Checking In On Former Yank Nick Johnson
Posted by Steve L. on July 16th, 2007 · Comments (6)
USA Today has a great feature today on the comeback efforts of Nick Johnson. You have to wonder if things would be different for Nick now – had he never been traded away from the Yankees. And, would things be different for the Yankees as well…
I always liked (and still do) Nick but the fact of the matter is that he was always hurt. He was like Rondell White w/o having the same amount of service time.
I rooted hard for Rondell White when he was with the Yanks, he seemed like a nice enough guy despite Torre being a “racist” (according to Sheff and Lofton) and all, Torre still gave him a chance to prove himself.
I loved having Nick Johnson when he was called up and we had Giambi and Nick as the 1B/DH platoon. Nick was just too hurt to help the Yanks.
Who knows how things would have been different….maybe we don’t see a grand slam in game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, but maybe we lose in the 2004 ALDS. How can we ever really know how things would have turned out? For some reason, I don’t think think it would have turned out that much differently than it is now.
If Nick Johnson had been a great pitcher, then I’d have a different answer.
Why would things be different? He would be just as injury prone in New York as he has been in Montreal/DC.
~~~Why would things be different? He would be just as injury prone in New York as he has been in Montreal/DC.~~~
Well, first off, if he was on the Yankees, he would not have been playing in Shea on Sept. 23, 2006….
Steve’s got you there, Tex. My advice, just lie back and enjoy it.
Steve, are you serious? Nick Johnson, aka Mr. Injury, has been injury plagued since 2000. He had a great 1999 in AA then missed virtually all 2000 with a mysterious wrist injury that took forever to heal. It has been thus ever since.
Nick Johnson is like Ben Sheets (not as talented, but as frustratingly injury-prone). It seems that when guys can’t stay healthy, they start to get hurt in weird, freak ways. It’s not just their rotator cuffs or hamstrings — they start spraining their fingers or running into people and breaking their legs. Kerry Wood injured himself stepping out of a jacuzzi. Seriously.
Johnson, like Sheets, is one of those guys where you say, “If only he can stay healthy…” When Sheets was healthy for an entire year, he was Cy Young worthy. When he was (almost) healthy for a year with the Nats, Johnson was very good.
The trade for Vazquez, which Johnson was the centerpiece of, made sense then, and stands as one of Cashman’s more creative moves. That Vazquez forgot how to throw his fastball once he got here isn’t Cashman’s fault.