FG on Fox: Austin Jackson’s Comfort Zone

Sometimes, you can just do everything right and the results aren’t coming,” Tigers outfielder Austin Jackson said before a late-May game against the Athletics. And if you look at what Jackson is doing at the plate, he’s right.

Big changes in parts of his process all seem positive, but the results aren’t quite there yet. Could good times be around the corner?

The most stark change Jackson is demonstrating comes when we look at the numbers that evaluate his swing decisions. At FanGraphs, we track how often a player reaches at pitches outside the zone (O-Swing%) and inside the zone (Z-Swing%). Jackson has incrementally improved this skill with every year in the bigs, but this year he has taken a large step forward. His contact rate has enjoyed it:

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With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.

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Brian
9 years ago

4.2% HR/FB despite a robust batted ball distance.

Will that improve … or is the correlation between distance and HR/FB weaker than we think?

No, seriously, I’m asking.

Grant
9 years ago
Reply to  Brian

I think a lot has to do with the standard deviation of a hitters fly balls. Two players may have an average of 290 ft, but the one with a sd of say 40ft, will have a higher HR/FB% than one with a sd of 10 ft. I don’t know of any way to find that data though.