7 years agoAfter a massive breakout in 2017 at age 30, the fantasy community was wondering how much Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Justin Smoak could carry it over to 2018. After seven games, the answer seems to be a lot. In a 4-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday, Smoak continued his hot start by finishing 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. He’s now slashing .385/.467/.808 with two home runs, five runs scored, and nine RBI across 30 plate appearances to start the season, though that needs to be caveated with the fact that he’s walking less (10 percent versus 11.5 percent in 2017), striking out more (26.7 percent versus 20.1 percent in 2017) and getting incredibly lucky on balls in play (.500 BABIP versus .285 in 2017). Still, as of now, the results are there, and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down. He obviously won’t be this hot forever, but it seems safe to say his 2017 viability will play throughout 2018 as well.--John Smith
Source: ESPN