Players · L · Pitcher · 2017

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

dbWAR: 6.5
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.

FIP5.30

K/97.9

WHIP1.28

WAR.4

WAR by season

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.


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

Batting

Standard and advanced, by 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

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.

Head to head

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John Lackey

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.