T-Rat Talk: Russell Smith

MLB Draft week is an exciting time for a lot of young baseball players as they take a key step towards starting their professional careers. The Brewers will select 21 players across the draft’s three days, and in the months and years ahead many of those players will appear with the Timber Rattlers.

The 2022 Timber Rattlers alone have featured three players the Brewers selected in the 2017 draft, four of the organization’s top nine picks from the 2018 draft, three of their top nine from the 2019 draft, one player selected in the abbreviated 2020 draft and six of their first eleven selections from the 2021 draft, including each of the top three. The third of those three, pitcher and former #51 overall pick Russell Smith, made his professional debut for the Timber Rattlers in April.

Smith signed his first professional contract shortly after being drafted last summer but the Brewers did not assign him to an affiliate, instead keeping him at their facility in Arizona to work towards a 2022 debut. The 82 1/3 innings Smith threw for TCU during the 2021 college season were already more than he had thrown from 2018-20 combined across college and summer league assignments.

“I feel like the biggest thing about that is it’s a lot different throwing bullpens and not competing to hitters. You can do a lot of things in bullpens, locate pitches well, but really you don’t have any feedback from hitters and that is the biggest thing. Once you get back into throwing in games it’s like ‘all right, how do hitters react? What do I need to throw to guys?’ and really just competing every pitch. It’s a lot different from bullpens when you’re trying to work on stuff and get better,” Smith said.

Smith said the long gap between regular season appearances gave him a lot of time to focus on his body and work on getting better. Nonetheless, when he took the mound in Beloit on April 14 he faced a major change in opposing talent, going from the Big 12 to an advanced professional league.

“It’s a big jump, for sure,” Smith said. “You’re facing better hitters with an approach, they understand what they’re doing. But at the end of the day, I feel like for me it’s figuring out what I do well and trying to capitalize on that. What hitters don’t do well, if that fits well, that’s what I’m going to do, but really going out and competing is the number one thing.”

2021 2nd-round pick Russell Smith tossed 4 shutout innings in his professional debut on Thursday for the @TimberRattlers. He punched out 4 while racking up these 13 whiffs. pic.twitter.com/zK1faWtxk5

— Brewers Player Development (@BrewersPD) April 15, 2022

Smith started his professional career with high expectations: Baseball America ranked him as the #14 prospect in the Brewers organization entering the season, and Keith Law of The Athletic had him at #18. MLB Pipeline has since moved him up to #16, and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs listed him at #24. On top of the challenge of adjusting to a new level and living up to that praise, Smith said he put pressure on himself to go out and perform early.

“This game is really, really hard and for myself I tried to put more pressure and expectations on myself than I really had to do. I think that’s why I struggled a little bit at first but now I’m getting into some better footing. I had a lot of conversations with a lot of people, (Timber Rattlers manager Joe) Ayrault, Will (pitching coach Will Schierholz), and (development coach Patrick) McGuff and some other players about just ‘don’t put any more pressure on yourself than you have to.’”

Smith showed flashes of his potential early in the season, logging four scoreless innings in his first outing on April 14 and allowing just one hit across five frames on May 7, but also had some difficult outings. On June 1 he pitched six innings for the first time as a professional, however, and in the five starts since then he’s posted a 2.92 ERA and logged 28 strikeouts against just five walks over 24 2/3 innings.

“I think the biggest thing, I talked to Will (Schierholtz) and I talked to Joe (Ayrault) about being aggressive, trusting my stuff and just going pitch by pitch and not living and dying by one pitch. After a pitch happens, let it go and just throw the next one,” Smith said.

Smith said the transition from his rough start to his current run is his biggest point of pride from this season.

“Honestly, I’m just kind of proud of how I’ve turned the corner,” Smith said. “Really, I didn’t start the year off well at all, and now I’m kind of getting into stride and playing like I should. You know, it’s not how I wanted to start the year, but it’s a good opportunity to learn. I think that’s the biggest thing I could take out of this year is just how much I’ve learned.”

Another sharp outing for Russell Smith on Saturday, going 6 strong with 6 Ks and 0 BB 👏

In his last 3 starts he's posted 16 Ks and just 1 BB pic.twitter.com/FlDG16v0DZ

— Brewers Player Development (@BrewersPD) July 5, 2022

Off the field Smith has a different source of pride: He’s the father to a young son. As such, he has a different set of life experiences from many of his teammates.

“I think for myself, I’m a little more mature in how I do things. I go to bed a lot earlier,” Smith said. “But at the end of the day I feel like I get along with the guys pretty well. Things might be a little different, but at the end of the day we’re all brothers working toward the one goal, winning games and getting better every day.”

In the weeks ahead another generation of new professional players will follow in Smith’s footsteps, signing their first professional contracts and starting their climb towards the major leagues. Given the opportunity to reflect on his first year as a pro, Smith described the experience as “awesome.”

“Nothing that’s really surprised me, it’s just one of those things where it’s a lot of ‘all right, this is how you do it.’ Just learning how to be in the locker room, how everything should look like and honestly, having Ayrault, McGuff and Will has been great, having people, I don’t want to say ‘hold my hand,’ but kind of show me the ropes and show me how to be a professional,” Smith said.

Smith said he’s always known he wanted to be a professional athlete someday ever since playing baseball and basketball as a child. At 6-foot-7 he still has the fame of a basketball player, but he said he figured out he “was a little better at baseball.”

“Luckily I’ve been blessed that I’m good enough to do it, and I’m really grateful for the opportunity to be in the Brewers organization,” Smith said.