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Player
in the Spotlight: Trevor Hoffman
by Daniel
Paulling
March 21, 2005
Name: Trevor Hoffman
Team: San Diego Padres
Role: Closer
DOB: 10.13.1967
H/T: R/R
| Year
|
Team
|
ERA
|
W
|
L
|
Sv
|
Svo
|
G
|
IP
|
H
|
R
|
ER
|
BB
|
K
|
BAVG
|
| 1993 |
FLA |
3.28
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
28
|
35.2
|
24
|
13
|
13
|
19
|
26
|
.185
|
| 1993 |
SD |
4.31
|
2
|
4
|
3
|
5
|
39
|
54.1
|
56
|
30
|
26
|
20
|
53
|
.264
|
| 1993 |
Total
|
3.90
|
4
|
6
|
5
|
8
|
67
|
90.0
|
80
|
43
|
39
|
39
|
79
|
.234
|
| 1994 |
SD |
2.57
|
4
|
4
|
20
|
23
|
47
|
56.0
|
39
|
16
|
16
|
20
|
68
|
.193
|
| 1995 |
SD |
3.88
|
7
|
4
|
31
|
38
|
55
|
53.1
|
48
|
25
|
23
|
14
|
52
|
.235
|
| 1996 |
SD |
2.25
|
9
|
5
|
42
|
49
|
70
|
88.0
|
50
|
23
|
22
|
31
|
111
|
.161
|
| 1997 |
SD |
2.66
|
6
|
4
|
37
|
44
|
70
|
81.1
|
59
|
25
|
24
|
24
|
111
|
.200
|
| 1998 |
SD |
1.48
|
4
|
2
|
53
|
54
|
66
|
73.0
|
41
|
12
|
12
|
21
|
86
|
.165
|
| 1999 |
SD |
2.14
|
2
|
3
|
40
|
43
|
64
|
67.1
|
48
|
23
|
16
|
15
|
73
|
.197
|
| 2000 |
SD |
2.99
|
4
|
7
|
43
|
50
|
70
|
72.1
|
61
|
29
|
24
|
11
|
85
|
.224
|
| 2001 |
SD |
3.43
|
3
|
4
|
43
|
46
|
62
|
60.1
|
48
|
25
|
23
|
21
|
63
|
.216
|
| 2002 |
SD |
2.73
|
2
|
5
|
38
|
41
|
61
|
59.1
|
52
|
20
|
18
|
18
|
69
|
.234
|
| 2003 |
SD |
2.00
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
9
|
9.0
|
7
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
11
|
.212
|
| 2004 |
SD |
2.30
|
3
|
3
|
41
|
45
|
55
|
54.2
|
42
|
14
|
14
|
8
|
53
|
.211
|
(Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/players/4975/)
Trevor Hoffman did not have a bright future as a shortstop in the
Reds’ organization - Barry Larkin was ahead of him and would
have a fine career before retiring. So, the Reds’ brass did
the normal thing and converted Hoffman to relief pitching. The right-hander
had seen how closers worked: Rob Dibble and his 99 MPH heat. He
had seen, after joining the Marlins, how Bryan Harvey used his split
finger fastball to dominate hitters. Funny, Trevor Hoffman does
not do the same thing as either of them.
When Hoffman started his career, he was a setup man. He had good
heat, but he wanted to do something different with his career.
"I felt that if I wanted to be a guy who could throw at the
end of the ballgame and have success at this level for a sustained
period of time, I needed a pitch that I would qualify as an equalizer,"
Hoffman said.
And what pitch would become the equalizer? He was already throwing
a good 95-97 MPH fastball! The pitch that would raise him to a new
level would be the changeup, which he learned from Donnie Elliot.
Hoffman had just joined the Padres in an early season trade and
Elliot taught the youngster how to pitch, how to throw the circle
changeup.
Hoffman didn’t throw the changeup that much: he relied mainly
on his heat. During the 1994 and 1995 season, the closer suffered
serious shoulder troubles. To a guy that relied on heat to get by,
this could spell disaster…until Hoffman remembered his lessons
from Elliot.
"There's no doubt that without that changeup, I'm doing something
else right now," Hoffman says.
To prove that those words aren’t an exaggeration, here’s
Bruce Bochy’s opinion on the situation: "When Trevor lost
the velocity off his fastball like he did, it was important that
he come up with a way-above-average Major League pitch if he was
going to be a closer. He did that with that changeup."
And so, in 1996, Hoffman matched his 91-92 MPH heat with a 78 MPH
dirty change. The fact that Hoffman learned how to throw the changeup
with the same arm speed and look as a fastball makes it even more
devastating.
"You could be sitting on it and still not
be successful with it," said Mark Sweeney, a good left-handed
bat off the bench.
But, to further infuriate hitters, Hoffman matches these two pitches
with a curveball, a pitch so good, he does not have to throw his
changeup some games.
"He's gone out there in games and not thrown it [the changeup]
at all," Bochy said. "He's not exactly predictable either.
He varies his sequence of pitches every time he goes out."
"He reads the hitter and what he's trying to do, and he's gotten
better at it over the years as the velocity on his fastball has
dropped a bit," says Sweeney, who played for the Rockies last
year. "Last year, I probably faced him five times, and he pitched
me a different way five times."
So whenever Hells Bells begins to play in Petco Park, sit back and
enjoy a crafty veteran at his finest. That is, unless you are the
hitter.
Feel free to leave comments in the forums or
e-mail Daniel at daniel@athomeplate.com.
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