DUSTIN ACKLEY 2B SEATTLE MARINERS
2/26/1988
6’1″ AND 185 LBS
BATS- L THROWS- R
Drafted- 1st Rd – 2009 North Carolina
Bonus- $6.0 million
It won’t take long for him to be ready and he will hit right out of the box, they just need to find his position. He’s athletic enough to play CF and probably even learn 2B relatively quickly.
SETUP
Ackley’s set up is very balanced for someone who doesn’t get into much of a crouch. He’s able to keep his hands in a cocked position and flow through the swing well.
HEAD MOVEMENT
Ackley’s head does drop during his flow from set to drive, but he’s not a power hitter so once his head sets at the stride its straight through with the bat. He hits gap to gap but will need to adjust to high fastballs and better curveballs in the bigs so the head decent will make that a little more of a challenge at first.
LOWER HALF
As I mentioned with the setup, his lower half is solid and balanced and there is no excess movement to be concerned about.
STRIDE
Ackley strides straight ahead which allows him to use the whole field. His foot plant is solid and with time he should develop decent power. In this video you can see him take an outside pitch the other way without needing to reach.
EXTENSION
Ackely actually has good extension for a line drive hitter. His bat speed is good enough for him to turn on fastballs and his swing plane allows him to go the other way with outside pitches. The extension is what makes me think that with time he’ll learn to turn on a few more pitches and develop decent pull power.
OUR INSTINCT
Ackley is a pure hitter and will probably move to 2B in Seattle, because finding an athlete of his caliber to take on the everyday job at 2B won’t come along often. He has the balanced approach and raw strength to hit for a high average and has the chance to be a perrenial All Star at 2B or CF. A good runner with excellent speed who will steal bases and score runs in bunches. He should be up in Seattle sometime in 2010 depending on the position Seattle decides to make his primary. Ackley’s defense is the on question mark at this point because he’s never really had the chance to solidify that aspect of his game due to injury.
Special thanks to Aaron Bentley for his Instinct on this breakdown.
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