Post by Chris Hatfield on Feb 24, 2016 6:47:01 GMT -5
I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but who are these pitchers with "better stuff" ranked lower than Johnson? Lakins, sure, I guess. Christopher Acosta if he's seen him, maybe. I'm getting a little bored with Johnson getting the reputation of a no-stuff all-guile-and-pitchability, seemingly because stuff is only a piece of his arsenal rather than all of it. He commands his fastball and can touch 95 with it. His curve is a legit MLB second pitch, and his changeup is also solid.
EDIT: And for what it's worth, I don't really have a problem with him at #8. I just get bugged with the "There are several pitchers in this system—both on this list and not—with better stuff than Johnson..." thing because there are maybe four and one is a phenom.
I'm not sure how his velocity was in Pawtucket last year, but he was only 86-89 in his start against Houston. Now, he had a long lay-off, which should've made him stronger...but if he had that underlying ulnar nerve irritation, that could've been the issue. Still, I've never seen him hit 95, and it may be that he simply can't, anymore. Of course, he still missed a good number of bats, and the command grade they slapped on him was unnecessarily conservative. But until he shows a current solid-avg or plus FB, that's the label he's keeping. Hey, it didn't keep John Tudor from being awesome, or Bruce Hurst from being really good.
He can reach 95, but for like, one batter (or at least that's all he typically tries to for). He's typically 89-91, mixing in some 92s.