The Overlooked Seth Smith

An apology is due here, and I’m sorry. I whiffed on Seth Smith in my American League outfield rankings, even though those are mostly for 5×5 formats. I nearly blanked on him in my home league as I barely set my lineup in time, and it is an on-base percentage league! This type of mistake won’t happen again with Smith, mostly because he’s too productive to be forgotten.

Now in Seattle, Smith’s left-handed power plays better than his previous home at Petco, but is still roughly league average on the home run index. Still, he should prove to be an asset in OBP leagues and as Ben Duronio noted last year and Paul Sporer this season, Smith is valuable in traditional and daily fantasy sites alike. Presuming Smith gets platooned in right field with a combination of Justin Ruggiano or perhaps even Nelson Cruz, that should minimize the time Smith faces left-handed pitchers. As a matter of positional context, from 2012-14 there have been 132 outfielders with a minimum 500 plate appearances against righties and Smith rates as an upper echelon outfielder in many aspects.

	BB + IBB	2B	HR	RBI	wRC+
2012-14	142	73	30	118	122
Outfield Rank	13th	T-10th	T-46th	T-48th	T-28th

While his home run and RBI totals are uninspiring, his doubles and walks provide plenty of value, especially relative to his draft position or DFS price. Smith is available in over 85% of CBS leagues and over 95% of ESPN and Yahoo! formats. He is currently priced at $3,900 on DraftKings and on FanDuel Smith goes for $2,900. Both numbers for the two largest DFS sites represent approximately 8% of your allotted budget. The AL West has a good number of pitchers for Smith to pick on as LAA, TEX, HOU and OAK all project right-handers as three of their top five starting pitchers.

Taking a look at the projections via our depth charts, the Mariners are tabbed to score 4.13 runs per game, ranking 13th in baseball. Given the new offense in town, I’ll take the over on the runs scored projection, especially given the heart of the lineup against righty pitchers. In his sole game this season, Smith hit second, directly in front of Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager, all of whom have plenty of pop to make the most of Smith’s OBP skills. Given that Smith, Cano and Seager are lefty swingers, starting a right-handed pitcher against the M’s may not be the best idea. If Smith continues to hit near the top of the lineup then he certainly needs to be owned in more fantasy leagues and utilized as a DFS player every time Seattle comes across.