The Braves Messed Up With Kelly Johnson

[jamminHANES]

Last year, around these parts in specific, I and others who supported our former second basemen were called apologists and so forth. Now he has 9 home runs while our second basemen has 9 extra base hits.

Kelly could be at second with Prado at first, or Kelly could be in left while Prado is at second. To non-tender a player with that talent is inexcusible. Pendleton and Cox simply messed up his entire approach. Preaching aggressiveness is what messed Kelly up and now he is on another team killing it while our team struggles offensively both at first base and left field.

I know, talking about a player not on our team anymore may be annoying to some, but I feel that he deserves a thread with his performance this spring.

We messed up this entire situation, badly.

[alaskabravesfan]

If your comment annoys anyone jamminHANES, it's only because the truth is sometimes tough medicine to swallow. Kelly Johnson is a talented kid. It's lame that the Braves let him walk away...

[Dreamscape]

Funny thing about Kelly Johnson. His BABIP isn't yet where it should be so his numbers should improve.

I don't know if KJ would be having this kind of success here. Reading through a D'Back blog, KJ has been pulling the ball a lot more instead of just trying to use his wrists to flick the ball somewhere as he had began to do a lot in Atlanta.

Atlanta just seemed like a bad fit for him. I don't begrudge allowing KJ to move on. He had no real value at the time (how I wish he did) and the Braves couldn't afford him (under the premise that he couldn't be moved to left, that is). But it is unfortunate because I am such a big KJ fan.

[Chris_Moderato]

It's nice to see him proving the haters wrong. It's also nice that we have a valid replacement at second base. I wish Kelly was in left instead of Melky and "First-Pitch-Swinging" Diaz, but what are you gonna do? It is what it is. Once the Braves start stringing some wins together, we won't be worried about what Kelly Johnson is doing in Arizona.

[wordslayer©]

Probably KB, Dream and I were the biggest KJ fans out there. I would have loved to have seen him in left field. What I remember about this suggestion was people saying that he had WAY too much value to be put in the outfield....keep him at 2nd base.....he doesn't hit enough to be an outfielder. There were a million reasons I can remember people citing for him not to be an outfielder.

AFTER the fact, people remember things differently than how they did during the time of their actions.

We all remember our hits and forget our misses. We remember every single prediction we make that we get right about players, but we forget every single miss we make on our predictions. We remember things that make us feel smart and forget those that make us realize what dumba$$3s we actually are.

As much as I hated Francoeur, I wish we would have taken control of both he and KJ and sent them down to to the minor leagues. Instead of letting them wreck the major league team, let them work out their problems down there and then bring them back.

I don't like seeing KJ gone. I really liked the guy. I don't think the braves believed in him anything like they did Francouer, and I do not think they really believed in him. I think they focused on his negatives and not what he could do right. However, I do think they gave him a chance, and if we are all really being honest, I don't remember too many tears on the day we moved him....other than KB.

[BigWorm]

Kelly Johnson's a bum. He'll end the season with 11 HR's.

How long was Bobby supposed to stick with him? Three years? Well he did.

[Freddy_Ballgame]

I appreciate the honesty I see in some of the posts. As difficult as it is to swallow, KJ "played" his way out of the lineup and out of town. It would be great if his meltdown hadn't happened during a contract year, but it did and the Braves hands were pretty much financially tied. I would've loved to watch him succeed as a Brave, but I'd love to see Pujols anchoring first, too!

[KB 34]

If a player simply isn't cutting it I have no problem moving them or doing something, provided there are no huge question marks and from early last season I have two. Early in the season Schafer and KJ started tanking badly. Schafer was sent to AAA and was done for the season within two weeks as he had wrist surgery. KJ ended up on the DL and that was pretty much the end for him. I strongly suspect both were playing through devistating injuries which killed their production. Sure, Schafer had other problems but he wasn't that bad and with his inexperience and the pressure who knows how well his head stayed on straight. Later in the season I suspect KJ was a lot healthier, though I don't know of reliable confirmation. Here are his splits for 2009.
Split G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
1st Half 68 57 263 234 33 50 15 2 5 20 4 2 21 40 .214 .286 .359 .645 84 3 3 4 1 1 2 .237 87 72
2nd Half 38 12 83 69 14 18 5 1 3 9 3 0 11 14 .261 .358 .493 .851 34 1 0 2 1 0 0 .283 145 125
Granted the sample size was quite small but in the second half his numbers were a lot closer to what I would expect based on his previous seasons. I'm not convinced the Braves evaluated him well last season when he was healthy. In general the way the Braves have handled injuries over the past couple seasons has concerned me, even more so than KJ with Soriano and his fluky injury doctors didn't find until they performed surgery and everyone (except me it felt like) had turned on him and called his 2 year contract extension a huge mistake. I may be off on a lot of this but regardless the Braves need to make some organizational changes because the results aren't where they want them to be.

[quick]

I think with KJ, too much had occurred for him to be productive here. He would not be productive here absent major coaching changes. Also, as he had major arm surgery, I am not sure his arm would hold up as a starter in the outfield.

He played his way out of town, and I wish him success elsewhere, as I do Francoeur. No way Francoeur could return and play well here until something big changes, and just being in his home town could be enough to permanently star-cross Francoeur.

Perhaps the new manager and coaching staff will have a fresh approach and it will help the team.