i nearly died laughing when i heard that. and then when qualls topped it off with "brad made a good pitch, nady just hit a good pitch... etc etc etc" since when does a fastball right down the middle equal a good pitch? oh right, maybe we should ask the home run king, QUALLS. I know you don't throw your teammates under the bus, but for Christ's sake, how do they sleep at night with the bull**** that comes out in the postgame interviews? lol
BTW - i was watching on TV (had to miss it live due to 1st night of Passover) and when they showed Nolan Ryan, he looked very uncomfy watching Lidge....almost as if he was just hoping nothing bad happened (as was I) instead of a look that said "ok, Brad, show em what u got" I think if Lidge wants to help the ballclub, he needs to come out in one of those postgames interviews and say " u know what guys, im trying but if there is someone else like Wheels or whoever who can do this, I'm all for it"
Wow, you predicted a negative result. Amazing. So if it happens, you're right. If it doesn't, you're happy cause we won. Good job assuring that you'll look/feel good. Just like with pretty much every word out of your mouth (keyboard) about the astros for this season
Max, I was reading the thread this morn and was gonna comment that it was looking like the GARM after a Rockets loss.. decided to just shut my mouth and ignore it for a while. I did make a comment about Lidge's velocity, but I'm still all for keeping him as the closer for now.. Then I went and voted for "this forum would be better off if it was a pay-only forum". Seriously...the Astros forum has never been this bad before.
That pitch was anything but right down the middle. It wasn't even a strike! It was well low and inside, and Nady guessed right and made a good swing. I understand the frustration because it's Lidge, but let's not act like this was a hanging slider or a belt-high fastball with no movement.
I definitely agree with that. But I do think he threw a slider or 2 that could/should have been belted..
of course i did! but i'm not willing to sit here today and say, "see...i told you they would suck!!" because of one game. geez, we have people extrapolating for all sorts of things now. Qualls needs to go!!! Lidge needs to go!!! give me a break. it's a joke. we see it here every year. lidge's history of blown saves < this forum's propensity to write off the Astros after one game.
Hitters look like that against the best of pitchers when they guess exactly right. My concern with Lidge is the ensuing double he gave up and how close he came to a complete meltdown after the home run... those were bad pitches and poor mechanics. But I didn't see that much wrong with the pitch he threw to Nady... looked like he hit his spot, and it wasn't even in the zone... Nady just guessed right.
kidding aside for a minute... i'm always interested in theories on lidge since the pujols debacle of '05. why did lidge become so bad, so fast? like i was saying earlier in the thread, pitchers get figured out all the time once they come up, it's called a scouting report. surely, the pitching staff could have helped lidge not tip his pitches as much or change the pitches he throws in certain counts? (if that's one theory you buy into). then again, if it's mechanics, why did they go south shortly before/after the '05 playoffs?
We cannot afford to give Lidge any chances. Spring training is over! It's time to put it all out there every game to win as many as possible. We missed the playoffs by a game and a half last year. Lidge, by himself, cost us at least six games. Yeah, it's not all his fault but you can only afford so many weak spots on a team. Let him gain his confidence in the minors and let Estrada or Albers or Nieve have a shot at fronting for Wheeler. Let's try smething different. Over a year of this Lidge crap is enough. He ain't got it and is not even close.
