Checking in with Giants’ Smith, Law
By joshjacksonmilb
By Josh Jackson / MiLB.com
A story on MiLB.com today takes a look at the curious case of Kyle Crick, who not long ago was the top prospect in the San Francisco organization but may be relegated by command issues to the bullpen.
We checked in with two other Giants prospects in Scottsdale last week.
Smith still Augusta’s homegrown talent
Early in camp, Andrew Baggerly of the San Jose Mercury News delivered a fantastic, in-depth account of Jake Smith’s journey from groundskeeper at Class A Augusta’s Lake Olmstead Stadium to pitching prospect. In front his locker in the big league clubhouse, Smith reflected on that experience and more.
On pitching in Augusta in 2014:
“It was pretty awesome. In the end of Spring Training that year, we found out really late where we were going. It was exciting, because I had spent the past two season in extended. It was really exciting knowing I was going home, and I had an opportunity to pitch on the mound that I fixed. It was a pretty cool experience. It was a really good experience. Not everybody can say they’ve gotten to do that. I spent a lot of summers out on that field helping prepare it for games, and then being on the other side of things, and getting prepared for games, it was pretty cool.
“My first outing, I guess it was pretty good, but I walked the first hitter. I remember that, because I was so nervous. I was pretty amped up. I faced a kid from the Yankees. We were playing the River Dogs. Gosuke Katoh is actually who it was… I ended up walking him. I got through the inning pretty clean, but I was just really amped up and ready to go.
“Not everybody gets to play in front of their hometown, so I realized how special that time was and really tried to cherish it, because I didn’t realize how special it would be growing up and being able to play in front of everybody, and then going to college and not being able to. Being able to come back for pro ball and having the opportunity to play in my hometown, that was pretty awesome.”
On how he was able to put up a 2.35 ERA in the Cal League last year:
“It was a lot of the time I spent with [former Augusta pitching coach Steve] Kline and the [organizational] pitching coaches, trying to just gather as much information as I could and then asking people who had been to higher levels and been to that level before me. They just told me, ‘You’ve got to keep the ball down. You’ve got to learn how to pitch there.’
“I kept that in mind and tried to learn as much as I could before going there, because I’d had a really short stint [in the Cal League] the season before, and it didn’t turn out too well. I took what I learned during that offseason and said, ‘OK, I’ve got to learn how to pitch.’ That’s really what I tried to go do. My cutter developed pretty well there, and I was able to throw my curveball for strikes, and then locate my fastball. That was a big thing for me.”
On bringing in a fourth pitch:
“I do throw a changeup occasionally. It just depends. I like to use it in the right situation, because I have my pitches that are my go-tos. I’ve been working on a chanegeup, especially this offseason, I spent a lot of time working on my changeup. But I’m a firm believer in, when something works, you build your strengths to be the strongest as they can be. A changeup’s not one of my strengths right now, so I’m trying to build that up to be a strength, but still at the same time, working on my other pitches.”
On MLB.com naming him the Giants’ №30 prospect:
“Actually, one of the guys, Chase Johnson let me know. I didn’t know that. Especially coming from where I did, being able to do that is pretty cool.”
On the differences between big league and Minor League Spring Training camps:
“The workload is pretty similar. Here, they want to get it done the first time and do it the right way. There’s a lot more of that pride of getting it done the first time and getting it done, whereas, Minors, there’s a lot more younger guys that haven’t been through it maybe once or twice or that have forgotten things. Here, they’ve been through it, and most of them have won three World Series titles. They know how to win and how to get things done the right way.”
Law on the rebound after Tommy John surgery
Derek Law, the son of former Minor League hurler Joe Law, missed from June 8, 2014-June 21, 2015 to receive and recover from Tommy John surgery. The 25-year-old righty is looking forward to his first full season in three years.
On time away:
“It’s good to be healthy and with the guys again. It’s something that you miss when you’re rehabbing. You miss all that time, and you just miss all the camaraderie with all the guys.”
On coming back from surgery:
“I wouldn’t say too much has changed. With the rehab process from Tommy John comes along tough things to deal with like you lose some focus on the strike zone and things like that. But that’s sort of coming back now, so it’s kind of nice. For the most part, I haven’t really changed much. I think mentally, knowing that I’m back out there and I can throw again is nice.
“I think it’s just you put in the work rehabbing, it’s just such a long process, and you expect everything to be perfect right away, and it’s not going to be. Taking a year off, you basically have a new arm, so it’s like you’re trying to learn to throw again in some ways. It is nice having a feel for the strike zone again.”
On using his father as a resource:
“Since growing up, he was always the one to go to, and you know, we’d get in fights a bunch of times. ‘Why didn’t you throw a first-pitch strike?’ Or, ‘Why didn’t you throw this to this guy?’
“I’m like, ‘Man, you’re not throwing anymore. You can stop. It’s my game now,’ but it’s really nice to actually have that. We have so many people here like that, but it’s nice to actually have that personal someone to go to when you’re thinking of something or you’re going through a little rut. He probably knows me best. He knows how my mechanics work pretty well.”
On picking brains in camp:
“I just kind of noticed that [Jeff] Samardzija actually throws similar to me. [Johnny] Cueto does, too, so it’s like a fine line in between for me, I feel like. I haven’t really had a chance to talk to them much about it. I talked to Jeff a little bit, but for the most part it’s just watching them and their deliveries and stuff likes that. When something’s going wrong for them, it’s pretty similar, so that’s pretty much what I talked to Jeff about the last time. I said, ‘When something happens wrong, what is it for you? And he said, ‘Sometimes I have trouble pulling off from the ball,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, me too.’ It’s nice to have two pitchers to relate to like that in camp, because the last couple years, I didn’t really have that.”
