This “See A Different Game” story, by Michael Knisley, first appeared in the June 12, 2000, issue of The Sporting News under the headline “Dissecting Randy Johnson”, an effort by TSN to go “beyond the box score” in analyzing what made the Phoenix icon one of the best pitchers in baseball.
As the Diamondbacks embark on an important stretch against NL West competition, TSN senior writer Michael Knisley takes their superstar pitcher apart, piece by piece (figuratively, speaking, of course), to see what makes him tick. If you’re squeamish — or an Arizona opponent — discretion is advised before taking a look.
The south paw
It’s hard to teach, but hand speed is as important as arm speed. And in Johnson’s case, the hand is faster than the eye. That’s one of his unsung strengths, according to Diamondbacks pitching coach Mark Connor. Once Johnson’s wrist snaps forward, his hand whips through the ball faster than most other pitchers’. Without that hand speed, he might be just another flinger.
The bean
This is what makes the difference between throwing and pitching, Bob Schaefer, a special assistant in the Orioles baseball operations department has seen several of Johnson's starts this season and says. "The big thing is, he used to just head it up there in the general direction of home plate. Now he knows exactly where it's going most of the time. He uses the whole strike zone-and expands the strike zone when he's ahead." In other words, at age 36. he's a thinking man's pitcher-a thinking man's pitcher with a 100-mph heater.
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The mug
What? We can’t talk about his looks? You try standing in there against that scowl. This is not Kevin Costner out there on the mound.
The fingers
They’re long, like the rest of him. Whether he’s gripping his heater by the two seams (which turns the pitch down and away from right-handers) or four seams (in which the ball seems to move up at the last moment), those fingers swallow up a ball. Wrapped in Johnson’s fingers, the baseball seems to shrink to the size of a dimpled Titleist.
The back
It’s healthy. Johnson was better after the All-Star break (8-2, 1.89 ERA) last year than he was before it (9-7,, 2.95). No reason to think it won’t hold up over the course of this season, too. That surgery (September 12, 1996) was almost four years ago, and since then, he has been a physical-fitness freak.
The ticker
Eighth inning of a 1-1 game this . season. D-backs manager Buck Showalter looks at him and sees what he always sees. He sees he'll get no help from Johnson with this tough call. "If you expect Randy to say, 'Take me out, you're asking the wrong guy," Showalter says. Case in point: Last year, he trailed Kevin Brown and the Dodgers, 2-1, in the bottom of the seventh and insisted on hitting for himself. The man has the heart : of a warrior.
The thorax
Unlike other power pitchers, Johnson doesn't generate much velocity from his legs. Most of it is upper-body motion. From Connor: . "He's a strong strong man. He is not a slightly-built guy. He's got a big upper body, bigger than people think. He can drive a baseball."
The wings
Dodgers hitting coach Rick Down makes the analogy between Randy Johnson’s wingspan and water skiing. Yeah, we thought it was weird at first, too, but it makes a little sense. The longer the two rope, the faster the action on the ski turn. The longer the arm, the faster the crack-the-whip action on the pitch. To be sure, Johnson’s velocity is a full-body enterprise, but, as Down says, “A guy who is 6-foot-10 and has arms from here to tomorrow is going to generate more speed than another guy.” (Beginning Monday, Johnson and the Diamondbacks play the Dodgers and two other NL West rivals, the Rockies and Padres 13 times in a two-week span.)
The back gam
Nolan Ryan, he ain't. Tom Seaver, he ain't either. Vo drop-and-drive from these legs. Johnson's stride. for all that height, is relatively short. The velocity isn't being generated from the lower body. "I get a little bit of drive from my back leg. but not like the other four starting pitchers here," he says. "Drop-and-drive guys are shorter pitchers, shorter' meaning anybody shorter than me." What would happen if he tried to drop and drive? "I think he'd throw balls up on the backstop." says Connor.
The front gam
The key is balance, and Johnson has it because his right leg knows where it's going. Trouble starts, if it starts at all, when he doesn't finish a pitch square to the plate. If he begins to spin off his front leg at the end of the delivery, his fastball stays in the middle of the plate. But how often have you seen that happen in the last year and a half?
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The feet
Wayne Krivsky, the Twins’ assistant G.M., has a watched Johnson pitch several times this season and lots of times back in the Mariners days. Krivsky likes the footwork he sees this year. “Used to be he was just falling all over the mound,” he says. "Now he's staying over the rubber, which lets his arm catch up to his body. That gives him a much better chance to throw strikes — and quality strikes…
FUN FACT (if you're not a hitter),
Johnson's 126th pitch against the Dodgers on May 10 came to the plate at 97 mph.
FUN FACT (Johnson may not know)
At least one team thinks he tips his pitches.
"We steal his pitches," says a scout for a National League team. "The bottom line is you can read pitches on him because of certain things he does as far as whether it's a fastball or a slider. (The hitting coach) and I have talked about this at length. We know what's coming, and our guys know what's coming. But you've still got to hit it, and that seems to be the problem.”
Physics 101
One theory on beating Johnson's heat comes from Dodgers hitting coach Rick Down. It goes something like this: For every fast action, there needs to be an equally slow reaction.
"The tendency against people who throw as hard as he does is that you want to Swing hard," Down says. "Actually, the harder he throws, the slower you want to go. You just want to start sooner. The harder he throws, the slower you want to go with your body so you can eliminate that as part of the equation. But you have to start your swing earlier. You can't ever be too early. You can only be late. To be on time and stay through the ball that's the critical part of the equation."
The strike zone
Like any other pitcher, Johnson thinks it's too small. But it works for him at the plate. He's hitting .222, not bad for a 36-year-old pitcher who rarely had batted until the late-July trade from Seattle to Houston two years ago. His thoughts? "I'm getting base hits because the pitcher isn't getting borderline strikes called," Johnson says. The pitcher has to put it right over the middle of the plate, and that's easy for a hitter." But when he's on the mound, Johnson leads the solar system in strikeouts, even without those borderline calls.
The eye test: Fastball
• As seen by Bob Schaefer, baseball operations, Orioles: "It runs up and away on a righthanded hitter and in on a lefthander, even though he doesn't see too many lefthanded hitters. But man, oh man, that ball kind of accelerates in the strike zone. I know by the law of physics, it can't accelerate. I guess it's just that his patches don't slow down as much as other guys" when they get in the strike zone. To a hitter, that's tough duty."
• As seen by Damian Miller, Diamondbacks catcher: "He doesn't throw it quite as hard, but it's not as straight, either. It'll sink down and away from righthanded hitters. When he's got that going, he'll start it at the middle of the plate, and it'll sink away from a righthanded hitter toward the outside corner. Guys see that pitch down the middle, and then it runs away from them at the last second. All they can do is ground it out or pop it up. It's a great pitch for getting first-pitch outs."
• As seen by Eric Karras, Dodgers first baseman: "It's a nasty, nasty pitch. It's as good a slider as there is in the game, and it has nothing to do with the 95-or 96-mile-an-hour fastball he uses to set it up or the fact that he looks like he's 12 feet tall out there on the mound. It's just that good a pitch, all by itself. It's a sweeping slider. It may start 2 feet outside and end up on the inside part of the plate. It's as big a breaking slider as I've ever seen. The thing that makes it tough is that you give up on it because he starts it so far away from the plate. He has to. If he doesn't start it way away from the plate, he's going to end up either hitting me, or it's going to be way inside.”
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The skinny
This is an excerpt from a report on Randy Johnson that one advance scout filed to his manager before his team faced the Diamondbacks earlier this season.
Fastball: High—99 miles per hour Low-91 mph Average-95 Control good Command-average; Movement-fourseam, tail up; two-seam, power sinker, down.
Slider: High-88 mph Low-86 mph Average-87 mph Control-good Command average Movement-Three-quarter tilt job. Hard in under a righthanded hitter's hands. Nasty hard runner. Ball just keeps cutting in. Will also throw it to the back side on righthanded hitters.
Changeup: High-82 mph Low-80 mph Average-81 mph; Movement-Action on that pitch is sink, fade. Used mostly as a show pitch.
Type pitcher: He's a high-ball, lowball, inner-and-outer. Uses the whole box. Power fastball, slider combination. Rarely uses his changeup.
How to beat him: Stay off the high fastball. Make the fastball be below your hands. Bunt on him. Run on him. Keep him from getting.comfortable and establishing his rhythm.
WHO HITS HIM (besides Randy Velarde)
Randy Velarde, a veteran infielder who has blossomed late in his career, has had remarkable success against Johnson, batting-462.
Says Velarde, a career .277 hitter in the majors before this season: "A lot of those hits (he has 18 off Johnson) were flares in the Kingdome, little jam shots, but I know I've hit some bullets off him right at people, too.
"You start counting the days until they (the game's dominant pitchers) are pitching. You start to take the approach you need to face them. ... You have to go in with a can’t-lose mind-set; if he gets you out, he's supposed to because he's Randy Johnson; if you get hits, that's more points for you because you're not supposed to."
The hitters who give Johnson trouble:
Name, Team: H-for-AB (Avg.), HR, Next Potential Meeting
Matt Stairs, A’s: 6-for-10 (.600), 0 HR, July 7-9 at Oakland
Randy Velarde, A’s: 18-for-39 (.462), 0 HR, July 7-9 at Oakland
Brian Jordan, Braves: 5-for-16 (.400), 0 HR, August 1-3 at Arizona
*Mo Vaughn, Angels: 8-for-24 (.333), 2 HR, June 9-11 at Arizona
Eric Karros, Dodgers: 5-for-15 (.333), 2 HR, June 12-15 at L.A.
Chipper Jones, Braves: 4-for-12 (.333), 3 HR, August 1-3 at Arizona
*Shawn Green, Dodgers: 3-for-9 (.333), 0 HR, June 12-15 at L.A.
*Jim Edmonds, Cardinals: 6-for-19 (.316), 2 HR, July 19-20 at Arizona
*Lefthanded hitter.
Through his first 12 starts this year, Johnson had held lefthanded hitters to a.171 average.
WHO DOESN’T HAVE A SNIFF (besides Charlie Hayes)
Name, Team: H-for-AB (Avg.), HR, Next Potential Meeting
Charlie Hayes, Brewers: 0-for-15 (.000), 0 HR, August 21-23 at Arizona
Brian Gils, Pirates: 0-for-14 (.000), 0 HR, August 11-13 at Pittsburgh
Brian L. Hunter, Rockies: 0-for-14 (.000), 0 HR, June 16-18 at Colorado
Mike Cameron, Mariners: 0-for-13 (.000), 0 HR, July 16-18 at Arizona
Spring flings
Now that Johnson is humming along with an ERA of 1.41 (and a 9-1 record), does anybody remember how he pitched in the Cactus League? Anybody recall his ERA then? Try 9.68 on for size.
"I wasn't alarmed, but I was a little frustrated," he says. "But I also realized that nothing was going to happen until I got my location and my velocity down with my arm strength. More was made of my spring training than I feel It needed to be."
No kidding.
Scary thought
Baseball's muckety-mucks are thinking about raising the mound. And they'll still let Johnson pitch. His take? "Heck, if you're going to raise it up, why not move it in a little more, too? I wouldn't mind more velocity.”
The money quote
“When he gets locked in, may ‘The Force’ be with you because it ain’t going to be easy. Believe me. That’s about all you can say. Just tip your cap to the guy and play hard." — Dodgers scout Mark Weidemeier
Postscript: A year later, in 2001, Phoenix icon Randy Johnson would be voted World Series MVP after the D-Backs beat the Yankees in seven games.