I remember when they reluctantly gave Wagner the ball as a closer. Wagner, in his first full year as a closer, had 23 saves and 6 blown saves. He had a worse success rate than Dotel, with similar strikeout and WHIP numbers. He turned out OK, but closers aren't going to be perfect in their first year. You have to give them time to grow into that role. Lidge seems better suited to be a closer than Dotel, he has a much better Strikeout ratio, which is exactly what you need to get out of trouble. He gets about 1 more strikeout per 9 innings... Is that really that much better? I would like to see him get a shot, Dotel is just not cutting it, he reminds me of Todd Jones ...LOTS of speed on the fastball, very little control. This is also how Wagner was when he first came up.
Pretty good, but thank goodness the Astros didn't listen to your "Lidge is a starter - always has been always will be -- he needs to start YESTERDAY!" routine last year. Batting .500 isn't bad though.
LOL, true .500 is a good average...and who knows....Lidge might be a great starter....and last year we needed starters desperatly. I just think people tend to not try things out often enough in baseball, they get branded as something and never get a chance to prove they might be more. Lidge could be the next JR Richard with that 98mph fastball and 90+mph slider. DD
