A surprise from Surprise
By Matt Patterson
mpatterson@opubco.com
It looks like the Rangers have decided they don’t have enough first basemen in their system. Texas acquired former Colorado minor leaguer Joe Koshansky who was put on waivers by the Rockies over the weekend. Koshansky led the minors with 121 RBIs last year. After his arrival at Rangers camp in Surprise, Arizona he was optioned to Oklahoma City’s camp.
He becomes the favorite to start for the RedHawks at first base where the incredibly awesome Chris Davis spent time last season, as well as Nate Gold, Chris Shelton and even Kevin Mench. Koshansky was a sixth round pick in 2004 and had been in Colorado’s system his entire career.
Interesting Koshansky, 26, cleared waivers after hitting 31 dingers last season, but then again, Nelson Cruz also cleared waivers this time last year, too.
A look at Marlins pitcher Josh Johnson
By Matt Patterson
mpatterson@opubco.com
Here’s an expanded look at Marlins pitcher Josh Johnson from our Main Event package in Monday’s paper. Johnson is in the second year of his comeback from Tommy John surgery in 2007. I’ll be posting more of these throughout the week.
Captain Comeback
Josh Johnson, RHP, Florida Marlins
Age: 25
Career stats: 19-11, 3.54 ERA, 234 strikeouts.
Salary: Johnson signed a one-year, $1.4 million deal with Florida in the off-season. He is eligible for arbitration in two years.
Oklahoma connection: Johnson was born in Minneapolis, but pitched Jenks High School to two consecutive Class 6A state titles. Johnson lives in Tulsa in the off-season with his wife Heidi and son Cash.
Role: The No. 2 starter in Florida’s rotation.
Upside: Plenty. Johnson was 7-1 in his return last season with 77 strikeouts in 87 innings. His command and velocity are excellent and he’s shown the ability to be a workhorse in the past. Johnson’s primary goal is to stay healthy, he’d also like to pitch at least 200 innings this year. And he has improved on his strikeout to walk ratio this spring with 26 innings pitched and 25 strikeouts through last week.
Cause for concern: He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2007. The average time to return from that surgery is 16 months. Johnson made it back in 12. Even though he has pitched well in the spring, he’s doing it with a surgically repaired elbow.
Welcome baseball fans
By Matt Patterson
mpatterson@opubco.com
It’s Matt Patterson live from the Opubco tower on Broadway. Just a quick word or two about this blog. We’ll be focusing a lot of attention on our reigning PCL South division champion Oklahoma City RedHawks but we’ll also take it a step further and talk quite a bit about Oklahoma’s many baseball connections at both the major league and minor league level.
So grab your foam fingers and maybe a beverage or two and get ready for the season. The RedHawks will be back in town next Monday preparing their April 9 season opener at Memphis. The RedHawks open their home season April 17 at The Brick, also against Mempis.
