"Put it this way: It has been a long time coming," he said. "I've had a lot of negative reinforcement." Just as teammate Chad Qualls did last season, Lidge will throw every pitch from the stretch. "All my bad pitches have been from the windup," he said. "Almost no other reliever throws from the windup," he said. "It's just not something you practice that much. It's a different set of mechanics." Throwing from the stretch allows Lidge to slow his body down and depend on fewer checkpoints for things such as his arm slot and shoulder action. Tall pitchers seem vulnerable to losing track of their mechanics. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/justice/baseball/3785609.html
It doesn't make sense to make a change, especially in mid-stream, when he has been so successful in the past. It's also pretty obvious that pitching out of the wind-up has not been his problem this year.
I think we should make Brad Lidge pitch every game from now on. Only, he should pitch the first inning, not he last inning. If Brad Lidge can pitch the first inning OK, then let him pitch the secend inning next time, and keep gooing until Brad Lidge is the pitching the ninth inning. I also think that Roger Clemens and Chad Qualls and Brandon Backe should share the closing stuff when those guys are ready to go.
I beg to differ, he is still "Lights Out". It is just that now when the game ends it is the other team winning instead of the Astros. Even with the new results everyone leaves the ballpark.
Lou Pinella last year when he was the coach of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays was talking about doing this to shake things up. I think Lou Pinella was on to something. I also think that BRad Lidge could end up starting!
Sweet Lou was obvisously on crack when he said this. How else do you explain him willing taking the Devil Rays job and then staying so long.
If you use "Lights Out" in the context of "Batter hits a monster home run and breaks a stadium light, a la Roy Hobbs in the Natural," then, yeah, it's still okay to call him that.
Looks like Lidge is scrapping the stretch experiment. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3860159.html "Lidge said he'll also quit working exclusively from the stretch position, a move he made earlier this season to simplify his delivery."
From Richard Justice's blog: http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2006/05/answering_the_m_2.html Lidge will be fine. Not to worry. If he's the biggest problem the Astros have this season, they'll win the division by 12 games. They've discovered the mechanical flaw that has him losing control of the strike zone. It has something to do with his front shoulder and the position of his hand when the ball is released. It's easier for me to explain - and that wasn't all that easy, was it? - that it is to fix. It gets back to muscle memory when he gets on the pound. He has heard the phrase ''Stay back'' a few hundred times the last few days and has watched hours of video of himself.
Nah, Garner & Lidge said as much last week...shoulder's flying open, arm drags behind, breaking balls flatten out, everything gets left up...generally location goes to ****. He's looked a lot better the last couple of times out.
