The prestigious Dennis Eckersley Award, named after the former Vancouver and Toledo star pitcher who dominated in the early 1990s, is given to the most astounding Relief Pitcher in the DMBL. A series of points are given to score a reliever's Eckersley standings. Two points are awarded for each save and each victory earned in relief and one point is subtracted for each blown save and each loss.

And the award goes to....

Mariano Rivera, Matthew's Mighty Men of Marietta

The living legend added another line to his Hall of Fame plaque by becoming the first player in league history to win The Eck for a third time. The 42-year-old Rivera racked up 97 relief points, the second most all-time behind only Sardine City's Michael Wuertz, who set the record with 99 in 2010. The Sandman also led the league with 43 saves, good for third most all-time behind only Wuertz (50) and Newark's John Smoltz (45 in 2003). Mo also led the league in save opportunities (49) and was third in save percentage (.878). His 1.71 ERA was the lowest of any pitcher this season with at least 50 innings pitched.

Not only has Mariano won Reliever of the Year three times, but he's had five of the best seasons by a closer of all time -- but in two of those seasons, someone else racked up more relief points to win The Eck! Rivera made sure that didn't happen this season as he utterly dominated the competition with his 97 relief points. Finishing in a distant second with just 71 points was Vancouver's Koji Uehara, followed in third place by Sardine City's Daniel Bard with 67. Amazingly, each came very close to setting all-time records for save percentage. Bard led the league with a .947 SV% (36 saves in 38 opportunities), which ranks second all-time behind only Hillsborough's Rafael Soriano, who had a .967 SV% (29 for 30) last year. Uehara's .944 SV% (34 for 36) was good for fourth-best in history.

Finishing fourth with 63 relief points was 2008 Eck Award winner Jonathan Papelbon, now with Hopatcong, who picked up 63 relief points. The veteran was followed by a pair of rookies -- Amityville's Craig Kimbrel, who had 57 relief points, and Newark's Al Alburquerque, who had 55. Rounding out the top 10, Andrew Bailey had 53 relief points for St. Louis, lefty Jonny Venters had 49 for Hillsborough, and Drew Storen had 41 for Arkansas.

Final Relief Points Standings
Reliever	ERA	W	SV	L	BS	Pts
M.Rivera,MAR	1.71	10	43	3	6	97
Uehara,VAN	2.33	3	34	1	2	71
Bard,SAR	2.54	0	36	3	2	67
Papelbon,HPG	3.79	7	33	8	9	63
Kimbrel,AMI	3.22	5	28	4	5	57
Alburquerque,NWK	2.19	7	25	3	6	55
Bailey,STL	3.72	6	29	7	10	53
Venters,HIL	2.52	5	25	7	4	49
Hanrahan,BR	2.97	5	20	4	4	42
Storen,ARK	3.56	3	25	8	7	41

The Eck Award has been presented 18 times through the years. (No award was given in 1991, 1992 or 1997, as blown save data wasn't available; no award was given in 1995 due to the strike.) Rivera is the first reliever to win it three times (2012, 2001, 1999); three others have won it twice.

Here's a look at the top seasons by closers in DMBL history. As noted above, Rivera is on the list five times, but has only won The Eck three times; he was beaten out in 2010 by Wuertz's record-setting 99 RP, and in 2000 by Billy Wagner's then-record 86 RP. The same fate befell Robb Nen in 2003, whose 80 RP was crushed by Smoltz's then-record 94.