Brewers pitcher John Axford nearly perfect in Oscar predictions

On his Twitter bio, John Axford describes himself as, "Pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. Mustache and Film Aficionado." Let's break that down. The first part? Duh. He's Milwaukee's closer. The second? You'll recall he won a 2011 mustached person of the year award. The film part? Well, after Sunday night's Academy Awards, Axford has this claim to fame:

You don't have to take his word for it. He tweeted every prediction Sunday and even gave a "Damn you" to "Life of Pi's" Ang Lee for winning best director. Axford, like many, had chosen Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln." The Lee/Spielberg snubbing is a point of contention among film critics in their post-Oscar breakdowns, so it's not just Axford who is distraught.

Just for fun, let's put Axford's Oscar run up against other famed prognosticators:

• Numbers guru Nate Silver didn't predict as many categories as Axford, only five. But he got two of those wrong. (including best director).

• Entertainment Weekly wasn't as on point as Axford either, though its predictions were stellar. It got 13 correct out of 15.

• Legendary critic Roger Ebert guessed on 11 awards and proclaimed, "I may have them all right." In fact, he missed five.

What does all this mean, in a baseball sense? Not much. Except perhaps his Brewers teammates should respect Axford's film prowess/recommendations.

And for one day at least, the pitcher can say he's smarter than Nate Silver.

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