Carlton In Charge

For Double-A Akron right-handed reliever Carlton Smith, his first ever professional All Star game experience was a memorable one. He was added to the team less than a week as a replacement for injured closer right-hander Vinnie Pestano, but his selection was more than deserved as in 24 games he is 4-1 with a 2.60 ERA (55.1 IP, 47 H, 16 BB, 27 K).

Most of all, with the All Star game in Trenton, NJ it was literally just minutes from his hometown so a lot of his family and friends were able to attend.

"It was a good experience and it was good to be home,” said Smith in an interview at Canal Park last week. “I was excited about it getting to see my family and everybody from New Jersey. I did a news interview for a local network and a lot of people from my town were there. Getting to do it there was pretty fun."

Up until this year, Smith had always been a starter. He pitched in relief some with Low-A Lake County in 2007, but those were more piggyback relief appearances that were more starts than relief outings. This season is the first time he is being specifically groomed as a reliever and being exposed to late game situations.

Smith, 23, has been pretty durable and reliable during his five year professional career. The 6’2” 205-pounder’s 12 wins last year at High-A Kinston tied for the most in the farm system, and he had a 26-17 record and 4.30 ERA in 77 appearances (64 starts) coming into this season. With so much experience as a starter, there was expected to be some early bumps in the road as he transitioned to a reliever, but so far that hasn’t happened as he has excelled in the role since day one this season.

"It's going fine,” said Smith about the transition to the bullpen. “I just take it like I am starting except instead of going seven innings I am only going two or three. I just go out there and leave it out on the field. I just do it all the same and just go out there and take the ball and throw it and keep competing."

Smith pounds the zone and pitches to contact with his sinking fastball which consistently hovers around 91-93 MPH. He works quick and gets a good amount of groundball outs (1.61 GO/AO), and while he only has 27 strikeouts in 55.1 innings he is still pounding the bottom of the zone and holding opposing hitters to a .230 average.

He complements the fastball with an above average slider, split-finger, and is still working on developing a changeup. He made strides last year with improvement in repeating his delivery, commanding his fastball, and throwing his secondary stuff consistently for strikes, and all of those areas of his game have improved since moving to the bullpen.

"Yeah, as a sinkerballer I am just trying to get those big swings early to just get them to beat it into the ground and get me out of the game quick,” said Smith. "I feel like everything has gotten a little bit better in the bullpen. My sinker has come a long way and my slider and splitter have gotten better. I guess being in the bullpen has kind of helped."

When Smith was selected by the Indians in the 21st round of the draft in June 2004, his older brother and former top Indians third base prospect Corey Smith was in the system playing at Double-A Akron. As fate would have it, they were never in the organization at the same time as Carlton was a draft-and-follow player who was eventually signed on May 27, 2005, three months after his brother Corey had been traded to San Diego on February 2, 2005.

Today, Carlton is in Akron and Corey is playing at Double-A in the Texas Rangers system. While Carlton never got the chance to play with his older brother Corey, they do often talk about maybe one day getting that chance.

"We think about it all the time so maybe one day it will happen," said the younger Smith, "but if not maybe we will just play against each other."

Photo courtesy of Ken Carr

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