K-ROD Ain’t the Sandman. Mo Still Reigns Supreme in Big Apple

(Zell's Pinstripe Blog)

The Mets recent transaction to bring in K-Rod was a very smart move. I don’t disagree with that. He was phenomenal last year, but he ain’t better then Rivera. I would take Mariano over Rodriguez any day of the year.

Rivera at 39 years-old is still better than K-Rod at 26. Call me crazy but it’s true. Most people just look at saves, and judge how good a closer is by that number.

That isn’t how you should judge it though. There are many more factors to take into account then just one stat.

Mariano Rivera had 39 saves last year. K-Rod had 62. Does that necessarily make him better? No.

Is it Rivera’s fault that he didn’t get the same amount of opportunities that K-Rod did? I don’t think so.

If Rivera got the same amount of opportunities that he got..I’m sure he would be in the same position..if not better.

Let’s not forget that he was also on the Angels. The Angels were a better team than the Yankees last year, so he got more opportunities to close out games. Is it Rivera’s fault if they couldn’t get the ball to him?

Let’s just take a closer look into the 2008 Statistics:

Innings:Rivera- 70.2IP    Rodriguez- 68.1IP

Hits: Rivera- 41H    Rodriguez- 54H

Runs: Rivera- 11R    Rodriguez- 21R

Earned Runs: Rivera- 11ER    Rodriguez- 17ER

Home Runs: Rivera-  4HR  Rodriguez- 4HR

Walks: Rivera- 6BB    Rodriguez- 34BB

Strikeouts: Rivera- 77K    Rodriguez- 77K

Walks & Hits/9 Innings: Rivera- 0.67WHIP    Rodriguez- 1.29WHIP

Walks/9 Innings: Rivera- 0.8BB/9IP    Rodriguez- 4.5BB/9IP

Strikeouts/9 Innings: Rivera- 9.8K/9IP    Rodriguez- 10.1K/9IP

Blown Saves: Rivera- 1BS    Rodriguez- 7BS

Saves: Rivera- 39SV    Rodriguez- 62SV

Mariano’s numbers are better overall. His ERA is lower, he gives up less hits, runs, earned runs, and walks. His WHIP is lower. He blew only one save, while K-Rod blew seven. Mariano wound up pitching more innings which is funny.

That shows that K-Rod was only coming in for an inning or less for the most part. Mariano was coming in during non-save situations as well, and he had to nail down saves while pitching more than one inning many times.

Mariano’s postseason numbers speak for themselves. A postseason ERA of 0.77!K-Rod has a 3.13 ERA in the postseason. I’m not trying to say K-Rod is bad, because that would be dumb…but don’t say he is on Rivera’s level..because he’s not. Nobody is.

Mariano is 39 years old, and he has been recording outs with the same pitch for the past 14 years. It’s unbelievable that nobody has figured him out. K-Rod has spent half the time in baseball that Mariano has. The remarkable part about Mo is that he isn’t slowing down. If anything..he might be getting better. I don’t think it’s fair to compare K-Rod to the best closer of all-time.

Career Numbers:

Rivera - 1023.7IP  (W-L) 68-49  482SV  934K  2.29ERA  1.02WHIP 

Rodriguez - 451.7IP  (W-L) 23-17  208SV  587K  2.35ERA 1.11WHIP