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RUTLEDGE – Another year, another post-season honor for Grainger’s Brady Smith.

The recently graduated Grizzly senior should be used to the accolades by now. He is a three-time All-State selection, three time district Player of the Year, twice been named as a finalist for Tennessee’s Mr. Baseball award in 3-A and now, is the three-time recipient of the Citizen Tribune Lakeway Area Player of the Year award.

“Honestly, a lot of it comes from God and the ability He has given me,” Smith said of his outstanding Grainger career. “The rest of it is all the time and hard work I have put in as I have worked pretty hard to put myself in a good position to excel at both the high school and now college level.”

The numbers this year tell the story for Smith as he batted .447 with a .520 on-base percentage, .788 slugging percentage with 12 doubles, five homers, a triple, 32 RBIs and eight stolen bases. On the mound, he surrendered only 15 hits all season and had a 0.869 earned run average. Smith’s other pitching stats included a .745 WHIP, 101 strikeouts in 48.1 innings pitched and an opponents’ batting average against him of 0.88.

Smith’s name will be etched in the Grainger history books for a long time to come. Pitching-wise, he is first all-time in career strikeouts (322) and ERA (0.81), second in win-loss (20-5), and fourth in innings pitched (164). He yielded only 59 hits, 74 walks and 19 earned runs in his four-year high school career. Just as impressive as his mound work is his plate production where he is third in career RBI (75) and triples (5) and fifth in at-bats (289), batting average (.363), hits (105), runs (80), doubles (21) and homeruns (9) .

Smith is a natural when it comes to pitching but his prowess at the plate is nothing to overlook. He said after taking months off from hitting, everything seemed to click when he had a bat in his hands at the beginning of the 2023 high school season. “Hitting this year was just kind of a feel thing for me as I worked at it a lot, but during the summer, I didn’t even pick up a bat. I was just a pitcher for my travel ball team. The first time I hit was coming back into the high school season when I started right after basketball season. Right after that, I seemed to pick back up hitting after basketball ended and worked hard at hitting and pitching so I could give my team the best chance I could to win.”

All eyes will be pointed westward this week as the Major League Baseball draft will take place July 9-11 in Seattle. Smith is currently ranked as the 138th pro prospect overall and 40th among right-handed pitchers. His name is on the same impressive list as presumptive first-overall pick Paul Skenes of the national champion LSU Tigers, Wake Forest’s Rhett Lowder and Tennessee’s Chase Dollander. Smith attended the MLB Combine in Arizona and was clocked with a 93 MPH four-seam fastball.

“It’s awesome and it would be a dream come true but either way, I fell like I am in a good spot, whether I get drafted or go to school,” the Virginia Tech signee said when talking about his draft prospects. “I will be playing in the ACC if I don’t get drafted and if I do get drafted, I will be starting my professional career and get an early head start on that. Either way, I am excited and thankful for all the opportunities I have had.”

Grainger County is used to producing Major League talent as former Grizzly Trey Cabbage is absolutely killing the baseball for the Triple-A Salt Lake City Bees. Cabbage is hitting just under .300 with a team high in homeruns, doubles and RBIs. His moon-shot homers into the Utah nights have put him in a position to possibly be called up by the Anaheim Angels. Could Cabbage soon have another Grainger product joining him on the way to the big leagues? With Smith’s talent, ability, work ethic and personal integrity, there is a good chance the answer to that question is yes.