Kuzul

Here it is: May the 14th, and now we must start getting serious about when Dustin Ackley will be called up.

There are, however, a few obstacles that have to be overcome in order to justify a call up for Dustin Ackley. First off, he has to be ready, and if you look at his current stats, you probably wouldn’t say he is ready, but lets take a closer look.

So far, Ackley is hitting .253/.382/.411. These numbers aren’t bad, but they are not what you would expect from the No. 5 prospect in baseball. Mainly, It wasn’t the start to the season he was looking for; he hit a meager .211/.336/.305 in April.

Dustin has finally found his groove in AAA Tacoma, and has been on a tear since May 1st. In May he is hitting .333/.462/.608. He has also shown impressive power with five HR’s so far. This recent explosion of hitting was definitely needed for him to have any shot at getting an early promotion. After all, his bat is what is going to carry him.

So now that Ackley is legitimately hitting, the next obstacle is “Super 2 Status.”

This is, of course, the rule that gives the the top 17 percent of players each year with more than two, but less than three, years of service time eligibility for arbitration.

The cut-off date is normally around late May, sometime after the 20th or so. This means it won’t happen for a least a week.

The last obstacle, or As I look at it, question that must be answered, is: Who does Dustin Ackley replace?

The obvious choice is Jack Wilson, since he is the current starting second baseman. The problem is that Jack Wilson is a decent fielder, and Ackley is not. Also, Jack is hitting .250 this year.

GMZ has already recently been quoted saying Ackley will be given every opportunity to stay at second base, but It might be in Seattle‘s Best interest to stick him out in left field.

That Spot has been in trouble since Raul Ibanez left in FA prior to 2009. Endy Chavez did well there until he collided with Betancourt in  2009. Recently, a hole has been created with the DFA of Milton Bradley, and Saunders has not shown the ability to hit after a couple of years.

I am not saying that Ackley needs to move off of second base, I am simply saying that for a team that preaches pitching and defense, they should want their best possible fielders up the middle.

Either way, Ackley may just be ready for his Major League debut within a few weeks.

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Earlier in the weekend Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times wrote an article outlining the idea that Upper Management might not be backing Don Wakamatsu completely, and possibly planning to fire Wak. Since taking over the Seattle Mariners Wak took a bad team and made them Semi-relevant in 2009. Well he has now took a semi-relevant team and made them completely bad.

Say what you will about his Management Style, or that he was given a bad team to begin with and did what he could with them, all because Z didn’t go out and get the big bat they needed. Now I admit this team was very badly built from the very beginning and Z should have put more thought into the offense, but you cannot put the entire blame on him. While no manager would be winning the pennant with this club, I don’t think any manager should be sliding into the third worst team in the Major League as of Aug. 1st.

Lets face it one big bat wouldn’t change how this entire team has preformed. The base-running has been horrid, and bullpen even worse with the Hitting just being plain nonexistent. With the way the team is responding to him, it seems as though they simply don’t care. Not a single player is playing with any guts or determination. It just seems like they all want to get through 9 innings and go home.

This team is built to be a  sub .500 club give or take 5 games. They are playing .260 baseball since July and just continue sliding into what could be their worst season in decades.

I do not think any manager can survive a 100 loss campaign let alone the 110 loss campaign that they are aiming for. No manager should be able to leave a month of playing with a 6-22 record, the Mariners worst since Aug. of 1977! Players have no respect for Wak, the GM has no respect for Wak, and I as a fan am really losing my patience for this team. We can blame the coaches, we can blame Bavasi, or Z, and we can blame Chuck Armstrong, and Howard Lincoln, but something has to change. We have to start winning and we have to start right away. No one wants to see a ball club like this. We don’t invest so much care, love, time, and money into the Seattle Mariners to see them stumble so much.

Wak will just be another manager sent on his way. So I ask you as readers and fans, Should Don Wakamatsu be fired?

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