"We brought him up last season hoping he was going to do well but knowing we get to see him first-hand, where a week ago, he went out to Arizona, we were able to fix the things and be hands on,” Sveum said. “I think he’ll tell you it was a huge learning experience. Things obviously didn’t go well but he knows now that sometimes you have to hit that wall to know, ‘wow, I really have to make some huge adjustments to play at this level.’”
Interesting. It's kind of a run-on sentence, but it almost reads as if sveum is saying that a week ago Jackson went to Arizona and in one week of hands-on coaching, Sveum fixed him? That would be one of the most amazing and instant "fixes" in history. My guess is that I'm misreading that or it wasn't quite what Sveum really meant. I assume he meant that some of the fixing had already been set in motion earlier, perhaps both during the season and in fall; and that last week Sveum had a chance to see him. Probably some of the huge adjustments had already been well along, and last week was Sveum's chance to see them; plus last week was Sveum's chance to add some more hands-on fixing.
I find several levels of this interesting:
1. The optimism that Jackson really can change, for the better.
2. The general idea that any hitter, after this many years in, can be changed dramatically.
3. The extraordinary self-confidence that Sveum has as a teacher/coach/analyst. A lot of managers want to manage, and are happy to let scouts scout/analyze and minor-league coaches teach. But Sveum had Hoyer call up Jackson because he wanted Jackson himself, to watch, to coach, and to correct. That's a lot of confidence. I like it. I like that a lot.
4. I really like the general confidence that the Cubs seem to have that they can teach and fix young players. It would be really neat to see that starting to happen, frequently and dramatically.
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