Nick Johnson Would Bring Great OBP to Yankees Lineup

My previous post was not a slight against Nick Johnson. He will be a nice addition for the Yankees, but for the price, the Yankees could have kept Matsui, a power hitting DH. Johnson will bat second for the Yankees and will score a ton of runs if he has an OBP of .426 like he had last year. The Yankees have one less power hitter but they add a guy that gets on base often. There will be more of a burden on Teixeira, A-Rod and Posada to be major run producers since they have one less run major run producing bat, although Granderson will pick up some of the slack.

Here is the Yankees potential lineup (although the 6-7-8 hitters may be switched depending on the pitcher):
SS Derek Jeter
DH Nick Johnson
1B Mark Teixeira
3B Alex Rodriguez
C Jorge Posada
2B Robinson Cano
CF Curtis Granderson
RF Nick Swisher
LF Melky Cabrera

Of course the Yankees could make other moves and the Nick Johnson signing is not official yet. Consider this; Damon had a .365 OBP in 2009 and scored 107 runs. Nick Johnson had a .426 OBP and has a .402 career OBP. Although he doesn’t have Damon’s speed, Johnson will score over 100 runs hitting in this lineup coupled with his high OBP.

The Yankees will potentially have two “Nicks” who work walks and get on base a lot. Nick Swisher walked 97 times last year and Nick Johnson walked 99 times last year.