Parker Smith

School: Rice
Commit/Drafted: Never Drafted
Age At Draft: 21.4
BA Grade: 45/High
Tools: Fastball: 45. Slider: 50. Changeup: 55. Control: 55.

Smith is a 6-foot-4, 230-pound righthander who has anchored Rice’s rotation for multiple years and been a strong strike-thrower for three seasons. He owns a career 3.96 ERA over 220.1 innings and 40 starts with just an 18.9% strikeout rate but an impressive 6.8% walk rate. Smith works from an up-tempo delivery and throws with a loose and whippy arm action and low three-quarters slot. He sits in the 90-94 mph range with his fastball and will top out at 96 with sink and running life that makes the pitch more of a groundball-inducing pitch than a real bat-misser. As expected from his walk rate, he does a nice job establishing the fastball in the zone to set up a solid duo of secondaries, which includes a solid 80-85 mph slider that he lands to his glove side and a firm, upper-80s changeup that he locates down and to the arm side. The slider was his best swing-and-miss pitch this spring, though his changeup’s tumble and fading life could make it his best secondary in the long run. Smith uses the slider more against righties and the changeup more against lefties but has impressive feel for both. Smith’s lack of strikeouts and power caps his ceiling a bit, but he has a solid back-of-the-rotation starter profile.