Eric Wedge, early in the year, said he didn't want to put Smoak in the 4 hole because it would put too much pressure on him to be the producer of the offense, the HR hitter. The RBI man.
I scoffed at this, stating bluntly that Smoak was our best hitter, so he needed more RBI opportunities. Sure, he was hitting great out of the 5 hole but he was starting off too many innings as the first 4 guys failed to produce runs, and his HRs were solo jobs.
He needed to hit 3rd, or 4th, so that there was at least the potential for guys to be on base for him, because nobody behind him was driving him home either.
Batting 5th (comfort level GREAT): .290/.360/.460
Batting 3rd (comfort level EH...): .230/.320/.440
Batting 4th (comfort level AHHH!): .120/.230/.170
Wedge was right. Smoak also had his father's death and his thumb injuries to deal with, but he changed his approach when he hit 4th and it did him no favors.
Asking a guy with a couple hundred at-bats in the bigs to be your RBI man puts pressure on him, and he's already under pressure, both internal and external.
I'm not concerned about Smoak's power (he has plenty) or his batting eye (it'll be fine) or his attitude (also good).
Justin damaged both thumbs, lost his father, took a ball off the face, and still posted a 105 OPS+ in his first real season. If he'd broken his hamate bone and sapped his power that way no one would have been surprised. Well...you can't swing a bat at full power with busted thumbs either.
I would not want to trade Smoak even if we did somehow sign Fielder, but I guess it would depend on what void we were filling. Since I don't expect to get Fielder, I'm looking forward to seeing a healthy Smoak tear it up in his 2nd full season.
And probably while hitting 5th. I'd love a vet cleanup hitter, though. Ackley should hit 2nd or 3rd, Carp can hit 3rd or 6th, but I'm dying for an RBI man in the 4 hole who's done it before, so he DOESN'T put too much pressure on himself as a rookie/second year man.
Fielding a lineup almost entirely made up of players with less than 2 full years experience (Smoak, Jaso, Carp, Wells, Ackley, and Seager could all be logging significant starting time) is asking for trouble.
And we ran into that trouble last year.
~G
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