Dr. D was a middle infielder himself, a lousy one compared to Dustin Ackley or even TopCat, but I know what the ball looks like out there. And what great middle infielders look like.
The fundamental act of fielding a hot-shot one-hopper off a MOTO hitter's bat is the critical skill here. The rest is conversation.
You simply wouldn't believe what that ball looks like, hit by an exceptionally strong man, as it whistles by (or at) you. Not many people have the simple reflexes to play major league infield. (I've never seen an ballplayer with quicker hands than Adrian Beltre; he plays in, and snags 97 mph one-hoppers calmly, with enjoyment. I'd hate to box him.)
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Ackley played 1B and his college coach loves Ackely's soft hands.
Yes, any plus defensive 1B could play around the diamond if he had the lateral quickness, but of course 95% of them don't. If Adrian Gonzalez and Miguel Cabrera could go 0-to-25mph in three steps, they could play a quality 2B. But they can't.
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There are guys who make their living at teaching infield technique, and at evaluating it. They are annoyed by attempts to minimize the value of their field. I understand.
Many players do need to overcome lack of physical gifts by honing their technique to a high sheen. It is definitely worth the effort, to streamline a Jose Lopez' footwork until it keeps him 100% safe from spikes, and gets you a few extra DP's a year.
Improving a ballplayer's defensive technique gets you extra outs, and prevents catastrophes, and so on. We all know that technical coaching is a necessary (and unseen) part of winning baseball. Dr. D has been a youth coach himself in several sports. I get that too.
But MLB(TM) is not the only place that second basemen relay throws from shortstop, kiddies. They do it in high school. It's not a major-league patent.
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I played enough slo-pitch, usually at shortstop, to know what the difference is between shlubs like me and talented middle infielders. It is NOT technique. The difference between a MLB infielder and a lesser man, is the first and second step to the baseball. End of story.
Turning the DP is about the only really serious challenge ahead for Ackley, and it's not a skill that you'd compare to learning a forkball. I've seen slo-pitch players do it beautifully. Rookie-ball second basemen turn DP's. There's nothing about an MLB(TM) double play that can't be done in Japan, or Cuba, or college, or high school.
A few thousand reps will do it. Ackley has work to do, but with his quickness and hands, it's not as big a deal as some folks are making it.
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Large mammals can run fast, and small mammals can run fast. Bears and coyotes both move considerably faster than human beings. Bo Jackson runs fast and Ichiro runs fast. Size doesn't dictate speed as such.
But large mammals are not quick, and small mammals are not powerful. Baseball outfielders are large mammals. Baseball middle infielders are small mammals.
It is Mike Fox, and not us, who has the most light bulbs turned on regarding Dustin Ackley. Ackley undoubtedly has soft hands when he catches "racquetball serves" on the infield dirt -- and he undoubtedly has really excellent lateral quickness in getting to the ball.
That, we guarantee you, is what Mike Fox is thinking of. Ackley's ability to scramble after a four-hop grounder 15 yards to his right.
All of this excitement about Ackley's "technique" is a lot of conversation about ... not very much. Guys play second base in class-A baseball and master the footwork around 2B.
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You gotta understand. Dustin Ackley is a small mammal. He's out of position in the outfield; his gift is quickness, not power.
Cheers,
Dr D
Especially on that last comment about Ackley being misplaced in the outfield. Actually, given his relatively weak frame, he's never going to have much of a throwing arm, which makes 2B the most logical place for him to play...not CF.
The ONLY concern is whether or not he can snare hard hit groundballs, everything else is elementary. Since he's already played first and apparently done a good job, it should be presumed he will have no problem with this. Furthermore, Ackley is like Ichiro: he's a special talent not because he's bigger or stronger than other players, but because he's quicker and more coordinated than everybody else. As you say, those skills will all but guarantee a smooth transition. If Ichiro were moved to the infield, he'd probably look like he'd been playing there his whole life. We are talking about an extremely gifted athlete. He is much more likely to look like a natural after a month than to struggle and take two or three years to adjust.
Have we considered Ichiro as the Mariners' solution at third base? :)
It's esaier, after all, to find a slugger to play right than it is at third...LOL
It is a moot point, since Ichiro enjoys RF, but if he wanted to do a Willie Bloomquist act around the infield, why couldn't he?
Thing is, he himself sets the bar so high, it would be a year or two before he could play with "ki" and be better than others at SS/2B...
He would have been such an interesting SS project...
While we have you on the phone, where are you on Edwin Jackson ... where does he slot on your AL SP's war room chart...
He's want to play SS in winter ball and ST when it didn't matter to get comfortable with the position at a MINIMUM before he even considered doing it in a game. Same reason he always talks about wanting to pitch but never does...he doesn't want to embarrass himself in the attempt. :D
Didn't want this one to completely slip through the cracks. From Shannon Drayer's blog:
He has played the entire Arizona Fall League season in center but Z said they didn't want to overwhelm him there. "He just got the wood bat in his hands and that was enough. We didn't want to do that to him," he said on a conference call.
Z says that they did work him out a little there away from the games and those who saw him were surprised at how natural it seemed to him. (extra emphasis mine)
Read that last line, "It looked like he'd already been playing there."