Declining velocity has been all the rage of Spring Training.  All the cool kids are doing it.

Orioles closer Jim Johnson has seen his fastball dip a little this Spring.  CBSSports’s Danny Knobler tweeted that Johnson’s velocity was down and MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko wrote that JJ’s fastball was between 89-91 MPH during his appearance on Thursday.

That’s not a good sign for a closer.

According to FanGraphs.com’s velocity chart, 89-91 is much lower than Johnson’s average last season.  Typically Johnson was between 94-96 MPH, hitting the 97s a few times throughout the season.

So now we’ve got to throw the question out there that everyone is wondering.  Is Jim Johnson playing hurt or is this just normal “get you ready for the season” velocity issues?