RELIEVERS: Lightning in a bottle

Last column looked at all closer roles—and three have changed just since then—Milwaukee, where John Axford (RHP, MIL) was replaced by minor-league lifer Jim Henderson (RHP, MIL); San Francisco, where Santiago Casilla (RHP, SF) has given way to a committee headed by Jeremy Affeldt (LHP, SF); and San Diego, where brittle Huston Street (RHP, SD) is once again injured, leaving the team to go back to journeyman Dale Thayer (RHP, SD). You will recall that both Axford and Casilla had that dichotomy of projected high skills, but terrible results over the previous month. In fact, here is the chart of closers with poor ERA/WHIP numbers from last week:

L30          TM   Sv BS   IP    ERA  WHIP  K  BB HR   G/F
========== =====  == ==  ====  ====...

More From Relief Pitchers