Outside the Box

Yahoo! Sports: MLB - Sources: Marlins sign Johnson for $35 million

Think this story and this story are related? After pulling out his wallet and handing over the 40-year allowance Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas should have reminded John Henry not to spend it all in one place.

Charles Johnson isn't "in one place" at $35m for five years (it's actually pretty reasonable), but he is a sizeable investment for a 28-year-old catcher. Looking at his most similars, 2000 looks like the apex of Johnson's career. Here are the ten most similar and how they did in the rest of their career. The "View in Pop-up" makes this jumping around easier to do.

1) Todd Hundley - From 41 HR to 30 from 27 to 28 and then 3, 24, and 24 HR. Cubs have to hope he bounces back to more than this.

2) Del Crandall - 51 HR in five years.

3) Earl Battey - 22 HR in four years.

4) Matt Nokes - 19 HR in three years.

5) Rich Gedman - 15 HR in four years.

6) Jody Davis - 51 HR in five years.

7) Jim Pagliaroni - 12 HR in three years.

8) Mike Lieberthal - same age as Johnson.

9) Terry Kennedy - 53 HR in 7 years.

10) Randy Hundley - No he isn't on Todd's top ten list. 17 HR in seven years.

I have a feeling the Marlins fans will feel a touch shortchanged if they only get 50 home runs out of CJ over the next five years. I hadn't realized just how far out of whack his 2000 was with the rest of his career. His career line is still just .249/.333/.436 and his previous HR high was 19 (he hit 31 last year). Maybe he isn't as good of a sign as I thought.