Archive for the ‘Josh Johnson’ Category

Josh Johnson Out Until June, Everybody Hurts

Posted by Archi Zuber under Injuries, Josh Johnson on May 10, 2013

Toronto Blue Jays v Detroit Tigers

Well…

According to Gregor’s latest at dot com, Blue Jays starter Josh Johnson is “expected to be out until at least June.” Soreness in his right triceps muscle has kept him from pitching since his last start on April 21st, and he just began playing catch again recently. He’s eligible to come off the DL on Monday, and there was hope that he’d be back by May 21st but… Nope.

The 29-year old Oklahoma native has a 6.86 ERA over his 4 starts as a Blue Jay. As I’m sure you know, his contract expires at the end of the season, so feel free to speculate about how this affects contract extensions for a guy we’ve all seen less than 5 times and has a history of injury.

Also mentioned in the article is the news that Brandon Morrow’s next start will be pushed back, Ramon Ortiz is starting tonight, J.A. Happ will be out 4-to-6 with his head and knee injuries, and hey top pitching prospect Roberto Osuna might need Tommy John surgery. Tons of good news here.

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Morosi: Johnson May Be Out Until “Late May”

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Jon Morosi, Josh Johnson on May 06, 2013

New York Yankees v Toronto Blue Jays

Not sure what to make of this one, as we’ve heard nothing of the sort from the club or the local media, but Jon Morosi of Fox Sports laid down this tweet earlier today, and I didn’t even think it warranted a Trolololosi GIF in response:

So… uh… yeah. 2013, you guys!

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Breaking: Johnson To The DL, Romero Starts Friday

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Josh Johnson, Ricky Romero on May 02, 2013

romeromonochromeFAES

So much for Josh Johnson feeling a lot better, eh? According to an official release from the Jays, Ricky Romero is heading back to join the club, and will take Johnson’s start on Friday. 2013, you guys!

In last night’s Game Threat I pointed to a tweet from Barry Davis of Sportsnet, who spoke to Josh Johnson, and told us that the pitcher had informed him his arm was “much better” and that he expected “to be ready to go Friday night.”

Well, like I say, so much for that, as not only has Johnson been placed on the DL, but– curiously (and hopefully incorrectly)– the release from the club says that it isn’t backdated to his last start, which Mike Wilner points out was on April 21st, but to April 29th. There’s no reason for the club not to backdate it to the 21st, so I can’t see how that’s right. If it is, he won’t be eligible to pitch again until the visit from the San Francisco Giants mid-month.

Of course, not backdating it does give the club a little extra time to figure out how the rotation is going to work out, now that– sooner than the ever planned– they have six guys for five spots, and the nominal lowest guy on the totem pole, J.A. Happ, pitching as good as anybody.

Or, y’know, it’s happening because, according to a tweet from @BlakeMurphyODC, the Jays “could only backdate to 29th if they wanted to recall Lincoln, who was optioned down on the 28th.”

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Josh Johnson, Velocity, And Jon Trolololosi

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Jon Morosi, Josh Johnson on Apr 11, 2013

It’s not very much fun to be a Jays fan right now. The team that came into the year with such weighty expectations is now 3-6 with a mere 153 games remaining. In order to reach the crucial 95 win threshold, that means they can only lose 61 more times this season. R.A. Dickey and Josh Johnson only have 32 starts each in which to turn their seasons around. Only five-and-three-quarters months of the six month schedule remain.

Obviously things are dire.

But the early season is still such a time for hope that it seems awfully silly to focus so heavily on the negative just yet. There are lots of people who are probably pleased as pig in shit with the way that the season has started so far for the Jays. One that immediately comes to mind, for example, is Detroit-based, Toronto-lovin’ master baiter Jon Morosi of Fox Sports, who has surely already shit-eating-grinned his way through a number tweets designed to rile up the unwashed hoser masses.

To wit:

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Johnson Talks About His Growing Repertoire

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Josh Johnson on Mar 19, 2013

johnsonthrowsST

The Josh Johnson that the Blue Jays traded for back in November isn’t the same Josh Johnson that we all remember at his 2010 peak, in which he posted a 2.30 ERA over 28 starts. At the end of that season Johnson placed eighth among qualified pitchers in WAR over the previous two seasons. His ERA was fifth during that span, ahead of Kershaw, Lincecum, Cain and Greinke. His FIP ranked second, behind only Lincecum, among a top ten featuring Lee, Halladay, Verlander and Felix. And his xFIP placed him fifth, ahead of many of the same names.

Then, of course, came the injuries that limited him to just 60 innings in 2011, and a subsequent drop in velocity that Johnson himself speaks of as permanent. As a consequence, he’s had to expand his repertoire, moving from a guy who threw fastballs and sliders over 90% of the time according to the Pitch F/X data from 2009, to a guy now mixing in a changeup, a sinking two-seamer, and, most importantly, a curveball.

It’s Johnson’s two-seamer that was the focus of a piece from Mike Rutsey of the Toronto Sun this week, as he spoke to the pitcher himself, as well as Jays pitching coach Pete Walker, about using the pitch more consistently this year. “As any pitcher progresses in his career they realize they can make some adjustments and I think he’s realizing that that’s a pitch that with encouragement from people is a pitch that he can use and be effective and make him even more a complete pitcher,” Walker explained.

It’s a concept that’s echoed in a recent piece from Buster Olney of ESPN.com (Insider Olney), and especially by Johnson in a segment from Friday’s episode of the new Baseball Tonight podcast.

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Sosnick Speaks! (Uh… He’s Josh Johnson’s Agent)

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Josh Johnson, The Trade on Nov 29, 2012

It’s not that he sounds particularly slick or, y’know, full of shit, but Matt Sosnick sure sounds like an agent. Smart, self-assured, open, and willing to just keep on talking, Sosnick seems to me like a pretty terrific radio guest, but when he was last on Toronto radio– in the immediate wake of The Trade– he unintentionally made some waves, after some observers *COUGH* Gregg Zaun *COUGH* tried to read way too deeply into a comment he made about Alex Anthopoulos possibly flipping some of the pieces he’d acquired from the Miami Marlins.

Specifically, he said this:

“I feel like there has to be another piece to this trade. I’ve got to imagine that the players that Alex acquired have to be in play– it’s a lot of money he took on in salary in one shot. And there are so many teams that are interested in Josh Johnson that if the Yankees or Texas or some of these teams looking for a frontline starter wanted to give up a tonne, it would seem like it would be against the way that Alex normally does business to not listen and make a trade if he could acquire a bunch of top prospects for one of the players in this deal.”

When I posted this at the time, I added that “importantly, it should be noted that, despite this flourish of analysis from Sosnick– and that’s really how it came off to my ears, not as any kind of angling– his client isn’t hoping like hell to get moved again, or anything. In fact, he’s happy with what happened.”

Unfortunately (read: unsurprisingly) that wasn’t enough to stop the notion that Johnson might be edging his way out of town, and despite the pitcher saying he’s excited to be here in multiple interviews since, Sosnick still went to the trouble of clarifying during his appearances on Prime Time Sports this evening.

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Buehrle and Johnson Speak! (Also: Dogs!)

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, The Trade on Nov 29, 2012

Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson each spoke on conference calls with the media today, and… there was nothing terribly earth-shattering to come out of it– so much so that I wasn’t going to bring myself to write a whole post on it, until I tried stuffing a bunch of notes into a link dump and deciding that I could probably hack together what I’ve got into… something.

Mike Cormack of Sportsnet (@MikeCormack) has as comprehensive a group of tweets from the calls as you’ll find, so I’d suggest checking his feed out now, if you want a preview of the transcripts– and audio highlights, he says– that will likely come later.

Until then, here’s what’s worth knowing:

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