I use to be one of Brad's biggest supporters and honestly, still am...Did he lose his edge, maybe, but its one game...If he continues to do this a number of times, say 6 times between now and the end of May, ship him out...
6 games? That's a lot of games to blow in two months. Especially considering what he did last season. I don't have the numbers convenient, but you can almost say that Lidge single-handedly cost us the playoffs last year with the games he blew or let the other team come back and tie it. You can argue run support all you want, but the fact of the matter is we had leads in those games no matter how many runs we had. I'm not ready to let Lidge kill any playoff hopes again this year. Move him back to middle relief (7th inning type), and if he continues to struggle cut him loose. After all, it could just be the 9th inning nerves getting to him.
Hitters have Lidge figured. He has two pitches- fast ball and hard slider His fast ball is straight, his slider doesn't have as much break as you need. Most batters are starting to lay off the slider and wait on the fast ball. Unless he develops more movement on his fastball or another pitch I think he is in trouble. He will only be marginally effective with these pitches because his control has never been good. Phil Garner was interviewed on Channel 13 over the weekend he put it best when he said- " I (Garner) watched all of his games from 04-05 season and he wasn't getting the ball in the strike zone, batters were swinging at bad pitches, batters are going to figure you out, he has to get the same results with the ball in the strike zone..."
yea he needs an off-speed pitch (breaking ball, change-up, knuckle, whatever). I still rooting for Lidge to succeed but he needs an off-speed pitch
"It's not Lidge's fault. He's not getting any protection from the o-line I heard that this morning on 610.
Your right, I'm not sure the number of blown saves it'll take, but I guess I was being optimistic in we would have more run support and not have so many save opportunities...
Lidge blew 6 games last season. He also entered 4 tied games and gave up runs. At the end of April last year he had 8 saves, 2 blown saves, 1 loss, and a 6.39 ERA in 13 appearances.
"Every time Brad Lidge comes into the game, I get an anxiety attack. So whenever he hits the mound, I have to pop a xanax." - Paul Wall speaking on Brad Lidge after last night's game.
i just threw up a little...make that a lot. http://blogs.chron.com/jeromesolomon/2007/04/the_astros_are_dead_if_lidge_c_1.html April 03, 2007 The Astros are dead ... this time it's real Shortest post in history ... thanks to Brad Lidge
we lost the division by 1.5 games. any closer who blew 2 games would be pinned with "single-handedly" costing us the division crown. i am unaware of ANY closer in all of baseball that didn't blow at least 2 saves.
Ok, that was funny... What's with the double post MadMax... I'm just lucky someone posted in between my posts... Garner has already stated if it was the same situation tonight, he'd do it again and that's what you want from a coach...Now, let's hope he's right...
When I started this thread, it was called The Brad Lidge "Well Wishes" thread. It was because Lidge is done. I wouldn't say the Astros are done either. You won't win the division at the start of the season, but you can easily lose it. A few blown saves here and there, and every game following will cost you the season. They can easily fix the situation by seeking help for Lidge by sending him to RR so he can get his **** straight. He can blow saves in AAA.
This would make sense if he slowly got worse over time. But it was fairly sudden - the entire NL didn't just wake up one day and realize they knew how to hit him. There's something else going on, though I can't say I have any clue what it might be.
I dunno... I did see a slow decline towards the end of the 2005 season... the Cubs games being the breaking point that people possibly started analyzing his pitch sequences even more. The Cardinals series was like slow water torture when he was out there. It wasn't one moment... it was a series of them.
What an absolutely crummy way to open the season. Your 100 million man goes 0-4, your closers give up game winning HR's, and you waste one of your ace pitcher's starts before a sell out crowd. Wow, that is a PR nightmare.
