Drew is a nice fit.
But I still think Joe Morgan is really the best template. I think you just look at Morgan and say that Ackley is some percentage of that player. Say, 90% or so.
Ackley, up for 376 PA's, goes .273-.348-.417, 40BB's/79K's, 16-7-6 in x-base hits.
Morgan, in his first full season (708 PA's) goes .271-.373-.418, 97BB's/77K's, 22-12-14 in x-base hits.
Ackley K's considerably more, but the walk rates are not wildly different (10.7% to 13.6%). Lets see what the next 332 PA's for Ackley look like. I'll bet his K rate starts moving down and the walk rate up a bit.
Is Ackley likely to be Morgan? Nope. But, as rookies, they have quite similar numbers. Ackley, btw, is 6'1 and 185. That's just about what Mays and Aaron were. He's not really little guy. When he's 28 he'll be 6'1 and 200. But Ackley seems a bit smaller and Morgan seemed bigger than he was, perhaps an important dissimilarity between them.
And Doc, for some reason, I keep thinking that Ackley reminds me of Bob Watson, from the other side of the plate. Maybe I'm just stuck on old Astros, but for some reason that comparison seems decent. Now they were different templates perhaps, but in body size a young Ackley compares to a young Watson (I was so stuck here I looked it up). Watson was known as the Baby Bull becasue he swung hard with a huge bat, but mostly he was a doubles hitting high avg., high OBP guy. Career .295-.364-.447.
I can't quite remember his swing, but I'm brain locked on him. Could be wrong.
Remember him Doc? If Watson turns out to be the hitting template for Ackley we should all squeal with glee right now.
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