Indians pitcher grateful for WSU career

Joe Smith’s professional record:

FAIRBORN — Joe Smith lost almost all of his junior and senior high school seasons in Amelia, Ohio, with shoulder troubles. He injured his labrum, tried to rehabilitate it, tore it and underwent surgery.

By the end of his high school career, he just wanted to play Division I baseball. Former Wright State coach Ron Nischwitz then came to watch him pitch late in his prep career.

“He said, ‘Come on down, and we’ll work with you,’ ” Smith said Thursday in the quiet of the Nutter Center’s Berry Room. “That was such a big thing for me.”

That opportunity started Smith on a path that has led to a big raise in the offseason, new optimism for him and the rest of the Cleveland Indians and a pride point for the Wright State baseball program. Smith touched on all of those topics Thursday evening as the keynote speaker for WSU’s First Pitch banquet, a fundraising event for the WSU baseball program.

Before beginning his fourth season with the Indians, and coming off of a season of a 3-3 record and 2.01 ERA, Smith has a new one-year, $1.75 million contract that boosted his salary from $850,000 last season.

It was a journey that began when he arrived at WSU just hoping to play at college’s highest level.

“All I wanted,” he said, “was a chance.”

That turned into a three-year WSU career from 2004-06 during which he was twice named the Horizon League’s Pitcher of the Year and helped the Raiders to a 2006 league tournament championship and berth in the NCAA tournament.

The New York Mets made Smith a third-round draft pick after the 2006 season, and by 2007 he was at the major-league level. In five seasons, he has compiled a 14-10 record and 3.15 ERA.

“I think just being given the opportunity,” Smith said about his career highlight. “The opportunity to pitch and fail and then run back out there. You just can’t replicate experience.”

Now, with an Indians bullpen that has more experience as a unit, Smith said he is optimistic about the group’s 2012 prospects. That was buoyed, he said, by the October promotion of bullpen coach Scott Radinsky to pitching coach.

“He’s really done a good job of working with the guys to make sure we have the right personality,” Smith said.

A season after going 80-82 with a second-place finish in the American League Central Division to the Detroit Tigers (but 15 games back), Smith said the bullpen’s strength will be its consistency. Cleveland ranked fifth in the American League last season in ERA (3.71).

“We have guys who come from different angles and all over the place,” he said. “We’ll be throwing strikes. If you can hit us, we’ll tip our cap and walk away. But more often than not, I think we’ll be successful.”