Quote:
Originally Posted by RedKingGold
I think the rumor goes that Lidge lost confidence in his curveball after the Pujols bomb and just threw fastballs. Hitters were able to get his timing down and shelled him several times. Phil Garner then messed Lidge up more by demoting/promoting him from the closer role.
After getting traded to the Phillies, Lidge done got his knee injured early in spring training. Lidge then developed that devestating slider, primarily to take pressure off of his knee while rehabbing and in his first early season performances.
Once that leg healed up, he was still able to get high speed on that fastball. However, developing that slider is what made him so effective this year.
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Nah, he's always had the wicked slider (he struck out 157 batters in 95 IP in 2004 largely because of it), but he did have trouble locating it in 2006. His Hit, BB and HR rates all increased significantly in 06.
There are two trains of thought locally regarding Lidge - one that it was a mental thing after the Pujols bomb in the 05 playoffs, but I think that the more logical conclusion was that he had some minor injuries over the past couple of seasons that limited his effectiveness.