How Charlie Manuel Has Destroyed Brad Lidge.

Okay, it’s been said far too often, but enough is enough! In the back, or perhaps the front, of every Phillies fan’s mind each time that Brad Lidge takes his ninth inning walk from the bullpen to the pitchers mound is the collective thought that “He’s going to blow it”. There is one man, however, that still believes Brad can get the job done.

Phils’ manager Charlie Manuel has stuck by his guy through an excruciating season that has seen Brad Lidge blow eleven games and rack up and earned run average of 7.48. These are numbers that would have most guys looking for a job, or at least trying to work things out in the minors by now. One has to think, however, that even “Stand-by-me-Charlie” has to see what’s happening here.

For the past couple of weeks, Manuel has flip-flopped between replacing Brad as the closer and sticking with him. Even in his attempts to give some other guys a shot at closing, however, Manuel seems to be married to only one other player for that role. Ryan Madson, who has blown six saves himself this season is the only other guy that Manuel has tried. Perhaps Charlie doesn’t know that there are more than just two guys in his bullpen, but after Madson struggled mightily in the role, which was no surprise to anyone, he went right back to letting Lidge hang out there on Wednesday night in South Florida to implode and give the game away to the Marlins.

There seems to be a recurring theme in the Brad Lidge discussion this season and that is his confidence. Many people have reported that it will hurt Lidge’s confidence to take the closer job away from him. As we approach a semi-nail biting finish to this 2009 season, the question must be asked: Isn’t it hurting his confidence to continually put him out there to blow games for this team? It’s not as if Brad Lidge is an idiot and doesn’t know that he is having an awful year. Continuously setting a guy up to fail is not only terrible for his confidence but is also just flat out mean.

The problem at this point with replacing Lidge is that the only other guy Charlie has attempted to use as a closer is Madson, who has been terrible in that role this season in his own right. Charlie Manuel, instead of exploring potential backup plans to Brad Lidge sooner has now let the season fly right on by and hasn’t the slightest clue whether anyone else on the pitching staff can handle the pressures of closing out ballgames. Whether Charlie wakes up in the next week or so and realizes that he’s heading into the postseason with a gaping hole in the back end of his bullpen or continues to ignore the problem doesn’t really matter. The fact is, unless they at least try something, perhaps anything, they will lose in the playoffs, end of story.