Jacob Jackson:
Starting with Jacob Jackson, we begin discussion of those Hall of Famers who first established themselves in the second decade of the league's history. Jackson broke in with Pittsburgh at the tail end of their first dynasty. In fact, his rookie season(2014) was the year that the Pirates had their run of six consecutive championships come to an end against Atlanta. Jackson had an excellent rookie season, going 12-3 with a 2.73 ERA in 23 starts. After that, Jackson was relatively mediocre for a couple of seasons. He showed good stuff, but struggled to harness it. He was a key contributor to the Pirates' 2015 championship team, though.
In 2019, Jackson had his breakthrough season, going 23-2 with a 2.71 ERA. Pittsburgh cruised to another World Series victory, and Jackson won the Cy Young award. Jackson remained one of the top pitchers in the National League for almost a decade after that, and helped Pittsburgh to back to back championships in 2022 and 2023. Strangely, his best postseason performance came in a year that the Pirates did
not win the World Series. In 2020, Jackson was unscored upon in two postseason starts- 13 innings- but received two no-decisions and the Pirates lost in 7 games in the NLCS that year to Portland. Game 5 was particularly galling. With the series tied at two games apiece, Jackson took the mound. Backed by a solo homerun from SS Joseph Allaire in the second inning and a three run blast by left-fielder Abdiel Llorent in the third inning, the Pirates were firmly in control at 4-0. Jackson left the game having thrown 6 scoreless innings, with 8 strikeouts, and the 4 run lead intact. Pittsburgh added a 5th run in the seventh inning, but Jackson's replacement, relief pitcher Douglas McCourt, immediately imploded, and gave up 4 runs over the next two innings. Pittsburgh's closer, Craig Posada, then blew the lead in the ninth inning. In the top of the 13th inning, the Pirates retook the lead, only to blow it and lose in the bottom of the 13th.
When he retired, Jackson's name was prominent in many categories of the career leaderboard. He ranked 6th in ERA, 3rd in Wins, and 4th in Strikeouts. Today, Jackson is tied for 21st all time in Wins and 27th in Strikeouts. He was still in the top 25 of ERA as recently as 2072.
Jackson's career stats:
Code:
Career Pitching Stats
Year G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K CG SHO Teams
2014 23 23 12 3 0 2.73 135.1 94 45 41 45 128 0 0 PIT
2015 32 32 19 6 0 3.80 220.1 179 100 93 71 207 1 0 PIT
2016 33 33 16 10 0 4.42 216.0 193 112 106 95 187 3 0 PIT
2017 32 32 16 11 0 4.14 191.1 169 93 88 80 172 1 1 PIT
2018 32 32 17 6 0 4.08 194.1 175 95 88 72 181 0 0 PIT,NL
2019 32 32 23 2 0 2.71 216.0 165 69 65 69 195 1 0 PIT,NL
2020 32 32 17 5 0 3.23 203.2 166 77 73 69 223 2 1 PIT,NL
2021 32 32 15 9 0 2.87 210.0 160 79 67 74 208 0 0 PIT,NL
2022 33 33 20 5 0 3.36 211.2 205 88 79 66 218 0 0 PIT,NL
2023 30 30 18 3 0 3.12 178.2 137 69 62 69 181 1 0 PIT
2024 33 33 16 5 0 3.01 194.2 155 75 65 69 224 0 0 PIT
2025 33 33 19 4 0 2.63 208.2 171 66 61 62 237 2 2 PIT,NL
2026 32 32 18 3 0 2.72 201.2 165 65 61 58 243 2 2 PIT,NL
2027 31 31 14 8 0 3.76 189.0 182 84 79 72 228 0 0 PIT,NL
2028 32 32 12 11 0 4.78 184.2 170 106 98 71 174 1 0 PIT
2029 12 8 3 1 0 5.37 52.0 51 32 31 28 44 0 0 PIT
Total 484 480 255 92 0 3.46 3008.0 2537 1255 1157 1070 3050 14 6
Career Minor League Pitching Stats
Year G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K CG SHO
2009, A 24 24 6 12 0 4.68 152.0 163 84 79 45 113 1 0
2010, A 25 25 12 4 0 3.23 173.0 170 62 62 37 167 1 1
2011, A 26 26 14 9 0 2.27 174.1 147 47 44 30 256 0 0
2012, A 14 14 5 4 0 2.95 85.1 68 29 28 17 155 0 0
2012, AA 10 10 6 2 0 2.86 56.2 48 19 18 12 87 0 0
2013, AA 5 5 0 2 0 4.61 27.1 31 14 14 9 40 0 0
2013, AAA 14 14 4 3 0 3.28 85.0 74 36 31 18 120 0 0
2014, AAA 8 8 5 1 0 1.88 48.0 36 10 10 22 72 0 0
2030, AAA 11 11 6 3 0 3.96 63.2 58 29 28 24 69 0 0
Career Postseason Pitching Stats
Year G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K CG SHO
2014 2 2 1 1 0 4.30 14.2 13 7 7 5 12 0 0
2015 3 3 2 1 0 3.86 21.0 20 10 9 10 15 1 0
2017 3 3 1 1 0 2.84 19.0 17 7 6 9 11 0 0
2018 4 4 0 2 0 4.95 20.0 19 14 11 11 16 0 0
2019 3 3 1 0 0 4.91 18.1 18 10 10 6 22 0 0
2020 2 2 0 0 0 0.00 13.0 9 0 0 2 19 0 0
2021 3 3 1 0 0 6.23 17.1 18 12 12 10 19 0 0
2022 3 3 1 1 0 2.65 17.0 20 5 5 7 16 0 0
2023 4 4 1 0 0 2.11 21.1 15 7 5 14 27 0 0
2024 2 2 0 1 0 6.55 11.0 15 8 8 2 12 0 0
2025 3 3 2 1 0 3.93 18.1 17 8 8 6 27 0 0
2026 1 1 0 0 0 7.72 4.2 7 4 4 5 8 0 0
2027 2 2 0 1 0 8.59 7.1 11 8 7 6 5 0 0
2028 1 1 0 0 0 4.26 6.1 6 3 3 4 3 0 0
Total 36 36 10 9 0 4.08 209.1 205 103 95 97 212 1 0
Career Batting Stats
Year G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Teams
2014 23 46 6 1 1 0 4 4 3 19 0 0 .130 .184 .196 .379 PIT
2015 32 81 10 4 0 0 8 5 3 38 0 0 .123 .155 .173 .328 PIT
2016 33 72 3 0 0 0 1 3 5 28 0 0 .042 .104 .042 .146 PIT
2017 32 69 5 1 0 0 3 6 4 27 0 0 .072 .123 .087 .210 PIT
2018 32 64 5 3 0 0 5 5 3 26 0 0 .078 .119 .125 .244 PIT,NL
2019 32 80 11 6 0 2 8 8 2 33 0 0 .138 .159 .287 .446 PIT,NL
2020 32 72 8 5 0 0 9 4 1 29 0 0 .111 .123 .181 .304 PIT,NL
2021 32 75 8 4 0 0 2 3 3 35 0 0 .107 .141 .160 .301 PIT,NL
2022 33 70 7 3 0 0 5 3 4 32 0 0 .100 .149 .143 .292 PIT,NL
2023 30 63 7 3 0 0 3 5 5 24 0 0 .111 .176 .159 .335 PIT
2024 33 64 5 1 0 0 1 4 4 28 0 0 .078 .132 .094 .226 PIT
2025 33 73 2 0 0 0 0 5 4 32 0 0 .027 .078 .027 .105 PIT,NL
2026 32 67 10 5 0 0 5 9 7 25 1 0 .149 .230 .224 .454 PIT,NL
2027 31 64 6 0 0 0 4 5 2 31 0 0 .094 .121 .094 .215 PIT,NL
2028 32 59 10 4 0 1 2 6 1 21 0 0 .169 .183 .288 .471 PIT
2029 12 19 3 0 0 0 0 3 1 7 0 0 .158 .200 .158 .358 PIT
Total 484 1038 106 40 1 3 60 78 52 435 1 0 .102 .145 .151 .296
Player History
Drafted in 1st round, 16th overall pick, by Memphis in 2009...
Traded from Memphis to Pittsburgh on 6/27/2012 (Going to MEM: P M. Rosenberger. Going to PIT: P J. Jackson, P M. Frey)...
Injured on 7/6/2013 with a Tight Shoulder, out for 5 days...
Had first career hit (triple) on 5/23/2014, off Alva Gelinas (HAR)...
Earned first career win on 5/29/2014...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 8/1/2014, going 4-1, 1.95...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/1/2014, winning 2 games with a 0.75 ERA...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2015...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 6/1/2018, going 5-0, 2.03...
Was selected to the 2018 Allstar game...
Hit first career homerun on 4/7/2019, off Juan Zaragoza (ROC)...
Was selected to the 2019 Allstar game...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2019...
Won Cy Young Award in 2019, going 23-2, 2.71 ERA...
Was selected to the 2020 Allstar game...
Was selected to the 2021 Allstar game...
Was selected to the 2022 Allstar game...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2022...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2023...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 8/1/2024, going 3-0, 1.35...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/11/2024, winning 2 games with a 1.50 ERA...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 6/1/2025, going 4-0, 1.56...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 7/1/2025, going 4-1, 1.47...
Was selected to the 2025 Allstar game...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 6/1/2026, going 4-0, 1.05...
Was selected to the 2026 Allstar game...
Was selected to the 2027 Allstar game...
Injured on 8/28/2029 with a Pulled Rotator Cuff Muscle, out for 5-6 weeks...
Signed as a free agent by Washington on 3/1/2030 to a minor league contract.
Released by Washington on 6/9/2030...
Retired and inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2031.
Pitching Leader Boards Appearances
ERA
2019 - 2.71 - 3rd
2020 - 3.23 - 3rd
2021 - 2.87 - 3rd
2022 - 3.36 - 7th
2023 - 3.12 - 4th
2024 - 3.01 - 3rd
2025 - 2.63 - 1st
2026 - 2.72 - 2nd
2027 - 3.76 - 6th
WHIP
2015 - 1.13 - 6th
2019 - 1.08 - 3rd
2020 - 1.15 - 7th
2021 - 1.11 - 6th
2023 - 1.15 - 6th
2024 - 1.15 - 9th
2025 - 1.12 - 4th
2026 - 1.11 - 9th
Wins
2015 - 19 - 4th
2018 - 17 - 7th
2019 - 23 - 1st
2020 - 17 - 7th
2021 - 15 - 10th
2022 - 20 - 4th
2023 - 18 - 1st
2024 - 16 - 7th
2025 - 19 - 2nd
2026 - 18 - 5th
K's
2018 - 181 - 8th
2019 - 195 - 6th
2020 - 223 - 3rd
2021 - 208 - 10th
2022 - 218 - 4th
2023 - 181 - 10th
2024 - 224 - 4th
2025 - 237 - 2nd
2026 - 243 - 3rd
2027 - 228 - 3rd
BB
2016 - 95 - 10th
SHO
2025 - 2 - 9th