My favorite player ever is struggling at the plate, and there was some speculation over the All Star break that Dustin might be sent to the minors for a stint.

I was sure he would be a 10 year .300 hitter - beautiful stroke.

Whats going on, and can Ack get it going?

I watch the Mariners practically every night and you are right. Struggling is putting it mildly. He hasn't hit more than 4 or 5 balls hard, whether fair or foul, in a couple of months.

Tons of popups and weak ground balls. He seems lost at the plate. I don't know if Chris Chambliss (Mariner's hitting coach) has messed him up or what. It's tough to watch. He went 0-5 last night and struck out with the tying and winning runs in scoring position and two outs in the ninth. (He did get screwed on the first two called strikes)

There's no doubt in my mind that he will recover and be an excellent major league hitter. I just have no idea when. He's only been at this level for a little over a year. The pitchers have adjusted to him as he started out pretty well last year. He needs to adjust to them. I also think that the transition to second base has contributed to less focus on hitting for a period of time. Btw, he's playing very well on defense. It wouldn't hurt if he had good hitters around him, but the Mariners are putrid offensively. Ichiro is past his prime, Justin Smoak is struggling as bad or worse than Dustin.

I hope that the Mariners continue to stick with him and let him work things out. They aren't going anywhere this season anyway. Dan Uggla looked like the worst hitter I had ever seen last year through the all-star break. He was hitting less than .200. Then he went on a 30 some game hitting streak and looked like Pete Rose with power in the second half.

Brian McCann has been through a funk this entire season up until he talked with his brother a week before the all-star game. He then hit home runs in 4 straight games leading up to the break. When asked if one game could turn him around, McCann said "One pitch could."

Here's hoping that Dustin gets his pitch soon.

interesting to see that seager is quietly close to a 100 rbi pace.....projected at 18 hr's and 98 rbi's after yesterdays games

Kyle and Dustin both had good games last night.

Dustin hit a 405 foot double off the base of the centerfield wall. Maybe it's the beginning of a turnaround.

One of the Mariner blogs covered this in detail about a month ago. I've seen a few positive signs since the post went up but Ackley still hasn't completely put it together. The short answer is that he hasn't gotten used to how the "lefty strike" is called at the MLB level, letting way too many borderline pitches go by, and his contact rate when he does swing isn't good. He's also just been outright missing high fastballs which I think is something that just requires practice and adjustment.

www.ussmariner.com/2012/06/12/...ke-out-so-much/

A post from last week pointed out that his BABIP is incredibly low, so he's been a bit unlucky, but he's also still not swinging at enough outside strikes.

www.ussmariner.com/2012/07/13/...t-was-that-bad/

Great link, thanks Seattle.

Looked a lot more like his old self last night - nothing like facing Jonathan Sanchez to get a fella's bat going.

Shamrock.

You my friend are what they call a "slumpbuster". Your thread has seemed to jumpstart Dustin.

2-4 with a walk, a homer, and 3 runs scored. One of his outs was a frozen rope.

Dustin went 2 for 5 with a triple last night......keep this thread going.

Now we need to get Kyle going again. He's still driving in runs, but his average keeps dropping... down to .241, and he's scuffling in July, hitting just .178.

He has an amazing home vs away split. Safeco is known as a pitchers park, but this is ridiculous: he is hitting .167 at home vs .303 on the road

Ack now 1 for his last 22. I am posting on this thread to help break his slump again I hope :)

He is a big disappointment on my fantasy team and we have keepers. Not sure if I want to keep him for next year after this season.

The Mariners sent Justin Smoak down to AAA as well as trading Ichiro to the Yankees for a couple of pitching prospects yesterday.

Funny thing is, I don't think it hurts their offense. Or what there is of an offense. Guys like Carp, Montero, Ackley, Peguero, and Seager need to be allowed to develop.

And move those damn fences in at Petco Park.

The Mariners do not play at Petco Park.. Petco is the home of the Padres.. Safeco Field is home to the Mariners!!!

Thanks.

And I watch them every night. Brain cells.

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--- bkbinx wrote:

The Mariners do not play at Petco Park.. Petco is the home of the Padres.. Safeco Field is home to the Mariners!!!

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I agree that the rest of the season is best-served trying to find out if guys like Seager and Ackley have long-term potential. While I hope they both do, Ackley's been off all year & Seager hasn't been great for the last month. I expect they'll both continue to be everyday players, at least until the late-September callups. Maybe we'll also see Brian Moran in an M's uniform by the end of the year :)

Separate from this thread but worth noting, though - the distance to the LF fence has very little to do with the bad offense. When you combine the marine layer with the colder-than-normal June, you have a ballpark that was suppressing offensive numbers of every player, including those on the visiting teams. Line drives have been getting 'knocked down' well before they got anywhere near the outfield fences. Unfortunately, one of the few ways they might be able to fix the issue is to close off some of the gaps in the upper deck where wind blows in, but that will also block some of the views out to the water.

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--- HeelfromSeattle wrote:

I agree that the rest of the season is best-served trying to find out if guys like Seager and Ackley have long-term potential. While I hope they both do, Ackley's been off all year & Seager hasn't been great for the last month. I expect they'll both continue to be everyday players, at least until the late-September callups. Maybe we'll also see Brian Moran in an M's uniform by the end of the year :)

Separate from this thread but worth noting, though - the distance to the LF fence has very little to do with the bad offense. When you combine the marine layer with the colder-than-normal June, you have a ballpark that was suppressing offensive numbers of every player, including those on the visiting teams. Line drives have been getting 'knocked down' well before they got anywhere near the outfield fences. Unfortunately, one of the few ways they might be able to fix the issue is to close off some of the gaps in the upper deck where wind blows in, but that will also block some of the views out to the water.

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Safeco's a beautiful park. Affecting views will not be easily done.

Heard someone on the radio last week talking about Dusty and Kyle. They have some strange numbers for the season. Dusty was hitting .310-.315 in all games he started when the Mariners won and Kyle was hitting arond .300+ on the road.

Pretty much all Mariners have incredibly ugly home vs road batting average splits this year. Dustin isn't hitting well anywhere, but his road avg of .237 is still 41 points higher than he hits at home.

Kyle hits almost 130 points higher on the road, and it even affected Ichiro this year: .214 at home vs .297 on the road.

Seattle's team batting average at home this year is an embarrrassing .193. On the road, it is a more than respectable .255, which is the 11th highest road average in the majors.

Dustin went 2 for 3 last night after a rough 1 for 29 stretch over the last few games. Seager went hitless in 3 trips.

Dustin went 2 for 4 last night.....maybe he just needs a few more games against KC to get his confidence back.

Dustin has struckout 165 times in 704 career AB's, a rate of 23.4%. Alot of bad swings. He looks as if his confidence is gone.

I agree. With both Dustin and Kyle starting, I've watch numerous Mariners games this year, and Dustin seems to be chasing a lot of bad pitches.

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--- rolen17 wrote:

Dustin has struckout 165 times in 704 career AB's, a rate of 23.4%. Alot of bad swings. He looks as if his confidence is gone.

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Dustin doesn't strike out swinging. He has always had one of the best contact rates in the league. His issue is not swinging with 2 strikes on borderline outside pitches. Yes, Dustin has great command of the strike zone, but if there is one criticism of his hitting approach it is taking too many pitches. Maybe he is trying to overcompensate by swinging at more pitches, but I would like to see data backing up his swing/miss ratio.



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--- UNC76 wrote:

I agree. With both Dustin and Kyle starting, I've watch numerous Mariners games this year, and Dustin seems to be chasing a lot of bad pitches.

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--- rolen17 wrote:

Dustin has struckout 165 times in 704 career AB's, a rate of 23.4%. Alot of bad swings. He looks as if his confidence is gone.

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Last night he struck out twice, taking strike three looking on both of them. He has come through with an HR tonight.

Kyle Seager currently leads the major leagues in two out RBIs!

Dustin seems to be slowly coming out of if. He's hitting balls with more authority.

And break up the Mariners. They have the second best record in the AL since the all-star break. Going for their 7th straight win tonight. Maybe losing Ichiro has made the rest of the team step up. Or it could be playing lots of games against the Royals.

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--- 2012heel wrote:

Dustin doesn't strike out swinging. He has always had one of the best contact rates in the league. His issue is not swinging with 2 strikes on borderline outside pitches. Yes, Dustin has great command of the strike zone, but if there is one criticism of his hitting approach it is taking too many pitches. Maybe he is trying to overcompensate by swinging at more pitches, but I would like to see data backing up his swing/miss ratio.



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--- UNC76 wrote:

I agree. With both Dustin and Kyle starting, I've watch numerous Mariners games this year, and Dustin seems to be chasing a lot of bad pitches.

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--- rolen17 wrote:

Dustin has struckout 165 times in 704 career AB's, a rate of 23.4%. Alot of bad swings. He looks as if his confidence is gone.

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I'm certainly not ready to compare Dustin to Wade Boggs, but Boggs rarely struck out looking. His eye and his ability to make contact on nasty pitches were incredible. Dustin will improve at the major league level. It's still very early.