Chris Johnson - NL Batting Leader

Johnson is quite terrible defensively. I would sell him this off-season while his stock is high. As far as who to replace him? I think I might go with a cheaper internal option and spend Johnson's money on resigning Mac.

May be package Johnson and Medlen together with another top prospect in order to get a true ace like Sale or Price.
 
GovClintonTyree said:
Right. Even if you paid CJ $5-7m the next two years, it'd be pretty hard to find a better deal than an .850 OPS with adequate defense.

Wren hosed Towers. Not necessarily on Upton, but on Upton/CJ.
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I think the odds of CJ duplicating this yr are pretty low. I mean let's face it, even some of the best players don't hit .320 or higher on a consistent basis. And with the overall lack of power Johnson has, he will have to maintain a high average in order to be a valuable offensive starter at the hot corner.

I think it is much more likely he is a mid .750 - .800 OPS type of player. Which is nice, but when you factor in his pourus defense, he really isn't worth over 5-7 million. Not to us anyways.
 
I dont think many team will take this season seriously in order for us to sell high. Kind of how Jorge Sosa was. We all knew it was a fluke, its hard to get teams to buy on flukes unless they have some kind of history or tools to back up their success. Now if he repeats it next year he would then be taken seriously. Now if he was 38, an all star 5 years ago and was having this season the yankees would be all over him this offseason.
 
returning to the batting title discussion, watch out for Tulowitski, he doesn't have enough AB's but if he doesn't get hurt again he could get there and he's at .335. Better hitter than CJ. Molina's fighting a bad knee and catching, not a good combo.
 
I wouldnt say this is a fluke by Johnson. Maybe the .330 average but he hit .280 last year. It looks like hes really trying to cut down on his Ks and on his swing and its really paying off. Do I expect him to hit .330 the rest of the year and his career? No. Its not far off though to expect him to hit .280-.300 every year. He's really been a blessing for us.
 
It wouldn't be the first unexpectedly high BA year by a Braves 3B. I'm thinking of Pendleton's batting title in 1991.

BTW, you know who led the majors in hitting that year?

Julio Cesar, not the snake.

Julio-Franco_zpsaae580e1.jpg
 
Carp said:
Johnson is quite terrible defensively. I would sell him this off-season while his stock is high. As far as who to replace him? I think I might go with a cheaper internal option and spend Johnson's money on resigning Mac.

May be package Johnson and Medlen together with another top prospect in order to get a true ace like Sale or Price.
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Or just keep that top prospect with the inevitable risk of losing guys like Mac, Freeman, and Heyward. I would swap them for one of the top pitchers os we can keep our cheap rotation in order.
 
cajunrevenge said:
I dont think many team will take this season seriously in order for us to sell high. Kind of how Jorge Sosa was. We all knew it was a fluke, its hard to get teams to buy on flukes unless they have some kind of history or tools to back up their success. Now if he repeats it next year he would then be taken seriously. Now if he was 38, an all star 5 years ago and was having this season the yankees would be all over him this offseason.
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Johnson has a high average and so on so forth in the past. Someone with a need at 3B or 1B and not a big budget would certainly take a long hard look at him. Selling high on him doesn't mean we can deal him for a top 20 prospect, it means we turn a throw in into a viable option.
 
GovClintonTyree said:
Stop. You lost me right there. Nothing else you said matters. That's ridiculous. That's 2/3 of a 1B's value.
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Zito is correct and I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. Even if what you said is correct, it doesn't contradict anything Zito said.

How are throws measurable? Is there someone saying that throw from Simmons should have been an error? Or Freeman picked that ball when Davis couldn't? How do you propose measuring?
 
Despite being the NL league leader in batting average, Chris Johnson has a WAR of 1.7, which ranks 12 in the majors. That sounds about right. The problem with guys like him are that they are going to be crazy unpredictable. His skills are bad defense, no on base skills, and adequate power. Thus, if he has a good season, its solely on batting average. When you have a BABIP of .421 (league leader by 30 points), then you can hit a high average and have a decent year. His low walk rate and only .130 Iso power means there are a lot of balls being put into play. IF they fall, he has a good year. If they are hard hit grounders to short, it is a bad thing.

Later this year or next year, when he hits .275, what are you left with?
 
Carp said:
Johnson is quite terrible defensively. I would sell him this off-season while his stock is high. As far as who to replace him? I think I might go with a cheaper internal option and spend Johnson's money on resigning Mac.

May be package Johnson and Medlen together with another top prospect in order to get a true ace like Sale or Price.
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There is no viable internal option. My guess is Johnson will be moving on, but there's nobody in the system prepared to play 3B in the major leagues on a regular basis.
 
It's funny how when a bad defensive player hits, fans try to spin what they bring defensively to the table. It just goes to show offense sells better than defense with most fans. If that wasn't the case Simmons would get more credit than he does by Braves fans. I see many Brave fans hacking on him about his offense and almost taking for granted his great defense (at least in some areas). I also saw this with Bourn last year, etc.

BTW, Uggla had a -12 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) last I checked so far this year. If that's adequate defense, I'd sure hate to see what bad equals. Now Uggla was much better last season, at least before the Wild Card game when it counted. But this year he's been one of the worst at his position. Again, Simmons is the main reason the Braves are able to be successful with bad defenders at second and third. Freeman helps a lot too at first, but not as much as Simmons does.

Lastly, CJ is having a great year hitting for average. He's made up for his defensive shortcomings with his bat. That's great and I hope it continues.
 
I think that CJ's great hitting has made him a positive contributor this season. I didn't necessarily expect that and am glad to be wrong. That said, I'm leery of him long-term because of what giles mentioned above. If he were cheaper going forward, he'd be a great place-holder.
 
gilesfan said:
Wait, you told me Uggla was a good defender all of a sudden at age 30+
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I told you he was a good defender last year and we had to see if the trend would continue, and thus far it hasn't. I fully admitted the risk of falling back but said he clearly played better defense last year that it wasn't a glitch in the numbers.
 
zitothebrave said:
I told you he was a good defender last year and we had to see if the trend would continue, and thus far it hasn't. I fully admitted the risk of falling back but said he clearly played better defense last year that it wasn't a glitch in the numbers.
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LOL, you are lying.
 
Not sure how a topic about CJ leading the league in hitting turned into a pissing contest about defensive metrics, but anyone that argues he is much better than a lawn ornament out there needs to watch some other guys besides CJ and Chipper play 3B. True, CJ doesn't boot grounders right at him, but the only thing he fields are grounder right at him.

Regardless, this thread is about his hitting and how likely he is to win the batting title. His huge BABIP value suggests he is due to regress, but that doesn't mean he will. He is just as likely to continue to be lucky enough this year to pull it off.

Next year? I imagine he goes back to being a .280+ hitter, and we will ALL wish Wren would have sold high on him this offseason.
 
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