Baseball Brunch: Under-the-Radar Jackson Deal Pays Huge Dividends

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

The most significant trade of last winter barely caused a ripple at the time.

The same day the Mets signed Francisco Rodriguez and traded for J.J. Putz, and the day after the Yankees came to terms with C.C. Sabathia, the Tigers sent outfielder Matt Joyce to the Rays for right-hander Edwin Jackson.

Or don't you remember?

Eight months later, Jackson is second in the AL with a 2.62 ERA and leads the league with a .217 opponents' average. Ignore his 8-5 record; Detroit has scored three runs or fewer in 10 of his 22 starts, and more than five runs just twice.

"We liked him," Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski told FanHouse. "We thought he'd be one of our starters. But to say we thought we'd be trading for an All-Star starter, I would not ever have projected that."

While it may seem that Jackson is one of those pitchers who had plodded along forever, doing nothing special, and has put together a fluke year, it should be noted that he is just 25.

Jackson's unusual career is the result of getting to the big leagues too soon. He made his debut with the Dodgers on Sept. 9, 2003 -- his 20th birthday -- winning against 40-year-old Randy Johnson.

But Jackson then bounced back and forth between the minors and majors, understandable since he was still in his early 20s. He was traded to the Rays in January 2006 and by 2007 he was out of minor-league options despite being only 23. He went into that season with an 11-19 career record and a 5.64 ERA.

In other words, much of his development took place in the majors.

"When I did struggle it was in the limelight," Jackson said. "It wasn't like I was in the minor leagues and had a chance to struggle under the radar.

"I think it all just worked out to make me a stronger person at the end."

And Detroit caught him on the upswing.

"He's been tremendous for us," Dombrowski said. "I don't think anybody could anticipate he'd be good to this extent. I think everybody in the game has been aware of his ability. That goes back for a long time. He's always had great stuff. It was just one of those things where sometimes you get a guy at the right time."

It's not like Dombrowski set out to steal Jackson from Tampa Bay.

Jackson went into last winter eligible for arbitration, meaning he was in line for a big raise from his $412,700 salary (it wound up being $2.2 million this year). With top prospect David Price and others, the low-payroll Rays had some pitching depth, so trading Jackson was a way to save some money that could be spent elsewhere.

It was Tampa Bay that approached Detroit first, Dombrowski said.

"They liked Matt Joyce a lot," Dombrowski said. "And we liked Matt Joyce a lot. I still think Matt Joyce is going to be a good player."

And Jackson didn't take it personally.

"A trade is a trade," he said. "That's the business aspect of it. ... As long as a team wants me, I don't have a problem.

"Without the opportunity [the Rays] gave me, I wouldn't be [an All-Star]. But at the end of the day you can only do so much with a player. You have to kind of let them go out and find themselves. That's what I went through when I had my struggles."

Jackson has thrown more strikes, going from 4.9 walks per nine innings in 2007 to 3.8 last year to 2.9 this year, and success has followed.

"I was just trying to continue to do the same thing I did last year," he said. "I just wanted cut down on my walks, attack the strike zone more. You make the hitters put the ball in play, good things happen for you."

Another reason Jackson took time, as former Rays teammate Carl Crawford noted, is that when the Dodgers signed Jackson out of Columbus, Ga., he was a pitcher and outfielder.

"So he's still learning," Crawford said. "He's not gonna do nothing but get better. He's going to be a dangerous guy for a long time."

But Jackson said he won't mind if, like when he was traded to Detroit, not too many people notice.

"It's not a bad thing to fly under the radar," he said. "It makes life a little easier."

Overheard and Understood

• Arizona manager A.J. Hinch said ace Dan Haren excels at, as Hinch put it, breaking a game down into 110 one-pitch games -- i.e., focusing on one pitch at a time. But Hinch is also monitoring the mental and physical strain from putting so much effort into every delivery. Including Saturday at Washington, Haren has failed to get into the seventh inning in four of his past seven starts. "He executes that one pitch at a time," Hinch said, "and he exhausts about every bit of energy that he has on every one of his pitches."

• The Twins' best chance to win the AL Central lies in their schedule. Of their 52 remaining games, 35 are within the division -- including 12 against Kansas City, nine against Cleveland and eight against Detroit (which is 3-7 against Minnesota).

• According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Orioles are the first team in 121 years to have five pitchers (Brian Matusz, David Hernandez, Jason Berken, Brad Bergesen, Koji Uehara) start and win in their major league debut. The only other team to accomplish that was the 1888 Chicago White Stockings.

Chart of the Week
The Mariners are 27-14 in one-run games, putting them on pace for 40 one-run victories this season. That would rank tied for fourth all-time and the most since 1978:
Team	Record
1978 Giants	42-26
1969 Mets	41-23
1940 Reds	41-17
1974 Orioles	40-21
1970 Orioles	40-15
1979 Astros	39-27
1985 Reds	39-18
Source: Mariners, baseball-reference.com

• The trade of Carl Pavano to Minnesota left Cleveland with just 11 players on its 25-man roster who were on the Opening Day roster or disabled list. Only four players have made it all season on the Indians' active roster: Kerry Wood, Kelly Shoppach, Jhonny Peralta and Shin-Soo Choo.

• Colorado's Todd Helton reached 500 doubles in 1,749 career games -- third fastest all-time after Joe Medwick and Nap Lajoie.

• Since Luis Castillo's game-losing dropped popup against the Yankees on June 12, Rodriguez has a 7.71 ERA, four blown saves in 12 chances, and 17 walks and four homers allowed in 18 2/3 innings.

• Because Dallas Braden is out with a foot infection, Oakland has started a rookie in eight straight games, with Brett Anderson scheduled to make it nine Sunday. The last team to use a rookie starter in nine straight games was the 1997 Cardinals, who used rookies Manny Aybar, Rigo Beltran, Matt Morris, Sean Lowe, Mike Busby and Brady Raggio over their final 19 games.

• Darren O'Day retired 18 straight batters before walking the first man he faced Friday and has a 1.91 ERA for the Rangers. The Mets took him in last winter's Rule 5 draft but, shortsightedly, opted to cut him in April when they called up Nelson Figueroa for a spot start.

• Bruce Chen's win Thursday for Kansas City was his first since Oct. 2, 2005, for Baltimore against Tampa Bay. In between Chen's wins, Roy Halladay and C.C. Sabathia each won 63 games.

• Florida's Dan Uggla joined Joe Gordon as the only second basemen ever to begin their careers with four 20-homer seasons.

• The Phillies broadcasters have created a sports-broadcasting scholarship for Philadelphia-area college students, called the Kalas Award, in memory of their late colleague Harry Kalas. Scholarship applications and the eligibility requirements are available at www.phillybroadcasters.org.