The White Sox signed second-round draft pick Erik Johnson, a right-handed pitcher from Cal, and both he and top choice Keenyn Walker will report to rookie league at Great Falls, Mont., next week.
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Height: 6’03″
Weight: 240
Born: 1989-12-30
Hometown: Los Altos, CA
Class: Junior
Scouting reports:
Big-bodied (6-2, 240 pounds) college arm with a 90-95 mph fastball and hard slider.
Johnson has a big, 6-foot-2, 240-pound frame and sometimes has trouble maintaining his mechanics. His delivery can get a little rigid and he loses his arm slot at times, though he’s been better about getting it back than he was last year. Johnson is quick to the plate and sits in the 90-94 mph range with his fastball and tops out at 95. His best secondary offering is a hard slider that he can throw for strikes or use as a wipeout pitch and he also mixes in a slow, show-me curveball and a changeup that is inconsistent, but shows flashes of being a quality pitch. Johnson sometimes tries to be too fine with his fastball instead of trusting that he can overpower hitters with it. While he needs to sharpen his fastball command, Johnson has shown a good enough feel for pitching to get by and go deep into games without it.
Johnson is ranked 97th on the Baseball America prospect list and 74th on the Perfect Game list, which would put him on the bottom fringes of the supplemental round or in the second. However, he has the power arm (90-95 MPH fastball, good slider) to go somewhere in the middle of the supplemental round for a team that believes they can refine his mechanics and polish his changeup.
Cal-Berkeley pitcher works at 90-94 and has an impressive slider. Curveball and changeup need work if he wants to remain a starter. Workhorse body.
Johnson is ranked 97th on the Baseball America prospect list and 74th on the Perfect Game list, which would put him on the bottom fringes of the supplemental round or in the second. However, he has the power arm (90-95 MPH fastball, good slider) to go somewhere in the middle of the supplemental round for a team that believes they can refine his mechanics and polish his changeup.
Johnson isn’t a more talked about draft prospect because of his mechanical issues, which have seen him suffer through bouts of wildness (37 walks in 83.2 IP). He began his college career as a reliever, which tinkered with his mechanics a bit, and now that he’s back in a starting role, he’s struggled to go deep into games.He does, however, feature pretty good velocity, topping out at about 95-96 mph. He complements his fastball with a very good slider. He also throws a curveball and a changeup, the latter of which has made solid strides throughout the course of the season.
PerfectGame.org reports from 2007
Here are his College Stats:
| Year | ERA | W-L | APP | GS | CG | SHO/CBO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | AB | B/Avg | WP | HBP | BK | SFA | SHA |
| 2011 | 2.83 | 7-4 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 0/5 | 0 | 105.0 | 68 | 33 | 33 | 59 | 102 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 356 | .191 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| 2010 | 4.09 | 6-3 | 16 | 13 | 0 | 0/1 | 1 | 77.0 | 85 | 41 | 35 | 34 | 73 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 293 | .290 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| 2009 | 4.41 | 3-6 | 19 | 9 | 1 | 0/1 | 4 | 67.1 | 71 | 41 | 33 | 28 | 55 | 11 | 1 | 10 | 264 | .269 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
