Lackey Lacking Again

Yesterday, after another short outing in which he gave up seven runs, John Lackey is starting to become a real liability. I have more confidence in Tim Wakefield at this stage. It's enough to make you long for the days of Dice-K. Last season, while not spectacular, was what I would call productive for Lackey. He was 14-11 with a 4.40 ERA. These stats are nothing to write home about, but they're not terrible, and he made 33 starts and pitched 215 innings. At least he gave the Sox a chance to win every night and ate up some innings.

Now, with an ERA well over 7.00, Boston has some tough decisions to make about using Lackey. I don't see how they can trot him out there every fifth day with the way he's performing. On the other hand I don't know what other choices they have.

Buchholz Beats Yanks

So far this season, Clay Buchholz has pitched just a'ight for me dog. Moments of efficiency have been overshadowed by notable lapses. The 4.00+ ERA and the 1.500+ WHIP have been nothing to write home about. But last night in an important game for the Sox against the Yankees, Buchholz went 7 innings for the first time allowing two runs along the way. Buchholz showed great control and made only one big mistake, a two run homer to Russell Martin.

Though Buchholz left with a 5-2 lead, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon tried their best to give the game away. Bard was all over the place. He looked like Daniel Osterbrock from the AA New Britain Rockcats game I went to on Thursday. Papelbon uneventfully retired the first two batters he faced then allowed hits to Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson, which closed the game to within a run.

The Sox need Clay to have more games like this especially with the back end of the rotation floundering. Dice-K is Dice-K, Wakefield is too old, and who knows what to make of John Lackey. Lackey's wife's battle with breast cancer was recently revealed. Who can blame the guy for pitching poorly? Far be it for me to suggest how person should deal with a major illness in his family, but Lackey seems totally miserable. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes a leave of absence soon.

Yanks and Sox Game 1

So it begins...

This will just be my quick thoughts on the first rivalry game of the year and if you watched the game you will now why I want to keep them brief. The Red Sox took the first of the season series and I'm not that surprised. Phil Hughes looked bad in his first start of the season and downright atrocious today. I wasn't expecting the implosion John Lackey was lucky enough in that regard to pick up the win.

I think that both teams have somewhat identified who they will be this season. Both will hit a ton, but they each lack rotation depth. This is likely to be one ugly summer of baseball if neither team makes moves for stronger starters.

In other news it seems Manny Ramirez is throwing in the towel. I can only go by what I've heard on the radio waves, but it seems he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs for the second time and rather than face a 100 game suspension he said screw you and walked away. He probably did the Rays a favor anyway since he was hitting a minuscule .056 in a super small sample size of just 17 plate appearances and he hasn't looked good since his first half year with the Dodgers.

It's an inauspicious end to a brilliant career. Manny will go down as one of the greatest righ-handed hitters of all time, but I doubt he hoped to go out like this. Though, part of me thinks Manny being Manny doesn't give a crap.

Lackey Looking Good

John Lackey has now looked sharp in two straight starts this spring. Everyone knows that the Sox line up looks formidable heading into April, but the key this year will be for starters Josh Beckett and John Lackey to bounce back from bad seasons. Dice-K needs to bounce back too, but I think you have to actually have been something to bounce back. (Can we just call Dice-K a bust already? I don't think I'm jumping the gun here.)

Having a healthy productive Dice-K would be nice, but really Lackey and Beckett need to be their old selves for the Sox to get back in the post season. Both were inconsistent and got banged around a lot last year. With Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester becoming the underpaid aces of the staff, they don't need to do much. I would take 14-8 with a 3.80 ERA from each of them. I don't think Beckett needs to get back to 2007 form. He just needs to stay healthy and learn to pitch with less velocity. Lackey needs to get back his confidence and be the gamer he's always been.

State of the Rotation: Vazquez vs. Lackey

Next I suppose we will move on to the imports for each team. Both the Yankees and the Red Sox brought in a veteran right-hander starter to shore up their rotation during the off-season. The Yankees traded for Javier Vazquez a second time when they sent Melky Cabrera and Arodys Vizcaino to the Braves.

Vazquez had a career year for the Braves in 2009. No doubt it was a combination of his ability and experience that he had finally gained as a 12-year veteran. Vazquez struck out 238 batters and was sixth in the senior circuit with a 2.87 ERA. While he is on the wrong side of 30, Vazquez has evolved as a starter, relying less on his fastball and using his offspeed pitches to step and then put away hitters, something he did not do as a young pitcher when he threw a majority of fastballs (I'm looking at you Joba...).

The biggest thing Vazquez can do is take the ball every five days and eat innings. He will also give New York a reliable fourth option come post season time. Some will think that Vazquez will revert to something between his 2004 numbers and last season, but I would imagine that Vazquez will be far better than his '04 numbers, considering they are by far his worst numbers since his second year in the bigs.

After being a pillar of the Angels rotation for the last seven seasons, John Lackey departed sunny California for New England and the Bosox. Lackey has had injury troubles over the past two seasons, including an elbow injury that kept him out of the rotation until mid-May. Still, as Lackey returned to the rotation he performed at an above average level with a 3.83 ERA. He also maintained his standard seven strike outs per nine innings. Lackey doesn't seem to do any one specific thing better than everybody, but he does most things better than most starters.

It is likely that Lackey will not lead the league in ERA again, but somehow I feel like his performance has been undervalued over the past five years. He always takes the ball and he always gives you everything he has and that is usually enough for him to win.

While Vazquez is definitely the upgrade the Yankees needed in the third spot in the rotation, he doesn't have the track record of Lackey. A lot of that is Lackey's big game experience, which Vazquez doesn't really have. Both teams solidified their rotations with veteran righties, but the Red Sox got the guy everyone knows can win Game 7 of the World Series. I give the three spot to Beantown and the battle stands at 2-1 Sox.

Theo making the Moves

A couple of thoughts about the events of the past few days:

John Lackey: The guy is a gamer, a horse, an ace, or whatever other cliché you want. Lackey is good. I feel like the contract was a little big in both years and dollars, but with the possibility of Beckett leaving after this year, Theo took the opportunity to add a strong pitcher.

Mike Cameron: Jason Bay obviously doesn't understand the market for corner outfielders who are below average defensively and didn't show up in the 2009 postseason. The Sox offered 4 yrs/$60-65 million. That is about twice as much as Bay made in 2009 and a very fair offer. If Bay decides to sign with the Mets, good luck in Citi Field, also known as the last frontier.

When Bay rejected the Sox last offer, the Sox moved to try to sign Mike Cameron to play left field. (Recently, Cameron, the lifelong center fielder, decided he would be open to playing corner outfield) Cameron is an upgrade defensively and great on the base paths. Also, Cameron is known to be a great clubhouse guy.

Mike Lowell: A thumb injury seems to be holding up the deal to the Rangers for prospect Max Ramirez. If and when this happens, other moves may happen fast to acquire a bat at either 3rd or 1st. More to come from this story within the next week or so.

Halladay vs. Lee: I don't really get the point. If you wanted Halladay, you should have gotten him last August. You will probably ended up losing Kyle Drabek, one of your top prospects anyway. (This was a sticking point last August) I know you could probably save money with the extension to Halladay opposed to Lee, but Lee is younger, has less miles on his arm, and is a lefty. I guess we will have to see the final details of the trade before evaluation, but on the surface it seems silly. Halladay seems to be the favorite for the 2010 NL Cy Young.

Patrick Willis: The guy doesn't get a lot of attention playing in San Francisco, but after seeing him last night against a strong Arizona team I am pretty convinced he is the best linebacker in football. He is fast, strong, and knows how to make a play. I welcome arguments against this statement.

Monday Machinations

Since the Yankees were practically the only team that was stoking the hot stove last week I am sure that the rest of baseball was a tad bored. Well it seems that the rest of baseball decided all at once to get in on the act. Monday has been churning with rumors. From free agent destinations to possible mega-trades.

Here are a few story lines to follow for the rest of the week:

The Sox are looking to counter the Yankees big move from last week. Beantown is looking hard at free agent pitcher John Lackey. While it appears the deal isn't quite official, even though Lackey has already taken his physical, it would take a miracle for the Angels to slide in and outbid the Boston, especially considering how tight LA has been with it's cash. Why has Boston suddenly decided to start throwing their cash around? Perhaps Theo Epstein was one of the few who read Dan Shaughnessy's whiny column concerning the Boston front office's penny pinching ways to be a disgrace.

The more intriguing storyline for me is the rumored mega-deal between the Jays, the Phillies and a third team as yet to be named. I'm not sure why the Phillies would deal Cliff Lee to get Roy Halladay but that seems to be what the teams are edging towards. I understand how good Halladay has been and how good he would be in the NL, but really Lee is young, cheaper for next season and left-handed. I suppose the Phillies figure it would be easier to lock of Halladay to a long term deal since Lee will likely command a larger deal since he is three years younger, still it seems like a lot of energy and prospects expended to simply run in place.

Those are the dominant stories in the baseball world for today and probably a few more days.

Update 4:16 pm: It appears Hideki Matsui will get a little closer to home next season. The Angels are working on inking the Yankee DH to a one year deal worth $6.5 million deal. It would be a loss for the Yankees but likely one that will help them in the long run. Always better to lose a player with one year left in his prime than one year after.

ALCS Game 5

The Yankees will be trying to lock up the ALCS to go to their first World Series since 2003. Getting to the Series would be a huge lift for Yankee fans who have suffered through numerous first round collapses, but the reality is if they make it on to face the Phillies fans will on want a championship and nothing less.

But we get ahead of ourselves as the Yankees must still win one more game and being that that game is on the West Coast it may be a difficult challenge to bounce the Angels from the playoffs in their own house. The match up will be John Lackey vs. A.J. Burnett.

Lackey was better than his line indicated in Game 1. Shotty defense did him in early on and a masterful performance by CC Sabathia kept the Angels from making up for any of their fielding gaffes with their bats. Like any of the Angels pitchers, the Yankees can get to Lackey, but with their season on the line it isn't hard to envision Lackey producing a solid performance to prevent the Yankees from turning the game into a massacre like last night's NLCS finale.

The Yankees will counter with A.J. Burnett. Burnett hasn't been spectacular in the playoffs like Sabathia, but he has been good. In fact he was unhittable for five of the 6.1 he pitched. But like the typical Burnett he lost it for one inning and it cost him. And that will really be what this game is about. Burnett could easily put this series away for the Yankees or we could be watching them fly back to New York for Game 6.

The pitching match up is solid for Game 5 and the Angels are not the kind of team that rolls over and dies. It should be an entertaining game and if not, I'm sure the umpires still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Looking at ALCS Pitching Match Ups

So it looks like the Yankees are pretty well set for their rotation and with the Angels announcing their official ALCS rotation we can finally take a look at what each side is bring to the mound. Here are the first two match ups for this weekend.

Game 1 Match Up: CC Sabathia vs. John Lackey
We will start with Sabathia since he will be on the mound first. Everyone knows what the big lefty brings to the table; power fastball, hard slider, change up and an occasional curve. Sabathia did get roughed up by the Angels both times he pitched against them, but both of those starts came before the All-Star break when the big guy had yet to hit his stride with the Bombers in the second half. The Yankees are essentially putting their playoff existence in the hands of Sabathia by taking advantage of their off-days and using him three times if necessary during the ALCS. People like to judge Sabathia by his playoff record and to date he only has two quality playoff starts. The reality is that with his team's season on the line the man became an absolute beast with the Brewers and saved their season. The man can pitch when it counts.

Lackey is someone else who knows how to pitch when it counts. Lackey pitched well this year despite missing a month and a half due to injury. He has the guile to go into most stadiums and win in a hostile environment. Lackey pitched well against the Yankees the one time he faced them, outdueling CC in Anahiem during the first half finale. Lackey is the kind of pitcher that can always hurt the Yankees. He is fearless and he works with good command. The thing is he is hittable and the Yankees can get to him. This will easily be the best match up of the series.

Game 2 Match Up: A.J. Burnett vs. Joe Saunders
We all know what Burnett does. He is very predictable in that he can be unpredictable. Burnett could throw a no-hitter or he could give up seven runs, although I doubt Girardi is giving him that long of a leash in the ALCS. People are constantly worried about Burnett or who is catching him. Really I think his Game 2 performance will be what Burnett does this time around. He will walk a tightrope and give up a few runs, but I think he keeps the Yanks in the game.

Many would have criticized Mike Scoisia if he had let Jered Weaver start Game 2. Weaver isn't particularly good against the Yankees and he is particularly bad away from home. Joe Saunders is definitely a better choice than Weaver but he is not as good a choice as Scott Kazmir. Kazmir is someone who usually gives the Yankees all they can handle. Saunders had one bad start against New York and one good one after he returned from a stint on the DL. Things could go either way for him.

Each match up is close and could go either way. I think the Yankees get the edge in these first two only because of home field advantage. That last at bat will be huge, especially with the Yankees bullpen death. Each game should be close as Sabathia and Lackey probably trade zeros most of the way while Saunders and Burnett see who can put up fewer crooked numbers. I sure both games will take forever with the way the weather looks this weekend. Yet another reason the MLB's idiotic lack of flex scheduling kills the excitement of the playoffs.