Hoffman to Brewers, 1 year for $6 mil plus $1.5 mil in incentives

[jaybird2001wi]

casey, mlb.com won't allow people to put "Hoffman 51" on a customized jersey because it involves an active player on "another" team. It will eventually allow us to order one once he is officially on the team.

[Milltownhooker]

Keith Law may not like the move, because he feels its the only significant move the crew will do this off-season. Do to budget constraints

[joepepsi]

In the latest Jsonline blog it mentions that Hoffman recieved calls from both Kendall and Cameron telling him how much they enjoy playing in Milwaukee. That is really cool that they would do that.

Isn't TGJ his Godson?

[TooLiveBrew]

Clearly the Brewers made him an offer he couldn't refuse

[sbrylski]

I only caught it after the fact, but apparently Keith Law ripped the Hoffman signing as a mistake on 1070 here in Madison. I'll be interested to see if he writes anything on it.

 

Edit: After hearing a playback, he describes the idea of Hoffman being an effective closer to be "delusional" because of the beneficial environment he was playing in previously, as well as losses in velocity. These issues have been discussed here ad nauseum, so I'm not going to pay Keith Law much mind just for coming up with something "sizzling" to say on the radio.

Huh? He didn't lose velocity on any of his pitches.

 

And the beneficial environment in which he surrendered 7 of his 8 home runs last season? His FB rate actually went down last season - so his HR totals seem fluky.

 

His road ERA has been better in 5 of the last 6 seasons:

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs/1035_P_season__ha_mini_0_20080930.png

*Red is home, blue is road

 

EDIT: I'm not saying I disagree that the stadium change will negatively effect him, it will. I think a regression of his HR/FB rate back to his career line will outweigh the park change effects.

[liveforoctober]

I think it's safe to assume TGJ will break camp with the club now...

[joepepsi]

Since 8 homers are easy to look up, I think it bears looking at them a bit.

 

In April Hoffman gave up two dingers, one to Berkman and one to Benji Molina.

In May he gave up one to Dunn.

 

On June 24th he gave up a homer each to Brian Buscher and Brendan Harris. His very next outing, June 29th, he gave up a dinger to Jeff Clement. His very next outing, July 5th in Arizona, he gave up one to Stephen Drew.

 

That was it for the year until Cameron hit one out of Petco on August 14th.

 

Really, we're talking about 3 bad outings in a row where he gave up 4 homers. After that July 5th game he finished the year making 19 appearances, 14 saves, one blown, 17ip, 3BB, 14K's, 1.56 ERA.

 

He had a slow first half, then was his old self the last half of the season.

[Invader3K]

I think it's safe to assume TGJ will break camp with the club now...

I don't know about that.

[jjfanec]

How about this for a fun stat? Last year we had three guys with more blown saves than Hoffman. Torres had 7 (in one more opprotunity), Gagne had 7, Riske had 5. Shouse and Mota were one behind with 3 blown saves. Even with a higher ERA and a few more home runs he was still very successful. As joepepsi showed so well Hoffman had three bad outings in a row outside of that he was very dependable. Even with those issues he had a good save percentage. What saves him is that he does not walk people so when he does give up the long ball it is not quite as painful.

[StearnsFTW]

I think it's safe to assume TGJ will break camp with the club now...

If that's true (which it clearly isn't), I'll hate this signing.

[BrewCrewForever]

Love it! I know he is old, but dude had a very good season at 40 last year. He has the mentality and has done it better then anyone in history. I expect good things from Trevor this season. And I can't wait to get chills the first time I'm at Miller Park and hear "Hells Bells" as a future HOF walks through the bullpen door.

[billyhallfan]

TGJ has no business making the team out of ST, and Hoffman shouldn't change that, if he does break ST, either Macha or Melvin did not do their job correctly

[splitterpfj]

I'm away at a trade show (Indianapolis is lovely this time of year). I just heard this news, and I'm very happy about it.

 

It's not a horrible contract, and this man can still pitch. Don't expect the Hoffman of ten years ago, but this is clearly an upgrade over the Gagne signing.

[mothershipconnection]

I am kind of baffled at the exuberance by fans regarding next years team. The pitching staff is an all out mess imo

 

As has been discussed plenty of times, though, the rotation will be different than the one in place before the CC trade in just 2 ways: -Sheets, +Gallardo. If Parra doesn't wear down, that's pretty respectable.

[1992casey]

Methinks the Tony Gwynn comment was a blue text type of post without the blue text. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[thablingster]

At first when I heard we were pursuing Hoffman I was a bit skeptical, but after seeing the financial terms this move really doesn't seem bad at all.

 

Having a veteran presence at the back end of the bullpen is not a bad thing, and if it doesn't work out then we're not stuck with an albatross contract. It also gives us another year to attempt to develop from within or trade for a potential closer.

[liveforoctober]

Methinks the Tony Gwynn comment was a blue text type of post without the blue text. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

Yeah... I thought I had done it... but I didn't. I edited it though...

[patrickgpe]

i was disappointed to discover that hell's bells is not available on itunes,

 

i did find this gem though

http://www.stumbleaudio.com/#wingsounds6/1

[logan82]

I like this signing. It pushes all our other relievers back one spot and pushes the worst guy out. I don't think it will have a big impact overall. The worst case scenario is that we have another solid reliever in the pen. Not a signing I am going to get to excited about though.

[steve267268]

This may deserve a separate thread, but I would LOVE IT if they brought Hell's Bells to Miller Park, as well as turning the lights out before hand. However, i will understand if the San Diegans raise a fit because it really was a big part of their tradition. I spent almost 4 years out there and it was always an amazing feeling to be downtown, maybe dining in the outdoor section of some restaurant, then, all of a sudden you'd hear the bells start to toll. At that point you KNEW it was Trevor Time.

[patrickgpe]

my guess would be hell's bells will be played but the lights will stay on.

[PeaveyFury]

Per Tom H, Hoffman had what sounds to be a very similar offer from the Dodgers on the table, and Hoffman chose to come to Milwaukee instead of the Dodgers. The deciding factor seems to have been the rush the Brewers put on him.

 

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/37313449.html

 

Definitely a moral victory to get a player to pick us over a market like LA.

[CheezWizHed]

I'm not sure how much of a "leader" Hoffman is in the bullpen, but since it looks like most of our pen will be very young, his experience will be a big help also. I've got to imagine CV will be picking his brain on change-up philosophies (at least I would be if I were him). But just his presence and consistancy should help influence our young RPs.

[silversurferr]

I like McClung and Julio as setup bc of their good fastball, and the contrast with Hoffman's changeup. I assume that is what SD did with Heath Bell last year.

[joepepsi]

Here's the real question of the day: When he's inducted in the HOF will he wear a Brewers cap or a Padres cap?