A Canadian in Lara ============
CF everyday for Los Cardinales de Lara, Liga de Venezuela de Beisbol Profesional, Mr. Michael Saunders of Victoria, BC. And he is mashing.
8 G, 32 AB, 11 H, 4 xbh (1 HR, 2 3b, 1 2b), 4 BB (12 K oops) for .344/.417/.594
Doesn't mean much, but good to see him in center and the two triples are cool. I'm the one always pointing out that Saunders was a hockey, lacrosse and hoops star as a youth. Dude's an athlete (and still getting all the baseball stuff down).
The Talented Mr. Ackley Goes to Peoria==========
one-inning-nothing-across, one was 1.1 IP with 2 H, 2 BB, 1 ER and the other was a nighmarish 1.1 IP with 4 H, 2 HR, 5 ER, 1 BB. But it's Arizona and who knows what he's working on.
And finally ===============
Josh Fields also has 4 appearances: all exactly 1.0 IP, two of them clean, two of them giving up 1 ER. 4 K and 2 BB in 4 IP.
Joe Dunigan started off hot, but hasn't stayed that way.
Juan Diaz started out cold, and has stayed that way.
Triunfel has yet to play. (I think that what they think of Triunfel's future will have a lot to do with what happens this winter, myself.)
Tui is heading to Puerto Rico and has yet to play.
I actually hadn't realized that Saunders was late to baseball. He's one of those guys who learns visibly, he learns so fast, and I loved his cool-headed "okay, nothing but MLB lefties, I'll get on with five bunt hits" attitude.
.........
I'll believe Ackley's power when I see it, but it could develop, and even if not, he can star with the .400 OBP approach if that's what's in the cards. Very few .400 OBP guys who aren't stars...
Even if he never hits 30 bombs...I see him as having the speed and good plate coverage to end up with 25 doubles and 15 triples. Which makes him a .300/.400/.450 kind of hitter.
15 triples seems awfully high for a guy not named ichiro, reyes, gomez, span....
OK...maybe it's 10 triples instead of 15...he's got more pop that Ichiro does (and his approach is friendlier to hitting the gaps - Ichiro either pulls the ball hard for doubles and HRs or slaps at it for singles...he doens't get many triples because he doesn't hit the gaps much) and he's the perfect kind of bat to take advantage of the large gaps in Safeco's outfield.
I think I linked to this before, but it's worth quoting in full to get the flavor of the guy. It's from his Canadian Olympic team bio:
A millimeter's difference
A solid hockey player when he was a child -- he was recruited by the Seattle Thunderbirds at one point -- Saunders has also dunked a basketball in high school and was also a notable lacrosse and soccer player as a youth. He gave up all of those sports to play baseball. Though, none of that nearly happened, as at the age of 10, Saunders nearly lost the vision in his left eye, as reported by The Toronto Sun. While fly fishing with his father, Dr. Derek Saunders, Michael lost track of his line due to a strong wind and had the hook blow into his eye. "Michael was in front of me, when he said that the hook caught his eye, I thought he meant the corner," Dr. Saunders told The Toronto Sun. Instead, the hook had lodged itself into Michael's iris. Luckily for the then-youngster, the eye never got infected and had been told that if the hook had been a millimeter anywhere else, it could have been a different, much-worse story.
His game
Saunders currently plays for the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers. He was called up from Double-A West Tennessee this year after hitting .290 in 67 games there. In 14 games with the Rainiers (through July 14), Saunders had hit .275 with two home runs and 12 RBIs. He is described as a five-tool talent by some and has an arm that has hit 91 mph in Saunders' days as a pitcher. The British Columbia native was drafted out of high school but had to attend Tallahassee (Fla.) Community College because of work visa issues with the Canadian team.
Even if Ackley adds no power and no speed and no defense to speak of (which is pretty unlikely), he can still be Dave Magadan, who got 16 seasons out of nothing but the .400 OBP.
Doc, I think you were the one to bring out the Brett Butler comp, who played 17 years with lines of .390+ OBP, 20+ doubles and never getting to double-digit HR. Still a valuable asset.
Jim Edmonds and J.D. Drew are both LH guys around 6-1, 190/195 (Ackley is listed at 6-1, 185) who ran plenty of .390+ OBP and hit for power. I don't see Ackley as having the .500 SLG power that those guys ran, but he won't strike out as much either. He doesn't come across as the "stud athlete" quite as much as Edmonds or healthy Drew, but he's more than the slender/leadoff guy that Butler was.
Finally there are at least two guys from my time frame in the HOF who were not necessarily 20+ HR guys, but got there by being LH bats really tough to strike out -- Tony Gwynn and George Brett.