relief pitcher earned run averages fluctuate much more than starters becuase they throw so few innings. Soriano has given up 10 earned runs this season. Soria has given up 11. Rivera has given up six.

To compare to the starters we have been discussing, Felix Hernandez has given up 56 earned runs this season. C.C. Sabathia has given up 73.

Starting pitchers do not have as much control over whether they win or not as closers do over whether they convert saves or not. Soriano, Soria and Rivera have all blown two saves this season, but Soriano and Soria have better percentages because they have been given more opportunities. Rivera can't control how few opportunities he can get, but he can control how many he blows.

So no, your comparison does not completely hold up.

 

Your right, OOP. I forgot that nothing I post meets your fucking standards. because of my big-market New York bias.
Not to mention the fact that Soria does not compare to Soriano or Rivera because he's pitching for the shitass Royals while the other two are pitching in pressure pennant-race situations every time they come in a game.

 

Death.
Taxes.
Out of Place logging onto SportsJournalists.com to downplay anything remotely pro-NYY.

Seriously man, do you have some sort of buzzer that goes off on your computer and alerts you to the existence of a positive post about a Yankee? Because you obviously have a hard-on for that team the likes of which would make Peter North jealous.

You really should get out more. Try getting a girlfriend, or at the very least a blow-up doll. This obsession of yours is just not healthy.

 

Yeah, like there's no pressure on getting three outs in the ninth, period. He's closed out 65 percent of the Royals' wins -- 37 of their 57 victories. With victories being being few and far between, there's no shortage of pressure to win whenever you can.

 

And if he doesn't close out tow of those wins, what difference does it make to a team that sucks? Is 57 wins so much better than 55 wins?

I think Soria is a great closer in a bad situation but if you think he is under the same pressure as Soriano you're crazy.
(I won't include Mo because after 14 years he's totally immune to the pressure)

 

At least I don't waste my time being a cowardly little sock puppet. And rally, I don't think my wife would appreciate me getting a girlfriend.

 

Did I say that? No. Apparently, you can't handle a reasonable disagreement.

 

I'm not saying Soria's under the same pressure. I'm saying it's wrong to insinuate that there's no pressure on Soria because he's not in a pennant race, like Rivera or Soriano.

A-Rod hit a ton of homers and drove in a lot of runs for the last-place Rangers and for the first-place Yankees. If you're good, you're going to perform no matter the team or the atmosphere, including pennant races. Most recently, I remember when some speculated that Jason Bay would wilt in Boston because had never seen pennant pressure with the Bucs. And yet, he put up the same numbers he did his whole career when he got to Fenway.

 

Do not bring up Jason Bay to me. I have said for a while that Jason Bay was vastly overrated. I was wrong.

Jason Bay flat out sucks!

And I'm not questioning Soria's abilty. But he is not in any way dealing with the same game-to-game pressure Soriano is. Again, I'm eliminating Rivera from this equation because he has done it for so long.