So which is it? Is is "all mental" or is his location for **** right now? The presumptuous kneejerk bullsh!t armchair psychology going on here is a joke. None of you have the foggiest idea what's going through his head. None. None of you have talked to him, none of you have talked to people who have talked to him. You're writing a script you think sounds plausible. He's had crappy months before - look at May last year: 0-2, 2 blown saves, 4.7+ ERA, .296 BA against. Not pretty. He turned it around, good players always do.
Lidge will be alright when he gets control of his slider again. Every Slider he threw last night was in the dirt. So of course Nomar was sitting on fastball.
Here's what went down last night: "I tried to go for some strikeouts to two patient hitters," Lidge said. "You'd like to face different guys in that situation, but Kent and J.D Drew are pretty good hitters." "He didn't go fishing for any sliders," Lidge said. "He battled back in the count. It was a pitch I was hoping to get and I didn't." [The 2-2 (iirc, maybe 3-2) slider on the outside corner missed by an inch or 2. Not too many hitters take that one.] Then: "Jeff Kent's the same type of hitter, very patient," Lidge said. "He didn't go fishing for any sliders. I wanted to keep Kenny Lofton on third, so I've got to throw some pitches out of the strike zone. They just did a good job of not swinging." [Sounds like a good approach to 2 good hitters with the tying run on 3rd in a 1-run game.] "Early, maybe I threw too many sliders and then to Nomar, I threw one too many fastballs. It's one of those deals where if I'm making better pitches from the get-go, then I don't have to face that. I'm very disappointed with what happened." "I threw him two fastballs that were pretty good and then threw him the third one and he was right on it," Lidge said. "He was a great hitter and unfortunately, that's what happened tonight." [Wait...I thought he was scared to challenge hitters with his fastball?] Now...that sounds like a good approach...what part of this indicates some sort of mental dysfunction? Or could it be: "Lidge acknowledged that his location was a bit off on Monday, but he feels that, overall, he's the same as always. He senses he may be "jerking" the ball, and he'll be studying tape in an attempt to rectify that mechanical flaw. 'I'm definitely going to be looking at that and trying to straighten it out," he said. "I felt it a little bit as I was doing it. I'm not really staying true on my path to home plate, I was pulling it a little bit.'" Nah...couldn't be that. I'm sure he's still having nightmares about homeruns he gave up 7 months ago.
Dude... Lidge sounds like a freakin gamer. Not many guys would come back that same night and not only take the blame, not only say he'll work harder and vow to improve, but go through systematically and analyze each individual pitch (and why he threw it) in each situation. I'm sure many of you have once been good at something (golf, tennis, work)... only to mysteriously find out one day that you're having trouble. You gotta figure out what's wrong, and you have to fix it... end of story. "But Lidge is so messsssed up in the head... I think he's having PTSD (or some other crap)... I don't think he wants to pitch anymore... he's so dejected and nervous out there, he has no clue what he's doing... he's done... " What concerns me more about this team is that they're going to need some production from the #5 spot soon... whether it be Wilson, Lane, or Burke.
Notice how his WHIP increased last year from 2004 (he was truly unhittable the second half of that year). The more times hitters see him, they get a better feel for that slider. Lidge, seeing that guys weren't swinging away at his stuff in the dirt, probably tried to adjust to that... tried to stay ahead of the batters. Unfortunately, its manifested in poor control, and falling behind in counts. The fact that his K numbers are the same is no suprise... his stuff is still good against a majority of hitters. But, against the ones who do have the right approach to him, and CAN recognize the slider as its being released... he has started to struggle.
But hasn't he been able to put that slider in the strike zone at times? I thought I've seen him get the called 3rd strike on the corner with that nasty thing a number of times. What struck me last night, beyond the sliders in the dirt, were the sliders coming in on the other side of the plate from where Ausmus set up. Dude's control was so off, I was wondering if his arm was sore.
Nobody knows for sure what the problem with Lidge is,except for Lidge himself. Maybe its mechanics, maybe its God or maybe even Jodie Foster The fact is that after one blown save in April you cannot write off a guy as collapsed. We will have to wait and see how he does in his future outings. I would be worried if this continues through July but right now it is April guys . The team is 13-6 sit back and enjoy.
Here's to hoping Lidge gets another shot tonight. Penny is going to be tough, so lets hope Nieve is up to the challenge. I'd love nothing more than to see Lidge come in tonight with a 1 run lead and slam the door shut.
All will be well tonight. I killed the Dodgers in MVP last night after the game. So they're going down today. Lidge will come in with a 1-run save, strike out the side, and silence the naysayers. Preston will go 2-4 and knock a hr. But just a win would be nice.
(And I would have loved for Lidge to have come into Game 6 to tune out the Pujols HR the very next game in a slightly less nerve-wracking game, but just as important. Can't help but think back to that...cause at least it would help towards the "it's not last year" theory)
Right now every guy that steps up to the plate is Albert Pujols to Lidge. That shot in game 5 messed with Lidge's head and he's still hasn't fully recovered yet. He's going to have to work through it to regain his former Lights Out edge.
good game by Nieve so far. He looks good, other than the first inning where he got into a bit of a jam but then got himself out of it. EDIT: WHOOPS>...there goes the shut out. 2-1 good guys. FUrcal is an ASTRO killer.
