Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 23, 2007
Frustrating Hitters

Melissa at Athletic Supporters voices her displeasure with the progress of Dan Johnson:

My gut tells me that there is no place for Johnson on the A's next season. Johnson is one of the hardest hitters to watch because he seemingly always does the same thing (pull the ball to the right side). If you take a look at his hitting chart on MLB.com, it appears that Johnson almost always hits groundballs to the right side, but that when he gets the ball in the air, he does have a tendency to spray it a bit more. Still, there is a lot of red around the second baseman on Johnson's hit chart, which somewhat confirms my gut's suspicions.

However, my head recognizes that there are a number of good aspects to Johnson's game, as well. He has a good eye at the plate, takes his walks and while he has his share of strikeouts, he is nowhere near the level of a Jack Cust or a Nick Swisher. He is a decent first baseman, and while he doesn't have much range, he stretches well and generally catches everything that comes to him. And he certainly has one of the better power swings of any player on the A's. Projected over 600 at-bats, Johnson would be on-pace to hit 27 homeruns this year, a very nice total for a team that doesn't have much homerun power to speak of. Certainly, I think most people would be surprised if Travis Buck or Daric Barton reached those homerun totals next season.

And yet, despite those good attributes, I still don't see a place for Johnson on next year's team. Maybe it is Bobby Crosby fatigue. Like Crosby, we have watched Johnson play over the last few years and he has seemingly made no adjustments or improvements. Whatever good aspects there are of both players' games, you are always left with the sense that they could be so much better.

Both players are seasonal age 27 this season. Both had their best years at age 25, then regressed and haven't bounced back. Johnson suffered eye problems in 2006, but getting those fixed didn't seem to make much of a difference. Crosby, too has suffered a number of injuries the past few seasons.

But that doesn't explain the lack of adjustments. It's almost as if the A's don't have a hitting coach. You would think with all the data processing Oakland uses, they could point out these things to players.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:56 AM | Players | TrackBack (0)
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