Expecting a bounce back year for Dustin Ackley

By 710Sports.com staff

Dustin Ackley never blamed his offensive struggles on the painful ankle injury he played through last season.

Dustin Ackley

More than anything, he says, it was issues with his swing that caused him to hit just .226 with 124 strikeouts and a .294 on-base percentage.

“I don’t think much of it all,” Ackley told “Bob and Groz” on Monday when asked how much the ankle injury contributed to his hitting woes. “If it was anything it was very minor, not enough to make a really big difference. It was just more of the position my swing was in and things like that.

“I’m sure my foot – it might help a little bit in the long run if it continues to get strong and helps my swing out, but I think last year was just more of a swing mechanical thing than it was injury or anything like that.”

Ackley addressed both issues over the offseason. He had surgery a day after the season ended and and eventually made a drastic adjustment to his batting stance which he says “definitely does look a a lot different” than anything he’s tried in the past.

“When I went and watched the video and watched a bunch of things this offseason it was something that I needed to change,” he said. “I wasn’t going to do the same things I’ve been doing and continue to fail, so I just kind of worked on things that put me in the best position to hit, and this was it.”

Bob Stelton and Dave Grosby like Ackley’s chances for a bounce back year in 2013. They explain why in the video below.

You can listen to Monday’s show here.