Notes About Hoffman’s Blown Saves

With Trevor Hoffman blowing his third save of the season on Tuesday night, reading his postgame comments, and way too much time on my hands, I decided to take a look back at those blown saves using MLB.com Gameday to see if I could spot any interesting trends or tidbits of information that they might have in common.

This is what I could come up with, although I’m sure there’s more that could be done with the data, but I’m just not knowledgable enough about the intracacies of Pitch F/X to dive deeply into this:

– Hoffman has allowed 5 home runs this year, and all but one one have come from right-handed hitters: Nick Stavinoha, Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and Ronny Cedeno. Ryan Doumit is a switch hitter that was batting left-handed for his grand slam.
– All 5 of Hoffman’s home runs allowed have come in games in which he blew the save. 4 of those 5 home runs were hit off fastballs. The only home run to be hit off a changeup was Stavinoha’s.
– Discounting an intentional walk to Garrett Jones, Hoffman has started more counts behind (10) than ahead (9).
– Of those 10 batters to which he fell behind, he fell behind on a first-pitch fastball 7 times. The remaining 3 times, it was a cutter that missed.
– He threw 7 changeups in the first blown save, but only 1 in the second and 3 in the third.

Click “Read More” for the full batter-by-batter, pitch-by-pitch breakdown of Hoffman’s blown saves.

4/9 vs. STL
Rasmus:
0-0 Fastball … Ball
1-0 Fastball … Called Strike
1-1 Changeup … Ball
2-1 Fastball … Ball
3-1 Fastball … Foul
3-2 Changeup … Foul
3-2 Changeup … Walk

Molina:
0-0 Fastball … Fly Out

Freese:
0-0 Fastball … Fly Out

Stavinoha:
0-0 Cutter … Swinging Strike
0-1 Cutter … Ball in Dirt
1-1 Fastball … Swinging Strike
1-2 Changeup … Foul
1-2 Changeup … Home Run

Lopez:
0-0 Fastball … Called Strike
0-1 Changeup … Ball
1-1 Changeup … Ball
2-1 Fastball … Ball
3-1 Fastball … Double

Schumaker:
0-0 Cutter … Ground Out

4/11 vs. STL
Rasmus:
0-0 Fastball … Ball
1-0 Fastball … Ball
2-0 Fastball … Called Strike
2-1 Fastball … Called Strike
2-2 Fastball … Pop Out

Lopez:
0-0 Fastball … Called Strike
0-1 Changeup … Ball
1-1 Fastball … Ball
2-1 Fastball … Foul
2-2 Fastball … Double

Stavinoha:
0-0 Fastball … Swinging Strike
0-1 Fastball … Foul
0-2 Fastball … Ball
1-2 Cutter … Pop Out

Pujols:
0-0 Fastball … Ball
1-0 Cutter … Called Strike
1-1 Fastball … Ball
2-1 Fastball … Home Run

Holliday:
0-0 Cutter … Ball
1-0 Fastball … Ball
2-0 Cutter … Swinging Strike
2-1 Fastball … Home Run

Craig:
0-0 Fastball … Ball
1-0 Cutter … Ball
2-0 Fastball … Fly Out

4/27 vs. PIT
Cedeno:
0-0 Fastball … Called Strike
0-1 Fastball … Home Run

McCutchen:
0-0 Fastball … Ball
1-0 Fastball … Called Strike
1-1 Cutter … Called Strike
1-2 Fastball … Foul
1-2 Cutter … Swinging Strikeout

LaRoche:
0-0 Cutter … Ball
1-0 Fastball … Single

Milledge:
0-0 Cutter … Ball
1-0 Fastball … Called Strike
1-1 Cutter … Double

Jones:
IBB

Doumit:
0-0 Fastball … Ball
1-0 Changeup … Ball
2-0 Fastball … Grand Slam

Clement:
0-0 Fastball … Groundout

Iwamura:
0-0 Fastball … Ball
1-0 Fastball … Called Strike
1-1 Changeup … Foul
1-2 Changeup … Line Out