Mariano Rivera could be greatest relief pitcher to date...Michael Hoban, 12/26/07

A longtime SABR member, Michael Hoban, Ph.D, reaches the following conclusion about Mariano Rivera--without post season or All Star numbers.

• "As you can see, at this point in his career, Mo Rivera is way ahead of the HOF standard and could emerge as the greatest relief pitcher to date."

Dr. Hoban's new book, "Baseball's Best, The True Hall of Famers," covers relief pitchers in Chapter 11. It incorporates his "NEWS" analysis tool which among other stats recognizes Win Shares: 2. "The 150/1700 standard – The true relievers

There are only five pitchers in the 20^th century who have attained a NEWS score of 150 while pitching in fewer than 1700 innings. These are the true relievers who have definite HOF numbers. Here they are:

Player	IP	NEWS
Mariano Rivera	953	175
Lee Smith	1289	164
Bruce Sutter	1042	164
Dan Quisenberry	1043	156
Rollie Fingers	1701	155

Rollie Fingers just makes it since he actually pitched in 1701 innings. Only Bruce Sutter and Fingers are in the Hall of Fame.

• This would seem to imply that Mariano Rivera is the best true reliever of the century.

You will note that Trevor Hoffman (the “saves” leader) is not on this list. His NEWS score is 142.

• For more info on the NEWS HOF Gauge, see BASEBALL’S BEST: The TRUE Hall of Famers on this site."

"From Seamheads.com blog, 12/26/07"

• A short bio on Michael Hoban on The Baseball Guru.

(I was directed to this work by another blog, Sean Lahman's Seamhead.com on which he has a chart of Dr. Hoban's work. Seamhead.com posts Dr. Hoban's results. ed.)

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