Relieving Perfection, 41 of 41 for Lidge in 2008

 

  Both pics I took of Brad Lidge in the 2009 season at home in Philly, the fans still supported him which was great to see

  Brad Lidge was far from perfect in 2009, but as Phillies fans we can never lose sight of the ‘perfect season’ he had in 2008. He was the stopper, the one we counted on to go out there and save the game for us and that’s just what he did.

    From the first game of the season in ‘08 till the very last game of the regular season, Lidge stayed true to his mission. Lidge had more saves in a season in his career only once, when he saved 42 games for the Astros in 2005. Lidge turned in a perfect season for the Phillies in 2008 though, he went 41 save opportunities and coverted them all to saves, the whole season was perfect for him. It was the first time that a Phillies closer had a perfect season.

    The ‘save’ by a relief pitcher is a relatively new term in baseball, it’s been around from 1969. It is rare for a team’s closer to have a perfect season. Eric Gagne was perfect in saves for the Dodgers in 2003, he was 55 for 55. Lidge is currently number 40 of all time leaders with saves at 195, he has a long way to go to catch Trevor Hoffman who has an incredible 591 saves to lead all of the majors.


    Here's the two seasons so far Lidge has been with the Phillies:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	Awards
2008	31	PHI	NL	2	0	1.000	1.95	72	0	61	41	69.1	50	17	15	2	35	92	AS,CYA-4,MVP-8
2009	32	PHI	NL	0	8	.000	7.21	67	0	55	31	58.2	72	51	47	11	34	61
8 Seasons				25	28	.472	3.56	517	1	322	195	529.0	432	228	209	51	239	714
162 Game Avg.				3	4	.472	3.56	68	0	42	26	69	57	30	27	7	31	94
HOU (6 yrs)				23	20	.535	3.30	378	1	206	123	401.0	310	160	147	38	170	561
PHI (2 yrs)				2	8	.200	4.36	139	0	116	72	128.0	122	68	62	13	69	153

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/26/2009.



   Brad Lidge seems like he's been a Phillie for a long time, but in fact he's only been on the team for two full seasons. Brad Lidge came to the Phillies on November 7, 2007 along with Eric Bruntlett from the Houston Astros for Geoff Geary, Michael Bourn, and Mike Costanzo (minors). Michael Bourn has been a good catch for the Astros as he won a Golden Glove for them last year and had 61 stolen bases.