Brett Jackson has struckout 53 times in 125 plate appearances. Darwin Barney has struckout just 50 times in 540 plate appearances. Jackson has more strikeouts on the Cubs than all players but Alfonso Soriano, Bryan LaHair, Starlin Castro and David DeJesus. By the way, can we stop referring to Castro as a contact hitter? How many times have you heard of a hitter who is going to strikeout 100 times be referred to as a contact hitter? His contact percentage is only slightly higher than league average.
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If we prorate Jackson’s strikeouts to 540 plate appearances, he’d have 229 strikeouts to Barney’s 50. (dying laughing)
mb21Quote Reply
Don’t ask me what to do.
GBTSQuote Reply
Bubbs was one of the most optimistic brett fans.. not anymore
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
@ bubblesdachimp:
You’re giving up too quickly. With someone of B-Jax’s ability, it’s quite possible that he may be better the second time around. Keep in mind that what we see now is not necessarily the final result. It could be, but we can’t honestly be sure.
Jed Jam BandQuote Reply
@ bubblesdachimp:
I was probably even more optimistic about Jackson than you were. I thought if he could just cut the strikeouts down he might be able to become a superstar. What’s interesting is that despite the strikeouts, he’s still been better than replacement level. On the other hand, there’s Vitters who just flat out sucks and apparently may not even be in the Cubs plans anymore.
mb21Quote Reply
@ Jed Jam Band:
He’ll strikeout less and worst case scenario he’s still better than replacement level. I’m not as optimistic about him as I was, but I started to lose some optimism before he even came to the big leagues.
mb21Quote Reply
@ mb21:
WHich is silly.. Sporadic playing time.. First time in majors. Super young. That would be dumb to give up on Vitters…
I jsut dont see how brett can be useful without cutting down on the ks by a whole fucking lot. Also there will be years when his defense is less then par i assume by advanced metrics meaning we might have an issue with his value
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
I was a huge B-Jaxx fan. We’re talking Mancrush. We knew he was going to strike out, and hopefully that will lessen. (Although at a certain point, the leopard has his stripes, know what I mean?*)
The thing that troubles me is his arm. I’d heard he had a cannon (and a strong arm — zing!), but the few throws I’ve seen him make were not exactly Jesse Barfield-esque.
*I was going to use the acronym KWIM there, but that seemed… wrong.
Steve SwisherQuote Reply
@ bubblesdachimp:
I don’t think the Cubs ever saw him in their longterm plans. It’s why they targeted a 3B prospect at the trade deadline even though they have Baez who may be moved to 3rd.
Unlike Jackson, Vitters just doesn’t have the patience to be successful at the big league level. Jackson’s patience has still been fantastic despite all the strikeouts. He has a much, much better chance of becoming useful at the big league level. He’s not far from that even though he’s striking out in eveyr at-bat.
mb21Quote Reply
Mike trout, 2011 vs. 2012.@ Jed Jam Band:
ShawnQuote Reply
it’s too early to write off Jackson, kids.
chances are good that he’s going to fan in 25-30% of his at-bats in his career. but he’s also going to walk on the order of 12-15% with a .200 ISO.
this is a kid currently tagging 30.2% linedrives. over a longer sample period, his BABIP is i think going to combine with his BB% to drive very acceptable performance.
the whole setup reminds me of Mike Cameron. and if his BABIP really does fall out around .370 — as it consistently did in the minors — he’s going to be better.
gaius mariusQuote Reply
@ mb21:
I figured they just chose the package with the BPA
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
@ gaius marius:
MO mentioned this a while back. If Brett Jackson’s going to be the white Mike Cameron, I’ll be ecstatic.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ gaius marius:
Cameron is a good comparable. I’m not writing him off, but I’m not as high on him as I was entering the season. Then again, I was thinking he had superstar potential so my expectations have more or less just fallen in line with his actual talent.
What do you think of Vitters?
mb21Quote Reply
@ bubblesdachimp:
Yeah, but we know they were targeting a 3B prospect close to MLB ready. If they thought highly of Vitters, it’s unlikely they’d have specifically been looking to acquire a young 3B.
mb21Quote Reply
mb21 wrote:
u-g-l-y. nothing much to hope for there. but then i thought F7 would never amount to anything.
gaius mariusQuote Reply
@ gaius marius:
I figure there’s just too much that Vitters has to improve. He’s a below average fielder (some scouts have said he’ll have to move to 1st base), he doesn’t hit for enough power to make up for his horrible on-base skills and he’s a below average baserunner. He’s still young so he has that going for him, but he has to improve in a lot of areas.
mb21Quote Reply