Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Axford's losing control

By Nicole
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John Axford has made seven appearances so far this season and has yet to come away with a clean inning. He's giving up walks and hits at an alarming pace. In his 6.1 innings of work he's given up eight hits, six walks and six runs.

In Monday night blown save he threw 24 pitches - Just nine of them were for strikes.

Monday's blown save was his second in just five tries.

Manager Ron Roenicke says its a command issue and can be fixed. Axford also blames command and says its just a small adjustment he needs to make.

If the answer is so small, one has to wonder why it hasn't been made.

How many more times can the Brewers trust giving the ball to Axford in high leverage situations?

People are comparing him to Derrick Turnbow and his epic collapse. We're not there  yet and Axford doesn't seem to be the headcase that Turnbow was.

However, this is supposed to be Milwaukee's "all-in" year and they can't afford to be giving away close games because their closer spent Spring Training and the opening weeks of the season searching for his control.

The worst part is that there isn't a presumptive heir to the closer throne. When he was picked up, it was discussed that Takashi Saito had some closer experience. But he's on the DL and when he is healthy he's rarely available in back-to-back days.

Roenicke better hope the pitching staff can help figure Axford out. Maybe we're going to miss Rick Peterson more than we knew.

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