The Cardinals made a move today to try to help their warn out bullpen, acquiring former Brewers closer John Axford for the now infamous player to be named later.
Axford had a breakout year in 2011, racking up 46 saves while posting a 1.95 ERA. However, he has fallen on hard time the last couple years posting an ERA of 4.67 in 2012 and an ERA of 4.45 so far this year.
The main problem is that, for whatever reason, he has become much more hittable, as his H/9 has jumped from 7.2 in 2011 to 7.9 in 2012 and a whopping 10.2 this year. Compounding that is that his HR/9 has tripled from 0.5 in 2011 to 1.6 this year.
The Cardinals are hoping to catch lightning in a bottle again, as they did last year with Edward Mujica, however I'm not very confident in Axford. Mujica had a better history, but was having an off year last year when the Cards acquired him. In Axford's case, its looking more and more like 2011 was the fluke.
However, there is one immediate benefit in that Axford's 'stache will be the most impressive of any reliever the Cardinals have had since Al Hrbowsky.
In any case, I hope that the Cardinals did not have to give up too much for Axford, as, besides his mustache, he has not been very impressive the last couple years.
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