When Pierce Johnson was traded from the Rockies to the Braves in late July, he sat down for the customary initial meeting with his new team, speaking with the catchers, pitching coaches, analytics staff and more. They got to know one another a bit and went over some basic game-planning material. And, oh, just one more thing. How’d he feel about a potential change of identity?
“I didn’t know I was a ground-ball guy until I got here,” Johnson says with a laugh.
The statistics back that up. Johnson’s ground-ball rate this season with Colorado was just 28%. But in 21 innings so far with Atlanta? It’s more than doubled to 60%, which is one of the contributing factors to another major change in his stat line: A 6.00 ERA with the Rockies has become a 0.86 with the Braves.
