Cam Smith, Houston Astros
The 22-year-old was a first-round pick in last year's draft, but Cam Smith broke the Astros roster out of spring training after being traded to Houston in the Kyle Tucker trade.
At the time, nobody expected to see Smith In the big leagues so soon. However, he did enough in the spring to earn himself a starting job in right field for the big league club. In 43 spring plate appearances, he hit .342/.419/.711 and had a 1.129 OPS.
However, Smith hasn’t experienced the same success through his first 17 plate appearances in the regular season. He has struck out 35.3% of the time and has just 2 hits. These stats are very discouraging, but it has not been all bad for Smith.
His bat speed has clocked in at 73.2 mph which puts him in the top 30% of big league hitters. Likewise, he is hitting the ball hard when he does make contact, with an average exit velocity of 91.9 mph, well above the league average. In addition, he has shown good plate discipline with a scant 20% chase rate thus far.
A potential culprit for why Smith hasn’t gotten the results his exit velocity numbers suggest he should is his ground ball/fly ball ratio. He has a 75% ground ball rate and a 25% fly ball rate with no line drives. Smith wasn't a ground-ball hitter in college, and these ratios will level out with a bigger sample size. Even though Smith’s box score numbers are underwhelming, his raw talent at the plate is already showing. The results will follow soon enough.