The fact of the matter is that Lackey was THE WORST SP in baseball, so anyone we replaced him with would have been an improvement. Saying that he was hurt, while true, is an excuse. He sucked, and we replaced him with someone better than he performed.
We are not going to get through 2012 with no time missed by Beckett/Lester/CB, almost certainly. Using whatever ails them as an excuse for why we failed is BS. If our #4 and 5 were solid, and if Epstein had provided for our minor league with good prospects, like the Rays, we would withstand such injuries much better.
I don't think that if you ask the players or manager about injuries they would say its a "reason" the team failed.