Jim Johnson took over the closer’s role when the Orioles traded George Sherrill to the Dodgers before the trade deadline in 2009. It seemed a natural fit as Johnson was Sherrill’s set up man, and he even closed out a few games when asked to in order to give Sherrill a day off here and there. However, that wasn’t the case.
Johnson struggled in the ninth inning role saving in just 10 games in 16 chances. His ERA ballooned to 4.11 and he looked tired at times in September. In addition to looking tired, Johnson gave up home runs which is uncharacteristic for a sinker baller.
Baltimore was patient with Johnson’s development into a late-game reliever. He has dealt with a tired shoulder at times the last two seasons, but the right-hander has always come back strong to bridge the gap to the ninth inning.
In 2010, it appears Johnson will once again be a set up man. This time it will be for Mike Gonzalez. Johnson has an excellent chance to succeed if he is fully healthy and has put his poor ending to 2009 behind him. In two innings in spring training, Johnson has three strike outs and given up one run. I wouldn’t take spring statistics too seriously as all the pitchers work on specific aspects of their game this early. If he continues to give up runs late in spring, then it might be time to worry.
He should have a bounce back season in 2010 as he will have more late inning appearances along with Gonzalez and Kam Mickolio. What do you think?
Sorry to use this post to vent, but…
I just read that the Orioles released a "terse statement" stating that they had renewed the contracts of several 1-3 year players to include Jones, Wieters, and Reimold. These 1-3 year guys really have little say in the structure of their contracts other than they cannot make less then the MLB minimum and cannot take a paycut greater than 20%. Generally, these arbitrary salary bumps, that are not negotiated with the player, cause hard feelings on the player's behalf.
Why on earth would you want to pi$$ off 3 of the players you are supposedly building your team around? I'm not saying throw Longoria money at them, but cmon, try to at least appease these guys somewhat.
UN believeable.
Standard Operating Procedure. I wouldn't worry. These guys don't expect that until the club has to pay them. I don't think the Orioles are making these guys mad.
Stop the presses but there is nothing wrong with this.
Wieters got a monster bonus.
Jones got almost a million when he was drafted.
These guys know the drill.
Maybe they do know the drill but all that does is make them harder to work with when they can demand more money. Maybe this is how it works but throw them a bone and maybe they'll return the favor. I will say Marks statements make sense but I would hope the O's are trying to build long term relationships with these guys.
Back to Johnson, I didn't see much from him last year even though he was put into some different situations. I'm not expecting to see much from him this year either . I do love underdogs though so I'll root for him but I won't hold my breath with excitement.
Pole,
It's funny, I remember watching a game one night last year when Johnson had has fastball moving all over the place. Even Palmer commented on his movement. Then they trade Sherill, move Johnson into the closer role, and he just couldn't cut it.
Gotta believe the tired shoulder that Wolfson mentioned above had a lot to do with his lack of effectiveness,
Pole,
I think Johnson was thrown into the fire last year. He's got decent stuff, but everyone wanted to either make him a starter or a closer. Sometimes you've just got to be happy with what the role the guy is in. For me, that's what I'm excited about in 2010.
Every team does this.
The Orioles decided to buy out Markakis' arbitration years and locked him up for 6 years.
The idea that throwing them a bone now and they will return the favor sounds great in theory. But the reality is these guys and their agents are gonna want to get paid no matter what happened 5 years prior.
Not to mention the MLBPA frowns upon any player who takes less money than they could get on the market. Remember Tom Glavine? He was a free agent and wanted to stay in Atlanta. The problem was the Mets were offering more years and more money. To further complicate things, Glavine was player representative for years and publically chastised Mussina when he took a below market value for a 3 year deal here in Baltimore.
.
I'm with you Mark. There is nothing wrong with the way the club is doing this.
Baseball is structured in such a way that the teams have the leverage for the first 3 years and then there are 3 arbitration. There are players on every team that are vastly underpaid for the numbers they put up. Lately you've seen teams decide to forgo those early years of leverage by signing guys to big deals. Many times players don't even sit down to negotiate those deals because they'd rather get to free agency quicker.
I don't think future negotiations with Adam Jones or Matt Wieters will be complicated because of what salaries they receive this season