Padres (23-34) @ Giants (23-33)
Randy Wolf vs Tim Lincecum
1:05 p.m. PT
Channel 4SD
AM 1090, FM 105.7, XM 184
MLB, B-R
Padres look to sweep in San Francisco on Sunday. It’d be nice if someone other than Lincecum were standing in their way.
Padres (23-34) @ Giants (23-33)
Randy Wolf vs Tim Lincecum
1:05 p.m. PT
Channel 4SD
AM 1090, FM 105.7, XM 184
MLB, B-R
Padres look to sweep in San Francisco on Sunday. It’d be nice if someone other than Lincecum were standing in their way.
#97@Kevin: Where does he say he doesn’t like the host? I know you are a Hoffman super fan and can’t stand to see people post negative things about him, but relax a little. All he said was Geoff is a Hoffman defender. People can disagree and still like each other. I like you even though we disagree about Rivera being in a different league than Hoffman (and technically he is, the American League
).
Good news – Leblanc starting to pitch much better at Portland ! He has another good outing today, giving up 1 run in 6 innings of work with 8 K’s.
#100@Richard D.: Your previous post, just like No. 100 is pretty condesending. Everyone knows you think Hoffman is done. The implication is that you think everyone else is stupid because they don’t agree with you. I am no more a Hoffman superfan than others are Hoffman haters.
The thing that is most disconcerting is not whether Hoffman is done or not done or the entrenched political debate that then ensues, but the general ripping of Hoffman in what may be his last season.
I don’t remember any beloved player who has basically played his entire career with one team, even those who played poorly at the end, being ripped by his home base. Not Yaz, Bench, Gwynn, Ripken, Brett, etc. Maybe Hoffman isn’t on that level, but he is the second most beloved player in franchise history. Bench, I remember, was a joke.
Maybe I am going only by this blog, but even if Hoffman is the worst pitcher in the league, the criticism seems over the top.
Okay, I’m not usually around in these post Trevor Blowing it IGDs. But I assume the conversation always goes the same way. There’s people who say he doesn’t have his stuff anymore, and people who say, “well what about those games a week ago when he did!”
Here’s my thought… put him in in a save situation. If it looks like he’s not on his game that night… Take him out!!! Can’t the managers tell when he doesn’t have his usual stuff, OR the other team just happens to be in the groove of picking him up? I feel like I can. After a couple batters the writing’s on the wall.
I say, accept that he’s not what he used to be, but that still has value, and use him according to his current value. Don’t keep playing him based on the value he used to have.
#87@Zagz:
“but except for the tired “small sample size†argument, they have nothing to back up the opinion that he isn’t.”
Sample size isn’t a “tired argument”. It isn’t an argument at all. It’s a very important consideration in the accurate use of statistics. An inappropriate sample size, in my opinion, is the most common method of using statistics to mislead.
It is up to you to explain what an adequate sample size is, and why, if you’re going to say that.
#105@Melvin Nieves: When it comes to Hoffman it is a tired argument. The guy only pitches 60 innings in a year, so you are right where do you draw the line at sample size? Thats exactly why it’s a tired argument, because 60 innings in itself is a small amount, and the people who use sample size to defend Hoffman will never say when it isn’t a small sample size anymore.
#103@Kevin: Thank You
It is what it is….a loss….with all the drama that makes us tick.
Hoffy is in the twilight, somedays he has it and somedays he doesn’t. Kevin says it well — that the beloved players in our town have never been talked about so poorly as Hoffman. If T Gwynn was striking out and just sucking all around, we’d politely be stating that he should hang it up. With Hoffman it’s somehow venemously different.
I think his role — with the game on the line — separates and focuses the blowback he absorbs when blowing a save. I mean, the WHOLE game is on the line and if he blows it — all anger is directed towards him. Gotta acknowledge the sack it must take to go out there with the game on the line knowing eventually you’ll fail.
I’ve been boo’ed off the stage a the Velvet by 1 drunk guy back in ’97 (?) so I can’t imagine 35,000 angry Padre fans.
Having said all this, I stick by my statement that we may need a new closer next year.
#34@Tom Waits: Understood. I realize that Gerut doesn’t strike out a lot but he also does not walk much either. He was sporting a .311 OBP entering today’s game.
Matty V and Mark Grant have gone on and on about Omar Vizquel being a lock to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. When Alan Trammell was a Padres coach and was on the ballot for the first time, Matt and Mark insisted that he would be a Hall of Famer. I do not recall that they were as insistent about the first ballot for Tram as they were this weekend for Omar.
Well, Tram got very little support the first year and not much since. The former Kearny Komet had a much better career than Vizquel, so why do the boys in the booth rate Omar so highly? Both were great players, so this is not a put down, but there are levels of the game. Who would you have rather had a shortstop for a career?
ballparkfrank in vegas
#110@Frank Barning: I agree.
Unfortunately, I think will get in eventually.
But I don’t think he should.
The perception is that he is this generation’s Ozzie Smith, a great fielding, flashy shortstop. But Ozzie is the best fielding shortstop ever. Omar is severely overrated.
#110@Frank Barning: I think it’s a combination of Vizquel’s (possibly overblown) defensive reputation with the “steroids era” backlash, which some seem to believe makes his otherwise substandard offense more palatable. He seems pretty comparable to Ozzie offensively, but I don’t think he’s considered a peer defensively. Still, he is considered a great defensive SS and so seems likely to be elected at some point. But I agree with you, I was surprised by their talk of him as a lock, a first ballot guy, etc.
I’d take Trammell in a heartbeat and find it a travesty he’s not in the HOF.
#112@Pat: The perception among those who vote on the Hall is that he is a Hall of Famer. Which is silly.