My very last thing picking on Trevor Hoffman

by Dex on Apr 25, 2008 6:59 AM PDT

You know what's interesting to me... I wonder if Trevor Hoffman would be getting booed at his entrances and/or exits if he were the closer for another team. Let's say he were put in front of a crowd in Philadelphia or the Bronx or in Boston. What would the media be writing about him in those types of places? Would the fans have run him out of town by now? As it is, Trevor still gets cheered when he enters the game and it's mostly just a sigh after the game ...except online and on talk radio where ridiculous bloggers and first-time-callers-long-time listeners proclaim him done. Is that a good thing? I dunno. Does Trevor deserve more respect than your average ballplayer? Yes, definitely. If he can't hold a 1 run lead, should we complain that it should've been a 3 run lead? If he can't hold a tie game, should we complain that he should be only brought in to save? They may not be fair questions, but I don't want people thinking that I'm complaining about Trevor because I'm "crazy". What's crazy to me is putting a single player on such a pedestal that we can't take an objective look at him. What's also crazy to me is the suggestion that people shouldn't be pointing out the elephant in the room.

Either way, I wonder if the Padres should start realizing that what they've always figured is a fair-weather fan is actually a highly disgruntled fan that knows how to hit the team where it hurts to show their displeasure. Maybe San Diegans are actually just very passive aggressive. We won't go to a game and actively boo our own players who are just trying to do their best. We just won't go to the game.

I'll stop picking on Trevor. The rest of the bullpen has been amazingly mediocre and the offense has also been pretty terrible. These are all things that we all know. There's obviously still time for most of these guys to turn things around. For the most part, they're young and they're playing below expectations. April has never been a great month for us. We'll be able to ride out the storm. They'll turn it around soon, I'm sure. Even the worst teams in the league will win 60-70 games, so we still have about 50-60 happy nights ahead of us.

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Booed

I booed him during the opening day celebrations, I think I was the only one that remembered game 163.

by Jonny Dub on Apr 25, 2008 8:18 AM PDT 0 recs

You've booed him since 1999

So I’m not surprised.

by Dex on Apr 25, 2008 8:20 AM PDT up 0 recs

Haha

can’t boo him too bad for that. He saved about five games while he was in the bullpen warming up for an hour.

by osbug on Apr 25, 2008 8:26 AM PDT up 0 recs

Hater.

Did you boo Tony when he had to hitch a ride to first on singles?

The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

by Axion on Apr 25, 2008 8:50 AM PDT up 0 recs

Jon actually did

I was at a game where Jon grabbed the hat off of an opposing fan’s head and put it on his own, saying, “f_ck it… I’m rooting for your team now”

by Dex on Apr 25, 2008 8:55 AM PDT up 0 recs

Tony

Was still getting singles (even though they were doubles for anyone else).
I must admit though, I’m a bit pissed at Tony for not discovering Wheaties in 1994. A few pounds lighter and he’d have that .400 season.

by Jonny Dub on Apr 25, 2008 9:42 AM PDT up 0 recs

Hilarious. :D

The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

by Axion on Apr 25, 2008 11:20 AM PDT up 0 recs

I have a hard time

booing players. Guess first of all, I’m from the school where I think booing your own team is pretty classless. But that’s just me. Second of all, I think the buck stops at the GM. If a player is performing poorly on a consistent basis, then the manager should yank him. If the manager doesn’t, then the GM needs to have a talk with the manager. If the GM won’t do his job, then it’s time for a new GM. I may flip-flop on Towers later (I hope he gives me a reason to.) But the guy seems to me like he is non-managing at this point. The Padres are pretty so far rotten this year (ya, I know it is “only April”.) But to me, a lot of that seems to stem from not addressing issues from last year (meaning a lack of offense). So here we are in a new season where we are ready to throw Trevor under the bus for blowing a 1 run lead (I know they haven’t all been 1 run). How about telling Towers to acquire a few bats? I’m thinking we should have just paid Bradley.

by sacpadre on Apr 25, 2008 11:06 AM PDT up 0 recs

I think

Bradley caught them by surprise when he signed.

Again, and I keep harping on this, we had an average offense last year, and one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. There are very few teams that can have both on a consistent basis. Obviously the Padres have played to their strengths and gone with the pitching angle. Our offense has been pretty good since we moved to Petco, but it will never be the best around.

by osbug on Apr 25, 2008 11:13 AM PDT up 0 recs

Oh yeah

I hate hearing people boo their own players because they are slumping. I swear so many cities think they have great baseball fans because they boo their players when they are doing bad, and cheer them when they are doing well.

by osbug on Apr 25, 2008 11:14 AM PDT up 0 recs

I do the exact opposite of those "great" fans

If a player’s doing really well, I boo him to keep him in line and always wanting my approval. If he sucks, I cheer so that he knows that everybody’s special in his own way.

by Dex on Apr 25, 2008 11:36 AM PDT up 1 recs

Job of a Closer

“So here we are in a new season where we are ready to throw Trevor under the bus for blowing a 1 run lead (I know they haven’t all been 1 run).”

By definition, it is a closer’s job to not blow leads of three runs or less. That’s why Hoffman is being paid $7.5 million dollars. Once a save situation exists, you can no longer complain about run support or other relievers. It is Hoffman’s job to slam the door, whether up 1, 2 or 3 runs. He doesn’t have the stuff to do it anymore.

This yera, his fastball is generally in the low/mid 80s with poor location. His change-up, his out pitch, is spotty at best (and, btw, his change-up to Molina was almost the exact same speed/location as the slider Molina hit out against Meredith on 4/8 so he knew not to put it there). If the Padres sent a pitcher with any other name to the mound with his stuff, and the same result occurred, everyone would be all over them. Trevor is throwing BP-quality stuff.

by SDSMP on Apr 25, 2008 11:21 AM PDT 0 recs

I understand

“By definition, it is a closer’s job to not blow leads of three runs or less.”

I agree. But all I am saying is if you apply that same standard to others on the team (which I hope we are all doing) you’ll realize that Trevor is not the only one not getting the job done. There are at least 8 other guys in the line up who are paid to hit the ball every time they get to bat. And they get a heck of a lot more room for error than a closer gets. Maybe not a good example.

by sacpadre on Apr 25, 2008 11:54 AM PDT up 0 recs