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There is a real disconnect.  I've been happily watching Z and McNamara collect all these hitters who demonstrate the ability to show patience while punishing the hitter's pitch, and now I'm watching them cease to be those kind of hitters.
(Note: MLB average BB% is 8.1; average K% is 18.7%; average ISO slg is .145)
Carp the year before Z acquired him:
-- BB% 14.0%  K% 15.5%  ISO .172
Seager in Tacoma:
-- BB% 9.4%  K% 10.3%  ISO .198
Ackley in Tacoma:
-- BB% 16.6%  K% 11.5%  ISO .185
Smoak in AA:
-- BB% 17.2%  K% 15.4%  ISO .153
Montero in AAA at age 19:
-- BB% 9.1%  K% 18.1%  ISO .227
Jaso in AA:
-- BB% 13.1%  K% 10.9% ISO .168
In other words, these are exactly the type of hitters that the team should have been acquiring.  They demonstrated the ability to generate power with low strikeout rates and reasonable-to-excellent walk rates.
Now there seems to be a slow-motion train wreck going on.  Every single one is walking less and whiffing more. 
Is it Wedge's fault?  I don't know, but it sure seems as if the kind of players that Z and Mac want to acquire are not the kind Wedge wants to have hitting for his team.
Maybe this approach works for some, like Carp maybe, but I don't see why they are throwing Ackley and Smoak's walks down the tube.

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