First Base

First base was very disappointing for the Mariners last year offensively. Casey Kotchman showed little signs of life with his bat, and reinforcements in Russell Branyan didn’t arrive until later in the season. Then on June 9^th, the Mariners received one of the biggest pieces to the franchise. 

Justin Smoak

The 24 year old switch hitting Justin Smoak arrived in the Cliff Lee trade from Texas. The young man from Goose Creek, South Carolina is projected to develop a very powerful bat. He appears to be a lock at first base on opening day.



Smoak did not put up the prettiest offensive numbers over his first Major League season finishing with a .218 AVG. When he first came over in the Cliff Lee deal, he hit .159 in his first 63 at bats as a Mariner. Seattle then sent him down to AAA to work on his swing. This appeared to be successful.

He returned to end the season on a tear. He hit .325 in September and October. In his last 10 games he hit .441 with 3 homeruns earning a hit in each of those 10 games. Ending the season on such a hot streak appears very promising for the upcoming season.



We could also see the 24 year old left handed hitting Mike Carp see some time as a back up to Smoak. Carp hits for decent power but poor AVG as well. He finished with 29 homeruns and .257 AVG for AAA Tacoma. I got the chance to watch him play quite a bit and he can hit the ball a long way. Tacoma has huge outfield walls and is pretty large. There were some balls he hit that cleared the wall by a large margin. He would be a cheap option that is already in our system.



There are also some appealing guys that the Mariners could pursue via free agency. Some possible guys are Jorge Cantu, Adam LaRoche, and Troy Glaus. These guys would be much cheaper compared to big names like Adam Dunn, Derek Lee, and Carlos Pena. A guy like this we could stick at DH and as well at 1^st base on Mr. Smoak’s off days.



Justin Smoak will be the Starter opening day! All these other names would simply be backing up Smoak and seeing time at other positions. I couldn’t imagine a scenario where he is not the starting first baseman. I am expecting big things out of him this season and for him to provide some much needed pop in the middle of the lineup.