The Top 10 greatest relief pitchers in the last 50 years

Today I am continuing my list of the greatest players at each position in the last 50 years with the top 10 relief pitchers.

 Here’s the criteria.

·         Must have played at least 5 years since the 1971 season to be considered (only looking at his playing career since 1971. Previous year stats prior to 71 will not be considered).

·         Player cannot qualify for 2 positions. Will be considered based on position he played most in his career (example. Rod Carew played more games at first base then at second base. He would only make the list at first base). Using baseball reference to confirm amount of games at each position.

·         Same consideration takes place for Designated Hitter (Frank Thomas being an example. He played more games as a DH than at first base. He would only make the list at DH).

·         Rankings based on regular season stats, awards won (MVPS, titles, gold gloves, etc.). Post season will add to consideration.

Here is my list of the top 10 greatest relief pitchers in the last 50 years.

1.   Mariano Rivera

2.   Rollie Fingers

3.   Dennis Eckersley

4.   Trevor Hoffman

5.   Bruce Sutter

6.   Lee Smith

7.   Rich Goose Gossage

8.   Dan Quisenberry

9.  Billy Wagner

10.  Craig Kimbrel

Comments. Rivera is the greatest relief pitcher of all time. He has the record for most saves all time and has a remarkable 0.70 ERA in 16 years of post season play (32 series). He won an ALCS MVP and WS MVP. Fingers won a regular season MVP, Cy Young award, and World Series MVP. Eckersley converted from a good starter to a great reliever. He led the league in saves twice and ended up winning the MVP and Cy Young as a reliever. Hoffman is second all-time in saves and had 15 seasons of 30 or more saves (including 9 seasons of 40 or more). Sutter led the league in saves 5 straight season and won a Cy Young award. Smith is third all time in saves and led the league 4 seasons. Gossage led the league in saves 3 times. Quisenberry had a relatively short career due to injury. He led the league in saves in 5 of the 10 full seasons he played. Wagner has the lowest hits per nine innings ratio in history, for pitchers with 800+ innings, allowing 5.99 hits per nine innings. Kimbrel led the league in saves 4 straight seasons. He is the active leader in the saves.

Next up is the top 10 greatest Managers in the last 50 years.