Instead of hanging on for one more season, Major League Baseball’s all-time saves leader has decided to retire.
Trevor Hoffman told MLB.com’s Barry Bloom that he has officially retired. Hoffman pitched 18 seasons with the Florida Marlins, San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers. He finished his career with a 2.87 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 9.4 K’s/9 in 1,089.1 innings.
There are a lot of things that we can talk about when it comes to Hoffman. We can talk about his Bugs Bunny changeup, how he was the National League version of Mariano Rivera or we can talk about how he blew games in some big spots like in the 1998 World Series or in the play-in game against the Colorado Rockies in 2007.
What I want to talk about, for the purposes of this post, is whether or not Hoffman should be in the Hall of Fame. Look, the reality is, Hoffman will get into the Hall most likely on the first ballot. But my question is—is he any different than when Lee Smith retired?
I know Hall of Fame debates have been beaten to death over the last couple of weeks, but I also think they are very interesting and some are very valid debates. Lee vs. Hoffman, I believe is one of them.
Like Hoffman, when Lee retired, he was the all-time saves leader in Major League Baseball. I feel like people are holding that record in higher regard now that Hoffman holds it and when Smith retired as the all-time saves leader, it was kind of dismissed.
Not only did both of them hold the saves record when they retired, but their stats are very similar. Take a look…
While Hoffman had the better stats overall, they weren’t so much better than Lee’s where someone would think they aren’t comparable. I think the biggest difference between Hoffman and Lee is the perception people have them.
Lee’s reputation got hurt at the end of his career because he played on five teams in his last five years and really became a ham n’ egger. Hoffman only played on three teams in 18 seasons and was solid all the way up to his 17th season.
2011 was Lee’s ninth year on the ballot and he received 45.3 percent of the vote. In five years, Hoffman will be eligible for the the HOF for the first time, and I am guessing Hoffman does a lot better than 45.3 percent of the vote.
As we have pointed out on this site before, HOF voting has a lot to do with perception. Perception sometimes plays a bigger role than stats.
The perception is Hoffman is a first ballot HOF’er and Lee is not even worthy to get in. That shouldn’t be the case. Hoffman had a great career, but so did Lee.
They both should be recognized for it.
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