It was certainly a worthy attempt to add to the bullpen. Brad Lidge, a former closer who had pitched well in limited time last year, seemed like he could be a good addition. He wasn’t just any former closer, he was one who had been great, then got famously rattled after a crushing playoff loss thanks to an Albert Pujols home run, and then turned his career around with 3 more impressive seasons. And in the midst of those 3 was another horrendous one. But throughout the time there were strikeouts, always. Even in his last 2 seasons in Philly – 75 Ks in 65 IPs.
So he had something to teach the young bullpen about overcoming adversity with sheer talent, trusting your stuff, and not letting one bad outing (or season) get you to lose your confidence. Because he had done that, but had come back. So I don’t fault Mike Rizzo for trying him out, and early on, he seemed alright. April resulted in a poor ERA, but that was on the basis of 2 bad out of 7 outings. And he was still striking out a batter an inning. But he walked guys more than ever, then he got hurt, and coming back he looked worse. It didn’t seem that a few blips in April would be evened out by the end of the year anymore, it seemed like they were going to happen more and more.
Posted by Charlie 
