Jason Lakman

Jason McLeod Lakman

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 220 lb.
• High School Woodinville High School

• Born October 17, 1976 in Burien, WA USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Pitcher Jason Lakman was a 7th-round pick by the Chicago White Sox in the 1995 amateur draft, out of high school. His minor league career lasted from 1995 to 2003, with a brief comeback attempt in 2008. He pitched briefly in AAA but never reached the majors.

He started out with the GCL White Sox in 1995, going 3-0, 3.27 in 9 games and in 1996 was with the Bristol White Sox of the Appalachian League and Hickory Crawdads of the South Atlantic League. Things did not go so great as he went 0-6 at Hickory and overall was 4-10, 6.21 in 26 starts. He struck out 107 opponents in 130 1/3 innings, but also walked 81. He improved with a full season at Hickory in 1997, going 10-9, 3.90 in 27 starts. He had a career day on July 31st against the Augusta Greenjackets as he racked up 16 strikeouts in 7 innings, including seven in a row at one point, and five in the 5th inning alone. He was the first pitcher in league history to strike out five batters in a single inning, a feat that has been accomplished a few times in the minors, but never at the major league level. Still, he lost the game, 4-0. He ended up with 168 strikeouts in 154 2/3 innings, finishing second in the league behind Bruce Chen, who had 182. His control also improved, with 70 walks issued.

In 1998, he started off strong, going 3-2, 3.77 in 13 starts for the Winston-Salem Warthogs of the Carolina League to earn a mid-season promotion to the Birmingham Barons of the AA Southern League. But things fell completely apart at the higher level, as he was 0-10, 7.96 in 15 starts. In 1999, he spent the bulk of the season with Winston-Salem, but perhaps still suffering from shell-shock, fell to 9-8, 4.36 in 20 starts. Given another look at Birmingham, he was once again battered around, with an ERA of 15.00 in 3 relief outings. He started 2000 at Birmingham and did a lot better pitching mainly out of the bullpen, going 2-2, 4.4 in 27 games. On July 29th, he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles with C Brook Fordyce and two other minor leaguers (Miguel Felix and Juan Figueroa) as the White Sox repatriated DH Harold Baines and also acquired C Charles Johnson. The Sox clearly got the best of that deal, even if Fordyce was a serviceable receiver for four seasons, as none of the three other players the Orioles acquired ever reached the Show. In Lakman's case, he finished the year with the Bowie BaySox of the Eastern League, going 1-3, 5.64 in 17 games. He was still plagued by control issues, as his 68 Ks in as many innings were paired with 45 walks.

2001 marked the only season in which he pitched in AAA, with 19 games with the Rochester Red Wings of the International League, one of three teams with which he appeared: he was dominant in the Carolina League with the Frederick Keys, going 1-0, 1.69 in 3 games, awful with Bowie, with an ERA of 8.91 in 18 games, and decent with Rochester, where he was 1-0, 3.42 in 19 games. He cut down his walks to 21 in 66 innings, but also allowed 84 hits and his strikeout rate was also significantly down, with 46. The Orioles decided to let him go, and he played the next two seasons in the independent leagues, in 2002 with the Duluth-Superior Dukes of the Northern League, and in 2003 with the Victoria Capitals of the short-lived Canadian Baseball League. He was 0--5, 4.50 with 2 saves the first year, and 1-2, 4.10 with 3 saves the second. His 20 appearances actually led the Canadian League. Five years later, in 2008 at age 31, he attempted a comeback with the St. George Roadrunners of the Golden Baseball League. It did not go well as in 2 starts, he allowed 14 runs on 17 hits and 5 walks in 6 1/3 innings, finishing at 0-1, 18.47.