If you hadn't mentioned it I never have, but it does sound vaguely familiar.

Granny Hamner I remember better, but that's when I was about 8 years old and I remember everything from them.

Checking his career stats, I see Ripken hit .412 with an OPS of 1176 for his Tribe career. He should be in the Indians Hall of Fame.

At time of his trade to the Cardinals, Milwaukee paper posted:

Axford was a major reason the Brewers won the 2011 National League Central crown, posting a club-record 46 saves, including 43 in a row to end the season. But he suffered a midseason meltdown in 2012 and briefly lost the closer's job. When he got off to an even rockier start to this season, he again was removed as closer and was being used in low-leverage situations when traded.

With a $5 million salary in his first year of arbitration, the 30-year-old Axford almost certainly would not have been tendered a contract by the Brewers after the season because clubs are allowed to cut salaries by no more than 20%.

"I'm sure I was (a non-tender candidate)," said Axford, who was 6-7 with a 4.45 ERA in 62 games with the Brewers. "I don't know if (a lesser deal) could have happened or if anything like that could have happened, but I certainly appreciated my time in Milwaukee."


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civ ollilavad wrote:Checking his career stats, I see Ripken hit .412 with an OPS of 1176 for his Tribe career. He should be in the Indians Hall of Fame.

Signed as a free agent in March, 1995. He had 17 ABs in 8 games for the Indians that year. Played the rest of the season in Buffalo, where he had 448 ABs in 130 games. Batted .292, with 56 RBIs.

Well he still had an OPS of 1176, so the facts speak for themselves

The Carlos Santana experiment is off to a tough start. Two errors tonight and one in his second start giving him 3 errors in 3 games. He had no touches in his debut.

Santana had 2 errors on the same play in his debut. No big deal. Anyone that has ever played the infield knows how easy it is to throw a ball away after kicking, bobbling, or juggling it.

Two errors tonight and one in his second start

Every day in every way he is getting better and better.

Axford attributed some of his early problems last season to pitching in the World Baseball Classic. He was throwing hard from the get-go and went through a "dead arm" period when his velocity dropped following the WBC. But after making some adjustments, Axford settled in and posted a 2.92 ERA in his final 71 appearances with the Brewers and Cardinals.

2.92 in 71 appearances is pretty convincing IMO. Good gamble.

I agree. He must had some pretty miserable numbers the first couple weeks of the year.

His April was pretty awful: 10 1/3 innings, 10 runs and 5 homeruns

But he had other rough patches: In May he walked 9 and allowed 17 hits in 13 innings for a WHIP of 2.00

In July and August he totaled 10 walks and 26 hits in 21 1/3 innings, including 4 homers.

He was pretty reliably awful on the road: 34 hits, 20 walks in 29 1/3 innings and ERA of 4.91.

We'll see what we get.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/splits/_/ ... ohn-axford

2012 he recorded 35 saves while posting an ERA of 4.67. 10 homers in 69 innnigs. 91 K.

Lots to dislike and lots to dislike in those stats.

Rafael Perez is available and pitching well in the Dominican.

Of course from here we can't know his velocity or ball movement.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYBODY!

Here's hoping the Tribe improves and makes the playoffs in 2014. That would be a great present for us all!