Friday, April 15, 2016
#482 Joe Hoerner
Joe was an above average reliever in first 6 full years in
the majors....appeared in 14 seasons....started out with Colt .45s....prime of
career started in St Louis...was the bird’s
#1 reliever from the start 1966-1969...appeared in 206 games, saving 59
of them, with a stingy 2.10....only road bump was a less than stellar World
Series record....traded to the Phillies in the Curt Flood trade....didn’t miss
a beat with the new club....made all star team 1970..... although saves were
down from his Cardinal days....after two seasons in Philly was traded early
into the 1972 season even though Joe had an excellent start...Possible theory
is that Joe just didn’t have enough work to do...Very few games to
save...either the Phillies were behind or Steve Carlton was pitching a complete
game....Trade did nobody any favors...the two retreads traded for Joe went 0-10
in Philly uniform....The trade did nothing for Joe either who never seen the
same afterwards.... ERA tripled in last half of season.... bounced along next
few season Atlanta, Kansas City, Philadelphia (again closest to a return to
effectiveness) Texas and Cincinnati....died in farm accident 1996.
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Joe was the go-to southpaw in the Phillies' bullpen in '70 and '71. He teamed up with righty Dick Selma (also acquired prior to the 1970 season) to give them a decent back-end of the bullpen for those years.
ReplyDeleteTogether they Dick and Joe were very good in 1970 although Selma was the front man for a very impressive 54 saves. Hoerner had a better ERA in 1971 but the Phillie's saves total were down considerably. The Phillies weren't alone in that respect, Yankees, Twins, and Cubs had large scale drops in saves from one year to the next.
ReplyDeleteThis shows up in MLB team averages. In 1970 the league average number of team saves was 37, whereas in 1971 it dropped to 27, a 28% decrease.
Correction Phillies had 36 saves in 1970.
ReplyDeleteHoerner was a Rule 5 pickup by the Cardinals prior to the 1966 season, and led the Cards in saves for the next 4 years!
ReplyDeleteThey really had some steals in the mid-1960s: Brock, Cepeda, Hoerner!
Fergie Jenkins too, (although you may not want me to bring that one up) I think the greatest all time steal in Rule 5 was the Pirates picking Roberto Clemente from the Dodgers.
ReplyDelete