Players · S · Pitcher · 2021

Riley Smith

Arizona Diamondbacks National League West

Age: 26
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 207 lb
Number: #46

Born: January 15, 1995 in Lufkin, TX, United States
MLB debut: August 26, 2020

dbWAR: .4
IP: 67.1
ERA: 6.01
FIP: 4.88
K/9: 4.8
FIP−: 114

Riley Smith was a relief pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2021 he struck out 36 batters over 67.1 innings across 24 appearances, going 1-4. His ERA of 6.01 was 41.0% higher than the league average of 4.27 — 17th of 22 on his team, and 485th of 567 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 4.88 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 13.8% of swings (6.5% of every pitch he threw), walked 5.0% of the batters he faced and struck out 12.0%. His 0.1 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2021.

FIP4.88

K/94.8

WHIP1.50

WAR.1

WAR by season

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

																				Trend
2021	AZ	24	6	67.1	1	4	1	86	45	36	15	6.01	4.88	1.50	4.8	2.0	141	114	0.1
2020	AZ	6	0	18.1	2	0	0	15	3	18	5	1.47	2.76	1.09	8.8	2.5	33	62	0.5

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

																					Trend
2021	AZ	11	17	0	0	0	0	0	11	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	64.7%	.000	-4.5	-118	-0.2	—

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2021. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	117	107	30	5	5	14	.280	.319	.486	.338	12.0%
vs RHB	184	172	56	5	10	22	.326	.370	.547	.389	12.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2021.

Loading 6 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2021.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Pitch sequencing

What Riley Smith throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

SinkerChangeupCurveballCutterSliderFour-seam

Select a count to see exactly what Riley Smith throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Season


Sinker	57.3%	614	92.9	2,248	46.4%	11.9%	150	.313	.882
Changeup	17.0%	182	86.5	1,937	38.5%	12.1%	61	.311	.886
Curveball	10.7%	115	79.3	2,365	40.0%	22.2%	25	.200	.699
Cutter	10.0%	107	84.2	2,152	36.4%	15.7%	28	.357	.929
Slider	4.5%	48	82.2	2,047	37.5%	23.1%	15	.333	.867

Riley Smith's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

Head to head

Put Riley Smith beside up to three others.

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Riley Smith

Similar players

Nearest 2021 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Matt PeacockAZ

ERA: 4.90
FIP: 4.98
SO: 50
WAR: -0.0

Burch SmithOAK

ERA: 5.40
FIP: 4.21
SO: 28
WAR: 0.3

Chi Chi GonzálezCOL

ERA: 6.46
FIP: 5.37
SO: 56
WAR: 0.0

Humberto CastellanosAZ

ERA: 4.93
FIP: 5.01
SO: 29
WAR: 0.1

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.