Mar 03 2007 10:53 AM
Joe Smith[url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/03032007/sports/mets/hes_no_average_joe_mets_kevin_kernan.htm?page=1] continues to impress[/url] and Guy Conti offers some philosophical insight. What's the difference between a swing-and-miss pitch and a put-away pitch?
| ] HE'S NO AVERAGE JOE METS' SMITH MAKES MARK March 3, 2007 -- JUPITER, Fla. - So I walk up to side-arming Joe Smith, and playing the part of the wise guy, say, "Joe Smith. That's the most common name in America." "I've heard that my whole life, but I've never met another one," the Mets reliever answers with a smile, although he did admit to collecting all the Joe Smith basketball cards he could get his hands on and wore the jersey of the 6-foot-10 NBA forward when he was a kid . Baseball's Joe Smith continues to make a name for himself. He had another strong outing yesterday in the Mets' 6-5 win over the Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium. The Mets are taking it slow with the rehabbing reliever Duaner Sanchez and Smith's stock continues to rise as the come-from-nowhere story of the spring. A year ago at this time Smith, 22, was playing college ball at Wright State. Now he is the right man in the right place. The right-hander throws first-pitch strikes, and, here's the key, pounds the strike zone low and gets batters to swing and miss at pitches that are in the strike zone. That is a huge measuring stick for the Mets. Not all strikes are created equal. It's one thing for a batter to swing at a pitch out of the strike zone. You see that a lot in the minor leagues; that's why minor league strikeout statistics can be so misleading. "Major league hitters don't swing at those pitches," explained Mets bullpen coach Guy Conti, Rick Peterson's right-hand man. It's quite another for a batter to swing and miss at a strike. That is something the Mets watch closely. "He looks to me that he is not intimidated at all being here," Conti said of Smith. "He throws the ball over the plate and he starts throwing ground ball after ground ball, that's what we need. I look at three things: swing-and-miss pitches in the strike zone, ground ball to fly ball ratio and a put-away pitch." Smith has shown all three. He pitched the seventh inning yesterday and got a grounder to short, a strikeout looking, gave up a two-strike single on a high changeup and then froze Preston Wilson for strike three on a slider, his put-away pitch to right-handers. Smith's changeup is his put-away pitch to left-handers. As Smith came to the dugout, Willie Randolph was the first to greet him with a congratulatory fist pound. It's too early for Randolph to get excited about any minor league pitcher, but the manager did say: "If he can attack the bottom of the [strike] zone he will get those ground balls naturally. I like what I see." "Pound it, and ground it," is how Smith put it. Here is your key statistic of the day, courtesy of Conti: "Major league hitters hit .190 at the bottom of the strike zone. That's why we want to keep that ball where they have the most trouble with it. We have a better chance of getting them out." Smith is not intimidated, but sometimes he looks around and can't believe he's in the same clubhouse as Tom Glavine, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, David Wright and Carlos Delgado. This is the same Joe Smith who was having a few chicken wings and a beer with friends, watching the Mets play the Cardinals last October in the NLCS. He gave up only one earned run in 20 innings last year with the Brooklyn Cyclones. "It's crazy," Smith said. "Especially when I first got here, it was like, 'What am I doing?' I just tried to stay out of the big boys' way and stay low key." On the mound, though, he attacks the hitters. "It's hard to pick up his arm slot, and he gets ahead of you," Mets outfielder Ben Johnson said. "Then he throws that slider. He's got good stuff and he's a good kid, too." Smith lives in Cincinnati. His pitching hero is Greg Maddux and he grew up a Cubs fan. He came up with the sidearm angle at Wright State, "goofing around in the bullpen one day" in 2004. Now he's got a major league career in front of him |
