Through his professional career, Edwin Jackson has walked four batters per nine innings: 3.94 in the minors, 4.24 in the majors. What would seem to be the defining aspect of his brief 2004 stint in Los Angeles, his wildness, was nothing unusual for him. What was unusual was how he got hit: 31 hits allowed in 25 innings, the first time on any level he had allowed more hits than innings pitched.

Today, albeit in an exhibition, Jackson had a typical Jackson outing. He pitched 3 1/3 hitless innings, walking four. He more or less went halfsies on this key game from the 2003 season, in which he went six innings, allowing two hits and walking eight. He did not allow a run in either game.

Any kind of extreme wildness in a Dodger pitcher, of course, eventually makes one muse upon the ethereal, ephemeral, all-too theatrical Kazuhisa Ishii. Watching any start by Ishii requires nerves of Remington Steele.

How has Ishii survived? You can speculate on how lucky he has been in posting a winning record in the United States, but for whatever reason, here you have a fellow who not only has never allowed more hits than innings pitched in a season, but also goes through long stretches in which the hits he does allow have been disproportionately singles.

On one level, Jackson takes the Ishii method a step further. Jackson is wild, but he has pitched 366 innings in professional baseball and allowed 15 home runs. That includes the majors; that includes Las Vegas. By comparison, Ishii allowed 21 home runs last season alone. And need I remind you that in 2004, Hideo Nomo allowed 19 home runs in a mere 84 innings.

The reason to truly fear for Ishii's future is that not only has his won-lost record, and for that matter his ERA, been the product of a tightrope walk rather than true effectiveness, but now Ishii is facing a decline in strikeouts: from 8.6 per nine innings in 2003 to 5.2 in 2004. Unless that slide is an anomaly, a reckoning approaches.

With Jackson, the future seems brighter. Rising to AAA from AA, and again to the majors from AAA, Jackson's strikeout rates have diminished - down to 6.7 in 2004. And yet, that figure remains solid. We simply await learning whether Jackson has reached rock bottom in strikeouts. If his strikeout reduction is a product of physical or mechanical problems, if it's a matter of adjustment to pitching at higher levels, then great - we look forward to the fix. If six Ks a game is his new reality, that's livable. Will he go down further - that's the question. Which was the anomaly - the strikeout decline or the brief increase in hits allowed? Jackson is only 21 after all, for all the promise and worry that comes with that age.

Jackson and Ishii are similar pitchers - but with Jackson there is just so much more uncertainty, and in turn so much more hope.

Of course, up to now, when you think of Jackson, you would think of Randy Johnson before you think of Ishii. Johnson was Jackson's opponent in Jackson's classic major league debut (in which Jackson walked none). Johnson was also a pitcher who had to conquer his wildness to make it. And he didn't really reign it in until his 30th birthday approached - he didn't even appear in a major league game until he was 25.

Postscript:

Randy Johnson was born September 10, 1963.

Kazuhisa Ishii was born September 9, 1973.

Edwin Jackson was born September 9, 1983.

Oh, and yes, Scott Erickson is having a nice March. He was born in June, though, so he doesn't count.