Should Brad Lidge Still Be the Philadelphia Phillies Closer?

It’s a sight that’s become all too familiar for Phillies fans this season: Brad Lidge walking off the mound after a blown save.

Lidge recorded his seventh blown save of 2009 on Tuesday night against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley, but fortunately didn’t record his fifth loss.

Ben Francisco made up for the righty closer’s struggles by homering in the top of the 12th to put the Phillies ahead 4-3, a lead that Chad Durbin successfully saved in the bottom half of the inning.

Lidge’s season thus far has been an extremely far cry from his output last season, which of course, everyone knows was perfect.

Coming into this year, Phillies fans almost instinctively knew the perfection wouldn’t last forever, and it’s safe to say no one expected him to be perfect again. But they certainly expected better numbers than they’ve seen.

I’m not going to sit here and quote statistics. If you’ve been watching all season you’re aware that they’re less than spectacular, and in some cases they’re the worst in the league among relief pitchers.

What I will discuss is what I think might be wrong and what could potentially be done.

Let me start by saying that this is by no means a time for the Phillies to panic.

Despite a horrid stretch lately, they still hold a 3.5-game lead in the NL East Division over the Florida Marlins, and a 4.5-game advantage over the Atlanta Braves. The New York Mets, a preseason pick to contend for the division title, are a distant 11 games back in third place.

I do, however, think there is some reason for concern going into the final stretch of the season. As last season showed, an effective closer is a cornerstone to building a successful playoff run.

For whatever the reason Lidge just doesn’t seem to have it this year. He was shaky at best before spending 15 days on the disabled list with a knee injury, and hasn’t been much better since. You almost wonder if his knee ever truly healed.

Perhaps his struggles are related to a nagging injury. Perhaps it’s something else: confidence.

Last season, Lidge’s confidence couldn’t have been higher. He had a swagger on the mound. He knew he could get you out. It was all a matter of how he was going to do it.

This season, Lidge has looked more like the pitcher who couldn’t find the strike zone to save his life in 2006 and 2007, the two seasons that followed a 2005 National League Championship with the Houston Astros.

He’s simply looked lost out there on the mound. Maybe it’s the dreaded “World Series Hangover.” Whatever it is, it’s got to be taken care of if the Phillies want any chance at a repeat.

I admire Charlie Manuel for sticking with Lidge and continuing to have faith in him, because Charlie’s an honest guy, and so is Lidge. You know that Lidge is giving everything he’s got every time he takes the hill.

However, his best just isn’t good enough this year, and I honestly don’t know what he can do to change that. If he is indeed hurt, he probably can’t do much. If not, he needs to find a way to dig deep and get that extra adrenaline rush that made him so devastating in the past.

Or maybe he just needs some motivation. Just take a second to imagine what might happen if Brett Myers came back healthy and on schedule and Manuel elected to give him a shot at the closer’s role.

What do you think Lidge would do? Would he continue to struggle? Or would that push him to do that much better?

In either case, the odds are in favor of the Phillies that one of them would prove successful in the role, as they’ve both done it in the past.

Or maybe they could go in a completely different direction and go with a closer by committee approach. It’s not the best option in my opinion, but if it’s what ends up working for the team then I’m all for it.

Of course, this could just be my eccentric nature getting the best of me.

Maybe Manuel’s faith in Lidge will finally be rewarded, and he’ll go perfect for the remainder of the season and playoffs (if indeed they hold on to make them).

Maybe there’s no cause for concern at all, but I’m still questioning whether or not Brad Lidge should remain in the closer’s role.

What I do know for sure is that the Phillies need a competent closer; they need a confident closer; and they need for those two to be the same closer. Who fits the bill doesn’t matter to me, as long as they can get the job done.

Phillies Prevail in Extras Again; Mets May Shake Up Bullpen

On the strength of yet another Raul Ibanez home run, the Philadelphia Phillies took down the New York Mets on Thursday night for the second-straight game. It also marked the second night in a row that righty reliever Bobby Parnell took the loss.

In a postgame press conference, Mets manager Jerry Manuel pleaded with General Manager Omar Minaya to make some drastic changes to the bullpen, either by cutting or designating all relief pitchers for assignment, with the exception of Francisco Rodriguez.

“He’s been the only guy worth a damn out there late in the game. Putz has been nothing but a putz all year, and now he’s hurt. We’d be better off if we had Shawn Green, the former outfielder, pitching for us instead of Sean Green the pitcher. And you knew it was only a matter of time before Bobby got touched up. He’s really not that good and that’s all there is to it.”

You can’t blame Manuel for being a little incensed. K-Rod pitched two scoreless innings on Wednesday and another on Tuesday, but the Mets only won one of those games. Late-inning meltdowns by pitchers not named Rodriguez effectively cost the Mets this series.

I guess the weight of 24 other men is a lot to carry on one set of shoulders. Don’t get me wrong, K-Rod is a strong man. I just think his back will blow out eventually, probably sometime around Sept. 1. He has already been telling trainers that he experiences spasms from time to time.

Johan Santana echoed K-Rod’s sentiments and has decided to sew shoulder pads into his jerseys to reduce the stress on his bones from the added weight. He has also reportedly been talking with Sammy Sosa about the finer points of corking bats in an effort to boost his run support.

No word on whether any roster changes will occur, but the trade deadline is looming less than two months away. When asked about his thoughts on that, Minaya responded, “I never got interested in stocks. Wall Street is on the other side of the river.”

West Coast Road Trips: What True Fans are Made Of

There are a few times a year when a baseball fan’s will is tested.

The biggest, of course, is the offseason, a bleak four and a half months without meaningful games (spring training doesn’t count).

The second biggest is the All-Star break, which means four whole days with only one meaningful game (that shouldn’t be meaningful, thank you Bud Selig) and a home run derby, both of which are fun to watch, but still nothing compared to the pennant race.

And finally the third, which can happen any number of times throughout the season, a cross-country road trip.

A road trip like this can affect either east coast or west coast teams, and both in different ways.

As the Phillies departed Philadelphia for San Diego after sweeping the Washington Nationals over the weekend, I found myself planning out my week days in advance just so I would be able to sit down and watch my favorite team.

Let me give you a short background of my life: I don’t live a typical normal life because I work the second shift. I live in the Philadelphia area, so that means I’m working from 2 PM until 11 PM EST Monday through Friday.

Doesn’t sound like the best shift to be a baseball fan when most of the games start at 7:05 PM, right? You’d think I’d be better off with my team three hours behind and not seeing the first pitch until after 10:00 EST.

However, things at work really slow down after 6 PM, so I usually don’t miss very much. If I don’t have the game on TV, I’ll listen on the radio in case things do get busy.

After work, I take about an hour to do a light workout and perhaps another hour after that to catch up on all the other happenings in the sports world. Usually I turn in at about 2 AM.

So as you can see, I’ve developed a pretty good routine that adequately allows me to support my team and keep myself in stable condition physically and monetarily.

But this schedule doesn’t work when the Phillies are on the west coast, like they happen to be this week. I’ve completely changed my lifestyle for the next four days just to show my support for my team.

I worked out before work today. I woke up a little later just in case the game went into extra innings and I had to stay up later. I didn’t eat breakfast until noon. Luckily I was rewarded with a Brad Lidge save against the San Diego Padres at around 12:30 AM Eastern.

I’ve done a similar routine to this in past seasons, and usually I’ve been rewarded for my efforts. Even last season, when I stayed up to watch the Phils get swept by the Dodgers, I reaped a reward…at the end of October.

When I started thinking about how tough this is on myself—OK, it’s not actually that tough, it just feels weird—I started thinking about what it has to be like for west coast fans when their teams travel east.

A normal west coast first-shift worker might come home at 5:30-6ish to eat dinner and then tune in to watch the game at 7. But if their team is on the east coast, the game might be over by 7.

It’s the other side of the equation, almost like a parallel universe. If you think about it, it’s almost like a six hour swing.

And I think I have it tough… If anyone from the west coast is reading this, I would love to hear your thoughts on east coast road trips.

Someone once told me that sports affect different people on different levels, and I’d like to think that I’m affected by sports on several levels.

One, I obviously love it when my team wins. It makes me feel good.

Two, I get a sense of accomplishment when I can do something like this and follow through with it while not really changing what I’m doing or anyone around me.

Three, deep down somewhere my team knows that they have fans like me who will do whatever it takes to support them, and that makes me feel better than anything.

Baseball has always had a grueling regular season, and the players aren’t the only ones who feel the pressure of it. There are plenty of fans who also make sacrifices for their team.

You’ll hear a lot of players say that it doesn’t mean anything to play the game if you can’t please the fans while you do it. I feel that I owe them that much to support them as best I can.

So if they’re near to home or far away, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be watching. Because not even a road trip can separate me from my team.

Philadelphia Phillies Need Pitching To Step Up Against LA Dodgers

In October of last year, the Phillies defeated the Dodgers to win their first National League title in 15 years. You know the rest of the story.

Tonight, the Dodgers will begin a three-game visit to Citizens Bank Park, their first trip to Philadelphia since last year’s NLCS.

Obviously, it’s not the playoffs, but for the Phillies, it might as well be. Los Angeles comes to Philadelphia sporting a 22-11 record, good enough for the best in baseball. Meanwhile, the Phillies are mired at a game over .500 with a 15-14 record.

It’s no secret that the Phillies have been inconsistent in all facets of their game so far this season, but this is a chance for them to show that they can compete against a strong team. A playoff mentality sometimes brings out the best in players, and it’s that kind of attitude that they will need to be successful against the Dodgers.

Not to be overlooked is the absence of the Dodgers’ superstar slugger Manny Ramirez, which is no doubt an advantage the Phillies will look to exploit. That topic will be explored ad-nauseum by everyone else, so let’s look at the other side of things.

As far as hitting is concerned, this is really anyone’s series to take. Both teams are in the NL top 10 in batting average, RBI, and runs scored. The bigger story will probably be pitching, as it usually is.

In this area, the teams couldn’t be more different. The Dodgers are tops in the NL with a 3.77 ERA. The Phillies, well, they’re second-to-last with 5.39.

The Dodgers pitchers have earned a complete game and three shutouts. The Phillies have yet to accomplish either feat.

The Dodgers have given up a stingy 22 home runs, also best in the NL. The Phillies are the worst in this category, having allowed an incredible 53 long balls. That’s 15 more than the next closest team, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Obviously without Manny in the lineup, pitching becomes a little bit easier. However, the Phillies can’t take anything for granted. LA has the ability to counter great pitching with great pitching.

As of right now, the matchups are as follows:

• Game One: Clayton Kershaw (LAD, 1-2, 4.91 ERA) vs. Chan Ho Park (PHI, 0-1, 6.67 ERA)
• Game Two: Randy Wolf (LAD, 1-1, 2.95) vs. Jamie Moyer (PHI, 3-2, 7.26)
• Game Three: Chad Billingsley (LAD, 5-1, 2.45) vs. Cole Hamels (PHI, 1-2, 6.17)

As the numbers suggest, Los Angeles is in the drivers seat on the pitching mound. Here’s a closer look at the projected starters:

The youngster Clayton Kershaw will take the hill for Los Angeles in the series opener. After a rocky start to his season, it appears he has found his game, having allowed just one run combined in his last two starts. He finally earned his first win of the season in his last outing.

Kershaw will be opposed by Chan Ho Park, who is still looking for his first win this year. Park is coming off an unfortunate start in which he allowed no earned runs and struck out five in six innings against the rival New York Mets, only to see that performance squandered by the bullpen and the Phillies’ lack of offensive production. They lost 1-0.

Game two will see Randy Wolf return to face the Phillies for just the second time in his career. Wolf spent parts of eight seasons in Philadelphia early in his career. He has also been pitching well lately, having allowed only two runs combined in his last three starts.

On the other end of the spectrum is the veteran Jamie Moyer, who has allowed 12 runs in just eight innings of combined work in his last two starts. Believe it or not, Moyer is tied for the Phillies lead in wins with three, a mark equalled by reliever Clay Condrey.

The series finale will be a betting man’s affair, as a pair of aces will take to the hill in Chad Billingsley and Cole Hamels.

Billingsley has been lights out this year, and hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his seven starts this season. His first loss came in his last outing, where he still gave up just three runs on eight hits. He has come into his own this year, and is absolutely Cy Young material.

Hamels has been making a comeback after an atrocious start to 2009. After allowing 12 runs total in his first two starts, he’s let in just four in his last three. He picked up the Phillies’ only victory in a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves last weekend.

On paper, the Dodgers obviously have the big advantage. But that’s why they play the games. You can’t win on paper. The Phillies have shown that they get up to play in big series, and there is no time like the present for that to happen.