Sports Ticker Update: Dan Johnson

BOSTON (Ticker) -- A former batting champion at the University of Nebraska, Ken Harvey tore through the Arizona Fall League in 2002 with a league-record .479 average, earning MVP honors. This season, another Cornhusker has jumped out to fast start in the heat of the desert.

With a .500 average and eight RBI in his first four games, Dan Johnson has continued the offensive output that made him an all-star first baseman in the hot and arid climate of the Class AA Texas League.

After winning both a home run and RBI title during the regular season, Johnson started off the fall with a four-hit game and two RBI in the Mesa Desert Dogs' Opening Day loss to the Mesa Solar Sox. He posted three games of four or more hits during the regular season, finishing with a .290 average.

The Oakland Athletics farmhand added a pair of RBI in a win the next day and knocked in three runs, including a pair on a game-clinching home run in the seventh inning, October 4.

Big-time offense has always been a prominent piece in Johnson's game. Armed with a long and sweeping lefthanded stroke, he slugged 21 home runs as a junior transfer at Nebraska. Yet, he went completely unnoticed in the draft.

The 6-2, 220-pounder returned to school for his senior season and hit .364 with 24 longballs and 84 RBI, leading the Cornhuskers to their first Big 12 Conference title in 51 years.

Although he was drafted by Oakland in the seventh round in 2001, Johnson was told by his college coaches that he would have to
change his swing if he really wanted to succeed at the next level.

A committed player, Johnson developed a more compact stroke and worked hard on going the other way with outside pitches.

The change worked right away. He hit .283 with 15 doubles and 41 RBI in 69 games with Vancouver of the short-season Class A
Northwest League in his debut. Over his last two seasons, Johnson has averaged 24 home runs and nearly 100 RBI. He has
also recorded a slugging percentage of at least .500 in each of the last two years.

Still, the slugger has had his critics. After drawing just 27 walks in his debut, Johnson was labeled as a "all or nothing" type of player. Always improving, Johnson came very close to evening his strikeout-to-walk ratio in 2002.

Also a very raw defensive player when he began his professional career, Johnson has done extensive work in the offseason to
improve both his glove skills and mobility.

Yet, it is his clutch hitting in the middle of the lineup that will allow him to make the major leagues. After knocking in a run in 11 of his first 13 games in the Texas League, Johnson finished the year with three separate months of 27 or more RBI.