Alias Smith and Leone (thanks Spec)
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"Nothing is ever solved by violence." - Army student
"On the contrary. Most of history's greatest problems, such as Adolf Hitler, were solved by violence." - Army officer, Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers
"You call me a bad baseball face one more time, I'm gonna rip your lips off." - Carson Smith
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So we got our first look at Carson Smith. His performance, that is, not his baseball face.
The bullpen has become a stark raving embarrassment. McClendon yanked his starter in the FIRST inning, and his junior varsity his frosh squad locked down the A's for 8+ innings, one run. Like, Taijuan and Beimel and Carson Smith. He didn't even touch his first bullpen, or his second. EIGHT innings?
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Smith's delivery:
- Big goofy doughboy lookin' guy ...
- ... who is horrifyingly light on his feet
- Rolls himself into a potato bug on backstroke, hyper-curved spine (cf. Randy Johnson)
- Ridiculous short-arm transition
- As herky-jerky an acceleration as you will ever see
- Lifts elbow too high, yet comes sidearm via 3B
- "Good luck trying to hit that," as McClendon said
Carson Smith's motion is exactly the same as Jeff Nelson's, except that it's all totally different. Weirdness predominates. It's almost a slam-dunk that this guy will fan 11 men per nine innings and walk 5.
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Google Spec's site, Mariner Brainstorm, for Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Carson Smith. The boys at BaseballHQ say:
- Physical relief pitcher with exceptional groundball and K rates
- Very tough to make hard contact against, due to low 3/4 angle and FB/SL combo
- "Violent" delivery which keeps him in bullpen and rarely adds and subtracts
- Thrives with 2 offerings
- FB exhibits heavy sink, while hard SL is impact pitch at any level
"Violent" delivery. That'll do for us too. Webster's defines "violent" as "using or involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something." How do the Mariners get so many relief pitchers, all with such varied entertaining personalities? :- ) Carson Smith, the violence in the Mariner bullpen... Jeff Nelson was a violent pitcher, too.
Need we even remind you? When a guy who looks like this is a violent man, you've got huge trouble. I don't want to be in the same zip code when he snaps.
He only walked 13 guys in 43 innings at Tacoma. Used as a ROOGY, we have little doubt that he'd be Bullpen Weapon #9 for McClendon, even in the postseason.
Embarrassing,
Dr D