I'll admit it, sure. Why not?
After Nady hit the homer and Doumit walked, I was rooting for Don Kelly to hit a 2-RBI double.
And he almost did, and he almost walked him, but then he wriggled off the hook, thanks to the major league's best shortstop going back.
Damn, I wish Kelly's liner down the line had been fair.
See, my thinking was that if Lidge had given up three in the ninth, there wouldn't be be any doubt about who most deserved the blame for tonight's loss.
Reading below, I see Garner's name, I see Everett's name (despite his double). And yeah, I see Lidge's name too, but Christ, I think it should be unanimous.
Now we're gonna hear squawking about the poor offensive showing, we're gonna hear squawking about Chad Qualls, we're gonna hear squawking about Ausmus and Everett and probably even Roger Clemens, when all the talk right now should be about our now undoubtedly failed closer.
He can't do the job anymore. I don't know why, and frankly I'm tired of speculating. But he can't, and the club needs to do whatever it is you do to old closers who can't cut the mustard.
Roundrock his ass, I suppose. Maybe trade him for a Pat Borders, or an Alan Zinter.
I wanted Lidge replaced last year, and when he came back to take the job later on, I thought that was a lousy idea, too, but I deferred--as I so often do--to management. After all, they know so much more about baseball than me. If they think Lidge has worked it out, well then, maybe he has.
Or so went my overly charitable thinking at the time.
An advocate for Lidge (and we have a few) might say that the results last year after he regained the job were inconclusive.
OK, then, lousy year, get 'em in 2007.
And then there was the double digit ERA in the Spring. Well, that "worrisome." That was the word that got tossed around. We were worried.
But frankly, it was hard to get too excited, because the regular season wasn't here.
Well now it's here, and Lidge is back to doing what he did for the greater part of last year, and for all of Spring Training: giving up untimely runs.
It'd be great if you could go back in time and retroactively take the Red Sox offer, when they were desperately trying to keep Papelbon in the rotation. I guess they didn't offer much, but then again, we aren't gonna get much when we send Lidge to Austin, either.
Amd I'm also sure that instead of making this move tomorrow, the club will draw it out for a couple months, finally installing Wheeler into the spot in which is most fit sometime in late May.
I tell you, though: they should skip the bullshit. Get over the fear that Brad Lidge is going to go and be great someplace else. Take a backup catcher for him, or a minor league first baseman. It's readily apparent that he will never be great again in Houston.
Much of 2006 was wasted vacillating over what to do in the closer's spot as Lidge failed time and time again. It's not to early to prevent that from happening in 2007, to be proactive and to prevent the past from repeating itself.
But I think they lack the guts.