Second-Best Closer of All Time Retires

Padres great and Brewers pitcher Trevor Hoffman announced his retirement today, ending an 18-season, Hall of Fame career. Hoffman, the all-time leader in saves with 601, had his best season 1998 when he helped the Pads reach the World Series with a 265 ERA+ and a career high-tying 4.0 WAR. The righty struggled last season with Milwaukee, posting a 5.89 ERA and allowing 68 base-runners in 47 innings pitched, but through 2009 was the most dominant closer in the game not named Mariano Rivera. Now I'm not about to take anything away from Hoffman, but

Time for me to stop talking about Trevor Hoffman

Greatest closers of all time

1. Mariano Rivera
73. Trevor Hoffman and others

Caught Looking

Caught Looking is MTD's links that thought that curveball was just a bit outside.

*There can be only one Highlander. MLB Trade Rumors reports the Cubs have claimed Max Rameriz. That leaves the struggling Taylor Teagarden as the only catcher left in the once vaunted Rangers' backstop trio. Jarrod Saltalamacchia was dealt to the Red Sox during the 2010 season and they also briefly claimed Ramirez.

*Back to MLB Trade Rumors for a sec, the Angels are still in on Scott Podsednik. My thoughts on this potential signing involve a combination of a toilet flush and bicycle horn which I haven't been able to find on Youtube or created on my own yet.

*Our friend Mike over at The Golden Sombrero looks at what the signing of Will Ohman means for Chris Sale's future in the White Sox rotation. He makes some very good points but I think Sale is an asset in the bullpen right now and would hate to see him get the "Joba treatment."

*You all know how good Larry Granillo is at writing about baseball. Well, Wezen-Ball has a new look and it's finally time to rank the Kids In The Hall. My vote is Dave Foley (loved News Radio), Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch and then Scott Thompson.

*The guys over at The Platoon Advantage had a blog fight over Jack Morris' HOF worthiness. And the Common Man might have won me over with his Mona Lisa example but I was already loaded on Absinthe and half way through figuring out Da Vinci's code that's going to lead me to a pot of gold.

*Our BBA General Chapter pres is doing this much better than I am right now. So in the meantime, enjoy Blogging From The Bleachers roundups here and here.

I promise I'll get better at these once somebody shows me when this 7 a.m. happens.

Jose Canseco Tweet of the Day

Even Pablo Sandoval Is Getting In Shape?

Let's face it, we're 10 days into the new year and you're actually up three pounds from the time that you announced this was the year you'd finally get in shape. But all you've done is driven by the gym twice and learned how to roll your own breakfast burritos using pancakes, sausage and cookie dough. As long as we're being honest, I never really had much faith in you anyway.

But dammit, I only have a few fat baseball players left in the MLB and I don't appreciate them trying to improve themselves. First Bartolo Colon is attempting a comeback by not being fat and now Pablo Sandoval is trying to shed some of his panda weight to improve on his disappointing 2010 season. Here are the deets from Henry Schulman from the SF Gate...

Dunston has not seen Sandoval this winter, but Rich Aurilia has.

Aurilia lives in Phoenix and told me today he saw Pablo at a shopping mall just before Christmas. Sandoval told him he had lost 17 pounds.

Last week, Sandoval was in Venezuela and held a news conference at a baseball museum. According to reports in the Venezuelan papers, Sandoval said he lost 16 "kilos" with the goal of dropping 24 by the start of spring training. I've been told that something got lost in the translation and he meant "pounds." Sixteen kilos would be more than 35 pounds. Twenty-four kilos would be nearly 53 pounds. Nobody's expecting Sandoval to slim down that much.

Let's hope something was lost in translation. I'll be crushed if Sandoval went all Al Roker on us and looks like a deflated balloon version of himself playing third base. I've grown to love the Sandoval who roams the infield like a Hungry-Hungry-Hippo with what appears to be a mustard stain of his jersey and/or pants.

Giants fans surely will be pleased that Sandoval is working on bouncing back after his slash line tumbled from .330/.387/.556 to .268/.323/.409 in just one year. But as a fan of fat baseball players, I'll be sending care packages to Bobby Jenks and hoping for a David Wells comeback.

Rays Avoid Arbitration With Garza

Yikes. I thought the Angels were having a poor offseason. The Rays continued their "it's not really a fire sale" fire sale by dealing pitcher Matt Garza to the Cubs before he could hit arbitration for the second time. Rays fans, both of them, already had to deal with losing Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and Rafael Soriano to free agency. Luckily for the Rays, it sounds like Jose Canseco is ready for his prodigious return to the baseball world and that just sounds like fun for the whole family.

What it means for the Rays
Uh, believe it or not, it doesn't mean that much. Garza is a fine pitcher but I don't think they miss a beat plugging Jeremy Hellickson into the rotation full time. The only fallout to the Rays rotation from this trade might be the removal of Jake Shields from the trading block. The Rays get Chris Archer, Brandon Guyer, Robinson Chirinos, Hak-Ju Lee and Sam Fuld from the Cubs to bolster their farm system.

Archer was the Cubs third best prospect according to Baseball Prospectus (or Kevin Goldstein if you're keeping score at home) but has some command issues to deal with before becoming a star. Lee was the fifth best prospect but his future short stop endeavors were blocked by Sterlin Castro similar to his new blockage at short by Reid Brignac. Guyer and Chirinos were 11 and 12 respectively but BP expects me to pay for any insight into them. Jerks, trying to make money and whatnot.

What it means for the Cubs
Garza jumps into the mix as the number two starter for the Cubs with Ryan Dempster and Carlos Zambrano. And one of those guys is going to have to the ace. My guess is that the Cubs rehash how much money they'll have to eat to move Zambrano and his psychiatry bills. It doesn't seem like a big hit to their minor league system that was already devoid of any big impact guys.

Send Me Your Extra Angels Giveaway Swag

It's been a rough Hot Stove League for Angels fans unless you really dig 35-year-old middle relievers. Then this offseason was like Christmas took your birthday out to a nice dinner at In-N-Out Burger and then made sweet love to it in the back of a station wagon. After the Angels finished below .500 for the first time my attention deficit riddled brain can ever remember, owner Arte Moreno declared the team would make a big splash in free agency and he was willing to hand out some straight cash homey. But the Halos were left holding only lefty relievers Scott Downs and Hisanori Takahashi after the whirlwind of $100 million contracts settled.

Before you panic and trade your season tickets for bags of oranges on the freeway, my fellow Angels fans, I have good news. What Arte didn't spend on improving the team, he's making up for in kick-ass giveaways. They might not be as cool as the Pirates offering season ticket holders the opportunity to bat cleanup on Sunday games or run the franchise day at the trade deadline but the Angels are giving away some pretty nice keepsakes. The full list of promotions can be found here. What follows, dear Anaheim readers, is the list of crap I want and what I'm willing to pay for it...

5/10/11 Angels Wrestling Mask - Full shipping and I'll write 150 words about whatever you'd like me to. That could be anything from a post here to your E-Harmony profile to the eulogy for your uncle Clint. Let's face it, he's not doing so hot.

5/24/11 Kendry Morales Bobblehead - 1/2 shipping for broken leg model, one free rental at Blockbuster for healthy two legged model.

7/5/11 Angels Sock Monkey - Full shipping and an autographed picture of me from my high school roller hockey MVP season OR an autographed Wiffle Ball from the summer of 1993 when I struck out 39 hitters during a double header.

8/4/11 Angels Flat Billed Plaid Hat - You pay shipping and I agree never to wear it in public.

8/18/11 Angels Gnome Bobblehead - The rest of an authentic New Orleans muffuletta that I was eating until I realized I don't like olive salad. I'm willing to autograph the sandwich if you plan on incasing it in plastic instead of finishing it.

8/23/11 Angels Rally Monkey Chia Pet - This is my second favorite next to the wrestling mask so I'll pay the shipping. Plus I'll write a post about how sick I get after I try to smoke the Chia clippings.

9/24/11 Angels Gumball Machine - You pay airfare, food and liquor and I'll come live in your basement for a week.

If any of these wonderful prizes pique your interest, feel free to email me at mtd@offbasepercentage.com or DM me on Twitter @mnkysthrwngdrts.

Prices and participation may vary. Offers are subject to change without notice.

Hall Of Fame Rewind

The BBWAA survived a little website hackeration earlier today but righted the ship in time to announce Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar are the 2011 Hall of Fame class. I won't spend much time discussing Blyleven and Alomar because, let's face it, they're both Hall worthy.

Blyleven spent more time sweating it out but his career 90.1 WAR was not to be excluded again. And yes, I realize that only around six voters are spending time pouring over Wins Above Replacement. Fine, I understand that some of these voters are set in their old-school ways and won't embrace the new metrics because they didn't get the typewriter with dial-up access to AOL. To those voters, I submitted his willingness to drop the f-bomb live on air and his awesome beard from his Angels days. So I did my part.

Alomar on his second year on the ballot picked up an extra 126 votes for a whopping 90.0%. Alomar hit .300/.371/.443 over his career while playing overrated defense. That is not to say that Alomar wasn't a very good second baseman but should not be confused as the greatest fielder at his position. But again, I have no qualms over Alomar's selection or deservedness. Even the jump from 73.7% to 90.0% isn't that big of a surprise considering the amount of voters who simply won't consider any player during their first year of eligibility.

HOWEVER, that last point is no excuse for Jeff Bagwell receiving only 41.7% of the "yes box" punches. Bagwell hit 449 home runs and .297/.408/.540 over his career which would make him one of the top five first basemen in the sport's history. For a guy who was never connected to steroids, he sure does have a lot of suspicion surrounding him now. Bags HAS to get in eventually and you should be able to tell how serious I am about this because I used all caps for two words in this paragraph.

Tim Raines fell short again and will immediately become the new Bert Blyleven for all of the crusading, basement-dwelling writers. Raines might be taking a hit for his flirtation with cocaine. I actually hope that's the reason because I can't see a reason to keep the second best leadoff hitter of all time out of the Hall. Yet, I don't understand how cocaine can be condemned on a different level from that of the amphetamine usage during the 70's.

I'm nowhere close to be included in the BBWAA because I believe they have a rule that a writer should have more than four readers to be included in their club. Stupid secret handshake elitists. But I did get a ballot for the BBA. The BBA also recommended just Alomar and Blyleven and you can see the full voting here. Here is my ballot followed by career WAR and the actual BBWAA totals for each player...

1. Bert Blyleven, 90.1 WAR, 463 votes, 79.7%

2. Jeff Bagwell, 83.9 WAR, 242 votes, 41.7%

3. Tim Raines, 71.0 WAR, 218 votes, 37.5%

4. Roberto Alomar, 68.2 WAR, 523 votes, 90.0%

5. Mark McGwire, 70.6 WAR, 115 votes, 19.8% (down from 23.7% from last year)

6. Larry Walker, 72.2 WAR, 118 votes, 20.3%

7. Barry Larkin, 69.8 WAR, 361 votes, 62.1% (3rd best this year, next year's best shot)

8. Edgar Martinez, 71.6 WAR, 191 votes, 32.9%

9. Rafael Palmerio, 75.5 WAR, 64 votes, 11.0% (doesn't look good)

10. Kevin Brown, 77.2 WAR, 12 votes, 2.1%

Kevin Brown receives this year's Price Is Right losing horn for, despite his HOF WAR, not reaching the 5% mark and is one and done in the Hall of Fame voting.

Defending My Benito Santiago HOF Vote

The 2011 Hall of Fame voting has commenced and Offbase has received a letter from the one writer who voted for former catcher Benito Santiago.

My name is Rory Carsdale and I'm a staff writer/backdoor look out for the Plumptin Valley Times. I'm here to defend my Hall of Fame vote for Benito Santiago. Oh, hang on, somebody moved my Marvell Wynne bobblehead doll...and it's NEXT TO MY HOLE PUNCHER?! Barry!

OK. First of all, let's remember:

1. 1987
2. Rookie of the Year

I'm not sure why I need to continue, but I will. Benito Santiago, a catcher, tried to throw out would-be base stealers by throwing from his knees. And sometimes those runners would be out. You know what the opposite of "out" is? "In". Which is what Santiago should be in relation to the Hall of Fame.

Let's take a look at Santiago's career numbers:

* 217 home runs. 259th all-time, one behind Bob Horner, who once hit four home runs in ONE GAME.
* 1,830 RBIs. Most career RBIs by a Santiago.
* 1991: led the majors in grounding into double plays with 21. You know how many HOFers have led their league in GIDP? I have no idea and I'm not looking it up, but my bet is zero. The Hall needs a GIDP champion, and that champion is Benito Rivera Santiago.

One final thought: in 2002 Santiago, at age 37, finished 20th in the NL MVP voting. Junior Spivey finished six spots ahead of Santiago. Am I saying Junior Spivey should get a HOF vote? Check back with me in 2012.