Players · J · Pitcher · 2019

Brian Johnson

Age: 29
B/T: L/L
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 250 lb

Born: December 7, 1990 in Lakeland, FL, United States
MLB debut: July 21, 2015

dbWAR: .4
IP: 40.1
ERA: 6.02
FIP: 5.32
K/9: 6.9
FIP−: 118

Brian Johnson was a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. In 2019 he struck out 31 batters over 40.1 innings across 21 appearances, going 1-3. His ERA of 6.02 was 33.7% higher than the league average of 4.51 — the second worst on his team, and 458th of 545 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 5.32 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 22.4% of swings (9.1% of every pitch he threw), walked 11.9% of the batters he faced and struck out 16.1%. His -0.0 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2019.

FIP5.32

K/96.9

WHIP1.88

WAR-.0

WAR by season

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.


2019	BOS	21	7	40.1	1	3	53	27	31	23	6.02	5.32	1.88	6.9	5.1	134	118	-0.0
2018	BOS	38	13	99.1	4	5	104	46	87	38	4.17	4.68	1.43	7.9	3.4	100	113	0.2
2017	BOS	5	5	27.0	2	0	32	13	21	8	4.33	4.90	1.48	7.0	2.7	99	112	0.2
2015	BOS	1	1	4.1	0	1	3	4	3	4	8.31	4.52	1.62	6.2	8.3	210	114	0.0

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.


2019	BOS	2	1	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	—	0.0%	100.0%	.000	-0.3	-117	-0.0
2018	BOS	2	4	1	1	.250	.250	.250	.000	.333	0.0%	25.0%	.220	-0.3	31	0.0
2017	BOS	1	2	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	0.0%	.000	-0.5	-121	-0.0

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2019. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	62	56	13	1	5	11	.232	.295	.393	.296	17.7%
vs RHB	131	112	40	5	18	20	.357	.446	.607	.436	15.3%

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2019.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .252.

Pitch sequencing

What Brian Johnson throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Four-seamCurveballSliderChangeup

Select a count to see exactly what Brian Johnson throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Season


Four-Seam Fastball	36.5%	282	88.9	2,296	41.8%	21.1%	49	.286	.926
Curveball	34.6%	267	74.9	2,696	39.3%	21.9%	67	.403	1.019
Slider	26.7%	206	77.6	2,574	42.2%	25.0%	51	.216	.773
Changeup	1.6%	12	84.1	1,953	50.0%	0.0%	1	—	—

Brian Johnson's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

Head to head

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Brian Johnson

Similar players

Nearest 2019 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Gregory SotoDET

ERA: 5.77
FIP: 5.40
SO: 45
WAR: -0.1

Very close

Logan AllenSD

ERA: 6.18
FIP: 5.49
SO: 17
WAR: -0.1

Very close

José RuizCWS

ERA: 5.63
FIP: 5.36
SO: 35
WAR: -0.1

Very close

Burch SmithSF

ERA: 5.48
FIP: 5.28
SO: 20
WAR: -0.1

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.