WHY HOUDINI WILL BE THE NEXT MARIANO

Although it’s not official, it seems pretty clear that 2012 will be the final season for the great Mariano Rivera, and while we here at Bleeding Yankee Blue don't want to push him out the door, I got to thinking about what happens after Mariano leaves the Bronx. Like it or not, we’re going to have to prepare ourselves with life without Mo as the Yankees’ closer. Because of that, BYB will feature a seven part series that’ll look at all of the possible “replacements” for Rivera, starting with David Robertson.

After his magnificent 2011 season in which he posted a 1.08 ERA, 13.5 K/9, 0.1 HR/9 (one homer allowed in 66.2 innings), 1.12 WHIP, and an incredible 410 ERA+ in 70 games, David Robertson is the clear leader to be the heir to Mo. In fact, Robertson has been very good the last three seasons, his first three full big league seasons, posting a 2.62 ERA, 12.3 K/9 and 0.5 HR/9 rates, while also posting a 170 ERA+.Robertson has also done a fantastic job in stranding runners throughout his career, posting a 79.1% strand rate with an 89.9 % (!!!) strand rate last year. He has held batters to a .220/.325/.313 (AVG/OBP/SLG) slash line in his career in with RISP, a .226/.348/.301 line with 2-out and RISP, and a .167/.333/.217 line with the bases loaded, so you know he can handle pressure situations pretty well, which is critical to being a big league closer.

The problem with Robertson, though, is that he’s struggled in his career with walking batters. He has a career 4.7 BB/9 rate, thus it increases his pitch total (4.46 P/PA and 18.2 P/IP, third and 17th most, respectively, among 160 relievers in 2011 who threw at least 40 innings) which leads to him possibly not being able to pitch the following day. Who knows if he’ll be able to cut his walks down, as it’s been a problem for him in his career, and we may just have to deal with it. But it could be something that may in fact prevent him from getting the closer role, because in terms of being efficient, he’s not that reliable.I know David Robertson has the inside track to be Mo’s heir apparent, but before we write it in stone, I want to remind you all that we’ve been down this road before. Joba Chamberlain was destined to be the heir to Mo after the 2007 season. Same with Phil Hughes following the 2009 season. And right after the signing of Rafael Soriano prior to last season, he was supposed to be the heir to Mo. I’m not saying that just because all of that happened means Robertson won’t be Rivera’s heir apparent. All I’m saying is that the opinion has changed a number of times and anything can happen. We’ll just have to wait and find out.




--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse



Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.