[image title="lvzvsysz" size="full" id="3171" align="right" ]Melky Cabrera is currently hitting the cover off the ball after taking the center field job away from Brett Gardner. His newfound hitting ability may or may not be real, but the Yankees will ride him as long as they can. While they may return to Gardner, it remains likely that the team will need a better player to play center field before the season is over.
Austin Jackson is also currently hitting the cover off the ball for Triple-A Scranton. His line sits at .389/.464/.486, with 18 strikeouts against 9 walks in 19 games. He has stolen 7 bases without being caught, and hit just two double and two triples without a home run. His raw numbers also feature a .490 BABIP, a 48% GB%, 22% LD%, and 30% FB%.
At least some of Austin Jackson’s performance must be attributed to luck. He has hit 11 line drives so far this year and every one has fallen in for a hit. He is striking out more than he has in two seasons, and not hitting for a lot of power. But how much of this should we attribute to luck? To some degree, Jackson may be overmatching his Triple-A opponents. We’ve seen Jose Tabata in the past enter phases like this – where he can pretty much hit a single at will, so he doesn’t try to do more. Jackson’s ability to hit to the opposite field like Derek Jeter means that he should be able to post abnormally high BABIPs when hitting well.
Austin Jackson is not Brett Gardner. He is not going to post slugging numbers south of .400 for his career. Power is an important part of his game, and he should be hitting for a reasonable amount of it when he is playing at the top of his game. Regardless of how many singles he is hitting, we shouldn’t expect Jackson to be locked in enough to jump a level mid-season until he is hitting at least a few over the fence.
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6 Responses to When Will Austin Jackson Be Ready?
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TIQ IQ
I see AJAX as more a granderson type with some pop but good average and good gap hitting-I think at his best he could be an all star quality plarer and since everybody way overhyped Jacoby Ellsbury I think we should tamp down expectations for AJAX. I assume like most young hitters poewer isthe last thing to arrive so let him stay in AAA all year and develop the power stroke.
EJ quick question…where can I find GB%, LD%, etc….recommend a good site? Does baseball-refernece.com or baseballprospectus.com have them?
Minorleaguesplits.com
or firstinning.com
I would like to see A-Jax stay in AAA all year. Let’s see if he can adapt when the pitchers catch up to him. You know if he comes up, the big guys will find all/any holes he has. So far so good at AAA but, how long will it be before he is exposed?
A-Jax and Bernie have a lot of things in common but one thing Bernie had over him…size. Speed and size are things that can’t be taught.
I just think he needs more time to develop the skills he has and needs. Will he be called up this year…more then likely. Will he be ready…maybe, maybe not.
They’ve changed his swing a bit. They shorten it where it was long before. That might too have to do with his lack of extra base hits. He’s getting used to a little bit of a different swing.
So I wouldn’t worry too much about that. We know at this point he has good gap power.