Save it
So, this week, this happened:
In the span of 18 hours and two appearances that rocked Petco Park, Trevor Hoffman might have earned more than just first place on baseball’s all-time saves list.
With saves No. 478 and 479 secured in front of raucous crowds in the San Diego Padres’ final two regular-season home games, Hoffman caught and then passed Lee Smith. There’s also the chance that Hoffman brought a bit more respect to both the statistic itself and closers in general than they currently enjoy.
There is that chance, but it’s silly. Saves are meaningless.
Hoffman has entered 535 games in which his team was already winning, and he didn’t give up the lead before the game ended in 479 of them. In most cases, this means he pitched one inning — in the last ten seasons, he has averaged 1.06 innings per appearance — and didn’t totally screw up.
It means that in almost 90 percent of the games into which he was called to preserve his teammates’ already-achieved success, he did his job.
Big deal!
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