Seth Smith, Professional Hitter.

Watch any Mariners game that Seth Smith is playing in and you will surely hear the announcers talk about how he is a professional hitter. They will talk about how his batting average isn't great but he gives you a quality at bat and drives up the opposing pitchers pitch count by battling in every at bat. Listening to these baseball prattlers it is easy to think that they are using the professional hitter moniker as a way to apologize for his mediocre batting average. It is like they wants to fans to know that despite his middling traditional stats Mr. Smith isn't that bad without providing any quantitative examples. The things is instead of using subjective descriptors of Smitty's (What can I say? Mariners nicknames are boring) skills they could just as easily shower Seth Smith with commendatory remarks by just listing his nontraditional stats.

First and foremost is his On Base Percentage (OBP). This year as of 6/9/16 Seth Smith has a .378 OBP. That means he is getting on base by a hit, walk, or hit by pitch 37.8% of the time. That is tied for first, with Nelson Cruz, for all Mariners hitters. What I am trying to say is Seth Smith is good at getting on base.

Another stats that highlights Seth Smith's quality is his about Walk Percentage, which sits at 13.9% so far this year. That stat shows clearly that all those at bats he is battling for are actually turning into something more than pitch count uppers. They are turning into base on balls. Seth Smith gets walked at the highest rate of anyone on the team. In fact it is currently good enough for 15th in the whole major leagues, tied with Joey Votto. Like I said before Seth Smith is good at getting walked.

Smitty also has some power. He will never be Boom Stick, but he can get a respectable amount of extra base hits. He is currently slugging .412, which is .38 below his career slugging percentage. We have seen him hit homers this year and I expect we will see him start hitting more doubles. Even if he doesn't a .400 SLG coupled with a .380 OBP is a very respectable .780 OPS. There have been years that M's fans would have killed for a starter with a .780 OPS.

Basically what I am trying to say here is the Seattle Mariners outfielders Seth Smith is a good hitter. He treats his plate appearances with the singular purpose of trying to get on base and he succeeds at a high rate. You could even call him a professional hitter, but just make it clear that it is a compliment and provide some objective evidence.

Sources: Fangraphs.com