Angels Sign Dustin Ackley to Minor League Deal

[ettin]

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/02/angels-sign-dustin-ackley-to-minor-league-deal.html

[John Smith]

1st round (2nd pick) of the 2009 amateur draft.

[John Smith]

Angels stocking up on high picks from 2009.

Tony Sanchez was the 4th pick of that year. Good thing the Angels had had to wait til the 24, 25th pick

[totdprods]

18 minutes ago, John Smith said:

Angels stocking up on high picks from 2009.

Tony Sanchez was the 4th pick of that year. Good thing the Angels had had to wait til the 24, 25th pick

Eleven of the first 53 picks of the '09 draft have now been in the Angels org at some point.
Ackley (2), Sanchez (4), Green (13), Mitchell (23), Grichuk (24), Trout (25), Davis (39), Skaggs (40), Richards (42), Kehrer (48), Pounders (53).

Anywho, the dude was terrible last year and in Seattle the year before, but he's had his moments and he was still a positive WAR player up until that point, even with his underwhelming production. And he still gives us depth at 2B/OF, which were two of our thinnest positions. Here's to hoping he finds himself in SLC and plays himself back to the bigs, either helping the Angels or maybe to the interest of another team.

[tdawg87]

Print those playoff tickets!

[ettin]

The funny thing about Ackley is that the underlying excellent walk and strikeout rates (against RHP he had a 5.5% K% rate) showed up again last year in limited PA's. He had a terrible BABIP which was in part due to his low line drive rate but part of it had to be bad luck and/or defensive shifts (he had his worst BABIP against RHP in 2016).

[Oz27]

Ackley always seemed like someone who would turn into a plus hitter based primarily off line drives. But now he hits a bunch of weak fly balls and has a horrible line drive rate.

All of that is a long way of saying Ackley sucks.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Wonder if he is related to Fritz Ackley, a minor league pitcher from my youth.

[Angelsjunky]

Love this move - its the position player equivalent of Meyer, although perhaps a bit less likely to pan out. But offensively he's really not any worse than Espinosa, with probably more upside.

Ackley is another layer of Espinosa insurance, after Valbuena.

[Troll Daddy]

I luv players fighting to stay in the ML game. It's sink or swim time for Mr. Ackley.

good Luck 

[Ohtaniland]

Ackley is a former Yankee Doodle Dandy.

[JAHV76]

It's a minor league deal no risk if he works out high upside

[Second Base]

I'd freakin' lose it if Ackley suddenly figured it out and is rejuvenated in an Angels uniform and thus becomes the 2B we were always looking for.

More likely, he's Grant Green. He'll hit something like .320 in AAA and it won't transfer to the big leagues for some odd reason.

[JustATroutFan]

The Mariners should have drafted Trout instead, hehehe.

Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.

[Angelsjunky]

23 teams should have drafted Trout.

[Glen]

Whenever I hear Ackley's name I always think of this:

 

[Docwaukee]

Ackley is probably Ji Man's replacement.  My guess is he'll play mostly 1b at AAA. 

If Dustin Ackley is getting enough at bats to 'figure it out', then we are probably in trouble.  That said, he's probably not the worst platoon option if he can still play 2b. 

 

[Troll Daddy]

17 hours ago, John Smith said:

Angels stocking up on high picks from 2009.

Tony Sanchez was the 4th pick of that year. Good thing the Angels had had to wait til the 24, 25th pick

Should of never traded Grichuk

[Angel Oracle]

1 hour ago, Glen said:

Whenever I hear Ackley's name I always think of this:

 

Silence!

[Angels#1Fan]

There's no stopping us now.

[AngelStew43]

This is a good move.  Ackley is versatile, has ML experience, and may have some trade value at some point.  Or, he gives us leverage to trade someone else. 

[California Cajun]

15 hours ago, CALZONE said:

Ackley is a former Yankee Doodle Dandy.

This generation's Rex the wonder dog.

[totdprods]

Stacking up that depth. SLC is starting to look a little more filled out.

[Brent Maguire]

This is solid. Ackley has obviously been a colossal disappointment but the guy was still a useful player from 2011-2014, racking up 7.6 WAR in that time. He was bad and mostly hurt in 2016 and just bad in 2015, which is why the Angels are able to stash him in the minors, but it's cool to take a chance on him. He'll only be 29 on Opening Day, offers positional versatility(1B/2B/LF) and just adds some depth in the upper minors. He'll probably end up not being good but there's enough to like here to like the signing. 

[totdprods]

Could be this year's Gregorio Petit. Someone you don't really expect or hope to see in Anaheim (because it means the injury bug bit) but winds up offering passable temporary production.