Hitter’s heaven, pitcher’s hell

In PCL, stats require second look, maybe more

Welcome to the Pacific Coast League, where the batting averages are high and the ERAS are higher.

Or maybe it’s the other way around.

The PCL has long been known as a hitter’s heaven and a pitcher’s worst nightmare.

So how are people supposed to evaluate statistics coming from the PCL?

Well, the answer is: It’s tough.

Pitching

Frank Viola, the 51s pitching coach, doesn’t mince words.

“You can throw a pitcher’s statistics out the window here in Vegas,” Viola said.

The air is thin, and the ball flies. The ball is harder to grip, too. And breaking

balls — curveballs in particular — don’t break the way they should. It’s especially noticeable in parks at higher elevations in Las Vegas, Reno, Albuquerque, El Paso and Colorado Springs.

The thing he puts the most stock in is how many first-pitch strikes a pitcher throws.

He also puts stock into

walks versus innings pitched, though even walk rates can be skewed if pitchers are afraid to attack the strike zone out of fear that a mistake will be hammered 400 feet.

“As much baseball as I’ve been around my whole career, I could tell you verbatim which guys are going to make it and which guys aren’t going to make it just throwing the numbers out, just watching their work ethic and how they do their side work and how they do

PCL

five-year, $125 million extension with Derek Carr a week earlier.

Carr and his agent Tim Younger both said that it was structured, in part, to allow the Raiders an opportunity to retain a young core that includes Jackson, defensive end Khalil Mack and wide receiver Amari Cooper, all of whom were due for big-money extensions on the horizon. Jackson, a 2014 third-round pick, was the most pressing of the three; like Carr, he was entering the final year of his rookie contract.

On June 23, Carr said that during negotiations he often asked Younger if certain contract parameters would help his teammates.

Those press-conference comments reached Jackson.

“To be honest with you, I started smiling when I first heard it because he always said that to me before, that he wanted to make sure everyone else is good,” Jackson said in a conference call. “When he said that, it just speaks to his character and who he is as a person. He’s one of the most unselfish people I know.”

With the money, Jackson said he plans to find land in Mississippi and eventually start building a home.

Meanwhile, a message seems to have been transferred from the Raiders’ front office to the locker room. Players who produce and don’t create off-the-field trouble will be rewarded in time. Carr and Jackson signed their respective contracts on consecutive Fridays.

“Definitely,” Jackson said. “I always said, ‘If you live clean and live good outside of football and if you come in and take care of business and work your butt off, they may not say it all the time, but people appreciate it.’ They may not tell you every day or every week, ‘Hey, you’re doing a good job,’ this or that. But people pay attention to how you work on the field and off it also.”

The Raiders did.

And now for Jackson, more Las Vegas heat waves should be ahead.

Contact reporter Michael Gehlken at mgehlken@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Gehlkennfl on Twitter.