The Case for Chris Smith

Sunday's loss to St. Louis was a downer, to be sure. The Cards used a severely off-game Daisuke Matsuzaka as their own personal launching pad for the first two innings, and though they were held to only one run after that, the Cardinals still came out on top. The story of the day for me, however, was the debut of young Chris Smith.

Prior to his call-up last week as a replacement for the DL-bound Bartolo Colon, Smith had pitched himself to a pretty line in Pawtucket, the result of 2+ solid years in the system. Let's have a look.

Season Team W L ERA G GS IP H R ER HR BB SO
2006 (AA) 9 6 4.05 20 20 115.2 114 57 52 9 29 78
2006 (AAA) 1 1 3.21 7 6 33.2 33 16 12 2 9 23
2007 (AA) 6 9 4.41 30 14 104.0 126 57 51 10 42 80
2007 (AAA) 0 0 1.80 2 0 5.0 5 1 1 0 0 2
2008 (AAA) 1 2 1.52 22 4 41.1 29 8 7 3 7 40

If you can read through my horrible table, you'll notice that despite a few inflated ERAs at Portland during 2006 and 2007, Smith is not a bad little pitcher. True, they are his largest samples, representing his longest seasons in professional baseball, but as a middle reliever with sold command of his off-speed pitches and a passable fastball, he has upside. Also, both AA seasons saw him used as a starter, and he certainly doesn't have the makeup to have exception success or utility in such a role. This season's numbers from Pawtucket are, I believe, a a greater indication of his usefulness in the 'pen. He averaged just under a strikeout per inning, and only gave up 29 hits in all of his 41.1 IP. That line is nothing to sneeze at, and those numbers combined with his performance on Saturday, give him upside.

He came into the game in the second inning with the bases loaded and no outs, and promptly sends Rick Ankiel to the bench on three swinging strikes, none of them fastballs. Unfortunately, Troy Glaus does his best imitation of his 2000 season and deposits the ball beyond the fence for a grand slam. Now, we've all seen what can happen when a young reliever makes his debut and stinks up the place within the first few pitches (Cla Meredith, anyone); it can be a difficult thing to recover from. Smith, however, has his wits all about him and goes then next 3.2 innings without letting up a run, and only two hits after that bomb by Glaus. My mother-in-law also pointed out something that should be all-important. He made the plays at first base, scampering over several times to take the feed from Youkilis, something several of our upstanding prospects have failed to do in similar situations.

Chris Smith is a kid with some promise. Given the recent movement of Mike Timlin to the DL and his overall ineffectiveness, Smith is my homer pick to stick with the big club.