Bo Jackson | Baseball Prospectus

Biographical

Bo Jackson LFRoyals

Royals Player Cards | Royals Team Audit | Royals Depth Chart

Career Summary

Years	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	TAv	WARP
8	2626	.250	.309	.474	.279	12

Birth Date	11-30-1962
Height	6' 1"
Weight	225 lbs

Bats	R
Throws	R

WARP Summary

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YEAR	TEAM	AGE	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	TB	BB	SO	HBP	SF	SH	RBI	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	TAv	VORP	FRAA	WARP
1986	KCA	23	25	91	82	9	17	2	1	2	27	7	34	2	0	0	9	3	1	.207	.286	.329	.223	-2.8	-2.2	-0.5
1987	KCA	24	116	434	396	46	93	17	2	22	180	30	158	5	2	1	53	10	4	.235	.296	.455	.259	15.0	-4.9	1.0
1988	KCA	25	124	468	439	63	108	16	4	25	207	25	146	1	2	1	68	27	6	.246	.287	.472	.269	17.4	2.2	2.1
1989	KCA	26	135	561	515	86	132	15	6	32	255	39	172	3	4	0	105	26	9	.256	.310	.495	.292	31.4	0.9	3.5
1990	KCA	27	111	456	405	74	110	16	1	28	212	44	128	2	5	0	78	15	9	.272	.342	.523	.313	40.5	1.6	4.5
1991	CHA	28	23	84	71	8	16	4	0	3	29	12	25	0	1	0	14	0	1	.225	.333	.408	.277	1.4	0.0	0.1
1993	CHA	30	85	308	284	32	66	9	0	16	123	23	106	0	1	0	45	0	2	.232	.289	.433	.253	0.6	0.9	0.2
1994	CAL	31	75	224	201	23	56	7	0	13	102	20	72	1	2	0	43	1	0	.279	.344	.507	.295	11.7	-0.8	1.1
Career			694	2626	2393	341	598	86	14	141	1135	200	841	14	17	2	415	82	32	.250	.309	.474	.279	115.2	-2.2	12.0

Advanced

'opp' stats - quality of opponents faced - have been moved and are available only as OPP_QUAL in the Statistics reports now.

YEAR	Team	Lg	G	PA	TAv	oppAVG	oppOBP	oppSLG	oppTAv	BABIP	BPF	BRAA	repLVL	POS_ADJ	FRAA	BRR	BVORP	BWARP	VORP	WARP
1986	KCA	MLB	25	91	.223	.255	.326	.403	.000	.326	97	-3.4	2.5	-0.9	-2.2	-0.4	-2.8	-0.5	-2.8	-0.5
1986	MEM	AA	53	212	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	.458			0.0		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
1987	KCA	MLB	116	434	.259	.259	.324	.420	.000	.326	99	-0.5	12.8	-2.4	-4.9	3.9	15.0	1.0	15.0	1.0
1988	KCA	MLB	124	468	.269	.258	.316	.390	.000	.307	102	4.2	12.2	-3	2.2	2.2	17.4	2.1	17.4	2.1
1989	KCA	MLB	135	561	.292	.257	.318	.377	.000	.317	98	17.4	14.6	-4.6	0.9	3.5	31.4	3.5	31.4	3.5
1990	KCA	MLB	111	456	.313	.254	.319	.381	.000	.323	100	24	12.2	-1	1.6	2.9	40.5	4.5	40.5	4.5
1991	CHA	MLB	23	84	.277	.248	.321	.375	.000	.295	101	1.4	2.3	-1.4	0.0	-0.9	1.4	0.1	1.4	0.1
1991	SAR	A+	2	7	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	.333			0.0		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
1991	BIR	AA	4	17	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	.364			0.0		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
1993	CHA	MLB	85	308	.253	.262	.327	.402	.000	.307	98	-2.4	8.8	-3.9	0.9	-5.1	0.6	0.2	0.6	0.2
1994	CAL	MLB	75	224	.295	.268	.334	.427	.000	.364	98	8.8	6.8	-1.9	-0.8	-1.4	11.7	1.1	11.7	1.1
Career		MLB		2626	.279	.258	.322	.395	.261	.320	99	49.5	72.2	-19.1	-2.2	4.6	115.2	12.0	115.2	12.0

Statistics For All Levels

Year	Team	Lg	PA	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	ISO	TAv	VORP	FRAA	WARP
1986	MEM	AA	212	30	51	9	3	7	25	22	81	3	6	.277	.370	.473	.196	.000	0.0	0.0	0.0
1986	KCA	MLB	91	9	17	2	1	2	9	7	34	3	1	.207	.286	.329	.122	.223	-2.8	-2.2	-0.5
1987	KCA	MLB	434	46	93	17	2	22	53	30	158	10	4	.235	.296	.455	.220	.259	15.0	-4.9	1.0
1988	KCA	MLB	468	63	108	16	4	25	68	25	146	27	6	.246	.287	.472	.226	.269	17.4	2.2	2.1
1989	KCA	MLB	561	86	132	15	6	32	105	39	172	26	9	.256	.310	.495	.239	.292	31.4	0.9	3.5
1990	KCA	MLB	456	74	110	16	1	28	78	44	128	15	9	.272	.342	.523	.252	.313	40.5	1.6	4.5
1991	SAR	A+	7	1	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.000	.000	0.0	0.0	0.0
1991	BIR	AA	17	2	4	0	0	0	0	4	2	1	2	.308	.471	.308	.000	.000	0.0	0.0	0.0
1991	CHA	MLB	84	8	16	4	0	3	14	12	25	0	1	.225	.333	.408	.183	.277	1.4	0.0	0.1
1993	CHA	MLB	308	32	66	9	0	16	45	23	106	0	2	.232	.289	.433	.201	.253	0.6	0.9	0.2
1994	CAL	MLB	224	23	56	7	0	13	43	20	72	1	0	.279	.344	.507	.229	.295	11.7	-0.8	1.1

Injury History beta

Date On	Date Off	Transaction	Days	Games	Side	Body Part	Injury	Severity	Surgery Date	Reaggravation

Compensation

Year	Team	Salary

Service Time	Agent	Contract Status

Details

BP Annual Player Comments

No BP Book Comments have been found for this player.

BP Articles

Bo Jackson is referenced in the following articles.

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Title	Author	Date
Skewed Left: Diamond Mining	Zachary Levine	2013-05-09
Punk Hits: A Love (Hate) Letter From Arizona	Ian Miller	2013-02-27
Overthinking It: The Best of Baseball's New Old Videos	Ben Lindbergh	2013-02-25
Collateral Damage: A Pain in the Hip	Stephani Bee	2013-01-23
Collateral Damage: A Pain in the Hip	Corey Dawkins	2013-01-23
The Lineup Card: 10 Memories of Hall of Fame Candidates	Baseball Prospectus	2013-01-09
Punk Hits: A Cespedes for the Rest of Us	Ian Miller	2012-10-10
BP Unfiltered: Russell Branyan, Jack Cust, and a TTO Dream Come True	Ben Lindbergh	2012-06-12
The Platoon Advantage: Why You Should Watch the Non-Contenders	Jason Wojciechowski	2012-03-14
The Lineup Card: 11 Times Small Sample Sizes Steered Us Wrong	Baseball Prospectus	2012-02-07
Future Shock: Who Would You Rather?	Kevin Goldstein	2012-02-01
Western Front: A Haphazard History of Halos at the Hot Corner	Geoff Young	2012-01-17
Baseball ProGUESTus: The Advantage of Low Expectations	M.J. Lloyd	2012-01-17
Prospectus Hit and Run: The Class of 2012: The Catch-All	Jay Jaffe	2012-01-04
The Lineup Card: 9 Memories of Frank Viola	Baseball Prospectus	2011-12-14
Tater Trot Tracker: Trot Times for July 19	Larry Granillo	2011-07-20
Collateral Damage: First Baseman, Heal Thyself	Ben Lindbergh	2011-06-24
Collateral Damage: First Baseman, Heal Thyself	Corey Dawkins	2011-06-24
The BP Broadside: Three-H: Haren, Hamilton, and Heliciano	Steven Goldman	2011-04-14
Wezen-Ball: Baseball When You're 10	Larry Granillo	2011-04-12
Tater Trot Tracker: Trot Times for March 31	Larry Granillo	2011-04-01
Tater Trot Tracker: Williams, Appling, Oh and Bo	Larry Granillo	2011-03-31
The BP Wayback Machine: The Doctor is...Gone	Rany Jazayerli	2011-03-10
Purpose Pitches: Oscar Gambles	Christina Kahrl	2011-02-28
BP Podcast: Episode 38: That's Pretty Advanced Meatballs	Kevin Goldstein	2011-02-16
Contractual Matters: Kind of a Big Deal	Jeff Euston	2010-09-20
The Unappreciated Slugger: Why Jim Thome Gets Overlooked	Brandon Warne	2010-09-08
On the Beat: In Need of Heavenly Hitting	John Perrotto	2010-07-13
All-Star Discontents: Less Than Zero, or More Than Some?	Christina Kahrl	2010-07-09
You Could Look It Up: Is Losing This Pick Really Necessary?	Steven Goldman	2010-06-08
Prospectus Hit and Run: The Big Hurt	Jay Jaffe	2010-02-16
Future Shock: Phillies Top 11 Prospects	Kevin Goldstein	2008-12-22
Future Shock: Mock Draft 2008	Kevin Goldstein	2008-06-04
Future Shock: Monday Ten Pack	Kevin Goldstein	2008-06-02
You Could Look It Up: Offensive Offenders	Steven Goldman	2008-05-13
Team Health Reports: Chicago White Sox	Will Carroll	2008-02-18
Doctoring The Numbers: Diving into Data	Rany Jazayerli	2008-01-13
Schrodinger's Bat: Wily Mo Redux	Dan Fox	2007-09-06
Prospectus Toolbox: Non-Contact Part III	Derek Jacques	2007-08-14
Under The Knife: Chaps	Will Carroll	2007-07-16
Under The Knife: Midseason Pause	Will Carroll	2007-07-09
Under The Knife: Athleticism	Will Carroll	2007-05-08
Transaction of the Day: Major Moves	Christina Kahrl	2007-05-02
Under The Knife: Never a Dull Moment	Will Carroll	2007-04-30
Prospectus Q&A: Tim Wilken	David Laurila	2007-04-15
Under The Knife: The Sixth Season	Will Carroll	2007-03-12
Positional Health Reports: Closers	Will Carroll	2007-03-05
Prospectus Matchups: Early Clincher	Jim Baker	2006-06-27
Under The Knife: In the Cards	Will Carroll	2006-06-26
Prospectus Matchups: Heisman vs. Golden Spikes	Jim Baker	2005-12-09
Prospectus Today: My Guys	Joe Sheehan	2005-05-03
Prospectus Today: Looking Mournfully at the Calendar...	Joe Sheehan	2005-02-04
Boone's Law: What Are the Yankees' Options?	Andrew Baharlias	2004-01-27
Under The Knife: Bad News in Oakland	Will Carroll	2003-08-25
Under The Knife: Craving Sleep	Will Carroll	2003-06-06
Under The Knife: Back Again	Will Carroll	2003-05-27
Team Health Reports: Team Health Report: Chicago White Sox	Will Carroll	2003-01-30
Rany On The Royals: Cutting Bait	Rany Jazayerli	2002-03-12
Doctoring the Numbers: The Doctor is...Gone.	Rany Jazayerli	2000-08-15

BP Chats

Date	Question	Answer
2011-04-18 13:00:00	Tom Milone a young Jamie Moyer? Is that something you'd project for any pitcher? (Jim from Washington)	No no no and a thousand times no. KG edict #32192 Do not, EVER EVER EVER comp a player to Jamie Moyer. There are 20,000 lefties with Jamie Moyer's stuff on a pure scouting level, and one Jamie Moyer. Don't do it. No Maddux comps, and no Bo Jackson comps either. (Kevin Goldstein)
2011-04-18 13:00:00	Bubba Starling the next Bo Jackson? (El Chompiras from Chopiralandia)	What did I just tell you people? (Kevin Goldstein)
2011-04-18 13:00:00	Can you compare Greg Maddux to Jamie Moyer? (Jeff from Eh...)	Bo Jackson has better tools. (Kevin Goldstein)
2010-06-07 18:30:00	Will the 2005 draft ever be topped??? It was topped before it ever happened, in 1985. I just wrote this for tomorrow morning's draft piece: . The first round included, in order of selection, B.J. Surhoff, Will Clark, Bobby Witt, Barry Larkin, Barry Bonds, Pete Incaviglia, Walt Weiss, Brian McRae, Joe Magrane, Gregg Jeffries, Rafael Palmeiro, and Joey Cora, as well as Cameron Drew, who put up outstanding numbers in the minors until a knee injury ended his career at 24, while the second round held Bruce Ruffin, Mike Schooler, and Randy Johnson (John Smoltz was hiding down in round 22). And Bo Jackson too (a flyer in rd 20)! (PBSteve from Beautiful New Jersey)	See? Steven Goldman knows all. (Kevin Goldstein)
2009-10-20 14:00:00	Before Joba "Neville" Chamberlain, who was the player with the highest ratio of hype to accomplishment? I nominate Bo Jackson. Your thoughts? (oira61 from San Francisco)	24 years old, 280 innings, 3.60 ERA, K per innings, better than 2/1 K/BB. At baseball-age 23, he was more or less a league-average starter in short innings while being mishandled. Oh, could everyone stop saying that Chamberlain was "converted" to starting? HE WAS ALWAYS A STARTER. (Joe Sheehan)
2009-10-09 13:30:00	Fun subjective question: Based on what you've seen and older scouts you know, who are the five most physically talented prospects of the past 25-30 years? Griffey, A-Rod, Bo Jackson, Eric Davis, Strawberry? (Jonathan from New York)	I love this question, but the discussion would take . . . years. Justin Upton comes to mind for recent guys, Dave Winfield if we can go back a few more years. (Kevin Goldstein)
2009-09-10 13:00:00	Speaking of independent leagues, Baseball America keeps featuring this one guy (his name escapes me) with a hip replacement who can really pitch, and who keeps getting signed by organized clubs, but who never passes the physical on account of liability issues. Considering that ballplayers regularly have reconstructive surgery on all sorts of joints, is this kind of thing a reasonable concern? (Christopher from Nashville)	Bo Jackson. (Will Carroll)
2009-04-10 16:30:00	Can Joey Votto make the All-Star team this year or is first base in the NL too stacked? (Brandon from Charleston)	I have to admit a sincerely-held disinterest in the All-Star Game as an event; I haven't watched a full frame of any ASG since Bo Jackson took Rick Reuschel deep. The Reds don't have a lot of easy candidates for this year's manager to choose from, but Votto's one of them. (Christina Kahrl)
2008-11-14 13:00:00	Take Brandon's question and substitute Bo Jackson for Eric Davis. (Mike K from Athens, GA)	It's a somewhat harder question because Bo knew a lot of things, but he didn't know the strike zone--though he was clearly getting to know it better at the point that it all fell apart. With a normal career arc, I suspect that he would have suffered a decline in bat speed somewhere that would have really curtailed his KILL THE BALL approach and left him without much to fall back on, but that's just speculation. What I'm trying to say is I don't think it would have been a long career either way, but obviously there would have been around three more years in the 1989-1990 zone. Would have been fun. He was always entertaining, even when striking out. (Steven Goldman)
2008-07-24 13:00:00	Hi CK. Been thinking about this since the AS game - trying to come up with a way to not risk players' health through multi-extra inning AS games. Why not, if its tied after nine, from then on, start each half inning with a runner on second (the last batter from the previous inning)? With a run expectancy of over 60% (I think), it would seem to increade the likelyhood of an entertaining game resolution in relatively short order. What do you think? [I also think they should have a re-entry rule for position player starters.] (jimbeau from Left Coast)	I'm probably the last person to ask about the All-Star Game. I don't think I've watched a complete inning of that corporate junket and baseball-flavored entertainment since Rick Reuschel got rocked by Bo Jackson. I like my baseball to count, using teams that get designed and employed to win, not ones that get run like a Little League squad. I'd leave it an exhibition, and end the game automatically after 12 innings if nobody's won it by then; it will have fulfilled its purpose as an exhibition and junket in that amount of time. In the words of one neo-realist philosopher, "I pity the foo' who takes the All-Star Game seriously." (Christina Kahrl)
2008-07-22 13:00:00	Hi, Kevin. Thanks for the chat. You mentioned recently that you tend to grade everything in your life on the 20--80 scale and that Bo Jackson was one of the few prospects to have had three 80-rated tools, so what's the Bo Jackson of albums? (Pick your own tools, such as sheer quality, impact, uniqueness, longevity, &c.) (DaveKavanagh from Dublin, Ireland)	80 Albums, wow. The Clash - Sandanista. Big Black -- Songs About ***. The Pixies -- Surferosa. I'm sure there are many, many more. Those just came to mind. (Kevin Goldstein)**
2008-06-04 16:00:00	KG, do you recall a guy in previous drafts like a Anthony Hewitt that had some many people split? If so, who was it and how have they turned out? (Chris from Harrisonburg, VA)	Bo Jackson? (Kevin Goldstein)
2008-03-03 13:00:00	Everyone thinks White Noise is better. But it wasn't grabbing for the brass ring of being the "Great American Novel" to nearly the same extent. There's a certain majesty in Underworld's ambition that gets it noticed. Anyway, between Pafko at the Wall, and End Zone, would say Bo Jackson is a good comp for Delillo as a 2-sport star? (J-Boogie from Cambridge)	Sure. Am I a horrible person for saying that among post-modern fiction, I might prefer Robert Coover? And I'm not even a huge fan of his baseball book -- it's no Gerald's Party for example. (Kevin Goldstein)

BP Roundtables

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