Quick: who has the highest OPS in the National League after the first three weeks of the season? It’s not Albert Pujols, Adrian Gonzalez, Manny Ramirez or Ryan Braun. It’s actually a second-baseman - but it isn’t Chase Utley. No: so far, the honor belong to Kelly Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who has hit .322/.429/.814.
And The Best Hitter In The NL So Far Is...
↵While the usual small sample size warnings apply, and no-one is expecting him to hit 50 homers, it’s a remarkable turnaround for a player who was deemed not even worthy of a contract in the off-season by the Atlanta Braves. They figured Martin Prado was a better option at second. Prado has been good, with a 1.040 OPS, but that’s still two hundred points below Johnson, who is already within one of matching his 2009 home-run total, in 106 games.
↵Put simply, everything he hits is leaving the park. Fangraphs.com reports that 37% of Johnson’s fly-balls have turned into home-runs, compared to 26% for the league leader in 2009 (team-mate Mark Reynolds). He is certainly helped by playing in hitter-friendly Chase Field, and it’s worth nothing that all of Kelly’s home-runs have come at home. But HitTrackerOnline.com tells us that three of them have gone 430+ feet, further than any long-ball he’d hit prior to this season, so he does seem to be hitting the ball very hard.
↵Johnson said over the weekend: “I hit the ball, and if it carries, it carries. It’s not like I’m going to go out there and break any records.” At this point, however, he would seem to have a shot at the franchise record of 38, set by Jay Bell in 1999. Also worth noting is that he is under Arizona control in 2011 as well: so far, he’s proved to be a remarkably astute pick-up by Arizona GM Josh Byrnes.
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