Trevor's Off, Man...But Life Goes On

Understandably disappointed San Diego Padres fans are less than thrilled with closer Trevor Hoffman this morning. A sure-fire Hall of Famer and the game's all-time career saves leader (524) blew back-to-back chances Sunday afternoon and Monday night. Had he converted one or the other, the Pads, not the Rockies, would be playing ball in Philadelphia tonight.

Unfortunately, closers (especially the elite ones) are immortalized for their failures rather than their successes. Case in point, when you think of Dennis Eckersley, do you think of him recording the final out of the '89 World Series? Do you think of his unparalleled dominance in the late 80's and early 90's when he was an MVP and Cy Young Award winner? Or do you think of him serving up the walk-off homerun to Kirk Gibson in '88 against the Dodgers?

When you think of Mariano Rivera, do you think of his 8 career wins and 34 saves in the postseason? Or do you think of Luis Gonzalez blooping one over Derek Jeter's head in Game 7 in '01?

Closers are like kickers in the NFL. When they do their job, the common reaction from fans who really don't know any better is, "good, it's what they're supposed to do!" But when they don't, people get irate, regardless of the pressure involved in the situation.

"How hard is it to get 3 outs/kick a football 35 yards, straight?" these people ask.

The answer they don't want to hear is, "sometimes, it's pretty damn hard!"

The problem is, the Hoffmans, Eckersleys, Riveras, and Adam Vinatieris of the world usually make things look so easy because they're so good. So when they blow a game or miss a kick, people wonder what the problem is. Chances are, no regular person has ever had to perform even a simple task with so much (your team's season, or a championship) riding on the outcome, so they have no way of grasping the mental toughness required to not fold completely. Couple that with the fact that in do-or-die situations, the other team (also all professionals) is under an equal amount of pressure to make make you fail. Somebody has to lose in these situations. Unfortunately for Hoffman and the Fathers, it was them both times.

So all of that said, where should Hoffman rank in terms of the game's all-time greats? There's no denying his sustained success. He's played 15 years in the big leagues, recording 40+ saves a total of 9 times. I don't care what anybody says, that ain't easy. But in terms of postseason success he hasn't had nearly as much and this recent ineffective spell isn't helping people forget. He took the loss against St. Louis in the '96 LDS, and also lost game 3 of the '98 World Series against the Yankees. In his defense, he's only thrown 13 career postseason innings, but to his detriment, his ERA over that time is a run higher than his career average, and his 1.23 postseason WHIP is on the high side as well for a closer.

But he's hardly the first elite closer who hasn't been nails in October. The Eck's postseason ERA was an even 3.00 but his ERA in the World Series was 5.79. Lee Smith's postseason ERA was 8.44 in 4 appearances. Billy Wagner's is 8.71 in 11 appearances.

So San Diego fans can be upset at Hoffman, and baseball fans can think he's overrated. But the reality is, 2 bad games shouldn't nullify 14 excellent seasons any more than one bad start shouldn't cost Jake Peavy the Cy Young this year. Let's remember a 13-inning game that's decided by one run is never just one guy's fault.