Happy Super Bowl Day everyone!!! I’m sure many of you would rather be getting ready to watch the Chargers in the big game but a Pittsburgh v. Green Bay matchup has the potential to be an entertaining game. To honor the memory of my dad, I will be cheering hard for the Packers.

Anyway, we’ve reached the end of the road for my posts on my Friars All Time team. Today I pick the relievers for my squad.

Please forgive me but I’ve already phoned down to my equipment manager and instructed him to sew the #51 and the name of Hoffman to the back of a jersey. I don’t think anyone would argue that Trevor is easily the best choice for RH reliever.

Let’s look at Hoffy’s career in San Diego. He was acquired way back in the 1993 season from Florida as part of the Gary Sheffield deal. (Bonus question: can you name the other 2 pitchers the Marlins dealt to the Padres with Hoffman for Sheff? Answer: Jose Martinez and Andres Beruman. You’ll have to believe me when I tell you I remembered that without needing to look it up). He was immediately inserted into the San Diego bullpen where he became a setup man for Padres closer Gene Harris. (Harris meanwhile, saved 23 ball games in 1993 and spent parts of 3 years in San Diego. That performance isn’t good enough to land him on my list here, though).

Hoffman would save just 3 games in 1993 before becoming the full-time stopper in 1994. He would go on to hold that job for 15 seasons for the Padres and save 552 contests as a member of the club.

Despite being strictly a reliever, Hoffman ranks 10^th all-time on the Padres in wins with 54. That’s partially due to Hoffman’s longevity in San Diego and also because the Friars just haven’t kept a lot of good starting pitchers around for very long. Hoffy also finished an amazing 761 games for the Padres as well.

His career rate stats were pretty spectacular too. He finished with a Padres career 2.76 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and a K/9 rate of 9.7. Hoffy was a 7 time all-star and placed 2^nd in Cy Young voting twice. Many thought he should have won both times.

I have no reservations about choosing Hoffman as my RH reliever without even analyzing other alternatives. However, for my amusement and yours, I dug up a few interesting names from Friar history.

Butch Metzger – Metzger spent parts of 3 seasons with the Friars (1975 – 1977). His best year and his first full season in the majors, was in 1976; coincidentally, that was also the year I was born. Metzger finished 5^th in the NL with 16 saves and won 11 games. He also led the NL in games finished (GF) with 62. Metzger won the 1976 Rookie of the Year Award.

Overall he was 12 – 4 with a 3.46 ERA for the Padres. He finished 69 games before he was dealt to the Cardinals early in the 1977 season. Unfortunately Metzger failed to meet my requirement of appearing in at least 150 games with the Friars and can’t actually be a candidate.

Rollie Fingers – Fingers gains some bonus points by virtue of having the middle name of Glen. He was also a terrific pitcher and had the best mustache of his day, too. Fingers spent 4 seasons with the Padres, saving 108 games and finishing 218. He was 34 – 40 with a 3.12 ERA.

Fingers is in the Hall of Fame but played in a different era for relievers. It wasn’t uncommon for a relief pitcher to throw more than an inning per game back then. In fact, Fingers averaged better than 1.5 innings per appearance as a Padre.

Rollie twice led the NL in saves as a Friar. I previously credited Fingers erroneously with winning a Cy Young award as a Padre. Fingers did win the award but in 1981 as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers and not the Padres.

Goose Gossage – Gossage also spent 4 years in San Diego and posted a sub-3.00 ERA. He won 25 games and saved another 83. Gossage was one of the last closers that would often pitch more than an inning in many games.

Goose was a two-time all star in San Diego and anchored the bullpen for the 1984 World Series Friars. Gossage was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2008.

Heath Bell – Bell is the current Friars closer after assuming the role when Hoffman was allowed to leave via free agency. Bell has saved 91 games overall in San Diego with 89 coming in the last 2 seasons. Bell has a 2.54 ERA as a Friar and has made the last 2 all-star teams.

Bell led the NL in saves in 2009 with 42. Bell’s K/9 rate is a very good 9.5. If Bell were to remain in San Diego and save an average of 35 – 40 games a year for the next 12 – 15 years, he might have a shot of one day challenging Hoffman for greatest closer in team history. I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Hoffman is easily the best RH relief pitcher in team history. While Gossage and Fingers gave us some good years they can’t even compete. They are both in the Hall of Fame and it would be a tragedy if the BBWAA didn’t one day select Hoffman to that prestigious club as well.

Now it’s time to take a look at LH relievers. The Padres have had a few good ones over the years and this will present a much tougher challenge when selecting the best of all-time.

Dave Tomlin – Tomlin was a pretty good LH reliever for the Padres from 1974 – 1977. For his Padres career, Tomlin won 10 games and saved 6 more. Those aren’t particularly impressive numbers but he was the best lefty reliever the Friars had during the first decade of the club’s existence.

Gary Lucas – Lucas was a 19^th round selection of the Friars way back in 1976 out of Chapman University; the same school which produced Randy Jones. Lucas made the club in 1980 and made a bulk of his appearances as a starter before becoming a full-time reliever in 1981. Lucas saved a total of 49 games during his 4 seasons with the Padres.

Lucas left San Diego with an 18 – 33 record but with an excellent 2.90 ERA. He also finished 134 total contests as a Friar.

Mark Davis – Davis was part of the huge blockbuster trade made on July 4^th, 1987. He arrived in SD along with pitcher and future broadcaster Mark Grant, pitcher Keith Comstock and former all-star 3B Chris Brown. The Padres sent LHP’s Dave Dravecky and Craig Lefferts together with 3B-OF Kevin Mitchell to San Francisco.

Davis was used both as a reliever and starter with the Giants before becoming exclusively a reliever in San Diego. Davis finished with 28 saves and an ERA of 2.01 in his first full year (1988) with the Friars. In 1989, Davis had by far the best year of his career when he saved 44 games and won a Cy Young award. Davis would leave San Diego for the riches offered in free agency by Kansas City. Yes, I said Kansas City.

His career went downhill after leaving the Friars. He did make a brief return to the Padres in 1993 and appeared in 60 games total in 1993 and 1994. Overall he finished with a record of 14 – 20 with 78 saves and a 2.75 ERA as a member of the Padres.

Craig Lefferts – Lefferts was with the Friars for 2 different stints (1984 – 1987 and 1990 – 1992). He won 42 games and lost 40 as a member of the club. He also saved 64 games and finished with a 3.24 ERA. He had a surprisingly good year as member of the Friars rotation in 1992 when he won 13 games and recorded an ERA of 3.69.

While a good case could be made for each of these pitchers, I’d have to go with Mark Davis. During his first stint with the club, Davis was a dominant closer. He also would frequently pitch more than an inning per game. In his 2 best seasons, 1988 and 1989, he averaged better than 1.1 innings per appearance. His rate stats were also terrific. He recorded ERA’s of 2.01 and 1.85, WHIP’s of 1.14 and 1.05 and K/9 rates of 9.3 and 8.9 respectively.

It may have only been 2 seasons but Davis was spectacular. I would have no fear in turning the ball over to either Davis or Hoffman in the late innings of a close game.

That’s it for today. I am considering a bonus post in which I select some bench options for my team. Some may have already been profiled before but some could potentially be new names.  If you’d like to see this bonus piece, let me know in the comments section.