Posted by Brian Joseph on Monday, April 13, 2009 at 1:42 pm

Someday Brad Lidge will blow a save… and all of the naysayers will say I told you so conveniently forgetting the numerous times they told us so and they were wrong.

Facts Not Necessary: Even though Brad Lidge hasn’t blown a save in a Phillies uniform which includes an entire postseason, his psyche is still fragile enough that one blown save and the wheels will come off… this has been a running theme throughout his amazing 53 consecutive regular season and postseason save opportunity conversions. First, it was the heightened pressure of a pennant race and then it was the postseason that was going to be the death of Lidge’s run. Now, it is the vicious Philadelphia fans that will be all over Lidge once he blows a save.

To avoid this, I have an idea for Phillies’ fans: Whenever Lidge blows a save, if the game is at home, the fans should give him a standing ovation. This will build Lidge’s confidence back up instantly and avoid this mental collapse that is apparently looming. Especially since the Philadelphia fans are so “tough” on their players, Lidge may never recover from a blown save. This according to the over-analyzing experts who toss around their opinion nonchalantly without concern of recourse if the analysis proves to be false — which it usually does.

Someday an announcer will watch a replay after incorrectly describing a play and amend his call to match reality… and it won’t be SNY’s Keith Hernandez.

Peter Gammons, Super Genius?: I remember reading ESPN’s expert predictions before the season and seeing Peter Gammons’ call that Josh Johnson of the Florida Marlins would win the National League Cy Young. After reading that, part of me thought I need to keep an eye on Johnson, the other part thought I should look back at Gammons’ old predictions and see what other out there choices he’s made. While I haven’t made my way back through any of Gammons’ previous predictions, I did see most of Johnson’s outing on Sunday. Now I know why Gammons made that call.

Someday the stats we value today won’t be the stats we value tomorrow… and the stats department will explain to the talking heads what exactly OPS means before they start using it in their graphics on television.

Bold Predictions, One Week In: Before the season, I liked Yovani Gallardo to breakout and win the National League Cy Young. Then, out of cowardice, I backed off and went with Roy Oswalt. After a week, I’m regretting that decision already. There were two other predictions I failed to share at the time that I’m going to throw out there: The Orioles will lead the Majors in runs scored and the Nationals will lead the Majors in runs allowed. Sure, it’s early but Baltimore has a powerful lineup and if Matt Wieters joins the club by the All-Star break and is half as good as advertised, that’ll just be one more offensive force to be reckoned with. As for the Nationals, one of the MASN announcers commented on Sunday’s game, “You think if Scott Olsen only give up five runs, you have a pretty good shot at winning the game.” There’s not a sentence to better sum up their pitching woes.

Someday someone will steal home again… my money is on Emilio Bonifacio.

What’s Next at BDD?

Two exciting annoucements at BDD this week:

First, we have begun the process of archiving the site in an easy-to-print PDF edition. Each week (with the occasional bi-weekly issue), we’ll make available a downloadable PDF edition of most of the site’s content from the previous. This should make it easier for everyone to catch up on the content at the site if they miss a week or two.

I know personally, the articles are sometimes longer than I’d like to read sitting at my computer and if you’re the same, now we’ve set it up for the content to be available for print.

Second, this Sunday’s Cubs-Cardinals game will also be our first Live Blog of the 2009 season. We got into live blogging late last year during the postseason and the idea was well received with increased attendance for each game.

This year, we’ll be reaching out to other sites and welcome guest hosts to help us with the games. Our first guest host will be Andy Dolan of Desipio.com. I will also be hosting and while no commitments have been reached, I’d expect a handful of other BDD writers to join us. More on this as the week progresses.

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