Smoak optioned to AAA

[spareparts]

He is batting .189.

I hate to see this because, in the Tanner era, I don't think I have ever seen a PURE HITTER as good as him. And one hell of a glove too. He was, in my opinion, "most likely to succeed".

Hope he can get it together. Again. What a hard ride it's been for him.

[Metalrush24]

yeah.. this week was not a great time to put him in my fantasy lineup..


it's nice to see the support he's getting from the Seattle fans though.. I hope he can get it together offensively

I think he will

[STEPHONGILMOREFAN!]

That sucks

[mater]

Want to fix it...

Trade him to a team that has a ballpark where hitters don't go to die.

[Carolina_Harv]

Man I was just talking to my buddy yesterday about him too!

[GamecockSkip]

Originally Posted by mater

Want to fix it...

Trade him to a team that has a ballpark where hitters don't go to die.

Having watched several games at Seattle's park, it isn't the ballpark that causes low batting averages. Ichiro lead the majors in hitting for years playing there. I'm betting Smoak will get his swing tuned again and will return to the bigs soon. AL pitching is a lot tougher than college staffs and takes a bit of time to get used to. Smoak is just having some consistancy problems. I saw many times where he would go 3-5 with a couple of RBI's one day and the next he would be 0 fer. He's too good of a hitter to stay down long.

[spareparts]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...class_aaa.html

In the meantime, they announced tonight that first baseman Justin Smoak is headed to AAA. Smoak went hitless tonight and is in an 0-for-19 slump with nine strikeouts over that stretch. His average is down to .189 and his OPS is at .573.

There was once a time, when Smoak was acquired two years ago in the Cliff Lee deal, when people thought his slugging percentage might be what his OPS currently is. And that's never good.

"Hey, this is for him,'' Mariners manager Eric Wedge said of Smoak's demotion. "This is what we feel like is the right thing to do for him right now to give him a break, to give him a different environment without the pressure of the big leagues.

"To where he can go down there and work to get on track, to find it. And to find it with some consistency.''

Get a load of some of the comments. Mariners fans are supremely pissed at their ownership for letting Ichiro go.

Smoak is overweight and out of shape. This boy is lazy and it shows in his play. Sunday he had a 10 pitch at bat. The first two were long fouls in the left field seats then 7 fouls that progressivly became dribblers. The 10th pitch was an excuse me whiff that he could barely get the bat off his shoulder. Run some laps lard a$$

I'm not spending another dime on Mariners baseball for a long time.

I spent $27+ last night on a ticket to watch this team get 3 hits, I think it was. That's why Mariners fans need to say this is bogus. This team has been built by p***ies for years now. I'm so tired of waiting. Smoak is supposed to pan out ultimately. So if he's so OBVIOUS to not be ready, why didn't they just start him in Triple-A at the start of the season? Instead, they've invested a ton of time into him, sold his jerseys to everyone at the stadium, and he's certainly not been their worst hitter.

I'm truly a believer that the team has absolutely no confidence in Safeco field. Other than Casper Wells, there's really no explanation why Ackley, Montero, Carp, Seager, Smoak, and Saunders are not lighting it up at home.

I am totally pro-Smoak. I want to see him be the M's first baseman for the next decade. That's why I totally support his trip to the minors now before his confidence is completely and unretreivably gone. Watching him hit .190 for 4 months was painful, and the last couple of months have been worse not better. He needs to fix it in the minors because it is not working in the majors.

For one, Smoak won a game for you in the San Diego series at home. Clutch, ripped single. Second, he won AL Player of the Week. Third, he leads your team in HRs. Fourth, he is second to Seager in RBI. Anyone opposed to Smoak or ripping on his talents... I really want to see you get in the box.

It seems completely backwards to me to send Smoak down in this season where you're obviously just experimenting and also foolishly not confident enough in Smoak to keep him at 4, 5 or 6, when Smoak is actually leading in HRs. Smoak's shown plenty of promise this season as well as a lot of struggles, which we should all expect. What does he really gain with Tacoma? Maybe he gets pissed and turns it up a notch, but I just find it a waste of big league experience he is obviously ready for.

If you really watched games, you would notice that he has what's referred to as WARNING TRACK POWER, and not just at Home. He hits plenty a ball to the track at other fields too..when he actually makes contact. He usually just looks stupid swinging away at crap over and over again.

If Justin Smoak is our "Most Dangerous Hitter" then this team is in big, big trouble and this rebuild is a failture. Smoak looks silly, is batting way, way below the Mendoza line (he's making Ryan look good at this point), and has only looked good for a week or two at a time in the last 2 seasons.

Smoak needs to go to Tacoma and work on some things. If he struggles there, then trade him away. If he gets things together, then bring him up and give him his last shot. If he fails, then by this time next year he's done.

Again, if Smoak is the most dangerous hitter we have, then this rebuild is a farse and a joke. The only team he is dangerous to is our own team. If Smoak was on any other team he'd have been back at AAA a long time ago.

This team is absurd. I dig Smoak, and believe he's going to be fine within five years. Anyone who doesn't see this is just a d***.

To remove Smoak from the team at this point in THIS season is ABSURD. Boycott this trash. I will not come back to Safeco again until Smoak is back in the lineup.

[FanofCarolina1]

It wouldn't break my heart to see him traded to Atlanta.

[cack]

He needs to get out of Seattle and so does Sidney Rice. That state does nothing but kill talent.

[COCKDIESEL]

Originally Posted by FanofCarolina1

It wouldn't break my heart to see him traded to Atlanta.

So he can back up Freddie?

[cockyjordan3]

This is good for him. He just wasn't figuring things out at the big league level.

[cack]

Originally Posted by cockyjordan3

This is good for him. He just wasn't figuring things out at the big league level.

He was killing it in Texas ... ?

[jdixonfan]

Originally Posted by cack

He was killing it in Texas ... ?

Not really. According to Baseball Reference he batted .209 with 8 HR's and 34 RBIs in 2010. He actually did better after he was traded to Seattle (that year at least).

[pimpingamecock]

This is probably the best thing for him...unfortunatly.

[bigdog2003]

Please trade him to the Cubs

[spareparts]

Justin showed up EARLY in his AAA assignment, just to show him how much of a hard worker he is. Then he went out and was 1-3 with a stolen base.

[Steeler7588]

Damn, that sucks. This reminded me to look up how Landon Powell was doing - not well.

Hopefully JBJ reverses the trend of Gamecock top picks!

[SterlingBrooks]

Of course Im on my way to Seattle and both Smoak and Ichiro are gone.

[GarnetInChicago]

Originally Posted by bigdog2003

Please trade him to the Cubs

I'd actually start going to the ballpark if that happened. It's sad that I live 10 minutes away and never go. But they're just so bad (and not my team, anyway).

[I Bleed Garnet]

Where would the Cubs put Smoak?
Or would they move Rizzo?