=== Taking His OBP In a New Direction, Dept. ===

Probably there are a few amigos here who hadn't noticed that Dustin Ackley has a 10-game hitting streak on.  This coincides with his batting leadoff, from which slot he has batted .304/.396/.457 this season.  

Here is a TexasLeaguers.com scatterchart for Ackley during this 10-game hitting streak:

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Outside the leadoff spot, Ackley has hit .221/.275/.305 this season.  Here is the 2012 scatterchart prior to May 3; dig the blizzard of topped 4-3 groundouts ...

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Go back and check the May 3 - 14 scatterchart and you'll see confirmation of what the CF camera has told you during those two weeks. Ackley's torso is no longer lunging at the RF fence like it was in April.  He's keeping his head and front shoulder back, letting the pitch come to him.  He still lets the bat fly, still has that awesome wrist hinge, but now he's spraying line shots to random vectors all over the ballpark.  If we hadn't told you, you might have thought that first chart was from a RH hitter, no?

He gets all kinds of velocity off the bat this way.  He hit an HR the other way in Yankee; he hit a frozen rope base-hit off Jon Lester on Monday; he hit a 400+ warning track out off Lester later in that same game.

The day will come when Dustin Ackley knows what's coming 2-0 and 3-1, and he'll be able to scatter the popcorn vendors in the RF cheaps.  But for right now, while he's learning, taking the ball up the middle and the other way is making him an instant star.

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By the way, the strike zone stats for Ackley are vunderbar:

Outside-zone swing percentage:  24% for Ackley, 29% for the league.  Remember, Ackley is supposed to be in the struggling-rookie stage, like Smoak and 90% of other guys who haven't played 162 games yet.

Contact percentage:  89% for Ackley, 80% for the league.  Ackley's in the top 25 in the majors, right there with Mauer and Pedroia and Kinsler.

Swing percentage, period:  38% for Ackley, 45% for the league.  Tell me:  what do you get, if you cross [a hitter who never swings] with [a hitter who never misses when he does swing]?

You get John Olerud, that's what you get.  Nowadays Ian Kinsler is kind of close to Olerud that way.  And Ackley.

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=== Proverbial 'Calling the evil good and the good evil," Dept. ===

Ackley's swing percentage period is verrrrry low, and when he swings he puts it in play.  This is not a "passive" hitting approach.  It is a John Olerud plate profile.  

There was a time when Ichiro and John Olerud pretty much ran 1-2 in the American League in contact percentage, while being complete opposites in number of strikes taken... it made for lots of interesting stats variations comparing the two.  John Olerud made contact just as well as Ichiro, but Olerud stalked pitches.

John Olerud was willing to take strike three his entire career, which is part of the reason that he finished it with a .398 OBP.  He was willing to accept the humiliation of a called strike three, in return for the thankless reward of drawing walks and getting on base .400 percent of the time.  Ackley is already averaging 70 walks per 162 games, and it's going to go north from here.

Let's don't get on Dustin Ackley for an ego-less attitude toward called strike three.  My kingdom for nine hitters who would take strike three.  I loved, loved, loved watching John Olerud take a questionable strike, pause a second, and take a hyper-dignified, hyper-intelligent walk back to the dugout.  

The anti-Terrell Owens.  It's a beautiful thing when a ballplayer cares so much about the final score, that it obliterates his view of his own ego.

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Anyway: cutting his swing down just that little extra bit of vicious has cut out those 4-3 grounders, and Ackley is on a .300/.400/.450 roll right now.

Ever wonder what John Olerud's batting average might have been, if he'd been fast?!  :- )  Here, study his b-ref.com player card and see if those pre-age-24 seasons don't remind you of somebody.  Came the day that everything jelled, and Olerud started making runs at .400 batting averages.

Just another victory for batting order obsession,

Dr D