2 replies to this topic

[NDame616]

So, Andrew Miller has been a whipping boy and a guy most of us wanted to see voted off the island in this off season, but he's slowly becoming one of the more reliable bullpen arms, and with the question mark of Rich Hill, and the (in my mind) long-term viability of Aceves (and by "long term" I mean if he can hack it until Bailey comes back) now may be the time Andrew Miller gets more innings and put in situations other than as a lefty specialist.

First, his splits:
.410 OPS vs lefties
.448 vs righties

His S/BB is, not surprisingly, much better against lefties, but righties have only hit one XBH, a double, off of him (while the only HR he's given up has been to a leftie.)

In terms of his usage, he started off the year pitching in extremely low leverage situations, mainly in blowouts or very early in games. But his last 5 appearances have been in the 7th or later. One of those times was to get 1 batter out.

So, with his splits slightly favoring him vs LHB, do you think we can try him as an 8th inning guy? What about if Aceves keeps struggling, do you think he'd be an option for the 9th until Bailey comes back?

If the team keeps going the way they are, and doing jumprope with a .500 record, if we can spend 2 months establishing Miller as a reliable bullpen arm, teams could give up a king's ransom for him at the trade deadline.

[Adrian's Dome]

I vote stay the course. This is a guy that's shown flashes of being capable everywhere he's been, but consistency has been the issue. So far, his mechanics have been pretty straight and he's been maintaining his velocity in short stints.

Why not leave him in his 6-7th inning role, keep him in favorable matchups (there's really no need for him to face more RHB with Atch, Albers, Ace, and Melancon around,) and see if the keeps the results up? Messing with his role right as he looks to have established a level of comfort doesn't sound like a great move to me.

Edited by Adrian's Dome, 11 June 2012 - 01:25 PM.

[Plympton91]

I think they need to keep using him very regularly. For a while he seemed to be pitching 3 out of every 5 days and I haven't seen him recently--though i've missed a lot of games too. One thought I had in ruminating on Bard's struggles is that a pitcher who has difficulty maintaining his mechanics might be better suited to relief, where they are forced to repeat those mechanics under pressure on a repeated, frequent basis. Perhaps both Bard and Miller are better releivers than starters not due to stamina issues, but due to this benefit of additional "practice."