Neris was a good setup man. Not so good closing. This fits our need. We already have too many situational pitchers. But GOOD lefty would be nice. I don't think we'll ever see a Lidge, Dotel, Wagner pen again.
It was as close as we've come, but there was absolute confidence after the seventh with a lead with Lidge, Dotel and Wagner. Part of the difference is confidence rather than talent. They couldn't possibly have been as good as I remember, but I just don't remember them blowing a lead, even a 1 run lead.
The only year that they were all together in 2003... Wagner 1-4, 44 SV, 1.78 ERA, 0.872 WHIP Dotel 6-4, 4 SV, 2.48 ERA, 0.966 WHIP Lidge 6-3, 1 SV, 3.60 ERA, 1.200 WHIP The rotation though was... weak.... not good when Jeriome Robertson and Tim Redding made more starts than Roy Oswalt.
Olney ranked the Lidge-Dotel-Wagner combo #3 all-time: https://www.espn.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post/_/id/16 behind Rivera Yankees and Nasty Boy Reds
That was the six pitcher no-hitter against the Yankees season. The question the whole season was whether they could get a lead going into the 7th inning.
" I don't want to spend any more mental effort thinking about Carlos Gomez" One of my favorite all time sports quotes courtesy of Mr. McHugh. I use that same line referring to people I think are silly. I will always appreciate his time here, I consider him one of the key players in our transition into a contender. He stepped up big and pitched is butt off in the 2015 ALDS.
McHugh was awesome. Next to Morton, probably my favorite pitcher personality on the team over the last 10 years. Just seems like a really cool person who happened to be good at throwing baseballs.
You may be right... just curious as to what makes you say that? Correa did show a lot of knowledge/depth in terms of both advanced analytics as well as what GM's/front offices value when deciding to pay players certain amounts... but he had a showcase/venue to show that off (when he was part of the TBS studio crew during the 2022 playoffs).
