The Zo Zone

Typical Philly curse lives on. I bet he tore an ACL or something.

Who is the Phils backup closer?

Bottom line is you can't put any stock in what the Phils say at this time. There's no way they would cop to a serious injury right now, and they sure don't have a reputation for giving the public the straight story.

Let's just hope it's truly nothing serious.

If there is one group of people I have no faith in, it's the Phils's medical staff. "Some irritation in the knee" usually tranlates into a leg transplant.
Hard to beleive , Harry!

if Lidge goes down, they move Myers back to closer, and then need another starter (which they needed anyway). So if he's hurt, the Phils are 2 starters in the hole.

Brooklyn - I think Tom Gordon would be the next guy in line to close.

Honestly, I'm worried about this. I'm sure everyone remembers the Phils being extra cautious about Tom Gordon last pre-season, and that it wasn't anything to be concerned about. He then proceeded to pitch the rest of the season with a partially torn shoulder.

You can't trust anything out of the Phillies in the preseason.

Hopefully nothing to worry about, frankly it's a little early to worry anyway. The back of the bullpen is very good with Lidge, and serviceable without him. Ryan Madsen, J.C. Romero, and Tom Gordon can hold the fort if needed.

Hey jimmymac, Freddy Garcia is still on the market, would you take a chance on him?

The Phillies Phile-

Gordon- not that serios turns into 2 mos on injured list and no back to backs for the remainder of the season.

Myers- not that serious turnd into 2 mos on the disables list and several blown leads in save situations.

Garcia- Declared healthy after physical, we know how that turned out.

The set up guy from Florida (that the the Phillies didn't want to spend the money on) was declared unhealthy after his physical and proceeded to pitch his ass off for the Indians.

Eaton- It all of a sudden is disclosed that he was injured at the tail end of the season, non-disclosure for the first 7/8th of the season.
In other words the Phillies the either lied to the public or didn't correctly diagnose his issue.

In other words the Phillies words are meaningless. They will say anything in order to validate their retread strategy....

You are a retread...

Here we go. Happens every spring. Somebody limps off the field or feels "tightness" and people fly into a full-fledged panic and assume they're out for the year or they tore their ACL. Then a few days later we find out they are fine. I'll worry about whether Brad Lidge is healthy on March 31 -- which happens to be more than 5 weeks from now.

Truth,

Gordon had a rotator cuff injury which everyone knows is serious, then had several back-to-back appearances during the late stretch in September.

Myers strained his shoulder which is obviously serious. You can't seriously blame his injury for blowing saves months after he was hurt. Every closer blows saves.

Garcia didn't even take a physical as a requirement to finalize the his trade from Chicago to Philadelphia.

"That set-up guy from Florida" (Joe Borowski) went to Cleveland to blow eight save opportunities and post a 5.07 ERA in the closer's role.

I guess you really need the Phillies to spell everything out in order for you to understand what's happening.

Houston didn't talk much about it. White Sox didn't talk much about it. El Duque is in trouble. Maybe he didn't catch a cleat at all, maybe his knee is less the the 80% he claims the rest of him is in. One way or another, it doesn't sit well for a guy who has to get up and pitch every day. Will the Mets go for Lohse first or do the Philles Sober up. I bet this will get interesting. You Lohse haters, save it for someone who cares. Lets bring Benson along faster, right.

What a disaster losing Lidge would be. If the Phils have any hope of repeating as champs they need a healthy, effective Lidge. To me, much like a great #1 starter sets up the rest of the starting staff, a very good closer sets up a teams bullpen. I'll bet it's nothing. I've had knee surgery and something like a spike stopping your foot quickly sends a shock wave into your knee and the pain feels like something tore in there. In fact it could be scar tissue tearing. It's alarming when it happens. After a minute he probably could've kept going but now's the time to be very cautious.

I can't wait for the games to begin to find out how the Phils pitching looks. Hopefully, Eaton is healthy and has a good attitude this year. This year is very important for him. If he loses his job as a starter with the Phils he could end up out of baseball.

What is your key offseason aquisition doing throeing batting practice to begin with? This is Bad!

What's the difference? The guy is only a shell of what he was in 2004 and 2005 anyway. Why do you think the Astros unloaded him?
Move the big mouth, wife beater back into the closer role.

Sign Lohse and put Myers back in the Pen right now.

Lidge has a bad knee, it won't get better be Opening Day.

The Astros moved Lidge because he's in his free agent year and they're completely rebuilding. Also you have to consider Ed Wade is the GM. Michael Bourne for Lidge is no great risk on the Phillies part. Lidge should be really focused this year since he'll be a free agent and is going for the big bucks and Bourne, ultimately, is a guy the Phils can replace pretty easy. He can run, not a great baserunner, good fielder, no pop, can't hit for average, mediocre arm. Seemed like a good guy. No great loss. The Astros had no intention of signing him to a long term contract and hoped to get some value for him.

All pitchers throw batting practice at some point Rob, its their way of practicing. This way the pitchers get good practice, and the batters do as well. Now the only way he shouldnt be throwing off a mound is if he isnt fully healed, and it sounds like he wasnt, so that is the bad part. Lets hope it nothing!

In the NFL guys get cartilege surgery on Monday and play the following Sunday. I think Lidge will be ok by opening day.

Myers will not go back to the closer's role unless the Phils have a disaster like last year. Remember in '06 how good he was, particularly in the second half of the season? I wouldn't be surprised if he won between 15 and 18 games this year. He's got #1 starter stuff.

HEY TODD!

Did you know they put your phone number up in some stories, like this one?

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/Brad_Lidge_Hurt.html

Can I give you a call sometime?

The Phils just better get off to a good start or it could be a long summer!! Im soooooo sick of these $hitty starts in April!!

Coop: no interest in Garcia but if this is bad, it certainly should put Losch back on the Phillies radar. Benson is insurance for Eaton, so they would need another starter or seriously have to look at some of the kids, ya think?

Wow everyone is worried. Great point about signing Losch he would be a great addition, much more flexibility. Someone will step it up this spring, check my blog for the latest.

Hey Truth, he will stay in the rotation. They signed Romero to be a reliever (though he will regress to the mean) not a 'lefty specialist', Gordon is there and Madson will bounce back nicely. They'll pick someone else up to help off the scrap heap.

By the way, your act is getting tired. You spout the same stuff over and over and most of the time you have your facts mixed up! The only thing giving you any authority is that you seem to be screaming the loudest. If your life is this effected by a sports team I recommend some serious retrospection.

Peace and love to you.

While I'm all for the Phils to sign Lohse, it would not be to put Myers back in the pen. Reports seem to indicate that the "injury" is minor. Even if he starts the season on the 15-day DL, THERE IS NO WAY THE PHILS SHOULD PUT MYERS IN THE PEN. Closer is the most overrated aspect of baseball.

If Gordon, Romero, Madsen, or any other pitcher the Phils have in the pen can't get three outs and not give up 2 runs (which MOST saves require), then they shouldn't be in the majors.

If you have some time on your hands, analyze how many "Saves" are actually protecting a one-run lead or coming into a jam with the tying run at the plate. You would be amazed that more "set-up" guys do this over the course of a season versus that of "closers". To all those detractors of this line of thinking, I know the 9th inning is very different because teams actually don't really try to score runs in the 7th and 8th innings, but they REALLY REALLY try hard in the 9th.

No way Myers goes back to the closers role unless complete disaster strikes as it did last season.

I personally don't care what Myers did 2 years ago. A lot of athletes are immature. People make mistakes and a guy shouldn't get hammered for what he did 2 years ago especially if he hasn't done it since then. To hammer him now for what happened in the past shows a lack of class.

I like power pitchers. Myers is a power pitcher. He has excellent stuff. He's got an excellent, moving fastball, a devastating curve and a split finger fastball. He can win 15 to 18 games especially with the offense the Phils can generate.

I never liked Mike Schmidt as a person and I don't like Myers as a person. I wouldn't hang around with either guy as my 1st choice. However, watching a guy with talent perform is a thing of beauty. It's one of the reasons I enjoy sports. The trouble is great talent can be in a flawed person. Once in a while spectacular talent ends up in a guy like Chase Utley.

I don't want your tickets, Truth. I'll get my own once in a while and enjoy the game for what it is, to me at least. Something devoid of conspiracy and hate. Just a bunch of guys with unusual God given talent getting after each other to win a ball game.

Jesus Christ people, calm the f*ck down! It's February 23! We are 37 DAYS away from a baseball game that counts! Don't jump off the Walt Whitman yet.

How anyone on this blog has enough knowledge to say Brett Myers drinks too much in February 2008 is beyond me. I'm worried about what he does on the field and last year he had a great year. I agree with Johnny P, it's a total lack of class and respect for other people.

Sometimes when players are rehabbing from orthopedic surgery they loose up scar tissue that formed as a result of the operation. It is actually considered a healthy part of the rehab process. This scar tissue is called adhesions and loosening this tissue up increases flexibility and range of motion.

So it is too soon to panic. It may wind up helping. Give it time.

The quote from Matt S. about the Phillies not having enough money as result of signing Howard was the fan quote of the week in yesterdays Inquirer. The Utley questions were softballs, like what is his favorite food,song,razor,deodorant etc...
I give Eskin credit in his reporting, yes he is completely one sided just like "Zo". Eskin is smart enough to get the stories that matter first. He always gets the first interview with free agents, he had the blurb about Mike Patterson first on Fri. Point is he gets something for toeing the company line. He doesn't have to put question marks in his title's or assume anything. The facts are Zo is a lacky/cheerleader and doesn't even have the ability to get a hot story in return after 6 yrs! Zo instead of cheerleading can you find out whats going on with Lidge and REPORT THE NEWS back to us?
Thanks Pal...

Truth,

It's funny, I was going to defend your right to post here a few days ago... and then I read what you've been writing a little closer.

Why are you here, dude? Seriously. The angry/bitter/shoot-from-the-hip-truth-teller is a little tired, don't you think? Maybe you should try something new - what about the classy, respectful guy? Ever considered that? You know a lot about the game, and the Phillies - good for you. Most of us here do. And most of us are here because this is meant to be fun. Todd makes it fun. He doesn't need me or anybody to defend him, but really - you're using Howard Eskin as a shining example of "good" journalism?

Here's a thought: maybe consider finding another site, Truth. Or start your own. Just one man's opinion. I've pretty much been here since Day One (I know, big-freakin' deal), but I personally love the fact that this blog has taken off the way it has. I like the variety of opinions, all the needless stats, the passion. I like Norma!

Negativity like yours has become a drag, though. It's kind of sad. But you already know that. You live with it every day.

Do you want a hug, Truth?