Is Randy nearing bust status?

He is on his way to Cooperstown, the best lefty of his era, tall, aggressive, dominating, that is all true but the 2006 Randy Johnson is a scared, meek looking, bottom of the rotation starter. I'm not writing Randy off but there is a time when players reach the cliff and start to tumble over it as their performances hit a steep decline, and sadly for New York Yankee fans, that time has come for Randy, and it has come in a big way.

Through eight decisions he has posted a 5-3 record, which you might think isn't so bad. The 5.01 ERA however looked distinctly below average and when you watch Randy pitch, you are never comfortable. His slider has no bite and he is unable to spot his fastball, those two pitches are the only ones he has really used since he's moved over to the Bronx, and if neither of them are firing on all cylinders then there is a gigantic problem.

He is getting $16m this year and exactly the same again next time around. So give or take a few $ then it's half a million for each start, that is a lot of money in anyone's books, even for the Yankees. The Yankees thought they were getting arguably the best pitcher in baseball at the time when he came over from the Diamondbacks, and although he struggled at times last year, he was still effective, and going down the stretch he looked pretty damned good. When it came to his big moment though in the playoffs, his performance left a lot to be desired.

Fast forward to this year and it is four quality starts against four non quality starts, not too bad but the worrying trend is his loss of the strikezone, walking hitters, unable to finish hitters off, even the bottom of the order are still finding ways of getting on base despite having two strikes on them, this isn't the Randy that baseball knows, this is a different man altogether.

Is it a mental thing, is it a mechanical thing or is his knee finally saying enough is enough? I know the Blue Jays looked like they knew what was coming when they smacked him about a couple of weeks back, so is he even tipping his pitches? Whatever it is then he needs to sort it out quick because at this rate he certainly isn't earning his salary and he isn't winning anyone's affections in the Bronx.

Is Randy nearing bust status? He certainly isn't a million miles away...