It certainly works against Hoffman that… Trevor plays for the Padres on the West Coast.

Trevor’s made six All-Star teams, been in the top five for Cy Young voting three times, and has been in the top ten for M.V.P. twice. He’s known on a national scale, so if playing in San Diego keeps Trevor out of the Hall of Fame, there has to be an organized conspiracy going on.

Is no one else noticing the underlying message here? Towers said “I want to give him an idea of what I think the club’s going to be like next year, give him an idea of what to expect and what the club will look like” Now, we all know this team will suck even harder next year (if that’s possible), but he’s doing the same thing with Hoff that they tried to do with Giles: Convince them that this team is going to be completely devoid of any real talent next year as we go into fire sale mode. I know it’s going to happen, but mroe quotes like this make it an even more sad reality for me.

I think we all see next year being a fairly cheap team of Headley, Gerut, Giles, Hairston in the outfield, with some combination of Kouz, Khalil, Antonelli/Rodriguez/E. Gonzalez and Adrian in the infield. Hundley/Bard still around. With roles for Venable and maybe Ambres. That team probably won’t win anything, but they might, like the Marlins this year, be a decently competitive .500 team.

Oh, wait, this is about Hoffman. I forgot. Um. If it’s reasonable as a 1 yr deal, for next year, sure. Let him play. He’s a long, long way from being the piece the Padres need to lose sleep over. It’s gotta be at least 2010 before this team competes…I can’t imagine how to fix the rotation. Peavy—whatever fraction of Chris Young is healthy and effective—and then a horror show.

The man is a warrior, determined to stay in shape. We hung around in Dud Latrine after the 2nd Padre loss on Tuesday night. Upon walking towards our exit, we suddenly stopped.

We spied Mr. Trevor Hoffman, tank top and running shorts, rockin an IPOD w/earphones, jogging at a fairly quick pace around the warning track of the outfield. Back and forth, back and forth, working up a good sweat. We mumbled to each other something about him probably being first to arrive and last to leave. Then, we mentioned this was the very safest place for him to have a jogging workout in LA, in safety, without getting jumped. We watched a bit more, then left.

I think the Padres should re-sign Trevor to a short deal with an option, and with incentives. He is a Man on a Mission.

We’re doing a lot better with him than with the constant carousel of closers and second guessing that happens in a lot of the teams around the league. Remember when the Dodgers thought they were set with their own “HoF closer” in Gagne? The wheels are slowly falling off for Trevor, but they fall off a lot quicker for most other guys.