Brad Lidge to the booth? Timing not right

Looks like you can cross Brad Lidge off your Phillies announcer wishlist. The former closer told Ryan Lawrence of the Daily News that "the timing right now is tough."

Lidge was mentioned as a candidate to replace color commentators Chris Wheeler and Gary Matthews, but from the sounds of it talks never went too far.

"My family and I are finally getting settled in Colorado and it’d be tough right now to change that,” Lidge told Lawrence. “Even as cool of an opportunity and as much as I love being in Philadelphia.

"... They wanted to talk about it and see where I was at on it. I didn’t want to take them on a long route."

Lidge is a great talker and is beloved in Philadelphia for his perfect regular season en route to the 2008 World Series.

But it appears there was never much traction to the rumors.

Comments

[MG]

Renovations at Reading a few years ago really added a nice touch & update to the stadium too. One of the nicer minor league stadiums I have been to despite being one of the oldest now on the East Coast too.

[bay_area_phan]

There are 30 teams and 150 starting pitching spots in the major leagues so, by definition, any starting pitcher in the top 30 is a No. 1. Reasonable minds could certainly debate who the top 30 starting pitchers are but, based on his overall body of work, I'd be hard-pressed to say that Hamels isn't one of them.

[NEPP]

Hamels is a #1 and this entire debate is just silly.

[Unikruk]

New topic, then! Wonder if Vernon Wells could help us any? :)

[bay_area_phan]

Well, I just wasted 15 minutes of my life trying to come up with a list of pitchers who have a semi-plausible case for being better than Hamels -- only to have the list get lost after I hit post. The short of it is that I could only come up with 29, and I was being really, really charitable by including rookies or near-rookies (Fernandez, Harvey, Teheran, Iwakuma, Griffin, S. Miller), guys with injury issues (Harvey, Cueto), guys coming off bad years (Cain, Sabathia), and guys who surely aren't better than Hamels but I stretched to say they might be (Kuroda, Medlen, Lohse, Sanchez).

In short, I created as expansive a list as possible and I still couldn't come up with 30 better SPs. That means he's a No. 1.

[derekcarstairs]

Hamels has been one of the top ten or 15 pitchers in all of baseball over the last few years. Whether or not he's a no. 1 is a matter of semantics.

My definition of a no. 1 is the same as BAP's: if you are one of the top 30 starters, you are a no.1.

While many do not, I draw a distinction between a no. 1 and an ace. An ace, to me, is a guy consistently shuts down the opposition, throws a lot of innings, strikes out a lot of guys, has a low ERA, and does not give up many hits or homers.

By my definition, Hamels has not been an ace except for post-season 2008 and 2011 before he went on the DL.

aksmith may be calling a top 30 pitcher who is not an ace a no. 2. If so, the disagreement here is just one of semantics.

I guess the real debate about Hamels, if there is one, is whether or not he has been a top ten to 15 pitcher for most of his career.

[Sil]

I agree that Hamels is a #1, but one thing no one can debate is that Adam Eaton is #2.

[derekcarstairs]

Pitchers who I consider aces are -

1. Kershaw,
2. King Felix,
3. Verlander,
4. Darvish,
5. Lee,
6. Harvey,
7. Fernandez, and
8. Wainwright.

Pitchers who were recent aces, but no longer are -
1. Halladay,
2. Lincecum,
3. Santana, and
4. Sabathia.

Strasburg is a potential ace, but he hasn't shown enough. Weaver and Price are close.

After these guys, there are another 20 guys who can be called no. 1s. Hamels would be near the top of this group.

[bullit]

i'd be interested to know where bap gets this notion that amphetamines like adderall or any of the oldies like black beauties, robin's eggs, etc. produce merely a placebo effect. i.e. that players simply think they are performing better.

[Spiro Agnew]

Olberman doesn't like the move

" . . . Cabletown . . .
The broadcasters you just fired are
better than the team you're
putting on the field next year "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcKLiTHaEN0

[Al Gore]

WGAS what Olberman thinks.

He's an arrogant, narcissistic piece of sh8t, who got canned at his last job because he's a prima donna of the first order and no one watched his show.

His motto: "If it ain't about Keith it ain't."

[Meyer]

Well, you can cross Olberrman off the list of replacement candidates for Wheels. Must have hit a raw nerve for KO to vent his spleen like that in front of a camera.

[Sil]

Olbermann must've owned stock in Wheels' toupeé company.

[Marianne Magill]

I am delighted to be able to turn on the sound of the games again. Wheeler drove me crazy - his constant babbling, his belief he was a seer - and able to tell what everyone was saying, thinking and about to do - he should take he talets to Vegas!

I'd love to see "Botalico" get the position.
He tells it as it is. I vote for Ricky Bo!

[aksmith]

Yeah, I had a post about what the difference between an ace and a #1 starter is and I think it got deleted.

I misstated what I was trying to say before. Hamels is a #1 pitcher who falls just short of being an ace. He did have one ace type post season and one ace type season thrown in among his #1 pitcher accomplishments.

But that being the case, the last time the Phillies actually developed a true #1 or #2 pitcher other than Hamels was Robin Roberts. And I can't think of another one in between. Am I missing someone?

[aksmith]

Well, the Yankees just got a huge gift. ARod suspended for the entire 2014 season. That's what, 30 million back in their pockets to put up for Tanaka?

This just gets better and better. Why couldn't Ryan Howard have used steroids? Is there no God?

[NEPP]

Its more like $25 million than $30...huge gift for them though.

[aksmith]

So, there is almost literally no downside to signing a steroid user in major league baseball. There is, however, a money back guarantee. What a stupid policy.

[bittel]

So baseball essentially just awarded a member team the right to void $25M they otherwise would have to pay a player. Sounds fair.

This is hardly over. ARod will fight it to the death.

[aksmith]

Bittel - And if ARod fights it to the death, and he dies, the Yankees save even more. Yuck.

[aksmith]

Adam Morgan just had shoulder surgery and Shane Watson will soon. That's to of the top arms in the system gone for at least another year if not forever. And, of course, Pettibone ended the season injured. And MAG, the big offseason signing, is a medical question mark, apparently.

And people wonder why it's important to break the bank for Masahiro Tanaka. Go Big Or Go Home. Tanaka or bust. That is all.

[william]

thome