(Post updated at the bottom)

The 2010 Seattle Mariners have become laughably bad.  It’s one thing for a poorly run, underfunded, perennial loser to be this terrible, but quite another for a Mariner team that was supposed to be very much in the hunt at this point.  And while the offense wasn’t supposed to be a strength, it wasn’t supposed to be this bad.  The Mariner hitters have performed below their projections right across the board.

Justin Smoak was acquired to give Seattle a legitimate middle of the lineup threat for years to come.  Of course, you wouldn’t know that by just watching him.  Since joining the Mariners (16 games) he’s hitting .159/.169/.270.  His plate discipline has gone in the toilet as he’s chasing pitches out of the zone 11% more often than he was with the Rangers and he’s drawn just one walk (1.5%) compared to a very good 13.8% walk rate with his previous team. Meanwhile, his strikeouts have shot up about 12% with the Mariners to 36.5% (very bad).

But what has struck me the most about Smoak’s performance just by watching is the popups.  Only one of Smoak’s outs yesterday was an infield popup, which actually lowered his infield fly percentage down from 33.1% to 29.4% (and that obviously doesn’t include the many balls he pops up that sneak into the stands in foul territory).  Smoak’s popup percentage was already high with the Rangers, but it’s been intolerable since joining Seattle.  Even counting his Texas totals, Smoak ranks second in baseball in popup percentage behind Vernon Wells.  Really good hitters don’t give up many outs via the popup, which is why you’ll find many very good hitters at the low end of that leader board.  Joey Votto, remarkable, hasn’t hit one all season.

Am I concerned about Smoak?  Of course not.  He’ll be fine.  I just find it funny.  The Mariners have been so terrible that they drag everyone down with them.  Smoak has hilariously accrued -0.7 WAR in just 16 games.  That’s impressive.  Really.

Learn to laugh or you won’t survive another one of these seasons.

Addendum:

Geoff Baker with some timely stuff from Smoak:

Smoak told me this has been the most difficult adjustment he’s ever had to make in baseball.

“Right now, I’m just trying to figure things out,” he said. “I have different days. Some days I feel great. The next week I feel terrible. I’m just trying to go through the ups and downs, trying to figure things out. And hopefully, it gets a lot better here soon.”

Smoak said he isn’t all that concerned about stats.

“I’m just trying to get comfortable,” he said. “Some days, I’ll get comfortable and the next day I won’t. I’m just trying to find a happy medium and hope to go forward from there. I’ve never been this bad before in my life.”

Smoak said it’s a matter of identifying the one or two hittable pitches in each at-bat that he can take advantage of. He hasn’t been doing that. He’ll go into so many counts, he said, and quickly fall behind 0-1 and 0-2 because he letas good pitches go by, or swings at bad ones.

“A big part of my game is drawing walks,” he said. “I can’t even remember the last time I drew a walk. I think my strikeouts are so much higher than my walk totals now and I can’t remember that ever happening to me.”

Obviously, none of this comes as a surprise given the numbers we just looked at.

Smoak is being humbled right now.  Just about all big leaguers were the best players on their teams and in their leagues growing up and for the elite prospects like Smoak, this can carry deep into pro baseball.  But at some point players go through something like this where they realize they’re not the only good player on the field.  A lot of times this will happen as a player hits the upper minors, and many times it happens more than once.  Smoak had some trouble in the minor leagues, but his ascent was so quick that I’m not sure how much it affected him.  Now he’s at the highest level and playing like someone who doesn’t belong.  It’s not fun to look at and will cause some of you to worry, but it’s a necessary progression and I’m sure he’ll come out the other end just fine.

Smoak seems to have his head on straight, which should help.