Brett Jackson

[Cubswin11]

im totally an untrained idiot, but jackson's swing looks so good to me. maybe they want sveum to work his rizzo magic on him at the big league level.

jackson doesn't do himself any favors in the K department by getting into all those deep counts. If he could get to where he was making more contact, he'd be pretty deadly in the pitch count department.

I don't think that's a thing, Sveum has/had very little to do with Rizzo performing so well so far

[davell]

im totally an untrained idiot, but jackson's swing looks so good to me. maybe they want sveum to work his rizzo magic on him at the big league level.

jackson doesn't do himself any favors in the K department by getting into all those deep counts. If he could get to where he was making more contact, he'd be pretty deadly in the pitch count department.

I don't think that's a thing, Sveum has/had very little to do with Rizzo performing so well so far

 

Sveum was who got Rizzo to shorten his swing.

[lumafia]

His issues have to be mechanical. It's hard to understand how a guy can square a ball up as often as he has and strike out as much as he has. If someone wants to post a video, or link to a video, I would like to take a look at his swing to see if anything stands out.

 

Well, I have reviewed some of Brett's batting practice/minor league videos online. Of course, all of the video is crap and none of it provides the best angle. I'm going to use Bryce Harper as a point of reference since they have similar body types, hit left-handed and have similar swings.

 

Mechanically, there are 3 flaws that are pretty obvious. 2 of them are related to one another. The 2 that are related are the leg kick and the head. He has an exaggerated leg kick as part of his load (please, keep the jokes to a minimum). He brings his leg up and back, very similar to Bryce Harper (a swing we have seen a kajillion times). The difference is that Bryce keeps his head still and keeps his weight back. I still think Harper's exaggerated leg kick and the fact that he gets his foot down late has slightly retarted what has been an otherwise amazing start to his career. Anyway, back to Jackson. His weight shifts forward quickly when he puts his foot down (he puts it down late I might add), thus moving his head. So, when the pitcher prepares to release the ball, he rocks back, lifts his leg, rocks forward and puts his leg down. He also puts his leg down further out from where it started, thus lowering his head as well. Hitting a MLB pitch is hard enough, but it's even harder when the things (eyes) tracking the 95 mph moving target are moving as well. I think these things are related.

 

If he can reduce his leg kick to a soft kick, where he essentially picks it up slightly off the ground and puts it down in the same location and turns his body instead of rocking back, it would help him tremendously. Those things can be corrected easily with plenty of tee time.

 

The other issue, which is probably the biggest concern, is the hand movement/location. It's atrocious. I can't understand how he's been able to get this far. During the load process, he drops his hands to just above his waist/below his numbers. He also tilts the bat head slightly towards the pitcher. All of this is happening as the pitcher releases the ball. He then has to correct the angle of his hands so that he can drag the bat through the zone. If he gets a fastball up in the zone, he'll be lucky to hit it. He might literally have to swing UP at a ball high in the zone to hit it. If he is able to hit these pitches at all, then it means he is committed to hitting the fastball up and will most likely struggle with anything off-speed. It's harder to stop a swing than it is to start one. Going back to Bryce Harper, you'll notice that he starts his hands up and keeps them there. He never drops them below his shoulders. By doing this, he always ensures that gravity will help him with his swing. It's so much easier, and quicker, to start you swing momentum down than it is to start out on the same plane as the ball, where you are relying entirely on your own strength to generate momentum. This is harder to fix, but it can be fixed. During the load, he simply needs to push his hands back slightly. He almost needs to push them in the opposite direction of his front foot, and then start the swing from there.

 

The other way to "fix" these things is for Brett to get extraordinarily stronger so that his strength can make up for the mechancial flaws.

 

It's really quite amazing that a prospect can get through so many levels of a professional baseball organization with such elementary mechanical flaws.

Edited August 8, 2012 by lumafia

[Cubswin11]

im totally an untrained idiot, but jackson's swing looks so good to me. maybe they want sveum to work his rizzo magic on him at the big league level.

jackson doesn't do himself any favors in the K department by getting into all those deep counts. If he could get to where he was making more contact, he'd be pretty deadly in the pitch count department.

I don't think that's a thing, Sveum has/had very little to do with Rizzo performing so well so far

 

Sveum was who got Rizzo to shorten his swing.

I assume this was in spring then? Who was responsible for making sure things stayed the same while he was in AAA then?

[kente777]

im totally an untrained idiot, but jackson's swing looks so good to me. maybe they want sveum to work his rizzo magic on him at the big league level.

jackson doesn't do himself any favors in the K department by getting into all those deep counts. If he could get to where he was making more contact, he'd be pretty deadly in the pitch count department.

I don't think that's a thing, Sveum has/had very little to do with Rizzo performing so well so far

 

Sveum was who got Rizzo to shorten his swing.

I assume this was in spring then? Who was responsible for making sure things stayed the same while he was in AAA then?

 

good question

[Guest]

im totally an untrained idiot, but jackson's swing looks so good to me. maybe they want sveum to work his rizzo magic on him at the big league level.

jackson doesn't do himself any favors in the K department by getting into all those deep counts. If he could get to where he was making more contact, he'd be pretty deadly in the pitch count department.

I don't think that's a thing, Sveum has/had very little to do with Rizzo performing so well so far

 

Sveum was who got Rizzo to shorten his swing.

 

Rizzo claims he came up with it himself.

[El Duderino]

Science needs to be at the level where we can somehow transfer Torreyes' contact skills to Brett Jackson.

[Warpticon]

im totally an untrained idiot, but jackson's swing looks so good to me. maybe they want sveum to work his rizzo magic on him at the big league level.

 

jackson doesn't do himself any favors in the K department by getting into all those deep counts. If he could get to where he was making more contact, he'd be pretty deadly in the pitch count department.

 

This is one of the arguments that has been going around--that he has the discipline to work deep into counts but not the bat control to take advantage of it.

[Lefty]

His issues have to be mechanical. It's hard to understand how a guy can square a ball up as often as he has and strike out as much as he has. If someone wants to post a video, or link to a video, I would like to take a look at his swing to see if anything stands out.

 

Well, I have reviewed some of Brett's batting practice/minor league videos online...

 

It's really quite amazing that a prospect can get through so many levels of a professional baseball organization with such elementary mechanical flaws.

 

Impressive analysis. Hitting a baseball is a complex task. Why all of a sudden are these things going to be correctable at the Major League level? I.e., they won't be corrected.

[Guest]

His issues have to be mechanical. It's hard to understand how a guy can square a ball up as often as he has and strike out as much as he has. If someone wants to post a video, or link to a video, I would like to take a look at his swing to see if anything stands out.

 

Well, I have reviewed some of Brett's batting practice/minor league videos online...

 

It's really quite amazing that a prospect can get through so many levels of a professional baseball organization with such elementary mechanical flaws.

 

Impressive analysis. Hitting a baseball is a complex task. Why all of a sudden are these things going to be correctable at the Major League level? I.e., they won't be corrected.

 

Thanks for that post lumafia, it was a very interesting read.

 

As for Lefty's question, I think "all of a sudden" is a bit of a misnomer. Jackson had some issues with contact, but he also was tremendously productive. It's only been in the last couple months that his K rate has spiked and his production gone way down. It could have taken until now to truly see the weakness being exploited and how best to fix it. That's no guarantee that it'll get worked out, but guys making slight adjustments that allow them to fix their problems or even just increase their strengths is far from uncommon. Look at Rizzo, look at Lance Lynn. There's hope for Jackson in that he does so much well that he doesn't need to completely wipe out K's in order to be a good major leaguer. As such, a smaller, more repeatable mechanical change might be all that's keeping him from being a productive pro, and seeing those MLB pitchers exploit his weakness might be the best way to identify the best course of action.

[lumafia]

His issues have to be mechanical. It's hard to understand how a guy can square a ball up as often as he has and strike out as much as he has. If someone wants to post a video, or link to a video, I would like to take a look at his swing to see if anything stands out.

 

Well, I have reviewed some of Brett's batting practice/minor league videos online...

 

It's really quite amazing that a prospect can get through so many levels of a professional baseball organization with such elementary mechanical flaws.

 

Impressive analysis. Hitting a baseball is a complex task. Why all of a sudden are these things going to be correctable at the Major League level? I.e., they won't be corrected.

 

These aren't enormous changes. They are very correctable, hence my suprise that they have not been corrected already. Jackson is young enough to make changes, even at the ML level. These changes may just take a little time in the cage and on the tee. But 3 things have to happen. 1)The Cubs have to recognize these flaws, 2) implement a plan to fix these flaws and 3) Jackson has to be receptive to the changes.

[Elwood]

His issues have to be mechanical. It's hard to understand how a guy can square a ball up as often as he has and strike out as much as he has. If someone wants to post a video, or link to a video, I would like to take a look at his swing to see if anything stands out.

 

Well, I have reviewed some of Brett's batting practice/minor league videos online. Of course, all of the video is crap and none of it provides the best angle. I'm going to use Bryce Harper as a point of reference since they have similar body types, hit left-handed and have similar swings.

 

Mechanically, there are 3 flaws that are pretty obvious. 2 of them are related to one another. The 2 that are related are the leg kick and the head. He has an exaggerated leg kick as part of his load (please, keep the jokes to a minimum). He brings his leg up and back, very similar to Bryce Harper (a swing we have seen a kajillion times). The difference is that Bryce keeps his head still and keeps his weight back. I still think Harper's exaggerated leg kick and the fact that he gets his foot down late has slightly retarted what has been an otherwise amazing start to his career. Anyway, back to Jackson. His weight shifts forward quickly when he puts his foot down (he puts it down late I might add), thus moving his head. So, when the pitcher prepares to release the ball, he rocks back, lifts his leg, rocks forward and puts his leg down. He also puts his leg down further out from where it started, thus lowering his head as well. Hitting a MLB pitch is hard enough, but it's even harder when the things (eyes) tracking the 95 mph moving target are moving as well. I think these things are related.

 

If he can reduce his leg kick to a soft kick, where he essentially picks it up slightly off the ground and puts it down in the same location and turns his body instead of rocking back, it would help him tremendously. Those things can be corrected easily with plenty of tee time.

 

The other issue, which is probably the biggest concern, is the hand movement/location. It's atrocious. I can't understand how he's been able to get this far. During the load process, he drops his hands to just above his waist/below his numbers. He also tilts the bat head slightly towards the pitcher. All of this is happening as the pitcher releases the ball. He then has to correct the angle of his hands so that he can drag the bat through the zone. If he gets a fastball up in the zone, he'll be lucky to hit it. He might literally have to swing UP at a ball high in the zone to hit it. If he is able to hit these pitches at all, then it means he is committed to hitting the fastball up and will most likely struggle with anything off-speed. It's harder to stop a swing than it is to start one. Going back to Bryce Harper, you'll notice that he starts his hands up and keeps them there. He never drops them below his shoulders. By doing this, he always ensures that gravity will help him with his swing. It's so much easier, and quicker, to start you swing momentum down than it is to start out on the same plane as the ball, where you are relying entirely on your own strength to generate momentum. This is harder to fix, but it can be fixed. During the load, he simply needs to push his hands back slightly. He almost needs to push them in the opposite direction of his front foot, and then start the swing from there.

 

The other way to "fix" these things is for Brett to get extraordinarily stronger so that his strength can make up for the mechancial flaws.

 

It's really quite amazing that a prospect can get through so many levels of a professional baseball organization with such elementary mechanical flaws.

 

Really interesting stuff. Please post more often.

[hawkeyecub]

Good post lumafia. I had similar thoughts about his hands after seeing him in these first few games but that was a really good breakdown.

[El Duderino]

http://www.csnchicago.com/baseball-chicago-cubs/cubs-talk/Cubs-expecting-Castro-and-Jackson-to-sna?blockID=753891&feedID=10336

[Guest]

You didn't know BJax was ranked that highly? I'm shocked a cubs fan that posts on this board so frequently could miss that info

 

To be fair, most mid-season prospect rankings had dropped Brett entirely from the top 100, so C.C. is kind of right since we were talking about where he was rated "most recently."

 

CC had no idea he'd been ranked #32 as of the start of this year. He also had no idea where he'd been ranked mid-season. The complete lack of knowledge was the point of the post.

 

So what? Do you have to know a player ranking to judge them? Why do you put so much faith in what BA ranks a player?

 

be honest, you don't pay attention to the cubs very much.

[Sammy Sofa]

His issues have to be mechanical. It's hard to understand how a guy can square a ball up as often as he has and strike out as much as he has. If someone wants to post a video, or link to a video, I would like to take a look at his swing to see if anything stands out.

 

Well, I have reviewed some of Brett's batting practice/minor league videos online. Of course, all of the video is crap and none of it provides the best angle. I'm going to use Bryce Harper as a point of reference since they have similar body types, hit left-handed and have similar swings.

 

....

 

Awesome post. Thanks.

[C.C.]

be honest, you don't pay attention to the cubs very much.

 

This year besides reading the box scores of the minors and majors on a daily basis, no.

[Lefty]

His issues have to be mechanical. It's hard to understand how a guy can square a ball up as often as he has and strike out as much as he has. If someone wants to post a video, or link to a video, I would like to take a look at his swing to see if anything stands out.

 

Well, I have reviewed some of Brett's batting practice/minor league videos online...

 

It's really quite amazing that a prospect can get through so many levels of a professional baseball organization with such elementary mechanical flaws.

 

Impressive analysis. Hitting a baseball is a complex task. Why all of a sudden are these things going to be correctable at the Major League level? I.e., they won't be corrected.

 

Look at Rizzo, look at Lance Lynn. There's hope for Jackson...

 

Pitchers don't count. There is much precedence for pitchers turning it around. And whatever path Rizzo's career takes, two months in Petco was a small sample compared to his minor league record. Jackson's K history has yet to be contradicted. Would love to be wrong. Mentally we all had Jackson as the CFer when the Cubs contend again. If it ain't Jackson, contention gets pushed back (in my mind).

[Guest]

Jackson's K rate was only high enough to be a problem starting in May of this year.

[Guest]

http://www.csnchicago.com/baseball-chicago-cubs/cubs-talk/Cubs-expecting-Castro-and-Jackson-to-sna?blockID=753891&feedID=10336

 

Mooney consistently puts out the most interesting stuff on the Cubs, he's really done a good job this year.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

be honest, you don't pay attention to the cubs very much.

 

This year besides reading the box scores of the minors and majors on a daily basis, no.

 

Therefore, I can't apologize to you for saying one of your previous posts was lazy. You really know nothing about what is going on with this team, so most of your posts are going to lack the knowledge that can be of any help on a Cubs message board.

[C.C.]

Fair enough.

[neely crenshaw]

Let's give the administration some credit.

They had to know this would happen. As was stated, if he strikes out a lot in the minors, you'd have to expect it to be as bad or worse in the majors.

If the idea is to trade him because they feel he can't play at this level, there would be no reason to bring him up and completely de-value him. They would probably leave him down and try to get what ever they could, or use him as an add in this winter.

Perhaps they are using this as a wake up call to him that he has to change somethings to be successful in the majors. Rizzo was truly awful last year, went back to work and fixed some things in his swing. Hopefully Jackson takes this to heart and gets to work. He has been a guy with a 800+ ops and 370ob% in the minors, sometimes it tough to get them to see they need some changes. Failure can do that for you.

[neely crenshaw]

Things get corrected all the time at the major league level. No, they won't happen on it's own, it will take work. Perhaps the failure will make him see he does need to do these things. Rizzo had holes in his swing that were exploited at the major league level. He went back to work and has made changes that seem to be working.

It's not forgone conclusion that jackson won't change BUT he has to be willing to put in the work. I can be a very difficult thing to do because you are looking to change a fundamental that he has been using successfully for probably most of his life. If it was easy, every skilled kid would do it.

[23sharks]

I feel bad for him. The Tues game ended with him in the on deck circle, and I was almost relieved that he didn't get a chance to come up and K again......