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As to AAA experience:
I looked at all the starting lineup of the A's, currently with the best record in the league. The following numbers are each player's AAA games played (listed from C-DH)
Jas0 144
Moss 487
Sogard 254
Lowrie 126
Donaldson 252
Cespedes 3
Crisp 67
Reddick 184
Smith 198
Moss was a career AAA guy with Pitt/Philly/Boston until Beane saw something and grabbed him. Donaldson, was principally a C when he came up in '10...but got lots of 3B time in '11 and '12 in AAA. He's now a 3B.
For the M's "young guys", Montero has 232 AAA games, Smoak 128, Ackley 118, Saunders 173 and Seager 24.
Did Jaso not get enough AAA time? Jed Lowrie? Reddick? Crisp?
Would have 8 more games in AAA for Ackley, to get him to the Lowrie level, or 26 more to get him even with Jaso make him a better hitter? Unlikely.
Ackley got lost after a season of being up. I think the Wedge philosophy of hitting has whacked him. Smoak was just overrated, I think....by the whole baseball world. He's a 1400 AB continuing hopeful dream right now. Montero had plenty of AAA experience, lots. The scary thing about him is that in 422 career PA's against RHP, he only has 27 extra-base hits (6.4%...although it's a better stat if figured using AB's), and only walks 39 pts. Compare that to Brendan Ryan's career vR splits: He gets extra-bases 5.4% or the time and walks 60 pts.
Vs. righties, Montero = Ryan. Were he Johnny Bench or Pudge behind the plate, you might tolerate that.
Montero is still only 23. He has time to make a leap. But it surely appears that he's going to be a vL platoon type of guy. If that's the case, he needs to learn to play 1B and he will have a long career in the NL as a PH/1B/C type.
I'm not done with him yet, especially as our BU catcher. Probably the most valuable coaching he can get right now is if the M's work him with a terrific sprint coach. Really. He needs to learn how to run.
But it isn't a lack of AAA experience that's costing our young guys. It's a variety of things. Smoak can't hit enough to be a mid-level 1B or DH (although as a BU at those positions he has value). Montero is a platoon guy. Ackley has been coached into a dark place.
Remember when Ackley came up? We talked aloud about whether he would ever become a 20 homer guy. I think we settled on something like 15 homers and 40 doubles. I thought he was going to wear out the RF gap. What happened to that guy?
Anyway, mid-top line MLB talent probably always hurries it's way from AA to MLB.
moe