Can Jackson overcome strikeout woes?

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Brett Jackson emerged in 2012 as a polarizing prospect.

The young, "toolsy" outfielder had worked his way up Baseball America's prospect ratings each of the past three seasons and had scouts and Cubs fans alike excited about the potential.

But then a crazy thing happened -- his strikeouts went from bad to worse. And then fell to just downright awful when he was called up to the majors.

Jackson struck out 126 times in 491 at-bats in 2010, then whiffed 138 times in 431 ABs in '11. He continued his collapse downhill with a whopping 158 strikeouts in just 407 ABs in Triple-A last season before tallying 59 in 120 ABs in the bigs.

Jackson, 24, actually reached a historic level with his strikeout rate. He struck out in 49.17 percent of his at-bats, which was the second-highest rate ever by a position player, with only Dave Duncan (yes, the legendary Cardinals pitching coach) coming in higher, with a 49.5 percent rate in 1967.

Baseball America has a really good feature on how players of Jackson's ilk have fared.

There are players with incredibly high strikeout rates who have had success at the big-league level, including current Cubs assistant hitting coach Rob Deer and former Cubs slugger Dave Kingman.

Then there are players who failed to meet expectations, including Brewers prospect Mat Gamel and Pirates slugger Brad Eldred.

The jury is still out on three guys, like Nationals outfielder Justin Maxwell, Mariners outfielder Trayvon Robinson and White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers.

So which category will Jackson fall under? The jury is still out on him -- just like Flowers and the others -- but he does bring a lot of other things to the table.

Jackson works the count (averaged 4.24 pitches per plate appearance in the MLB), plays solid defense in center (remember him crashing into the wall in Pittsburgh?) and displays a rare combination of power and speed (55 homers, 91 steals in minor-league career).

But the strikeouts can hold him back, especially if he continues to whiff in almost half his at-bats.

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