Dustin Ackley, CF
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HELP WANTED - APPLY WITHIN
Sunday, the Mariners took a series from the A's and headed into a day off. Wedge was in a great mood. He was bright with every answer until somebody asked about Franklin Gutierrez. Pause, pick your words carefully. "His legs tightened up on him - Again."
We grok here that Wedge has long since tired of dog-and-pony show. Managers, if you have just joined us, want players they can count on.
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Michael Saunders can play defensive CF just fine ... his OPS+ for the season is down to 74, and he's now 26 years old and going backwards. It would be a nice luxury to make him a #4 outfielder with upside. He's kind of a "tweener" defensively anyway.
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Dustin Ackley seemed like a natural CF, except that the reports out of North Carolina were that his right elbow was shot. Now they say he's throwing the ball like a champ. BOOM SHAK-A-LAKA. There's your Mariner center fielder, gentlemen...
or not.
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We'll Get Back to You, Any Day Now
With Ackley tearing up AAA, nineteen kinds of reporters and other entourage were banging down Wedge's door. What's the holdup here?!
Wedge sez, "I want him to be comfortable in center field." Actually Wedge wants Nick Franklin to be comfortable in second base. With nobody breathing down his neck, if he goes 1-for-16.
I don't know what the solution to that is. You tell me?! Perhaps by making Ackley the regular center fielder, and telling him to throw away his 2B glove for the rest of the year...
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Aiki-Dustin
Has it struck you, that Nick Franklin is everything we hoped Dustin Ackley would be? And that's saying a whale of a lot; Ackley was a 5-year college player, the kind of "best bet" that you see only once every several drafts.
Here's what Franklin is, and what Ackley should have been:
- Superb eye for a pitched strike or pitched ball
- KBIZLT contact swing
- Pedroia-like OBP
- Surprising gap power ... 30+ homers, 15-20 homers
- etc etc
- In short, a left-handed Dustin Pedroia, complete with .300 AVG, .375 OBP, Homers, and all the trimmings
There is one big difference between the two players, and it is perceived on an aiki level. Nick Franklin is not greedy. He's not up there hoping to yank a fly ball down the RF line. He's really, really not, not ever. Franklin is up there, movin' his chaw around his cheek, playin' hardball, tryin' to beat the pitcher any way any how.
It's a complete lack of greed on the cellular level. Which is a beautiful thing, "beautiful" in the strict definition of the word - a pretty sight that is pleasing to the senses and heart because of an intrinsic morality and worth. Like Edgar's lack of greed, both at the plate and at the negotiating table, playing his whole career in Seattle for pennies on the dollar vs. other M's stars.
And because Franklin isn't greedy, he is functionally quick at the plate.
Ackley has fast reflexes, but because of his greed, he has been functionally slow. And his zone coverage is far more problematic, with his subconscious desire to yank the ball into the RF seats. A fastball 2" outside is a totally different pitch when the thought of the 1B line is creeping into your mind...
We don't mean that Ackley is a slimeball. Greed is something we all wrestle with in sports. In aikido it's a daily struggle, not to grab for the wristlock. Although Scott Boras might enter into the discussion here somewhere...
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Ackley has a .467 OBP in Tacoma, but the last ten games might be even better. He's slugging only .366, which Dr. D hopes is an indication that he's now willing to just line the ball around the park. Sounds like it: his AVG is .333 when behind in the count.
As soon as Ackley goes to his Nick Franklin game, the M's are liable to range quite the 1-2 lefty punch at the top of the order :- )
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