Lannan has been an above average pitcher for most of his career. I don't know if he is just a lucky guy that will always be lucky or if there is something he is doing that we don't understand, but as far as walking people and not getting a lot of K's Jim Palmer made a Hall of Fame career out of doing just that. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1009973&position=P
Let's not be silly here. Palmer had a far better career than Lannan could dream of. It's important to keep in mind that (1) he played in a different era where league BABIP was much lower--his career BABIP of .249 is absolutely unsustainable today, (2) he kept the ball in the park at an
insane rate that Lannan isn't even close to approaching, suggesting he was probably a super groundballer like Hudson, and (3) he has 19 years of evidence that he was beating his peripherals consistently, while Lannan sort of has 3 (one of which showed the opposite). They aren't comparable. Palmer was also better than Lannan in every meaningful statistic.
