Hmm. Wasn't aware his stats were that bad. The times i'd seen him pitch the last couple of years he looked really good.
Lidge has two pitches -- TWO. If he actually had the others working for him, we wouldn't constantly hear about his working on them. So, folks are saying we should take a guy with only TWO pitches, one of which he's having problems locating and the other of which he hasn't thrown for a strike in two years, a guy who's had trouble for over a year making it through one inning, a guy who spent most of his minor league career hurt while trying to start games--this guy--and make him a starter?? BWWHWHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHHHAAAaaaaaaaaa!! I hope Lidge turns it around and makes all the doubters look silly. But come freaking on, a STARTER? That's just stupid. Really. Just stupid.
Except that the minors is where he spent the first three or four YEARS of his career hurt--while trying to be a starter (and throwing a nasty curve that was hard on his arm).
See, I wonder if the curve was the problem or they think it MIGHT have been the problem. Either way, his career is in jeapordy, he needs an off-speed pitch desperatly. Imagine if he had Roy Os curve.......WOW !!! And I don't see how having him pitch 3 days in a row is good for the arm, and is protecting him anymore than throwing the curve ball. Sure the wrist action is different, but at this point....why not? But, if he truly can not throw it for some reason, then why not a palm ball, or the ephus pitch? DD
I didn't mean to imply dogmatically that the curve ball was the problem. But dude has demonstrated that: --Whenever he works as a starter, he gets hurt --He has two pitches (not enough to be a starter!) Seems pretty cut-and-dried to me.
Ephus pitch? Palm ball? You're going way out there on a limb, nobody throws those with any regularity. And the curve is a bad idea if his body can't take it. On the other hand, I don't know why he couldn't pick up something offspeed, or something that cuts in a different direction. Maybe a 2 seamer, or a straight change, or a splitter, whatever. But is that really the problem? There are pitchers out there like Mariano who've made a career out of one pitch. Brad's been effective with his 2 quality pitches before. He just needs to make those work. And AAA seems like a good place for him to do that.
His last 2 outings, he's been throwing something I haven't quite seen before: about 84 MPH and broke straight down. Didn't look like a change, more like a variant of his slider.
ROFLMAO !!!! Some of us are just "outside the box" thinkers. PSSST....I heard Bagwell is working on his left handed throwing for a comeback. DD
I'm guessing it's the two-seamer that he had been working on. It'll help him a lot if he can throw it for strike. link: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6581210
The Ken Rosenthal story was originally written two weeks before opening day, so it may not still be accurate (at least with respect to Lidge and Miller).
I'm just quoting him on Lidge's new pitch. It looked like a splitter to me when I saw it, and this article was saying that his new 2-seamer looks like a hard splitter. I'm pretty sure Lidge wouldn't be throwing a pitch outside of his repertoire or something he worked on during spring training.
Looked too slow for a fastball of any type. Pretty sure Lidge's cutter/2-seamer was in the low 90's when I've seen it. Don't really know, though.
A splitter, now THAT would be something if Roger could teach him the Splitter........ Why not send him down to RR and teach him that pitch? Can you imagine if Lidge learned the splitter.....wow. DD
There's really no point if he can't locate his fastball. His slider, which breaks into the dirt, basically functions like a splitter. The slider effectiveness is based on the threat that the fastball will stay in the strike zone. Once hitters started laying off the fastball that he couldn't locate, they stopped swinging at the slider in the dirt.
The difference is that they recognize the slider, whereas the splitter comes out looking just like the fastball. DD
When he's throwing his slider right, it looks just like a fastball. That's what made the pitch so effective. Nobody in today's game throws a 90+mph slider that breaks so damn late... but here's how it has played out for Lidge thus far: The problem is a.) he's not throwing his fastball for strikes (so why would the batter swing at anything), and b.) his slider mechanics are nowhere near where they were when he first came up. Go back to 2003, and when he first became a closer in 2004. You'll see the slider that stays in the zone right till it gets to the plate, and then dives away. This dissapearing slider is what put Lidge on the map... this was his one and only signature pitch... and then... Batters got so geeked up for it, they started swinging at EVERYTHING. Lidge's sliders started bouncing in the dirt 20 feet in front of them, and they'd still swing. The reputation of the pitch became bigger than the actual effectiveness of the pitch itself. Watch the 2004 playoffs, specifically game 6 in St. Louis, where Lidge pitches 2+ innings during extras... batters are swinging at EVERYTHING, regardless of where it is. Perhaps that ruined Lidge's mechanics more than anything... the fact that batters were willing to swing at whatever he threw up there caused him to stop executing the slider. Once it was picked up on in 2005, it was just a matter of time before batters would eventually "get it". Don't swing at anything that's diving into the dirt as soon as it leaves his hand... he's not going to throw the good slider that looks like a strike (and thus, when you see a good pitch, its the fastball.. swing away). Once again... when the slider is on, batters can't tell if its going to be a strike or not. It looks like a fastball, its coming at them at 91-92 mph, and then "poof"... it breaks at the last second. He actually did throw a couple of these against the Phillies on Saturday (watch the game recap), and once he gets the feel of that pitch back, things may work out okay in the long run. (This analysis falls very much in line with what Garner, Lidge, and Ausmus have come to the conclusion with, after watching entire game footage. He doesn't need to worry about other pitches, he doesn't need to worry about windup or stretch, he needs to simply start executing the slider like he did when he came to the big league club.)
