Comments on: IGD: Padres @ Dodgers (11 Apr 08)

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:26:41 +0000

Correction on Hoffman’s ERA: 11.57

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:32:03 +0000

Trevor looked better. It was scary, but he looked better. It looked like he was getting squeezed a little and he got robbed of an out by a terrible call by the first base umpire.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:18:25 +0000

268: 17 hits, that is.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:18:09 +0000

267: You’re probably right, but if the umpire thinks your off, then you are. Maybe he’s not going to “get” calls, if he’s not pitching well.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:17:11 +0000

Peavy gave up three runs in six innings, but he improved to 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA.

Thatcher ERA: 10.80
Bell: 1.17
Hoffman: 0-2, 9.80 ERA. 3-for-4 in save chances.

Giles went 1-for-3 to give the Padres six regulars batting .300.

The Padres had 17, 16 of them singles.

By: Johnny Utah

Johnny Utah — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:15:13 +0000

258: I didn’t think his location was off… He put the ball right where Bard asked for it and the plate ump didn’t give him any corners… the numbers don’t look good, but compared to Heath Bell’s 1-2-3 inning, Trevor was just better… Bell was all over the place and got hit hard twice for long outs whereas Trevor hit his spots within inches and nobody hit him hard.

By: Ben B.

Ben B. — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:14:33 +0000

It looks like Hoffman his throwing his slider much, much more this year. Fangraphs says he’s throwing it 15% of the time this year (obviously small sample size, but still indicative of his approach) versus 5% in previous years. Tonight, his strategy was using his slider to get ahead of righties and his fastball to get ahead of lefties, trying to get into a favorable count where he could use his changeup. The slider approach certainly seemed to work against Jones and Kent, but he had trouble locating his fastball away against the lefties. The umpire was also very consistently calling a tight outside corner throughout the game, and that really hurts Trevor. I think he should have been more aggressive in going after DeWitt and Furcal, since a walk was almost as harmful as a home run from either of them. Mixing up his pitches earlier in the count to lefties might help as well if he’s struggling to hit that outside corner.

That’s my $.02 on how he’s pitching now. Here’s the fangraphs link where you can see his pitch percentages at the bottom of the page. Tonight, according to the mlb gameday pitch identifying algorithm (which seemed to work pretty well for his pitches), he threw 19 fastballs (all but one to lefties), 7 sliders (all to righties), and 5 changeups. The result of the changeups were: weak fly to left, two swinging strikes, and the two weak singles.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1035&position=P

By: Zagz

Zagz — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:12:25 +0000

I’m not even saying he’s done, though I think his role as a closer is about at it’s end. I’m not a fan of players being grandfathered into their spots. Then again I’m not sure who on the staff should be closing either, as Bell hasn’t looked himself lately either.

By: Jefe

Jefe — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:10:27 +0000

Hoffy isn’t done, but he does need his confidence back

By: Jefe

Jefe — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:09:25 +0000

Sorry, that should have been 256: Agreed…