Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Brad Lidge
Brad Lidge is an American relief pitcher for the Major League Baseball Houston Astros.
Born Bradley Thomas Lidge on December 23 1976 in Sacramento, California. Lidge attended Notre Dame and was the Houston Astros top pick in 1998, taken 17th overall. He missed parts of his first four professional seasons with injuries, including a broken forearm that threatened his career. Although he has had problems with injuries in the past, he has recently proved himself as a dominant bullpen pitcher. When Billy Wagner was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, Lidge became more crucial to the success of the team. Despite spending half of 2004 as a setup man and the other half as a closer, Lidge set a new National League record for strikeouts by a reliever (157), passing Richard "Goose" Gossage's 151 punchouts set in 1977. Skeptics claim that given a few 2 inning outings, and an injury free throwing elbow, Lidge could very possibly double these numbers in 2005.
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details