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Justin Smoak Hopes To Build On Career Year
7 years agoOf all the breakouts we saw in 2017, Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Justin Smoak was among the most surprising. Smoak was always a solid player, but turned into a fantasy monster out of seemingly nowhere last season to the tune of a .270/.355/.529 slash line with 38 home runs, 85 runs scored, and 90 RBI. We’ll save you the trouble of looking up his career statistics by telling you each of those figures was a new career-best, by a wide margin. It’s tough to fathom Smoak repeating those numbers, but another productive season is likely in the works. There were improvements in Smoak’s 2017 game that went beyond the box score; Smoak made more contact (79.2% overall contact rate), struck out less (20.1% strikeout rate), and hit more fly balls (44.5% fly ball rate) than he has in years. Seemingly, Smoak should once again crush the ball in 2018 - but regression to some degree has to be expected.
