Randy Johnson is a bit more complex than Pearlman makes him out to be

Following up on the Pearlman thing, here’s a link to a lengthy story from 2002 by the legendary Pat Jordan in the New York Times. It’s a profile of Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling during their Diamondback heyday.

It’s a nice compare and contrast. Jordan doesn’t sugarcoat Johnson’s surly demeanor. He’s definitely a hard man to get to know and a harder one to like. But unlike Pearlman, he at least tries to understand it and puts it in an understandable context.

After reading it, ask yourself: did Jeff Pearlman ever actually try to get to know Randy Johnson before calling him an “pathetic human being” and a “punk?” Or did he simply walk up to him on a day he pitched and expect him to open up his world to some writer with an obvious contempt for his subjects?

Bad news for the Cubs’ Yu Darvish: The right-hander is headed back to the disabled list with right triceps tendinitis, the team announced Saturday. It’s the second such assignment for Darvish this season, but the first time he’s been sidelined with arm issues. Neither the severity of his injury nor a concrete timeframe for his recovery has been revealed yet, but the move is retroactive to May 23 and will allow him to come off the DL by June 2, assuming all goes well.

Prior to the injury, Darvish went 1-3 in eight starts with a 4.95 ERA, 4.7 BB/9 and 11.0 SO/9 through 40 innings. Needless to say, these aren’t the kind of results the Cubs were hoping to see after inking the righty to a six-year, $126 million contract back in February, though the circumstances affecting his performances appear to have largely been out of his control. He missed a start in early May after coming down with the flu and has struggled to pitch beyond the fifth inning in five of his eight starts to date.

The Cubs recalled left-hander Randy Rosario from Triple-A Iowa in a corresponding move. Rosario has yet to amass more than five career innings in the majors, but has impressed at Triple-A so far this year: he maintained an 0.97 ERA, 2.8 BB/9 and 6.1 SO/9 through 19 1/3 innings in 2018. As for Darvish’s next scheduled turn in the rotation, Tyler Chatwood is lined up to take the mound when the Cubs face off against the Giants in the series finale on Sunday. A starter for Monday night’s game has yet to be determined.