John Gonzalez of the Inquirer made a very interesting point in his column in today's paper. He points out that Charlie Manuel is keenly aware of the questioning of why he continues to stand by Brad Lidge as his closer after Lidge's inconsistency this year, but that Chollie really has no alternative but to use Lidge. Lidge has a major league-leading eight blown saves this year, only six away from the major league record. The bottom line is that, with Brett Myers still on the disabled list and J.C. Romero out, there really are no other options available. Since Ryan Madsen was even worse than Lidge as closer, Manuel really has nobody else to turn to.

He's very much aware that unless Lidge turns it around, or the Phillies find another closer (such as Billy Wagner), the Phillies will be in serious, serious trouble come October. Charlie's heard the questions coming from the likes of me. "I'm trying to find out what those options are," said Chollie. "I get a lot of help--suggestions." That's probably true--there are plenty of armchair quarterbacks like me out there.

So, the Phillies either need to get busy trying to find someone like Billy Wagner to take over the role of the closer, or they just need to suck it up and hope that Lidge gets his act together and becomes effective for the first time this season. Hey, a guy can hope, right?