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Smoak and Saudners were born 2 weeks apart in 1986.
Smoak is a gifted baseball player.
Saunders is a gifted athlete.
Smoak took a smooth glide path through the minors.
Saunders was pushed up the ladder because the Bavasi regime had no one else to promote.
Smoak first played AA at age 22; Saunders first played AA at 20.
Saunders was called up to the majors in July of '09 at age 22, about the same time Smoak went from AA to AAA.
Smoak was called up in April of '10 at age 23.
Even with all that, Smoak still had to be sent back down last year at 23 because he was lost at the plate.
Saunders is younger than Matt Mangini.
Saunders may never "get it" -- but his career to date has done him a disservice, as he's never had a chance to consolidate his gains; he always just gets pushed back up the ladder.
Way back when he first started making a splash I figured his potential outcome was a LH Cammy, but a few notches down on the glove.  LH Cammy is a good thing in my book.  I think he could still get there, but he should be where Mangini is now -- just knocking on the door of the majors -- not struggling to stay afloat on his third go-around.