Tom Wilson On: Austin Jackson

OK, so it isn’t Stephen Colbert’s 435-part “To Better Know A District” series.  But over here at my couch Thunder Thoughts headquarters, we’re I’m pretty proud of our my little 13-part series with Trenton Thunder hitting coach Tom Wilson.

Willy and I sat down before a recent game to break down all of the Thunder position players, and the 12th subject in the series is Austin Jackson.

A-Jack has improved quite a bit from when we first saw him in a Thunder uniform during the 2007 Eastern League playoffs, and Wilson talks about his overall impression of his most prized prospect:

“Jack’s a special guy.  He’s got as much talent as anybody I’ve worked with.  Some of these guys, with Colin and Tabby and AJ, one’s 20 and one’s 21 years old.  Colin just turned 23.  These guys are young.  It’s a process, so it might not all show up this year.  But with the things we’re doing with AJ, like I said with Colin, are built to make him a better big league player.  It might not show up this year, but I really like where he’s at.  He’s a great athlete, and I think he’s just learning how to really hit.  He’s fun to watch.  He’s a good kid, he comes to the field every day with a great attitude.  He’s got one of those infectious personalities in the clubhouse.”

I asked Wilson about Jackson’s improvement with runners in scoring position:

“I’d have to look at the numbers.  If the guy’s in scoring position with two outs, it’s different.  I think with two outs, his average had been pretty good.  And that’s huge, because they’re one pitch away from getting out of the inning.  To break their back and get that hit is huge.  From my stats, he’s phenomenal with that.  It’s a mentality thing.  if you’ve got a man on third with less than two outs, we stress as an organization (that a) hard fly ball in the middle of the field is a sac fly.  It’s quality at-bat, and we score a run for the team.  And for you, it’s a non at-bat, it’s a sac fly.  That’s what we’re stressing.  If you get in a hole, and you’re down 0-2 or 1-2, you’ve got to stay in the middle of the field.  If the infield’s back, you’re just trying to hit a ground ball.  I think it’s just a mentality, and maybe being a young guy, just trying to do too much sometimes.  Instead of, you know what, if I just take this nice easy swing, I’ll be able to drive the ball anyway instead of really drive it and hit the ball out of the ballpark.  Just let things happen, let the game come to him instead of trying to force it.”

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com