One of the nice things about playoff baseball is the opportunity to watch teams that you don’t see that often and, in so doing, see some players that may have flown under your radar. One such player is the Angels’ Joe Smith, a pitcher with a profile as anonymous as his name, but with a very different pedigree.

More after the jump on an anything but ordinary Joe.

Smith just completed his eighth major league season and first with the Angels. Take a look.

To say that Smith was dominant is to damn him with faint praise.

While this season was his best, it’s certainly not his first stellar campaign. Before the Angels landed him, Smith had played 5 seasons in Cleveland and two with the Mets. He saw regular duty each year save for the 2009 season when injury limited him to 34 IP. What is notable about his first eight seasons is that Smith has posted a 100 or better ERA+ and ERA under 4.00 each year. Underwhelmed are you? Well, those seemingly modest accomplishments put Smith in this elite group of relievers to start a career the same way (min. 30 IP each season).

Delving a bit deeper to look at Smith’s past four seasons shows that he has appeared in 70 or more games each year and posted an ERA under 3.00 each time. What other pitchers have strung together four such seasons? It’s a short list.

Fingers pitched about twice as many innings as Smith in their streaks. But, Smith was the clear leader in ERA with 3 of his 4 seasons under 2.50 compared to 3 of 4 above that mark for Fingers. Same story with ERA+ as Fingers topped out at 136 in his 1976 season while 3 of Smith’s seasons were north of the 160 mark.

Leaving aside consecutive seasons, Smith’s three seasons with ERA under 2.50 in 70+ appearances again put him in exclusive company, as every one of the 31 seasons represented below came with a 150 or better ERA+ mark.

Where might Smith’s career be headed? He is one of 30 relievers to pitch 300 games and 400-600 IP thru age 30, with an ERA+ of 130 or better (Smith has a 143 ERA+, ranking 13th of those 30 in that metric). Like Smith, nine of the 30 are currently active. Of the remaining 21, eight had 3 or fewer seasons remaining and eight had 7 or more years left. The median remaining career marks for those 21 are 4.5 seasons with just under 200 IP and a 120 ERA+. Here’s the list.

So, Smith would seem to have a good chance to be an effective reliever for several more years. The Angels have him signed through 2016 and it looks like they have a good one.