he blew 1, and he never had a stretch like Lidge. It's obvious something was bothering him this postseason, either mentally or physically.
We could be looking at the next Armando Benitez. Great regular season guy, but struggles in the postseason for some reason. Of course, its been only ben 2 trips fo far for Lidge, so we'll see
I feel the same way. His career is far from over, but he's no longer got that "lights out" aspect to his game anymore.
Lidge will pile up great numbers next year being spoon fed saves against the Pirates, Brewers, Rockies, and many other soft teams. His effectivness against top teams, in pressure situations, with titles on the line, is not in question. He will lose the game. He is a choker, a gagger, an I can't stand the pressure, please don't hurt me, ah ****, there goes another one, used to be tough, now I am not, loser. He heads the list of Astro's who visably gagged on the national stage.
The most ironic thing about drivel such as this is that those who come up with it have most likely never in their lives seen a stage this big on which to "clutch" or "choke". If the best of the best beats you, it's not "choking". And, regardless of whether there is such a thing as "choking", your average beer-gutted undereducated no-pro-baseball-experience (mullet-wearing? trailer-dwelling?) fan is certainly *not* qualified to recognize the difference between "choking" or legitimately being beat at the top of one's game by someone else at the top of his game.
Brad Lidge is no more done than Morgan Ensberg, Roy Oswalt, Chad Qualls, Dan Wheeler or any one else who hit a little slump at the worst time against the best team in baseball. And there's no shame in getting beat by the best.
everyone is streaky at times and he peaked during the regular season....just like the astros peaked in the Cards series.... can't blame everything on him, he gave up 1 run..... the in-ability of the astros to score is the real problem.... and MLB wanted the Sox to win...i.e. took our closed dome home field advantage from us...
Maybe... but his performance in game 3 (the 14 inning one) may have been the best he'd looked in weeks. His slider had some serious nastiness on it on Tuesday... you could tell he was pitching with something to prove. I expect Lidge to do fine. There's an element of "doubt" now that there never was before with him... but he can soon erase that if he has another 23 consecutve save streak like he did in the season. The postseason boiled down to one hung pitch to Pujols... it was the only blown save he had.
i talked about his problems in another thread. lidge isn't done. his stuff is still some of the illest in the league. it's all about location and i think him mixing in a changeup would really help too. look at mariano rivera. he blew a bunch of saves a couple years back and he could possibly win the cy young this year. lidge isn't done. he just needs to work on location and adding another pitch to the arsenal.
Heck, I wish this guy had been the GM for the Yankees when Mariano Rivera struggled in the first series of the year against Boston, during the Yankees collapse to Boston, or after the 2001 series when Rivera lost the game against the D-Backs.
If the Astros could get a hit with men on base or do the small things like score a runner after a lead-off double, or score a runner from third with less than three outs. It was those offensive problems that cost us this series, not Brad Lidge. On a little bit of different note, Backe is a good pitcher. Coming into this series, many experts prefered the starting rotation of the White Sox better than that of the Astros because of the Garcia vs. Backe matchup. Backe has come up big for us in some of the most important games. ESPN needs to start giving him some more respect.
I wouldn't say that Lidge is done, but I don't have a problem with trading him away for some hitting. I think Wheeler and Qualls can handle the setup and closer role next season just fine. What this team needs is some freaking hitters.
