Since opening day, Johnson has not lost in 8 starts, posting a 4-0 record.  Last night he went 7 innings without allowing a run.  He struck out 9 batters while walking only 2.  He also only gave up 2 hits the whole night.  The 8 runs of support he got from his team were more than enough to earn him the win.  He accomplished this feat with 104 pitches, 65 of which were strikes.  His ERA is now down to a tiny 2.68 and he is looking like an All-Star candidate.

The Marlins are now 21-19 and looking like they could be a contender in the NL East.  The distractions with Hanley Ramirez aside, they have solid pitching and decent young hitting anchored by their “lazy” star.  If they can continue to get performances like this one from Josh Johnson, they could be looking at a playoff berth for the first time since 2003.  For now, Johnson earns “The Stat Line of the Night”.

Josh Johnson pitched his first full season as a starter last year and was very successful for a Marlins team that was mediocre.  This year he looks to continue that success and has been good so far.  Last night was another level though.  Johnson pitched 9 innings of 1-run baseball last night to help lead his team to a 10-1 victory.  He only gave up 3 hits and a walk over the 9, but most impressively were his 12 strikeouts.  While the game was not very competitive from pretty early on, Johnson took it seriously from start to finish and it showed.

Josh Johnson recently signed a 4-year $39 million contract with the Marlins.  Although he has pitched well this year, he hasn’t made it past the 6th inning until last night’s game.  His 98 mph fastball is what makes him so attractive, but his ability to hit his spots and stay focused is what got him his 4th career complete game, not to mention snagging him “The Stat Line of the Night”.

Many analysts have said that the Bucs need to improve their QB stable to compete for the division again this year.  However, what moves have the Bucs done that make someone think they are pushing to win the division this year?  Granted no team ever really completely throws away a season, and with some of their offensive moves they have gotten better at a few positions, but looking at how many holes remain on the team (and how many of those wholes were created by releasing veteran players) it doesn’t seem that the Bucs are looking to make a Championship push this year.

That being said, there are a number of coaches and GMs in the league that believe that McCown has the skill set to be a potential starting QB, and has already shown that he has the game management down, and is now ready to take on a larger playbook.  He has fairly prototypical size at 6-3 210lbs, he has shown that he has the necessary arm strength and accuracy to be a good QB, and in 2007 he showed over five games (three starts) that he can make good decisions, complete passes and not throw interceptions.

The problem with evaluating McCown is that most people don’t have much to look at in regards to his play.  His coaches in Tampa Bay are the ones that have seen him the most, and the Jay Cutler trade talks aside they have done the least talking about picking up other QBs so they must like what they see.

Looking at that 2007 season McCown put up good numbers in almost every category.  He completed 67.6 percent of his passes in 139 attempts throwing for 201.8 yards per game and 7.3 yards per attempts throwing 5 TDs to 3 INTs, accumulating in a passer rating of 91.7.  Granted, those numbers are in a system that has been cut down for a back up QB, so what can we expect him to do with a full season and a full playbook?  Well if we were to project his performance in 2007 over a full season he would throw for 3,228 yards with 16 TDs and 10 INTs, nothing amazing but defiantly not bad.

However, if he is the starter McCown will have more asked of him on a game to game basis and the question is whether or not he can handle it.  Looking at the stats that he put at as a back up and the offensive personal that have been gained since he played I am predicting a sold season out of McCown, specifically around 3400 yards, 18 TDs and 13 INTs with a completion percentage of around 62, which would give him a QB rating of 86.9.  This seems to follow the changes in stats that most back ups have in their transition to starters, the yards per game goes up a little bit since they are now trusted to throw more, but because of this the completion percentage goes down, and both the TD and INT percentages go up.

I am not sure if this is how I believe McCowns season will look, but this is what the number analysis is telling me, and if it is right then Raheem Morris will look pretty good for sticking with him.