This is SportsCenter Ad- "The Closer"

Coming up a Did You Know... about sports.

AHAHAH!!!

Not very old at all. You're just really young. To me, this seems like just yesterday.

Time is quite odd. You'll get what I mean in 8 years when you're watching a video on here from 2005 and some 16 year old comments on how "old" it is.

Anyone who thinks saves are a measure of run-prevention ability should be neutered. The only thing saves measure is durability and if you want to look at that, you may as well look at innings pitched.

There's no one better than Mariano in the history of baseball at preventing runs. Not one person. The reason you have a closer is to prevent runs.

If there was an important moment in an important game, you would want the best run-preventer in there. You would want Mariano, not Hoffman. Q.E.D.

There is no way to say that Hoffman is a better closer than Mariano in any way. His ERA+ lags far, far, far behind Mariano's in the weakest division of the National League. Meanwhile, Mariano sports a superior ERA+ in the division with the most potent offenses and smallest ballparks. Mariano has pitched more ML innings than Hoffman. The only area where Hoffman is ahead is saves, which just means he's a 1-inning guy unlike Mariano who was often used for 4-6 outs much of his career.

that is a very good break down of the abilities of both pitcher, unfortunately they are not setup pitchers, so none of those stats really matter. it is unfortunate that because they are dedicated closers, saves are all that matter.

John Gluszak is the man

Nothing against Hoffman,but most of his saves were meaningless.

I love how the pen hits Dan! Yessss!

Flashdode1, you are competely & utterly

mistaken with your opinion on Mr.

Hoffman. There is no debate who is the

best of all-time because of the sheer

postseason dominance Mariano has

over everyone.

Mariano Rivera >>>>>>Everyone else

cowabungadoug, I have to completely & Utterly disagree with you. there is no questioning Rivera's postseason dominance.  BUT, getting to the postseason is a team effort and I don't see how Hoffman, given his stats, is not #1. Compare regular season stats which are the ones that count in the history books and Hoffman comes out on top. No disrespect to Rivera. He is the greatest postseason closer ever.