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We shouldn't take Jim Johnson for granted

Frobby

By Frobby
in Orioles Talk

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rwilliams1022 AAA

rwilliams1022

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Isnt Johnson a free agent after THIS season?

Per Steve Melewski:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p>@<a href="https://twitter.com/ronjamin1022">ronjamin1022</a> Under team control thru 2014, so extension talks could come into play at some point.</p>— Steve Melewski (@masnSteve) <a href="

">April 24, 2013</a></blockquote>

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crowmst3k! All-Star

crowmst3k!

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This is the game where it all began:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL200805130.shtml

I was in the upper deck, 3rd base line with my girlfriend at the time and my manager. Two awful BOS fans behind me, yelling, calling me a ***got.

Then this happened:

After Guthrie put Casey and Pedroia on base with two singles, Trembley pulls him and brings in Jaime Walker to face the left-handed bat of Ortiz. A wild pitch moves the runners to second and third with nobody out.

Jaime Walker then walks Ortiz to load the bases. Manny Ramirez is up.

The O's are up 5-3 over Boston and it looks like that lead is about to dissolve. One swing of the red-hot bat of Ramirez will bury the O's.

Trembley makes a call to the bullpen, bringing out Jim Johnson.

Johnson comes in. He throws 10 pitches to Ramirez, and on a 2-2 count, induces a ground ball back to the mound. Johnson fields and fires home...OUT, the relay to first: OUT! A 1-2-3 double play.

What should have been a surefire big inning for the Red Sox becomes a mere whimper. Johnson gets Lowell to fly out. The inning ends. The O's hang on to win 5-4.

I'll never forget that game. I knew he would be something special. He's been a mainstay in the bullpen ever since.

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Can_of_corn Hangout Grand Counsel

Can_of_corn

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Johnson's a free agent after 2014. When do you start thinking about an extension, if any?

Allocating large sums of money long term to a relief pitcher is not a sensible use of resources unless the Orioles are prepared to greatly increase payroll.

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stomperspc Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

stomperspc

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This is the game where it all began:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL200805130.shtml

I was in the upper deck, 3rd base line with my girlfriend at the time and my manager. Two awful BOS fans behind me, yelling, calling me a ***got.

Then this happened:

After Guthrie put Casey and Pedroia on base with two singles, Trembley pulls him and brings in Jaime Walker to face the left-handed bat of Ortiz. A wild pitch moves the runners to second and third with nobody out.

Jaime Walker then walks Ortiz to load the bases. Manny Ramirez is up.

The O's are up 5-3 over Boston and it looks like that lead is about to dissolve. One swing of the red-hot bat of Ramirez will bury the O's.

Trembley makes a call to the bullpen, bringing out Jim Johnson.

Johnson comes in. He throws 10 pitches to Ramirez, and on a 2-2 count, induces a ground ball back to the mound. Johnson fields and fires home...OUT, the relay to first: OUT! A 1-2-3 double play.

What should have been a surefire big inning for the Red Sox becomes a mere whimper. Johnson gets Lowell to fly out. The inning ends. The O's hang on to win 5-4.

I'll never forget that game. I knew he would be something special. He's been a mainstay in the bullpen ever since.

That is one of my favorite games ever.

I was also upper deck (though more behind home plate) and also surrounded by awful Red Sox fans (are there any other kind?). There was a real buzz for the entire at bat. You could really hear the reaction unfold during the play as everyone realized that Johnson was going to get one out and then that they had a shot at the double as well. Just a great moment when they completed the double play. Like you said, everyone in the stadium, regardless of who they were rooting for, knew that was the moment when the Orioles blow the game. For the script to be flipped in such a way was tremendous. It was also at the height of the Red Sox taking over Camden Yards (although I do remember a relatively decent pro-O's crowd there that night) which made it even sweeter.

For some reason, MLB.tv never put up an archived version of this game. They had other games up from 2008 and I think even others from that day, but never this one always said "coming soon" until they removed 2008 games completely. I've always wanted to watch that play over again.

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DrungoHazewood Hangout Grand Counsel

DrungoHazewood

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Allocating large sums of money long term to a relief pitcher is not a sensible use of resources unless the Orioles are prepared to greatly increase payroll.

There's nothing that says a non-standard distribution of resources is doomed to failure. You could have a team loaded up with pre-arb, or pre-free agency players all around the diamond, supplemented with bargin bin guys like McLouth. Except for your $20M closer. A lot of recent years the Rays had a payroll equal to (Orioles - free agent closer price) and they were a better team than the Orioles.

Yes, in the general case, relievers are the most overpaid free agents and least likely to bring back a good ROI.

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Can_of_corn Hangout Grand Counsel

Can_of_corn

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There's nothing that says a non-standard distribution of resources is doomed to failure. You could have a team loaded up with pre-arb, or pre-free agency players all around the diamond, supplemented with bargin bin guys like McLouth. Except for your $20M closer. A lot of recent years the Rays had a payroll equal to (Orioles - free agent closer price) and they were a better team than the Orioles.

Yes, in the general case, relievers are the most overpaid free agents and least likely to bring back a good ROI.

I am specifically looking at the O's who have Jones under a long term contract and have a number of players reaching the later years of arbitration in the near future. Unless you are advocating a sell off of players such as Davis and Wieters they don't appear to have the payroll flexibility to give Johnson a long term deal at market rates.

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