John Axford

Um,

He can prepare all he wants physically, mentally for that without the anxiety of being down in the bullpen waiting for his turn.

What is this going to look like?

When am I pitching?

Am I coming in when we have the lead?

Am I coming in with runners on?

He just got to kind of sit through his day and prepare for opening.

Whether he was told one inning, two innings, three innings, or the pitch count had to be under 45, whatever it may be, that's probably a helpful piece.

At least it was for me.

I did it one time.

And I know I just enjoyed it.

I had fun with it.

So you kind of just go out there a little bit different mindset, attack the hitters.

You know what you have to offer.

You know what the team has told you you're going to do.

But I think that's the big takeaway for me is I would have felt a lot more mentally stable and just...

The anxiety that you can have down in the bullpen is subsided when you know this is your role, this is what you're doing.

You have this for two, maybe three innings.

I think initially when it was first happening, like the Rays, when they were first introducing that, I was very uncertain, very unsure.

But I was also a reliever who was intrigued and was like, I would like to do this.