Thursday, April 24, 2008

Rivera Sets Clock Back

Before the season started, I wrote a post about how Mariano was going to be entering his decline years and that we as fans, couldn't expect the same production from him going forward. I wrote that Papelbon was young, and dominant, and that would carry him to have a better year than Mariano. I used Mariano's concerning numbers from last season as indications that he was declining, and Papelbon's great numbers to show what we could expect. So far, Mariano has shut me the crap up.

Mariano has yet to allow a run this season in 9 innings. In that time, he's recorded 6 saves and has struck out 8. At this time last year, Mariano was giving up walk off homeruns to the likes of Marco Scutaro. We were making excuses for his performance saying that Torre wasn't using him enough to keep him sharp. Now, there's no need for excuses. Mariano has set back the clock. I know there's still a lot of baseball left this season, and a lot of things can happen in that time, but Mariano has been truly dominant thus far, and I am thoroughly impressed. Not that being impressed by him is a new thing, but I'm circa 1996 impressed. Keep throwing that cutter, Mo. Keep throwing that cutter.

2 comments:

michael kei said...

Amazing that he can still hit 95mph.

TribeGirl said...

Shoot, when Rivera walks out, I'm thinking, "Cool, game over!" Anyone else, it's "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, what's gonna happen???" Even Joba, to a point, until he gets some more innings under his belt...