Hall of Fame Poll: Trevor Hoffman

Next up would be Carlo Guillen. He's on the ballot for the first time.

He was a good player. He had a 14 year career, 8 seasons for the Tigers and Mariners for 6. In 1305 games he hit .285/.355/.443 with 124 home runs. Defensively, he was average-ish at short. The second half of his career he was shifted between third, first, left field and second.

He had a 27.7 career bWAR. I can't see him getting many HoF votes.

It is Trevor Hoffman's second time on the Hall of Fame Ballot. He came fairly close to making it last year, getting 67.3% of the vote. Generally, a player that scores that high, his first time on ballot, will make it make it at some point. In Hoffman's case, I wonder.

Hoffman played 18 seasons, 16 of them with the Padres. He was closer for most of those years.

He pitched in 1035 games, with no starts. Had a 2.87 ERA. In 1089.1 innings, he allowed 307 walks with 1133 strikeouts.

The big number, of course, is the 601 saves, putting him second to Mariano Rivera on the all-time list. He is also 11th in games played as a pitcher.

He made 7 All-Star teams. He got Cy Young votes 4 times, finishing 2nd twice. And he had MVP votes 5 times (yes, he received MVP votes, one year, without getting any Cy Young votes that year. I'd love to hear the explanation for that one).

Baseball Reference has him at 28.0 career WAR.

Hoffman's Hall of Fame candidacy revolves all around that 601 saves. Whatever you think of the saves stat, being second all time is pretty impressive. But then, the only pitcher in the top 10 saves list who is on the list Hall is Dennis Eckersley (who is 6th, but then he has other points in his favor). Two others (Lee Smith and Billy Wagner) are on the ballot again this year. And three others aren't eligible yet. I'm pretty sure that the number one guy on the list will make the Hall.

I didn't see him pitch all that often, and, unfairly, I always thought he was overrated, likely because I always wrote off the Padres. Dick Hayhurst said good things about him in his books.

You can see his career numbers here.