Despite blowing six saves this season, including two in a row, Charlie Manuel says that Brad Lidge "will always be his guy.""His stuff is good. There’s nothing wrong with his stuff. I think it’s important
for him to keep his confidence. I think the opposite of how some other people
think. My way of thinking is if you rest him or do something else with him or
put him somewhere else, I think that can hurt his confidence. I’m speaking right
from my heart. That’s how I look at it because I played 20 years. I think I do
know a little bit about it. His stuff is still good."
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Toree thinks Lidge's problem is his location.
"Last year he was unhittable. I don't know if anybody has gone as perfect as he
did last year. But human beings play this game. His stuff looks good. It looks
quality. He makes good pitches. Right now he's just going through a bad streak."
However, the situation is becoming all to familiar for Brad Lidge. With the Houston Astros, he had a great year, followed by struggles before being traded to Philadelphia.
"The results are starting to frustrate me," he said. "It just seems to be one
thing. [Saturday] it was the slider [Andre Eithier] hit. I don't know. I feel
good, but I know something needs to change in terms of results. You've just got
to get it done, and right now for whatever reason it's not happening."
Even though Ryan Madson has a 2.30 ERA this season, the Phillies look to be sticking with Lidge, for now.
Call of the Day: Manny Trillo hit a huge triple in the 1980 NLCS.
"One strike pitch.. Trillo a line drive! Fair ball, left field
line! (Runner) Scores.. (Runner) being waved around! He's going to
score! Manny Trillo has got a triple! Phillies lead it 7-5! What a
come back by the Phightin' Phils!"
3 comments:
His fastball has the location, but I'm thinking they're just holding off on his real dirty sliders which are swinging strike pitches, balls otherwise. So that forces him to throw his fastball more, but he mostly uses that to setup the sliders he has, and they aren't too sophisticated. So when he throws the fastball, it's either out of the strike zone or it's a meatball. But it seems to me that every hitter in the league that's worth his salt knows about the man behind the curtain, so to speak. What say you?
I agree. I think its a combination of confidence and not getting pitches over for strikes. He gets behind in the count so batters lay off his slider, a chase pitch.
I think Lidge has been unlucky this weekend, but he'll be "Lights Out" again soon.
Post a Comment