The Brewster

As I prepare to release Steve Hoffman (6/7/7 Ratings) I thought I’d pen his career history. 19 consecutive MBBA years at 14 different franchises despite five major injuries deserves a mark in the history of this fine league

Steve ‘Horse’ Hoffman hit 41 during the final month of the 2029 season and will have to face up to the fact that he will not be pitching in the MBBA at 42. With Indy set not to renew his one-year deal he will once more hit the FA market but this time with precious little hope of catching on with another MBBA club. If you can’t keep your job with the worst team in the league what hope have you got?

The ‘Horse’ story started way back in 2011, when after a 2006 College Conference All Star Victory Bell win, a 2006 CCAS RCK Glove Wizard Award at P and a 2008 CCAS RCK Outstanding Pitcher Award all for Sherwin Williams Painters, he was drafted first overall by the California Crusaders. He signed a three year $3m major league deal with a signing bonus of $1.8m as well but within a month was lost for the season with a torn labrum. He had opened his MBBA account though with two wins from two starts with a 3.14 ERA. 2012 was virtually a write-off too as radial nerve (elbow) decompression surgery cost him six months off and he made just five starts, winning three and knocking a point off his ERA. It was 2013 that his MBBA career really ignited, in 20 starts he went 11-7 with an ERA over four and his first All-Star appearance before a mid-season trade to Omaha. There in 13 further starts he was 7-2 with an ERA of 2.13 leading to him picking up the 2013 MBBA JL Joe Gillstrom Newcomer of the Year

Four more years in Omaha brought 49 more wins and 26 losses. He appeared in his second All-Star game in 2014 and finished runner-up in the 2015 MBBA JL Steve Nebraska Golden Arm Award voting to Chicago’s Tom McDonald. 2015 was also the year he got his first big deal as arbitration awarded him $8,125,000. An elbow strain in 2016 became his third major injury of his career, costing him three months off, but Omaha weren’t deterred and handed him a three-year extension worth $31.5m in the 2016 off season. He logged his first two pro shut-outs in 2017 before he was off to his third MBBA franchise when Omaha traded him to Halifax. His 22 starts for the Hawks in 2017 posted a 16-0 record with a 2.57 ERA and 178 K’s. This brought his third ASG appearance, a Landis Memorial Series ring when Halifax defeated Carolina 4-1 and his only Steve Nebraska Golden Arm Award.

As the ‘Horse’ reached 30 he had two mediocre years by his standards in 2018 & 2019, posting 19-11 & 16-16 records. He still made the 2018 ASG, his fourth and pitched his third career shutout. Despite his falling record Halifax handed him a five-year $62m extension at the start of 2019. Just a year later he was on his fourth MBBA team when Yellow Springs acquired him in a six-player deal during 2020 spring training. After eight starts he had a 3-3 record when his injury jinx struck again. A partially torn ulnar collateral ligament (elbow) robbed him of 11 months. November 2020 saw Yellow Springs gratefully get rid of his large contract by sending him to Montreal who before he had pitched a ball in anger had passed him on to his sixth franchise, the Buffalo Bison.

In 2021 in 26 starts for Buffalo he showed there was still something left in the tank with a 13-5, 2,56 ERA record and a shut-out against Indy before once more a biceps strain laid him low for a month. He finished 2021 at Triple-A Winnipeg Chiefs, his first ever minor league outing, where he went 1-0 in three starts including his fifth career shutout. Back in Buffalo in 2022 he was 7-5, 2.94 in 21 starts when in July he was traded in another six-player deal to Las Vegas, he managed just four starts for the Hustlers (1-2, 7.77 ERA) before they wasted no time in sending him a month later to his eighth team, the Birmingham Bandits. He made his first two career relief appearances in Birmingham amongst his eight outings posting a 4-2 record.

On April 3rd 2023 Hoffman notched his 2,000th strikeout but his 34 years was telling on him as he finished with a 10-16 record, his first pro losing record, with an ERA of 4.40. Still he had made 32 starts pitching just over 200 innings with 187 strikeouts. 2024 saw a 7-7 record in 19 starts before Birmingham sent him to his ninth franchise in Huntsville mid-August. In 14 outings for the Phantoms he started just three times and finished the season with a 1-0 record but with his ERA back down below three. At the end of the season aged 36 he became a free agent for his first time. Valencia snapped him up on a $7.8m one-year deal and there he made 32 starts for the Stars once more pitching over 200 innings and striking out over 100 batters for the 15th time in his career. A 9-15, 3.07 ERA wasn’t enough to earn a new contract though and once more at the end of 2025 he was a free agent.

Las Vegas laid out a $3.8m deal to bring him back to the franchise again but he suffered his fifth major injury (ulnar nerve irritation) in the final week of spring training which cost him the majority of 2026. He recovered in time to make two appearances (one start) for the Hustlers after seven outings in Triple-A. He pitched 10 innings in Las Vegas without a decision and a 0.90 ERA. Claimed off waivers in October by his 11th team New Orleans, he lasted only 29 days and no outings before he was once more a free agent.

Havana rented him for 2027 with a $1,3m contract, at 38 he made 29 appearances, only two of them starts. In 60 innings he posted a 2-2 record with four saves and a 3.43 ERA. In 2028 Madison became his 13th owners, stumping up $1.55m. Ever the work horse he pitched 89 innings in 10 starts & 13 relief appearances ending up with an 0-2 record with one save and a 6.27 ERA. On July 13th he hit the 2,500th strikeout mark before he was released at the end of the season. Finally at the age of 40 he was picked up by Indy in June 2029 for $1.6m, his 14th MBBA franchise. In 18 starts for Grasshoppers he posted a 2-10 record with a 6.47 ERA. He is currently awaiting what could well be his final release.

MBBA Career Record

Games: 470
Games Started: 416
W-L: 184-132
Saves: 5
ERA: 3.48
IP: 2962.2
BB/K: 722 / 2547
CG / SO: 43 / 7
WHIP: 1.24
WAR: 68.9

Should have been better. What a crazy ride.

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Very nice write up.

Hall of Very Good candidate? Seems like he could of been a sure fire HOF'er if not for all of the injuries.

bcslouck wrote:Very nice write up.

Hall of Very Good candidate? Seems like he could of been a sure fire HOF'er if not for all of the injuries.

Career 3.46 FIP, 3.48 ERA (both drug down by hanging on for longer than he should post-lumps), 68.9 WAR, 3 year career peak average WAR ('17-'19) of 8.433 and 5 year career peak average WAR ('15-'19) of 7.34.

He very reasonably could be a first ballot HoFer. If he's not in by the third ballot it'd be a joke, imo.

Edit. His WAR total would be good for 90th in league history over a career. You have to recall that the era of this league is different than those that came before, though. Of that leaderboard, only 22 have a higher WAR than Hoffman whose career ended after 2000 and only 9 whose career ended after 2010. So, as of this writing, he is a top 20ish pitcher over the past three decades, career-wise, and a top 10 over the past two decades.

Very Popular - check
Possible Future HOF'er - check
Twin Cities Sucks - check

hmmmm...seems like he might pitch till he's 42...

Nice write up! I knew I saw something in the man!

Awesome write-up. He was incredible when he first started

Thanks for the appreciation guys. I hope he does end up in the HOF even though he was crap for Indy, someone who's prepared to battle through all those injuries and take all the moves & releases year after year deserves to be recognised

The epitome of a player spotlight. Bravo.

I blame his fall from grace on Kyle and the 2018 re-do season. Hoffman should have been a Wolves, leading the franchise to the playoffs that season. Kyle backed out on the deal after the roll back. Clearly that affected him. Clearly!

7teen wrote:I blame his fall from grace on Kyle and the 2018 re-do season. Hoffman should have been a Wolves, leading the franchise to the playoffs that season. Kyle backed out on the deal after the roll back. Clearly that affected him. Clearly!

LOL, that is twice now you blamed me for that! I wasn't in the league during the re-do season!

agrudez wrote:

7teen wrote:I blame his fall from grace on Kyle and the 2018 re-do season. Hoffman should have been a Wolves, leading the franchise to the playoffs that season. Kyle backed out on the deal after the roll back. Clearly that affected him. Clearly!

LOL, that is twice now you blamed me for that! I wasn't in the league during the re-do season!

I like to just blame you!!! It's easier that way...

Are we still giving +s? I think this is worth an extra point.

udlb58 wrote:Are we still giving +s? I think this is worth an extra point.

That seemed to fade away over the controversy regarding it. I'm not planning on any sort of running eval of writing.

I continued it for the rest of that season, but it wasn't doing what it was intended to do so I stopped devoting multiple hours per week of my time to keep it up.

It was meant primarily to be a peer review medium. To both incentivize putting extra effort into writing, but then also incentivize people READING the extra effort in the writing (since if you find a + worthy TN and nominate it, their is a clear potential for tit for tat for one of your articles down the road) and starting dialogue about it. The very worst thing about writing Team News is that you put tremendous effort into them and then it is hit or miss whether anyone comments. Which means to the author it is hit or miss whether anyone really read it. Which to the author's psyche means it is hit or miss whether or not you question why the hell you just went the extra mile to begin with. A 200 word sim recap gets the same amount of points and - very often - the same amount of attention as a tremendously written article on (insert subject here). So, why do the latter? I can vomit out 10 of the former (and then not care when - rightfully so - no one reads or comments on them) in the same time it takes me to do 1 of the latter. That's just ergonomics.

But, yeah. Controversy. Or something.

agrudez wrote:...A 200 word sim recap gets the same amount of points and - very often - the same amount of attention as a tremendously written article on (insert subject here). So, why do the latter? I can vomit out 10 of the former (and then not care when - rightfully so - no one reads or comments on them) in the same time it takes me to do 1 of the latter....

I agree. You won't see Sim recaps from me (hell, I can't get myself to even do monthly ones). In school I had a strong aversion to busy work (and was known to slip in random bullshit comments into work when I knew the teacher/professor didn't actually read the content and simply gave points only for completion). To me, the point of a participation requirement is that the content adds some sort of value. 200 generic sim recaps add less value to the league (IMO) than 2 well thought out pieces. But, you can't exactly give points on a sliding scale, and if you make, say league features worth 10 points each, you'll have a few who 'game' the system and throw together bullshit league features that don't really add value.

If I can think of something that I feel adds value to the league, I'll try to write it up. Which is why I probably have about as many league features/media guide/trade pieces as I do team news.

You guys that put out sim recaps, more power to you (except when they are months behind). I'll read what I can, skim some, and just plain skip the rest. Just don't be upset if they don't get comments.

I think I'm very much like Tyler as well. I'd really like to do more TN but I can't find the time (despite being retired lol) and I can't bring myself to put out a rushed shabby TN so I struggle to reach 5 or six a year. I try to do player spotlights when I can, there are some players like 'Horse' that just deserve their story to be told. This league has acquired a rich written history and it's players must leave their mark on it.

A lot of the original GM's are still here or drop back for a few seasons now & again, they know the history but we must document it for the new GM's that come after us

I think we all enjoy a nice feature like this one, however we simply have different levels of creativity and writing skills (and frankly free time), and when you start comparing one person's efforts to another, I just don't like where it goes.

There are rules about what certain types of writing are worth. It may be arbitrary, and I understand how some things appear to take more effort than others, but as far as I'm concerned, them's the breaks.

Another thing to think about is that just because something took "X" amount of work from you, that doesn't mean it wasn't easier or harder for someone else. I will never be able to write anything like most of Ron's wonderful work, or Wilson's tremendous Fiscus series. For me to try to do something like that would be a monumental undertaking. It's why I stick to more analysis and data driven stuff, which is a bit drier, but far easier for me.

If an owner picks a TN format that is less interesting for you, try to remember that is what is manageable for them. It does seem unfair that two TN of vastly different length and appeal are worth the same effort, but I don't know how you get into grading and selecting which ones deserve more points without appearing to play favorites. Both solutions have flaws, but for my two cents, I prefer arbitrary over a human preference system. Of course I'll always defer to Matt, but to me it just seems less potentially sticky this way.

Many times Team News articles are written with a one player focus. Why not rebrand them as Player Spotlights and get the extra point, and attention?

Ted wrote:...It does seem unfair that two TN of vastly different length and appeal are worth the same effort, but I don't know how you get into grading and selecting which ones deserve more points without appearing to play favorites. Both solutions have flaws, but for my two cents, I prefer arbitrary over a human preference system. Of course I'll always defer to Matt, but to me it just seems less potentially sticky this way.

You can't. The person counting, no matter who it is, will have inherent biases.

I was more giving excuses for not posting more TNs or commenting in Sim Recap TNs than saying the system is broken. However you set up a blanket set of rules for creative content will always be able to be 'gamed' by someone.