Much has been made of the new and improved Tampa Bay Rays, from their new look offense to their new look name and uniforms.  As Tampa Bay fans get used to the names of the players that hope to carry the team to the 70-win Promised Land, there is one player that may play an important role in Tampa Bay’s Ray-naissance: Edwin Jackson.  In this one-pager, we look at who Edwin Jackson is, where he has been, and where it appears that he is finally going.

Haven’t I Heard of This Guy Before?  Before the 2004 season, Baseball America listed a 20-year old Jackson as one of the best in all of baseball and the best homegrown talent the Los Angeles Dodgers had produced since Pedro Martinez.  That is a pretty ringing endorsement, especially for a guy who had all of twenty-two major league innings and just two minor league seasons under his belt at the time.

So What Happened With the Dodgers?  Jackson posted truly impressive statistics in 2003 in the minors, but he simply could not replicate that performance at any time in 2004 and 2005, when Jackson proved eminently hittable, and despite a high-velocity fastball, could not get his strikeout totals up very high compared with his innings pitched or his bases on balls.  In early 2006, after two legitimately bad years in the Dodgers system, Jackson was sent to Tampa in exchange for Danys Baez and Lance Carter.

Welcome to Tampa, Where Everyone Gets a Chance -  In Tampa Bay, where all pitchers struggle, Jackson was given every chance to succeed.  After a 2006 in which he showed minor improvement, Jackson started 31 games for the D-Rays in 2007 and was deceptively solid.  Despite his 5-15 record, Jackson managed over 120 strikeouts in 160 innings and pitched his first major league shutout.  And while his 5.76 ERA would have made most teams cringe, it was good enough for third in the Devil Rays’ rotation.  2007 marked another year in which Edwin Jackson did not live up to the hype, but one in which he did become a full time major league pitcher.

And Then He Got the Devil Out - In the very early going in 2008, Jackson appears ready to come into his own.  Riding the momentum of the Tampa Bay Ray-naissance, Jackson has put together back-to-back impressive starts to start the season.  After pitching eight shutout innings against the Seattle Mariners on Thursday, Jackson now has a 2-0 record and a 0.64 ERA.  In his first start of the season, he went six innings against the New York Yankees and held them to one run in Yankee Stadium.

Final Word - Edwin Jackson is the poster-child for what expectations can do to a guy.  Jackson never met the expectations that were heaped upon him in Los Angeles, and he got run out of town.  But taken for what he is – a 24-year old starting pitcher who stands six-foot-three, 210 pounds, and hits 95 MPH-plus on the radar gun – Edwin Jackson is the type of player many teams would like to have.  While he shouldn’t be expected to continue at his current pace, Jackson will be a household name in Central Florida in no time.