Seager and Saunders were intended to be complimentary players. The future 3-4-5 was intended to be Ackley, Montero and Smoak. Maybe with Ackley at 2 and somebody like Saunders filling the Buhner spot at #5.
It's not working out that way thus far, but what do these players look like in the last month (well, 28 days)?
Ackley: .301/.363/.384/.746, with 7 BB against 15 Ks. Still too passive on fastballs but he's making it work against offspeed. When he starts turning it loose on fastballs again he could get that power up... or if he doesn't and they just feed him an exclusive diet of heat then maybe he'll falter again. No, Ackley doesn't steal bases, but he RUNS them incredibly well. Just in this series we saw him beat out a couple of force-outs easily. He's a good #2 with his baserunning and current OBP skills, at least against righties. There are improvements there. He's still flushing all the bad advice he's been given. Part of Stars and scrubs is being patient when a scrub-salary IS doing well, and right now Ackley's more than treading water.
Smoak: .274/.408/.403/.811, with 14BB/16K. He's hitting (very) poorly as a righty but he's seeing time off against lefties so it's not killing him. A .800 OPS platoon player isn't what we want from him by any means, but he's certainly not killing us at this point. And if you're GONNA have abysmal platoon splits, please be good against righties since there are twice as many of them to face. And since we don't have any first basemen worth promoting, it's simply a matter of whether Morales playing first more often to get Montero some extra ABs is better (and who wants Montero only facing tough righties?). Speaking of...
Montero: .200/.281/.420/.701, 6BB/12K. Jesus has only been in half the games, is flailing against his favorable platoon (lefties), is throwing balls 6 feet wide of the mark and late, is not getting any DH appearances, and generally looks like a square peg for a round hole. This is not necessarily all his fault. I'm sure it's very hard to hit when you're only a part time player at a tough defensive position. I remember Olivo getting crushed here and going on to good success elsewhere for several years. Zunino is not applying extra pressure - dude is striking out like a blind man down in AAA even if he has huge power when he does manage to connect. He can be delayed. His callup is nowhere near imminent. But Montero has to hit. The other guys are hitting even in reduced appearances (like Smoak) so it's Montero's turn. He's on the club for his bat, after all. He needs to be in the lineup MORE, not less. Protecting the Mariners from him is also protecting him from future success and us from the knowledge of whether that success is likely to come here at whatever defensive position he might occupy.
Of course, it'd be easier to pay for those lessons with a lower OPS-slot filling the lineup if our SS weren't so blindingly inept...
A Franklin callup gets you more time for Montero in the lineup without hanging too many black holes in there. I promise it's a good idea, especially since he's scaring AAA so much that the pitchers won't throw him ANYthing to hit. He has 9 walks against 4 Ks in his last 10 games, while maintaining a .300+ BA and a .500 slugging. The word is out - Nick Franklin will ruin your day as an opposing pitcher if you let him. So they won't let him, and he won't go fishing to help them out (unlike Zunino, who is expanding his zone now that no one will throw him pitches to hammer).
It's gotta happen sometime, right?
~G
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