Players · L · Pitcher · 2017 regular season

John Lackey

Age: 39
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 6"
Weight: 235 lb
Number: #41

Born: October 23, 1978 in Abilene, TX, United States
MLB debut: June 24, 2002

Compare with…vs Clayton Kershaw vs Justin Verlander vs Max Scherzer

dbWAR: 34.7
IP: 170.2
ERA: 4.59
FIP: 5.30
K/9: 7.9
FIP−: 122

John Lackey was a starting pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. In 2017 he struck out 149 batters over 170.2 innings across 31 appearances, 30 of them starts, going 12-12. His ERA of 4.59 was 5.3% higher than the league average of 4.36 — 12th of 14 on his team, and 317th of 527 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 5.30 FIP suggests that his ERA had some help behind him. He missed bats on 23.1% of swings (11.0% of every pitch he threw), walked 7.3% of the batters he faced and struck out 20.4%. His 0.4 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2017 regular season.

FIP5.30

K/97.9

WHIP1.28

WAR.4

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only — postseason games are listed separately below. Seasons on file run 2005–2017; his career began in 2002, and earlier seasons are not in this data yet.


2017	CHC	31	30	170.2	12	12	165	87	149	53	4.59	5.30	1.28	7.9	2.8	105	122	0.4
2016	CHC	29	29	188.1	11	8	146	70	180	53	3.35	3.81	1.06	8.6	2.5	80	91	2.9
2015	STL	33	33	218.0	13	10	211	67	175	53	2.77	3.56	1.21	7.2	2.2	70	90	3.5
2014	BOS/STL	31	31	198.0	14	10	206	84	164	47	3.82	3.78	1.28	7.5	2.1	102	101	2.3
2013	BOS	29	29	189.1	10	13	179	74	161	40	3.52	3.86	1.16	7.7	1.9	91	100	2.1
2011	BOS	28	28	160.0	12	12	203	114	108	56	6.41	4.71	1.62	6.1	3.1	163	119	0.6
2010	BOS	33	33	215.0	14	11	233	105	156	72	4.40	3.85	1.42	6.5	3.0	108	94	3.2
2009	LAA	27	27	176.1	11	8	177	75	139	47	3.83	3.73	1.27	7.1	2.4	89	86	3.3
2008	LAA	24	24	163.1	12	5	161	68	130	40	3.75	4.53	1.23	7.2	2.2	87	105	1.6
2007	LAA	33	33	224.0	19	9	219	75	179	52	3.01	3.54	1.21	7.2	2.1	67	79	5.1
2006	LAA	33	33	217.2	13	11	203	86	190	72	3.56	3.35	1.26	7.9	3.0	79	74	5.2
2005	LAA	33	33	209.0	14	5	208	80	199	71	3.44	3.10	1.33	8.6	3.1	80	72	5.1

Batting Regular season


2017	CHC	30	61	7	1	1	3	23	.132	.179	.151	.019	.233	4.9%	37.7%	.154	-8.6	-16	-0.0
2016	CHC	28	69	6	2	0	2	31	.095	.123	.127	.032	.188	2.9%	44.9%	.114	-11.4	-42	-0.2
2015	STL	31	70	7	3	0	4	24	.113	.167	.145	.032	.184	5.7%	34.3%	.149	-9.3	-19	0.0
2014	STL	9	19	2	0	0	0	5	.133	.133	.133	.000	.200	0.0%	26.3%	.120	-2.8	-36	-0.0
2013	BOS	3	6	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	50.0%	.000	-1.5	-124	-0.1
2011	BOS	1	3	1	1	0	0	1	.333	.333	.667	.333	.500	0.0%	33.3%	.429	+0.3	166	0.1
2010	BOS	3	6	2	0	0	0	1	.400	.400	.600	.200	.500	0.0%	16.7%	.439	+0.5	174	0.1
2009	LAA	3	9	1	1	0	0	2	.125	.125	.125	.000	.167	0.0%	22.2%	.113	-1.6	-49	-0.0
2008	LAA	2	6	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	50.0%	.000	-1.6	-127	-0.1
2007	LAA	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	0.0%	.000	-0.6	-124	-0.0
2006	LAA	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	0.0%	.000	-0.8	-129	-0.0
2005	LAA	3	6	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	16.7%	.000	-1.6	-129	-0.1

Separate from the regular season

Postseason Postseason

Wild Card through World Series. These games are counted on their own: none of them are in the regular-season tables, career totals, league context, leaderboards or dbWAR on this page.

Postseason pitching

Postseason John Lackey's postseason pitching, by October and round. Not part of any regular-season figure on this page.
Season	Team	Round	G	GS	IP	W	L	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA	WHIP	K/9
2017 Post	CHC	NLCS	3	0	3.2	0	0	5	4	1	2	3	9.82	1.91	7.4
2016 Post	CHC	Postseason total	3	3	13.0	0	1	14	7	1	6	12	4.85	1.54	8.3
		NLDS	1	1	4.0	0	0	7	3	0	2	4	6.75	2.25	9.0
		NLCS	1	1	4.0	0	0	3	2	0	3	3	4.50	1.50	6.8
		World Series	1	1	5.0	0	1	4	2	1	1	5	3.60	1.00	9.0
2015 Post	STL	NLDS	2	2	10.1	1	0	6	4	1	2	10	3.48	0.77	8.7
2014 Post	STL	Postseason total	2	2	13.0	1	0	10	5	0	2	11	3.46	0.92	7.6
		NLDS	1	1	7.0	1	0	5	1	0	1	8	1.29	0.86	10.3
		NLCS	1	1	6.0	0	0	5	4	0	1	3	6.00	1.00	4.5
2013 Post	BOS	Postseason total	5	4	26.0	3	1	25	8	0	6	25	2.77	1.19	8.7
		ALDS	1	1	5.1	1	0	7	4	0	3	6	6.75	1.88	10.1
		ALCS	1	1	6.2	1	0	4	0	0	0	8	0.00	0.60	10.8
		World Series	3	2	14.0	1	1	14	4	0	3	11	2.57	1.21	7.1
2009 Post	LAA	Postseason total	3	3	19.2	1	1	19	5	0	7	14	2.29	1.32	6.4
		ALDS	1	1	7.1	1	0	4	0	0	1	4	0.00	0.68	4.9
		ALCS	2	2	12.1	0	1	15	5	0	6	10	3.65	1.70	7.3
2008 Post	LAA	ALDS	2	2	13.2	0	1	11	4	1	4	6	2.63	1.10	4.0
2007 Post	LAA	ALDS	1	1	6.0	0	1	9	4	2	2	4	6.00	1.83	6.0
2005 Post	LAA	Postseason total	3	3	16.1	0	1	15	8	1	10	12	4.41	1.53	6.6
		ALDS	2	2	11.1	0	0	7	3	0	9	9	2.38	1.41	7.1
		ALCS	1	1	5.0	0	1	8	5	1	1	3	9.00	1.80	5.4
2005–2017		Postseason total · 9 Octobers	24	20	121.2	6	6	114	49	7	41	97	3.62	1.27	7.2

Postseason batting

Postseason John Lackey's postseason batting, by October and round. Not part of any regular-season figure on this page.
Season	Team	Round	G	PA	AB	H	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2016 Post	CHC	Postseason total	3	4	4	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLDS	1	1	1	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLCS	1	2	2	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
		World Series	1	1	1	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
2015 Post	STL	NLDS	2	3	3	1	1	.333	.333	.333	.667
2014 Post	STL	Postseason total	2	4	3	0	1	.000	.250	.000	.250
		NLDS	1	2	2	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLCS	1	2	1	0	1	.000	.500	.000	.500
2005–2017		Postseason total · 3 Octobers	7	11	10	1	5	.100	.182	.100	.282

Box-score and rate statistics only. wOBA, wRC+, FIP and dbWAR are measured against a full league season, and a postseason is a few teams playing each other for a month, so they are not computed for October.

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2017. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	358	319	87	20	31	61	.273	.337	.517	.362	17.0%
vs RHB	373	335	78	16	22	88	.233	.296	.424	.307	23.6%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2017.

Loading 35 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2017.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .254.

Pitch sequencing

What John Lackey throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Four-seamCutterSinkerCurveballChangeupUnknown

Select a count to see exactly what John Lackey throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Season


Four-Seam Fastball	39.2%	1,086	91.0	2,171	49.3%	19.7%	210	.267	.888
Cutter	35.3%	979	82.5	2,165	45.4%	32.4%	270	.211	.623
Sinker	12.8%	356	90.7	2,130	38.2%	8.1%	101	.337	.983
Curveball	7.4%	205	77.5	2,283	46.3%	24.0%	36	.306	1.028
Changeup	4.6%	128	83.5	1,647	29.7%	16.9%	34	.206	.596
Unknown	0.6%	18	—	—	55.6%	0.0%	3	—	—

John Lackey's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

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Similar players

Nearest 2017 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Félix HernándezSEA

ERA: 4.36
FIP: 5.02
SO: 78
WAR: 0.3

Very close

Scott FeldmanCIN

ERA: 4.77
FIP: 5.04
SO: 93
WAR: 0.5

Very close

Matt ShoemakerLAA

ERA: 4.52
FIP: 5.13
SO: 69
WAR: 0.2

Very close

Matt AndrieseTB

ERA: 4.50
FIP: 4.93
SO: 76
WAR: 0.4

Very close

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.