Monday, June 21, 2004

Hawkins is converting saves, but he has been a little shaky.

Hawkins has converted five of six save chances since Joe Borowski was placed on the DL. He's inherited leads of three or more runs in four of his save tries. In his only attempt at protecting a one-run lead he blew the save. On the plus side, he's issued only one walk in his last 27.2 innings. It was control that led to his downfall as closer in Minnesota.

It is good he isn't walking that many people. I just wish with a 3-run lead he would shut the door, instead of letting them have 2 runs and then getting the save.

Since assuming the closers role Hawkins ERA has risen to 2.25, up from around 1.25. And in those 5 of 6 save chances his ERA is 3.97. Not exactly dominating, but leaps and bounds above Borowski's 8.00 ERA.

It will be intersting to see how Hawkins responds when given more 1 run leads to protect. He is not always going to have 3 runs to work with.