Where Austin Jackson's Season Ranks Among Tigers Center Fielders

As illustrated in an earlier post, Tigers center fielder Austin Jackson has upgraded his offensive game dramatically over 2011.  Not only is he one of the most improved hitters ever though, he is also one of the top hitters in the American League this year.  He is third in the AL batting average (.319) and on-base percentage (.402) and seventh in On-Base plus slugging (.925).  Among center fielders, the the right-handed hitting Jackson is third in the league in OPS behind Angels rookie sensation Mike Trout and Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton. 

So, before we even attempt to get into any defensive evaluation, Jackson stacks up quite well to almost any player.  His defense might be a bit overrated by some - he his superb at going back on fly balls and covering ground in Comerica Park's vast center field, but is not that great coming in on the ball and does not have an outstanding arm.  Still, he is a very good fielder at a premium position and that adds to his value.

In terms of Wins Above Replacement, AJax has been a tremendous overall performer regardless of which method one chooses.  He is fourth in the circuit in Baseball-Reference WAR (4.4) and third in Fan Graphs WAR (4.9).  The only players ahead of him on both measures are Trout and Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano.  Teammate Miguel Cabrera is also ahead of Jackson on the Baseball-Reference  measure.  Jackson is looking like an MVP candidate to me and probably would be more in the discussion had he not missed time with an abdominal strain earlier in the season.

I always like to see how current players rank among historic Tigers and I'll use the OPS+ statistic to do that here.  The OPS+ metric is a player's OPS relative to league average and adjusting for ballpark.  An OPS+ of 100 is average, over 100 is above average and below 100 is below average.  Jackson has a 148 OPS+ which places him sixth in the league this year and in the top five percent of players historically - all players not just center fielders. 

 Table 1 below shows that Jackson currently has the 19th highest single-season OPS+ among Tigers center fielders.  That doesn't sound so great until you consider that the top 13 positions belong to the legendary Ty Cobb.  In fact, only Cobb, and fellow Hall-of-Famers Sam Crawford, Al Kaline and Heinie Manush had better offensive seasons as center fielders. 

Table 1: Single-season OPS+ Leaders Among Tigers Center Fielders

Player	Year	PA	OPS+
Ty Cobb	1917	669	210
Ty Cobb	1910	590	206
Ty Cobb	1912	609	200
Ty Cobb	1911	654	196
Ty Cobb	1918	474	194
Ty Cobb	1913	501	194
Ty Cobb	1914	414	190
Ty Cobb	1915	700	185
Ty Cobb	1916	636	180
Ty Cobb	1925	492	171
Ty Cobb	1922	613	169
Ty Cobb	1921	582	166
Ty Cobb	1919	548	166
Sam Crawford	1907	632	160
Sam Crawford	1908	654	159
Heinie Manush	1926	563	154
Sam Crawford	1909	662	152
Al Kaline	1959	594	151
Austin Jackson	2012	415	148
Jimmy Barrett	1903	615	144

Source: Baseball-Reference    

If we limit the list to seasons since World War II, Jackson ranks even better.. His 148 mark ranks second only to Kaline (151) in 1959 and is even better than the 135 OPS of Curtis Granderson's quadruple twenty season (20 homers, 20 triples, 20 doubles, 20 steals) of 2007.  Granderson's 2008 season also made the cut.  Other recent Tigers appearing on the list multiple times are Chet Lemon (three seasons) and Ron Leflore (two). 

 Table 1: Single-season OPS+ Leaders Among Tigers Center Fielders Since 1946

Player	Year	PA	OPS+
Al Kaline	1959	594	151
Austin Jackson	2012	415	148
Curtis Granderson	2007	676	135
Chet Lemon	1984	574	135
Chet Lemon	1987	553	130
Ron LeFlore	1976	603	128
Chet Lemon	1983	573	126
Curtis Granderson	2008	629	124
Ron LeFlore	1977	698	123
Jim Delsing	1953	552	122

 Source: Baseball-Reference   

So, Jackson's season looks impressive historically as well as currently.  How much of his gain from 2011 to 2012 can be maintained going forwards remain to be be seen, but 2012 has been a remarkable season for the Tigers lead-off hitter.