In the bottom of the eighth with two outs and the bases loaded, Edwar Ramirez remained in the game to face Mark Teixeira. Yankee fans all over raised a collective eyebrow as Mariano Rivera sat in the bullpen. Now, we learn that he’s simply going through his routine August injury period. Rivera is day-to-day with back spasms. The future Hall of Famer says he first felt the pain after losing Friday’s game and couldn’t get loose before the game today. He along with the rest of us hopes to get back on the field tomorrow.

I hadn’t heard this until today, but apparently Jerome Holtzman, the sportswriter credited with inventing the save, passed away last weekend. Today, Colby Cash of the National Post takes a look at the rule’s origins — Holtzman wanted to prove that a reliever’s 18-1 record was highly deceptive, so he created an equally deceptive statistic.

There’s not a whole ton to the article, as Cash goes on to make an analogy to public policy. Yippee! But there is this one takeaway quote:

By 1980 the idea of the “closer,” a role that gives a team’s best reliever the narrowly defined job of protecting a lead at the end of the game, had taken over. As countless researchers have demonstrated, and as elementary logic indicates, this is a suboptimal use of talent. Teams are no less likely to blow late leads in the “closer” era than they were before, and a team’s most effective reliever should almost certainly be allowed to come into tied games, in which an extra run saved by good pitching has the highest possible value.

Instead, a team like the Yankees uses a Rivera to protect relatively safe two- or three-run leads, but lets ties be decided by guys who can’t hoist Rivera’s jock. Why? Because the “save” has come to define what it was originally meant only to describe: Since we measure relievers by saves, saves must be what they do. Q.E.D.

Q.E.D. Indeed.

When Mariano Rivera entered last night’s A’s-Yankees game in the ninth inning to protect a two-run lead, he set yet another first in his career he did something he’s done just two other times in his career. It was the third time Rivera had ever pitched on four consecutive games in four days. I sure hope Joe’s willing to give him a day off today.

Update: Gary C notes in the comments that I misinterpreted the Baseball-Reference.com Play Index results. This is actually the third time Rivera’s thrown in four straight games. This post has been updated to reflect this information.

Mariano River just pulled down AL Player of the Week honors, and I’m beginning to wonder if this is The Year for Rivera. During his career, Rivera has finished in the top three in the Cy Young voting four times. In 2005, he came in second. But this year, his numbers are other-worldly. Through the first two months of the year, Rivera has thrown 25 innings and has given up 11 hits and two walks. He’s allowed one run and struck out 24. His ERA is 0.36, and he’s converted 15 of 15 save opportunities. Sure, it’s early in the season, but it’s tough to find a better AL pitcher right now.

During the Yanks’ extra-innings lost in Baltimore on Tuesday night, Mariano Rivera did something he had not done all season: He walked a batter. Amazingly, the world did not end. With that walk, Rivera ended a stretch of 19 straight appearances this season. It was the longest such streak to start a season for Rivera, and stretching back in 2007, Mo hadn’t allowed a base on balls since over his previous 23 appearances. But that wasn’t even the longest streak of his career. From June 12, 2007 to August 15, 2007, Rivera went 24 appearances without issuing a walk, and from June 26, 2005 to August 31, 2005, Rivera went 31 appearances covering 35.1 IP without issuing a free pass. Damn, this guy is good.

When the Yanks capped off their comeback win on Sunday against the Mariners, Mariano Rivera, as he has for so many games since 1997, was on the mound when the last out went up on the scoreboard. That day, Rivera completed his 20th inning of work this season without allowing a walk, and Tyler Kepner noted in a Bats blog post the greatness of Rivera. Mo, you see, gives pitching lessons to the Yanks, and he may very well be responsible for turning Edwar Ramirez into a useful cog in the bullpen. When Mo calls it quits in a few years, I hope the Yanks can convince him to stick around as a pitching coach. He’s got one valuable mind for the game.

In 2007, the Padres and the Red Sox topped their respective leagues in bullpen ERA and batting average against. Thing is, entering the season, neither team had much to boast about in that department. In fact, the Sox pen was in such shambles that Jonathan Papelbon told Tony Francona that he wanted to move back to the closer role (or at least that’s how Boston tells the story). So how did these two teams come out ahead?

Skilled closer

Obviously, the first step in building a bullpen is creating a viable endgame. Both Trevor Hoffman and Jonathan Papelbon qualify as such. They keep things relatively stable at the end — Papelbon more than Hoffman, though, as he blew just three saves last year (and we remember a couple of ‘em), while Hoffman was the goat in seven games, including the most important one for the Padres.

There’s not much else to say about this. We have it in Mo, who I think we all can agree is better than Hoffman at this stage of his career.
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A month later, it’s finally official.

After numerous reports that Rivera was going to sign the three-year, $45-million offer from the Yanks, ESPN is reporting that Mariano has accepted his deal. So that’s all over. Now, if the Yanks can just convince Andy Pettitte to return, they’ll have landed nearly all of the best free agents out there this off-season. Not bad considering where things were just a few weeks ago.

Remember when Mariano Rivera went all Godfather on the Yanks’ bullpen? He called out Brian Bruney, Scott Proctor and Kyle Farnsworth for sucking. A week later, Proctor had been sent to the Dodgers, Bruney to AAA and Farnsworth to the sixth inning of 11-2 games.

Now, reports are emerging that Mariano Rivera, the Yanks’ own Vito Corleone, was at it again. This time, though, his target was A-Rod. Newsday’s Jim Baumbach reports:

Rivera is believed to have been one of A-Rod’s major sounding boards during the craziness of Rodriguez’s past three weeks. Rivera, according to his friend, told Rodriguez as far back as days after A-Rod opted out Oct. 28 that he should approach the Yankees to tell them how he truly felt.

Hey, if Rivera truly did help convince A-Rod to stay in New York, maybe his own $45-million deal should include some negotiating clauses as well.