In Defense of Jack Wilson

Is Jack Wilson a three-month wonder or the product of poor management?

Jack Wilson the Cardinal Farm Hand

Jack saw some pretty easy leagues early on. In his 1998 rookie year, he played at the easiest park in all of professional baseball for getting hits -- Johnson City with its 1.39 park factor. In 1999, he received 251 AB at Peoria, a 1.05 park.

In those 492 AB, Jack averaged one hit every 2.95 times to the plate, for a very high .358 BA. Those were pretty impressive stats for a player drafted in the 9^th round out of a small college and who was said to have a mediocre bat by ESPN prospect guru John Sickles.

Jack was then sent to Potomac in the Carolina League where he played all of 1999 and began the year in 2000. Potomac is a harder park for hitting at .94 and Jack’s stats reflected as much -- 304 AB and 3.42 AB/H for a .293 BA. These were still decent numbers but about .50 AB/H more than during 1998 and 1999.

Jack was promoted to AA at Arkansas in the Texas League in 2000, where he managed 3.40 AB/H over 343 AB at a 1.15 factor park. This production was very similar to the 1999 - 2000 Potomac years.

Then, Cam Bonifay traded Jason Christianson to the Cardinals for Jack Wilson at the July deadline in 2000. At that point in Jack’s minor league career, he had amassed the following statistics:

Jack Wilson the Pirate Farm Hand

Jack was assigned to the Eastern League Altoona club after the trade in 2000, where he went 35 for 139 - one hit every 3.94 AB in a 1.02 factor park. That was a full .52 AB/H higher than when he left Potomac even though the park was easier. Part of the increase might be explained with Jack being on a new team in a new franchise, and part might be explained because the Texas League is a hitter’s league and not a pitching league, like Eastern League.

Cam Bonifay had moved into save-my-job mode during the winter of 2000 for many reasons, one of which was because Pat Mears was getting all the playing time at SS.

Relinquishing to the heat, Cam promoted Jack to Pittsburgh’s starting SS in 2001, despite the fact Jack had accumulated only 343 AB in AA and had a paltry .252 BA in the higher league. Jack’s stats from Altoona:

Jack Wilson the Pirate

From opening day 2001 to May 6^th, Jack got 62 AB and had just 1 hit every 6.89 AB, indicating how much he  was playing over his head.

The Pirates then optioned Jack to AAA Nashville May 6^th and Jack broke into a streak and went 38 for 103 - 1 hit every 2.71 AB. That was pretty impressive considering Nashville had a .99 park factor and the fact Jack was experiencing back spasms at times.

There was some speculation at Baseball America that Jack’s better performance at Nashville was due to the easier Pacific Coast League pitching and parks, while some at Baseball Prospectus and other industry sources speculated Jack did better because he was finally protected in a lineup – something that Jack had never seen since his days at Peoria with the Cardinals.

A quick look at box scores in 2001 shows us that Jack primarily batted 2cd with Tike leading off with his .304/.347/.422 split, Warren Morris batting third hitting .305/.342/.462, and Adam Hyzdu batting fourth with his .291/.332/.458 splits.

I am in the camp that believes Jack batting second and being protected allowed him to see better pitches. This is important to remember because it will come to play later in Jack’s career. I would also assume Jack’s adrenaline rush and higher confidence level from playing with the parent club had something to do with the better numbers as well.

After Jack served his 35 days of incarceration at Nashville to allow the Pirate’s an additional arbitration year, Jack never looked back.

As a Pirate, Jack got 1 hit every 4.06 AB his first three years 2001 - 2003, going 363 – 1475. During that period of time, 61% of his AB were batting second and he managed 1 hit every 3.89 AB. But there was a deeper story to this.

In 2001 when Jack was batting second, he had Nunez and Tike as leadoff hitter’s in front of him and typically Kendall behind him. Kendall in those days wasn’t really a threat yet and Tike and Nunez typically had about a .225 BA. It wasn’t until later in 2001 when Jack started getting some protection when Kendall was moved to the leadoff, Giles batted third, and Ramirez batted fourth that Jack responded by getting 1 hit every 3.16 AB.

2002 and 2003 were no different - when Jack had protection in the same form of Kendall leading off and Giles and Ramirez behind him, his AB/H went down again. The problem was, the manager created so many lineups those two years he, as well as the GM, obviously never saw the value of Jack getting protection.

From opening day 2004 to July 6^th, Jack simply went on a tear getting 1 hit every 2.95 AB for a .338 BA when batting second.

How did Jack manage such great production?

One reason was because Jason Kendall was batting third and Mondesi batting fourth until mid-May when Mondesi left, and both had very high batting averages.

After Mondesi left, Kendall went to the leadoff and Ward batted third and Craig fourth. Ward was in one of his hapless streaks batting around .369 and Craig was up around .349.

Jack had protection.

The walls then came tumbling down after July 7^th as Jack only managed 1 hit every 3.57 AB.

What was the reason?

No protection -- as Ward and Craig's numbers tanked to the .260 range, so did Jacks. Manager Lloyd McClendon started batting anyone third in an effort to restart Jack’s engine to no avail.

Jack’s production in 2005 is a bit tougher to analyze because Jack had emergency appendectomy surgery December 21, 2004. The Pirate organization declared Jack fit, and even Jack stated he was healthy and could play to start the year, but it was obvious Jack wasn’t close to 100% until mid-May.

Starting about May 18^th, Jack’s production took off.  Matt Lawton was leading off, Jack was batting second, Jason Bay third, Ward batting fourth with a .285 BA or so, and Castillo was batting fifth and hitting over .300. The combination of Jack feeling better and being protected once again started to pay off as Jack peeled off a 9-31 streak -- 1 hit every 3.44 AB - over 7 games.

Then, the roof collapsed once again. Manager McClendon buried Jack in the 8 spot in the lineup and forgot about him until McClendon eventually was fired. Jack’s production tanked as a result. The interim manager, Pete Mackanin, promptly moved Jack back to the second spot in the lineup and Jack responded once again getting 1 hit every 3.13 AB while batting second until the season ended.