Tom Verducci力挺Eric Wedge
http://tinyurl.com/n89wxdb
As baseball executives play the usual game of hit-or-miss with the
First-Year Draft on Thursday, the story of what happened to former college
standout Dustin Ackley stands as the most recent warning of the fickle nature
of the draft. Ackley was a great hitter at North Carolina (hitting .402, .417
and .417 in his three seasons) and the number two overall pick of the 2009
draft, but merely a good hitter in the minors (.280) and then such a bad
hitter in the majors (.237, including .205 this year) that the Mariners
recently demoted him to Triple A at age 25.
Seattle manager Eric Wedge took some heavy criticism for "blaming"
sabermetrics for Ackley's troubles. Ackley was lost at the plate mentally,
letting pitch after pitch go by. Out of 171 plate appearances this year,
Ackley swung at the first pitch for a hit only twice while taking that first
pitch for a strike 74 times. On counts without a strike