Closing Time: John Axford is back in your fantasy life

In the not-too-distant past, John Axford was an upper-tier fantasy reliever, complete with the stellar K-rate and glittering fantasy ratios. He saved 46 games in 2011, striking out 86 batters in 73.2 innings, delivering an ERA of 1.95. Axford had closing-quality velocity (95-plus) and closing-quality facial hair — the complete package, basically.

[Still not too late to sign up for Yahoo Sports Fantasy Baseball!]

But in the more recent past, Axford has been a carnival ride of wildness, homers and blown saves. Too many fly-balls cleared the fence, too many pitches missed the zone. Axford signed a one-year deal with Colorado in the offseason, which at the time seemed like a terrifying combination of pitcher and park.

Things have gone unexpectedly well for Ax and the Rockies, however. He had a nearly flawless spring on the mound for Colorado, and he's tossed five scoreless frames so far in April, issuing two walks while fanning six. On Monday, Axford earned his third save of the season, working around a pair of singles in a 5-4 win at Arizona. He's throwing as hard as ever (95.3 mph), inducing nothin' but grounders and generally looking the part of a solid ninth-inning reliever.

Adam Ottavino is currently on the DL with triceps soreness, so Axford will close for the Rockies for the foreseeable future. Ax is available in over 60 percent of Yahoo leagues at the moment, and the early results have been encouraging. We can't promise a perfectly smooth ride with Axford — when things go bad for him, they go fantastically bad — but he owns the ninth for now.

• Steve Cishek was horrendous on Monday, failing to protect a one-run lead against the Mets. He entered in the ninth to face New York's 2-3-4 hitters, and it went down like this: double, walk, flyout, 420-foot no-doubt home run, double, stolen base, K, K.

So that's not great. Cishek's horrific outing lifted his season ERA to 11.37 and his WHIP to 1.58. He was coming off a streak of four straight clean innings, so we don't think he's at risk of losing his role just yet. But his velocity is down, he's blown two of three save chances, and setup man A.J. Ramos has been lights-out (0.73 ERA, 12.1 IP, 18 K). Ramos is the obvious add for speculators.

Before we exit the bullpens, we have one additional closer-related bullet for you...

• Toronto appears to have flipped closers again, understandably:

Miguel Castro has allowed runs in four of his last five appearances, pitching himself out of the ninth, it seems. He's a hard-thrower, but only 20 years old and his secondary pitches often misfire. So Brett Cecil it is, for now.

• The injury news has simply been brutal over the past 24 hours, beginning with the expected ruin of Adam Wainwright's season (torn Achilles), then continuing with elbow injuries to Brandon McCarthy (torn UCL) and Homer Bailey (sprain). A pair of productive shortstops have also been sidelined, as Jose Reyes hit the DL with a fractured rib and Jed Lowrie is headed for an MRI on his thumb.

If you find yourself adding a starting pitcher on Tuesday, the best of the widely available options are as follows: Brandon Morrow (22 percent owned), Jason Hammel (50, terrific on Monday), Jesse Chavez (17, taking over for Graveman), Hector Santiago (27), Dan Haren (19, does his best work before August) and Wei-Yin Chen (41).

If instead you need a shortstop, these are the names: Wilmer Flores (16 percent owned, add for pop), Odubel Herrera (29, add for speed), Asdrubal Cabrera (36), Chris Owings (11), Zack Cozart (41), Brock Holt (34, eligible everywhere). Let's just hope we won't have to wait long for Reyes or Jed.

• Houston's Jake Marisnick is still raking at the bottom of the Houston batting order, just so you know. He went 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored on Monday. He binged on Sunday, too: 2-for-4, 3 R, HR, 2 RBIs, 2 SB. Marisnick is only rostered in 38 percent of Yahoo leagues, and he offers plenty of power/speed potential. He's approved for adding in all formats.