Dodgers: Underlying numbers behind Will Smith, how the ‘Fresh Prince’ grew stale

From the outset, it was easy to like Will Smith. The young Dodgers catcher is skilled but humble, and his walkup song is “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”.

Over the summer Will Smith became the unlikely and perhaps ill-prepared centerpiece of the Dodgers youth movement. Thanks in part to his name and in part to his power at the plate, Smith gained the starting role at catcher when Austin Barnes struggled and was sent down, and he has not relinquished the job since, because really, how could they?

At this point, the pitching staff hasn’t seen much of Barnes in weeks, even as Smith struggles to be consistent in the field and at the plate this September for the Dodgers. So Smith has the role through at least some part of October, though we know from Grandal’s struggles and replacement that Barnes should be waiting for his opportunity at the very least.

But how did we get here? How did Smith go from average to amazing and now to what seems like his floor, his absolute worst?

In this article, I go by the numbers to try and ascertain how and why Smith’s season has been so up and down and hopefully find what he can do to fix his current floundering.