BDD: Rivera Cements Place Among All-Time Greats
by Bill Baer on June 29th, 2009Posted in Baseball Daily Digest, MLB, Philadelphia Phillies | Print | No Comments »
At Baseball Daily Digest, I take a look at where Yankees closer Mariano Rivera is at among baseball’s best.
That’s the bread-and-butter that Rivera has used to repeatedly dominate American League hitters since 1997. Imagine having to face a Zack Greinke fastball that’s just a couple MPH slower on average, but with tremendous movement towards the left-handed batter’s box. Oh, and if you happen to make contact with it, not only does your bat have a high probability of being splintered, but the pain in your hands will tell you that you just swung at a bowling ball.
In fact, Rivera’s cutter is so feared that switch-hitters will hit right-handed against him because of how often the cutter will jam lefties. Chipper Jones once called it a “buzzsaw.”