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other than to appreciate the discussion and learn from it, but to me Sandy your hypothesis that the M's are pushing Smoak to hit HR's despite that not being his best approach illustrates perfectly what I have been saying all along, 
While theoretically a full-blown Kiddie Corps approach to 2012 to make sure we don't let a blue-chipper get away has a definite logic to it, asking the Kiddies to carry the offensive load without significant veteran help has its own risks. One obvious risk is not having the luxury of letting the Young-uns find their path based on their own skillset. You've gotta plug 'em in the MOTO and your whole season rides on their production or lack of same. You need some HRs? Smoak has got to be a key provider of same. Got to. No batting seventh and figuring it out while the proven vets carry the load.
In the end, you really are risking the development of the potential blue-chippers you're aiming to hoard. I don't want to overstate the problem. A true blue-chipper will likely overcome such obstacles, whether in 2012 or some season soon after that. But that's the point. You don't yet know who the blue-chippers are. At least not for sure.
OK, I WILL overstate it. You can get greedy, saying "I'm going to deploy FOUR (or whatever) young guns in the same season. I don't need no stinkin' MOTO vets." Now all of them can shoot lilke Sundance. But none of them is Butch Cassidy. None of them has yet proven they can go into the OK Corral and come out the other side alive with the other guys dead. In fact, it takes a special sort of wiles (developed by experience) and guts to come out the other side, not just shooting talent.
In the movie Sundance tells Butch, "You just keep doin' the thinking, Butch. That's what you're good at." In other words, "You point the way, you figure out who, what, when, where and how, that'll free me up to worry about one thing...shooting the bad guys."
Back to the OK Corral metaphor, if you go in with four Kids and no vets you're liable to see some of those beautiful shooters go down with bullets in 'em because they didn't have the experience to know how to conduct the fight. If that is indeed what happens, you could look back and in hind sight say they never really had a chance.
Again, I realize I may be overstating the problem, but when I saw your point about Smoak I just had to connect the dots. Both our POV's in this case are hypothetical.