The Dodgers got six innings from David Huff in 2015. (Keith Birmingham/Staff photographer)
This is Part 24 of a series in which every member of the 2015 Dodgers has his season juxtaposed with an episode of the greatest sitcom of all-time. Don’t take it too seriously.
David Huff, LHP
Key stats: Majors: 3 G, 1 GS, 6 IP, 6 ER, 9.00 ERA. AAA: 23 G, 4 GS, 5-2, 2.20 ERA.
Seinfeld episode: “The Voice.” (Season 9, Episode 2)
Key quote: “You see, if I stay the whole year I get it all.”
Baseball-reference.com goes to great length to define Wins Above Replacement. If you’ve never read this page, give it a read. WAR is used often but understood infrequently. Here’s what that page says about replacement-level players:
Average players are relatively rare and difficult to obtain. Replacement level players, by their very definition, are players easy to obtain when a starter goes down. These are the players who receive non-roster invites at the start of the year, or the players who are 6-year minor league free agents.
David Huff is a replacement-level player. He was released last December by the New York Yankees, who had employed him quite successfully in 2014. The 31-year-old left-hander took the ball 30 times in 2014 as an American League reliever, and posted a 1.85 ERA. In spring training with the Dodgers, Huff was very good again. He took the ball six times and allowed two earned runs in 13 ⅔ innings, a 1.32 ERA.
Huff was not very good for the Dodgers in the regular season. He pitched three times: April 14 against Seattle, June 1 at Colorado, June 2 at Colorado. Total: six innings pitched, six earned runs. Back to the minors.
That’s the short version of Huff’s 2015 season. The reality included another wrinkle: Huff was out of contract options, so in order to send him to the minors, the Dodgers had to designate him for assignment twice. Each time, he accepted an assignment to Triple-A rather than become a free agent.
There’s something admirable about that loyalty. Even though the Dodgers gave Huff two chances to find another contract, Huff effectively said no, a contract is a contract. There’s also something very replacement-level about that, in terms of Huff’s ability to pitch a baseball.
“The Voice” is an episode that focuses on the most replacement-level employee in the history of network sitcom characters, George Costanza, who — like Huff — was given multiple chances to find new employment.
George, like Huff, remains steadfastly loyal:
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