Friday, April 14, 2006

Matt Smith called up

Brian Cashman, good job.

Matt Smith is a 26 year old lefty reliever from Columbus. He was previously a starter, but lacked the secondary pitches and endurance to compete at the higher levels in that role. Last season, he struck out 59 in 54 inning and pitched to a 2.8 ERA for Trenton, and then struck out 33 in 27 inning to a 2.6 ERA for Columbus. He has allowed just one baserunner - a walk - in 3.2 innings so far this year.

He's a pretty good reliever who could go multiple innings in an outing fairly well. In an earlier post, I mentioned that Mike Myers and Ron Villone have both been used a lot lately, and while they have been effective, they can't keep pitching so much so well. It's too bad that the Yankees have bullpen slots clogged up by Wright, Small and Sturtze, because otherwise Smith would help round out a very balanced bullpen of Villone, Smith, Myers, Rivera, Farnsworth, and later Dotel.

At least the organization supports him. Now Torre just needs to utilize his asset.