By: Mike Wagenman
The Seattle Mariners are a young, up-and-coming baseball team with their sights set on long term success. Their roster is filled with young players who possess worlds of potential, and who are showing how good they can really be when given the chance. Ace “King” Felix Hernandez has won a Cy Young Award at the age of 25; right-handed rookie starting pitcher Michael Pineda has a 2.68 ERA at age 22; first baseman Justin Smoak is anchoring the middle of the lineup at the age of 24; and left fielder Carlos Peguero is rapidly improving, also at age 24. For the Mariners, one other young man is about to join the party.
Standing at 6'1”, and just 182 lbs., Dustin Ackley is not as physically imposing as one might expect from a 2nd overall draft pick. Former Mariners great and future first ballot Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. said of Ackley after he was drafted, “we finally found someone skinnier than Ichiro!” However, 23 year old Ackley, despite his slightly slender stature, sure knows how to hit a baseball as well as anyone most scouts have ever seen.
Ackley stormed through the Mariners farm system carrying much hype, leaving the Mariner faithful with much anticipation. In fact, the Mariners official Twitter page was bombarded over the past few weeks with begs and pleas from fans to call up Ackley to strengthen the 29th ranked offense in baseball. Finally, on June 17th, after hitting .303 in Triple-A, the fans got their wish, as Seattle officially promoted the lanky second baseman to “the show”.
Raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Dustin Ackley attended North Forsyth High School followed by South Stokes High School. Ackley led South Stokes to back-to-back state championships in 2003 and 2004, shattering school and state records along the way. His utter dominance of opponents earned him Louisville Slugger All-American honors for his senior year. For Ackley, the decision as to which college to attend was simple; he stayed in his own backyard and picked the University of North Carolina.
While at UNC, Ackley was a 3-year starter, before leaving for the draft after his junior campaign. He hit over .400, recorded over 110 hits, and had an OPS over 1.000 in all three years. During his junior year, Ackley hit .417 with 22 home runs, 73 RBI, 18 doubles, 4 triples, and an incredible on-base percentage of .517. He finished second in the Golden Spikes Award race (best player in college baseball) to Stephen Strasburg of San Diego State. His mind-blowing statistics and ability to lead his team to three consecutive College World Series appearances (all while making first team All-CWS) left Seattle salivating. Ackley's versatility (starting games at 1B, CF, LF, 2B, and SS for UNC and playing the majority of his games at 3B as a high schooler) was just icing on the cake for the Mariners.
It all came full circle for Ackley in his first major league at-bat against Roy Oswalt as he ripped his first career single. The next game, in his fifth at-bat, Ackley hit his first career home run, followed the next day by his first ever triple. Through just three games, Ackley is hitting .273, and is in the lineup and playing second base tonight against the Washington Nationals. For Ackley and the Mariners, the sky is the limit, the future is nothing but bright, and much success (both individual and team) is on the horizon.
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