Mariano Rivera Cutter: The Mechanics of His Signature Pitch | The New York Times

The closer Mariano Rivera has confounded hitters with mostly one pitch: his signature cutter.
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Mariano Rivera Cutter: The Mechanics of His Signature Pitch | The New York Times
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[@weeyum99]

He's so good he can pitch 2000 balls at the same time

[@FodderMoosie]

Something about that made me VERY uneasy.

[@joshuaong5503]

2009. Let's be accurate.

[@FodderMoosie]

2019, now! Wait, I've lost the plot.

[@SirTylerGolf]

It's 1300, can't you idiots listen

[@iamhungey12345]

@Eric Lee Not really, Jensen isn't Rivera for one thing. There are pitchers who uses cutters and they worked fine for them, Mo would have been fine too in his best years.

[@mamaamaor]

Do you wanna know how good he was? He pitched during the entire steroids era and made all these P.E.D. monsters look like little leaguers

[@timbogym9038]

You say era as if it ever ended

[@CanadaMMA]

And while the yankees had some very good teams, they were always horrible defensively. The fact Rivera was that good with Jeter playing short, and WIlliams in centrefield, was incredible.

[@hzzn]

@@CanadaMMA They also had some of the worse second base and left field defense of all time during that period. They were only good at third, first and right.

[@CanadaMMA]

@@hzzn 2001.... tell me a really good defensive shortstop doesn't get to that bloop single. Or at least gets close. Jeter was tough as nails, and could make the "heads up play" no problem. He just wasn't very good at getting to ground balls. Put him at 2nd, or LF, and he wins multiple MVP awards. His bat was that good.

[@Joseph-lz5er]

That is because he used steroids too lol.

[@Johnkoth]

He is not 1 of the most dominant closers in history. He is the most dominant. Leads MLB in saves and in games finished all time. 652 and 952 Very low ERA. (Lowest Career ERA for a reliever) 2.21 (10 Starts included) Great save converting percentage. Most durable closer ever.

[@mickeydrago9401]

Chapman has a 2.18 ERA, gotcha ;) but NO WAY could/would he keep up that pace until he is 43, the age Mariano retired... Mariano's post season pitching, maybe the best ever, 8-1 win/loss, .70 ERA, most saves BY FAR, 42

[@mickeydrago9401]

An argument can easily be made against Rivera as to best closer, if only for one or two seasons: subjectivebaseball.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-closer-seasons.html so he CLEARLY never had the best closer seasons of all time, maybe a few of the top 20 but not the top 5 or so, he is listed at number 5 in this article but clearly by other metrics he should be pushed down compared to at least a few of the top ten below number 5 spot...

[@dimensionzvader5453]

Mickey Drago Kimbrel has a 1.98 career era, gotcha too, lol But like you said, rivera is better. I am still giving the crown to rivera

[@Johnkoth]

Kimbrel still pitches. His ERA will go up

[@rogeliopitti7120]

@@mickeydrago9401 The name of the game is regularity. Rivera reliabilty was based in his regularity!!!.... He hadn't the the best fastball or the best curveball or the best slider. And probably he wasn't the best pitcher o closer. But at the end in the clutch, his cutter is coming and you know it, but you also know the final history........Turn off!

[@fffastway100]

dayum. sometimes you just gotta shake your head and feel fortunate to have seen a great closer like this in your lifetime

[@jeebs9]

I love that we can breakdown one of my favorite pitches with 3D models.

[@tscat68]

I could take him yard any day of the week.

[@homiefromfl]

I'm sure you could take him _to_ your hard any day of the week...

[@iamhungey12345]

@@tscat68 Not in your dreams kid.

[@snickerbars4129]

That graphics got me glued till the end even thought I have no idea about baseball and it's different pitches.

[@jaredholloman5300]

100% positive they mixed up the spins of the fastball and cutter. A ball with perfect backspin is going to go in a straight line...it's called a 4-seam fastball.

[@Brian-js6me]

they did

[@thebeastmaster3453]

This, I was like “tf” when I saw the graphic

[@Hogman3100]

I agree that they got the spin animations wrong, however a 4 seam fastball doesnt look like the cutter animation. The seams arent going to be parallel to the ground. It looks more like a brownish, reddish blur to the batter since its axis of rotation is at an angle

[@todd.goslin6190]

Neither one were cutters.

[@evanwu9428]

I went to go check the comments about this when I looked at the spins of the ball.

[@michaelfadian]

I was in Yankee Stadium in July of 1995 and he was the starting pitcher and got the win. Little did I know at 10 years old how lucky I was to be able too see the greatest reliever of all time start a game before anyone even knew who he was.

[@nicksedar7338]

Noice

[@bluesman273]

Even though I've been a Red Sox fan for 40 years and despise just about every Yankee ever, I have nothing but the utmost respect for Mariano. He is such a great pitcher and a good person (as far as I know). Thank you for producing this video. Very informative and so well done. I wish all KZbin videos were more like this.

[@danielhoward4566]

I don't like Red Sox players so yeah.

[@stevenscalici3470]

And as a NYer and Yankee fan, I consider myself blessed to have seen Mariano pitch for over 15 years…he was my favorite Yankee.

[@moequity134]

The greatest closer in the history of the game. Period. The "scatter" balls they showed from 2009...I had to laugh. That's just amazing. Simply amazing.

[@charlesking3384]

That was one of the coolest videos on baseball I’ve ever seen

[@pevensielavere22]

Mariano Rivera is my favorite baseball player. I miss seeing him pitch. He's also a great man. Much love, #42!

[@kieferonline]

Excellent graphics in this video! One of the best pitching videos I've ever seen on KZbin. This is 13 years after the video was published!

[@MexicanWorkEthic]

A very sweet and concise video that shows how two pitches, the fastball and cut-fastball, differ. Well done.

[@Rectitude4U]

Great video.

[@jwsgilliland9630]

What a really fun and informative way to look at it, more of these videos please

[@Frip36]

Best graphics for understanding pitches. I wish NYT would do this sort of video as a tutorial to understand the different types of pitches in baseball, e.g. fastball, cutter, slider, etc.

[@theoldbk5419]

It’s not just the movement, it’s how the ball absolutely explodes to the plate. You can’t even anticipate the speed because he throws in such a smooth effortless way. It’s crazy, I’ve seen catcher videos showing how hard it explodes out of his hand!!! And then you add the movement, unstoppable

[@chris-hayes]

How did I only discover this video now. Great explanation and visuals.

[@georgeramirez2099]

Same here man

[@WorldWarThree]

The last part was the most important. It's all about keeping the ball off the good part of the bat. Mariano was a master at it.

[@shinystuffff]

I hate the Yankees, but I respect the hell out of Rivera. That magical right hand signed an autograph for me this past Friday. Thanks, Mo.

[@danielhoward4566]

You are just another hater, admit it.

[@drkoala]

Those graphics were amazing. Graham Roberts, Shan Carter and Joe Ward did an amazing job. I’m a huge fan of Kirk Goldsberry’s visualizations of basketball. These baseball graphics really made everything incredibly clear.

[@greengate3d]

Thoroughly enjoyable! GREAT work!!!

[@apriori7]

Like the guy said in the vid, that easy, fluid delivery of his only made matters worse for hitters. I remember watching him pitch on tv (late 90's) and he made it look so effortless to hit 96-97 on the radar gun. Can't imagine how tough it would be to make contact with that thing...

[@jplaybgaming3361]

Please . Make another video like this 😭 .. I like the explanation and the animated pitch 😍

[@louderthangod]

Fantastic video...really well covered.

[@stryker94]

This is very informative. Thank you!!

[@Pstfix]

This was an awesome clip!

[@oxyosbourne525]

Awesome video. Very informative.

[@empollon2000]

Wow! Very informative!

[@glutenfreegam3r177]

Awesome video mate!

[@okStevie]

Keep in mind that this happens all within half a second. So for all you haters, baseball is extremely hard.

[@Rexx01]

It's a peace of cake for cricketer with some practice if reaction time is just .5 second! In cricket ball is very hard plus we don't technically have .5 second's.. plus ball swing in both direction.. inswing, out swing and even reverse swing! Not only that there are spinners too!

[@thehamburgler3570]

Dheeraj mishra the mlb used to try and convert cricket players who were studs out in India and wherever else they could find them. They all didn’t make it out of the minor league system except for one who started a game or 2 with the padres I believe but didn’t have much success and subsequently got sent back down to the minors

[@heartt4994]

.3-.4 of a second 👍🏻

[@idontgotnothin]

I wish it was half a second, that would be easy

[@email16v]

Haha...you can make any game hard junior. I'm a ten time world champ in checkers. I even take water breaks, wear my rally cap, eat sunflower seeds and chew tobacco. 9 innings can wear a brother out. Waaaaah

[@-PlayMaker-]

This was a genuinely great video

[@12345balla12345]

Even David Ortiz said Rivera was in his top 5 best and hardest to get a hit of off pitchers.

[@Eidenhoek]

1:55 was NOT ready.

[@Ozzie12]

Wow great video!

[@sysmg]

Saw this on NYTimes.com . It's an awesome depiction of why he's so great!

[@incyphe]

This needs more views. A lot of work went into producing this video!

[@benkerstetter897]

Great video man

[@tomrochin]

outstanding video.

[@Whyinem]

One of the best to ever do it!

[@lechampiones]

this is so great!

[@sunnyjasaiwala9207]

Really Great video ...

[@Raikaze]

his cutter is like a scary movie you know its coming but it still gets you. thats the big difference hitters can hit other pitchers cutter, but mo is just a sick sick man. how can they not hit something they know is coming..its like getting the answers for a test and still failing.

[@kingsojo]

The best! Got to see him pitch in 08

[@1964robw]

Amazing Graphics.

[@onebadunixninja]

Watching the screen get red and blotchy gave me flashbacks to playing Wolfenstein. Help. Me.

[@DoItLive03]

great video. the only thing is when they show the spin at 1:03. They cutter and fastball are switched. They show the cutter spinning like a fastball and a fastball spinning like a cutter.

[@gregorygoss417]

Thanks for pointing that out. It was confusing.

[@TheCymbalProject]

This is a really interesting breakdown.

[@caseystengel3120]

Greatest pitching video of all time. Mariano’s signature cutter does NOT have gyro spin.

[@andyweiss5531]

Awesome!

[@terraLiquidus]

I could listen to this guy break down pitches all day.

[@albagubra1923]

he is a once in a lifetime pitcher...the greatest!!

[@bouncingsoul777]

Awesome video

[@awakenpoemquotes]

Great vid

[@nymike06]

Wow!

[@bigsquatch125]

That was awesome

[@jamecpa10]

this is a god gift , thanks mariano from panama god bless panama and usa ciao

[@tonyfired]

His record is 11 saves in 12 opportunities in world series that is sick he is almost perfect

[@webstedge1099]

The one save he DIDN'T get-ended up costing the Yankees a championship the ONE time that they most needed another one. He took the 'L' after getting walked-off by luis gonzalez. 9 year old me watched that one in my living room. I still cannot look at that picture of Rivera trudging off the field with the Arizona players dancing in the background.

[@ivory1696]

Webstedge1099 -- I remember that. One of the greatest moments in baseball. Luis Gonzales blooper single .

[@iamhungey12345]

Yeah remember it was a bloop hit that barely made it past the infield which is generally the best one can hope for when batting against Mo. It happens. The throwing error he made was probably the bigger factor, he made the right decision trying to go for two but unfortunately the throw was way off.

[@crazyoldbastard]

poetry in motion

[@mixumup1]

I wish i could see more videos like this

[@chrisjaybecker]

Edgar Martinez was perhaps the only hitter who could hit Rivera on a regular basis. So much so that Rivera lobbied harder than any other player for Edgar's HOF induction, which showed Rivera's graciousness and class.

[@user-qf4ls2mq8p]

great video

[@footballer10k86]

wow good stuff

[@Bearnoats]

i like throwing the corners. its just the best way to make a batter swing

[@Pinkster1974]

He got it in on Gonzalez, who blooped it over the infield. It was a good pitch, and was hit the best one can hope for. You're right. Sometimes they hit it.

[@maria2623]

If infield had not been in (for a potential bunt) , that bloop might been a double play. Not Mo's fault.

[@us-Bahn]

Bases were loaded. Mo’s fault.

[@matthewimi]

Closer extraordinaire! I had the unique privilege of actually watching him play

[@Dr.VonBraun]

Nice video 👍🏼

[@jcck1976]

From Puerto Caimito en La Chorrera Panama. a true legend ! I wonder if with the help of videos like this other pitchers can try to duplicate his dominance...

[@thehoep]

One of the most dominant closers? HE IS THE MOST DOMINANT

[@idn]

Wow... not a huge baseball fan but this was very cool. Well done New York Times!

[@alconamx]

Great graphics

[@karamazovkid71]

excellent commentary by flaherty

[@jatexsiron]

Sweet video

[@DanSk451]

That was very cool graphics with the stats. Ha! Couple high and tight.

[@kingofrunescapepking]

Sadly, that only blown save being a loss in game 7 in 2001

[@4EdGibbon]

He is…hands down the best reliever of all time. An astonishing postseason ERA of 0.77…representing the equivalent of 15.5 games pitched, allowing a total of two (2!!!) round-trippers; or one every 7+ games.

[@BOMB3RJAKKK]

NICE BREAKDOWN BRO

[@_whizzle_253]

I finally know why my fastball is moving like a cutter. Itwas actually a cutter

[@zionhutchcraft]

_Whizzle_ no that's how you throw a 4 seam fastball but it's the amount of pressure you put on your middle finger to make it move.

[@raykeller8097]

It's all in the way you release it and the pressure you put look up the Magnus effect

[@zoobomb6557]

@@raykeller8097 no. Magnus effect is about rise, it doesn't deal with lateral movement

[@raykeller8097]

Rory Leonard thanks

[@Drew-dj3yj]

_Whizzle_ thought the same thing, but it’s about where my arm slot it and where I put pressure on it.

[@dzanier]

It was a good pitch. I'm a Yankee fan. I'm gonna miss him.

[@GoochMcDoober1]

I wish they did this with more pitchers and their best pitches.

[@NunYa953]

Finally a graphic in baseball that's useful

[@inutero10]

One pitch beast. That cutter had to be impossible to deal with.

[@jaimedelgado7529]

how do they chose starters vs closers ? is it just based on stamina? or are there other factors

[@aaaaaaaaaaaahelp2470]

Imagine being In the batters box and seeing this come towards you 1:54

[@strike8816]

Has 1:10 there been an inversion? the rotation of the center ball is that of a fast ball, on the left that of the cutter ?

[@RailsOfTheSouthProductions]

To quote Mike Sweeny “You know what's coming, but you know what's coming in horror movies too. It still gets you."

[@Jeff_Pryce]

The four most unstoppable moves in all of sports were: Kareem’s Skyhook, the fadeaway jump shot from Kobe and Michael Jordan, and Mariano Rivera’s cut fastball. You know what’s coming, you can see it coming, yet there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Unbelievable. 🙇‍♀️ 🙇‍♂️ 🙇

[@skydragon3857]

how do these graphics get made :O they're very good

[@ContrastWithSepiaPrince]

Regardless of starters and relievers, Rivera is one of the greatest overall pitchers, period.

[@peteyprimo7173]

That is insane accuracy

[@Nagnullat]

just a beast.

[@dtownlove10]

Remember that AB against M. Cabrera in the 9th a few years back?

[@melpl1706]

one of the most?or the the best?

[@neil2385]

fractions is correct. well said

[@Jiltedin2007]

Mariano Rivera was the best in his trade! Coming from a Red Sox Fan. Starting Next Season while the number 42 is retired AT EVERY BALLPARK in respect of Jackie Robinson breaking the Color Barrier in Baseball, Yankee Stadium should put the name RIVERA over the number 42 retired so that everyone can see that number being put there for "The Sandman".

[@BoranTheki]

Jiltedin2007 Or just have two 42s, one for Robinson and one for Rivera. I don't see how they could not acknowledge Rivera in that way.

[@BoranTheki]

Jiltedin2007 The only thing about retiring 42 for every team is no one may voluntarily wear 42 out of respect for Robinson, but now everyone is forced to wear it on April 15th. I kinda don't like it.

[@fernandover9538]

AWESOME !!! " MO" THE PANAMA FOR THE WORLD ...

[@andrewc0m3r]

this video is really awesome. yeah the cutter and fastball seam movements were mixed up but overall the video was really good. great job.