Comments on: Edwin Jackson’s Two Seasons

By: joser

joser — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:25:07 +0000

Uh, the mid-90s called to welcome you to HTML. Multiple spaces are combined; and in any case you might note this isn’t a monospace font so spaces wouldn’t get you the expected result anyway.

In other news, Kurt Cobain is still dead, Seinfeld is still off to re-runs, and the Macarena is no longer performed.

By: joser

joser — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:19:16 +0000

A comparison that uses stats that actually capture a pitcher’s ability (rather than muddy things up with his team’s contributions) would be a lot more enlightening. Wins and ERA may be fine for the people deciding the Cy Young but they’re not going to get you much traction around here.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:14:02 +0000

I never said it was bad luck. But, if his command is great in the first half (it was), and poor in the second half (it is), then the first half is not necessarily a fluke. Flukes are generally when players have lower ERAs than they should because of BABIP or LOB% or something that. There wasn’t much fluky about Jackson’s 1st half, because his K/BB rate and HR% all lined up with solid, #2 starter production.

Both the good first half and bad second half are what would be expected judging by his peripherals. I understand that the first impression looking at the numbers might be to call his first half a fluke, because it was better than his previous years, but I don’t think his career numbers are all that relevant in his case, considering that he’s young, this is only his 3rd full season, and that one should reasonably expect him to improve his numbers, given his natural stuff and a normal progression of growth and maturation.

Again, like any pitcher, it’s just a matter of command. He had great command over 100 innings of work, so he just has to make adjustments and go back to that.

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:01:36 +0000

ya Rick Knapp said that he was tipping his slider at least for the past few starts before last nights whcih could explain those lower second half numbers

By: lookatthosetwins

lookatthosetwins — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:26:53 +0000

I think that would be an indication that the first have was a fluke. His controllable rates (K, BB, and HR) have all regressed. If it was just a BABIP thing (BABIP is part of the story) then we’d think it was just bad luck.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:58:34 +0000

They must not like spaces on here…haha.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:57:20 +0000

He just turned 26, is 13-7 with a 3.25 ERA, and is one of the hardest throwers in baseball. This is the first season his K ratio has been decent so he’s learning how to finish guys. Sounds like a drama queen who thought Verlander was done last season.

I agree Nick, a lil more consistency is all he needs.

Also, how the hell can you have an all-star who still hits 100 mph on occasion and having a career year compared to a dude who will never have an ERA under 5 again. Jesus, one guys has lost his fastball, and is 48-64, the other is 38-37 for his career.

Let’s see here, looks like their careers are basically mirroring each others’…

Jackson Cabrera
07 – 5.71 ERA, 5-15 07 – 5.55, 9-18
08 – 4.42 ERA, 14-11 08 – 5.25, 8-10
09 – 3.25 ERA, 13-7, all-star 09 – 6.34, 0-5

Michael Bluth: Not…

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:16:27 +0000

His command has been noticeably worse from the 1st half to the 2nd half, so I wouldn’t call his first half a fluke. However, he’s going to have to develop that full-season consistency in command to get to the next level as a pitcher.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:40:14 +0000

In tuesdays 7 shutout inning win over the indians, Jackson threw mainly fastballs, and appeared to throw 3 sliders out of 30 or so pitches. From the third inning on he threw more including a nasty slider to get an out in his last inning. The Tigers, Jackson and Rick Knapp the pitching coach will not say what adjustments he made regarding the tipping of pitches. Also few of the indians outs were hit hard. But he looked much better as the game progressed. Nothing missing from the fastball as he was throwing 96-97 and had it up to 99 a couple of times. Hoping he turned the corner and moved past the bump in the road. Also from “all” accounts, it was a very small strike zone for both teams last night.

By: thefume

thefume — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:55:51 +0000

Even at 8%, that’s a decent improvement, isn’t it?

From watching his games, the control isn’t there (it’s far worse than what the 8% walk rate suggests), which gets him into fastball counts which is where the hrs have been coming. The poor control also helps hitters lay off the slider, which has lost consistency and bite in it’s own right. He pitched 7 shutout against the Indians, but threw 55 strikes and 48 balls.

Overall, hitters seem to be swinging at less pitches out of the zone, swinging at far less sliders, and some of the at ‘em balls from early in the season are now going over the fence.