Referencing Nate Silver's prior work on this topic, he found the the best starters-to-relievers transitions had the following traits:
- Higher walk rate.
- Higher strikeout rate.
- Indifference on fly/ground ball tendencies.
- Low IsoP.
Silver found the walk and IsoP qualities the most important. This is good news for Jackson, although his BB totals impressively dropped over one per nine. Jackson also had a lower IsoP than most, although this was more due to a high OBP than a low SLG. Some of the more successful shifters include LaTroy Hawkins and Tom Gordon, let's take a look at how Jackson's numbers compare to them.
Pitcher | BB/9 | IsoP |
Jackson | 3.78 | 0.163 |
Hawkins | 3.09 | 0.184 |
Gordon | 3.84 | 0.093 |
Jimenez | 3.92 | 0.132 |
Gossage | 3.62 | 0.116 |
Gagne | 2.73 | 0.201 |
I was vastly against Edwin Jackson the starter, but call me crazy, I think I'm willing to give Edwin the reliever a shot.
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