Gettin' jiggy with Will Smith

All apologies to him for these references, but you know he's heard stuff like this many, many times before.

Will Smith has gotten jiggy with the strike zone in his short professional baseball career. The guy is the Fresh Prince of control.

Yeah, that was pretty bad. But the point to the puns is the Cedar Rapids Kernels pitcher is beyond his 19 years in not walking guys.

Smith, whose first Kernels start is scheduled for Friday against the Beloit Snappers, has begun to make a name for himself in the Los Angeles Angels organization because he has made a habit of throwing strikes. Smith walked all of six batters in 73 innings last season for Rookie-level Orem.

That helped him go 8-2 with a 3.08 earned run average. Baseball America ranked him the third-best prospect in the Pioneer League.

"For the most part, yeah, I just don't like walking people," Smith said. "It hurts the team, it hurts everybody. If you can avoid walks at all costs, avoid them. I figure you've got four chances to walk them and three chances to get them out. So I like my chances of getting them out."

Sounds like sound reasoning.

"He's just a guy that's very competitive. But off the field, he's very loosy goosy, a great teammate," said Kernels pitching coach Brandon Emanuel. "Once he steps on the diamond, it clicks into gear. He goes right at guys. He doesn't shy away from them at any point, and that's huge for a young kid especially. We've dealt with some kids who have better arms and stuff like that, but they're afraid to throw the ball over the plate. And this is one kid that doesn't back down from anyone. He throws it over the plate and lets them put it into play."

Smith was drafted two years ago by the Tampa Bay Rays out of high school in Newnan, Ga., but elected to attend Gulf Coast Community College in Florida instead. It was a wise decision.

The 6-foot-6, 220-pound left-hander worked himself into better shape physically and got noticed by longtime Angels scout Tom Kotchman. Los Angeles selected him in the 13th round last year, Kotchman signed him, and the rest is strike-throwing history.

"I just worked my butt off pretty much," said Smith, who said he lost approximately 15 pounds. "When I went to college, I was out of shape. The jokes got to me and stuff. I used that as motivation. I said 'I'll prove you all wrong.' I guess it got me here."

Now he wants to get there, as in Los Angeles. Smith is pretty much a fastball-curveball pitcher as this point, according to Emanuel, whose heater tops out at 90 miles per hour and sits around 86.

That's not big-time velocity. But when you can throw strikes at any time with any pitch, that's enough.

 "It's his ability to throw other pitches besides his fastball in the strike zone," Emanuel said. "He still pitches with his fastball.

"And he's left-handed, and that's always a plus."