Lidge, Confidence and the Team

Phils' skipper Charlie Manuel continues his mantra that Brad Lidge is his closer and he has confidence in him. What else is he going to say?

But what of Lidge's teammates. My friend, PK, was at Saturday night's disastrous blown save loss. Here's what he says:

I was here tonight for the disaster. I knew it was over as soon as the leadoff guy got on base.

Most importantly, I watched the team's reaction. They gave up on Lidge. They didn't act surprised. Just slowly walked off the field
dejected. Charlie has to make it stop. The team doesn't believe in him. It's obvious. If he won't pull the plug, Ruben has to cut Lidgeand eat the salary.

 

It's really hard to explain in email, but his teammates have given up on Lidge. It's entirely visible in person.

I'd estimate it took Werth 5 mins to walk from deep CF to get to the dugout. You could almost sense his conversation with himself: I've not been traded, I've got 2 months left with this team and I really wanna win a Series again, yet this douche bag is blowing games. JRoll had a similar stroll from SS, as did Raul. It's very visible that the players don't want to play behind Lidge anymore. Which is why Charlie's loyalty routine is so silly. He has to be loyal to the guys who are producing like Werth, JRoll, Howard. Not Brad.