Dustin Ackley Cooling Off

Yes, we have seen this before. Dustin Ackley had a rough start to the season, there is no getting around it.

He posted a .211 average in the months prior to the All Star Game while playing most of the games in left field. Then, after the All Star Game something happened.

It looked like Dustin Ackley might have figured out how to hit again. In the month of July he posted a .365 average with a .386 OBP and a .506 Slugging percentage. Then the month of August hit and the Dustin Ackley that we have been so accustomed to seeing decided to show up again.

Not only did the old Ackley show up, Lloyd McClendon decided it would be a smart idea to “ride the hot hitter” and move Dustin Ackley up to the second spot in the lineup behind newly acquired Austin Jackson.

This experiment seemed to work for a while, Ackley was spraying the ball all over the field, hitting from the left field foul line to the gaps in right center, but now, it seems that Dustin Ackley has gone back to his original self and tries to pull everything.

It baffles me how Dustin Ackley can go from one of the best hitters in NCAA history, he was inducted into the College World Series Hall of Fame, to now being a career .246 hitter.

While yes, being a .246 hitter isn’t horrible for the Major Leagues think about it like this, the Mariners drafted Ackley before Mike Trout.

It’s time to move Dustin out of the number 2 hole. That spot is for players to “set the table” for the 3-4-5 guys in the line up. In the last 7 games Dustin has 4 hits in 24 at bats yielding a .167 batting average. His on base percentage is .231 and his slugging is a measly .167.

In the 2 hole this year, Dustin has batted .222 with 3 home runs and 11 RBIs. If you remember before he moved up in the order he was batting in the 8 spot, his average for the year batting there, .330 with a .870 OPS.

Some suggest moving Kyle Seager into the 2 hole, some suggest moving the hot hitting Chris Taylor up there. Sometimes Ackley has great at bats, sometimes they are abysmal, either way the hot streak that Ackley was riding is over.