Comments on: Nats Add Former Phils Closer Lidge to Bullpen

By: Aaron Somers

Aaron Somers — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:32:51 +0000

@SorianoJoe You touched on a key part of this signing to me in that last sentence – how he’s going to help out Storen. Lidge has a good deal of high pressure experience to share. He’s pitched in the playoffs and had to deal with adversity from those experiences (Pujols’ moonshot off the railroad tracks in Houston, for instance). Lidge has battled through most of them. With the Nationals possibly on the verge of being competitive, Storen is going to be closing out bigger and bigger games. He’s going to be facing higher leverage situations more and more. Having Lidge there, even just to chat with in the bullpen during games, should have a great impact on the younger players like Storen, Kimball, and others.

By: Aaron Somers

Aaron Somers — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:32:51 +0000

By: SorianoJoe

SorianoJoe — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:59:45 +0000

The leadership factor is important and that fact alone could have justified this deal. Despite Lidge’s age and injury history, his strikeout rate means that he should be an average reliever in high-leverage situations. He is one of the most clutch relievers in the game, even if he is only mediocre in terms of overall talent at this point. $1 million is almost nothing, which means that the Nats signed a useful reliever for a little bit less than his market value. It was a solid move made by Rizzo and the FO, and Lidge will definitely help out guys like Storen.