By Rich Funk
We all know that Blown Saves happen, even to the best closers. Sometimes it's because of a few bad breaks and broken bat singles. Sometimes your team's closer just sucks. I'm here to try and tell the story behind the BS. Every time one of the teams SFWH covers blows a save, we'll be here to cover it with Total BS!
Victim: Trevor Hoffman, San Diego Padres
BS On The Year: 2
The Situation: Trying to close out Greg Maddux's 350th career win, Trevor Hoffman served up a game tying home run to Bengie "Don't Call Me Yadier" Molina.
BS Scale: Our first 5 out of 5. I know I've said this before, but if I were a Padre fan, I would be extremely concerned about Hoffman. Sometimes players can struggle out of the gate, and there's a slim chance Hoffman can put all of this behind him and finish the season strong. But it's almost a month through the season and Hoffman doesn't seem to inspire confidence in his team when he's trying to close out a game. When you're a one-pitch pitcher like Hoffman is, and that pitch doesn't seem to be working well...what else do you go with?
By Rich Funk
We all know that Blown Saves happen, even to the best closers. Sometimes it's because of a few bad breaks and broken bat singles. Sometimes your team's closer just sucks. I'm here to try and tell the story behind the BS. Every time one of the teams SFWH covers blows a save, we'll be here to cover it with Total BS!
Victim: Takashi Saito, LA Dodgers
BS On The Year: 1
The Situation: Read all about it below. No reason to re-hash it and make the Gov even more suicidal.
BS Scale: 2 out of 5. Yeah, you want to win one like this against the Pirates, but Saito is money and he was bound to blow one some time. I'm not worried about him.
By Rich Funk
We all know that Blown Saves happen, even to the best closers. Sometimes it's because of a few bad breaks and broken bat singles. Sometimes your team's closer just sucks. I'm here to try and tell the story behind the BS. Every time one of the teams SFWH covers blows a save, we'll be here to cover it with Total BS!
Victims: Justin Speier, LA Angels and Brian Wilson, San Francisco Giants
BS On The Year: Speier - 1, Wilson - 1
The Situation: Both Speier and Wilson came in to close out their respective games with a 1 run lead. Wilson walked a hitter and gave up a few hits/sacrifices and left the game tied at 2. Speier got 2 quick outs, walked a batter and gave up a gopher ball to Travis Hafner.
BS Scale: The Wilson blown save is a 1 out of 5 just because no one expects anything out of the Giants this year. I'm giving the Speier blown save our first 5 out of 5 rating on the BS Scale. When you want to contend like the Angels plan to this season, you
have to win games against other contending teams like Cleveland. When you have them down, you've gotta nail the door shut and Speier couldn't do that. With Francisco Rodriguez out, the Angels have to find someone that can close the door for them.
By Rich Funk
We all know that Blown Saves happen, even to the best closers. Sometimes it's because of a few bad breaks and broken bat singles. Sometimes your team's closer just sucks. I'm here to try and tell the story behind the BS. Every time one of the teams SFWH covers blows a save, we'll be here to cover it with Total BS!
Victim: Francisco Rodriguez, LA Angels
BS On The Year: 1
The Situation: LA's Joe Saunders pitched 8 superb innings and gave way to K-Rod, who promptly gave up the lead by going walk, double, double, walk to the 4 men he faced. The score was 2-1 Angels when he came in and 3-2 Indians by the time he left the mound.
BS Scale: 4 out of 5. Sure, the Angels came back to win this one, but K-Rod hurt himself. That is bad news for the Angels. Who else do you trust to close for you? Scot Shields? That dude can't even spell his first name right!
By Rich Funk
We all know that Blown Saves happen, even to the best closers. Sometimes it's because of a few bad breaks and broken bat singles. Sometimes your team's closer just sucks. I'm here to try and tell the story behind the BS. Every time one of the teams SFWH covers blows a save, we'll be here to cover it with Total BS!
Victim: Mike Lowe, Seattle Mariners
BS On The Year: 1
The Situation: No one cares enough about Seattle to go into any detail. The Mariners were winning. This d-bag came in and gave up too many runs. Ass.
BS Scale: 2 out of 5. True, Seattle is trying to 'compete' this year, and everyone thinks it's cute and all, but they're going nowhere. Next year when Erik Bedard sucks/leaves and Felix blows out his elbow, no one will care.
By Rich Funk
We all know that Blown Saves happen, even to the best closers. Sometimes it's because of a few bad breaks and broken bat singles. Sometimes your team's closer just sucks. I'm here to try and tell the story behind the BS. Every time one of the teams SFWH covers blows a save, we'll be here to cover it with Total BS!
Victim: Trevor Hoffman, San Diego Padres
BS On The Year: 1
The Situation: Hoffman came in to pitch the 9th inning for the Padres, leading the Astros 6-5. After getting 2 quick outs, Hoffman walked Jose Cruz Jr. (remember him?), gave up singles to Michael Bourne and Hunter Pence, and served up a gopher ball to Lance Berkman. By the time the damage was done, Hoffman had turned a 6-5 lead into a 9-6 deficit.
BS Scale: This one gets a solid 3 out of 5. Sure, the 'Stros are a decent offensive club, and Berkman is a stud, but when you're the greatest closer of all time (by the numbers), you've gotta shut the door in games like this. See that big red "BS!" on Hoffman's picture? You could change it to "DONE!" and I think it would still ring true. Hoffman struggled at the end of last season, and it looks like those struggles have continued. Last night the Astros were teeing off on both his fastball and his changeup. And if you're Trevor Hoffman, you don't really have much else other than that. I would be worried if I were a San Diego fan.
By Rich Funk
We all know that Blown Saves happen, even to the best closers. Sometimes it's because of a few bad breaks and broken bat singles. Sometimes your team's closer just sucks. I'm here to try and tell the story behind the BS. Every time one of the teams SFWH covers blows a save, we'll be here to cover it with Total BS!
Victim: JJ Putz, Seattle Mariners
BS On The Year: 1
The Situation: In the top of the 9th inning, Seattle's All-Star closer JJ Putz comes in and gives up a single to Ian Kinsler. After striking out Michael Young, Josh Hamilton pounded Putz's pitch (alliteration, brah!) into the right field seats.
BS Scale: I'm giving this blown save a 2 out of 5. Sure, Texas has a pretty good lineup, but if you're Seattle and in a "win now" mentality for the season when you aren't even the most talented team in your division, you can't afford to lose inter-division games, especially to the Rangers. I expect Putz to get back on track in his next outing. He did have 2 strikeouts, which is promising.
By Rich Funk
We all know that Blown Saves happen, even to the best closers. Sometimes it's because of a few bad breaks and broken bat singles. Sometimes your team's closer just sucks. I'm here to try and tell the story behind the BS. Every time one of the teams SFWH covers blows a save, we'll be here to cover it with Total BS!
Victim: Huston Street, Oakland Athletics
BS On The Year: 1
The Situation: With Oakland up by one in the top of the 9th, Huston Street got Mike Lowell to fly out to center. Then he gave up a game tying home run to rookie right fielder Brandon Moss. Street then struck out Jason Varitek and got Jacoby Ellisbury to fly out to end the inning.
BS Scale: I'm giving this blown save a 1.5 rating out of 5, one being an unlucky blown save and 5 being a blown save of the Brad Lidge/Albert Pujols variety. Sure, you never want to blow the first game of the year, especially to someone who has only 25 Major League at-bats coming into the game, but I don't blame Street too much. He's probably had a very long week in Japan. And since Moss was in for J.D. Drew, Street probably just assumed that he was also terrible. Blowing the first game of the year is no big deal. Expect Street to lock down the save his next time out.
