My one concern about Ackley in college was power. His sophomore year was power-limited due to the blown UCL and the Tommy John surgery. His junior year cleared up my last lingering doubt about him and I was thrilled to get him, but I think that Sophomore year helped in a different way: opposite field hitting.
Ackley has tremendous bat-speed, and as Doc says he waits til a ball is halfway to the plate before deciding whether to pull the trigger. I've seen plenty of guys with great bat-speed who are mostly pull-oriented.
And I've seen plenty of outer-half hitters who are better oppo hitters than pull (think Joe Mauer).
But I can't think of very many hitters who have great batspeed, hammer singles and doubles ripped into LF (not dumped, ripped) and then pull HRs and triples into the RF corner.
Mauer pounds the ball the other way and dinks it as a pull hitter, which is an oddity but has to do with his approach at the plate.
A lot of batspeed hitters are pure pull guys (Like Mr. Batspeed Gary Sheffield, King of the Pull Hitters).
Ackley is abusing the middle of the field currently, has pull power, and doesn't mind taking high outside heat hard the other way.
Oh, and he's gonna walk a ton as soon as he establishes the strike zone and his knowledge of it with the umpires.
How are you gonna get this guy out? I look forward to opposing pitchers crying in their milk about that for the next decade.
~G
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