Will Smith: Poster Boy of Dodger Development

Correction, the Dodgers are home tomorrow against Cleveland,not in Cleveland. Also give a Sasaki a chance before he even throws a pitch. Hopefully he might shock all of us and if he doesn’t succeed he is willing to go to Oklahoma City to work on his pitching flaws.On a positive note Wrobo will back him up if he falters. I still believe in the young man as a MLB starter.

Dodgers receptionists when Smith came to the FO. Receptionist “Who may I say is here?” Smith replies, “Tell them Willy-boy is here.”

Now, it is “Sir Will.”

When he was drafted I hoped Smith would become our Posey. He has now matched him in rings. It’s time to separate. One of the best Dodgers of an era. The captain.

Or Tyrannosaurus Will!

From SI: Brock Stewart facing batters While the Dodgers don’t anticipate Stewart returning for multiple months, he started throwing bullpen sessions during Spring Training and on Friday progressed to facing batters at Dodger Stadium. “Used his entire pitch mix, I thought the stuff was really good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Stewart’s session against Alex Call and Dalton Rushing. “I didn’t look at it from behind, but just given the swings, it was a very productive live session.” Roberts added Stewart likely will need to complete a second round of live batting practice before possibly starting a rehab assignment. Assuming the right-hander doesn’t experience any sort of setback, he should pitch to hitters again before the Dodgers end their homestand next week. Stewart’s continued progress has him ahead of Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips. Graterol was projected to be healthy this spring after missing all of 2025 while recovering from his own right shoulder surgery, but encountered trouble when attempting to pitch off a mound. Meanwhile, the Dodgers already knew Phillips wouldn’t be available until later in the season due to having Tommy John surgery last June. As for Stewart, he’s looking to not only bounce back from what became a shortened season because of surgery, but also overcome a long history of injuries throughout his career. Stewart previously had Tommy John surgery in 2021, dealt with more right elbow trouble in 2023, and multiple shoulder issues in 2024. Stewart was among arbitration-eligible players who the Dodgers agreed to a contract with for the 2026 season. The 34-year-old is not due to become a free agent until after the 2027 season. Stewart is in his third stint with the Dodgers organization after being drafted by the team in the sixth round in 2014. Though, he didn’t pitch for the Dodgers or any of their Minor League affiliates during the second tenure in 2021 because of having Tommy John surgery.

I thought Smith would beat out his competition as he rise in the organization because of his speed. I hope Freeland and Sirota become regulars and winners.

Will “Game Wrecker” Smith What I enjoy about Will is that he is a quiet and unassuming person, but he can rip the heart out of a team with one, quick, compact swing. He became a favorite when he first came up to the Dodgers and had several walk off hits. I believe in one series that season the team had three walk offs in a row. All by rookies! Will was one of those rookies. I’m sure Bear will fact check that for me. Carry on

Gervase & Hurt might be ahead of him on the depth chart. Kelly & Kopp not far behind. Best part of 2026 season has been the bullpen, Scott included.

Or “Big Willy”,Future Hall of Famer.

Freeland is my favorite player, but I have no expectations that he will be anything more than a utilityman. I just love his story: “He may never walk” to “MLB Player.” Anything else is icing on the cake. He’s my first favorite player since one Clayton Kershaw. I seldom have a favorite player. Clayton became my favorite player when he talked to my son and me for about 10 minutes during his Rookie Year, then asked if we wanted a signed ball, ran to the outfield and back (from 1B) to get it, and signed it. He still has the ball.

In today’s game it’s hard to to have a favorite player on your favorite team! They change teams so much! But Clayton will always be my favorite. Right now I have to say that Mookie is tops on my list with Freddie right behind him. Glasnow is my favorite pitcher. But a shout out to Freeland! Hope he wins the second base job ! Good looking ball player! Dodgerdad

He’s now raising his own Dodger Fan (Van):

On June 1st, 2019, my sis and I, my brother Steve and my aunt, went to see the Dodgers play the Phillies at Dodger Stadium. Kersh started against Jose Alvarez of the Phillies. David Freese was leading off and playing 1st base. Smith, who had been called up on May 28th was catching and batting 8th, right in front of Kershaw. To show you how different the team was then, Muncy was batting 2nd, then Taylor, Bellinger, Kike, Seager, Verdugo, and Smith. Dodgers got a run in the third, then the Phillies tied it with a triple by Hoskins and a Realmuto single. LA went back up 2-1 when Freese hit his 5th homer of the year off of current Dodger, Cole Irvin. LA added a run in the bottom of the 7th. Urias replaced Kershaw in the 8th and gave up a 2-run homer to Harper. In the bottom of the 9th, Neris replaced Dominguez. He retired Verdugo. Smith then hit a 2-2 pitch into the left field bleachers for his first career homer and his first career walk off hit. In June, the Dodgers would win 3 consecutive games against the Rockies on walk off homers by rookies. Friday night, it was Beaty, Saturday night an 11th inning walk off by Verdugo. We went to the Sunday afternoon game. With the game tied, 3-3 in the 9th, Smith PH for Jansen and hit his 3rd homer of the year, a 3-run shot to right center to win the game. His second walk off. I had no clue what he would become, but at that point, I thought he was much better than Barnes or LA”s other catcher at the time, Russell Martin. He out homered them 15-11. And nearly drove in as many runs, 42-45. He also hit .253 with a .907 OPS. What amazed me is that he did not get a single ROY vote.

Freeland got into that HR the other night. Also showed off a rocket arm.

Quit having favorites after my last favorite player, Garvey, left in free agency. My loyalty now is with the team. I respect Kersh more than most other players since he always gave LA the home discount even though he could have gone to the Rangers and been closer to home. My two all-time favorites are Duke Snider and Koufax. If I were to have favorites, Smith would be high on the list since he is A. Home grown, and B, LA’s best catcher since Piazza.

I will take the liberty of rejoining Mark’s site. I hope I am welcome. Just a comment on the ABS Challenge System which I have always been critical of from the time it was suggested some years back. My skepticism comes from having 2 different strike zones in play simultaneously. Now the HPU is supposed to have the same zone of ABS, which they don’t. Yesterday CB Bucknor again was horrible calling balls and strikes. That’s nothing new to all of us. How he keeps his job, through all of his post-game evaluation, is a mystery to us all. Now the news is full of his incompetency based on 8 challenges in a game with 6 calls overturned. SIX calls fixed. Umpire Scorecard had him at 77% called strikes called accurately. There appears to be 24 missed pitch calls. So that means about 16 pitches were actually missed and stood as called. If the purpose of ABS was to get all the pitches called correctly, the Challenge System is a failure. I guess the goal was to turn each challenge into a side-show and not actually get all pitches called correctly. Full-time ABS for me please.

You are always welcome, Phil, and CB Buckner is the poster child of how to call balls and strikes… as wrong as possible.

Thank you Mark.

Griffey jr. was one I always wanted to be a Dodger! He lost over 2 full seasons because of injuries and still hit over 600 homers. No accusations of steroids. A complete baseball player! Maybe Bonds was the best to some ,but everything even, give me JR. I’m not including Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Clemente in this conversation because I didn’t watch enough of them to rate them. I do know they were great players. But Griffey was exceptional ! And by the way Bear, Garvey was my favorite pitcher before Clayton. Just like Piazza, it sucked when he left!

Full time is probably coming at some point. I’ve always thought it should be Full-time or nothing because of umps like Buckner, but at least they’re fixing the egregious ones.

I remember when Fox Sports reported we had traded for Randy Johnson.

Baby Faced Assassin.

Third base ump missed a clear check swing call on Freeman just before he hit his double for an RBI.

I know you meant to say player, not pitcher. Before Garvey my favorite was Koufax.