The 2013 MLB All-Star Game will be remembered by a capstone performance from legendary New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who has managed to maintain an entire career in the MLB behind one dominant pitch.
Rivera, 43, announced during the preseason that he plans to retire at the end of the season. In his final All-Star game appearance, he received a welcoming ovation that showed the legend how much baseball fans appreciate his longevity. While he may be the oldest active player in the MLB, his 2013 season has proven to be just as effective this year as any of his other thirteen All-Star campaigns.
The right handed closer, who has saved 30 games in 32 chances this season, is the all-time saves leader with 638 successful finishes in his career. Just last week, in his final All-Star game appearance, Rivera needed only 16 pitches to retire the side in front of a sellout crowd at Citi Field in New York, where the future Hall of Famer has made his home and career for nearly two decades. How has he maintained such consistent success?
“The way he threw the ball in the All-Star Game — location, movement and even velocity — would seem to be in line with the Rivera of the last few years and, indeed, the Rivera of old,” said former Dodgers GM Fred Claire, a partner in the company AriBall.com.
In trying to understand what has made Rivera perhaps the most dominant closer of all-time, it is imperative to understand his trademark pitch: his iconic cutter.
(Image courtesy of Keith Allison)
Rivera, who has relied on his cutting fastball for 87% of pitches in 2013, has maintained the pitch as his bread and butter since entering the Majors in 1995. In fact, he has “doubled up” (thrown the same pitch two times in a row) on his cutter 96% of the time he threw the pitch this season, over twice the MLB average (41%) among pitchers. Batters know what to expect when facing Rivera, yet still struggle to get on base.
Perhaps one reason that the pitch is so dominant is because a Major League batter must decide to swing when the pitch is 25 feet from the plate in order to make contact. The release point for Rivera’s legendary cutter and his far less effective fastball, however, are nearly identical.
That means that it quickly becomes challenging for the batter to anticipate what type of pitch is coming their direction: his signature cutter (2013 batting average against: .285) or his less effective fastball (2013 batting average against: .625) when hitting against the closer.
In 2013, Rivera’s fastball has been 31% less effective than one thrown by the average MLB pitcher. However, because Rivera relies on the pitch 48% less often than the average MLB pitcher does, he is instead able to focus more on the placement and velocity of his beloved cutting fastball instead.
Since 2009, when Rivera recorded 44 saves, the velocity on his cutter has been among the best in the MLB. In the last five seasons, the pitch has not lost much speed whatsoever, and has been consistently recorded between 90 - 92 MPH each season.
With the ineffectiveness of his fastball and the overpowering nature of his cutter, Rivera has increased the usage of his favorite pitch (2009: 82%, 2010: 83%, 2011: 85%, 2013: 87%) since 2009.
The cutter has been sustainable for Rivera because his pitch has maintained ridiculous spin (measured by rotations per minute or RPM) that has only improved in recent years.
According to AriBall.com, the average cutter reaches 1314 RPM (average MLB fastball: 2051 RPM) when thrown by pitchers across the league. The spin on Rivera’s cutter, however, is perhaps the most elite in the game (2009: 1366 RPM, 2010: 1528 RPM, 2011: 1618 RPM, 2013: 1590 RPM) and has shown no signs of becoming any less effective even in the later years of his career.
Unfortunately, however, his fastball has had significantly below average flatness (2009: 1304 RPM, 2010: 1573 RPM, 2011: 1340 RPM, 2013: 1527 RPM) in recent years, so Rivera has been wise to decreased the usage of his more hittable pitch (2009: 17%, 2010: 16%, 2011: 14%, 2013: 11%) while slowly removing it from his arsenal.
To compensate and perhaps even save his career, it seems as if the 43-year-old closer has developed a new pitch in his final season: a “sinking” cutter.
Rivera has always been virtually unhittable on cutters that reach both away and inside the plate vs. right-handed batters. While he has a virtuoso skill of avoiding the middle of the plate, we’ve recently noticed that he has another different type of cutter that drops nearly two feet lower than his usual might.
Looking at the horizontal and vertical movements of his 2013 pitches below, this new distinct cluster of pitches breaks much more vertically than his regular cutter.
The pitch, which was not thrown at all in 2008 or 2011 and seen only twice in both 2009 and 2010, has already been successful in recording an out 5-of-6 times midway through this season.
“There are very few players in the history of the game who have made a decision to retire as an active player when they can still deliver outstanding performance at the Major League level,” continued Claire. “Mariano has made that decision and in some ways it’s not surprising when you consider the quality of the individual and the way he has conducted himself throughout his life and his career.”
Rivera has been one of the most dominant closers of all-time, and his cutter will be remembered as perhaps the most successful that the MLB has ever seen.
“The All-Stars who cheered Marino the other evening should look to this great individual as a role model in every phase of the game.”
NOTE: All statistics accurate as of 7/19/13
By Bryan Kalbrosky
AriBall.com
