Bryce Miller has come a good distance in a short while. A fourth-round decide by the Seattle Mariners out of Texas A&M simply two summers in the past, the 24-year-old right-hander got here into the present marketing campaign ranked no. 83 on our Top 100 and made his main league debut earlier this month. Moreover, his three begins have been nothing lower than stellar. Over 19 innings, Miller has fanned 18 batters whereas permitting only one run on seven hits and a single stroll. His ERA is a minuscule 0.47.
Seattle’s pitching growth acumen has performed an enormous position in his success. Miller’s 96-mph four-seam fastball is within the 99th percentile for spin, however it wasn’t till he bought to professional ball that he started using it in an optimum method. He has additionally superior the standard of his secondaries and is attacking hitters with a extra assorted arsenal than he did as an Aggie.
“In college, we had Rapsodo and TrackMan, but I never really dove into that or really even knew what it meant numbers-wise,” defined Miller. “But with Seattle being pretty deep into analytics, that changed when I got here. They really opened my eyes on how my stuff plays and where I need to throw it.”
Miller principally labored down within the zone along with his heater at A&M, solely often going upstairs searching for two-strike chases. At simply over 2,600 rpm and “around 20 inches of vert,” it’s clearly a pitch that performs finest above the belt. The outcomes converse for themselves. Elevating typically, Miller has held opposing batters to an .093 batting common and a .116 slugging proportion when delivering his most overpowering providing. To date, 63.3% of the 248 pitches he’s thrown have been four-seamers.
Cal Raleigh, who has caught the righty in every of his three outings, pointed to the pitch after I requested what makes Miller so efficient.
“He’s got a really good fastball,” the 26-year-old backstop instructed me. “It’s kind of his bread and butter. He’s got a unique slot, and he spins it at a really high rate. As a catcher, you can see how it gets on hitters by their swings and their takes, and how they almost seem surprised. It’s got a lot of life to it.”
Scott Servais was behind the plate for elements of 11 large league seasons, so I requested the Mariners supervisor if Miller is similar to anybody he caught. What I bought was a comparability to a current-day hurler.
“It’s a different fastball,” mentioned Servais. “The ride on the pitch, and how he does it; he’s not grunting and snorting out there, he’s under control. I haven’t seen enough of Bryce — I’ve seen three outings — but when Gerrit Cole went to Houston and went away from the two-seamer and started to go to the four-seam fastball, he had really special ride on it. Bryce has got a lot of those characteristics.”
The fastball isn’t Miller’s solely weapon. He’s throwing extra changeups than he did again in his school days, and he’s additionally added a sweeper. His fourth pitch, which has lengthy been a part of his arsenal, is a gyro slider.
Whether his repertoire contains 4 or 5 pitches, and the way you select to label them, is a matter of semantics. That conundrum got here to the fore after I requested the Mount Pleasant, Texas native if he’s at the moment throwing a curveball.
“Not really,” replied Miller. “Analytically, it’s a slider. But I’m throwing three sliders, so it’s easier for me to call the bigger one a curveball. Then there’s the sweeper slider, and the other one is more of a cutter. They’re really all sliders, though.”
Which of his secondaries qualifies as the perfect pitch is likewise a matter of interpretation.
“By the metrics, it’s probably the sweeper, but really, I think the hard gyro is the best one,” opined Miller. “That’s because it’s firm and usually goes straight down, so it plays off my fastball better. You can push for Stuff+, or you can push for movement, but there’s also the factor of pitching. If I’m throwing mainly fastballs, the best pitch off of that is probably the harder slider, even though it’s not as good analytically.”
People who learn my interviews with any regularity can be conversant in the ultimate query I requested the rookie right-hander: Does he view pitching as extra of an artwork or extra of a science?
“Over the last few years, we’ve shifted more to the science than it had been throughout the history of baseball,” Miller replied. “The analytics side has become really big, and I definitely take advantage of what I have access to. I’m better because of it. But overall, I think it’s still an art. Once you get on the mound, it’s time to execute.”
To say that he has been executing his pitches could be an understatement. According to MLB’s Sarah Langs, Miller’s eight baserunners allowed in his first three profession outings is the fewest in trendy period large league historical past for a pitcher with a minimum of 15 innings. His fourth profession begin is on faucet tonight in Atlanta.
Content Source: blogs.fangraphs.com