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In 2006 the Red Sox got an awful season from a stuuborn, unrepentant Josh Beckett. In response, the Texas Hurler rededicated himself and had a beyond spectacular 2007 season, coming close to the Cy Young Award and delivering the Sox to their second World Series title of the decade. In 2010 the Sox got an awful season from a stubborn, unrepentant John Lackey, In response, the hurler supposedly rededicated himself, losing a few unwanted LBs and the results, thus far, have been far worse. Lackey entered today's game with a 6.81 ERA, worst in the entire league amongst frontline starters and so far he's already given up 3 runs to the BlueJays and we're only in the 2nd inning. Lackey has shown himself to be unable to cure what ails him, even after two trips to the disabled list, and his demonstrative antics have shown up his teamates while he's on the field and his postgame press conferences have become tense, terse, brief chats with the seething pitcher. There's no chance the Sox could cut ties with Lackey considering he's owed $16.5 million per year over the next three seasons, but perhaps when Clay Bucholz returns it's time for Francona to turn Lackey into the world's most expensive longman by throwing him in the bullpen. Andrew Miller deserves a chance to pitch himself out of the rotation, even if his strong starts have come against some of the worst offenses in the league and aging knuckleballer Tim Wakefield has demonstrated that he's a more reliable option than Lackey. It probably won't happen as Francona would mentally lose Lackey permanently, but something must be done, this guy's sucking it up something fierce.
