Mariano Rivera Highlights

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May 12, 2011, "Yankees using Rivera at alarming pace," NY Post, Mark Hale

"Rivera has already pitched on back-to-back days six times this year. Last year he didn't do that until July 2....

So far this season Mariano Rivera has gone in an alarming direction with his workload.

With last night's appearance in the Yankees' 4-3 11-inning loss to the Royals, Rivera has pitched in 18 of the Yankees' 34 games this season, throwing a total of 17.2 innings. That puts the 41-year-old righty on pace for a staggering 85 appearances and 84 1/3 innings -- which would be his most games ever and his most innings since he fired 107 2/3 as a setup man in 1996."...

• [Ed. note: Rivera pitched 122 innings in 1996 including regular and post season. If the topic is durability, post season must be included. You cheat the post season player twice. First you don't count his innings which are often the most difficult such as pitching 3 days in a row in the World Series. Then you give him a shorter off season but judge him in regular season against players who weren't in post season and had extra time to rest up to pad their next regular season stats. Rivera has 141 post season innings, the equivalent of 2 years of relief work. If they don't count, players should stop playing in post season.]
  

(continuing): "Rivera -- who has been superb as always, posting a 1.53 ERA and converting 13 of 15 save chances -- doesn't care what his workload is, saying it doesn't feel like he's pitched more than usual and that he's comfortable with however much he's used.

Still, one reason the Yankees signed Rafael Soriano was to alleviate Rivera's workload and possibly give Soriano some save opportunities. Soriano, however, only has one save, has pitched inconsistently and

• now has an inflamed elbow."...