Smoak’s new address includes rebuilding（Yahoo） - 美國職棒

今天Yahoo Sports的一篇關於Smoak的文章
看完這篇，我想板友會對我們拿到的這位年輕人有更多瞭解跟期待
Smoak加油！
只要你保持認真的態度，你一定會在Seattle得到成功！

By Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports
Jul 17, 1:28 am EDT

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Justin Smoak(notes) – 23 years old, broad-shouldered,
very determined and just a little lost – is what it looks like when today
becomes tomorrow, when the season is gone in July and 70 meaningless games
lie ahead.

He just as easily could have been Jesus Montero(notes), the New York Yankees
prospect. Or Domonic Brown(notes), the next big thing in Philly. Maybe Yonder
Alonso(notes), expected one day soon in Cincinnati.

Instead, it was Smoak who was kicked from a pennant race, from Texas to
Seattle, from 4½ games up to hopeless, from an apartment in Arlington to a
meeting Monday morning with a Seattle real estate agent.

He’s the first demoralizing footfall in the surrender and the first brick
laid in the rebuild, so Mariners fans will be glad to know there’s nothing
in the game Justin Smoak doesn’t believe he can do – or won’t do –
someday. Maybe soon. Hopefully soon.

While the whole thing ended about five months earlier than folks in Seattle
may have presumed, at least tomorrow comes wrapped in 220 pounds over
6-feet-4 inches of power bat (from the right and left), and in a deft glove
hand, and in the most even-tempered country demeanor this side of Goose
Creek, S.C., his hometown.

Smoak is the guy they got for Cliff Lee(notes), who was the guy they got to
topple the Los Angeles Angels, the latter of which turned out to be a
colossal misplay. Five Cliff Lees would not have saved the Mariners, whose
league-worst offense simply has to work too hard to score runs.

As it turned out, over seven months, the trades that acquired and then
jettisoned Lee cost them two minor league pitchers (J.C. Ramirez, Phillippe
Aumont(notes)), a minor-league outfielder (Tyson Gillies) and power arm Mark
Lowe(notes). The trades brought two minor league pitchers (Blake Beavan, Josh
Lueke), a minor league infielder (Matt Lawson) and the young man who a couple
Fridays ago sat in numbed silence when Rangers officials told him he’d been
traded.

“The hardest part was, I didn’t see it coming,” Smoak said. “I was pretty
shocked. You feel like you want to prove yourself to them, prove yourself to
your teammates. Then, overnight, stuff changes.”

He sat in silence for so long that Rangers general manager Jon Daniels
finally asked, “What are your thoughts?”

The truth was, he had none. So he asked, “What’s the next step to get where
I need to be?”

Five minutes later, he was packing for Seattle. A day later, he was batting
sixth for the Mariners against the Yankees, striking out three times in four
at-bats. He was starting over again.

Drafted 11th overall out of South Carolina in 2008, Smoak played in 135 minor
league games before coming to the big leagues in late April. Counting four
minor league stops and now two more in the majors, he’s yet to play as many
as 75 games in any one place.

That’s a lot, fast, even for a talent such as Smoak. He’s called home a
lot, often to his father, Keith, who, among other fatherly services, taught
Justin to hit left-handed, making him a switch-hitter. It’s easy to say
baseball is a game of failure until it starts happening to you. By Friday,
Justin was batting .202, including one hit in his first 12 at-bats as a
Mariner.

“Somehow,” Justin said, “he’s always got that one little thing to say that
’ll make me mad or change the world. Sometimes, that one little thing sparks
something.”

On Friday afternoon, Keith Smoak described the conversations as, “The usual
father-son talks. Sometimes we laugh – or try to laugh – about striking out
on a changeup in the dirt. I’ll say, ‘What were you thinking about? That’s
not like you.’

Justin played 196 college games. Keith attended 192 of them. No one knows
Justin’s swing better. So, there are difficult days, difficult questions and
sometimes no answers. But, my gosh, what lies ahead – that’s where the
focus lies.

“He’s handled it very well,” Keith said. “I’m sure there’s probably a
little anxiety there. Anywhere you go, in any job, you want to be accepted.
But he’s kind of a laid-back guy. He doesn’t let things excite him too bad.
He grew up that way.”

From his own perspective, Keith said, “Every dad wants to know his son fits
somewhere.”

Seattle it is, to the bottom of the American League West, and another
coaching staff, and a whole new set of teammates. Justin Smoak thought he’d
be a Ranger forever, and now he’s got a whole new forever, assuming he
believes in that sort of stuff anymore.

“I always tell him,” Keith said, “his next job is his next baseball field.
Tomorrow’s another day at the ballpark.”

In fact, he told him that just Friday afternoon.

This time the ballpark happened to be in Anaheim, where Justin was hitless in
16 at-bats, and against the Angels, against whom he was hitless in 23
at-bats. In the second inning against Jered Weaver(notes), he got a fastball,
middle-away, and lined it into right field for a single. So, maybe it was
turning. He’d had trouble with off-speed pitches, those changeups in the
dirt he’d not swung at before, but fastballs were different.

Five innings later, Weaver set him up for another changeup. Behind in the
count, 1-and-2, Smoak hit this changeup into the right-field seats. The home
run was his ninth, and his first for the Mariners.

“You know,” he said, “there’s always going to be pressure. At this level
especially, there’s going to be pressure. … Slowing the game down is tough,
especially here. It’s something the good players do. I think where I get
myself in trouble is trying to do too much. I’m big and strong enough, if I
square it up, it’s going to go.

“But I feel like if I work hard, everything will fall into place.”

No matter where that place is. And no matter if it’s already tomorrow there.

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