A Deeper Look at Kelly Johnson & Platoons

So, earlier today, I took a look at Jeff Francoeur and how he related to players who were not only his positional peers, but also very close to him statistically. In doing so, I was actually surprised to see to see the names which appeared on the list, despite the amount of flack Francoeur gets for not living up to the high expectations Braves fans have placed on him. Another hot topic as of late has been Bobby Cox's insistence on occasionally platooning out Kelly Johnson with Martin Prado, prior to his injury, or Omar Infante, now that he has returned from the disabled list. The question has been asked numerous times as to whether or not this is truly a decision that is beneficial to the Braves lineup, or detrimental to it.

This lead me to once again hit the stats and see just how Kelly compares to those other 2B in the Majors during the Post-Strike Era (PSE) who have put up comparable stats through this point in their career. Now, granted, Kelly hasn't played second during his entire tenure at the big league level, but his approach at the plate has not been impacted by this, and I don't think anyone can argue that his future in the Majors is likely at second.

For this group of players, my qualifiers were players who made their debut in the PSE, had at least 1000 plate appearances in their first three seasons, put up an OBP over .340, a SLG over .425 and an OPS+ over 100 while playing 60% of their games at second (to qualify Kelly).

Once again, to the table we go...

Player	PA	OBP	SLG	OPS+
Kelly Johnson	1093	.358	.441	109
Robinson Cano	1728	.346	.489	117
Marcus Giles	1150	.362	.476	115
Ian Kinsler	1244	.353	.446	109
Junior Spivey	1229	.363	.453	105
Chase Utley	1067	.350	.496	115

Quite the interesting list.

Of course, the names Utley and Cano are going to be on there, as they -- along with Brandon Phillips and Dan Uggla -- are the players on top of the 2B mountain. I think the most surprising names are Marcus Giles and Junior Spivey, however. Of course, we're all familiar with Giles and the controversy that has popped up since his downfall, which began in 2006, which makes it even more frustrating to have us all be reminded that he was once putting up numbers comparable to what the best 2B in the league are doing now. The other name, Spivey, is a huge shocker. A lot of people forget just how good he was in 2002 -- actually garnering some MVP votes for the NL West champion Arizona Diamondbacks.

And then there is Ian Kinsler, who is essentially the American League's equivalent of Kelly Johnson. Both players are 26 years of age, and have stats which are very close to being equal. The only huge difference between the two is Kinsler has a bit more power (which can likely be attributed to playing in Arlington) and Kelly has a higher PA/BB rate (which has also contributed to his having a higher strikeout rate).

So, the question to be asked here is this: Would any manager platoon Utley, Cano or Kinsler? I believe the more than obvious answer here is "no, of course not."

Now, if there is one thing Braves fans have come to realize over the course of the past eighteen years it is Bobby Cox has a tendency to work in a possible platoon on any occasion where he feels a LH starter doesn't have what it takes to stand tall with the rest of the league's average players at their position.

I'll set the qualifier as two players of differing handiness who both saw over 30% of the team's starts at a position.

Let's take a look at some of those platoons over the years...

Year	POS	LHB	RHB
1991	1B	Sid Bream	Brian Hunter
1993	CF	Deion Sanders	Otis Nixon (SH)
1997	RF	Michael Tucker	Andruw Jones
1998	2B	Keith Lockhart	Tony Graffanino
	SS	Ozzie Guillen	Walt Weiss (SH)
1999	1B	Ryan Klesko Randall Simon	Brian Hunter
	SS	Ozzie Guillen	Walt Weiss (SH)
	LF	Ryan Klesko	Gerald Williams
2000	2B	Keith Lockhart	Quilvio Veras
	SS	Rafael Furcal (SH)	Walt Weiss (SH)
2001	1B	Rico Brogna	Wes Helms
	2B	Quilvio Veras (SH)	Marcus Giles
2002	1B	Matt Franco	Julio Franco
2004	1B	Adam LaRoche	Julio Franco
	LF	Charles Thomas	Eli Marrero
2005	1B	Adam LaRoche	Julio Franco
	LF	Kelly Johnson Ryan Langerhans	Brian Jordan
2007	LF	Willie Harris	Matt Diaz

Doesn't take much to notice there has been a whole lot of platooning going on down in A-town over the past two decades.

So, where does this leave Kelly Johnson and his chances of getting the 600+ plate appearances he did last season? Honestly, not good. If there is one thing the platoon chart has shown is, it is that Bobby Cox has no problem benching a superior LHB just to play the matchup against a LHP. And with Omar Infante coming out of the gates hot this season, this could very easily turn into a situation where Infante gets a lot more playing time than he normally would. The fortunate thing is, unlike last season with the Harris/Diaz situation, Johnson is going to be guaranteed more starts because he is the lefty in any possible platoon scenario. While Cox has routinely shown he strongly favors LHP/RHB matchups, he also has a soft-spot for RHP/LHB matchups, as well, so it isn't likely Infante will be stealing any starts from Kelly with a righty on the mound.