I'll bet Lou Gehrig really appreciated the presence of Babe Ruth in that lineup as well.
There's a lot of pressure being the savior of a franchise. Some young folks handle it better than others. And when you disappoint, then even when you bring in veterans to help out, the underlying message is not "we want to give you help" but actually "you aren't cutting it."
When Ackley came up, like Seager, anything he did positive was going to be gravy. His confidence was sky high - he was owning AAA at the time. And in fact, nobody thought we were rushing him. Quite the opposite: people wanted him up a lot sooner, but we waited for as long as we did, for financial reasons. So, here's this super confident kid having a great time with his first go round in the bigs. Then, after a couple months, the daily grind of expectations probably began to wear heavy on him. The league is figuring him out. Meanwhile, Smoak stopped hitting, Wells got beaned, Ichiro was having his first poor season, Figgins was a joke. Yikes! Rookie Dustin Ackley now had to carry the team, and he only really had Carp helping him, and Carp was pretty new at this major league stuff himself.
Griffey spoke a lot about how much Jeffrey Leonard meant to him. That always seemed strange to me - Jeffrey Leonard wasn't exactly the kind of guy you thought of as a mentor. But Leonard was a 33 year old vet and a bigger run producer than Griffey. Leonard carried the load. Griffey could enjoy being Griffey that first season. And notice that Griffey did not point to fellow rookie Greg Briley as the guy who helped him adjust.
Maybe Ackley needed such a mentor that first season. Ryan could act as a defensive mentor, and perhaps that was a key to his success there. But really, everybody in our lineup apart from Ackley and Carp was a mess that season, Ichiro included. Figgins? Are you kidding me? So...that's a lot to ask a rookie, to carry the offense, and it only continued the next season, as Ackley was expected to continue to make up for the disaster that was Chone Figgins, and the continuing disappointment of Ichiro. Ackley didn't get the soft spot starting that made Jaso such a fan favorite. He had to be out there, day after day, having people wonder why he didn't hit this pitch, or that pitch. And yes, guys who hadn't played since age 9 (well, 12 anyway) were breaking him down on the internet, and doing a darn good job of it. Pressure, and draining confidence.
Why do the Mariners have such success with pitchers and not with position players? Could the presence of Felix have almost everything to do with it? Pineda & Fister: neither ever had to be The Man.
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Jon W sez,
If Franklin does roughly what Ackley did in year one at the Major League level do the Mariners attempt to move Ackley off of his "tough" defensive position into something less strenuous? The Mariners don't exactly have a clear cut answer in left field right now. Also, with Guti and Saunders, you can't really count on center field either.
I know that Ackley has much more value at 2nd than he does in Left, but if he can hit .300/.380/.XXX in left (with probably average to above average defense), isn't that a net positive? Especially for this team as it is set up right now?
I guess the M's will not have much of an answer until they see what Franklin does the rest of the year and what Ackley does down in AAA until September.
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To which Gordon repliz,
We'll trade one of them. Ackley is a plus (significantly plus, apparently) second baseman. We might move him to center (he's plenty fast enough to play there, and used to before he blew his arm out), but he's not going to left. And since we just spent 3 years teaching him to be a plus 2B it's very unlikely he'd move. Some other orgs might move him. We're not likely to be one of them.
So if Franklin succeeds and Ackley gets better, one of them has to go.
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For those who just joined us, the baseball myth is that on June 1, 1925, Wally Pipp was the Yankee first baseman. A perennial .300 hitter, Pipp had* a headache that day and Miller Huggins told him to take a day off -- we'll get the kid in there for one day. Actually they got the kid in there for the next 2,000 days...
Here is snopes.com on the incident.
Don't get bogged in arguing the details. The big point is as valid now as it was then. You give a blue-chip rookie a crack at your position, there is ALWAYS the chance that you've seen your last day there. I'll guarantee you that Dustin Ackley is watching Nick Franklin's lines in the box scores.
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The nature of Dustin Ackley's problem is that he's confused. That's all. He came up, made contact with his first 25 swings, and posted a 117 OPS+ in his first year. There is no fundamental reason he can't star in the major leagues. He's very QUICK! His swing is leveraged; he's going to hit for nice power. He can tell a ball from a strike. He's got outstanding hand-eye coordination.
It's not just my opinion. Like Zduriencik said, he's messed up psychologically, needs a re-set. Any scout will tell you that Ackley's a very gifted hitter.
He's confused -- and the confusion won't last forever. End of story.
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When Ackley gets un-confused, I'd say his worst-case* scenario is to be Darin Erstad -- a .300'ish hitter with walks, and limited power, who bops around at OF, 1B, 2B, whatever. But his worst-case is also looking like his most likely case.
If he hits like Erstad, he's a good player at 2B and a dubious player every place else.
My worry has been that, given the arc of Dustin Ackley's career, he's going to provide the M's with zero net value -- Boras is going to get every dollar he's worth, and then some, during his arb years. Because of that, it wouldn't bother me in the least if we deal him to a team that could use a 2B.
That's whether or not Nick Franklin washes out. Brad Miller and Kyle Seager could play 2B if Franklin doesn't. We've got 3B's to take over for Seager, right? Like Stefen Romero? Somebody.
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Geoffy did overstate his case, IMHO, when the Impossible Trifecta was powerflushed out of Safeco. Bill James has been known to overstate his case to make a point.
From where Geoffy sits -- an AL East transplant, remember -- the Seattle Mariners have not acted like they want to win. As he puts it, Chuck Armstrong has been in charge for 1/4 century, and has had no accountability for ever winning anything. The M's lose 90 again, they make nice money again, everybody OK here? Drive home safely. The owner does not care; Seattle Soccer Mom does not care.
That is STILL the situation, as we speak. You care; Zduriencik and Wedge care, but does the city? Does the owner?
You think Geoff is off base with that Grand Theme?
In lieu of actually chasing pennants, the recent Mariners have assured us, hey, we're the Rays, we're the Brew. We've got 24-karat gold talent coming up here. Just you wait until it all hits.
Now the day comes in which we bury the big three, the guys who meant that we didn't have to work hard at pennants like the Angels do. I think we did miss Baker's point there a little bit, don't you?
But I agree with all of you. Objectively speaking, it's not a Death Knell if Ackley, Smoak, Montero wash out. You can make up for that. It is precisely at that point that the blog-o-sphere objects to the op-ed.
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I couldn't believe :- ) that the Mariners took flak for putting Jesus Montero at 1B, first game in Tacoma. Probably the fundamental disconnect here is that the blog-o-sphere has capped Montero's bat at (say) Billy Butler levels. Jack Zduriencik does not agree.
Cheers,
Dr. D