Smithcraft: Observations on Joe Smith

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'll open with special guest observations from the sometimes great Marty Noble.

Notes: Smith a man of ritual

Right-hander has extended process of uniform preparation

By Marty Noble / MLB.com

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/images/2007/04/14/qAv79797.jpg Joe Smith has yet to allow a run in 17 appearances entering Sunday's action. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

PHOENIX -- The ritual began while Joe Smith was learning his craft at Wright State and regularly enduring a rather benign wardrobe malfunction. The bottom of the legs of his uniform pants would ride up and show more of his socks than Smith preferred. He found it necessary to make an adjustment.

That one adjustment, almost unnoticed when it began, has begat a series of uniform pulls and tugs that, over time, have become a ritual for the Mets rookie reliever, one that is neither inconspicuous or rare.

Watch him. After each out, except the final out of an inning, Smith walks to the first base side of the mound, faces the rubber, bends at the waist and "fixes" himself.

It is a four-stage process that executes with almost drill-team precision. First, he tugs at the bottom on his pant legs -- one hand on each leg. Then he adjusts the bottom of his "sliders," the long shorts worn under his uniform for protection again sliding burns (were he ever to reach base and need to slide). Again, one hand on each leg and a tug, another move of symmetry.

As he stands straight, Smith then appears to adjust the front of his belt when it fact he is trying to conceal an annoying tag inside the waist of his uniform pants. Stage 3 of the ritual also is a two-hand operation.

And, finally, standing straight, he adjusts his cap with two hands. One, two, three, four. And only then will he return to the rubber and go about his business.

The whole idea began innocently enough because of a need to feel comfortable in his uniform. Now, though, if Smith doesn't perform the four-stage ritual, he feels uncomfortable in his own skin.

"When I got to Brooklyn [his first Minor League assignment after he was drafted last summer], I figured I'd stop so I wouldn't be made fun of," he says. "But the first time I didn't do it, I pitched horrible. So I said 'Let them get on me. I'd rather pitch well.'"

His Mets teammates have noticed, of course -- little goes unrecognized, and all is fodder for clubhouse jockeying. But they hardly need ammunition. As Paul Lo Duca said, "He's a rookie, we've got all kinds of things."

* * *

Smith's performance has made him a conspicuous rookie. He has yet to allow a run in 15 1/3 innings and, even when he has allowed inherited runners to score, mitigating circumstances have existed. The first scored on a Baltimore chop by Edgar Renteria April 7. Renteria couldn't get a good swing on Smith's slider.

No other of Smith's first 13 inherited runners scored. But he allowed two to score Saturday night when pinch-hit Miguel Montero hit a double in the seventh inning of the Mets' 6-2 victory against the Diamondbacks. That hit wasn't tainted. But Jose Reyes had dropped a ball at second base before he could make a relay to first base for what would have been an inning-ending double play.

Marty Noble

is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

[metirish]

I'll watch for all that,but maybe it's not shown on the tele,baseball players are an odd bunch.

[Willets Point]

Someone explain to me the baseball rules on how runs are charged to a particular pitcher. They say that Smith hasn't allowed a run yet this season, but what about this sequence in Saturday's game? Hairston doubles, Young walks, Smith replaces Sosa, Snyder grounds into a fielder's choice erasing Young, and then Montero doubles scoring Hairston and Snyder. Now Snyder never even batted against Sosa, shouldn't that one run be charged to Smith?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Snyder belongs to Sosa because he replaced Young on the bases.

If Sosa hadn't allowed Young to reach base, Smith would have been able to retire Snyder because he would have been out at first.

[metirish]

There was an error in there,I can't remember what happened,was the error before Smith came in?

[Willets Point]

No errors for the Mets in that game, although a take-out slide caused Reyes to drop the ball preventing a double play.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Errors as a matter of practice, aren't scored on DP relays, no matter how egregious the misplay. The scoring rule is that double plays are, by definition, extraordinary, and can never be assumed. I guess the exception is if the batter runner reaches second, perhaps if your relay goes into the crowd and hits Mrs. Olberman.

[Benjamin Grimm]

But an error can be scored if the misplay prevents even the first out of the double play.

In other words, you can assume the force out, but not the double play.

[Theoldmole]

How close is Smith to the record for most consecutive scoreless innings at the beginning of a career?

[metirish]

TheOldMole wrote: How close is Smith to the record for most consecutive scoreless innings at the beginning of a career?

That's a Met career,right?,I vaguely remember Gary talking about this,Joe has pitched 15.3 scoreless innings,IIRC the record is 19?

[Theoldmole]

I was actually wondering bigger -- National League record, Major League record?

But who has the 19?

[Willets Point]

Generic named bump.

[A Boy Named Seo]

SNY and my girlfriend Julie Donaldson (don't tell Squinty) had a thing on Joe's quirky uni routine a couple weeks ago. Ballplayers are a strange bunch.