He's been generally outstanding since April 20. Being critical of his performance right now is an extremely short-term judgment.
Man, what a messy post! Fools is sho 'nuff messy, Ms. Daisy. The Clap makes 200 posts & wastes three whole days crying over & defending ONE PITCH beating his dead horse yet further into the cold ground ... & he has a problem with reading a few paragraphs by someone else? sadsadsad How gluttonous.
If you look at his numbers since April 20 (essentially the entire season, tossing out the first couple of weeks when he was experimenting with a cut fastball which he ditched), Saturday was a clear outlier in his performance. He's been outstanding for essentially this entire season. He's been outstanding for three of the last four seasons. Saturday is the exception; not the rule.
So basically, Lidge was not allowed to blow for the rest of the year, after it was clear that he had regained some of the dominant stuff that we didn't see much of in 2006? Because as soon as he's blown one (in a critical game), its like none of the past 2-3 months of re-development even happened (which included a stretch where Lidge was the ONLY sure thing in this bullpen). He will still blow some saves... all closers do that. But, just one year ago, people figured he'd never have his ERA below 5 again, never be able to throw the ball where he wants to again, and probably should be cut for NOTHING. The fact that he was able to regain the form as much as he has leads to the argument that it's not ALL mental... the mental cases go the way of Mark Wohlers and Rick Ankeil (ie - never ever able to show even a semblance of dominance again). Lidge may be more like Todd Jones or even Isringhausen... guys who make adjustments, re-tool to maintain what they've got.
Has Lance Berkman gotten as much criticism as Lidge? He's had a really ****ty season. How far has his batting average dropped? He's more responsible for the Astros struggles than Lidge is...
Not even close. There's been mentions of Berkman's struggles, but most will blame Lidge for everything from blown saves to the Tour de France doping scandals. Berkman is hitting some hr's lately and driving in runs, but his average is way down and his OPS is 200 points down from last year and 140 down from his career average. I don't know what is wrong with him, but his is way too good of a hitter to have this down of a season. I'd bet on some kind of injury, but he'd probably never admit it if it isn't keeping him off the field.
my personal btiching about lidge really has more to do with "everything's fine" mentality that caused the astros to lose out on getting nothing from morgan endsberg. I have no reason to trust the current regime knows how to evaluate talent.
Ensberg at his peak wasn't as good as Lidge was at his peak... and Ensberg never had a stretch where he showed a semblance of dominance again (after his torrid start to 2006) like Lidge has since coming off the DL. Lastly, there were options to replace Ensberg... Lidge has a role that not just anybody can come in and be effective. Everything isn't just "fine" with Lidge... I'll be happier when if he can finish the season without any more injury problems (there's talk that he'll need knee surgery after the season to clean out some cartilage), and I'd be happier if he could get more regular work to ensure that the slider mechanics remain intact... but everything isn't "the world is over" with him either.
Again, go through the pitch Saturday. There absolutely was no mistake. Lidge threw his best pitch, had all his movement, and located it exactly where he needed to. It just got hit. There are two lines of thought for what happened: A) Lidge was extremely unlucky B) It was predictable because Lidge only throws two pitches, etc. etc. All evidence points to A. It was simply terrible luck and a great swing by a great hitter. But even if there is some kind of problem, it has nothing to do with the ninth inning. That's what you guys don't get. I think Lidge is a dominant closer -- but if he's not, he's not going to be a dominant reliever either. If anything plagued him Saturday (if you think anything went wrong), the same exact thing would take place in the seventh or eighth inning.
Exactly. If Berkman is putting up his career averages, we would be leading the division right now despite all of our pitching problems. Everett & Ausmus are certainly bad offensively, but when your top offensive guy is hitting, they shouldn't be that big of a problem.
