Albeit a really fast squirrel. Dude missed a ball in the gap by YARDS simply by taking the wrong angle to the ball. He ran straight to where he thought the ball would be - and the ball was ten feet over his head and rolling to the wall, He doesn't know the angles out there yet.
His arm is FINE. Better than Guti's, and all that 2B marksmanship lets him hit the cutoff man with a bullet, but I'm with Wedge in that Ackley needs a little time to judge some liners hit right and him and figure when to back up and when to come in, or how much carry a ball has in the daytime vs at night. Those sorts of things.
At the plate tho? Beautiful. Beautific even. He walked on 5 pitches cuz he didn't see anything he liked. When he sees one he likes early in the count, he's swinging and making hard contact. Not getting a ton of loft on those shots yet but a .300/.380 CF would be heaven, whatever the slugging. Especially one who runs the bases like Ackley. If somebody could teach him how to steal...
Anyway. CF looks good to Ackley so far as far as potential, he's just got to polish the fundamentals. He'll work that position like he did at 2B. He may not LOOK pretty - his jumps won't be preternatural, and his routes to the ball may get a litty ziggy (or zaggy) but FUNCTIONALLY he'll work it out, just like he did to be a plus 2B by the numbers even with all that skidding around on the OF grass.
He's a worker.
And if he's fixed his greed, then he'll be golden. Absolutely. He'll figure it out at some point, I'd like it to be with us. But I'm fine with not rushing Ackley. Guti could have made that easier, but he seems determined to finish his career with unsolvable injury woes. Poor guy.
If Ackley can keep his plate unselfishness that he's re-discovered in AAA and bring it to the bigs with his CF glove, tho, that writing is on the wall. Just might not be this week...
~G
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