Original Airdate: Monday, August 31, 2009. This is a part of the 93-Second Sports Shot series. 93-Second Sports Shots air weekday nights at 6pm.

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About a week ago, my fellow WVBR Sports colleague Jase Bernhardt posted on the WVBR Sports Blog that New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera ought to be the recipient of this year's American League Cy Young Award. A rare moment of clarity for a Mets fan.

It's a thought that I've tossed around in my head for a bit. Should a dominant closer be a front runner for the Cy Young? Should a relief pitcher even be eligible? Well, it's complicated. On the one hand, the role of the relief pitcher has grown exponentially over the last couple of decades. If a team fails to engender a bullpen that's decent at the very least, it stands almost no chance at a World Series bid. On a theoretical level, the closer is the most important facet of the bullpen. Using this logic, a reliever should certainly be in the conversation as the league's best pitcher, if his metrics are deserving.

On the other hand, a closer normally pitches fewer than half the innings than that of the starters who are also up for the award. Furthermore, a closer does not have to worry about wins and losses, fatigue, pitch counts, run support, and all the other intricacies of the position that tend to plague starters over the course of the season. On top of all this, the majority of casual fans and pundits alike tend to look at just one thing when they analyze the success of a closer. The dreaded save stat. I won't lead into this particular rant today, but suffice it to say that total saves is just about the most meaningless and incomplete statistic in the game.

So what's the verdict? Is this Mo's year? I think so. Even though I'm partial to the starting pitcher, there simply aren't many viable candidates this year in the AL. Zach Greinke may have been the AL's best pitcher, but he'll most likely end the season with 15 or 16 wins. CC Sabathia will have the wins, but not the ERA or WHIP. Rivera, on the other hand, continues to be the best relief pitcher in the major leagues, sporting an unbelievable 1.83 ERA and .91 WHIP at the age of 39, while only blowing 1 save so far this season. Not that we should be surprised at this point. Sometimes the lifetime achievement award may just be the right choice.

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