Plate appearances, Mariano v Papelbon they don't mention

These stats about Rivera and Papelbon haven't been covered so far:

• Manny Ramirez has faced Rivera 50 times (41 reg. season, 9x post season)
• David Ortiz has faced Rivera 26 times (20 reg. season, 6x post season)
• Alex Rodriguez has faced Papelbon 5 times (never in the post season)

Once in a great while the overall topic of familiarity has been mentioned in passing, but never in detail. Roger Rubin's column today was a good example of picking certain stats to achieve a result he wanted. Mr. Rubin, Papelbon has not had one complete year in the major leagues much less up to 3 levels of post season play. Your comparisons are misleading, but like others, maybe you fear the avalanche of negative email you'll get if you don't put things a certain way.

• ROGER RUBIN TELLS YOU THIS LIE:

"In his two years as Boston's closer, Papelbon had been beaten by the Yankees only once." PAPELBON HAS NOT EVEN BEEN THE CLOSER FOR ONE ENTIRE YEAR. 2006 WAS HIS FIRST YEAR AND HE MISSED THE LAST MONTH (4 WEEKS) WITH A SERIOUS INJURY AND A TEAM THAT COULD'VE USED A CLOSER AT THAT TIME. AND WE'RE FAR FROM THE END OF 2007.

• IN FACT, THE LAST TIME HE FACED THE YANKEES IN 2006 WAS AUGUST 20 WHEN HE BLEW THE SAVE. PRIOR TO THAT HE HADN'T HAD A 'SAVE' VS THE YANKEES SINCE MAY 11, 2006. He didn't figure in the decisions between those times on June 8 and May 23.

Tweet Stumbleupon StumbleUpon