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In the minors: Smith, Wood, Inch

‘In the minors’ is a regular feature on Baseball.ca that highlights Canadian’s in the minor leagues. In this installment we take a look at three players getting their feet wet in full season baseball.

LHP Brian Smith (Pickering, ON) – Kane County Cougars (A)

After getting drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2010, Brian Smith helped Canada to a fourth place finish at the IBAF 18U World Championship in Thunder Bay before inking a pro deal and beginning his professional career. Smith spent the remainder of the 2010 season in instructional league before spending the next two seasons in extended spring training, rookie and short season ball. The hard work at the lowest levels of the minors is looking to have paid off for Smith as he has had a solid start in his first taste of full season ball with Single-A Kane County in the Midwest League. Pitching out of the Cougars bullpen, Smith is 2-1 with a 3.14 ERA in eight appearances. Known for his ‘big league’ curveball, Smith has struck out 17 batters in 14 1/3 innings pitched.

3B Eric Wood (Oshawa, ON) – West Virginia Power (A)

It came as a surprise when Eric Wood became the first Canadian selected in the 2012 MLB Draft. The Pittsburgh Pirates took Wood in the sixth round out of Blinn (TX) Junior College and he has proven thus far that he was certainly worthy of the high selection. After signing immediately after the draft, Wood began his pro career in the Gulf Coast League and smacked four home runs and hit .287 to earn a late season promotion to State College of the New York Penn League. Wood found himself with Single-A West Virginia after spring training and has settled in nicely in a Power lineup that includes some of the Pirates top prospects. Wood had a 3-for-5 night on April 18th that included a home run and four RBI’s. On May 1st, Wood smacked a three-run, walk-off homer to give West Virginia a win over Greensboro. To date, Wood is hitting .300 with five home runs and 15 RBI’s.

RHP Steven Inch (Edmonton, AB) – Lakewood BlueClaws (A)

Similar to his former Junior National Team teammate Brian Smith, Steven Inch began his pro career fine tuning his craft in extended spring training and rookie ball before getting his first full season assignment this year with Lakewood of the South Atlantic League. The Philadelphia Phillies sixth rounder from back in 2009 is working out of the BlueClaws bullpen where he has been serving as the clubs closer earning three saves. His 1.29 ERA and 0.86 WHIP are tops amongst Claws pitchers with 6 or more innings pitched as he has allowed only two earned runs in 14 innings on the mound.


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