Time to get Axford out of the closer role [Latest: Axford out, K-Rod in]

[brewtank34]

I'm sorry, but Axford's days of being the closer need to be done. Let Krod (who hasn't been much better...I'm aware) be the closer. Axford has a job to do and he's failing. He's failing to the point that is taking the spirits out the other players.

 

Enough is enough Roenicke... No more Axford!

[pacopete4]

Ya we can just watch him walk guys and throw belt high cheese in the 7th and 8th inning then. At least it'll save me from watching us in the 9th I guess.

[MNBrew]

My thoughts exactly. We have another closer in K-Rod. Why keep shooting the team in the foot by using Axford in a role he can't pull off with any consistency?

 

(Wow, that was an amazingly rational couple sentences considering tonight's blown save has my emotions beyond boiling!)

[KCBrewerfan34]

Axford is ripping the heart out of this team, they should flip flop the 2 guys, what do they have to lose. BTW Axford is total idiot for not taking the long term deal the Brew supposedly offered.

[PrinceEatMeat]

I'd give K-Rod a shot now to see how he does. If Ax has truly hit the wall, we'll need a closer next year. K-Rod is a good option if he can get it done. Gotta find out before we consider trading him.

[adambr2]

He is even worse pitching in non-save situations than save situations.

 

Is it going to help anything to flip-flop them? Or are you going to go with Loe/Veras as a setup man instead? Yuck.

 

The entire bullpen is a complete joke. I would fire Stan Kyles yesterday just as a statement that this is completely unacceptable. The bullpen alone is the reason that we are not contending this year. The lineup, defense, and rotation (other than Wolf), have all been fine.

[xisxisxis]

the entire bullpen stinks. axford is the crap du jour, but they all need to be gone.

[PrinceEatMeat]

He is even worse pitching in non-save situations than save situations.

 

Is it going to help anything to flip-flop them? Or are you going to go with Loe/Veras as a setup man instead? Yuck.

 

The entire bullpen is a complete joke. I would fire Stan Kyles yesterday just as a statement that this is completely unacceptable. The bullpen alone is the reason that we are not contending this year. The lineup, defense, and rotation (other than Wolf), have all been fine.

 

Yeah, Axford in the setup role wouldn't solve anything. He'd have to be put in non-pressure situations for awhile, or earlier in the game. And yeah, Loe and Veras aren't the best as setup men, but might as well try it. Or call up Jim Henderson and see what he can do at this level.

[TURBO]

The bullpen alone is the reason that we are not contending this year. The lineup, defense, and rotation (other than Wolf), have all been fine.

 

don't forget our manager...As bad as the bullpen has been, RR has to be responsible for 4-5 losses himself with his lack of game managing skills. (Probably more, but I am being generous)

[MNBrew]

No manager's perfect, and in my mind, without a doubt, the manager's not the issue except for his recent insistence on trusting Axford when Ax has been consistently terrible.

 

I'm sick of this "defeat from the jaws of victory" routine. The bullpen is this team's Achilles heel & it must be addressed for this team to have a fighting chance. There's still plenty of time in this race, and Melvin needs to be making a hard charge for Grant Balfour and/or other GOOD relievers here over the next 2 weeks.

 

K-Rod's been the only one remotely reliable lately, which is scary. Axford needs to get right. Loe & Veras haven't proven to be regularly reliable and shouldn't be clutch go-to guys anywhere after the 7th inning (preferably not after the 6th). Dillard's gone (finally) & Estrada's been bumped up into the rotation. Parra's still proving that mental makeup can undermine stellar talent & stuff. The pitching in last 3-4 innings of the game should be as reliable as the first 5-7 have generally become. Until that happens, we're on very shaky ground!

[adambr2]

No manager's perfect, and in my mind, without a doubt, the manager's not the issue except for his recent insistence on trusting Axford when Ax has been consistently terrible.

 

I'm sick of this "defeat from the jaws of victory" routine. The bullpen is this team's Achilles heal & it must be addressed for this team to have a fighting chance. There's still plenty of time in this race, and Melvin needs to be making a hard charge for Grant Balfour and/or other GOOD relievers here over the next 2 weeks.

K-Rod's been the only one remotely reliable lately, which is scary. Axford needs to get right. Loe & Veras haven't proven to be regularly reliable and shouldn't be clutch go-to guys anywhere after the 7th inning (preferably not after the 6th). Dillard's gone (finally) & Estrada's been bumped up into the rotation. Parra's still proving that mental makeup can undermine stellar talent & stuff. The pitching in last 3-4 innings of the game should be as reliable as the first 5-7 have generally become. Until that happens, we're on very shaky ground!

 

I couldn't disagree with this more. One solid reliever isn't going to fix the pen and make up an 8 game deficit, and trade prices for relievers are severely inflated near the deadline.

 

Let's not compound the problem this year by further depleting an already weak farm system. It's not happening this year. They are just not good enough.

[JayZZ755]

K-Rod has not had a good year overall, but he's been better recently. Axford shows no signs of improvement. Best bet is K-Rod as closer, 8th inning is match-up, Axford figures it out in mop-up.

 

What would really help the Brewers is if Marcum got well. Then Estrada could go to the pen in a key role. Estrada is a far better pitcher than any current reliever.

 

Interesting that the injuries to Narveson, Marcum, and Lucroy have not hurt the team all that much. They have even gotten some production out of the shortstops, and Aoki is at least as productive as Gamel was likely to be. But the bullpen, where there have been no injuries, has underperformed massively and killed the season.

[PrinceEatMeat]

K-Rod has not had a good year overall, but he's been better recently. Axford shows no signs of improvement. Best bet is K-Rod as closer, 8th inning is match-up, Axford figures it out in mop-up.

 

What would really help the Brewers is if Marcum got well. Then Estrada could go to the pen in a key role. Estrada is a far better pitcher than any current reliever.

 

Interesting that the injuries to Narveson, Marcum, and Lucroy have not hurt the team all that much. They have even gotten some production out of the shortstops, and Aoki is at least as productive as Gamel was likely to be. But the bullpen, where there have been no injuries, has underperformed massively and killed the season.

 

I wouldn't mind using Estrada in the pen late in games. He's very versatile. Although, there's also something to be said for keeping him as a starter to see what we have for the rotation next year.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

The bullpen alone is the reason that we are not contending this year. The lineup, defense, and rotation (other than Wolf), have all been fine.

 

don't forget our manager...As bad as the bullpen has been, RR has to be responsible for 4-5 losses himself with his lack of game managing skills. (Probably more, but I am being generous)

Not even Dusty Baker could Lose that many games...and I'm being generous.

[PrinceEatMeat]

No manager's perfect, and in my mind, without a doubt, the manager's not the issue except for his recent insistence on trusting Axford when Ax has been consistently terrible.

 

I'm sick of this "defeat from the jaws of victory" routine. The bullpen is this team's Achilles heal & it must be addressed for this team to have a fighting chance. There's still plenty of time in this race, and Melvin needs to be making a hard charge for Grant Balfour and/or other GOOD relievers here over the next 2 weeks.

K-Rod's been the only one remotely reliable lately, which is scary. Axford needs to get right. Loe & Veras haven't proven to be regularly reliable and shouldn't be clutch go-to guys anywhere after the 7th inning (preferably not after the 6th). Dillard's gone (finally) & Estrada's been bumped up into the rotation. Parra's still proving that mental makeup can undermine stellar talent & stuff. The pitching in last 3-4 innings of the game should be as reliable as the first 5-7 have generally become. Until that happens, we're on very shaky ground!

 

I couldn't disagree with this more. One solid reliever isn't going to fix the pen and make up an 8 game deficit, and trade prices for relievers are severely inflated near the deadline.

 

Let's not compound the problem this year by further depleting an already weak farm system. It's not happening this year. They are just not good enough.

 

I agree. Trading for anyone is not something Melvin should be doing right now. One pen arm isn't gonna fix a thing anyway. No reason to give up prospects. It is what it is at this point. It's something that will need to be addressed more in the offseason. It's gonna take a lot more than one new arm to fix this mess of a pen.

[adambr2]

No manager's perfect, and in my mind, without a doubt, the manager's not the issue except for his recent insistence on trusting Axford when Ax has been consistently terrible.

 

I'm sick of this "defeat from the jaws of victory" routine. The bullpen is this team's Achilles heal & it must be addressed for this team to have a fighting chance. There's still plenty of time in this race, and Melvin needs to be making a hard charge for Grant Balfour and/or other GOOD relievers here over the next 2 weeks.

K-Rod's been the only one remotely reliable lately, which is scary. Axford needs to get right. Loe & Veras haven't proven to be regularly reliable and shouldn't be clutch go-to guys anywhere after the 7th inning (preferably not after the 6th). Dillard's gone (finally) & Estrada's been bumped up into the rotation. Parra's still proving that mental makeup can undermine stellar talent & stuff. The pitching in last 3-4 innings of the game should be as reliable as the first 5-7 have generally become. Until that happens, we're on very shaky ground!

 

I couldn't disagree with this more. One solid reliever isn't going to fix the pen and make up an 8 game deficit, and trade prices for relievers are severely inflated near the deadline.

 

Let's not compound the problem this year by further depleting an already weak farm system. It's not happening this year. They are just not good enough.

 

I agree. Trading for anyone is not something Melvin should be doing right now. One pen arm isn't gonna fix a thing anyway. No reason to give up prospects. It is what it is at this point. It's something that will need to be addressed more in the offseason. It's gonna take a lot more than one new arm to fix this mess of a pen.

 

Right. It's not even so much the 8 games, but trying to look at this team realistically, and asking, "Is there any realistic chance that this team is all of 8 games better than the Reds, 7 games better than the Pirates, and 4.5 games better than the Cardinals from here on out?" I can't think of any way that I can honestly answer yes to that.

 

There are 673 innings left in the season, so the 35 that we would get out of Balfour isn't going to put a dent into our problems.

 

Also, the A's are a half a game out of a playoff spot, we are 7. So I think they'd probably be a little insulted by the notion that they would be selling in their position with us buying.

[TURBO]

The bullpen alone is the reason that we are not contending this year. The lineup, defense, and rotation (other than Wolf), have all been fine.

 

don't forget our manager...As bad as the bullpen has been, RR has to be responsible for 4-5 losses himself with his lack of game managing skills. (Probably more, but I am being generous)

Not even Dusty Baker could Lose that many games...and I'm being generous.

 

I respectfully disagree.

 

[RockCoCougars]

It's time to pull Axford. I think that he's mentally toast right now. He doesn't look the same this year, and leaves everything up in the zone. Giving up that base hit to Craig on 0-2 was unforgivable.

 

For the past 15-20 years, the Brewers have had a carousel of closers, generally with a guy coming from nowhere to pitch lights out until the carriage turns into a pumpkin after 1 or 2 years and the next guy steps in and takes his turn going lights out before implosion. I think that the clock has struck midnight for Axford. Though a few guys were traded as closer (notably Wickman), the last time the Brewers have had the same closer last more than two full years was Fetters, I believe. If things hold form whoever takes over for Axford is likely to do a Gehrig/Pipp routine on him.

[adambr2]

We can pull Axford out of the closers role, but frankly, it isn't going to do much good.

 

That's the problem with this bullpen is that the problem is the ENTIRE bullpen. Look around the league and every bullpen, even the 2 that are statistically worse than us, at least have 1 or two guys that they can trust.

 

We have NO one. Parra, Veras, Loe, etc, every one of them is hit and miss, hopefully you get them on a good night. Our most "reliable" reliever is an $8M dollar setup man pitching well over his career ERA who has been harshly criticized for being highly disappointing this year and would be even more if the rest of the pen wasn't making him look great.

 

That's why I have called for Kyles to be fired. One or two guys just "off" this year? Could be a number of reasons. But when the problem is not one or two guys but the entire bullpen, you need to start looking at the coaching.

 

If the problem is not him, they have a pretty big project on their hands, because the pen needs to be almost completely rebuilt next year.

[chad25]

I agree watching the bullpen give up wins for us has been the most frustrating thing this year. i wonder what the record is for our team when our bullpen is given a 3-run or less lead. Its so ironic that our strength this year was supposed to be our bullpen but they have sputtered all year......I dont think we should trade for bullpen help either. just deal with what we got. Upper management and the coaching staff has assembled this bullpen and let them keep blowing leads so ill blame them first before I blame Axford and the other stooges.

[chad25]

AND THIS WAS OUR CHANCE!! we just took 2 out of 3 against the pirates, the cardinals have been sputtering, and then votto is out for 3-4 weeks!?!?!?! ahhhh frustrating

[fondybrewfan]

The failures of Axford just make you appreciate even more the guys that have been consistently good closer for so long. Rivera, Hoffman, Nathan, Papelbon, Etc. Those guys have had their hiccups but to be able to close games year after year is something that can't be taken for granted.

 

I just wish the Brewers could have one closer that wouldn't flame out after 1-1.5 years.

 

Axford just seems like he is throwing up there and praying that it goes where it is supposed to. He really has no idea where it is going. Krod has been better but unless you just hide Axford somewhere or give him the Dillard role he is still going to an important pitcher in late game situations.

 

And I know it shouldn't bug me but the utter lack of emotion that Axford shows after walking a guy or blowing a save is just maddening. He just goes on business as usual. That is probably what a closer is supposed to do but it is still a little irritating to the fan in me

[pacopete4]

It's kind of like finding that franchise QB. There are handful of teams that have em and the rest play musical chairs with the rest of the guys available. Some teams get good years out of guys and others get crappy years. In the end, all those pitchers make WAYYYY too much to blow as many games as they do.

[Ennder]

I think the season is probably dead so it might just make more sense to hope he can fix himself at this point. It is kind of a tough call. It isn't like we have other arms clamoring to try out to be the closer.

[monty57]

I'd give K-Rod a shot now to see how he does. If Ax has truly hit the wall, we'll need a closer next year. K-Rod is a good option if he can get it done. Gotta find out before we consider trading him.

 

I think putting K-Rod at closer now could improve his trade value by July 31 as teams see that he can still hold down the closer role (I know some here will cringe at that statement, but it matters to a lot of GMs). We can let Axford "clear his head" in middle relief/setup for a couple weeks and reinstate him as closer when K-Rod is traded. Axford is one of the "sure bets" for next year's bullpen, so I'd rather he figure things out this season.

 

The bullpen is this team's Achilles heel & it must be addressed for this team to have a fighting chance. There's still plenty of time in this race, and Melvin needs to be making a hard charge for Grant Balfour and/or other GOOD relievers here over the next 2 weeks.

 

The team's "fighting chance" days are about over, so I wouldn't look to trade for a bullpen arm. However, the bullpen will look a lot different next season as K-Rod will be gone, Loe, Veras and Parra will all be in their final arby year and would cost around $3MM each, so there's a good chance some/all of them will be gone. The problem is that without solutions in the minors, Melvin will have to fill out the bullpen through free agency, where decent (non-closer) arms can cost $4-5MM each, and we don't have that much to spend to completely reload the 'pen... especially if we extend Greinke.

 

I wouldn't mind using Estrada in the pen late in games. He's very versatile. Although, there's also something to be said for keeping him as a starter to see what we have for the rotation next year.

 

Estrada did great in his role in the pen, but he's also done pretty well as a starter, which is much more valueable. At this point, I hope Estrada and Fiers both stay in the rotation, as they will be needed there next season. Trade Greinke for a load of young talent and let the young/pre-arby guys "get their feet wet" this season so they're better prepared for a full season in the rotation next year. I doubt Marcum is tradeable now unless he clears revocable waivers (which probably isn't likely), so if anything, I'd move Wolf to the bullpen when Marcum's healthy as he likely doesn't have a future with the Brewers while Fiers, Thornburg and Estrada do.