The Phillies are officially in the post-season and I can’t wait for the media attention concerning Brad Lidge’s role in October.  After the B-Man came in to protect a SEVEN RUN LEAD, WITH 2 OUTS, AND NO ONE ON BASE on Wednesday, his ERA dropped to a pristine 7.34 in 57.2 innings.  He makes Rocky Biddle and Shawn Chacon seem competent.  Lidge is blowing away Chacon’s 35 save, 7.11 ERA, 1.94 WHIP season in 2004 in terms of awfulness.  Forget the talk of Lidge’s role out of the pen come next week, this guy shouldn’t even make the post-season roster.  He obviously cannot close out games in the 9th.  He is not going to all of the sudden become magical in the 7th and 8th either.  So if he cannot be trusted in a set up role for your ballclub, what does he bring to the table out of the bullpen?  He is not a long guy and you don’t have time in the playoffs to work on “confidence” and “mechanics”.

I remember seeing him in the 2004 playoffs and thinking the Cardinals couldn’t score off of him if he threw 10 innings in one game of relief.  Last season, he put together arguably the best run by a closer in history.  This year?  He cannot be used with any game on the line.  This goes without saying, but Ryan Madson has to be the finisher in the 9th and perhaps the 8th and 9th.

I hope the NL playoffs comes down to a Lidge-Pujols matchup with the series on the line.  Charlie Manuel has done great things in Philadelphia but if he lets that happen he should check job postings in Houston and Cleveland.

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