Lidge’s nightmare year now includes arm surgery

What do you do after blowing an MLB-high 11 saves with a 7.21 ERA during the regular season and coughing up three runs to take the loss in your final postseason outing? Well, if you’re Brad Lidge you have your arm operated on. Lidge underwent surgery yesterday to repair the flexor pronator tendon in his forearm and also had “a loose body” removed from his elbow while he was under the knife. He’ll be out of commission for about two months and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. revealed that he may not be ready for the start of spring training. “Brad could be one to two weeks behind in spring training, but overall we feel very good about his recovery time,” Amaro said. “We’re hopeful that he will be ready close to Opening Day.” It’s worth noting that “will be ready close to Opening Day” could mean something entirely different than “will be ready to close Opening Day,” especially if the Phillies’ reported interest in Fernando Rodney proves real. It’ll be interesting to see if Charlie Manuel’s loyalty to Lidge extends to throwing him out there with a ninth-inning lead in Game 1 of 2010 even if the surgery limits him during spring training. And by “interesting” I mean enough to give Phillies fans heartburn all offseason.