Results tagged ‘ Cardinals ’
Trevor Hoffman’s Place In the Top 10 Closers in MLB History
By: Big Rygg
With Trevor Hoffman finally closing in (pun intended) on career save number 600, I wanted to definitely to highlight the forthcoming achievement in some way.
I thought about a career retrospective but decided that would be best left for once his career is actually complete.
I considered a chronicle of his year plus spent in a Brewers uniform, but that too isn’t a chapter that is finished being written.
A listing of accolades for Hoffman could write itself and easily eclipse 1000 words without even trying, and a thoughtful piece about what it must mean for Hoffman to have fallen so hard and fast off of what appeared to be the edge of the Chasm of Old Age only to right his ship, so to speak, and once again be considered as a reliable option just seems like it might be a bit premature.
In other words, that seems like it ought to wait until 600 has actually been reached as opposed to only being somewhere off on the seemingly distant horizon.
So instead, I offer this tried and true format of placing Hoffman in a list of his game-ending brethren because quite frankly whether he never records another save or notches his 600th on Saturday (two games from now since he’s still only at 598), it won’t affect my feelings as to where he places in said list.
Read it, debate it in the comments, call me names, dispute my opinions, offer me new-school statistics to support your points and refute mine…or simply agree with me.
Either way, let’s have some fun with this, okay?
10. John Smoltz
Full disclosure: John Smoltz is my favorite pitcher of all time.
Continued disclosure: if not for injury, John Smoltz never closes a single game.
During his short three-plus seasons as a closer, though, Smoltz saved 154 games.
Perhaps dominant starters make great closers regardless of who they are. Another name you’ll see later in this slideshow, Dennis Eckersley, is a big piece of supporting evidence. Jonathan Papelbon is a contemporary example for you younger readers.
But plenty of pitchers fail at the end of the game regardless of how good they might have been at the beginning of it.
To coin an old cliche, John Smoltz took to the ninth inning like a fish to water. He was simply excellent at closing.
Longevity is a big deal in a list like this, no doubt about it. Sheer dominance and ultimate projectability counts for something too.
And with so many names that could have gone at this spot (and probably would go before Smoltz on many people’s lists) why not reward a guy that was forced into the role and absolutely owned it?
9. Tom Henke
Tom Henke has 311 career saves.
Tom Henke could have had 400 or more had he not inexplicably retired at age 37 after a season of 36 saves and a 1.82 ERA both of which garnered him some MVP votes.
Some of Henke’s other career numbers:
2.67 ERA
1.092 WHIP
9.8 K/9
157 ERA+
Only 14 seasons played
Perhaps there was a different reason that “The Terminator” hung up the spikes when he did, but for being as dominant as he was while he was in the game, he definitely deserves a spot on this list.
8. John Franco
A very different kind of closer, John Franco was as consistent as they come for a very long time. Call his inclusion on this list a lifetime achievement award if you want to, but 424 saves count the same as the those posted by fireballing, high-strikeout pitchers.
Franco pitched for 21 seasons (though only about 14 or 15 years as a real game-finishing option) and has high totals in the counting stats to show for it. He also has a 2.89 career ERA and a 138 career ERA+.
What he lacked in flash, he more than made up for in substance.
Again, he wasn’t always perfect, but got the job done for a long, long time.
As any pitcher will tell you, those final three outs are different. John Franco handled them as well as anybody for the most part.
7. Lee Smith
802 games finished, 478 career saves (third all-time), 10 seasons of 30+ saves (including three consecutive of 43+ saves) in a career that quite frankly lasted two seasons too long.
A 3.03 career ERA that would have been under 3.00 (2.94) if not for his last two years of bloated run totals.
A seven-time All-Star, Lee was a workhorse closer who averaged 68 appearances per 162 games. He set the bar very high during his career and when he retired he was the all-time leader in both games finished and saves.
6. Billy Wagner
Not many left-handed pitchers in the history of the game have been able to tickle triple-digits on the radar gun.
Billy Wagner is one of those few.
…what? Velocity isn’t enough to be included on this list? Look, I understand that completely. I also understand that you might see Billy Wagner’s name and question his inclusion at all, but this is a case where raw numbers don’t lie.
414 career saves (fifth all time and second only to John Franco’s 424 among lefties), a career ERA of 2.35 (perhaps a tick lower after tonight’s scoreless, three-strikeout inning), 1167 strikeouts in only 886.1 innings pitched, and he’s just one lead-preservation away from his ninth 30+ save season out of 14 as a healthy closer…
Do you get the idea?
Wagner has been very good for a long time. The only negative in all of this (other than the basically wasted 2009 season in which he was mostly recovering from elbow surgery) is that he announced earlier this season that he plans on retiring at the end of 2010.
When you’ve got 29 saves (already), an ERA of 1.74 and 75 strikeouts in 52.2 innings pitched, I think you’ve shown that you’re still quite capable of performing at a high level.
For his sake, if he truly is done at the end of the year, I hope he finds a way to record at least 11 more saves down the stretch. A 40-save season to closer things out and to become the all-time left-handed pitcher career saves leader would be a fitting end to a stellar career.
If he plays for a few more years, however, I simply wonder where he’d end up on this list then.
5. Goose Gossage
Despite only compiling 310 saves during a 22 year career, when Gossage was locked in, there might not have been a closer in the game that hitters feared more during his tenure as a stopper.
In a season (1983) in which he appeared in 57 games (zero starts), finished 47 of them and amassing 22 saves, Gossage also went 13-5.
He may have only saved 30+ games in a season twice (33 in 1980 and 30 in 1982), but sometimes raw totals don’t tell the entire story.
Though his 1981 season which saw a 0.77 ERA and an ERA+ of 465 sure looks pretty, doesn’t it?
Suffice it to say that if I needed a closer for my team in the late 70s and throughout the 80s, there isn’t anybody else I’d have picked first. 13 years of intimidation and results is nothing to shake a stick at.
4. Rollie Fingers
Still the owner of the moustache which all others are measured by (and subsequently fall short of), Rollie Fingers was not your kid’s closer. He was most definitely a different breed than what is commonly referred to as the “modern” closer.
Pitching more than one inning in well over half of his career saves, Fingers could be given the ball at any point of the late-going of a game with a lead, and save or not, you were virtually assured of Fingers being able to finish it off.
Fingers pitched over 1700 innings in 944 games during his 17 year career. Total games started? 37.
Yes, a different breed to be sure, but any less good as a closer? You won’t be able to convince me of that.
3. Dennis Eckersley
Dennis “Eck” Eckersley was a great pitcher throughout his 24 year MLB career.
He was a 20-game winner as a starting pitcher in 1978 with the Cleveland Indians as a 23-year-old. He saved 51 games for the Oakland Athletics in 1992 as a 37-year-old.
In 1990 he allowed fewer baserunners than the number of saves he recorded (48 saves for the record). That’s ridiculous.
Had he been a closer throughout his career, there is even a chance that he challenges for the top spot in this list. He was, after all, one of the first names I knew as a kid.
I don’t remember him as an Indian, Red Sox or (shudder) a Cub. He was always in green and gold first to me and I only knew him as a closer.
Just as a closer, though, despite his excellence, he didn’t do it long enough for him to break into the top two.
2. Trevor Hoffman
Here is where we find Trevor Hoffman.
I battled with myself on this slotting simply because Dennis Eckersley was so good while he was a closer, but Hoffman gets this position on my all-time Top 10 list because he has done it so well for so much longer.
As I sit in front of my laptop, Hoffman is no doubt back in Milwaukee where he will get to relax during a second team off-day in four days. I just watched the replay of him entering a one-run game in the bottom of the ninth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, a team which has had his number a lot in the last two years, and a team which had already driven in two runs in the inning and reloaded the bases off of current Milwaukee Brewers closer John Axford.
Three pitches, three strikes (two foul balls and a swing-and-miss variety on the third for the K), and another career save.
It was a thing of beauty after the first pitch which was over the heart of the plate but which Brendan Ryan pulled foul. The second was spotted in the low-outside corner of the strikezone. Ryan swung but harmlessly fouled it back. The third was a signature change up down the middle of the plate that Ryan waved at helplessly.
18 seasons, 598 saves (a Major League Baseball record) 847 games finished (another MLB record he holds)…nobody has done it as well for as long as Trevor Hoffman.
Period.
1. Mariano Rivera
Despite being second on the all-time saves list, Rivera transcends all others in the category of closer.
His career numbers are incredible and his presence in the back of the Yankees bullpen is a major contributing factor to their dominance.
Rivera’s worst season since becoming the full-time closer in 1997 still saw him amass 30 saves with a 3.15 ERA. That’s nearly a third of a run higher than his next worst season ERA as a closer of 2.85.
A career WHIP of 1.001, a career ERA of 2.21, a career ERA+ of 206, over 1000 strikeouts as a relief pitcher (1004 to be exact as of this writing)…these numbers and plenty of others speak loudly.
So again, while he might not be at the top of the Saves list yet, he currently sits at 550 for his career and has shown few signs of slowing down.
Does the ageless one have two more years in his right arm and cut fastball to surpass whatever Hoffman’s total might end up being? Perhaps he does.
Regardless of the final tally, Rivera wins the title of G.O.A.T. as far as closers are concerned.
Pujols As Petulant As Anyone, Just Smarter About It
By: Big Rygg
Here’s fair warning, and you’ll already know the result here before you finish reading, but this blog could go one of two ways. It might be a three paragraph post just to prove my point, or it could quite easily balloon into a marathon of topics that cover the enormity of what’s gone on in the Brewers’ world since the Brewer Nation’s interview of Brooks Hall.
So like I said, you’ll know just by scrolling down and seeing how long this post is, but I’m about to find out as I type. So…let’s get to the discovery portion of our show…
Tonight, I went to Miller Park expecting to see the Milwaukee Brewers defeat the St. Louis Cardinals. Some people might say that my expectations were the stuff of folly, especially since the redbirds hung a blown save on Trevor Hoffman (only his third of the year) en route to handing the Brewers their 72nd loss of the year (which matches last season’s total, coincidentally).
Anyway, as I sat in Section 415 looking down upon the field, I saw my favorite pitcher of all time (yes, John Smoltz) give up three runs in the first two innings. Having hit him well in St. Louis a few days ago, it was encouraging to see the Brewers get off to a good start tonight. Alas, ‘twould not hold up this evening. As I mentioned above, Hoffman was touched up for just his second home run of the year when Matt Holliday dented the batter’s eye by sending a good pitch from Hoffman deep.
Here’s where we get to the point of the title of this post. Prior to Holliday’s at-bat, with the Brewers clinging to a one-run lead, Albert Pujols drew a five-pitch walk. (Side note: By this point I was down in the 9th row of Section 115 courtesy of a couple of friends that left early and handed off their duckets.) I wasn’t watching Pujols reach first base, so I don’t know if there were any pleasantries exchanged between Pujols and Prince Fielder, though I doubt it. But regardless of that, I make mention of Pujols being on 1st base because as he scored the tying run he turned to wait for Holliday to score to congratulate him as any good teammate would do. It’s what he was doing while waiting for Holliday that I take issue with.
But before we get to that, let’s go over my real issue with Albert Pujols. Much has been said about the Milwaukee Brewers and their propensity for enjoying what they do. A lot of “old school” baseball people have spoken out about the Brewers’ post-game celebration of untucking their jerseys. Brewers fans know why they do it and to hell with anybody that takes issue with an innocent display. But Albert Pujols and the Cardinals, the keepers of the morality in baseball apparently, took major offense to it. It got to the point, because the Brewers beat the Cardinals a bunch in a row including sweeping them in St. Louis earlier this year, that after a walk-off victory at Miller Park, the team and coaches sprinted into the dugout in a childish, sure, (yet awesome) overreaction on the part of the Brewers. Pujols and Cardinals whined about that as well.
So, given all that, Pujols apparently thinks that all showmanship and gamesmanship and grandstanding and showboating and celebrating are all disrespectful, right? Well, not quite. Apparently Pujols thinks that anything that can be picked up on by cameras because it’s a big demonstration or somehow stands out is the problem. Like when the Brewers walked off against the San Franciso Giants on Sunday afternoon which lead to the following image of the Brewers celebrating as a team.
So, he either thinks that about just the grandiose displays or he’s a gigantic hypocrite. Then again, it might be that he’s both.
Pujols, after all, likes to give a hop step from time to time when he knows he got a hold of one. He also likes to walk down the first base line, bat in hand, watching home runs fly and then grandly tossing his bat aside as if to say that he didn’t even need it to hit a home run. He also makes a spectacle of pointing up to the heavens as he steps on home plate after each home run.
But tonight, it was something else altogether that I took issue with. Pujols, as I said, was awaiting Holliday’s arrival at home run to score the go ahead run. Holliday’s trot around the bases started with a hop step, by the way, so Pujols had better speak out about his teammate’s disrespect, but I digress. Pujols, while waiting, was burning a hole somewhere. At first, I thought it was at Hoffman because the angle made sense as Hoffman was waiting for a ball to be tossed back to him. However, as Hoffman walked back to the mound, Pujols’ eyes did not follow him. Instead, it became clear where Pujols was staring.
It was down the first base line, about 100 feet away, into the eyes of Prince Fielder. Pujols was sporting a cocky, ****-eating grin on his face all the while. Fielder, to his credit, made no indication that the staredown was taking place, but Pujols did not look away until Holliday scored and he was lining up a high-ten for his teammate.
So, was Pujols’ look (which screamed “Take that and shove it up for ***, Fielder!”, by the way) respectful simply because it wasn’t noticed? Was it the “right” way to do things because he didn’t grandstand but still got his message across? Was his smirk appropriate because it didn’t cause anybody else to notice that he was needling the Brewers’ star?
Perhaps you think it was all those things. Either way, I’d like to read your thoughts below in the comments. But personally, by now you know how I feel about it. And that is to say that celebration is fine with me and if you earned the situation that allows for that celebration, then you may do just that. Yes, it’s annoying when it happens to you, but as has been said countless times about the “untuck ‘em” philosophy of the Brewers, if you don’t want it to happen, then don’t allow the situation to occur in which it happens.
To finish off this thought, though, Pujols shouldn’t be doing anything of the sort since he has such an issue with everything that’s done at the expense of the Cardinals. If you want to do things like staring down your opponent with a arrogant smirk plastered to your face, Albert, then stop whining when in kind is done to you. That’s all I’m saying.
But again, Brewer Nation…what do you think?
Put That in Your Flask and Let it Make You Pass Out at a Red Light, LaRussa!
By: Big Rygg Tony LaRussa and the St. Louis Cardinals have made no bones about the fact that they don’t like the Milwaukee Brewers’ brashness nor their postgame celebration. Obviously, Milwaukee doesn’t think that they necessarily do anything disrespectful toward their opponent in their postgame antics. Let’s sidebar here for a moment when I ask you to think back to your childhood (or if you are still a child while reading this, think back to some time last week). Has anyone ever told you that you were doing something that they didn’t like and you reacted, to intentionally poke the bear so to speak, did the extreme opposite of whatever it was that they said they didn’t like? Sidebar over… For the record, the team is saying that they just wanted to celebrate a hard-fought victory with themselves as a team in the clubhouse. Also for the record? They couldn’t have pleased me more as a baseball fan. Instead of letting Tony LaRussa lead in this NL Central dance, Ken Macha and the boys have their right hand firmly fastened to the Cardinals’ back. Milwaukee has now won 11 of the last 12 games against St. Louis, including all four they’ve played so far in 2009. You have to start to wonder at what point the Cardinals begin to feel like they might be the next Pittsburgh Pirates to this ballclub (though, to be fair, the Pittsburgh Pirates are still the currently Pittsburgh Pirates to this ballclub). Cardinal starter Chris Carpenter, making his second start since coming off the DL, was outstanding. He pitched 8 scoreless innings and even took a perfect game into the 7th inning before Craig Counsell singled past Skip Schumaker into right field. Carpenter finished with 10 Ks in the game in a masterful, ace-type performance. In fact, Carpenter has not yet allowed a run in 2009 over 23 IP. Brewer starter Yovani Gallardo was nearly as dominant as his counterpart in a game that Milwaukee simply needed to be just that. Gallardo pitched 8 innings as well (despite sta In a game that felt early on like one run would win it, both starting pitchers have a lot to be proud of. Kyle McClellan, on the other hand, couldn’t do for Carpenter what Hoffman and Villanueva did for Gallardo as he suffered the loss for the redbirds. This victory puts the Brewers back atop the NL Central all by themselves. It’s a lofty perch as with it comes the 2nd best record in all the National League (behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers), but it’s one that I certainly don’t mind resting my wings on. This series isn’t over by a longshot, though, as these teams play two more games. If we win at least one more, the Cardinals leave town in 2nd place. If we are fortunate enough to sweep them again, we will once again hold a three-game lead in the division just like the last time we faced the Cardinals. We went into that series tied atop the division as well and left with a three-game lead (though we put the Cardinals into third place at that point, but the Chicago Cubs have helped us out by losing 7 in a row entering play tonight including getting swept by the red-hot San Diego Padres at Petco Park). Tomorrow’s game is a rematch of another 1-0 game against these teams this year as Jeff Suppan squares off against Adam Wainwright. First pitch scheduled for 7:08pm and I will be there watching. Let’s beat down the birds and regrab the momentum in the NL Central! (By the way, was anybody else very comfortable when Hall strode to the plate in the 10th? After all, what does Bill Hall do best? Big hits on holidays!)
The Milwaukee Brewers decided against maturity today when they absolutely hauled their collective rear ends off of the baseball field and out of their dugout once they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals today. They know exactly what the Cardinals think about the untucking of the shirts and everything that goes along with it. When Bill Hall (who hit the game-winning single), Casey McGehee (who scored the game-winning run) and MIke Cameron (who had to touch second base for it all to count) sprinted to the dugout steps and joined the mass of Brewer personnel pouring into the clubhouse, it was a nice little “nah-nee-nah-nee-boo-boo” to LaRussa’s second-place ballclub.
Everything else aside, however, there was one heckuva ballgame played on the field today that got us to that point in the 10th inning.
rting the 7th inning over 100 pitches) and struck out Albert Pujols with a man on base to end the 8th inning. Trevor Hoffman pitched a perfect 9th as he was already warming just in case the Brewers took the lead in the bottom of the 8th (sidenote: The sound guys at the ballpark, per Hoffman’s instructions this year, did NOT play Hell’s Bells as Hoffman trotted in for the 9th inning. It was not a save situation, and therefore Hoffman didn’t want it played.) Carlos Villanueva pitched a very good 10th inning and picked up the victory after Hall’s heroics.
What a Debut!
By: Big Rygg
(And what do we do to cover for Rickie Weeks?)
First and foremost, allow me to say “Welcome to the Show, Mat Gamel!”
Yes, I know (as you should, if you don’t) that Gamel made his official Major League debut last September. Heck, he even recorded his first big league base hit. But tonight? All he did was smack a three-run home run and make a terrific defensive play (and, naturally, a throwing error but let’s focus on the positives) en route to helping the Brewers to a series sweep over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
Coming into this series, as a side note, the Milwaukee Brewers were tied with the Cardinals atop the NL Central Division. As mentioned a tidy little sweep through town puts us a full 3 games up on the redbirds.
But tonight was Mat Gamel’s first career start and he made a nice day out of it by hitting his first career home run and playing a great hot corner with the exception of his thrown away ball in the bottom of the 7th.
Here’s to many more big flies, Mr. Gamel!
—
Something else I wanted to talk about this evening is the loss of Rickie Weeks to probable season-ending surgery which he will undergo in very short order. Weeks tore a tendon sheath in his left wrist while striking out to lead off the game last night. Weeks was having the best start to a season in his career by a long shot and this is the purest definition of “bad timing”.
The real question, of course, is “How do the Brewers cover up Weeks’ absence?”
Do they bring up Hernan Iribarren? Do they sign a free agent like a Ray Durham or Mark Grudzielanek? Do they try to pull off a trade? If a trade, what do they do once Weeks is ready to go for 2010? Do they perhaps bring up Frank Catalanotto to have a 5th OF again and simply go with what they’ve got to cover 2B (which means some combination of Craig Counselll and Casey McGehee and maybe Bill Hall in an emergency)?
All viable options, but not one of them screams that it is the correct option.
Keep your eye on this, Brewer fans, as it truly could impact our march to the playoffs more than you might initially think.
But, in better news, the Brewers did finish that sweep of the Cardinals. We move on to Houston for the second time this season and look to at least duplicated our 2 out of 3 effort that we accomplished last time.
Let’s have another winning road trip!
Brewer Nation
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