Meet the Prospects: Dustin Ackley (1B/OF UNC-Chapel Hill)

Continuing the series here at IHOB, it’s time for you all to meet Dustin Ackley, a junior from the University of North Carolina. Ackley has earned back to back All-American honors, and is considered one of the top hitting players in the nation. He was a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes award in 2008. Ackley is probably better suited for the outfield due to fact he doesn’t have the outrageous home run totals that are expected of first basemen. Ackley hit .417 in his sophomore season, the highest the Tar Heels have had since Brian Roberts hit .427 in 1997. While that was impressive, he is the only Tar Heel to ever hit over .400 for more than one season. Ackley displays good speed stealing 11 bases his freshman year and following that up with 19 stolen bases his sophomore year. He has a good amount of power hitting 17 home runs and driving in 125 runs in his 2 full seasons at North Carolina. Ackley shows great patience with an On-Base Percentage during his first two years at UNC of .475, so he gets on the bases a good amount of times and he only struck out 48 times in the 574 at-bats he had in his first two seasons at North Carolina.

So far this season for Ackley he has hit 11 home runs, driving in 34, he’s stole 9 bases in 11 attempts, and is getting on-base at a 50.8% rate. He has moved up in most mock drafts thanks to his season so far and the slow start by Grant Green who I introduced you to last week. Most of the drafts I’ve seen have him going to the Mariners with the second overall pick. Of course, I haven’t seen Ackley play in person, but from the stats I have looked at and reviews from scouts, he sounds like a player you’ll be seeing in a few years roaming the outfield for a major league team. Next week look for a preview on Kyle Gibson, a pitcher for the University of Missouri.

Here's a video of Ackley:



FYI: I will be writing up previews on mostly college players as it is a lot easier to find stats on them than it is to find stats and information on the projected High School selections. But I will look for any information I can find on them and send it along to you all.