Joined: 10 Aug 2006
Posts: 859
Location: Tucson, AZ until 3/6... then back to San Francisco
Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 1:24 pm Post subject: Randy Johnson's Recovery Watch
Starting a thread on RJ's climb back to health, and hopefully dominance.
He's supposed to have started throwing by now, but how much? Is he on the mound yet? Long-toss? HAS he started?
Anybody with any news? All I've heard is what Johnson said at his conference-- cautiously optimistic, and he'd be throwing by now-- and Melvin this week saying RJ was ahead of schedule.
_________________ Oops in the 2 hole!
Joined: 02 Jan 2007
Posts: 20
Location: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA
Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:55 pm Post subject:
if melvin said he was "ahead of schedule" i'd imagine he's long tossing. I can't imagine he's on the mound yet, most likely just some long toss. hopefully he'll be ready by the start of the season.
_________________
cashman explains why he traded the big unit back to the desert. one quote:
Quote:
"Arizona separated itself from the pack, and I was very satisfied with what we got," Cashman says. "We reduced our payroll, got younger and built up our farm system.
"At the same time, Randy was happy. I didn't see him smile the whole time here. But he looked like a whole different person in that (Diamondbacks) press conference."
Joined: 28 Jan 2007
Posts: 20
Location: Reno, Nevada
Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:34 am Post subject: Re: Randy Johnson's Recovery Watch
B. O. N. D. wrote:
Starting a thread on RJ's climb back to health, and hopefully dominance.
He's supposed to have started throwing by now, but how much? Is he on the mound yet? Long-toss? HAS he started?
Anybody with any news? All I've heard is what Johnson said at his conference-- cautiously optimistic, and he'd be throwing by now-- and Melvin this week saying RJ was ahead of schedule.
The pitchers probably won't throw off the mound until the start of spring training. Mostly conditioning and long toss.
Great article. The section about why the Royals paid 55M for Meche was priceless.
Quote:
"Everybody in baseball realizes that Gil Meche has an outstanding quality to his pitches," Moore says. "You can talk to people and they'll tell that this guy should win 15-plus games a year. I see this guys entering the prime years of his career. Guys just don't break into the major leagues as a No. 1 or No. 2 starter. Look at Johan Santana, Chris Carpenter, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz. It takes time.
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 666
Location: worm factory
Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:14 am Post subject:
Which brings me back the two pitchers we should be focusing on. Ryan drese, and Edwin Jackson. Minor league contract for Drese. Jorge Julio for jackson. Talk Jackson into going to tucson and becoming the next Flash Gordon. Jackson profiles as the type of guy, Price can do wonders with. Two weeks left for some trades.
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Joined: 13 Aug 2006
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:18 am Post subject:
The guy who has better stuff than Meche, is Pinero. And Pinero was waived. Don't know why the Mets didn't go hard after him.
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My wife is always trying to get rid of me. The other day she told me to put the garbage out. I said to her I already did. She told me to go and keep an eye on it
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 666
Location: worm factory
Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:34 am Post subject:
levski wrote:
Dangerfield wrote:
The guy who has better stuff than Meche, is Pinero. And Pinero was waived. Don't know why the Mets didn't go hard after him.
because the red sox went after him harder?
what kind of a question is that?
Rhetorical....
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Feb. 3, 2007
The Sports Xchange
--LHP Randy Johnson has been throwing from 120 feet and could be close to throwing off the mound in his rehab from late October back surgery. Johnson has reported no problems, according to pitching coach Bryan Price, who said the five-time Cy Young Award winner could be joining the rotation sometime in April.
"That's pretty realistic," Price said. "The way his rehab is going at this point, everything seems to be on schedule. Without any setbacks and assuming everything stays that way, it's reasonable to think he'll be pitching for us in April. But until we get him throwing bullpens, I don't want to set unrealistic goals out there."
Joined: 10 Aug 2006
Posts: 2404
Location: Gold Canyon
Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 1:43 am Post subject:
Nick Piecoro this morning wrote:
Randy Johnson continues to make progress in his recovery from back surgery, Josh Byrnes said.
Johnson has been playing catch since days after the Diamondbacks reacquired him from the Yankees last month but has yet to throw off a mound, Byrnes said.
"He's making solid progress and continued progress," he said. "We're still not sure on specifics of a timeline. He's felt good in all his activities in preparing, whether it's general conditioning or throwing."
Johnson is "a bit behind" where other pitchers will be when they report to camp next week, "but not significantly," Byrnes said.
Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 5:46 pm Post subject: Steve Gilbert reports:
Steve Gilbert reports:
Quote:
Making progress: Randy Johnson has been playing catch, and manager Bob Melvin said the left-hander could potentially throw a bullpen session before the start of camp late next week.
"We're still waiting to see how he progresses in his throwing before we get to Spring Training," Melvin said. "We'll come up with a schedule after he actually gets on a mound and throws a bullpen."
Johnson, who had offseason surgery on his back, said during his introductory press conference last month that he would probably be a little behind the other pitchers at the start of camp.
_________________
"He that speaks much, is much mistaken. " BF
1) Now that the Big Unit is back, how is his back?
Following October surgery to repair a herniated disk, Johnson has been playing catch at 120 feet and is projected to be about a week or 10 days behind the rest of the staff when camp opens.
Although it appears unlikely Johnson will be ready for the start of the season, his acquisition added a dynamic final piece to a starting rotation that could be among the best in the majors, based on past performances.
Johnson recovered from 1996 back surgery to win his first Cy Young in Seattle in 1997, although the effect of 10 more years of wear and tear remains to be seen.
Joined: 10 Aug 2006
Posts: 2404
Location: Gold Canyon
Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 9:54 pm Post subject:
By Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY tonight wrote:
Johnson is healed and hungry for '07 season
PHOENIX — He stands in a parking lot, throwing to a kid behind a white station wagon. Dry-cleaning racks are behind him. A vacant lot, littered by tumbleweeds and separated by a barbed-wired fence, is to his left, a warehouse to his right.
This is the industrial park where Arizona Diamondbacks five-time Cy Young winner Randy Johnson has quietly trained all winter. Nothing glamorous. No fanfare. All business.
The perfect place for a private man who eagerly waits to prove all the skeptics and disbelievers that he is far from finished, just four months after back surgery and two months since leaving the New York Yankees.
"Obviously, people are going to have doubts about you," says Johnson, who hopes to pitch in a spring training game by mid-March and be ready by April 10. "It's up to you to prove them wrong. They saw my (5.00) ERA, so they thought maybe my career was over. …
"I didn't come here just to retire and be a warm body on the mound. I came here to win ballgames. Only time will tell if I can still do the things that I once did."
Johnson, in his first in-depth interview since the Yankees accommodated his request to be traded close to home, stares ahead and snickers softly.
Go ahead and doubt him. He was once told by a pitching coach in his days in Montreal that he nearly was released in Class AA. He listened to scouts in Seattle tell him his mechanics would prevent him from being a dominant pitcher.
Nineteen years, 280 victories and 4,544 strikeouts after supposedly being released, Johnson vows it's foolish to count him out.
"The guy is 43, and he hasn't lost one bit of that edge," says Brett Fischer, Johnson's personal trainer, who works with 35 major league players. "You can't believe his intensity. I wouldn't put anything past him."
Johnson, who has worked with Fischer since his first back surgery in 1996, spent at least three hours a day, five days a week in the gym this offseason. The back feels great, he says, and his upper body is stronger than ever.
"If I listened to what everybody said about me, I never would have gotten this far in the game," Johnson says. "The greatest fear you have is failing, but after everything I've been through this winter, I have a different perspective about things. You're going to see me dig as deep as I can to be successful.
"I'm hungry again."
Pitching in pain
It has been two months, but the pain sears through his body like a scorching sun in the Arizona desert.
His brother, Gregg, 51, the fourth of six kids in the family, died Dec. 12 after a brain aneurysm. It brought back memories from 14 years ago when his father, Bud, died of an aortic aneurysm on Christmas Day.
"To have your brother pass away in front of you," Johnson says, slowly choosing his words, "that's not easy. He had a stroke, and I came to see him (in the Bay Area). I was with him for three days. He was responding to doctors the first day and squeezing my hand and everything. Then, 48 hours later, the swelling on the brain took over. He stopped responding. He passed away in front of all of us."
Johnson's voice trails off. It's a private matter with the family. There's no reason to share his pain with the outside world.
It's no different, Johnson says, than the way he competed last season. He pitched in incredible pain most of the year and was diagnosed with a herniated disk in his back. It hurt to bend his 6-10 body to tie his shoes, let alone throw 110 pitches a game off the mound. Yet never once did he publicly reveal his anguish.
"You could see this guy's back was killing him," says Detroit Tigers DH Gary Sheffield, Johnson's teammate in New York. "And I'd see him in the trainer's room working so hard to get out there. No matter how he felt, he gave you everything he had.
"I don't know whether he liked it in New York, but even if he didn't, there were a lot of guys besides Randy Johnson who didn't. That's not the point. The point is he never complained about anything and just laid everything on the line every time he pitched. It didn't always work out, but as a teammate, you respected everything about the man."
'Great to be back home'
Johnson, who concedes he didn't smile perhaps as much in New York ("I saw him smile more at his press conference in Arizona than I did in his two years here," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says), might not be able to stop today.
There will be no cross-country flight to Tampa. No need to kiss his four kids and wife goodbye for six weeks. If he forgets a pair of slacks or shoes, he can drive the two hours up Interstate 10, spend the night at his Paradise Valley, Ariz., estate, and leave the next morning.
"It's great to be back home again," says Johnson, who will pack his bags, fill up his Hummer and report to the Diamondbacks spring training camp in Tucson on Friday.
"The drive won't seem so long anymore. Sometimes, I guess, you just don't realize what you have when you have it."
Johnson refuses to second-guess his decision to leave two years ago. The Diamondbacks had just lost 111 games. They weren't willing to give Johnson the market price for an extension (two years, $32 million). Besides, he had a chance to play for the Yankees.
"I think that's everyone's dream, isn't it?" Johnson says. "The Yankees are a great franchise, the winningest organization in sports. Just walking across the field on the day you pitch, you appreciate where you're at and the history that happened there. You're meeting Whitey Ford. You're saying 'hi' to Yogi Berra on almost a daily basis. When my career is over, I can at least say I got to play for that franchise.
"I know the expectations were extremely high. There's probably only two or three teams that expect to win the World Series each year, and I was playing on one of them. I knew what I was in New York for. And that was to help them win a World Series. I fell short. But the experience … was great. I wouldn't change a thing."
Understood at home
Johnson, whose family stayed just the first year in New York ("The kids missed all of their friends," he says), has no regrets.
He went 17-8 with a 3.79 ERA in 2005 for the Yankees, but all he heard was about his playoff loss to the Los Angeles Angels. He won 17 games again last season, pitching with a herniated disk, but all everyone kept talking about was Johnson's career-high (for a full season) 5.00 ERA.
"My first year was pretty good, and last year I had inconsistencies with my mechanics," Johnson says. "But considering I had surgery at the end of the year, can't you step out of the box a little bit and correlate that there might be some reason for it?"
Although Johnson profusely apologized two years ago for shoving a New York photographer on his first day in town, walking in Manhattan to take his physical, the incident never faded.
"I don't mind people ripping me, but it was an uphill battle from there," he says. "I know I haven't always been the most media-friendly guy, but I sure have tried. How can somebody write about you and take shots without sitting down and getting to know them?"
Even after Johnson left, there were reports he was traded simply because the Yankees are pursuing Roger Clemens and the two couldn't co-exist because Johnson would want the same privileges of not having to be with the team on the days he doesn't pitch.
"How can you report that without even asking me?" Johnson says. "I would never want that. I've never had special privileges, and I surely wouldn't start now. Come on, you can write what you want, but don't make it personal.
"You feel bad for a guy like (Yankees third baseman) Alex Rodriguez, who I've known since he was a rookie in Seattle. You try to be yourself, but sometimes you can't."
Sometimes, you just need to come home to be understood.
"Randy will never be a vocal guy, but I think you're going to see a little more of a personal guy this time around," says Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin, who was on the coaching staff when they won the World Series. "He still has that competitive desire with a chip on his shoulder, but he wants to handle things differently now.
"He's coming home. Coming back to the National League. He's not pitching 19 times against the Red Sox and Blue Jays. And he sees that this team has a chance to win. Really, this entire state is excited to have him back."
i can't wait to see him at Chase again...hope he is a different pitcher than last year, it sounds like he believes he is
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"He that speaks much, is much mistaken. " BF
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