On April 1, though, North County added to its list of big-league players when former North Adams SteepleCats reliever Joe Smith made his MLB debut, pitching 1/3 of an inning in an opening-day victory for the New York Mets over the St. Louis Cardinals.
It is difficult, however, for North Adams to claim Smith as its own. He spent only three weeks in the Tunnel City and made a mere four appearances for the 'Cats, who added Smith to their roster on July 15, when they were more than halfway through their schedule.
None of that matters to SteepleCats General Manager Sean McGrath, who is proud to count Smith as the first of his team's alumni to make "The Show."
"I think it means a lot," McGrath said Tuesday. "If you look at the expansion teams of North Adams, Sanford and Vermont, one of our players was the first to make it to the highest level. It's now easier to look at the SteepleCats as an organization where the players really could make it. Our fans, our host families, all the kids could look at a player and think maybe he will one day be a Major League ballplayer."
Sanford and North Adams
Smith's first MLB game was a bit rocky. He allowed a single to David Eckstein, walked Albert Pujols and struck out Preston Wilson. Still, it was a pretty good start for someone who was only 10 months removed from college and had spent most of the previous season with the Single-A Brooklyn Cyclones. Since that April 1 appearance, Smith's improvement has been much like his progression ever since he switched from an over-the-top delivery to a sidearm one in the fall of 2004: meteoric.
Smith got through April with a sparkling 0.00 ERA in 12 1/3 innings. He didn't give up any runs through the first 17 appearances and 15 1/3 innings of his Major League career. His first hiccup came against the Milwaukee Brewers on May 12, when he got rocked for three hits and three earned runs. Since then, he's been as good as ever.
As of June 5, he was 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA and 28 strikeouts through 24 2/3 innings. At first a specialist who often came in specifically to face hard-hitting right-handed batters, he has become one of the Mets' most reliable relievers. Righties are hitting only .133 against Smith, who induces tons of ground balls, a skill that nicely complements the defensive talents of New York's infield.
For anyone who watched Smith during his summer with the SteepleCats or his freshman year at Wright State, his development into a shutdown setup man has presented a lesson in the unpredictability of baseball.
When Smith pitched for Wright and the 'Cats in 2004, he was, according to everyone who saw him throw, nothing special.
"He was throwing upper 80s," McGrath said. "His command was the only thing that ever got him in trouble. He threw too many fastballs over the heart of the plate. He would fall behind early or miss his spots. On the other hand, he had a good fastball and a good slider."
"At the time, he didn't pop out. You never said, 'Wow, he's a high-round draft pick.' But with his size and his youth at that time, you could see he certainly had the potential."
Not much of that potential showed up during gametime, however. Smith got rocked in three appearances during the regular season, allowing 12 hits and 11 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. He was better in the playoffs, when he made one appearance and tossed a perfect inning. Otherwise, Smith was hardly a memorable presence for SteepleCats fans, especially not while fellow relievers Rich Sirois and Jon Settle were regularly coming out of the bullpen and mowing down everybody in sight.
But Smith's going-nowhere-fast baseball career took a surprising turn when he returned to Wright in the fall, and he's been pretty much untouchable ever since.
When Greg Lovelady, the new pitching coach at Wright, first saw Smith in 2004, he wasn't particularly impressed.
"Joe was OK over the top, but he wasn't a good pro prospect," Lovelady recalled in a phone interview on Monday. "He had a really good changeup, but no breaking pitches. He really only had a changeup and a fastball in the mid-80s."
But Lovelady had big plans for the pitching staff at Wright, which has since become a highly successful program and regularly one of the top teams in the Horizon League.
"I played four years and coached three years at the University of Miami," said Lovelady, whose time with the Hurricanes coincided for several years with that of former SteepleCats head coach Laz Gutierrez. "We always had a guy who was pitching sidearm. Coming to Wright, I figured that we didn't have tons of talent. Sidearm is a little gimmicky, but because hitters don't see it often, the pitches are difficult to pick up. I wanted a bullpen guy who could throw sidearm, pitch every day and get a lot of ground balls."
At first, finding someone to switch to a sidearm or submarine delivery was difficult. Lovelady didn't want to mess with the mechanics of any of his top pitchers, and he went through a half-dozen other hurlers who weren't comfortable with a radically new motion.
"Then Joe showed up, and he looked pretty smooth," Lovelady said. "We started giving him half of his work over the top and half sidearm. But once he started throwing sidearm, I lost all interest in the over-the-top delivery."
Smith, who could not be reached for comment on this story, was very hesitant originally but began growing more confident as he grew more comfortable with his delivery. When Lovelady told him he could be the team's closer as a sidearm pitcher, Smith committed to making the switch.
The first result was hardly encouraging. In his first appearance of the 2005 season, Smith gave up a walkoff home run in the ninth inning. That shook his confidence, and a return to an over-the-top motion was considered. But Smith stayed with his sidearm delivery, and it paid dividends three weeks later during a visit to Arizona State.
"We were getting smoked by them, so we just brought him in to pitch the ninth in two games," Lovelady said. "He tore them apart. He made their hitters look silly.
"After that Arizona State game, he was a different person. Before, he was always the last while running. He was lazy and never went to the weight room. Afterwards, he did extra running and lost 15 pounds. He steamrolled from there."
A move to a low delivery is usually done when a pitcher doesn't have a sizzling fastball or a good out pitch. The goal is to sacrifice speed for motion and deception. The shocking aspect of Smith's transformation was that he gained both motion and velocity, a seeming violation of common sense physics.
"Sometimes people's mechanics are just unique," Lovelady said. "It's not very common. It certainly wasn't something I expected. I just thought a new arm angle would allow him to put some more movement on the ball.
"I never foresaw him gaining velocity and becoming a pro prospect, but his speed suddenly went up. First it was 91, then slowly 92, then 93, then 94. Suddenly we had a lot of scouts at our games. First it was only two, then five, then 15. In the course of two and a half years, he went from a nobody to setting up (Mets closer) Billy Wagner and dominating in the big leagues."
In 2005, Smith compiled a 1.10 ERA, eight saves and 42 strikeouts in 32 2/3 innings. He was even better a year later, going 3-1 with 13 saves, 63 K's and a 0.98 ERA in 55 innings. Smith was named the Horizon League's Pitcher of the Year and was then picked by the Mets in the third round of the 2006 MLB Draft. Stints with the Cyclones and Double-A Binghamton Mets followed, before Smith went to spring training several months ago and unexpectedly earned a spot on the big-league roster.
No one had a better view of Smith's pitching during his collegiate career than Bryan Vickers, who was a catcher for both Wright and the SteepleCats. It was Vickers who originally recommended Smith when McGrath went looking for an additional bullpen arm in the summer of 2004.
"He was an over-the-top righty who threw about 84," Vickers, who currently plays for the independent Slippery Rock Sliders, said in a phone interview on Monday. "He had a really good changeup, though, and that's what got him through the first year of college.
"After the switch, he was just straight up filthy. His ball was moving at least six or seven inches, cutting in on righties. And his slider broke about two feet."
According to Vickers, Smith's brief tenure with North Adams played an integral role in his subsequent development because of the advice of Scott Kelly, a long-time SteepleCats favorite who gave Smith some tips on his slider — the same slider that recently struck out Derek Jeter.
McGrath said that he never considered Smith the likeliest player to make the majors when he was in North Adams in 2004. McGrath mentioned former 'Cats like Mike Wagner, Seth Pietsch, Scott Grimes who were far better players than Smith in the NECBL but haven't gotten further than Double-A yet.
"One thing minor league baseball taught me is that whatever you think could happen or should happen with talented players doesn't mean a thing until they actually walk onto a Major League field," McGrath said. "I've seen the best players on minor league teams fizzle out completely. You can never say confidently who is going to make the big leagues."
And therein lies the beauty of the NECBL. When fans watch the SteepleCats at Joe Wolfe Field this summer, chances are they're looking at a future generation of minor leaguers. But no one can deny the possibility that the Major League dreams of the players might lead them one day to a far larger field, just as Joe Smith's dreams led him to Shea Stadium.
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