When the Cincinnati Reds traded Marlon Byrd to San Francisco, it marked the second trade with the Giants in the last month. In both deals they acquired some pitching, but for Byrd they received only pitching in return. Right hander Stephen Johnson came over to the Reds with just over two weeks remaining in the minor league season.
In those final two weeks of the season, Johnson didn’t allow a run over 8.2 innings with Pensacola. He walked just two batters and he struck out 11 to end the season with the Blue Wahoos.
On Tuesday afternoon he took the mound for Peoria, his third appearance of the Arizona Fall League, and tossed two perfect innings of relief. The outing kept his ERA on the season at 0.00 for the Javelinas. In his first outing he tossed a perfect inning of relief and that was followed up by 2.2 shutout frames on October 23rd where he walked and struck out his only batters through 5.2 innings.
Since joining the Reds he’s now thrown 14.1 innings and has yet to allow a run and he’s walked just three batters to go along with 12 strikeouts.
On Tuesday afternoon the right hander was pitching in a ballpark that has the Pitch F/X system installed. He needed just 22 pitches to get through his two innings of work. He threw 15 fastballs on the day, topping out at 94.6 MPH and averaging 93.4 on the day. 11 of his fastballs went for strikes on the day, but it may be worth noting that three of the ones that went for balls were the three hardest pitches he threw on the day, all over 94 MPH. It’s a 4-seamer with a lot of rising action to it.
Of his remaining seven pitches he threw four changes ups and three sliders. The change up averaged 87.1 MPH and all four of them went for strikes. Only one of his three sliders went for a strike and they averaged 81.5 MPH.