Saturday, June 6, 2009

I've had enough: Ryan Madson for closer

I'm a patient baseball fan. I don't make rash decisions about the value of a player after one good performance or one bad performance. Players shouldn't be traded after an 0 for 5 night and they shouldn't be put in the Hall of Fame for pitching a complete game shutout. I understand that baseball is about trends, and you can't take any one game too hard.

With that said, it's time for Brad Lidge to step away from the closer role for the Phillies. The Phillies entered Friday night's contest against the Dodgers, the best team in baseball, riding a 7 game winning streak and were ready to prove that they were still the World F'n Champions. Enter Brad Lidge in the 9th inning with a lead on both Friday and Saturday, and exit the Phillies with two bad losses. Instead of putting a further stranglehold on the NL East and cementing themselves as baseball's best team, the Phillies took two bad losses and have fallen back towards the pack.

That's why Brad Lidge and his 6 blown saves in 19 tries needs to be removed as closer. The Phillies are too good to let Lidge ruin a shot at repeating as World Champs. The best part about removing Lidge is the fact that they have the perfect in-house candidate in Ryan Madson. Let's make a quick comparison between Lidge and Madson:

Brad Lidge: 26 IP, 7 HR allowed, 14 BB, 28 K's, 6 BS, 1.81 WHIP, 7.27 ERA
Ryan Madson: 27.1 IP, 0 HR allowed, 9 BB, 29 K's, 1.06 WHIP, 2.30 ERA

I don't care if he fakes an injury and goes on the DL or they send him to the minors to "find himself", the Phillies need to make the change. NOW.

Go on Twitter and join the movement! Let's see if we can make #ryanmadsonforcloser a trending topic!

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