Wagner vs. Mariano: Closer Than You'd Think
Written by Rory, Monday August 17 2009
Mariano Rivera is considered the greatest closer of all time and rightfully so with his post season success pushing him ahead of Trevor Hoffman. However after looking at Billy Wagner and Mariano Rivera's stats I was surprised to learn that these two pitchers are surpisingly similar in terms of regular season stats.
Here are the regular season stats for the two players:
Player A: 2.27 ERA, 2.78 FIP, 8.30 K/9, 3.93 K/BB, 1.02 WHIP, .217 BAA, .49 HR/9
Player B: 2.40 ERA, 2.79 FIP, 11.73 K/9, 3.95 K/BB, 1.01 WHIP, .194 BAA, .84 HR/9
Player A has benefitted from luck a bit more than Player B shown by the difference between ERA and FIP. Player A is Mariano while Player B is Wagner.
The numbers are surprisingly similar. Wagner walks more but strikes out a lot more. He also allows less hits but more HRs. Granted Wagner pitched 818 innings while Mariano pitched 1074.2. Wagner has 1066 K's to Mariano's 991.
Mariano has saved 517 games and blown only 27 while Wagner has saved 385 and blown 33. Still though, Wagner has pitched nearly as well as Mariano throughout his career. If Mariano is a sure thing first ballot Hall of Famer, which he should be, I believe Wagner should be in the Hall of Fame when all is said and done.
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