Phillies Nation

Does Lidge get a hold for this game?

fitz, I heard the same thing that Manuel said Lidge is still his closer. Not trying to be rude, I think it was a well written article, but might want to look at the 2nd to last paragraph. “Adam Dunn hit a grounder into the shift to the the game. Phillies win, 5-3. Pedro collected the win, and Madson recorded the save.” I have a feeling it was supposed to be “Adam Dunn hit a grounder into the shift to END the game. Phillies win, 5-3. Pedro collected the win, and Madson recorded the save.” Nice article. Points out a win, which is a good thing, but still has the overshadow of relying on the homer, with no hits with RISP. Then again the Phils I think only had 2 batter in scoring position for the entire game.

As much as I like Madson, I think the team is better off with him as our setup guy… and Myers should slowly crawl back and take the closer spot. But we’ll probably keep throwing Lidge out there… and that’s totally fine as long as Charlie is willing to yank him out in the middle of the ninth, like he did today (hopefully, sooner –before the bases loaded drama).

Cholly has finally found the perfect closing combo. It’s bring in Lidge to load the bases and then bring in Madson or Myers to close it out. It’ll work every time! I think this was the first time all year that Cholly had the _alls to pull Lidge before he blew another save and lost another game for the Phils. The Lidge nightmare is really getting old and so is Cholly’s tired old defense of this years’ worst closer in baseball. RA please step
in and do something soon.

your ability to state the obvious gets better with every post. at least begin by hinting at what your header reads.

Madson deserves kudos for tonight, but how about Martinez and Myers? They had put Madson in the position to come in and rescue Lidge in the first place. All three men were fantastic when the dust settled. Lidge deserves all the respect possible as a gentleman and as an athlete, but I’m gonna sum up my feelings about him as a ninth-inning pitcher (at least for right now) like this:
There once was a closer named Lidge,
Whose troubles stood out like a ridge;
The cocktails on ice,
At one time were nice;
But now they belong in the fridge.

being there live the phils, damn myself for saying it, seemed pathetic. yes, they won. yes, five home runs. but can they, or should they, expect this to hold the rest of september? Or even into the postseason? RISP!!!! They need to hit, and then they need to drive them in.

The Cardinals outright scare me. Even the Dodgers this year (hopefully they’ll fall to the pressure again this year). Giants or Rockies? Both toss ups, and teams the Phils might come into under-performing to. I feel more uneasy this year at this point then last. And I think we were still behind in the division race.

Fing cholly said after the game lidge could close and lidge said cholly told him if theirs a save he’ll be brought in http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090908&content_id=6860042&vkey=news_phi&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi

Taking Lidge out of the game tonight sent a bigger message than anything Charlie Manuel would say after the game. Just a couple days ago Lidge loaded up the bases against the Astros and Charlie let him finish it out as one tends to let closers do. Lidge proceded to reward that faith by blowing the game. Tonight we see the same thing happen but this time Charlie pulls him for Madson. When it really mattered he demonstrated clearly his lack of confidence.

On better news…. Raaaauuuullll!!!! Man its been a long time since I got to yell that. Getting Ibanez back on tracl would go a long way towards overcoming our current offensive issues.

Props to Charlie. Lidge, we all appreciate what you did last year but the mulligans ain’t gonna come forever.

LA was saying on the radio that Lidge is turning his body and head towards the left side dramatically, and said that his chin needs to be driving straight to the plate. This tells me he’s essentially throwing off balance, probably favoring his left knee. This just goes to show you when a closer gets hurt, he’s gonna suck even after he heals, because there’s a tendency to subconsciously alter your mechanics.

And that’s the thing with Lidge: he doesn’t blow every save. He’s decent-to-good two saves in a row, then he blows one.

Ever since his first couple of blown saves the entire season has seemingly become about Lidge rebuilding his confidence.

It appears that after he has a good outing or two people start to think that the ’08 Lidge is back. However this is then followed by two or three atrocious outings.

We can’t afford this type of play in the post season.

Let him rebuild his confidence over the course of the 6 months from November onwards. Tell him he can start as our closer next season.

As for Madson …. it doesn’t get much more “thrown into the fire” for a reliever than it got for Madson last night …. having to face Zimmerman and Dunn with the bases loaded and one out. His stuff was sick — a great outing. Thank god we didn’t lose to the Nationals because Lidge blew another one.

I say Lidge is done for the year. Let Meyers close. He’s done it before. JRoll and Victorino need to get on base more. Is it me or does JRoll have a cannon for an arm?

Saw Charlie’s interview after the game, it looked like he was really hurting when asked about Lidge. I now am in the boat where we seriously need to consider another option (Myers). I don’t think Lidge is finished completely, but he will have a quicker hook. Charlie’s walking a fine line, we have Lidge signed for 2 more years around 25 mil. If you shut him down completely, what does that do for us for 2010-11?

This really shows how much of a player’s manager Charlie really is, I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes on this one. Thank you Brad for 08. Now let the boys pick you up! Your probably gonna see a combo in the 9th, but dont be surprised when Lidge comes up clutch between now and the end.

Ryan Madson, kudos to you sir. You did your job and those games are the type that championship teams win.

RAUUUUULLLLLLLLL-glad to have you back. Very good sign!

HUGE win, big momentum shifter. Now hopefully the boys can settle in and play their typical September baseball.

I could really go for a dominating CLiff Lee start and 8-1 win tonight.

In my opinion as long as the bats come on we really wont need a unreall bullpen performance in the playoffs.Raul is coming around and the starting roataion is nice. I dont see the bull pen being an issue till nlcs or ws.

Dude, the bullpen is arguably the most important aspect of the team (aside from the starting rotation) during the playoffs. Our bullpen was STRONG in the playoffs and most championship bullpens are just as strong in their championship year.

You have to believe Myers is chomping at the bit to take on this role. He’s in his contract year. He’d love to prove he’s over his hip injury and could be a valuable closer for someone next year by being a valuable closer for the Phillies this fall.

What is the status of Romero and Condrey?

My guess is Escalona will be called up for the 26th time this season.

They were spitting out some ridiculous stats during the game last night… apparently, we’ve scored 11 runs over the past three games- 10 solo home runs. They said that we haven’t hit a home run with a runner on base since Howard’s extra inning blast on August 26th.

Also….about Madson…..it seemed as though he excelled last night BECAUSE of the situation….coming in to put out a fire may be a better role in the ninth than actually STARTING the ninth. It’s almost as though he relishes the thought of being “savior” in that kind of scenario. He really stepped up big!!

Unfortunately I missed the whole Lidge/Charlie performance, because I had promised myself if he brought Lidge in to save I was not going to watch. Muted the tv and closed my eyes for the first batter, and when I got up enough nerve to peek, saw a man on base, OFF went the tv. I turned it back on in time to see Madson save Lidge’s a$$. I really thought he would be on a very short leash if he brought him in at all, not that shocked to see Charlie take him out when he loaded the bases.

I did hear Lidge say on the post game show that he feels he is still the closer, so I’m not sure how this is going to play out. He is just a mess right now mentally, imo, I wouldn’t put him out there in any close save situations for a while, if not the remainder of the season.

And isn’t Eyre hurt, sore elbow or something? Any more news about that?

Yeah, Romero’s done.

Also, I never suggested Madson as our “closer”….What I said was that it seemed as though he totally enjoyed and relished his role LAST NIGHT. I can see him being someone, along with others, to come in and save Lidge’s a$$ again….if it comes to that. He ROSE to the occasion.

My issue is that you can not just let Lidge rot. He is owed 25 million over the next 2 years.

Does anyone else think that Lidge is starting the 9th tonight in a save situation? I certainly do.

I do think that the leash is MUCH shorter, ala last night. And I have no problem with that, especially with a healthy Brett Myers.

IMO, leave Madson in the 8th inning role. Have Brett Myers ready for a 9th inning call until it is proven that we can go to Lidge without hesitation. If Lidges succeeds, Myers is preserved and healthy for October, as a backup closer or middle reliever. If Lidge falters some more, you have your closer. Although I think you can alter between Madson/Myers as a backup plan for the 9th, depending on who needs the work out of the pen for the 8th.

Not the greatest problem to have, but not as dire a situation as could be.

Before the 9th inning, they were talking about a blister on Lidge’s finger… certainly no excuse but I think that it’s pretty clear that we haven’t seen the last of Brad Lidge in the 9th inning.

Look, he is capable of getting it done… we all know that… but he’s anything but consistent right now. There are going to be nights when he doesn’t have it (last night) and we have to accept that and be ready to deal with it. Charlie did what he needed to do last night and it worked so I have no doubt that he’ll do it again… hopefully, he won’t wait until the bases are loaded. After Lidge hit that second batter, everyone knew that he didn’t have it.

If Charlie is willing to close by committee/situation (bring in Lidge first… if he’s off, go to someone else), then I’m ok with that.