Dane Johnson is a regular visitor with us here at Batters Box. We last talked with Dane in June and while Dane was in town recently for the end-of-season awards we sat down with him to talk about the 2010 season.
The official release announcing Dane's award gave up a bio for Dane:
JOHNSON is being recognized as this year's recipient of the BOBBY MATTICK AWARD for excellence in Player Development. The Coral Gables, Florida native has spent the last seven seasons as the organizations Roving Pitching Instructor, playing a key role in the development of many of the Club's young pitchers, including Shawn Marcum, Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil & Marc Rzepczynski. He began his coaching career with the club in 2000 as the Pitching Coach in Medicine Hat (Rookie) before moving to Auburn (A) and New Haven (AA) prior to settling into his current role in 2004. A former Blue Jay in 1996, the right-hander won six major league games, including his first against the Blue Jays as a member of the White Sox on June 8, 1994.
BB: Dane, last night you received a special award for your work. I assume you will say it's a team effort but you must be doing something right to get all these pitchers to the big leagues.
DJ: Like you said it wasn't all me. We have all the working pieces in place and it's a pleasure to work with the pitching coaches each and every day. It's exciting to come to work and not only is there good work being done but there are good relationships too and that is important to our success here. The coaches are getting our message through to the players and that works all the way up to the top, to Bruce (Walton), who sets the tone for all of us.
BB: You have just seen Deck McGuire throw here in the bullpen, and I assume in instructional league too, what have you seen in him?
DJ: Deck's a big eager kid who wants to learn a lot about pitching. There is a lot of pitchability in him, he has four pitches, he covers each side of the plate with all four of them. He has to learn how to do it better with us, we might have to tinker with a few things, with some grips and maybe a few mechanical things. He is a big physical kid that attacks the zone and throws strikes and can throw three or four pitches in any count.
BB: Other than his fastball what is his second best pitch today?
DJ: Probably the slider at this point. We will try and make that the change-up as we go along. We love the change-up here as you know Gerry. Changing speeds is big at every level, not just in the minor leagues but in the major leagues also.
BB: For Henderson Alvarez to get to AA what does he need to do, does he need to become a pitcher and not a thrower?
DJ: I think you hit it on the head. Henderson has some amazing stuff. He gave up a lot of hits to innings pitched this season. His command needs to be where he wants it and we want it and he is fully capable of that. If he does that everything will take care of itself, his secondary pitches are good, they are still developing. We are still looking for the right breaking ball, we think the slider is going to be it, we see the good ones in there and it's just a matter of time before that starts clicking, with his command to get him to the AA level. We are not concerned about what level he is at, we are more concerned about what kind of development he has as a pitcher.
BB: Chuck Huggins has probably earned a promotion to AA. What does he have to do differently at AA to succeed?
DJ: He had a little peek at AA this year and through no fault of his own he had just two starts there. He needs to pound the zone, get his secondary pitches over the plate, work ahead and keep the counts in his favour. He is not going to blow anybody away but he has a very effective curveball and a very effective change-up. If he spots his fastball and pitches down in the zone he will have success at AA, I don't doubt that.
BB: Doug Davis told me that this season Joel Carreno went from a fill-in starter to a prospect. When I saw him pitch last year I saw a good slider but he was a guy who was almost afraid to use his fastball. Is that what changed this year?
DJ: Joel was an interesting guy by the end of last season in Lansing. Joel is a strong, physical kid and he will give you the 150 innings you are looking for and stay healthy all the year. He did use his fastball more, we have been harping on him to use his fastball. Joel has a nice slider, a nice pitch to get guys out at the A-ball level and will probably play at the AA and AAA levels but his fastball is going to have to be more of a factor at those levels. I think that's more of a psychological thing for Joel to overcome at this point. We are trying to tell him at the A level that he needs to use it rather than have him go to AA and experience using it. We are putting on bets and throwing money at him to make it fun to try and get him to use those pitches, "hey Joel, how many guys can you get out with your sinker today?". It's fun to watch him execute with his fastball, to save his slider. The slider is a weapon for him and his change-up is very good too. He is kind of a dark horse, you don't know what is going to happen with him. We are going to let him keep going until someone says you are giving up too many hits, or walks or runs.
BB: Nestor Molina made a lot of progress this year and he is still just a young guy. Is there any chance he could be a starter next season?
DJ: It's a possibility. Nestor is still young, he pitched as a 20 year-old this season in Lansing and Dunedin. He is a go-getter, he throws three or four pitches over the plate. He's got a fastball, he has a real good cutter now, he has a split and a straight change. He brings an arsenal to the table that makes you think he could start and that's not totally out of the plan to do that, to get him more innings. We got him spread out this season, two or three innings when he did pitch, we just need to make sure that arm is built up. You know he is coming over from being a position player so that's a part of it too.
BB: Misaul Diaz pitched well this season and was promoted to Auburn. What is his strength?
DJ: Misaul has a real short quick arm action on the back side, he is a tall slender kid, a good athlete, moves well on the mound. He is a little unorthodox with his throwing motion which affects the hitter some and adds some deception to his stuff but he is 92-93 with a real good sinker and a hard slurve for a breaking ball but it works and we think it will work up the chain. It might need to be tightened in the future but his change-up is coming, he understands the game. He is a good looking kid with a good arm and his stuff will play.
BB: Deivy Estrada pitched in the GCL as a 17 year old. What do you see in him?
DJ: Deivy is a really young kid that has a lot of pitchability as far as knowing how to work the plate with his fastball, changing speeds, throwing any pitch in any count, fastball or breaking ball. His stuff is not power stuff at all, he is 84-85 mph max right now. We hope to get some more out of him as he gets older and matures because the pitchability is there so if we could get the stuff to match the pitchability we could have something special.
BB: Bobby Bell was a reliever and you made him a starter this year. But he has had some injury issues so do you see him back in the bullpen next year?
DJ: Yeah, at this particular point I do. That's still to be decided but if he is in the pen he will still get two or three innings when we can, more of a middle relief type. We still have to kick back in the off-season and assess who our starters will be next year. I am not going to count Bobby out as being one of those.
BB: Chad Jenkins, was he a better pitcher at the end of the year than he was at the start?
DJ: Absolutely, no doubt about it. He is still in the process of learning, he is heading in the right direction, I personally like what he is doing. He is down in Florida now to work on his slider. When he is down at the knees with his sink he gets the ground ball, gets ahead in counts. It's all about putting guys away and finishing them when he is in those counts. The change-up is there, there is pitchability in there that needs to come out but he is headed in the right direction.
BB: Las Vegas is a tough environment for pitchers. When you promote a guy to Las Vegas it is a case of suck it up kid, or do you do things to help them with their confidence?
DJ: A lot of pitchers have expectations for their year and if they don't admit that they are full of crap. They all want to win this many games, or strikeout this many, or only give up so many hits. If you get wrapped up in those numbers in that league it can be quite a downer to you because it is a hitters league. There are hitters ballparks, hitters weather and it can destroy your confidence if you go in with too high expectations. I am not a numbers guy, I don't need to see numbers, I see how guys are throwing the ball. If more pitchers took that approach at that level, about what they need to accomplish in their games, taking into consideration what happens at that level and the ballparks you do pitch in, they need to scale back their expectations of what they can accomplish at that level. It's not easy, a lot of guys had to regain their confidence after what would happen in the ballparks there, and the weather. It's a tough place to pitch and you have to be strong between the ears to pitch there.
BB: When you moved Danny Farquhar into the long relief role he pitched really well. Was that mental or more reps?
DJ: More reps. When you are a closer, and you gave to get three guys out and the game is on the line, and the pressure. Danny needed to develop some of his pitches and use more pitches in games and we found he wasn't doing that in the closer role and giving him two or three innings stints did wonders for him and he can use his whole arsenal now to get guys out.
BB: Aaron Sanchez has got a lot of glowing reviews since you signed him. Is there any way a guy like that could play his way onto the Lansing roster to start next season?
DJ: Like I said we have to kick back in the off-season to see where our guys fit. With a guy like Sanchez, a guy like Syndergaard, some of the high-priority guys taken high in the draft that have some ability that we have seen so far, I am not really concerned with where they go as to what they do where they are at. We have arms that could go pitch there and Aaron is among the arms that could go there and we will figure that out in the off-season and going into spring training. But no matter where he is going to get the things he needs to do and the plan and philosophy that needs to happen in his everyday work to get him to progress.
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Batters Box thanks Dane Johnson for his time.
