Countdown to return of Phillies closer Lidge

CLEARWATER, Fla. - When Brad Lidge had elbow surgery a few days after the World Series ended, the estimate was that he would miss the first 2 weeks of the 2010 season.

After he threw against Phillies minor leaguers in a camp game on Robin Roberts Field at the Carpenter Complex yesterday, that remains a reasonable target, although the closer said he hopes it will be sooner, while conceding it might be a little later.

"Coming into spring training they told me 2 weeks into the season is where you want to be. I'm optimistic, so I was hoping it would be quicker," he said after allowing a hit, a walk and an unearned run in an inning of work. "But we were talking about it the other day. They said, 'Listen, you wanted to be ahead of schedule. That's fine. But the schedule we had you on was 2 weeks into the season. So if that's what happens, that's the right schedule.' Like I said, hopefully I can get back quicker than that. If not, then it's what they said. And, obviously, they're the ones who know a lot more about rehab than I do."

Lidge was encouraged by his slider, but recognizes his fastball isn't where it needs to be. "It felt like one of those days where if I wanted to rear back and throw a really good slider, I could. Ones that would get major league hitters out. My fastball, not quite," he said.

He didn't look at his radar gun readings yesterday, but said he has been consistently between 87 and 90 mph.

"Somewhere in there. I'll want it to be a couple clicks higher before I leave here," he said. He also pointed out that some of that velocity will come naturally as a result of facing real major league hitters in real major league games.

"That's an important aspect we really haven't thought about a lot," he said. "I know [coming off knee surgery] in '08, I couldn't throw harder than 92 or 93 when I left here. Then my first game when I got to the big leagues, I was 95, because I was facing Ken Griffey Jr. with runners on base. You can't simulate that down here. You can't trick your brain into producing that adrenaline. So that is a big factor. And that also means we don't need to see 95 down here, because we know those last couple miles an hour will only come up there.

"So, that being said, as long as we're progressing, going in the right direction and building up, we'll get to a certain point where we know the last couple clicks at big-league level."

Even though several of his teammates who didn't make the trip to Kissimmee for yesterday's game against the Astros were playing an intrasquad game on the opposite side of the minor league clubhouse, Lidge faced hitters from the lower levels of the system.

Jonathan Villar, who split last year between the short-season Gulf Coast and New York-Penn leagues, led off with a double to right, and Nathaniel James, who was also at Williamsport, walked. He then got Leandro Castro (Lakewood, Williamsport) to ground into a force play at second. When Castro stole second, Villar scored from third on a wild throw from catcher Tim Kennelly. He then got Sebastian Valle (Lakewood, Williamsport) and Darin Ruf (GCL, Williamsport) to ground out. In all he threw 20 pitches, 10 for strikes.

Lidge will throw tomorrow and Saturday. After that he'll probably try a two-inning stint or go back-to-back days. At that point, an evaluation will be made. He said he doesn't know whether he'll need to go on a rehab assignment before being activated.

"If the control comes with that velocity, which I think it will, then I probably will feel like I don't need a ton of those," Lidge said. "That, again, is not up to me. They have to see me and make that decision." *