The 100 Greatest in 100 Days: #100 Trevor Hoffman

Starting us off at #100 is Hells Bells Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman is the greatest closer in National League history and the second greatest closer of all time. If it weren’t for Mariano Rivera, Hoffman would be the gold standard by which all closers are measured. His 601 career saves are second all-time and a remarkable 123 saves ahead of Lee Smith for 3rd place. For perspective, the gap between Hoffman and Smith is greater than the gap between Smith and the 11th spot. Hoffman led the National League in saves twice and finished runner-up five times. Even more impressive is the fact that Hoffman finished in the top 10 in saves in the National League 15 times. Hoffman twice finished runner-up in Cy Young voting including in 1998 when he lost out to Tom Glavine in one of the closest results in Cy Young voting history. In fact, Hoffman actually got more first-place votes than Glavine. History repeated itself as Hoffman again just missed out in 2006 nearly equaling Brandon Webb’s first-place vote total. Hoffman’s Adjusted ERA+ of 141 is the 15th best mark by a pitcher in Major League Baseball history.  

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Hi (hopefully) awesome reader! I welcome your comments. However, please be aware that I make all of my arguments using facts, statistics, and logic. Unfortunately, the average comment on a top-100 list goes something like this:

"UR StooPid. (Insert player) is trash. I've watched (pick a sport) for (pick a number of years) and (pick a player) is better than everyone. UR DUMB. HAHA6969."

–Some Jabroni

As cognitively stimulating as this species of comment is, it ends up being a missed opportunity to share a nuanced perspective. I reply to all comments that show even the most basic levels of thought and humility. The people who make the comments like the example above are under the assumption that the three seconds of thought that popped into their brains after reading the list is more than the 1000s of hours that I put into creating and maintaining the lists. I would be happy to defend any placement, or make an adjustment if one is warranted. If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.

For everyone else, I look forward to your comments!

P.S. The theme of this site and the top-100 lists is that athletes from previous generations have historically been grossly overrated by sports publications in a way that is statistically improbable. Click on the "About" dropdown menu to see just how badly the average top-100 list disproportionately favors athletes from older generations when leagues were smaller, race quotas existed, and globalization wasn't a thing. Also, please consider reading "The History" section of the sport you are commenting on.

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