MLB Draft notebook: Cam Smith showing well rounded approach, Josh Hartle struggles, random synergy numbers

More looks at the 2024 MLB draft includes Florida State's Cam Smith.

Heading into their weekend series against the Clemson Tigers, the Florida State Seminoles remain the only undefeated team in college baseball.

One of the reasons for that is third baseman Cam Smith, who will be eligible for the 2024 draft.

After striking out 28% of the time last year, there were questions on whether he could make better contact to really unleash his full potential. He put up a 12% strikeout rate in the Cape Cod League, even slashing .347/.406/.575 and hitting six home runs.

Now, back with FSU, not only has Smith been one of the best hitters on the only undefeated team left, he’s been one of the best in the country.

After playing in their midweek game on March 19, Smith is slashing .476/.543/.756 with six home runs and five doubles while batting in the two-hole for the Seminoles. He’s currently eighth in the nation in batting average and has the third most hits.

He’s also cut the strikeouts in half, with a 14.9% rate currently.

Reading some of the scouting reports about Smith going into the season, knowing the swing-and-miss issues, it seemed like he would be a power-over-hit guy who would need to cut down on strikeouts to make it at the next level.

While there is certainly power still there, I was surprised at how well-rounded a hitter Smith can be in the games I’ve seen from him.

More specifically, he was willing to use the entire field, including going the other way.

Below are several hits from earlier in the season of Smith simply taking a pitch the other way for a hit. Once or twice, here and there is one thing, but it’s been consistent all season for Smith, a big reason for his .476 average.

That being said, he’s still fully capable of turning on a pitch, and the final video below is him driving a ball out of the park for one of his six home runs on the season.

Smith is a player I kind of stumbled upon on YouTube during a late-night binge of baseball videos. After what I saw, he was one of the first players I wanted to check out during the season, and he’s certainly impressed.

There’s still some fine-tuning that is needed with his approach, he still reaches out the zone and misses here and there, but there is no denying he’s improving.

The walks are also a bit low, and we will see how the power numbers finish up while trying to cut back on the strikeouts.

He is flashing a more well-rounded approach at the plate, although while knowing the power there, Smith has some interesting upside that could go in the middle-to-late part of the first round.

He’s currently ranked 25th, 21st (among college players), and 18th by MLB Pipeline, Prospects Live, and Baseball America, respectively. He has the majority of the ACC schedule to continue to cement his status among the best hitters in the nation.

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It was another rough weekend start for Wake Forest Friday starter Josh Hartle. After starting the year as the top-ranked pitching prospect for Pipeline and Baseball America, there’s a chance he falls out of the first round altogether.

Drafting Hartle wouldn’t be for his upside but for his floor as a back-of-the-rotation starter.

So, seeing him struggle this badly against college competition doesn’t bode well for him going forward.

He doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but the ability to command upwards of five pitches was his main appeal.

In two ACC starts, he’s allowed 12 earned runs on 19 hits and three walks in 5.1 innings pitched.

Granted, it was against two of the better offenses they will face this year, but it was not ideal for a pitcher some were saying could make it to the majors faster than anyone else in this class.

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A couple of random stats courtesy of Synergy on D1Baseball.com;

Hagen Smith has a 72.4% whiff rate with his slider this year. The fastball whiff isn’t half bad either, finishing just short of 50%.

Trey Yesavage and Jac Caglianone have a 66.7% whiff rate with their change-up. Yesavage also has a 58.8% whiff rate with his cutter—a lot of swings and misses are being created by the East Carolina product.

The slider is a well represented pitch when it comes to 2024 eligible players. Not only Smith but also Brody Brecht (4th, 61.6%), Luke Holman (5th, 60.6%), Chase Burns (6th, 60.4%), and Jonathan Santucci (8th, 58.4%) all ranked in the top 10 in whiff rate of pitchers with at least 100 sliders thrown.