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As promised, we have the second of two pieces by Ryan Levy of tamu-and-baseball.com on draftees from Texas A&M University. Today's piece is on sandwhich pick Zack Jackson. Enjoy everyone!

ZachJack



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Zach Jackson
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 220 lbs
Hometown: Cranberry Township, PA
High school: Seneca Valley
College: Louisville/Texas A&M

Before this season I didn't know anything about Zach Jackson, but after his first start as an Aggie, I found out as much as I could.

          IP  H  R ER SO/BB  AB  BF  NP GSc
Sat 2/14 7.0 0 0 0 8/1 21 22 87* 84


The only reason this game didn't go any more than 7 innings is because our offense run-ruled our opponents (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi)…..so Zach ends up with a no-hitter in his first appearance in the Maroon and White.

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Pre-Texas A&M



Like I said, I had to dig up a bit of info on our new lefty so I did some research and this is what I could dig up…..

Louisville Cardinals (C-USA)

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Year  G GS  W-L    IP   H ER HR SO/BB  ERA
2002 17 14 10-3 83.0 80 44 8 46/24 4.77
2003 21 19 7-6 112.2 121 54 12 75/29 4.31


Zach was named to the Freshman All-American team and 2nd Team All-Conference-USA in 2002.

2003 Cape Cod

      Player  League G GS W-L S   IP  H  R ER HR SO/BB   ERA
Z.Jackson C.Cod 8 8 6-0 0 52.2 42 11 11 1 48/10 1.88


Zach pitched for Hyannis Mets in the Cape and was named to the Cape Cod All-Star team.

Texas A&M

ZachJack stepped right into the weekend rotation and has been a HUGE part of the Aggies success in advancing to the Super Regionals.

One of the keys to Zach's success here at A&M is not necessarily his low-90s fastball, but instead it was him eliminating the big curveball from his repertoire and replacing it with a slider/slurve.

 G GS  W-L CG    IP   H  R ER  SO/BB HR  ERA  BAA AGs
18 18 10-7 6 120.2 113 58 48 127/28 6 3.58 .248 56


SO/9 BB/9 SO/BB  H/9 HR/9 
9.47 2.09 4.55 8.43 .448


Here are his game-by-game stats:

          IP  H  R ER SO/BB  AB  BF  NP GSc   PAP   PAPt
Sat 2/14 7.0 0 0 0 8/1 21 22 87* 84 0 0
Fri 2/20 6.0 6 1 1 3/1 25 26 90* 58 0 0
Fri 2/27 5.0 8 5 5 2/2 20 23 91 31 0 0
Sun 3/07 6.1 4 2 2 6/3 22 26 99* 60 0 0
Sat 3/13 6.0 6 3 1 8/0 24 24 88* 58 0 0
Fri 3/19 4.0 12 6 6 5/0 23 23 83 19 0 0
Sat 3/27 9.0 3 1 1 14/2 30 36 144 89 85184 85184
Sat 4/03 6.1 8 7 5 7/3 26 33 116* 34 4096 89280
Sat 4/10 9.0 2 0 0 9/0 28 29 105* 92 125 89405
Sat 4/17 6.1 11 7 7 4/2 26 31 114 25 2744 92149
Sat 4/24 7.1 7 1 1 11/3 27 30 136 68 46656 138805
Sat 5/01 9.0 2 2 2 11/0 29 30 121 86 9261 148066
Wed 5/12 2.0 2 0 0 3/0 7 9 23 55 0 148066
Sat 5/15 9.0 5 0 0 13/3 32 35 139 87 59319 207385
Sat 5/22 5.2 12 10 6 2/2 29 34 102 17 8 207393
Thu 5/27 6.0 8 6 4 4/4 26 32 95 36 0 207393
Sun 6/06 8.0 12 3 3 9/2 32 37 130* 53 27000 234393
Sun 6/13 8.2 5 4 4 8/2 29 35 127 64 19683 254076



*Estimated Pitch Count (EPC)

(note: On Wed 5/12 Zach was scheduled for 2.0 IP to shake off some rust before the texas series due to a big break in the schedule (for final exams)

Breaking his season down into 1/3rds you'll get these results:

G1-G6  
IP H R ER SO/BB ERA BAA AGs
34.1 36 17 15 32/7 3.93 .267 52


G7-G12
IP H R ER SO/BB ERA BAA AGs
47.0 33 18 16 56/10 3.06 .199 66


G13-18
IP H R ER SO/BB ERA BAA AGs
39.1 44 23 17 39/13 3.89 .284 52


It appears that some big pitch counts are finally starting to catch up to Zach here at the end of the season.

Character-wise, ZachJack is great. On days he isn't starting, he's still the first player out of the dugout to congratulate teammates for scoring runs or for making a big play or whatever.

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(Zack is the high-fiver on the left)

This was a topic recently on an A&M chat board.

I hope that Zach excels for you in Toronto because he's been a joy for us down here in Aggieland.
ZachJack! | 18 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
_Loveshack - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 10:43 AM EDT (#55891) #
IP H R ER SO/BB
Sat 3/27 9.0 3 1 1 14/2
Sat 4/10 9.0 2 0 0 9/0
Sat 5/01 9.0 2 2 2 11/0

Wow, those are some nice looking lines.
Mike Green - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 12:04 PM EDT (#55892) #
Mike M, how could you bring in another Ryan for a pinch-hit? The Mikes are in rough shape as it is :)

I'm not crazy about those pitch counts. Thanks, Ryan, for passing on all the news, good and not so good.
_Loveshack - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 12:11 PM EDT (#55893) #
I'm not crazy about those pitch counts.

Just curious since I know very little about baseball development, but what's not to like about them? Do you think they're too high? Too many pitches per inning? Just trying to learn here not questioning your opinion.
_Rob - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 12:20 PM EDT (#55894) #
Loveshack: I can't speak for Mike Green, but I'm not crazy about the sheer number of pitches. I know little about development as well, but 125+ pitches/game is not a good thing.

Although if you're pitching into the 9th inning in 6 of 18 starts, the pitch count will creep up.
_Rob - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 12:21 PM EDT (#55895) #
Question: When I hit "Post" there, I was brought to a screen with a bunch of goobledygook. I couldn't go back to my preview, so I reloaded this site and my post was there. Anyone else have this problem?
_Jordan - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 12:26 PM EDT (#55896) #
Rob, our underlying software Greymatter has been giving us the heebie-jeebies the last couple of days; we've lost one thread because of it already, and we're hoping not to lose others. Apologies to everyone for the inconvenience while we sort out these hiccups.
_Sneeps - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 12:34 PM EDT (#55897) #
Anyone know if Zach is close to signing?
_MatO - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 12:39 PM EDT (#55898) #
I went throught he draft lists and not many 1st rounders have signed. It's almost as if they're all waiting for someone else to set the price level.
Pistol - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 01:07 PM EDT (#55899) #
I went throught he draft lists and not many 1st rounders have signed. It's almost as if they're all waiting for someone else to set the price level.

To me, it looks like the players that have signed have signed for 'slot money' or less (if there was a pre-arranged deal). Perhaps those that haven't signed are trying to squeeze out some more money.
Mike Green - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 01:15 PM EDT (#55900) #
Loveshack, Rob has basically described my feelings. 9 innings, 105 pitches is OK. 9 innings, 139 or 144 pitches is not.

It's workloads like this, when combined with mechanical issues, that lead to arm problems.
_R Billie - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 01:21 PM EDT (#55901) #
The wait may be for Jered Weaver who fell so far over signability concerns. Although I'm not sure why guys like Purcey or Jackson would have to wait for someone to set a price. There are some guys around their slot who have signed already.

It is curious that the signing hasn't already happened but maybe part of that is the Jays trying to juggle their resources to deal with the extra picks. I don't think they were expecting to get both Purcey and Jackson and maybe had worked out signing expectations with them beforehand.

I only guess that because the previous two drafts saw their early picks all sign very soon after the draft. Usually within the first week.
_JohnnyS99 - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 02:58 PM EDT (#55902) #
I think the jays arleady thought about the resources to sign their picks. The player taken 33nd overall, would command around the same bonus regardless if its Jackson or somebody else.
_Jordan - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 03:16 PM EDT (#55903) #
Kudos and thanks to Ryan for a tremendous pair of articles that gave us all great insight into the ex-Aggie Blue Jays! Very much appreciated, Ryan.
_David Armitage - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 05:20 PM EDT (#55904) #
Wouldn't Jackson's continued involvement in the College World Series proclude him from signing until his team either win it or get knocked out?
_David Armitage - Wednesday, June 23 2004 @ 05:23 PM EDT (#55905) #
sorry, I meant Thigpen, don't know why I thought the aggies were still in it.
_AgRyan04 - Thursday, June 24 2004 @ 01:42 AM EDT (#55906) #
http://tamu-and-baseball.com
I think I should add to the article that our bullpen at A&M this year was terrible. The first 20 or so games we had Jason Meyer (redshirt freshman) and a true freshman (Blake Rampy) coming out of the pen and they were incredible. Well, Meyer moved into our weekend rotation (turned into an All-Conference starter) and something happened to Rampy where the coaches just didn't want to go to him. That might explain some of the high pitch counts.

In the big scheme of things a PAP of 254076 isn't horrible for a collegiate pitcher compared to some others....I still don't think it's terrific for Zach, but it could easily be worse.

If you check out Boyd's World (http://www.boydsworld.com/), he's done a whole bunch of research with regards to charting and following college pitchers and the workloades.

I'm glad you enjoyed the articles and feel free to stop by my site anytime yall want to.....Now the the Ags are eliminated I'll turn my attention to the majors and minor leagues (almost 100% until football starts up)
_AgRyan04 - Thursday, June 24 2004 @ 01:45 AM EDT (#55907) #
http://tamu-and-baseball.com
one more thing that I just noticed......In that very bottom photo (of the high-fiving) you can see me in the OF underneath the arm of the guy on the far right.....we have a parking spot out there and we sit on the backs of our pick-up trucks....
Craig B - Thursday, June 24 2004 @ 08:49 AM EDT (#55908) #
David, that's correct. Until Texas wins or loses the CWS, Thigpen won't sign as he would forfeit his eligibility to play in the final. The final (a best-of-3 if I'm not mistaken, or did they switch to a one-game final last year?) is now the only games left for Texas after beating Georgia 7-6 yesterday. Thigpen went 3-for-3 with an intentional walk (and a HBP). He's now raised his stats on the year to .386/.474/.581.

Kyle Yates, incidentally, hasn't pitched yet at Omaha. He did pitch an inning in the super-regional against Ryan Klosterman and Vanderbilt in a 15-3 Texas romp; he gave up a hit and two walks but got out of the jam with no runs.

Ryan, thanks for these great pieces. I'm so glad we could work together on this. Also, thanks to Mike Moffatt for his HTML work.
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