So the boss (Max) asked me to do a player profile of Justin Smoak. He asked me to do this for two reasons: one, yesterday Smoak hit his fourth double of the season tying him with Stephen Strasburg; and two, because being a Mariners fan, he thought I could compile a better profile on S
moak than he could. There are plenty of reasons to write a player profile on Justin Smoak. He is bad; he is bad and is still the everyday first baseman for the Mariners. He was once a top tier prospect, he was once such a highly ranked prospect that he was the main return for the Mariners when they traded away Cliff Lee.
Max was correct in assuming that I could write a great player profile of Smoak. However, what he did not know is that Dave Cameron, who is widely regarded as a greatest Mariners blogger ever, wrote a profile of Smoak just last week and that I couldn’t do better than him.
So instead of doing a a full profile of Smoak, I am just going to give you some background and, since I will be doing less work than usual, I will also provide a mini-write up on the absolutely hilarious Munenori Kawasaki.
Justin Smoak is 25 years old from Goose Creek South Carolina. He played High School ball with Orioles’ All-Star catcher Matt Wieters and College ball at South Carolina. Smoak is a switch hitting first baseman and was drafted 11th overall in the 2008 first year player draft, signing with the Texas rangers for $3.5 million. He made his major league debut in 2010 with the Rangers. Later that year Smoak was traded to the Seattle Mariners, along with Blake Beavan, Josh Lueke, and Matt Lawson, in return for Cliff Lee and Mark Lowe. Since that time he has been demoted to AAA once, but has spent most of his time in the Major Leagues. Smoak has 1189 plate appearances in the Bigs and 1052 at bats. His batting average is just .221, his OBP is .304, and he’s slugged a paltry .371. Smoak has 39 home runs and 135 RBI and his career WAR is -0.9 (his best single season WAR was 0.6 in 2011). Through 73 games this year his numbers are all worse than his career averages: .202/.267/.332, and his WAR of -0.8 is his worst yet. To put an even more negative spin on these statistics, a few weeks ago Smoak hit a fly ball to right center field that died at the warning track and was quoted as saying he’d gotten all of it and that he couldn’t put any more behind the ball.
Justin Smoak in one word: disappointing.
Munenori Kawasaki is the Mariners backup shortstop, coming over as a free agent at the end of the Japanese league’s season last year. He grew up idolizing Ichiro, and decided that he wanted to play along side his hero and didn’t care what his salary would be or even if he got any playing time. The mariners signed him to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training. He managed to make the team (by leading all hitters in Spring Training going 20-44 with 13 RBI) and was ecstatic.
Kawasaki is left handed and swings the bat in an almost identical fashion to Ichiro. He also looks a lot like Ichiro in his uniform and wears number 61 because Ichiro wears number 51. Kawasaki gets the bulk of his playing time as a pinch runner, but he’s a great clubhouse guy and can regularly be seen doing dances, exercises, and various other other energetic, childish things more commonly sighted in Little League dugouts. He is a bad Major Leaguer but everyone loves him anyway, and he may be the most exciting Mariner to watch this year, despite the numbers. His slash line currently sits at a worse-than-Smoak .186/.262/.203 in 65 PA, 59 AB. He has one extra base hit on the season, but numerous .gifs that make it all worthwhile. If you don’t know about Munenori Kawasaki you should, and if you watch him for a minute or two you will understand.
Munenori Kawasaki in more than one word: Hilarious mini-Ichiro.
-David Ringold
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