Phillies Nation

If the Phillies are committed to winning, then they need to get rid of Brad Lidge. Either send him down to the minors for additional work or outright release him. He is going to kill us. We have Mattheson down in AAA Lehigh Valley and he is better than Lidge at this point. We went out and got Oswalt. We need to rid ourselves of this albatross. Amaro Jr. needs to put away the sentimentality of what Lidge did in 08 and realize that the guy is cooked. Do us all a favor, including Lidge. Get him out of here. To win, you sometimes have to be cold hearted and this is the time for that hard important decision.

Problem? http://imgur.com/b7ihp.jpg

I was willing to cut Lidge a little bit of slack at first… let’s be honest, after a year as bad as ’09, he came into ’10 walking on eggshells – any mistake at all and he’d be decried as a complete failure. But he has been consistently terrible in ways that cannot be chalked up to anything but pure lack of ability (especially command), and I am back to dreading save situations.

Lidge is unpredictable and inconsistent. One game he looks great and the other he looks horrible. Until top management confront the issue, he is what we have. It stinks but it is what it is! Nice pictures of the bus trip by the way.

Haha yeah Brooks I agree with you, a lot of these bloggers are jokes. They dont really know what they are talking about and just spew junk everyday depending on the situation that second. They always criticize mets fans but they remind me a lot of them.

I have never supported RAJ, never thought he was a good GM, always thought he was going to hurt us in the long run which it looks like it might happen. Charlie on the other hand I have always defended him, always supported him but now I am officially no longer a supporter of him. He is a big reason we are not doing so well this season, he keeps going back to the well when it is dry. With all the injuries and lack of performance by people he needs to change things up but he wont.

But yeah I am too the point where I only read some of the peoples posts, 95 percent of the people on here have NO IDEA what they are talking about and either say we will win the World Series one day and then the next its fire anyone who made a mistake in the last game. Although the writers to write for this site are great. The only reason I still come back.

Just cant keep trotting lidge out there hoping he comes around. phils cant keep giving games away at this point in the season. the idea that..well we pay him alot of coin to close so we’re gonna stick with him no matter what is idiotic. he’s had two years to get right. he helped piss away last year. ya cant afford to let another season go down the shitter just because brad isnt right.

RAJ should take lead from Frank Wren.
We sent down McLouth , and Kawakami. Close
To 12mil+ since they are not helping us.
BTW after a great start even Wagner is
Struggling lately. Could be the heat
Getting to these closers than anyone
Else

Dipsy, you know why we called him “Lights Out” but that is part of our glory history. I like “On the Ledge Lidge” (credit due to another blogger) now.

I don’t think Cholly is an idiot, but he makes some mistakes (OK, sometimes bonehead moves) like everybody else. For the better part of the past 5 years though, Cholly’s record speaks for itself. We got into the WS last year with a worse closing situation than this year. OK, Ledge’s ERA might be heading in that same direction but he does have a W this year!

I’m still sticking by consistent offense – that will get us to the promised land once again. Our starting pitching staff should be able to (he says confidently) take us all the way to the WS.

Awwwww…so sorry that your invasion was spoiled by your joke of a closer. Again, did any of you drunk fans vomit on each other on the way back to Filthy?

Bobby Cox won 19 straight divisions and 1 WS
Sell crazy someplace else.

These are the words.

Thank heavens he didn’t give up the Phils’ top prospect for a suspect talent like Matt Capps, or two players for Dotel, who is little more now than a lefty specialist. Its time we lay off of Amaro.

Well Kerry Wood or Matt Capps they might be the worst.
But when you already have the worst no need to trade.
Why have a suspect when you have a convicted?
He should be available today. Fall in love all over again. Like 2008

Woke up this morning still sick over the game last night. The Phillies fight back to take the lead and out comes Lidge and deflates their tires. I blame dumb Charlie for losing another game. Him and his stupid mentality of ‘Do or Die with Lidge’ stinks. Anyone in their right mind (you don’t even have to know anything about baseball)could see he didn’t have it again. He was struggling from the start and after the walk … dumb Charlie should have pulled him. Anyother manager with good sense would have did it. So, we lost another heartbreaker with Lidge. It’s going to keep happening and keep happening until they realize that this guy just doesn’t have it anymore!

The Nats are by far not the worse. Now, when we lost 3 out of 4 to the Pirates, ok there ya go. But the Nationals aren’t as bad as many people say, not this year. Anyway, Charlie will keep sending in Lidge til September, after another 8 blown saves. He’s gotta break the record of most blown saves in a single season first at least. I seriously think if Jose Contreras starts closing games, we’ll be in business. He was great earlier this year, 3/3 saves, and was being put into a lot of non-save situations also. The think I’m seeing with Brad is if the other team has the momentum, he loses it. Like last night, leadoff hit, then sac-bunt, then walk, then homerun. It always happens. Either that, or 2 outs, then 2-run BOMB, then bases loaded, then FINALLY the 3rd out. Earlier this year we were up 10-4 in Milwaukee and they sent in David Herndon to finish it out, he had allowed a run and loaded the bases with I think none out. Jose came in to close and allowed just the runner from 3rd to score and then got the 3 outs, final score was 10-6. I mean, if Bad Brad came in, I gaurantee the final score would’ve been either 10-9 or 11-10. I have zero confidence in Lidge, he should walk down to Florida.

Can he close?

Brad lidge reminds me of Artie Lange and a steak knife. Over and over

Pretty soon the players will stop trying to win, knowing that Lidge will just come in and blow the game . Good-by season. Thanks, CM. This team has the talent to win no matter who is in charge. My vote is for Ricky Bo. At least He tells the truth and knows when to pull somebody. One other thing irks me, when did Gary Matthews get his bust in Cooperstown??? From the 4th to the 6th inning I get so sick of hearing what a great player he was, how He would manage this team, how He would steal bases, how He would hit, how He would field, etc, etc. In 16 seasons He avg. 19 HR, 78 RBI .281 BA. a year, not to impressive! To hear him talk, You would think He had better numbers than Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Roberto Clemente together. Time for a change, He’s nothing but an old bag of wind.

I cant believe a Mets fan would come on here at all. How are the mets doing? LOL. Are they under .500 yet? LOL. They did lose 14-1 today against the DIAMONDBACKS! LOL. As for “what a difference a day makes”. For some people yes, but some of us have really questioned things last season and this. I questions Cholly last season, and I got ridiculed non-stop. How could I possibly blame Cholly. My point the entire time is not that Cholly is a bad manager, I just dont think he is as great as some want to make him out to be. I had long said last season, Charlie Manuel is a completely different Manager in 09 and 10 versus .08…Why? I believe I lot of it was Jimy Williams. In ’08, Charlie was always sitting next to him, always talking to him, and that could DEFINATELY have something to do with it, that Charlie is better with Jimy there! If you think that a bench coach, or someone classified as a “coach” does nothing, or its ALL the manager, you clearly have never paid attention to the game of baseball. For instance…Don Zimmer. ’nuff said. Don Zimmer has more League Champion Rings, and WS rings than anyone else in recent history, between the Yankees (under Torre), now the Rays under Madden.

It is not just a coincidence that the Yankees won 3 straight titles under Torre and Zimmer after years of a drought. It is no coincidence that the Rays have improved from one of the worst teams (when it was the Devil Rays) to being one of the best (under Madden and Zimmer). If you watched baseball then, and know how the teams operated, there are very noticeble comparisons between the two, how they played, how they operated, and how they were constructed…Those teams were known for SPEED, small ball and squeezes, instead of mostly power.

Is Charlie a bad manager? No I dont think so, but I believe Cholly benefited from a great bench coach, and group of players who had (and really still have) great chemistry, and were good or great players, and played as a team. The questions with this team mostly come from some decisions made, most recently, you have a closer who was CLEARLY off his game, could NOT control the ball at all, gave up a leadoff single, then got one out, and lost the control, with a walk to Kennedy. Sure you look and say first and second, go for the DP…PROBLEM…Lidge had ZERO control in that game. It is not an opinion, it is a fact if you actually watched that inning.