This new Astros minor leaguer has his entire life rooted in the city of Houston
Born and raised in the Bellaire area, Astros 2024 fourth-round draft pick Parker Smith not only grew up playing baseball in the Houston area, but he also dreamed of playing for the Astros.
“It’s the hometown team,” Smith said when asked about the draft experience. “You know, it really is such a cool thing to have a chance to be able to, a little bit down the road, don the jersey of your favorite team, and play for them and play for your city that you grew up in.”
At a young age, Smith started out playing baseball in Baylin Little League for one year before his family moved to Bellaire and he started playing little league there. Going through Bellaire is where he says his pitching abilities first started to stand out, making multiple All-Star teams, before entering middle school.
During his time in little league, he also started playing more and more travel ball, giving him a bigger platform to show off his skills. While at Pin Oak Middle School, he led his team to back-to-back city championships.
It wasn’t till high school when things started getting tougher for him. Entering Bellaire High School, he was placed on the freshman team as a pitcher, but got small stints of JV.
This was before a shoulder injury sidelined him for the remainder of his freshman year. It was in that offseason that he continued to work and grow his ability with hopes of making varsity as a sophomore.
But, all that training worked out for him. Coming into his sophomore year, he was on the varsity squad, but only as a back-end guy. He knew we was better than that, though — and he proved it.
“My sophomore year as a pitcher, I was kinda like the fifth starter on that team.” Smith said about his sophomore year of high school. “Then, throughout the year, I established myself as the number one guy.”
Junior year for him was cut short due to COVID-19. He didn’t get out of the field with his team, but that summer is when he started gaining some college traction. Not from anyone big at first, but it was the first time he had been contacted.
“I was originally going to go to McLennan Junior College in Waco and play the next fall there,” Smith said.
It all changed once his senior season started though in a game against Lamar after a video was posted of him pitching. In the video, he racked up 12 strikeouts in a complete game, with his fastball up to 93 MPH. That was when offers started coming in.
“The next day Rice offered me, U of H offered me, Baylor offered me a walk-on spot,” Smith said.
Smith didn’t wait very long before committing to Rice, but he came into the program at an interesting time. The head coach at the time was Matt Bragga, who is now the head coach at Tennessee Tech. Bragga was on his way out following Smith’s final high school season, so he knew he would be going into a program with a new coaching staff, but he didn’t mind.
A lot of his lack-of-care came from growing up in the area and being able to attend Rice games. As a kid, Rice baseball was one of the best programs in the country, hosting Regionals and making trips to the College World Series. Those were the team’s he watched.
“I grew up, I was going to the baseball camps, you know, back when Rice was a lot more prominent than they are today, the regionals and Super Regionals that they had.”
Once arriving at Rice, Smith was hit by what he called, a “culture shock.” As with a lot of freshmen entering into college baseball, he learned that things are not going to be as easy on the diamond as they were back in high school.
One of the main things he learned is that he will have to pitch differently. Not facing 16 to 18-year-olds, he came to learn that he can’t throw a 90 MPH fastball down the middle and expect people to swing and miss on it. He also learned how much more intense it is in college on the mound.
“There’s some growing pains, and you’re throwing more frequently and harder than you ever had before,” Smith said. “So, your body adapts. You get in the weight room, and you start figuring that out.”
He got his first taste of college baseball in Rice’s third game of the 2022 season against No. 1 ranked University of Texas in Austin, going two innings and only surrendering one run on two hits, which was one of the best on the team for the weekend. This led to him getting the call to start the first mid-week of the season against Houston Baptist.
Six innings of shutout baseball on just two hits was enough for him to keep his starting role moving forward. By the end of the season, he had worked his way into the role of Saturday starter as just a freshman. He finished that first season with 43 innings and a 4.19 ERA
He knew he had to keep working though. He spent the summer in Santa Barbara, California playing in the California Collegiate League, where he threw another 35 innings with a 2.31 ERA and 37 strikeouts, going 5-0. When he returned to Rice the next season, he knew what role he wanted — the Friday night starter.
“I had to earn that role and, and so, it was kind of always a role that I was envisioning for myself,” Smith said. “I would like to say ‘wearing the pinstripes on Friday night’ was kind of the thing to do.”
Sophomore year was a breakout year for Smith in terms of draft stock. Starting out the year, he faced teams like No. 2 ranked Stanford and No. 10 ranked Texas Tech, which was played at Astros’ home ballpark Minute Maid Park.
“(The games at Minute Maid put me in) a whole new world,” Smith said. “Everything happened at once.”
He continued to increase his stock even more moving forward through his sophomore season after finishing the regular season with a 2.70 ERA and and 80 strikeouts over 85 innings. Rice would end up losing back-to-back games to get bumped out of the conference tournament to finish off the season. The first of those two games was pitched by Smith.
This was around the time that he also started to gain more interest in the MLB draft and realize that he has a shot to be drafted. After hiring a consultant, who is now his agent, he was finally able to start talking to teams.
“The area scouts reach out to me to get in person meetings throughout the whole fall, to ask whatever questions they need to ask, as well as get a feel for who I am and write a profile on me,” Smith said. “I met with 25 of the 30 teams.”
So, heading into what ended up being his final season in college, he wanted one main thing; to be an All-American.
After the best two years of success and with the work he had been doing, this was something that he saw possible. This was also made even more possible when he found himself on the list of Preseason All-American for the Athletic Conference.
While it ended up as a better season in terms of wins for the Owls, Smith didn’t have the season he wanted to have, saying a lot of things didn’t go my way and that he was trying too hard. He still finished with a solid year, heading into the draft off a 4.23 ERA in 15 starts.
After the season ended, draft preparation began.
“I ended up going to a couple draft workouts,” Smith said. “I didn’t throw or anything there, but just meeting some of these front office people, as well as there was a combine, which was in Phoenix at the Diamondback stadium.”
This MLB Combine not only included meetings, but all the testing as well, like bloodwork and MRI.
As the combine came closer, he didn’t know where he’d fall or who he’d go to. The only thing he was told was a range of rounds he would be likely drafted in, which was anywhere between the 3rd-5th rounds.
So, after not watching the first day of the draft, he sat down and got ready as day two started, just waiting for his phone to ring. When it finally did, it was his agent with the news telling him the Astros wanted to take him. He had three words for his agent.
“Let’s do this.”
To his shock, the Astros were a team that he had hardly spoken to through all this.
“Funny enough, I didn’t test for the Astros once,” Smith said. “We had a zoom call in the fall, but that’s really about it.”
Now, the only thing for Smith to do is work up the ranks. Currently hurt, once he returns, he will likely be in Florida with the FCL Astros.
“Now, we just got to get out of Florida, and start making our way up the ranks, and getting healthy, and step-by-step it,” Smith said.