Brett Jackson should be the starting center fielder on Opening Day. That’s the good news. The bad news is the Cubs have already said the good news isn’t the most likely to happen news. The Cubs have said Jackson will start 2013 in Triple-A. Thanks for getting my hopes up, good news! Okay, the not-as-good-as-good news but still good depending on how much you can lie to yourself, Jackson should start the year with the Cubs. Yeah, “should” gets C grades, almost gets into the state school, decides college isn’t for “should” and ends up working at its mother’s knitting store selling cat patterns to the mothers of its high school ex-girlfriends and “should” is played by Todd Louiso in a story about its life. So, an April ETA, breaking camp is out of the question for Brett Jackson, but still what can we expect from him in 2013 fantasy baseball?
In Triple-A last year, Jackson hit 15 homers with 27 steals while hitting .256. I’m all for ignoring average, but Jackson showed that he just can’t maintain a terrible strikeout rate (30+) and translate success into the majors. Last year, in his espresso cup of coffee in the majors, he hit .175 in 120 ABs. (Bee tee dubya, these outlook posts are usually only for players that have rookie eligibility (150 ABs or less), but I’m not sure with Jackson because there’s a sub-rule about 45 days on a major league roster eliminating rookie eligibility. I would know if he were eligible, if the MLB didn’t have five different subsections of sub-rules followed by ten footnotes about the five previous rules. Did David Foster Wallace write the MLB rookie eligibility rules?) Jackson won’t hit above .240 if he can’t cut his K-rate. There’s a place for a guy that can hit 12-15 homers, steal 25+ bases and hit .240. Drew Stubbs comes to mind. But if the Cubs stay true to not playing Jackson out of Spring Training, then there’s no reason to draft him in redraft leagues in the spring. I could see a June call-up and a line of 25/9/30/.230/15 in 300 ABs. Definitely worth a NL-Only and keeper league flyer, but in most mixed leagues, we’ll wait until June to grab him off waivers. And by “we’ll” I mean you and me. No, not the you sitting behind you. You you!
Don’t like Brett Jackson. I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!!! Drew Stubbs with better sideburns. I’m nuts about Rizzo at Wrigley though. How’s Marlon Byrd these days?
Nice David Foster Wallace reference…his books have as much dust on them as House of Leaves on my shelf. Thanks 21st century English Lit degree…all post-modernism and Afro-Caribbean slave narratives because Samuel Beckett and Oronooko are way more important to the literary world than Charles Dickens or Robert Penn Warren.
Sorry for the passive-aggressive post. It’s early on the east coast.
Ha! Wow, you pulled a triple double of “why a literature degree is fun to talk about but not as fun to own.” Don’t worry, I have a Masters in film, it’s much worse….
@Grey, I’m not sure it’s even fun to talk about anymore. It just pisses me off and makes me want to drink.
And, to the Trick or Treating with Rudy: took my children and saw more grown kids (read: adults) trick or treating without costumes. Guess the economy really IS that bad.
Yeah, people dressed in a Burger King crowns this year, I remember when people were dressed in Red Lobster bibs as far as the eye could see…
Any rhyme or reason to the order these rookie posts appear in? Myers and Bundy are two of the best (if not 1-2) going into 2013, but I shouldn’t assume Jackson would be the 3rd-best rookie should I?
Nope, no rhyme or reason to the order, just the way I felt like pushing them out…
@Grey, yeah that’s what I figured. I thought it might be in order until I saw this joker today.
Put out the big ones first to excite the prospect salivary glands then you throw in some jokers here and there…
Brett Jackson, whatevs…I wanna know what your costume was. Saw some pics of West Hollywood outfits. Looked like they could have had a huge Gangham Style Gang out there.
Two groups of trick-or-treaters stopped by our house and then we had to shut it down around 7 b/c the baby went to bed. Left out a wicker basket with candy and a “please take one” sign. Checked about 30 minutes later and the basket was gone. Pissed me off a bit, but then again, it’s pretty funny to think of some Scream mask wearing dipshizz walking around with a granny style wicker basket. Still hope the kid’s teeth rot so much that they have to get pulled. It’d be like a very slow version of the punch to the face I’d like to share with him (or her, but probably him).
Actually I flew out early yesterday to Austin to visit Rudy and we walked around with his kid collecting candy, even though his kid is less than one and everyone we asked for candy from said a variation of the same thing, “isn’t she too young to eat candy?” Which of course replied with, “yeah, we’ll save it for her…” Then ate candy and talked about baseball…” Some kids came to his house dressed as nothing and Rudy told them they were weak and I said they were simply poor… Good times!
@Grey, Poor? Eternally optimistic, Grey. One of the “kids” who came to our house was wearing a sweatshirt and khakis. I was tempted to inquire, WTF are you?, but since we out had two groups come by, I let it slide. Nice job cashing in on the baby, though. I have no moral qualms with that- people should be giving me things when I let them see my baby. She’s such a ray of sunshine that they should be paying me for the privilege of babysitting her! Anyhow, I would’ve done it too but don’t really like candy…I get my sugars in a different way- letting my body process alcohol.
Khakis and shirt? The kid was obviously Anthony Michael Hall playing Bill Gates… Com’ awn!
@Grey, Hahaha, if that kid had said that, I would have written him a check for a percentage of whatever awesome thing he will create years from now. Damn, now I’m kicking myself for not asking… You gonna go to Uchiko?
Saturday night, team Razzball will be in there trying all of their sushi wonderfulness as paid by the check from those guys whose league we came in second in…
@Grey, Holy shizz that’s the perfect way to spend it. Color Me Jealouss.
Yeah, Rudy just showed me our check for $3500… We’ll see how much sushi we can eat!
@Grey, Whoa. 3500? Have you considered an IRA?
What am I saying? That’s pure genius. Tell Paul I called his win like two episodes in.
@royce!, We’re going with low-yield, high grade sushi… Paul doesn’t work there anymore, actually have a friend that does PR for Uchinko, and heard scoop through her… Go to the newest post…
@Grey, Or one. Tell him one.
An outfielder that’s going to hit .230 with 9 HRs? I’m going to file this post into “ignore” for all of my drafts next season. Out of all the fantasy baseball leagues, how many leagues are actually NL only?
Can we highlight some players with value for OBP instead of AVG leagues instead?
Yeah, it’s still early, SJ… I’ll have more mixed league guys… Also Tom who does OPS posts will be going over specific guys for OBP and OPS leagues…
@SwaggerJackers, Jackson has a history of solid walk rates, so he might actually end up being sneakily valuable in an OBP league, if he can turn around his more recent K #s.
@royce!, What would you project his OBP to be? If he’s rocking a .230 AVG, his OBP wouldn’t be over .330, would it?