Carson Smith, #243, but Talent May Be Much Higher

Jay Yencich · June 7, 2011 at 12:23 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

We got another pitcher here, which is cool. Carson Smith is another name that’s on the Top 200 board. He’s a transfer in to Texas State after a CC stint, so it’s a Fontaine-ish pick. The cool thing that pops out immediately is that he ended the season with twelve straight quality starts. On the whole though, he’s got some issues. Sure, his ERA is 1.99, but his FIP is 3.28, in part because he allowed forty-eight walks in 113.1 innings to go with his 129 Ks. He’s a hurler, high effort, big dramatic delivery, sort of power-slings the ball up there some injury and mechanical issues. I’m thinking that he’s the Tyler Blandford-like pick for this year, hopefully with better health than Blandford, but the reports seem to be that his velocity drops as games go on, so it’s hard to imagine him keeping on as a starter. I would think of him as also comparable to a Mark Lowe-type who starts a couple of years then moves to the ‘pen and becomes much more impressive there.

The national people seem to like the profile more than I do. That’s good by me. He’s a quality arm but it seems like the whole package here falls short of what are interesting pieces (live fastball, big kid, deception, passable secondaries)

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