I believe he meant Victor Zambrano.

I hope.

If I ran a team I'd see if I could pick this guy up cheap. His peripherals are still good. If he isn't hiding an injury.

Well, yeah. The dude's upside is still ridiculously high. If I were any other GM, I'd try to get him for up to $2M/year any day of the week. Even if he's buried in the minors trying to find his stuff.

I think a lot of people already forgot how truly SICK his '04 season alone was. 157K's in relief. There was a stretch where Cardinals hitters were like 5 out of 76 off him. Now, like 5 Cardinals players have 76 career hits off of him apiece.

I'd be willing to take a chance with him, let him work his way up from middle relief. Unfortunately, I don't think he'll get over that one swing anytime soon - this situation is why I hate long-term deals for closers.

my point was more that he wasn't even pitching that badly last year, but whatever.

He really, really pitched bad last year. I know his save numbers were good, but he was shaky almost every time out. There were plenty of times where he came in to a non-save situation and did terrible. He almost never had 1-2-3 innings. His control and speed were unquestionably not what they were B.P. He's just not the same pitcher.

agfskjgskj


go look at his [censored] strikeout and walk stats, while not as good as they used to be they were still pretty good. HRs were a problem, though.

maybe if I say this five more times people will notice.

Instead of just looking up his stats, try watching him pitch a few times. You'll know what I'm talking about. SHAKY.

I'm an Astros die-hard. I agree with the above.

"Math? You want to use math to show that the bridge will hold me? Eff that, I'll prove you wrong with poetry."

I just came up with a great trade :

Lidge and prospects for Rocco Baldelli.


Get it done guys!

dude have u watched an astros game since the pujols moonshot

Has he learned to pitch inside yet? I wonder if he will now that feeding his great-grandkids will depend on it.

His downfall is reminiscent of how Mark Wohlers blew up after a few good seasons as the Braves closer.

wholers was funnier... it really started when he threw a wild pitch during an intentional walk

I've defended Lidge for the longest time, but this is getting ridiculous.

Up 6-2 in the bottom of the 9th, Lidge comes in to get in some innings and promptly gives up a 3-run homer to Prince Fielder.

WTF

Awesome. I have Prince on my fantasy team. Saw he was facing Lidge with 2 on in the 9th and thought "sweet...this should be a 3-run jack."

I sat Prince tonight, that's why he jacked one out.

Whew. We got the win somehow. Never in a million years did I think I'd be saying "ok thank God Biggio knocked in FOUR runs because we'll need ALL of them in the 9th".

Anyway, I think THAY3R proposed Lidge, Albers, Burke, and someone else for C-Craw. I'm almost in favor of ANYTHING that gets B-Lidge out of town.

I'm with you, Dawade... at first I thought Bidge's granny was excessive. lol. Then I saw Lidge coming in and retroactively thought all 4 runs were indeed necessary.

Garner is really starting to get on my nerves though. I've always liked the way he managed this team, but so far this year I've seen him do so many boneheaded things. It's scary. It's like he's regressing. I almost kicked the TV when he left Bradley in there AFTER THE THREE RUN HOMER WITH ONLY 1 OUT IN THE INNING. F***ing put Borko in there and let's hurry up and get out of there with a "W". Jesus. Instead, he ends up making Lidge, Mulletted Lefty, and Qualls throw unnecessary pitches.

He must have really good blood pressure to be able to cause such stress late in games.

The good news is, the Astros are on a serious tear. And this is with Woodrow Williams pitching like a AA pitcher, and Jennings and Sampson hurt, AND with a cold Sir Lance-a-lot.

Update on Lidge:

He has lowered his ERA from 10.13 on April 22, to 3.38 presently (May 17).

From Apr. 23 to now, here are his stats (as non-closer):

12 outings
13-1/3 IP
9 H
2 BB
21 K's
1 ER

From May 4 to now, here are his stats:

7 outings
7-2/3 IP
3 H
1 BB
10 K's
0 ER

Maybe closing ain't his thing. Seems to be pretty solid since moving back.

As long as he's getting quality innings in, I don't care when he comes in. The whole idea of having to have a designated closer is one of the stupidest things in baseball anyway. Managing players is about putting them in positions where they'll succeed, not tying "to get them saves."

Yeah, but keep in mind that the best use of your best reliever is the situation that leverages their value the most. Also keep in mind that most managers are not smart enough to work this out on the fly and therefore need a rule of thumb to use. The rule of thumb "stick best reliever in when it's a save situation" is probably better than "stick best reliever in when it's a hold situation". Lidge is definitely better than Wheeler, and he should be used in the places where he increases their win probability the most. That happened more when he was a closer than now.