Randy Johnson - Starting Pitcher
Age: 41 (Turns 42 in September).

Three-Year History and splits:

SEASON G GS CG IP H R ER HR BB SO W L ERA
2003 18 18 1 114.0 125 61 54 16 27 125 6 8 4.26
2004 35 35 4 246.2 177 88 71 18 44 290 16 14 2.60
2005 34 34 4 226.2 207 102 95 32 47 211 17 8 3.79

Outlook: There are probably a lot of people out there who would categorize Randy’s first season in pinstripes as a failure but at the end of the season, he did lead the Yankees starters in wins (4th in the AL), innings pitched (5th), Ks (2nd), WHIP (2nd) and batting average against (5th). Also, of the original five man starting rotation, he had the best ERA by far. He allowed less than a hit an inning, walked very few batters and struck out quite a number of batters, all of which are recipes for success. However, home runs were an issue as he gave up 14 more homeruns than last year in 20 less innings (4 of those came in one spectacular meltdown of an inning against the White Sox) and while he did strike out a lot, his Ks per 9 innings were under 9 for the first time since 1990 (and under 10 for only the second time since 1990).

Still, there remains hope that Randy can be dominant in the AL as he pitched a lot better after the all-star break (ERA was almost a run better and his BAA went from .268 to .208). To be more specific, he pitched that well after sitting down with Joe Kerrigan and apparently fixing some flaws in his mechanics. From that point on, Randy was pretty much the Big Unit that the Yankees thought they were getting at the beginning of the year. Hopefully, Randy has figured out what those underlying issues were and permanently fixed them because there are several other concerns including his turning 42, his bad knees, bad back and of course, the attitude. Since the Yanks are on the hook for both 2006 and 2007, we can only hope that the second half Randy is the real one.

Please post your predictions for the following stat line in the comments section:

G GS Innings W LBBKERA