Thursday night, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Chicago Cubs made the trade to send reliever Blake Cooper to the Cubs while sending former 1st round pick Brett Jackson to the D’backs. Cooper, 26, is 16-15 in 192 relief appearances over five minor league seasons with a 3.27 ERA. He was 4-2 with a 3.57 ERA in 41 appearances at Double-A Mobile and Triple-A Reno and was named to the Southern League All-Star team this season. While Jackson, 26, is hitting .210 with 5 homers in 81 games for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs.
Brett Jackson used to be considered a huge part in the cubs rebuilding effort when he was drafted in the 1st round (31st overall) back in 2009. The one knock on him coming out of college was he strikes out a lot, however scouts figured with time in the game every single day and working with coaches he would cut down on the strikeouts. He has yet to do that. In 158 games in AA he has 174K’s with a .254 Batting average, and in AAA in 296 games he has 393K’s with a .246 batting average. His only call up to the majors was back in 2012 where in 44 games he hit .175 with 59K’s in 44 games.
Some scouts believed he should have been considered for the #1 overall pick in the draft because of his tools. In 578 minor league games he has 211 extra base hits; he only have 550 hits in those games, that means 38% of his hits are either doubles, triples, or homers. His bat is there for the major league level he just gets himself in trouble with all these strikeouts. Maybe a change of scenery will do the trick. The Diamondbacks have done this type of trade once already this season with the Angels for OF Zach Borenstein; who wasn’t hitting to his potential after a break out season last year and he is now hitting .319 in AAA Reno. The D’backs are hoping the same results with Jackson.
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