My first article for Fire Brand came back in August, when I decided to touch on the inconsistent season of John Lackey. It wasn’t the best of debuts for Lackey, who had just signed a five-year $82.5M contract in the offseason. However, Lackey did turn things around late and, as it turned out, his 2010 season was far from a failure. With the discussion ongoing as to who will win the 2010 Fire Brand award, it seems like unfair practice not to bring Lackey into the conversation.
The award criteria is as follows:
The Fire Brand of the American League is a Red Sox player who exhibits character under pressure, an unassuming man who leaves the spotlight for other people but makes his indelible mark on the past season’s Boston Red Sox. A piece most people take for granted, but whom we would have missed dearly.
Lackey didn’t exactly set the world on fire in 2010, but he did post his best ERA and FIP in the month of September as the Sox were clinging on to whatever playoff hope they had left. He’s also not a “look at me!” guy. Never has been. Due to the fact that they failed to make the playoffs, Lackey might not seem like a piece that the Sox could have done without, but trust me, without him, it would have been a lot worse.
One thing Lackey did do better than any Red Sox starter was take the ball every fifth day. He ended up leading the Sox with 215 innings pitched. That’s seven more innings than Lester, 42.1 innings more than Clay Buchholz, 62.1 innings more than Dice-K and 88.1 more innings that Josh Beckett. If Lackey doesn’t give the Sox those innings, they would have had to be replaced by someone else, a bullpen arm. We all saw how well the bullpen pitched in 2010.
Lackey’s problem last season stemmed from a lack of command early on. Not that he was all over the place, but he was not hitting his spots as he had in the past with the Angels. In the season’s first two months, Lackey posted a 4.42 BB/9, a huge deviation from his career mark of 2.69 BB/9. He began to settle in by July, but his strikeout rate remained below 6 K/9, also a sizable deviation from a career mark of 7.12 K/9. Then, in August, things began to click. In the season’s final two months, Lackey posted an 8.52 K/9 and a 2.5 BB/9. However, bad luck got the best of him. His ERA in August was 5.75, inflated by a .378 BABIP. Even his 3.46 ERA in September seems a bit high considering such strong peripheral stats (his FIP was 2.87 for that month).
Fangraphs had Lackey at 4 WAR in 2010, which was the second most amongst Red Sox pitchers (behind Lester) and tied with Victor Martinez for fourth most on the team. There is a good chance that Lackey has a better season in 2011, but we can look back on his 2010 with a certain degree of appreciation knowing that he took the ball every fifth day and fought as hard as he could through the tough times. While Jon Lester is clearly the ace of the staff, John Lackey has the pedigree of a true leader and the character of someone who the Sox will undoubtedly rally around in 2011.