Piecoro: Diamondbacks’ Conor Jackson happy to be back on field

Jackson’s lost season seemed to put his value in context. What he does well was missed so much that no one seems to be talking anymore about what he can’t do.

That is, his ability to get on base was clearly lacking from a lineup that had a good number of home-run threats.

“I think nowadays a lot of people like to see the home run, and we have guys on our team that can do that,” he said. “But the good teams have the balance of everything. Like the Angels - they have a lot of guys who can get on base.”

To that end, Jackson thinks his time in the Dominican Republic was doubly beneficial. Aside from actually getting back to playing, he said he worked hard on staying within himself as a hitter.

“The balls we used were 18 pounds, like water-logged balls,” he said. “We were playing on fields with 450-foot fences. It was impossible to hit a home run.”

So he focused his batting-practice sessions on hitting line drives up the middle, line drives the other way - “just line drives,” he said. He didn’t even think about trying to pull the ball.

“That’s the player I am right there,” he said.

Thanks to hl.