Sickels: Player Profile: Dan Johnson, 1B, Tampa Bay Rays

The scouting guru looks back on yesterday’s Moneyball hero, who apparently didn’t look good in jeans.

Dan Johnson was a successful slugger at the University of Nebraska, hitting .368/.482/.849 with 21 homers in 55 games for the Cornhuskers in 2000, then .361/.507/.752 with 25 homers in 2001. Although his left-handed power bat was attractive, his other physical tools were mediocre, he looked too fat, and scouts felt his swing was too long to guarantee success in pro ball. Still, his college performance was good enough that Oakland drafted him in the seventh round in 2001. He hit .283/.354/.494 with 11 homers in his 69-game pro debut for Vancouver in the Northwest League. ....

Overall, Johnson has spent parts of six years in the major leagues, hitting .235/.334/.405 overall, with 53 homers, 196 walks, and 226 strikeouts in 1520 plate appearances. His OPS is a bit below average at 98 (100 is average). His career WAR is a tick above average at 1.9, but most of that value was generated in his 2005 and 2007 seasons.
In Triple-A, he is a career .301/.413/.543 hitter.

Like many minor league sluggers, Johnson has enough offensive value to be useful in the right circumstance for the right team. Even when he hit .198 for the Rays in 2010, his walks and isolated power still gave him an above-average OPS at +111. Overall, Johnson is the epitome of a “Quadruple-A slugger,” a guy who mashes pitching in the upper minors, but just isn’t quite good enough to earn a regular job as a first baseman or DH in the majors, and spends his career crushing Triple-A pitching and battling for at-bats as a reserve in the Show.