Something’s Lack(ey)ing In Boston

Getting straight to business, the line score says all you need to know.  John Lackey‘s ugly performance last night looked like this: 6.2 innings, 118 pitches, 9 hits and 9 earned runs in a 9-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.  Another sub par performance from the struggling righty.  Lackey tells all of us that he is “frustrated with his performance.”  Really?  Lackey is very good at apologizing for his performance, but you never hear an explanation on how he plans on changing the outcome.   All I see is a pitcher that lacks confidence and command of his pitches.
Rewind to the end of Spring Training, when Terry Francona announced his starting rotation.  Jon Lester was the Ace, followed by Lackey, Clay Buchholz, Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka.  I know I was scratching my head after hearing the news.  I wasn’t surprised to see Beckett dropped back, but Lackey the #2 starter, over Buchholz?  That made no sense to me at all. Here we are 37 games into the season and Lackey has a record of 2-5 with an ERA of 8.01.  Not exactly what everyone planned when he signed as a free agent back in 2010.

The Red Sox slogan for this year is “We Won’t Rest.”  Funny, it seems to me that every time we look like we are turning the corner, someone “rests.”  I still stand by the slogan “With great powers, comes great responsibility.”  Comic back saying or not, it is fitting for this team. In reality, we are stuck with Lackey.  No sense second guessing signing him in the first place.

That is just a waste of time.  What we need to focus on is where do we go from here.

There are some options still available.
There is always the sneaky way around things and just put Lackey on the DL for 15 days.  Let him work out whatever is wrong.
I wonder (aloud) if the Sox would ever consider putting Lackey in the bullpen for a while.  Felix Doubront is a natural starter and his ERA in Triple A Pawtucket is below 2.00.  Maybe, it is time to put some fresh blood into this rotation.  It doesn’t have to be a negative thing.  Look what it did for the careers of Dennis Eckersley, John Smoltz and more recently Kerry Wood.  I’m not saying he should be a closer, but there must be some role in the bullpen for him.  If Tim Wakefield can do it, why can’t Lackey?  Maybe an expensive move, but we are running out of options quickly. 

 Time to put egos aside and do what is right for this team.  Do you think Carl Crawford is thrilled to be at the bottom end of the lineup?  But, he isn’t complaining, he wants to do whatever it takes for this team to win.  Knowing you have a pitcher going out there and getting destroyed every fifth day is not good for the team or John Lackey , especially not a team that still can’t get over the .500 mark.

Just a thought.
For all the latest news and analysis from BoSox Injection, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or with our RSS feed.