than A-Gone, at least early-career A-Gone. He just is. Adrian Gonzalez was in the Paul Konerko sort of hitter for me - doesn't walk as much as he should given his strengths, but still does plenty of damage. The last couple of years Gonzalez has gone to another level, walking far more and punishing mistakes a bit better. He looks like he's climbed out of that hitter family - a learner, as you said.
I'm having trouble with Smoak's "family" of hitter. Is he Thome-class? Will he swing at more pitches and bump his Ks up in order to max out his power scale?
Being a switch-hitter, he shouldn't run the giant splits that Thome or even A-Gone have. I can't even imagine a Thome batter with no same-handed weaknesses.
I don't think he's gonna club like Thome, though. Line-drive percentage, swing plane...not really Thome-like. The comp that is always made is the lazy one - Teixeira. But you look at Teix's career and what Smoak looks like, and think, "Can Smoak put up a .900 OPS against lefties and righties, hit 40 doubles and 35 HRs a year, have a decent power-hitter average and play good D?"
Yeah. I'd like to think he can, scarily enough. Not this year, but soon.
That stupid Teixeira comp is the one that makes sense. Sometimes lazy can still be right, I guess.
And if Smoak decides to walk a hundred times a year, as A-Gone has, instead of Teix's 80...oof.
He's got a loooot of ground to cover before we even get to that point, but right now Smoak's revving his engine in the early season and making Jack look good on that Lee trade. Here's to several more months like these past 2 weeks for him, as he continues to grow right before our eyes.
~G
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