July 7, 2009, at 2:38 pm
Smooooooooooak on the water, fire in the sky. Of course I’m not talking about the Deep Purple song (because that would just be weird) I’m talking about Justin Smoak. Justin Smoak is a Texas Rangers prospect and he’s about to be the next Ryan Braun.
The 22 year old Smoak graduated from Stratford High School in 2005, he was named by ABCA, Baseball America, and Collegiate Baseball as a 2005 high school All-American. Out of high school Smoak was drafted in the 16th round by the Oakland Athletics but elected to play college baseball for South Carolina. His freshman year he hit .303 with 17 home runs and 63 RBI and was named a Freshman All-American. His sophomore season he hit .315, with 22 home runs and 72 RBI and was a third-team All-American. His junior year, Smoak batted .383, with 23 home runs and 72 RBI. After his junior year, he was drafted 11th overall by the Texas Rangers in the 2008 MLB Draft.
In 2008 Smoak debuted at low A ball and dominated in 14 games batting .304/.355/.518. He began 2009 at AA ball and didn’t find it very challenging, in 50 games Smoak hit .328/.449/.481. He hit 6 home runs and also walked (39) more times than he struck out (35). On July 4th Smoak was promoted to AAA. It’s no coincidence that Smoaks promotion occurred at the same time that Chirs Davis was demoted.
The switch hitting Smoak has drawn comparisons to Mark Texiera and Chipper Jones. His bat profiles as middle of the order and his defense is gold glove caliber. When you factor in that playing in Texas automatically inflates your statistics Smoak is poised to breakout in a big way.
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