Laughing at Mariano's failures

[Hmark6]

You need to give him a little more time than 2 appearances. Besides, if A-Rod makes that pick and turns 2, and this thread never gets strated. Personnaly, I think the Red Sox are done. They're playing .333 baseball for Christ's sake! This team can't win ball games....but at least I'm not jumping to conclusions too quickly....

[voodoomon1jd]

The way I see it, Mariano has the misfortune of going through the inevitable "dead arm" that ALL PITCHERS go through in spring training, problem is he wasn't able to have a normal spring. I hope his recent performance continues, but logic tells me he will be back in form soon enough.

[HuskerFan2002]

Is Torre not blinded to the fact that the Olde Town Team OWNS Mariano and his Nike commercials?

I really do believe this has everything to do with getting in his head, and the complete disappearance of the intimidation factor, at least as far as the Red Sox hitters are concerned. There's been so much talk over the years about how much mental strength and willpower is necessary to be a successful closer, and how the slightest wrench can throw everything off when you're living on the edge all the time. Rivera's not immune to this, regardless of all the talk of him being the master at blocking things out. That, and age and the wear-and-tear that comes with it were bound to rear their ugly heads at some point.

I was bored last night so I did some calculations:

Here's some three year stats.
Overall: 121 sv 136 svo 15 bs 88.97 sv%
Sox : 9 sv 15 svo 6 bs 60.00 sv%
NonSox: 112 sv 121 svo 9 bs 92.56 sv%

His save percentage is more than 1.5 times better against non Red Sox opponents. He has blown more than one save in the past three years against only 3 other opponents (2 each againast Toronto, Oakland, and Cleveland)

Also note that these are regular season only.

Rivera will be visiting his shrink 3 times a week looking for answers. Did anyone notice he is losing his hair? Hmmmm...

[browntown653]

Retirement...lol, what a ridiculous topic. Give it more than 2 games, gimme a break.

[DirtyKash]

BUMPPPPPPPP!! Back-2-back blown saves and an 8.44 ERA on the season.

[BuckFoston]

He has had two blown saves give the guy a break. Its not like he has 11 blown saves he has two!

[Hammer]

another year of underwork in spring training leads to this. honestly, the entire team was underworked in spring training... arod was the only guy with something to prove... but jeter, abreu are all starting to come out of it now and what not. either way, all the yankee wins this year have been walk off or blowouts... they have 0 saves this year, only nyy and seattle. im not worried, the guy is still in fantastic shape, he'll bounce back... and its a contract year, his era will still be 1.80 by the end of the year. and if its not... they can short him like they did bernie williams, i suppose.

[browntown653]

He starts off shaky every year. I'm pissed that we lost this game because now we're probably going to get swept, but whatever.

[Pronk48]

Mo retire?He's nowhere near done.

He sees the Red Sox 18-20 times in a season,so I wouldn't be surprised if they've figured him out some.

Mo is still one of the best in the game.

[love_that_reefer]

Just as dumb as it was two years ago!!

[celticraider]

Because he is DONE. He could not get it done in yesterday's game and allowed a homerun to Varitek that blew the save, and now today has been just a complete mess. Rivera's not hitting his spots at all, hitters aren't scared of him, he clearly can't get it done anymore. A 3-2 Yankees lead is now a 6-3 Red Sox laugher. Rivera is to blame. Two blown saves in a row, velocity down, location way off, retirement soon to come.

D-

[DirtyKash]

Wow he actually gave up a homerun to Damion f'n Easley. ERA up to 6.75!

[browntown653]

Uh, if you paid attention to the Yankees this year he's actually not getting enough work, and his location is suffering because of it, although he's pitched better as of late.

[hot_corner_gurl]

Uh, if you paid attention to the Yankees this year he's actually not getting enough work, and his location is suffering because of it, although he's pitched better as of late.

Bingo. A lot of times they don't want to put him in the game just in case the Yankees get the lead the next inning. It's a never ending cycle of "what ifs" for Mo. While the rest of the Yankees bullpen may be overworked, he is probably the only one underworked because of that "oh, well, if we score in this half inning, we can use him in the next half" type of thinking. And it isn't helping Mo or the Yankees.

[stejay]

I love ya Mariano, but it's time to step down my friend.