Wynegar had some more quotes in the feature piece as well:“I don’t know if he’s ever going to have 30-home run power, but I could see him having 15 or 20 at least,” said the Scranton hitting coach Butch Wynegar, a former Yankees catcher. “But it’s going to take time. It’s more mechanical issues that I’m very leery about bringing out to him now. I want to make sure he keeps that right-centerfield approach. There’s a right way to pull the ball and a wrong way.”
Jackson has a tendency to drift forward in his stance, rushing in an attempt to add power or hit the ball harder. Effectively, though, that robs him of power by shifting his weight too soon. With Wynegar, he has worked hard to keep his weight back and let the ball travel a split-second more before contact.
“Right now his whole approach is the other way,” Wynegar said. “I’ve seen him take balls in on the black and hit a line drive back up the middle — which, for a young hitter, it’s outstanding that he can do that. I don’t want him to lose that. That’s what can make him a .300 hitter. Spinning off the ball is not going to make him a .300 hitter. It’s gradual, it is.”“In all honesty, I don’t care if he hits a home run or not,” Wynegar said. “For me as a hitting coach, everything revolves around his approach at the plate, controlling his stride, controlling his load, and being consistent with it, repeating it at-bat after at-bat, and understanding those little subtle adjustments during a game. I’d rather see him learn that here than go to New York and try to learn that on the big stage up there.”
I knew Wynegar had played for the Minnesota Twins, and I asked if he overlapped with Kirby Puckett. He did not, but Wynegar played against Puckett, and he knew what I was getting at. Puckett hit no home runs in 583 at-bats as a rookie in 1984, but two years later, he ripped 31 on his way to a Hall of Fame career.
“That’s a good comparison, right there,” Wynegar said. “I remember when I was traded to New York and we played the Twins, Kirby was leading off at that time. He was an inside-out hitter and he was not the hitter that he became. I think that’s a good analogy. Kirby learned how to sit on pitches and all of a sudden got stronger. I totally agree.”
“There’s nothing about Austin — defense, arm, base running, nothing — that gives me any doubts that he’s going to be a good player one day,” said the Class AAA hitting coach Butch Wynegar. “I just hope nothing happens at the big-league level where they yank him out of here premature. I’d love to see him stay here all year, see what kind of year he has and go from there. Because he’s not there yet.”Jackson knows he needs work, but is ready whenever he gets the call:
Right now Jackson is hitting .349/.425/.440 with 23 RBI, 10 doubles, and 11 steals, but he's still striking out too much - 49 times in 47 games so far. The Yanks are probably going to want to see him start striking out less before they even start thinking about calling him up. I think he'll spend most of the season in Triple-A and then get called up when the major league rosters expand to 40 in September. Until then let the kid develop at his own pace, because from everything I've heard, read, or seen, the kid is going to be a hell of a ballplayer one day.“I think that I still have a lot more things I need to improve on and learn before I’m called on to be a part of it up there,” Jackson said. “You don’t want to be up there and have things get exposed. You want to be ready and you want to be able to make an impact when you go up there.
“I just leave it to them. I don’t know too much about people’s contracts or what the situation is with that. I know once it’s my time and they feel that I’m ready, I’m going to show them I’m capable of playing up there.”
6 Comments:
Great posting.
Those are some very insightful comments by Wynegar. I also hope AJax stays in SWB all season, maybe just a September callup after the playoffs are over. I watched him play in Trenton, and the way he's batting this season, it overshadows what a great throwing arm he has. As last season wore on, he got fewer chances to throw out baserunners because very few took the extra base on him.
I became 'a believer' in the 2007 playoffs- round 1 against Portland. AJax in CF, 1st and 2nd with two outs, 10th inning. Hard grounder up the middle, AJax throws a one-hopper to PJ Pilittere for a 'bang-bang' out at the plate. It opened my eyes.
Next Bernie Williams?
To me it sounds like A-Jax's power will develop a lot like Alex Rios or Delmon Young. A slow gradual pace. Neither of those two guys know yet how to consistently drive the ball to left.
I hope he stays down there and works on those strike outs. Those are power hitter strikeout numbers and would likely get worse in the majors.
He's got talent and just needs to develop it more.
I said all last year that he reminds me strongly of the young Bernie Williams. Williams, when he first came up didn't have great 'baseball skills', & looked a bit lost on the bases too. How AJax plays is similar, in fact I don't think he took baseball seriously until recently. He was recruited by colleges for basketball.
That's true Steve. Kepner mentions it in the article that even through his first year in the minors Jackson had doubts about playing baseball and wanted to go back to basketball before deciding to stick with baseball.
He also had agreed to go to Georgia Tech to play both baseball and basketball before the Yankees drafted him.
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