Will Randy Johnson Pitch To Age 50?

RJ has fun playing baseball? Are you sure he said that?

"RJ has fun playing baseball? Are you sure he said that?"

Sure, you just have to keep him away from NY and the pesky reporters from there..

Not sure if RJ can keep his "heat" another 5 years and since he is still a power pitcher, if is FB goes totally away, he will have to learn another entirely different way of pitching and going on to the age of 50 then would depend on that. Some like Schilling and Moose learned to pitch effectively after losing the heater and not saying that RJ would not, yet we all know that he is a stubborn man.

Can easily see both Moyer and Wakefield pitching to the age of 50, barring injuries that is with the soft stuff that both of them toss up to the plate so effectively. Moyer has been spared so far, but Wakefield has been having back troubles the past couple of years and that may hurt his cause.

"Not sure if RJ can keep his "heat" another 5 years and since he is still a power pitcher, if is FB goes totally away, he will have to learn another entirely different way of pitching and going on to the age of 50 then would depend on that."

Heat is relative. Remember that Randy was throwing 98-100 with regularity for years. For a comparison, imagine Jonathan Broxton, who has a similar pitch mix to the early Unit, doing that for 7 innings every 4-5 days. While 93 is nothing to sneeze at, pretty much any MLB hitter can catch up with a poorly located 93 MPH fastball, while even the best were getting blown away if they even slightly mis-timed Johnson's old stuff.

Remember that Randy threw just 2 pitches and the fastball wasn't the better of them. It was his insane slider that was ripping people apart after they saw a bunch of cheese. He used it as both a breaking ball and a change up, because he was getting an 8-10 MPH difference even throwing it at 90.

What the 45 year old Randy Johnson has done is add 2 new pitches to his arsenal. He throws a split that was likely helped along by the presence of Curt Schilling and he added some sink to his fastball as the velocity dropped, which allows for more GBs.

He still dominates at this age. I get scared everytime Randy or Cole Hammels faces us. They seem to win everytime. The dude is old but incredibly good. He can throw 95! He is still a #2 or 3.

"Johnson is throwing in the 93mph range with his nasty, hard slider and Moose and Schilling in their last season's were not even breaking 90mph and hitting spots with slider/curves/splitters"

Johnson's stuff definitely hasn't declined to the extent that those two guys' did, but he still has had to make changes to his approach, for sure.

As I brought up previously, as did AA, Johnson has begun to implement a mid 80's splitter, which has given him the third pitch that enables him to depend less on his fastball.

Schilling was still throwing 88-92 during his final season in Boston, so it's not really fair to say that his stuff fell off the cliff.

I just see little reason to think that Johnson's fastball will ever go below the 89-92 range, and with his offspeed stuff and command, he seems fully capable of being a fantastic starter.

I think that if his fastball was going to steeply decline in velocity, it would've by his 45th birthday.

I'm not saying he'll last until he's 50, but he should definitely be solid for a couple more years.

I can't find any reference to a pitcher making it to 50 playing in the major leagues, but several have made it into their late 40s, including Hoyt Wilhelm and Phil Neikro.

"Ever hear of a guy named Satchel Paige?"

He pitched his last major league game at the age of 47.

So, yeah. I have heard of him.

Franco was 49 when he retired.

In 1965, Kansas City Athletics owner Charles O. Finley signed Paige, 59 at the time, for one game. On September 25, against the Boston Red Sox, Finley invited several Negro League veterans including Cool Papa Bell to be introduced before the game. Paige was in the bullpen, sitting on a rocking chair, being served coffee by a “nurse” between innings. He started the game by getting Jim Gosger out on a pop foul. The next man, Dalton Jones, reached first and went to second on an infield error, but was thrown out trying to reach third on a pitch in the dirt. Carl Yastrzemski doubled and Tony Conigliaro hit a fly ball to end the inning. The next six batters went down in order, including a strikeout of Bill Monbouquette. In the fourth inning, Paige took the mound, to be removed according to plan by Haywood Sullivan. He walked off to a boisterous ovation despite the small crowd of 9,000. The lights dimmed and, led by the PA announcer, the fans lit matches and cigarette lighters while singing “The Old Gray Mare.”

They were known as "cameo appearances," and quite a few retired ballplayers made them in their 50s. At 59, Paige may have been the oldest to do one in a regular major league game. Several others did their curtain calls in the minors or playing in exhibition games. Paige did another one of those when he was 61.

Yup, and now we have old timer's games instead of cameos. I suppose we have Veeck to thank for that.