12_heres_your_hat_whats_your_hurry   (12/22)

Shortstop Brian Specht hands 1B Dan Johnson his batting helmet after tagging him out at second when Johnson tried to stretch a single into a double. Specht is these days a fringy prospect who no longer gets any respect in the ratings, but in fact, he was at one time the Angels' top shortstop prospect a few years ago. Injury and the rise of infield prospects Alberto Callaspo, Erick Aybar, and more importantly, Howie Kendrick and Brandon Wood have pretty much sealed his fate within the organization. It's too bad because he's going to be 25, hardly too old to still be considered a prospect, and he had a fine .308/.372/.506 line in 2005 at Salt Lake.

Johnson "is perceived as a sort of bridge between the Giambi Years and the [Daric] Barton Years", opines BPro; BA rates Barton as the club's top prospect. Even if he's only a stopgap, Johnson's still a useful piece, and an improvement over Scott Hatteberg, whom the A's kept at the plate far too long.