This is from an espn insider article... here's the link, although you'll need an account to access: http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/flb/edge/story?id=1982566 Brad Lidge is obviously more in demand than Dan Kolb, but did you know that Lidge had 136 more strikeouts than Kolb? That's incredible. The difference in Ks between these two closers was essentially the season K total of 18-8 Carl Pavano and 17-8 Mark Mulder. Think about that. Lidge had an unbelievable season. With a few more saves, he would have had one of the best closer seasons in a decade. You think Gagne was dominant in 2003? He was, with 55 saves, a 1.20 ERA, minuscule WHIP and 137 strikeouts. What did Lidge do? Well, he didn't really get saves until Octavio Dotel was shipped out of town, so he "only" had 29 saves (22 after the All-Star break). He also had a 1.90 ERA, 0.92 WHIP and 157 strikeouts. How many strikeouts is that? Well, it was the 27th best total in the majors. It was more than the following starters who topped 200 innings (Lidge threw 94.2 IP): Jeff Weaver, Greg Maddux, Brad Radke, Russ Ortiz, Mulder, Pavano, Jason Marquis, Kris Benson, Matt Morris AND 14 other pitchers. What Lidge did was historic for this era. Honestly, he may have the biggest role on this team in the upcoming few years... and to do that as a closer, is quite a feat. Then again, when I think about the Yankees championships... the one and only player they could not win without was Mo Rivera. Also, another thing to take away from this is that it was an example of a guy who we did not expect anything close to this kind of performance from him heading into the year... and it happened. I'm not saying that the unknowns like Lane, Burke, Astacio, Backe (a little unkown) are all going to suprise... but this just shows what someone under the radar can do, if given the opportunity.
wow, we agree on something. ------- Seriously. Lidge is....you will hate me for using your saying....Lights Out.
This guy is amazing. I thought Billy's fastball was magnificient, but Lidge's slider is much better to see. I even got "turned on" when seeing his 89 mph slider.
I didn't think I would get another chance to see a guy throw heat after Randy Johnson and Billy the Kid left us, but damn it is just fun watching this guy pitch live, hell even on tv.
he went from filthy in the regular season to untouchable in the playoffs. i mean those last 3 innings he gave us were some of the filthiest innings i've ever seen. the vaunted cardinals lineup and he absolutely blows through their lineup with 3 perfect innings and 5 strikeouts. it felt like he could've pitched forever and never given up a hit that night. unfortunately he couldn't and then some pitcher i have blocked from my memory came in and did something i also blocked out and apparently we lost the game. of course, even lidge's season didn't compare to wagner's '99 season. you want nasty regular season numbers. damn. more saves than hits. we've had some nice closers.
Lidge has really surprised me. I thought it was stupid to trade Dotel because, while Lidge was good, I didn't think he had good enough control of that nasty slider to consistently punch people out with it. Boy was I wrong. It's going to be great having a dominant closer around who knows how to shut the hell up during the offseason. Can you imagine the ridiculous things Wagner would have had to say about this current offseason?
I was actually having a conversation with somebody the other day... and we sort of talked about this. Lidge's slider is a much better "9th-inning" pitch because of the fact that a lot of pressure goes to the batter in that situation (with the game on the line), whereas in the 7th and 8th innings... guy's can afford to gamble on some pitches and lay off them because they are not the deciding outs yet. Likewise, Dotel is purely in the strike zone... which can be very effective in the 7th and 8th innings, but backfire in the 9th inning because hitters at that time are swinging away on most balls that "appear" close enough in the K zone. Dotel has plus stuff... but we saw what could even happen to a guy like Billy Wagner who is always around the K zone in the 9th. Sure, he'll get his share of saves... but eventually he would get burned (and burned in the biggest of games, mind you). In the end, however, Lidge is a filthy pitcher no matter when he is coming in... I think he proved that plenty in the playoffs.
Here's an article by a stat geek on the evaluation of relievers last season. He had Lidge as the best reliever, and the it wasn't even close. I found his methodology to be as good as any I've read. If you like reading this sort of stuff, here's the link. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/ranking-the-relievers/
Geez, I honestly cannot believe the state that sports journalism is in these days - and this article is one that people paid for! Let me start by saying that I, too, think that Lidge is the best reliever in the league, but this guy's article was meaningless and did a terrible job of presenting the case. Basically he is saying that Brad Lidge is the best reliever because he strikes out a lot more people than Danny Kolb. In fact, the difference between the two closer's K totals are greater than these two starters who aren't strikeout pitchers either. Oh yeah, Lidge is a dominant starter because he struck out more batters than this other list of starters, none of which are strikeout pitchers either! That clearly proves that Lidge is the best reliever today. So, according to this author, Nolan Ryan is obviously a much better pitcher than Greg Maddux because he struck out almost twice as many hitters! Heck, Tim Redding struck out 2.5 times as many batters as Kolb did - it's meaningless because Kolb is not a strikeout pitcher. Instead of spouting this meaningless crap, he could have talked about Lidge's K/BB ratio (which was good but not spectacular), his incredible OPP BA, and his sub-1.00 WHIP. But no, it's easier to spew this half-assed crap that isn't worth the webspace it's published on. If you look at the peripheral numbers, Gagne & Lidge had almost identical seasons in 2004.
I probably should have prefaced it... it was a fantasy baseball article (meaning that things like K's are a big deal, and that's why Lidge should be DRAFTED ahead of Kolb). But, all your other points are valid... if it was just an article simply saying "this pitcher is better than that." And still... even though the K's shouldn't me the only measure of pitching success... you have to admit that Lidge's numbers are staggering.
