Time for Phillies fans to break up with Brad Lidge

In 2008, Brad Lidge made one of the all-time greatest first impressions a closer can make on a fan base, and first impressions can be a hard thing to shake.

People form strong opinions based on first impressions. Salesmen across the world work hard for that first impression, knowing that the difference between a good first impression and a bad first impression is the difference between having a chance to make a sale and bombing so badly that the next several salesmen pay for it. Think about it: how many times have you formed a strong opinion about someone or something based upon a first impression? Entire industries — TV commercials, movie trailers, and guys picking up girls at bars – are predicated upon consistently winning positive first impressions.

When Lidge was lights out in ‘08 pitching the perfect closer season and hand-delivering my first championship experience as a Philadelphia sports fan, I was thanking my lucky stars. For years, Philadelphia was the place were professional athletes had their worst seasons and biggest playoff disappointments. How else can a town with franchises in each of the four major sports go over a quarter century without winning a championship? If Lidge’s ‘08 season was great to the average sports fan, it was nothing short of legendary for Phillies fans.

Think about it, when Lidge struck out Eric Hinske for the final out of the 2008 World Series and went a perfect 47-for-47 in save opportunities during the regular season and three playoff rounds, he had done what no professional athlete, in my then 24 years of existence, had ever done. Not only that, he left behind his previous struggles the two seasons prior as an Astro and became a reclamation project gone perfectly well for my team.

From the infamous Albert Pujols home run in the 2005 NLCS to right before his trade to the Phillies, Lidge went from one of the game’s toughest closers to a poor man’s Jose Mesa. Once one of the hardest pitches to hit in the league — a fact that allowed the Astros to trade both Billy Wagner and Octavio Dotel (Houston’s 9th and 8th inning relievers, respectively, when Lidge first arrived in the big leagues) — Lidge’s slider was no longer flummoxing opposing batters. His confidence crumbled and Houston demoted him from closer.

It wasn’t until the September before he was traded that he found out, from someone a little too nice on another National League team, that he’d been tipping his pitches. By then it was too late and Houston had already run out of patience. When former Phillies general manager, and current Astros GM, Ed Wade traded him to Philadelphia after the 2007 season for Michael The Bourn Identity (as Chris Berman would say) and quadruple-A pitcher Geoff Geary, the rest was history. Lidge became the best player at his position in both the regular season and postseason as well as perhaps the most important cog in the championship machine in Citizens Bank Ballpark.

So you can forgive me if I’ve been a little easy on the guy. Like the girl who can’t quite help herself from falling in love with the bad boy, Phillies fans had fallen for the bad closer only we just didn’t know it yet.

Let’s take a look at Lidge’s statistics in his three seasons in Philly:

Brad Lidge's Pitching Statistics (2008-2010)

As with most things, time has a way of revealing things for their true selves. The first signs were the MLB-record 11 blown saves and 7.21 ERA. Then came the back-breaking loss in the pivotal game of the World Series. Really, the whole 2009 season was an absolute disaster and a big red flag to any normal fan.

Unfortunately for me, I was no normal fan. Crediting Lidge for much of the ‘08 season’s success, I held out of hope for a return to glory in ‘10. I bought into the logic that he was hindered by a sore knee for much of the ‘09 season and the altered pitching mechanics that resulted from it. Plus I figured that the law of averages had caught up to him and that five or six blown saves — which he averaged his first two seasons in red pinstripes — throughout a whole season is nothing to be ashamed of.

Sure, it looks a little foolish now, but I was living off that incredible first impression, ignoring the warning signs, and focusing only on the positives. In fact, I even mentioned him as one of the keys to the Phillies returning to World Series glory in my completely orgasmic Roy Oswalt trade piece on Thursday. (In hindsight, I might’ve let the excitement get the best of me before that column. This is not the 2004 model Oswalt here.)

But mama didn’t raise no fool. The ‘10 season has been more ‘09 than ‘08. After his blown save yesterday in Washington, Lidge’s confidence is in need of Levitra. And since he can no longer deliver like we need him too, it’s time for us to move on with our lives. Promote Ryan Madsen or Jose Contreras to the closer’s role and give Lidge some setup opportunities in the 7th or 8th. How his role changes, I don’t know, but to keep trotting him out there would be an insult to everyone involved.

At the same time, I wouldn’t completely rule out a return to the closer’s role, provided he seriously turns a corner or if someone finds out he’s been tipping his pitches. It is time, however, that this fan stops deluding himself into thinking Brad Lidge is the closer of a World Series Champion in 2010. Let’s just not go another 25 years without a title until we figure this out.

Tags: Brad Lidge, Philadelphia Phillies