Re: Reds P/U another Twin
[PHP]Basic Statistics
Year Age Team G W L IP TBF H 2B 3B HR R ER BB K ERA RA9
2004 18 Rookie 6 1 1 28.0 118 25 0 9 8 10 43 2.54 2.89
2005 19 Rookie 21 6 1 45.2 172 25 3 12 10 12 86 1.97 2.37
2005 19 A Beloit 14 1 9 49.2 232 58 9 41 33 28 54 5.98 7.43
2006 20 A Beloit 34 7 2 108.1 449 77 17 1 6 48 36 53 141 2.99 3.99
2007 21 A+ Fort Myers 18 1 4 50.2 240 62 17 2 4 40 33 26 38 5.86 7.10
Extended Statistics
Year Age Team BB/PA K/PA BABIP GB% HR/Air FIP BsRA9
2004 18 Rookie 8.5% 36.4% .418
2005 19 Rookie 7.0% 50.0% .337
2005 19 A Beloit 12.1% 23.3% .378 5.83
2006 20 A Beloit 11.8% 31.4% .295 37% 4% 2.93 3.11
2007 21 A+ Fort Myers 10.8% 15.8% .349 37% 4% 4.48 6.00
[/PHP]
(Rookie Ball - Elizabethton Twins)
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
He's 21.............and left handed.
I like the move.
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
Quote:
Date of Birth: October 2, 1985
Height: 6-4 Weight: 205
Bats/Throws: L/L
Aww, he just became one of my faves, his B-Day is the same as mine and we are both LH (in a sense, I write LH & throw RH). Except I've got some yrs on him.
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
I searched yahoo and this is what I found from September 2006:
Quote:
Alexander Smit, lhp, Low Class A Beloit (Twins)
It seems like a long time ago when Smit had a 1.18 ERA in his GCL debut and allowed only 19 hits in 38 innings; in reality it is a long time in prospect land, as that was 2003. Since then, Smit's had a mix of bad moments and dominant moments, and did not spend a complete year in a full-season league until this season. While he began the year in a bullpen role, everything changed in a return to the rotation, as the native of the Netherlands had a 2.43 ERA in 13 starts while allowing just 44 hits in 74 innings and striking out 98. Unlike Baldwin, Smit has taken a major step forward this year, as what was once an upper-80s fastball is now 92-94 mph, to go along with a solid curveball and a developing change. While it seems like Smit has been around for ever, he's still only 20 years old, and next year's performance at High Class A Ft. Myers will be highly anticipated.
Source: Baseball Prospectus
Someone else might be able to find an updated report on Smit, but thats the latest one I saw.
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
Not much new but if you look at his '07 BB/9 (4.62), not too hard to detect the issue he must be having.
He looked good (for about as much as you can see) closing in this June 19th '07 game. (2nd Batter NYY Jose Tabata)
http://http://youtube.com/watch?v=37VHFqmdrOU
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
This is actually a pretty solid pickup by Wayne. Smit is only 21 years old, and is a big lefty (6'3" 210) who throws a 92-94 mph fastball to go along with a solid curveball and a developing changeup. He struckout 141 batters in 108.1 innings (11.7 K/9) last season in the Midwest League. He's struggled this season but is a guy definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
More stuff, coming fast and furious.
4-5-07
Quote:
Young phenom to pitch for Fort Myers on Saturday
By David Dorsey
Fort Myers News Press
The hard-throwing Dutchman has baffled hitters throughout the lower minor league baseball levels over the past four years, growing into a 21-year-old, burgeoning phenom.
Alexander Smit, a left-handed hurler from Holland, will join the Fort Myers Miracle pitching rotation this season. He will do so after joining the Minnesota Twins’ organization as a 16-year-old in 2002.
The Miracle open the Florida State League season tonight at 7:05 against the Sarasota Reds.
Smit will make his first start Saturday night when the Miracle return to Sarasota after opening the season at home Friday night at Hammond Stadium against the Reds.
The back-and-forth I-75 series allows both teams to sleep in their own beds each night.
Smit put opposing batters to rest throughout last season. He compiled a 7-2 record and 2.99 ERA for low-Class A Beloit. He allowed opposing hitters a .199 batting average.
“He’s left-handed, and he’s tough to pick up,” Miracle pitching coach Eric Rasmussen said.
“He needs a couple of different speeds on his fastball. We’ll see how he does now. He does strike ’em out.”
The Twins discovered Smit in 2002, when Smit played for the Dutch under-15 team, preferring baseball over the more mainstream sport of soccer.
“He hides the ball a little bit,” Miracle manager Kevin Boles said. “His fastball has some movement. Left-handed pitchers, they’re at a premium. His stuff stays in the strike zone.
“Alexander Smit has come a long way. He plays stronger. He has a better mound presence.”
Smit has piled up the strikeouts. He struck out 141 batters in 108 1/3 innings last season. He has totaled 364 strikeouts in 270 minor-league innings.
The Twins protected Smit by placing him on their 40-man roster during the offseason. Had they not, other teams could have taken Smit in the Rule V Draft.
“They called me up on Holland, actually,” Smit said of learning he had made the 40-man roster. “I was pretty happy. It was a good feeling to be on there.”
Invited to big-league spring training for the first time, Smit gave up two hits and one run in one appearance.
“He signed so young,” said Fort Myers resident Bert Blyleven, who was born in Holland and raised in California.
Blyleven compiled 3,701 strikeouts over 22 seasons with the Minnesota Twins and three other teams. He has taken an interest in Smit over the past few spring trainings.
“With him coming to major league camp, you feel like he’s progressing,” Blyleven said. “He’s a hard worker.”
Said Smit of Blyleven: “He’s a real good guy. He knows so much about baseball.”
Smit hopes to someday know the experience of playing in the big leagues, like his fellow countryman.
“I love America,” Smith said, “and I love baseball.”
5-29-07
Quote:
OFF DISABLED LIST
By David Dorsey
Fort Myers News Press
Left-handed pitcher Alexander Smit has returned from the disabled list, but lost his spot in the starting rotation. Smit, who has an 0-2 record and a 5.62 ERA in six starts this season, will throw out of the bullpen. Ryan Mullins, Oswaldo Sosa, Zach Ward, Jay Rainville and Yohan Pino comprise the rotation for now.
Dianna
And this is his website! Which if you go to the site and highlight his monthbook he tells of his injury (sprained ankle & Tennis Elbow??) which for whatever reason I could not copy and paste.
http://http://www.alexandersmit.com/
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
Love this move. I have actually been following him for about 3 years now since a friend of mine told me to watch out for him.
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
Quote:
Originally Posted by
degenerate10
Wayne and those Twins
Yes, but this is much better than picking up Castro.
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
It's kind of weird to see Wayne take a Smit.
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dougdirt
Yes, but this is much better than picking up Castro.
Wouldn't anyone be better than Castro?
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
Quote:
Originally Posted by
degenerate10
Wouldn't anyone be better than Castro?
Not Mark Mallory.
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
Damn if I don't dig the Minor league forum! My only one contribution was the adopt a prospect part. But this is where most of my time on this site is spent. I think it is due to the promise even in many cases if it is false. The hope of our Beloved Reds lies with the blood of our kids and in most cases I see a lot of promise:beerme:
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
I like that we're starting him at Dayton. Maybe it's just because we've got a roster spot, but this puts him back to where he's shown success. That may allow him to move forward; the one step back, two steps forward notion.
I think it's jarring that he's got four years as a pro under his belt and yet is just 21. He's got time to move up.
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
Another outdated article about this kid...
April 19, 2005
GENEVA, Ill.--Twins lefthander Alexander Smit is soft-spoken, polite and more that just a little humble. In a age where most big-budget signees spend their first bonus check on an Escalade, or maybe even a house, Smit takes about 10 seconds to think about it before finally coming up with, “Oh yeah. A watch. It was a pretty good watch, though.”
Smit, just 19, is in his first full season with the Twins, and third overall. Signed out of The Netherlands to an $800,000 bonus at 16, Smit represents the first big dip into Europe for an organization that is one of the most aggressive when it comes to acquiring talent from beyond the Western Hemisphere. Howard Norsetter, the Twins director of international scouting, has spearheaded the push, drafting and signing players from Canadians Justin Morneau and Corey Koskie to Australian pitchers Grant Balfour and Mike Nakamura to Smit.
While most professional players take a fairly standardized path to professional baseball, things are a little different when you grow up in The Netherlands.
“I grew up in Eindhoven, a town of about 300,000 about an hour south of Amsterdam,” Smit said in the dugout prior to a game against the Kane County Cougars. “Soccer is big everywhere in Holland, but especially there, where the local team is usually pretty good.” ‘Pretty good’ is an often-used Smit understatement. PSV Eindhoven are the Yankees of the Dutch Eredivisie Soccer League, currently sporting a 23-1-4 record and well on their way to their 18th league title.
Luckily for the Twins, Smit gravitated towards baseball, which is more popular in Holland than most European countries, having produced big leaguers such as Robert Eenhoorn, Rikkert Faneyte and of course Dutch native Bert Blyleven.
“Every town has a Peanut League, which I started when I was six,” said Smit, speaking of the Dutch equivalent of T-ball. “I really liked American baseball, and we could watch the games there on television, especially the playoffs.”
While postseason baseball owns the primetime slot here in the states, once again, things are a little different in Holland. “With the time difference, games started at 1 or 2 a.m. I couldn’t watch all of them, but I always watched the World Series.”
By the time he was an early teen, Smit was a member of the junior national team and excelled both on the mound and at first base. Norsetter first saw Smit when he was 13. At the same age, Smit first saw the possibility of playing professionally. “I was a pretty good hitter, and a pretty good pitcher, so I wanted to come to the U.S. as soon as possible.” Just 16, tall, lefthanded and already touching 90 mph, Smit was much more than just ‘pretty good.’ He became the subject of a bidding war eventually won by Minnesota, who has taken it slow with Smit’s development.
“It’s a different timetable for a player like Smit,” longtime farm director Jim Rantz said. “We started him in the (Rookie-level) Gulf Coast League for 2003, which gave him his first daily structure, with fundamentals in the morning, and games in the afternoon.”
While Smit has struggled in his first two starts for Beloit, giving up 11 hits and 10 runs in five innings, he’s happy with his progress so far. “I’m getting ahead of hitters, I’m just having problems with my curve . . . it will come around.”
Smit’s confidence showed as soon as he arrived in America. Just a few days after he arrived in Florida, Rantz introduced Smit to Blyleven, now a broadcaster with the Twins.
“They spoke in Dutch, which I don’t speak,” Rantz said. “But knowing Bert, and seeing Alexander’s reaction, I’m fairly certain most of it wasn’t suitable for print.”
To learn more about Alexander Smit, you can log onto www.alexandersmit.com, a Website he launched along with a friend who supplied the technical know-how. Not surprisingly, Smit describes the site as, “Pretty good.”
--KEVIN GOLDSTEIN
Re: Reds P/U another Twin
I love his stats --anybody that k's 16 per 9 innings is ok by me ---it's also clear he has an injury. No one can be that dominat at that level and then have all is stats go to heck.
He's the kind of pickup who i would just shut down for the rest of the year. He's been pitching with an injury-there's no doubt about it.
