You only care if Trevor Hoffman, at his advanced age, is the right Band-Aid to cover some of the wounds caused by the loss of two frontline starters and whether he can help the Brewers win now.

If pressed, you might hedge on the side of only one of two lock-down closers of this generation. Then again, if you had bet on Hoffman getting one more strike on Tony Gwynn Jr. at Miller Park when the San Diego Padres needed it most there at the end of the 2007 season, you would've lost.

This is tricky business, the reliance on the most unreliable position in Baseball. It is trickier yet against the reality that Hoffman is old enough to be the father of just about everyone in the Brewers' everyday lineup.

But look at it this way: The Brewers' only real risk in taking a one-year flier on the game's all-time saves leader is the stadium sound technician failing to cue up the AC/DC tune that signals Hoffman's emergence from the bullpen.

Otherwise, there isn't much of a down side.

Say what you will about the Gagn? signing last season, but the $10 million gamble for one year was far less harmful than the long-term damage a former administration inflicted on the Brewers by limiting their future moves with the Hammonds tie-up. For a limited-revenue team constantly trying to fill gaps, season-to-season roster flexibility is among its most precious resources, far more valuable than one season of bad paper covered by revenue sharing.

So if Hoffman blows up, so what? Gagn? did for a lot more money, and the Brewers found another closer. Anyway, that's the way it usually works in Baseball because, outside of Hoffman and Mariano Rivera, closers are made, not born.

But, unlike Gagn?, Hoffman isn't the kind of risk, medical and otherwise, that comes with inclusion on the Mitchell Report. It is possible there are many more changeups left in a right arm that has not been overly taxed by Hoffman's signature pitch. And, if not, the drawing board is always a factor where closers are concerned.

Credit Doug Melvin for being only as aggressive as the Brewers needed to be in limiting their risk to one season, but let's be honest, this is a marriage of convenience at Milwaukee prices. The Padres valued their 16-year association with Hoffman, but only up to the $4 million price point.

And Hoffman needed to be in a place where he could be the guy. That probably wasn't going to happen in Los Angeles, where his leash with the Dodgers would've been shorter than your brother-in-law's reach for the dinner check. And so it must be here should Hoffman begin to fade because, as the Brewers finally established last season, this is no place anymore for nostalgia acts.

Gagn? found that out in a hurry when he was savagely turned upon by customers whose remarkable capability for abiding years of failure was finally exhausted. Hoffman will be extended more patience given his status, but only if he performs. That's because no one cares about the Brewers' budgetary concerns or a 41-year-old closer's place in history when the time comes to throw strikes.

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