Toronto Blue Jays- 14/1 Odds to win the World Series: Starting First Baseman- Justin Smoak
I saved my favorite for last and that is the comparison to Justin Smoak. Admittedly, I could have compared him to Edwin Encarnacion, but when Encarnacion wasn’t playing first he has been the Blue Jays designated hitter while Smoak has been riding the bench.
As such, I picked the pure first baseman to compare him to. Just a side note, on this list not one player has had one better stat category than Goldschmidt. Not One. And this includes Smoak. The only 4 stats I need to bring up are hits (Goldschmidt beats Smoak by 115), RBI’s (51), walks (89) and batting average (95 points).
In his 7 seasons, Smoak has yet to register a WAR over 1. Goldschmidt’s lowest was 0.6 in his rookie season and has just kept climbing until it hit a peak of 7.4 in 2015. If Goldschmidt was put into this loaded lineup, I have no doubt they would be playing in the World Series come October. Put him in a mix with Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Troy Tulowitzki and you could legitimately score 10 runs a game.
Next: Christian Yelich ready to contend for batting crown
If Goldschmidt was on this team, they would have by far the best lineup in the MLB today and maybe the greatest since the legendary Murderers Row that featured Earle Combs, Tony Lazzeri, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.