If and when they ever move him off 2B he can play center for us and still stay at a glove position. Unless he's slowed a whole lot by then - he's at least as fast as Saunders, if his strides are less loping. He could play LF easily...but I'd rather he stay up the middle if he can.
Which is a reason we used for sending him down in April. We wanted to maintain his service time and get him more comfortable at 2B. His slow start has helped us justify it, but how much longer do we wait? His glove is okay. It'll get better. But it's the bat we desperately need, and with the massive offensive needs on this club can we wait another 3 weeks to deploy him?
I think we will, but I can see the argument the other way. Service time is preserved, now it's just about money. Ackley is laying waste to the PCL in May. April's adjustments have been calculated and implemented, and now he's added his AFL power into his PCL performance, while walking a ton and striking out
He's like the Borg - the man just assimilates and carries on. His AA adjustment period was a month, his AAA adjustment period involved more power, and he incorporated his whole arsenal in the AFL for a devastating month. He came out struggling horribly this April, whether because he thought he should be in the bigs, bad luck, or simple adjustments to the craftier pitchers in the PCL I don't know.
But that's done now and he's still a walk machine (something he abandoned in AAA last year to get in more swings and practice driving the ball), with improved power and some stacked multi-hit games in May. I thought he'd put it together in the AFL, and just watching him hit it sure looks like he has. He's ready.
How many more doubles, HR, walks and runs do you want to waste in Tacoma?
Three weeks more, I'll wager, but we'll see.
~G
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