Kelly Johnson: Aging With Style

Fantasy owners hoped for a bounce back in 2012 after Kelly Johnson regressed in 2011 after a superb 2010 season. A second baseman with 16 HRs and 14 SBs normally would have a relatively high fantasy ranking. Johson was only able to hit .225 and therefor was ranked 24th overall in Zach Sander’s postseason 2B rankings. Kelly Johnson may bounce back in a in 2013, but age is beginning to catch up with him.

The 30-year-old left-handed-hitting Johnson is going to be going to be a free agent this off season. The Blue Jays are not intent of resigning him, so he is likely moving to another team. The park and league will likely matter little with his value unless he goes to one of the extreme home parks in the league.

When Johnson broke out in 2010, most of his value was being fueled by 26 HRs. Since that season, his HR have decreased each season.

Season	HR	PA	PA/HR	HR&FB Dist.
2010	26	671	25.8	301
2011	21	613	29.2	296
2012	16	581	36.3	273

Along with the total HRs, his HR/PA and distance on his HRs and Flyballs are down.

Besides his power being down, he is having problems making contact.

Season	K%	Swing%	Contact%	SwStr%
2009	15.6%	44.8%	84.4%	7.1%
2010	22.1%	46.2%	76.9%	10.4%
2011	26.6%	47.2%	71.8%	12.9%
2012	27.4%	47.9%	71.4%	13.3%

Since 2009, he is on a four year trend of swinging at more pitches and making a less and less contact. His K% and Swing Strike% have both almost doubled over those 4 seasons.

Besides the strikeouts, his BABIP fluctuates widely from a low of 0.247 to a high of 0.340 and affects his AVG. Over his career, his BABIP is at .308. The last two seasons, it has dropped below .300. His xBABIP values show that his recent BABIP talent level may near 0.320.

Season	xBABIP	BABIP
2009	0.287	0.247
2010	0.319	0.339
2011	0.327	0.277
2012	0.318	0.292

Johnson’s low AVG in 2011 and 2012 has been a combination of a high K% and a low BABIP. Here is an idea of his possible AVG in 2013, assuming various BABIP and K% values

PA	BB%	K%	HR	BABIP	AVG
600	10%	20%	15	0.320	0.268
600	10%	25%	15	0.320	0.250
600	10%	30%	15	0.320	0.232
600	10%	25%	15	0.340	0.264
600	10%	25%	15	0.320	0.250
600	10%	25%	15	0.300	0.236
600	10%	25%	15	0.280	0.222
600	10%	25%	15	0.260	0.208

With the various combinations, an AVG over .250 in 2013 looks like a huge win.

The ability to steal a base still looks like a trait he owns. He was able to swipe 14 bases in 2012 and only got caught twice. To get an idea of how he is performing on the base paths, the Base Running component of WAR has gone from -1.7 to -1.0 to 0.5 from 2010 to 2012. He seems to be getting smarter on the base paths since his physical speed is probably the same or slower compared to 2 years ago.

Age is beginning to creep up on Kelly Johnson, especially with his decrease in power and his inability to make contact. Signs point to him having around a .250 AVG, 15 HRs and 12 SBs. The AVG is in the value likely to deviate the most of the 3. While he still will have some value in deep or AL or NL only leagues, he will be a borderline player in most leagues.