Kody
Smathers

Smathers is a Inlande Empire product who works on the same staff at Summit High School as another arm at this event Dylan Harrion (Clemson Commit), but the athletically built 6'2 192 lbs. righthander was solid during his outing. Another clean mover on the mound who syncs his hands and front leg in the load portion of his delivery showing tempo in the operation. He moves down the mound with tempo and body control getting length with his stride into foot strike and effectively using his lower half while staying online in the delivery. His arm path is smooth and quick working to a 3/4 slot without recoil after release. His control was sound living in and around the zone with consistently smaller misses when he was out of the zone. His arsenal is fronted predominantly by a 89-91 MPH FB at present which he controls to both sides of the plate and showed a feel to work up and down with (but does play better down in the zone vs. up in the zone) and then his 79-81 MPH SLD which he exhibited really strong feel for the pitch. He throws a low 80's CHG which he has exhibited feel for in the past, but on this day he primarily focused on using his FB/SLD to attack the 5 hitters he faced. Facing Bruin Agbyani to open the outing he got to a 3-2 count against the polished LHH who took some of the best at bats of the day before walking him and then after getting Cooper Fleming to whiff on a SLD he attempted to elevate a FB to the LHH who stayed inside it for a 2B to LCF and I was able to see how Smathers would respond to a brief spat of adversity with a trio of solid hitters to follow including two more LHH. The response was very good as he first picked up a K against his teammate Harrison who he got to whiff on a pair of FBs before punching him out with a SLD that picked up another whiff. Next came the LHH Caleb Danziesen who he spun 3 straight SLDs to and froze him on all 3 pitches for a strikeout look and then closed the inning by striking out his 3rd hitter going FB out of the zone for a chase from McCoy Silicz then got to 2K and locked up the powerful RHH with an inside FB for a strikeout looking. Smathers shows a solid present feel for his pitch arsenal, control of his delivery, clean arm action that all combine to make him a strong starter profile, but the key for him is going to be how the life off that arsenal continues to develop on what his future will look like.