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Mo and the HOF (March 25, 2004)
Discussion ThreadPosted 4:19 p.m.,
March 25, 2004
(#8) -
Chris DeRosa
Studes, re: #6,
You raise a good point, but I am reluctant to discount Rivera's postseason stats too much on account of his having more opportunities. For one thing, it is the inequality of opportunity that makes postseason performance a secondary consideration to begin with. I think it's understood that all players don't have equal access to postseason games, and that's why it's not in the first-cut calculation of a guy's Hall of Fame case.
Second, each opportunity was not just a chance for Rivera to reduce his postseason ERA, but also a chance to mess it up. If we were talking about Dave Justice's postseason RBIs, or Bernie Williams' postseason doubles, we'd cut them down pretty quick with the opportunity argument. But here we have a player who sustained over many opportunities a performance quality matched by few postseason players in much smaller samples. As far as the career as a whole, there may not be enough cake there, but I can't argue with the icing.