Trevor Hoffman began his career with the Reds, was re-drafted by the Marlins in the 1992 expansion draft, and the Marlins then traded Hoffman to San Diego during his rookie season. You can't really say that the Marlins got a raw deal, since they acquired Gary Sheffield in the trade and he lead them to a World Series title in 1997. Hoffman became the closer for the Padres in 1994 and was injured that offseason playing beach sports during the strike.
He had to have rotator cuff surgery, which caused him to work and focus more adding a change up to his repertoire. To me, this change up was the best that I ever personally saw, and have heard many baseball analysts who have been around longer than me state that it is in fact the best change up ever thrown.
Here is a close up of Hoffman about to throw his amazing change up. It's essentially a palm ball, which is a more old-school kind of change up. Most people today throw a circle change, but the palm ball can be very effective if you know how to use it. This pitch allows you to throw virtually the same arm angle as your fastball and with the same arm force as your fastball while taking 10-15 mph off your velocity and getting more drop. The chart below is from 2008, showing the difference between where his fastball and change up left his hand and what it did afterward.
As you can see, he started his fastball and change up from exactly the same place and the change up had significant drop upon approach to the plate. His change up was nearly unhittable. He is 9th all time in K/BB career at 3.69/1. He got many of his 1133 strikeouts via the change. After his surgery, Hoffman's fastball dropped from around 95 to around 85 mph at best. His change up ranged from 72-76 mph. With so many people looking ridiculous swinging and missing the change up, his teammates began to call it the Bugs Bunny Pitch, after the famous scene in Baseball Bugs in which many people strike out on the same single pitch.
There were others who trotted out to music prior to closing out games before 1998, but I personally believe the explosion of having "entrance music" for every closer in baseball began with Hoffman. Trevor began running out to AC/DC's Hell's Bells that year. If you look at his career, he has actually had a better save percentage at home, and after the Hell's Bells era began. Whether you think there is a "Hell's Bells Effect" on Hoffman or not, the numbers certainly add validity to the debate.
The Hell's Bells Effect
Hoffman had many great seasons, but his two greatest were 1998 and 2006. In both years he finished second in Cy Young voting. His better of those two seasons was clearly 1998. That year he posted 53 saves to lead the league, while posting a 1.48 ERA(265 ERA+) and a 0.849 WHIP. His 5.1 H/9 is an incredible statistic. He finished 7th in MVP voting that year.
In 2006, Hoffman again lead the league in saves with 46. He posted a 2.14 ERA and a 0.968 WHIP. He finished second in Cy Young voting again, and 10th in MVP voting. Over his career he has been named an All Star seven times. He has finished in the top 10 in Cy Young Voting 4 times.
In limited post season appearances, he put up decent but not legendary numbers. He posted a 1-2 record, 3.46 ERA and 1.23 WHIP with 4 saves. He only has 13 innings of post season work in his career though. The Padres were not exactly the best team in the NL for most of his career. He did have a chance to pitch in the World Series, but only entered one game and gave up a home run in his second inning of work against the Yankees. The Padres would eventually lose the Series.
For his career numbers, he went 61-75 in decisions, with a solid 2.87 ERA, 601 saves, 1.058 WHIP and again a 3.69 K/BB. Another number that jumps out off his stats page is his 7.0 H/9. I have looked at almost every great pitcher's stat sheet for their careers and only the extreme top 1% of pitchers have a H/9 lower than 7.3. He also put up an extremely high K/9 of 9.4 for his career.
Hoffman will easily go into the Hall of Fame, and it should be in 2016, his first year of eligibility. As I said before, I view closers all time as Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, and "some other guys". None of those other guys are close.
Just because Rivera is clearly the best closer of all time, doesn't mean we should just forget about Hoffman. Trevor Hoffman is right there with Rivera. It should be noted that it took Rivera more appearances and more innings to reach 600 saves than Hoffman, and that Hoffman did it for a team that won far less games over that stretch.
Hoffman's career speaks for itself. If you didn't before, you should now believe that Hoffman is clearly the second best closer of all time. You should know that his change up was the best of all time. You should understand that at least himself and Rivera should be considered real pitchers and not 'specialists.'
Finally, you should understand that his career was one of the best of any player who ever played the game. I'll leave you with a video of Hoffman earning his 479th save at Petco Park on 9/24/2006 to become the then all time career saves leader, passing Lee Smith as he locked down a 2-1 victory over the Pirates.
Finally, you should understand that his career was one of the best of any player who ever played the game. I'll leave you with a video of Hoffman earning his 479th save at Petco Park on 9/24/2006 to become the then all time career saves leader, passing Lee Smith as he locked down a 2-1 victory over the Pirates.
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