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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