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Monday, June 09, 2008
Anatomy of a pitcher who throws real hard and has good stuff…
Well, it is not an anatomy. Just a few comments. I’ll leave the anatomies for the pitch f/x guys. I’m talking about Edwin Jackson, the former Dodgers prospect and now Rays pitcher. The guy has not had a good career by any stretch of the imagination. His ERC’s have been horrible ever since he he’s been in the majors, with a career ERA of 5.30, but he keeps getting chances because he throws in the mid to upper 90’s, has an excellent high 80’s slider, and seemingly good mechanics.
I’m not sure what makes a “prospect” in the eyes of the scouts and the organizations, but if it is just throwing hard which it sometimes appears as it is, then teams are making a lot of mistakes when it comes to pitchers.
My observations on Jackson: First of all, in general, he is a thrower and not a pitcher. That is not good after all the time he has spent in the major leagues. He does not locate his pitches well, and he does not seem to mix them up very well. In addition, he only seems to have two pitchers, both hard. The fastball from 94-97, and the slider from 87 to 89. Maybe some of those sliders are changeups, I can’t tell.
And of course the reason he has been terrible is because of his high walk totals. And for a guy with great stuff, his K rate is not nearly as high as it “should” be and not nearly high enough to overcome his high walk rate.
He throws his fastballs low in the strike zone almost all the time. I don’t know who taught him that or if he even does it on purpose, but with a mid to high 90’s you have to throw it up in the zone a good portion of the time. And I don’t know what the movement is on his fastball, but it appears to the naked eye that it does not have much movement. He does not appear to miss many bats, and from his relatively modest K rate, I think the numbers bear that out. I don’t know whether that is from lack of movement, lack of deception, or poor location.
He is sort of like the old Latroy Hawkins, who was also terrible as a starter. In fact, my guess is that Jackson is really suited to be a one or two pitch short reliever, where he can rear back and throw it 96 or 97 and mix in the occasional slider. He just does not look like a starter to me, and judging from 6 years of poor performance, he apparently is not.
Then again, he is only 25 years old with a limited number of MLB IP, and appears to be healthy so far. If he can ever learn how to pitch, you never know, although time is running out on him I think.
Any observations or comments from people who have followed this guy?
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