Austin Jackson, Man of Action for Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are in third place in the American League Central at 20-21. Â They’re not where they — and many of us — expected them to be at this part of the season. Yes, the starting rotation’s been inconsistent, other than the supremely good and consistent Justin Verlander. The bullpen has sprung a few leaks, and leads the American League in losses with eight. But it’s the offense that’s been the most disappointing.
Through 41 games, the Tigers have scored 180 runs, just the seventh-most in the American League. The Rangers have scored 236. Even with Evan Longoria sidelined, the Rays are ahead of the Tigers with 184 runs. The Yankees, who haven’t had a hit with a runner in scoring position in two weeks (or so it seems), have scored 189.
There are a variety of reasons for the Tigers’ more sluggish-than-expected offense. Both Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera are significantly below their career numbers in walks and slugging. Catcher Alex Avila has reverted to his pedestrian 2010 form. And second base has been a pile of dreck among Brandon Inge (before he was released), Ramon Santiago, and Ryan Raburn.
The bright spot has been center fielder Austin Jackson. A very, very bright spot.
After a break-out rookie year with the Tigers in 2010, Jackson struggled at the plate last season. There was grumbling among Tigers fans who saw the team lose Curtis Granderson in a trade for the young Jackson at the end of 2009. Jackson wasn’t living up to his potential — potential first recognized when Baseball America named him the best 12-year-old in the nation.
This season is a whole different story.
Jackson’s started in 35 of the Tigers’ 41 games. Â He left the game on May 16 with an abdominal strain injury and hasn’t played since. He also sat on April 26 and May 12 (other than a pinch hit appearance). The Tigers average 4.49 runs/game with Jackson in the starting lineup and are 18-17 in those games. They average 3.5 runs/game when he’s on the bench and are 2-4 in those games.
Jackson leads the Tigers in nearly every offense-related category. He has the highest batting average, on-base percentage,wOBA, wRC+, walks, doubles, triples (tied with Andy Dirks), and stolen bases. He’s second in slugging percentage behind Andy Dirks. That’s right, he’s ahead of Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder in slugging percentage.
Jackson’s weakness has always been strikeouts. Lots and lots of strikeouts. This season, his K rate is down to 18.2 percent, substantially below his career average of 25.3 percent, and below the major-league average of 19.4 percent.
What’s fueling Jackson’s offensive surge?
He ditched his leg kick.
Take a look at these Jackson at-bats from last season. Lots of movement in the batter’s box. A should-I-or-shouldn’t-I leg kick. And an off-balance swing. Even when he got a hit, he did not strike the ball with authority.
Now this season. The leg kick is gone. The energy in the box is focused. And the results look like this:
And this:
The Tigers are struggling on offense with Jackson out of the lineup. Detroit was hoping to get him back for the all three games of the team’s series with the first-place Indians, which starts tonight. But Jackson is still feeling the effects of his abdominal strain and isn’t likely for tonight’s matchup. That’s bad new for the Tigers. They need his calm and consistent energy at the top of the lineup. And they need it now.
No mention of Jackson’s always crazy BABIPs?
If they’re always crazy, why mention them? He’s almost certainly not a true-talent .371 BABIPer (which puts him at 5th on the career list and 1st among live ball era players – doesn’t quite pass the smell test), but with 1500 PA under his belt, it’s likely that his BABIP going forward will be only slightly less elite.
And I need him back in my fantasy lineup. The removal of that leg kick is night and day in stability of his swing. I heard that earlier in the year but the visual change in his swing is impressive.
same here. 4 guys on dl, and Jackson missing games and Infante missing games for me. My offensive stats have started to plummet since he left my lineup.
Great job Wendy. Love the use of video.
So glad he’s back to the rookie season ways…When he plays like this it makes missing Granderson a lost thought! Great Defensive CF, and Lead-Off, Ilitch need to spend some more to make sure he really buys us our World Series this year!
He’s progressed pretty far beyond his rookie ways. His rookie year was a ton of singles, lots of them weakly hit. This year he’s been hitting everything with authority.
nice. fangraphs actually explaining the cause of improvement based on video instead of stats.
Just wait until they develop wLegKick+
Great article. However, we don’t him him now; we need him for as much of the season as possible.
Yeah, we definitely don’t him him now. We’ll him him later. There’s really no measuring the extent to which we’ll him him.
I cannot believe it took Jackson this long to even try to ditch that stupid and obviously harmful leg kick. That said, his swing looks infinitely better and I’m glad he managed to do it at some point rather than never like so many players with flawed swings.
Per the Tigers telecast, he had decided to get rid of it in the middle of last season, but he and the organization decided that it maybe wasn’t the best idea to go through such a big change in the middle of the season. So they worked it out in the off-season.
Wendy: WELL DONE!
Looks like he is in the lineup tonite, per Jason Beck twitter.
Looks like he has now been scratched from the lineup per some other dude who should know’s twitter.
Scratched after BP :(
As a devoted (crazy?) Tigers fan who watches every game, I noticed this three-four games into the season. It was a clear and present change. Skeptics poo-poo’d it a bit, but it just continues to pay dividends. Nice work, Wendy, back to back Tigers articles!!!
Re: his BABIP, yes it’s high again, but to chalk it up as the reason for his success would be as lazy as it is incorrect. There was a 100 point split between his BABIP and AVG in 2010 while this year it is about 60 with MUCH better supporting skills (the lowered K rate and elevated BB rate as pointed out by Wendy). He is making way better contact than ever before, again driven by the leg kick, with his lowest GB rate ever so it’s not just a bunch of squirters getting through the infield.
He has shut my mouth on him, I used to criticize and point out his many flaws before this season. Now what can a White Sox fan do, except marvel at how good he really is?
His walk rate is sky high at 12.6% his strikeouts are down to a much more manageable 18.9%. His BABIP is pretty high, but he has a career babip of 371, he seems like the kind of player who can regularly sustain a 350+ BABIP. Now if only 5/9 players in the Tiger lineup weren’t dead weight