Padres closer Trevor Hoffman took his second loss of the season yesterday, giving up an RBI single to the Dodgers’ Chin-lung Hu. Hu drove in Russell Martin, who got on base with a walk from Hoffman. Though it is still only the first weeks of baseball, Mike’s early warnings on Hoffman are beginning to seem prescient. Heath Bell owners, rejoice.
Speaking of Russell Martin, he was one-for-two with two walks and an RBI on the day, after putting up a .095 average and .269 OBP in the first week. Juan Pierre also started for the Dodgers. He had zero hits.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Kevin // Apr 7, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Question is, what in the world are the Padres going to do with Hoffman if they turn to Bell.
2 Andrew C. // Apr 7, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Cast him in bronze so he’s hall-of-fame ready?
3 rob // Apr 7, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Vin Scully said it best yesterday. The fastball is just no longer there, so his best pitch — the changeup — just isn’t as effective.
The change up sure made Matt Kemp look like a bush leaguer yesterday, so I still like Hoffman… a lot.
I chalk this up to just needing to get some more cobwebs out, and as the season progresses, I think we’ll see a stat line from Hoffman eerily similar to last season.
Come June 1, if this doesn’t appear to be the case, I add my vote to the “bronze him” idea. Fortunately, I have Heath Bell in the same league that I have Hoffman.
4 Mike Podhorzer // Apr 8, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Even if Hoffman continues to struggle for a little while longer, could you really imagine him being demoted to middle relief? I’m a Bell owner in one league, but I still struggle to see Hoffman actually losing his job unless he retires mid-season or something or has like a 9 ERA into the All-Star Break.
5 Patrick DiCaprio // Apr 8, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Hoffman may end up on the DL rather than be demoted at first.
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