Useless, Useless

The dying words of John Wilkes Booth of April 1865 can certainly apply to one John Lackey of June 2011.

Another miserable performance by one of MLB's worst pitchers (Lackey now has the highest ERA, over 7.00, of any pitcher with at least 60 innings in MLB), this time against one of MLB's worst offenses. The Red Sox actually lost a series to the San Diego Padres, 5-1.

I watched the first inning, saw him give up a home run to Will Venable, his first of 2011 to lead off the game. Then I saw David Ortiz rap into a DP to kill a promising inning with the bases loaded. That's it, I've had enough and spent the day doing other things. I'm glad I did.

Four rain delays. The Red Sox left runners everywhere for the second straight game. Lackey walked in a run, hit a batter to force in a run and wild pitched a run in.

Do the Red Sox really need to score seven or eight runs a game every time Lackey pitches?

Horrific. He is simply stealing the Red Sox money. If his wife's illness continues to affect his head, the Sox should make up an ailment for him and disable him. I have all the sympathy in the world for what his family is going through, and I certainly don't wish cancer on anyone. But he has to go out there and do his job. And he's not doing that.

Say what you want about Barry Bonds, but when his father was dying, he went out there and continued putting up big numbers (with steroid help or not). He had a job to do and did it.

The Sox have little choice about what to do with Lackey. He is untradeable, and they won't cut him, as he is still owed close to $58 million on that putrid five year, $82.5 million deal he signed in 2010. With Clay Buchholz on the DL and Daisuke Matsuzaka gone for at least a year, they will have little choice but to march Lackey out there every fifth day.

It is Theo Epstein's worst free agent signing ever. Far eclipses Edgar Renteria, Matt Clement or Julio Lugo. And we have 3 and 1/2 more years of this loser to deal with.