Randy Johnson
From Wiki Gonzalez
Randy Johnson (born 1963) is a six-foot-ten left-handed pitcher, quite probably the best lefty in the game since Sandy Koufax, and possibly even better. Five Cy Young awards ain't chicken feed.
Profile
Johnson started out in the Expos system, then found his way to the Mariners, Astros, and Diamondbacks, on all of which he was considered the ace starter. He is currently on a long-term contract with the Yankees.
Renowned to be moody and temperamental, even for a pitcher, Johnson is widely regarded in Seattle as having "tanked" the first half of 1998 in order to force a trade to a contender. Many analysts and Johnson fans argue the opposite, that he wasn't tanking but that a lack of run support, lack of defense, and active anti-Johnson campaigning by M's management made it seem as if he was tanking.
When he was traded to the Astros in a 1998 deadline deal, he recovered to put together a blistering two months and pitched his new team to the playoffs. This didn't resolve the tanking dispute any further.
Johnson's signing with the D-Backs in 1999 for 4 years and $53 million was widely ridiculed on the Internet, particularly in comparison to a "safer" free agent pitcher, Kevin Brown. In particular, back troubles that had killed Johnson's 1996 season were thought to be a major risk in signing him to that kind of money.
In 2004, Johnson was again suspected of demanding a midseason trade. This time it was out of Arizona, and he required the Yankees to be the destination. At the summer 2004 trade deadline, quite a lot of Primer bandwidth was expended on Johnson trade possibilities, as both teams worked hard to engineer an acceptable trade. The Dodgers were pulled in as a third partner, and a three-way deal probably fell apart when Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta backed out. Anyway, the Yanks and D-Backs completed a simpler two-way Johnson trade in the 2004-05 offseason.
As a Yankee, Johnson made his off-season debut in style, shoving a NY tabloid photographer and appearing on the David Letterman show. As a pitcher, he appears to have finally slowed down from his prime years, showing himself to be a good, solid starter but not worthy of the tens of millions of dollars he is being paid. The New York press has piled on, labeling him "cranky" and citing his "lack of a winning personality."
Nicknames
- The Big Unit
- The Big Useless™ (credit to SG and/or Yankee Game Chatter)
References
- Randy on baseball-reference.com (http://www.baseball-reference.com/j/johnsra05.shtml)
- Randy on Baseball Library (http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/J/Johnson_Randy.stm)
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