Smoak trying to make sense of changes in the game
Baseball in the COVID-19 era is certainly strange, and Justin Smoak got his first in-game taste of just how different it will be on Wednesday.
After homering off Shelby Miller in the Milwaukee Brewers' first situational scrimmage, the newcomer rounded first and second base as usual. Then things went off the rails. “The other day – you're hitting against your own teammates, so it's kind of weird to just run around the bases – but seeing the third-base coach (Quentin Berry) back off, then I got home and they were trying to give me foot taps or something like that and I wasn't with that,” Smoak recounted Friday.
“It's just something that we're just going to have to get through. Hopefully there's a chance we have some walk-off hits and walk-off homers (this season), but we're not going to be able to do the whole dog piling on home plate.”
Smoak was signed to a one-year, $5 million free-agent deal to become the team's primary first baseman in the offseason.
Being in such close proximity to others at that spot as he attempts to hold baserunners on with a coach and an umpire also in the vicinity never even registered with the 10-year veteran before.
Now, something even that basic has taken on new meaning during a pandemic.
"I definitely know I'll be closer to guys more than others, and I'm not going to wear a mask on the field and stuff like that," he said. "It's something that might get thought about but it's just a different world right now.
"It's tough. It's not going to be the same game of baseball that we're normally used to playing. So I think mentality wise, it's something we're going to have to think about differently to try to do what we can do day in and day out to be as good as we can be."
The 33-year-old Smoak had no extra-base hits and a .238 average in 21 Cactus League at-bats before spring training was scrapped. Then he did his best to stay sharp physically during the three-month layoff back home in South Carolina.
Hitting wasn't at the top of his list. "I did take some swings one day in the garage of the house off the tee, but yeah, that wasn't even worth it," he said dryly.
So to be able to step in and produce against live pitching with only four days' worth of batting practice was a good start.
"I did no live hitting away from the team, so these last few days have been the first time," Smoak said. "I mean, of course you work on things to try to get better and right before I left camp me and (hitting coach Andy Haines) talked about a few things and I kind of kept that going while I was home.
"Honestly, I feel better now than I did in spring training. Hopefully, I continue that."
Milwaukee's hitters received no breaks once they reported to Miller Park as they had to face the best the team has to offer in starter Brandon Woodruff and reliever Josh Hader in live batting practice the very first day.
The switch-hitting Smoak was among those with some ugly swings. But he has over 4,000 career at-bats under his belt and he'll cross the 200homer mark for his career in this truncated season if all goes as expected, so there certainly is no panic on his end despite the season opener in Chicago looming in just two weeks.
"l'll be honest with you, facing some of the guys we've got, it's not easy," Smoak said. "I feel like every guy is 95 to 100 (mph). Hopefully for us as position players, facing these guys gets us ready maybe a little quicker than the most just because the talent on the pitching staff I feel like is really, really good."