bringing in lidge with the four run lead was a good move i thought. comfortable enough cusion to give him 9th inning work again and maybe build his confidence on top of the good outings he's had previously. but keeping him in after giving up the 3 run homer was just flat out stupid. qualls should have come in immediately after that and he's also pretty lucky that miller walked the only guy he faced. i can't argue with garner's results but sometimes his managing from the gut makes me queasy.
The trade value for Willy and Lidge both is pretty low, for obvious reasons. Hirsh did and does have some value, but not nearly enough as the principle to land a guy of Tejada's caliber. You'd also have to include another 1A type of player in the deal, and neither Willy or Lidge comes close to having that kind of value at this point (or last offseason). Just because reports say that teams are interested in Lidge doesn't mean he's going to bring much in return. That's an assumption too many people make.
we can't get anything valuable for lidge at this point. he seems to do ok when we're down five runs at least.
It was his outing against the Cards (when we were down by five) that lost him the closer's role. Since then, he's pitched 3 times when we've had the lead and twice when we were down.
Who's the proven starting CF? Willy Taveras? Tell me exactly who he should be starting for in the major leagues... in fact, simplifying it, who should he be starting for IN OUR DIVISION? Hall? Edmonds? Duffy? Soriano? Freel/Hamilton/Griffey? Willy is barely hanging on to his job over Steve Finley... yes, the 40+ year old Steve Finley. After that, who are the two PROVEN starters? Buchholz? What has he done to prove he's a starter? Hirsh? Again, what has he done to prove he's an MLB starter? If both of these guys flop, you guys start complaining... just like you did when Jason Lane wasn't all he was cracked up to be in the minors. Just like when Redding failed after a plethora of opportunities. Tell me exactly what you would have traded for a guy who can pitch like Jennings... a guy who can put up 200+ innings any given year, is 28, and just had a sub 4 ERA season. Tell me that.
Has Phil Garner gone to the same bible college as George Bush? Is stay the course his main course of action? How many times does Lidge need to blow a lead before the Astros brass determines he is a lost cause? Lidge is done, finished, kaput! What more does it take for the Astros management to see this? There has to be at least three pitchters at Round Rock that I would rather have in games then Lidge. Hell, I'd rather send Frank Lacorte or Joe Sambito out there at this point rather then Lidge. They could be pitching out of a wheelchair and they'd still be more effective then Lidge.
On the positive side, the Astros won today. They are still in the hunt for the Central Division title. Maybe Garner will have this all figured out by May.
It's pointless. DD loves anything that hasn't realized its value, regardless of whether or not it will do so in the future. Buchholz was no longer a top pitching prospect - when we acquired him in the first place, he was the 3rd or 4th best pitcher in the Phillies system, and he was beaten on his path to the majors by the beautiful Zeke Astacio. In terms of Astros pitching prospects, Buchholz was certainly behind Sampson, Nieve, Albers, Paulino, Estrada, Patton, and Barthmaeier, and probably also Chance Douglass and Chad Reineke at that point. As for Willy T, keeping him meant keeping either Luke Scott or Burke on the bench, and one more person preventing the rise of Hunter Pence. By his metrics, Ben Sheets hasn't proven any more than Jason Hirsh because Ben Sheets has a career 62-71 record. Or when we refuse to trade Elarton and Hidalgo for Clemens because Elarton may be a #1 starter and Hidalgo may become a 40 HR hitter. Hell, the Stros even looked like they were right on that one at one point. Hirsh struggled mightily when he was promoted to the big league level. He was not an uber-prospect like Roy O who came in and set the world on fire, or performed like any number of the A's pitchers in the last decade (Hudson, Mulder, Zito, Harden), Cole Hamels, and the list goes on etc. He had a number of things to overcome, including being home run prone in a bad ballpark for that malady. I have nothing against the guy -- if he gets his stuff together (and he has early on), he has the potential to be a solid #2. He could be even better than Jennings. But with Pettitte halfway out the door, you need another guy after Roy O who will go out and get you 7 innings a night and put you in position to win; Jennings is that guy. We absolutely could not go in with Woody Williams as our only non-Roy question mark. (And I do question what our thinking was in giving Woody 2 years guaranteed, with the number of pitchers we have on the cusp.) If he's hurt, that's just bad luck. If the Astros didn't do their homework, and Jennings had some real damage that was missed, then the Stros screwed up. But to say Jennings, a guy who was first or second on his staff in innings pitched 4 of the last 5 years and has a winning record on a team that has been on average 19 games under .500 since he's been there, hasn't shown anything more than Hirsh is just silly.
I was surprised that Biggio hit that grand slam because in his previous 2944 hits, he had never had a big one in a clutch situation. Lidge is finished, I think. Meaning...I think Garner probably gets that now, too. I tend to agree...if you can get something for him, get it. Wheeler has been impressive in the closer's role...I'm fine with him there.
Lidge is a nightmare on the mound...I really would be comfortable with never seeing him put on my beloved Astros uniform again. I dont want him on the mound, in the clubhouse, or in the city of Houston.
I was mixed between Garner using him in the 9th last night. On the one side, he just apparently lost his job 2 weeks ago, and hadn't really proven himself to be cured of his problems... besides throwing 3-4 straight appearences in really low pressure situations, without giving up an earned run. On the flip side, he'd thrown in 3-4 straight appearences without giving up an earned run. But, even in those appearences, I didn't see much of the good slider, nor did I see amazing control with the fastball. He showed semblances, but nothing consistent. The K numbers weren't amazing... he still gave up some hits. So, Garner gambled, thinking he could have his cake and eat it too (late inning comeback team, former closer regaining confidence in pitching the 9th), and it backfired horribly... almost to the point of costing the game. Even though Lidge looked OK in the previous appearnces, he was back to same 'ol lidge (SOL) in the 9th again... as if zero progress had been made. Thus, he can probably never see the 9th again UNLESS he has some streak where he starts striking guys out, or looking dominant, in his low-pressure situations... and that's all easier said than done.
I think we saw the death rattle of Lidge's career last night. Sure, he may do okay as the middle inning relief guy for the rest of the season, but he will never be entrusted with anything really important ever again. Shame, really.
"This would have been Nieve. We want Nieve to come up. And if he would have been doing the job, he would have come up." "I think what happened was he let getting sent down when he evaluated himself a little differently than I did. I think what he should do is he should hear and take it as being angry, being upset, being ticked off is a good motivator. But he should have used it as a motivator. Instead he did not. Instead he went to the other side (of), 'I should have.' Well, you know what? There's a lot of things that should be in this game and guys don't get them. "You don't sometimes get what you deserve in this game. Sometimes guys deserve to be here, and they don't get here. Look at (Eric) Bruntlett. He's a guy that deserved to be on this ballclub, but we can't do that right now. That's unfortunate. Might be somebody else. What a kid can do in his shape is take the anger and use it to your advantage and spur him on. You do your job. Then it's our job to get him here. If he does the job down there then we'll get them here." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/4735950.html
