No more priv-lidges

Times up for Lidge. Look at his post-game comments. Full of everything's fine, but then a lot of "justs" and "buts." Cholly's already taken a bite using Madson and Durbin as closers, and letting Lidge try to work out of his shit in non-save opportunities.

This is untenable. He's not working his way thru it. I'm not saying panic. I'm just saying that he needs to be relieved of closer duties until he works his shit out.

MAybe Cholly will surprise me with some sort of engineering within the existing staff. I hear they are looking at getting Wagner back from the Mets. ?? The guy's been dissing us since he left.

But we're looking at a situation where neither Madson nor Lidge can reliably close. I'd rule out Myers due to injury, and who knows about Durbin, Condrey, Romero and Bastardo's (who no one talks about anymore) injuries. And Moyer ain't no closer.

So my fear is that leaves Park moving toward the closer role, and Moyer taking his long relief stints.

I just think it would have been stronger to leave Park and Moyer where they were, and use Pedro to pressure/relieve Lidge.


Turning to Eagles, think I am officially worried, perhaps without cause.

The OL including the TE is a mess with all the new faces and injuries. While McCoy looked good and Elba (?) as well, they really need another runner besides Westbrook. It's not clear they are ever going to get enough from Booker.

The defense is down its signal caller (Bradley) and longtime spiritual leader (Dawkins), not to mention its revered former coordinator, and mysteriously keeps bringing in/looking at DLs even tho it looks like they are stacked there. I saw one report that they looked at Burgess. ??

OTOH, it was interesting that Vick looked pretty sharp, is already familiar with the WC offense, and Reid called him a QB first. I think Eagles are going to find a way to, besides other things, give Vick 5 or so pass attempts every game. He's gonna play and he's gonna get a chance to throw the ball. This might actually take some pressure off McNabb and help him be better.

But here's how they could blow it. Even tho they realize what I just wrote, they will, out of deference to Donovan, limit Vick unnecessarily until McNabb struggles, as he invariably will. Neurosis follows.

Wouldn't it be better to just use Vick regularly up front, in or out of the red zone, even when Mcnabb is doing ok? The point is, make it about mixing it up purely to put pressure on opposing defenses, rather than having Vick available should McNabb stink the place up. If you do it the way I say, maybe pressure lessens on McNabb. If you position Vick as merely a backup until further notice, he will nip at McNabb's heels all year long.

I have spoken.