Jon Heyman On Gresh & Zo: John Lackey 'Just A Big Disappointment'
CBSSports.com baseball columnist Jon Heyman called in to Gresh & Zo on Tuesday, and he weighed in on the "scandal" surrounding John Lackey drinking beer in the Red Sox' clubhouse after a loss last week in Cleveland.
"John Lackey doesn't need to be with the team," Heyman said of Lackey, who hasn't played this year due to Tommy John surgery. "And if he is with the team, he doesn't need to be drinking beer, which last year was what got them in trouble and gave them a hangover -- no pun intended -- into this year. I think he should probably wait until he gets out of the clubhouse to drink his beer.
"To me he's just been a major disappointment, start to finish: the pitching, off the field, everything else. He's not what he's cracked up to be, just a big disappointment."
Heyman said he thought Lackey's beer drinking warranted the coverage it got, but that folks may have blown it up into something bigger than it was.
"People are overreacting to the reaction, [but] to me it's something he should not be doing," Heyman said.
Gresh & Zo also asked Heyman at what point the Red Sox should shut down Carl Crawford and send him off for surgery, given that the season is all but over at this point. Heyman disagreed with the notion, though, that the Sox are all done. While getting to 90 wins may be nearly impossible, Heyman said the second wild-card winner may only need to win 87 or so this year.
"There are teams that have been around .500 at this point that have come on and made the playoffs," Heyman said. "And in this case we have two wild-card teams. The Angels and the Tigers have been very, very disappointing without the injuries that the Red Sox have had, without the excuses that the Red Sox have had. I'm not sure that you'd say that there's a slam dunk team. I know Tampa's looking good at the moment, but two weeks ago they weren't. ... I think 87 wins may do it, so I'm not going to take the supposition taht they need to go 30-12 or whatever. I'm not giving up yet."
