Jake Smolinski

[30plus]

Putting up a solid .273/.371/.448 (.819 OPS) line in AA with 5 HR, and a 20/23 K/BB ratio over 166 PA. Seems like he's been somewhat forgotten after a fairly mediocre year in Jupiter last year (I still think they should have taken the Coghlan route with him and had him skip Jupiter). He's still only 22 and those peripherals project to translate well. Plus with P.J. Dean pulling a Houdini, he's basically the last chance at winning that trade. Boner didn't become the next Castillo. Who would have thunk it.

 

He's playing all his games at LF in Jacksonville, but I wish they would start giving him a few games at 2B again. He's obviously more valuable there and he may factor into the Marlins plans next year with Infante probably leaving. The question is whether he's good enough defensively to play there. He wasn't particularly good in a limited sample size as a 19 year old in the Nats organization. Only played a handful of games there for Greensboro in 2009. That said, if he can maintain something close to his present ISO (.175 in AA), with his OBP skill set, he could still end up being a 2 WAR player if he's slightly below average defensively and everything else goes right. Kid is a solid prospect.