I remember Edgar going through these periods where his bat would be a little less special, and they'd ask him what was going on. He'd say "Just trying to find the right grip" or "I'm a little far forward so I'm tweaking" or some such.
When he started clubbing for power it was much the same. Little tweaks about swing plane, how far to open the front shoulder...and then the power showed up.
Ackley didn't have a great first showing in the AFL in 09. The first couple of weeks were bad, and they asked him what was up. "I'm a little ahead of the action, this happens to me when I get too eager, so I'm just gonna wait a little longer instead of getting out in front all the time" was the gist of what he said. By the end of it he was a .300 hitter. Couple weeks of being too eager, he methodically stepped it back, and voila!
He started this season brutally. His pulse didn't flicker. He tweaked and massaged his approach, then hit .300 his last couple months there with a crazy number of walks. He was moved up to AAA but didn't continue that same approach. He started looking to drive the ball a little, took more Ks over walks, and experimented.
I don't know many kids who can experiment while facing the best competition of their lives and knowing they're being judged on it. He seems to be putting on a show now in the AFL with doubles, homers, average AND walks. Is that him putting together all that experimentation on the year?
- Stay back at the plate, don't be too aggressive
- take a TON of walks while figuring out the strike zone
- ditch the walks now that you can get em, so you can swing at more pitches and get that right
- start driving the ball instead of just making contact
- condense all lessons into unified plate approach
- oh yeah, keep working on defense
Ackley scares me. He only has to hit about 60 % of his potential to keep the starting job at 2nd for a long time. I think he could do that in his sleep. What frightens me is what happens if he hits 80%. 90%.
After seeing his power show in his junior year, it took the only question I had about him out of the equation. I was willing to sign off on him as John Olerud with wheels.
I've never seen John Olerud with wheels at 2B. As far as I can tell his name was Charlie Gehringer and he was one of the best 2B that ever lived.
I'm not gonna spend my time expecting that from Ackley. But knowing what he can do if he CAN boost his power to go with the average and OBP...
He's a scary prospect. The numbers don't reflect it yet because he's compiling data, as Sandy says.
But I believe they will. He's gonna light it up from the middle infield. Glad it's for us. Thanks Strasburg, I guess, for making him only the second best player in the draft.
If someone could do that this season for Rendon I'd really appreciate it.
~G
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