In a recent post, I challenged the intensity--or lack thereof--of Padres pitching (yes, I realise Dodger pitching is abysmal and castrated, but that's a different post).  I mentioned how SD's pitching staff boasts a low bullpen ERA, knows how to get a clutch performance, and are SO thankful that Cla Meredith was jettisoned by the Red Sox.  

In reply to that post, another faithful blogger brought up the role of Trevor Hoffman, and alluded to Hoffy's high-profile chokes--most notably in the All Star Game and of course the collapse in Chavez Ravine.   I find that blogger a most insighful chap, but I respectully disagree with Hoffman being a "choke job".  He's had 45 save opportunities with 40 saves, and although he's 0-2, his ERA so far this season is 2.05 in 57.0 innings played.  Compare that with an immature crybaby like the Giants' Armando Benitez (17/25 in saves, 4-2 with a 3.52 ERA in 38.1 IP) and the old Padre doesn't look bad at all.  Plus, he's closing in on Lee Smith's all-time saves record with only two more to tie the 478 mark.  On paper, in contrast to the good blogger's comments, Trevor Time looks pretty ok.  Yet the comments made me think. In light of all the cool numbers I just spouted, I have but one question:

So what?

So Trevor is about to overtake Lee Smith in the all-time number of career saves.  Is that the stuff of a future Hall of Famer when the Good Mr Smith isn't even in the Great Hall yet?  More on that in a moment.

I did some checking, and from what I can see, Lee Smith was a pretty ok pitcher with flashes of brilliance; a career 71-92, with a 3.03 ERA and of course 478 saves; 7-time All-Star with a number of awards for relief and closing--the Rolaids award comes to mind.  And almost won a Cy Young.  Compared to that, Trevor is in good company with establishing his legacy.

Again, I ask...so what?

I hear a lot of discourse on the difficulty of being a closer; how getting those last three or six outs is very tough, especially when facing a team with a 'damn-the-torpedoes' desire to come from behind.  I hear that there's an art to closing, and that only a mentally tough guy can perfect that role and "bring in on in" for the team. 

In other words: Closers ride the momentum of a team lead into the ninth inning, and provide a rested arm to capitalise on the energy generated from eight previous innings of hardscrabble play.  Is this the stuff of a Hall of Famer?  Bruce Sutter made it in as a pure reliever, which is a slightly different entity from the closer.

The question will get answered eventually.  Because the good Padres fans--arguably some of the most faithful I've ever seen--are very excited at the prospect of Trevor hitting this milestone.  Could they be setting themselves up for colossal disappointment? The number one closer isn't a Hall of Famer yet, so that doesn't bode well for Hoffy to leapfrog his way into Cooperstown. 

As I mentioned, only Trevor Time will tell.

All weekend long, I've been trying to find a good reason to tell my wife and my boss that I needed to go to Los Angeles.  No matter how hard I thought about it, I just knew that the truth wouldn't fly:

"Well, honey (or sir), see...the Dodgers and Padres are within 1.5 games of first place, see, and..."

My gut told me that "You're Fired", or "I Want A Divorce" were the next things I'd hear, so I settled for watching on HD...and for a while I was glad I stayed home.  After watching the Dodgers get shelled on Saturday, then seeing them creep to a loss on Sunday, I donned my cap and jersey with full knowledge that the boys in blue NEED this Monday game.  How right I was!!

Seeing Jon Adkins and Trevor Hoffman get hammered for four home runs in a row was almost surreal.  Mark Grant, a local Padres announcer who called the game, said that if a screenwriter wrote that into a script for a baseball movie, he'd get fired for penning something so contrived, yet here we were watching it unfold in real time.  Four in a row; THEN my man Nomar lives up to his Mr Clutch reputation, replete with gimpy legs.  It was almost too much to conceive. Epic! Magnanimous!

But let's not kid ourselves...

THE most important element in this game was the momentum that my Dodgers have hopefully generated by such an historical--and histrionic--victory.    Once again, the dreadful Dodger bullpen allowed the less-than-potent Padres offense to stay in this game, after Penny lifted himself from the depths of a first-inning Hades to hold the Padres scoreless thru the rest of his five innings. 

This momentum could be the deciding factor in how the Dodgers attack not only the remainder of the season--which treads dangerously thru the Bay Area--but also the post-season. Hey, Houston did it last year, right?

But on a high note for Dodgerfan, San Diego's bullpen doesn't leave THAT much to envy, either.  Sure, they boast a pretty low bullpen ERA--something like 3.24.  But let's face it: if it wasn't for Cla Meredith, this team would have been dead a long time ago. Trevor uses good momentum to his advantage, and carries that energy into the ninth to fast-ball you to death.  But being sandwiched between Adkins and Seanez?  That was a recipe for drama...the good kind for Dodger Nation.

I was at Petco Park in April when the Padres smacked us for five runs in the bottom of the ninth to eventually win in 5-6 in the 10th.  Payback is indeed very sweet.  Now if we can just take the NL West, because the path to the Pennant takes us thru San Francisco...

Ok, the logic of my beloved Dodgers is starting to wear on my nerves.  Apparently, turning a Gold Glove shortstop into a utilityman isn't bad enough.  Now, Grady Little is adding 'insult' to 'injury' yet again.

Dioner Navarro is being sent down, coughing up his starting job to Russell Martin.  Now I have become a big Russell Martin fan. This guy is not only running the offense, but he's batting to the tune of .361 and patiently bearing witness to some abysmal fielding by his compatriots. Not bad for a young 'un, right?  So instead of bringing back Navarro, who was batting a blistering .429 in his last 10 games before going to the DL, and forming a potentially rock-solid rotation of catchers, Grady is demoting him.  That's gratitude for ya.

Oh, by the way: what has Grandpa Moses--AKA Sandy Alomar, Jr--done for us lately?  Oh, let's see: Averaging .286 in his last 10 games with only 21 ABs--no doubt a part-timer.  I suppose his .360 in 50 ABs is respectable, but is Grady telling us that there isn't room for Dioner in his Catchers' Corps??  His hard-line brass-balls management had BETTER carry us thru 1st place in the NL West for the better part of the season.  If it doesn't, he won't end up the steely take-no-prisoners Captain of the ship...he'll just end up a dick.