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Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | DeKalb County's Oldest Newspaper

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Smith turns focus to playing at Auburn

By J.D. Davidson
The Times-Journal

Published June 12, 2009

Slade Smith is happy. He’s content. And, he’s just fine after his name was not called this week during Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft.

“I’m content and happy with it,” Smith said Friday. “It’s something that I kind of expected. Without building up anything, it’s kind of hard to get disappointed. It would have been a great experience, but I still have a lot more to do.”

And, he has other things on his mind.

For starters, the recent Fort Payne High School graduate has just a few weeks of free time before he begins his baseball career at Auburn. He wants that time to himself. Well, himself, and his new niece.

“I’m going to try to spend as much time as I can with my new niece,” Smith said. “I’m just going to work out and get my arm back in shape, so when I get to Auburn I can compete for a starting job or a weekend SEC job.”

Smith said he might begin playing again in late July or early August to get prepared for Auburn’s fall workouts. And, Auburn is where he wants to be.

Throughout the spring, while throngs of scouts visited Fort Payne to see the 6-feet-2, 195-pound right-hander who finished 7-1 with a 1.77 ERA and 91 strikeouts in 56 innings, he remained solid in his commitment to Auburn.

Also, he believes his medical records, which show a current stint in rehab to help strengthen his arm to avoid injury, may have caused some teams to shy away.

In all, 40 players with Alabama ties were selected over the three-day draft. The highest was University of Tennessee player Kentrall Davis, who was taken with the 39th pick by the Brewers. Only four state high school players were selected, Cleburne County’s Charles Watson (874th, Rangers), Mountain Brook’s Judd Golson (945th, Yankees), Oxford’s John Pilkington (1,394th, Mets) and Pelham’s Alvin Hines (1,492nd, Nationals).

The Nationals took Gaylesville’s Dustin Crane, a Sand Rock High School and Snead State Community College product, 712th overall.

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