NOT YET TIME TO WRITE OFF JACKSON
Former hot prospect has been hurt in camp and is headed for the minors, but he has the talent to succeed
MESA, Ariz. — It’s been a quiet spring for Brett Jackson. Too quiet for the former Cubs’ first-round draft pick who made all kinds of noise in spring training a year ago.
Mostly for the outfield prospect, the silence is about an inflamed throwing shoulder that sidelined him much of the month before he played in a minor-league game Wednesday, with at least two atbats scheduled in Thursday’s final big-league spring game.
But it also seems to be a quiet determination that has toned down the volume of a camp that seemed more about the newest flavors of the month, Javy Baez, Jorge Soler — with a cameo or two from last year’s first-rounder, Albert Almora.
Jackson will open the season at Class AAA Iowa. But if anybody’s writing off the athletic outfielder after a big-league debut with too many strikeouts last August and September, they might be in for a surprise at some point this summer.
Anybody remember what Anthony Rizzo did last year after a miserable 2011 big-league debut with the San Diego Padres?
“That would be the perfect world with Brett,” manager Dale Sveum said of the way Rizzo tore up AAA pitching and then finished the season with a strong second half in the big leagues that has him locked into the No. 3 spot in the Cubs’ lineup going into this year.
Sveum likes what he’s seen in Jackson’s adjustments to an overhauled swing he helped give the kid over the winter.
“[His] confidence is sky high,” Sveum said. “Obviously, he has the speed and all that, but there’s something there when that swing gets honed in. That would be a special player.”
Jackson isn’t as quick to jump on the Brett Jackson bandwagon as he was maybe a few months ago — certainly a year ago — preferring a more stoic, apparently more businesslike outward approach.
“I’m not evaluating things like that, but I’m happy with the way I’ve gone about my work,” he said. “The injury was unfortunate, but you keep moving forward. I’ll build off the spring I was having.”
Maybe it has something to do with guy not long ago tabbed as the Cubs’ top prospect losing a few notches to the Baezes and Solers and Almoras.
Maybe it’s the taste of the big leagues, the punch in the mouth from big-league pitching, that has him quietly determined to punch back.
“I’m confident in my abilities to help this ballclub win,’’ he says, “That’s what I want. … I think I’m a player that will help this team win.” Maybe even this year’s Rizzo? “It’s all about seizing opportunity, and Rizzo seized his opportunity last year,” Jackson said, “and when you seize your opportunity, you stick.’’
Scouts from other organizations are mixed about the former CalBerkeley center fielder — debating whether he’s a potential All-Star in the making or a potential fourth outfielder. Nobody seems to doubt he’s a big-leaguer.
But if this looks like a crossroads season for the fifth-year pro, it also would seem to hold a lot of opportunity for a franchise assembling the young core players it expects will lead to October.
Players such as Rizzo.
“Yeah, it’s a parallel — with any guy that ever makes it,” Jackson said. ‘’It’s all about seizing your opportunity. And Anthony’s a good example, given he was 22 last year and he did that.
“I’m almost 25, so it’s a little different. But where I can take something from what Anthony did was how he approached his year last year and how he seized his opportunity.”