All Hail Trevor Hoffman

I was living in San Diego back when they brought in an unknown manager to run a team that effectively was reduced to minor league status by Tom Werner and his band of idiots. Werner owned the Padres and decided to have a fire sale of epic proportions. Tony Fernandez, Fred McGriff and Gary Sheffield were dealt.

For Sheffield, the Padres got an unknown right-handed pitcher named Trevor Hoffman.

Bruce Bochy saw something in the kid and made him his closer, a tough job where one mistake is magnified times ten.

Bochy did what many mangers do not, he stuck with Hoffman through good and bad. When Hoffman was blowing saves, Bochy--like a god coach should--let him pitch through it.

Now we see what Bochy's faith in Hoffman had led us to. Trevor Hoffman is now tied with Lee Smith atop the leaders list for saves. He will be in sole possession by the end of this weekend if things play out correctly.

Congratulations Trevor Hoffman.

As anyone who reads this site regularly knows, my son is a Padres fan and I'm a Phillies fan. They've been battling down the stretch. As I write this, the Padres are 1.5 games up on the hated Dodgers in the NL West and the Phils are 0.5 games up on the Dodgers in the wildcard.