Anyone else a little worried about Jim Johnson?

[OFFNY]

I'm always worried when a reliever comes in but Johnson is now the best closer that the Os ever had. And he's a homegrown product.

That's overstating it (Randy Myers, Tippy Martinez, Gregg Olson...), but J.J. has been excellent.

Agreed. Also, it needs to be taken into consideration that if you go back more than 30 years or so, you're comparing apples to oranges. The role of the "closer" back when Eddie Watt, Stu Miller, Hoyt Wilhelm, etc. were pitching was broadly different than it is today.

[Frobby]

39 saves now. He's been on a nice roll the last 9 appearances or so even though he seems to be having a little trouble keeping his fastball down in the zone these days. He's been using his other pitches to keep hitters off balance, and it's working.

[Dodobirds]

Can someone please close this thread. There's not a Birds fan left who actually believes there are ANY concerns with Jim Johnson. The man is the freaking sheriff of the AL East.

IBTL

GO O's 2012 World Series Champions!!

[Ampontan]

Agreed. Also, it needs to be taken into consideration that if you go back more than 30 years or so, you're comparing apples to oranges. The role of the "closer" back when Eddie Watt, Stu Miller, Hoyt Wilhelm, etc. were pitching was broadly different than it is today.

Not only that, they didn't even call them closers, and I can't remember anyone talking about "saves" in those days. From what I can remember, that changed with Fingers, Gossage, Lyle, and people like that.

[Brendan25]

Johnson looked completely filthy last night.

[Bahama O's Fan]

I am still worried about Jim Johnson....worried that he might not win the Cy Young or MVP award!

[OFFNY]

O

I'm only bumping this to put into context the fact that Johnson appears to have regained his dominance (for the most part) after that brief, rough stretch that he had in mid-July, and that one bad game that he had in late July.

JOHNSON'S 2012 GAME LOG:O http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=johnsji04&t=p&year=2012