It was a busy day in Boston. First Mike Cameron before noon and then later a little John Lackey action. Lackey is a officially a Red Sox, something that some of you might love or might hate. I guess we'll judge that come April.
A few details from the press conference and other news regarding Lackey:
- His wife, Krista, went to the University of New Hampshire (a rival of mine, in a way, but that's OK) and was a big factor in Lackey coming to Boston.
- Lackey's deal is actually front-loaded, which is good if the Red Sox ever run into problems with the big pitcher down the line. Lackey is due $18M the first season and $15.25 every season after that. His signing bonus is worth $3.5M.
- Alex Speier of WEEI breaks down why the Sox chose to sign Lackey than trade for Roy Halladay. Halladay would have cost the team prospects and money -- a lot of money, as Halladay is going to get approximately $20M per season for the next three years.
- Theo Epstein apparently sent Josh Beckett a text saying the Lackey signing had no effect on Beckett's future with the Sox. This is a good message to give to Josh early.
After watching the video of the press conference -- which can be found below -- I'm quite excited for Lackey to be in Boston. It's for many reasons (that I will break down in a post tomorrow), but one is just the combination of great pitching and a defense that should also be great, depending what happens at third base and first base. With three bonafide No. 1 starting pitchers, and three more good-to-great pitchers, this Red Sox rotation has to be considered the best in baseball going into Opening Day. With that defense behind them, this is going to be a dangerous team.
I think Lackey will be really good with the Sox. It helps, though, that Theo has improved the defense behind him. If that hadn't happened, Lackey's stats would suffer and I don't think we'd get full value out of him. But as it stands now, the combination of this pitching staff and defense could be lethal in the American League.
Here's the Lackey video: