Transformation Tuesday: 2018 LHP Ethan Smock
December 12, 2017
One of the things I enjoy most is tracking a player's progress throughout their high school career. Getting the opportunity to see a player multiple times leads to us being able to feature the player's strides they make in their pursuit of playing at the next level.
Welcome to Transformation Tuesday, a weekly feature that will include a player who has made big strides over the course of their high school career. It may be an uncommitted player, or one who has already committed but made huge strides from the first time we saw them.
Kicking this feature off is uncommitted 2018 LHP Ethan Smock (Logan County HS).
Scouting Report
6/14/17 - Max FB: 86, FB: 83-85, CB: 71-73
6-foot-2, 160-pound LHP (2018, Logan County HS) showed a significant jump in velocity over last summer when he sat 83-85/86 with good arm-side run on the fastball. Smock also showed a 71-73 mph curveball with sharp 1/7 action that he got 3 swinging K's on. Smock is one of the top uncommitted lefty's in the 2018 class as there upside in his lanky frame to go along with his current velocity and pitchability from the left side.
6/16/16 - Max FB: 83, FB: 78-82, CB: 64-70,
6-foot-1, 155-pound LHP, slender frame with room to fill out, uses long arm action and works through a high-3/4 slot with minimal effort, showed an increase in velocity from previous event, fastball has occasional good arm-side run, throws his curveball with confidence and locates it down in the zone well with 2/8 sweeping break, had an impressive outing throwing two hitless innings while walking a batter and striking out four (all looking, 3 FB, 1 CB) Smock has the potential to develop into one of the top left-handers in the 2018 class.
6/30/15 - 6-foot, 145-pound, lanky lefty uses long arm action and works through a ¾ arm slot that produces some natural arm-side run on fastball, minimal effort in delivery, fastball sat 77-79 mph, tends to slow arm on 64-65 mph curveball with 2/8 action, curveball was erratic at times (hit two batters), showed a 68 mph changeup with some sink, allowed no hits but hit two batters and walked one while striking out four (all swinging on FB’s) in his two innings of work. Smock is a young lefty to follow closely. He is somewhat raw, especially the secondary pitches, but as he continues to develop has a chance to emerge as a top lefty in the 2018 class.