John Lackey makes his Red Sox debut in tonight’s rubber match versus the Yanks. Nothing like easing slowly into a new role, no pressure here!
I wrote this back in December when the Sox signed Lackey:
Despite playing on good Angel teams, Lackey has only won more than 14 games once in his career (19-9 in 2007). The stats suggest Lackey will give the Sox 13-14 wins per year. That’s a couple more than Tim Wakefield gets…but the Sox will be paying Lackey several million dollars more per year for the couple extra W’s.
One of the more disturbing issues is Lackey’s ability to pitch against the AL East and specifically in certain parks: one of those being Fenway. In his nine career Fenway starts, Lackey is 2-5 with a 5.25 ERA and .314 BAA. Career at the Trop: a lofty 6.75 ERA and .302 BAA. And career stats versus the Yankees: a 4.66 ERA and .289 BAA.
