If you were listening very closely, you would've heard a determined cheer from a small group of San Francisco Giant fans when John Lackey signed with the Boston Red Sox.
When the 31-year-old right-hander decided to take the (most) money and run to the East Coast, the last hanging chad from that brutal 2002 World Series was clipped and the October cluster-fornication could be forgotten, once and for all.
For those who've mercifully managed the trick, Lackey was the Game Seven starter who stymied the Gents and helped deliver the coup de grace after the infamous Game Six unraveling.
Consequently, the man was a nagging little reminder under the Halo.
The Twin Troys (Percival and Glaus) may be gone. Scott Spiezio, Garret Anderson, David Eckstein, Darin Erstad, Tim Salmon, and Francisco Rodriguez may all be memories gathering dust with them. But Lackey kept popping up in that same damn uniform to haunt us.
No more.
Of course, the trade has real-life implications as well. It's not merely official closure for a group of possibly manic die-hards.
John Lackey can and does twirl sparkling gems on regular occasion. The problem is that he has to be watched closely or at least consistently to be really appreciated. If you gather your intelligence from highlights, the dude won't blow your skirt up because he doesn't possess the "wow" elements.
The radar gun won't light up the night and nobody will ever confuse Lackey's arsenal with that of a guy like los Gigantes' Tim Lincecum or, say, the Los Angeles Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw. That's not to say the new Beantowner's stuff is pedestrian—far from it.
Nevertheless, if you gauge your hurlers by velocity and filth, you will overlook John Lackey.
Mistake. Big mistake.
Too often, these two elements are seen as prerequisites to a successful career when, in reality, they are only advantages. Possibly significant advantages, but Major League Baseball's history is rife with stellar right and left arms that amounted to exactly squat. Likewise, the record books are full of chuckers who didn't dazzle, yet got the job done with the best of 'em.
One of the most dominant pitchers of my lifetime (Greg Maddux) is a testament to one simple observation: hitting a baseball is insanely difficult, so every hitter has a weakness.
Unless your name is Albert Pujols or a close approximation, you can be had by any pitcher with the right combination of velocity, movement, and control, plus a brain capable of exploiting the holes in each splinter.
It's a sliding scale and one on which John Lackey measures extremely well .
Hit the link and you'll see for yourself. But Boston's shiny new acquisition hasn't registered an earned run average north of 4.00 since 2004 and he hasn't seen his WHIP finish above 1.30 since 2005.
Lackey hasn't been plying his wares in the treacherous American League East, but he has been doing it in the Junior Circuit with it's designated abomination...ahem...hitter.
Nothing quite compares to the AL East, but anyone who can pitch to a sub-4.00 ERA and a sub-1.30 WHIP in the AL is someone with whom to be reckoned. The stud who can do it for four consecutive years?
Sign him up.
The only concern is the injury bug that's cost Lackey about 40 of his customary 200+ innings in each of the last two campaigns.
The disabled list is a bugaboo that terrifies every starter, so a horse who's already gone down twice is legitimate reason for pause. But remember the laundry he now wears—the Sox' bullpen and rotation is uniquely configured to ease the stress on the individual by spreading it over the collective.
Surely general manager Theo Epstein has another trick up his expensive sleeves so the roster is probably still in a state of flux. However, the stable includes Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Tim Wakefield in the starters' paddock.
The bullpen bristles with Jonathan Papelbon, Ramon Ramirez, Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima, and a collection of other viable candidates for sudden emergence.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is what you call a "buffer"—both to take innings off of healthy arms by deploying a ferocious 'pen and to absorb innings lost to injury. It's currently so enormous the eventual leveraging of a piece (or more) won't matter.
Further diluting the stink of injury is John Lackey's postseason resume.
Pointing to the cold numbers—78 IP, 29 BB, 53 K, 4 HR, a 3.12 ERA, and a 1.33 WHIP—actually understates the situation, superb though they are.
Consider those 78 innings include a whopping 53 and two thirds against either the New York Yankees or the Red Sox squad he just joined. In those frames (get ready for this), Lackey tallied 36 strikeouts against 23 walks, surrendered three taters, registered a 2.68 earned run average, and a posted a 1.34 WHIP.
In other words, John Lackey has been stellar on the diamond's grandest stage and he's been even better than that against two almost unfair offenses for much of the last decade.
Which brings me all the way back to those San Francisco Giant fans.
We rejoiced because John Lackey once made us cry in the Fall Classic. When he put on the Boston Red Sox uniform for the first time, he finally sealed the door on our bitter nightmare.
But when one door closes, another opens.
That's bad news for Yankee fans and anti-Red Sox the world over.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments