News
Cubs agree to terms with top Draft pick
Jackson the No. 2-ranked athlete among collegiate players
By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com
06/23/09 5:39 PM ET
DETROIT -- The Cubs agreed to terms Tuesday with first-round Draft pick Brett Jackson. He will join the Class A Boise team once he passes a physical.Jackson, an outfielder from the University of California, Berkeley, was the 31st player taken overall. He was ranked as the second-best overall athlete among all available college players in the 2009 Draft class by Baseball America and named to the 2009 All-Pac 10 team after hitting .321 with eight homers, 17 doubles and 41 RBIs his junior season.
A left-handed hitter, Jackson opened the season with a career-high 18-game hitting streak, batting .408 with eight doubles, a triple, four home runs and 14 RBIs over the streak. He turned in a career-best effort May 12 against Sacramento State, going 4-for-6 with a grand slam, a three-run triple and an RBI single to total eight RBIs.
Overall, his 17 doubles tied for sixth in the Pac-10, his six triples ranked second, his 123 total bases ranked seventh and his 70 hits ranked eighth.
In three seasons at Berkeley, Jackson batted .303 with 91 runs scored, 25 doubles, 11 triples, 12 home runs and 85 RBIs in 152 games.
The Cubs are expected to announce additional signings of their Draft picks later this week. Their second-round pick, DJ LeMahieu, had a big game on Monday for LSU in the College World Series. He hit a home run in the seventh, a two-run game-tying double with two outs in the ninth, and scored the winning run in the 13th against top-ranked Texas in Game 1 of the Championship Series.
Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
