Nobody’s Lackey

The ace of the Angels rotation, John Lackey, spent the first eight weeks of the season on the shelf recovering from a strained tricep muscle. Often times, when a pitcher opts for rest, the results when they return aren’t what they, or their teams’ fans, would hope for. Velocity drops and a loss of movement aren’t uncommon, and teams have learned that it’s not generally a great idea to count on getting premium production from a pitcher just coming off the disabled list.

Lackey, however, is bucking that trend in a big way. Since coming off the DL on May 14th, he’s been the model of consistency. Here are some of the relevant markers from 2007 and 2008.

Fastball Velocity: 2007, 90.9 MPH – 2008, 90.6 MPH
Groundball Percentage: 2007, 44.7% – 2008, 44.9%
FIP: 2007, 3.54 – 2008, 3.43

In each of his eight starts since coming off the disabled list, Lackey’s pitched a minimum of seven innings. He’s given up just one earned run in six of those starts. His game scores have ranged from a low of 60 to a high of 70. He’s posted a positive WPA in all of his appearances, and a WPA of .30 or higher in three of those eight starts.

The recovering-from-injury John Lackey is indistinguishable from the completely healthy version, and his success is one of the reason the Angels are putting some distance between themselves and the rest of the A.L. West. Consistency has always been his calling card, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that even something like an arm injury can’t slow him down.