Austin Jackson Impressive Early On

Let me start by saying that Spring Training numbers on the whole are pretty useless.  I recognize this as do most level-headed fans.  Each year we see plenty of established stars have awful spring stats only to perform at the level we expect once the games start to count.  And conversely, there is always a group of unknowns who hit or pitch absurdly well in spring only to do nothing once they are no longer facing Single-A and Double-A talent on the regular.  With that caveat out of the way, there has been one number that has pleased me so far in the very early part of Spring Training: 5.

That is the number of walks drawn by Austin Jackson in eight games.  Sure, his triple slash (AVG/OBP/SLG) is off the charts, but like I said, that really doesn’t matter to me.  Plate patience, however, is always nice to see, especially out of a rookie who will likely find himself leading off out of the gate this year.  His walk rate hit a four year low last year at 7% and that overshadowed his solid, but empty .300 average in 504 AAA at-bats.  If he is able to consistently draw walks, say at the 10% level he had in 2008, then it will help him as he adjusts to big league pitching.  His best bets to meet or exceed expectations in 2010 are to draw walks and play incredible defense.  He doesn’t have a ton of power so he’s not going to replicate Curtis Granderson’s 30 home runs, in fact he will likely struggle to reach double digits, but if he can consistently work the count and maintain a .270/.350 average and on-base percentage split, then his first season can be a success.

Granderson had a .319 OBP hitting leadoff last year and .327 overall due in large part to his .249 average.  That OBP itself won’t cut it, but again it was the batting average that held it down–he drew enough walks to get the 80-point split between average and on-base that you want to see out of a leadoff batter.  In 2008, he posted a very sharp .280/.365 split.  In fact if there’s one thing Granderson never got enough credit for, it was ability to draw walks and maintain a strong OBP in relation to his AVG.  From 2006 to 2009, he rated among the top 10 in walks from the leadoff spot among batters with at least 400 AB.  We need Jackson to keep that streak going and his history says that is a very real possibility.  And more recently, his early success in Spring Training has me even more hopeful.