The Marlins are taking on the Reds at Great American Ballpark for game two of their three game set Saturday night. The game is currently being streamed for free on mlb.tv, and I am taking full advantage. The commentary Rick Waltz and Tommy Hutton host is always entertaining, and tonight is no different.
With Josh Johnson on the hill, they have been talking about his more than impressive season. Waltz made a good point that there are so many different stats out there that it is impossible to just pick out just one that stands out and really shows Johnson’s dominance. But there are some good ones nonetheless.
So what is the most impressive stat that Johnson has put up this year? Tommy Hutton pointed out that he has allowed just nine walks entering Saturday night. He has approximately a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio. He leads the league in ERA and WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched). All are impressive stats, but those numbers are just numbers really, and I’m even more impressed with these next few stats.
Rich Waltz’s pick for Johnson’s best stat was not something you would find on the back of a baseball card: The Fish’s ace has carried a no-hitter into the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth inning this year. Four different times he has pitched a solid number of no-hit innings. What amazes me more is that he has only received wins for three of those starts.
The crew for FSN Florida put yet another amazing stat on the screen. JJ leads the league in hits per nine innings with about 3.4. The next best is over five.
Combined with the surreal control, the low amount of hits make his minuscule ERA explainable. And to cap all of these numbers off, tonight was the first time this year that Johnson has allowed a base hit in the first THREE innings of a ballgame. So there won’t be a no-hitter flirted with in the later innings this time, but JJ is still impressive.
What do you think is most remarkable about Johnson?
The Top Step 
Made a trip out to Florida last year and took extra care to make sure I caught a game started by J.J. He didn’t have his best stuff, (it was his second start of the year) but that didn’t hamper my opinion of him.
To me the best stat I can think of for J.J. is the ERA he manages to post while pitching in the NL East in a ballpark not known for helping pitchers. Also the K’s he racks up don’t hurt either. Only thing that ever slows him down is injuries.
http://bluejaysnest.mlblogs.com/
Johnson pitches so well when (seldom) he allows runners on base. Last night he got out of a lot of trouble. His imposing figure also helps him. I stood next to him last year at Spring Training, all 6’7″, he’s intimidating.