Betances' Thoughts on His 2014 Success

Anybody who watched him pitch this season would say Yankees' Right-hander Dellin Betances was pretty good.

So naturally, the AL Rookie of the Year finalist had to explain why he thinks he had so much success in the team's bullpen this year. Betances, 26, is coming off a record-setting campaign in which he struck out 135 hitters in 90 innings of the work, the most in franchise history.

"There's a different mentality out of the bullpen," Betances recently told MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. "You're only going to face the guys once; as a starter, you face them two or three times. It's definitely a little different."

And for Betances, that difference was no doubt a positive one. He had a 5-0 record and a 1.40 ERA to go along with the aforementioned numbers, even recorded six K's in a row May 15 against the Mets. 

"I was trying to throw an extra pitch because I couldn't throw my curveball for strikes [in 2012]," Betances said of his infamous slurve. "I worked with [catching prospect Peter O'Brien], just kept throwing it. I went to the [Arizona] Fall League and it felt good. I was like, 'Man, this could be a good pitch to throw.'"

He was right to think that, as just one other Yankee reliever ever as fanned 130 batters in a season. His name: Mariano Rivera.