Bobby Miller was pitching in High-A after I first interviewed him for FanGraphs in June 2021. Drafted twenty ninth total the earlier summer season by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of the University of Louisville, the right-hander possessed each a high-octane heater and a lofty ceiling. Since making his MLB debut this previous May, he’s met these expectations, going 9–3 with a 3.80 ERA and a 3.67 FIP over 17 begins. The 24-year-old can be coming off of his most spectacular outing. Facing the powerhouse Atlanta Braves on September 3, he allowed simply three hits and one run in a career-high seven innings.
Miller mentioned his persevering with evolution as a pitcher and his efforts to search out consistency along with his slider when the Dodgers visited Fenway Park in late August.
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David Laurila: We talked two years in the past whenever you had been pitching for the Great Lakes Loons. What has modified and what has stayed the identical since that point?
Bobby Miller: “A whole lot of stuff is identical. At the tip of the day, it’s nonetheless the identical recreation. But the competitors is clearly quite a bit larger. The hitters are lot extra disciplined and skilled. Most of them have seen the sport’s greatest arms, so whenever you’re on the market, you’ve obtained to know that they’ve confronted guys simply pretty much as good or higher than you might be.
“Game-planning comes in a lot more at this level. I feel like game-planning is super important to learn in the minor leagues, studying hitters and all that, and I wish I’d have learned more before I came up here. While I had somewhat of an idea, I still have a lot of room to improve on that. I think that’s the biggest thing for me: how much time I spend looking at the upcoming lineups I’m going to face.”
Laurila: Basically, what hitters’ cold and warm zones are, and what they hit and don’t hit in sure counts.
Miller: “Yeah. What to avoid in certain counts. When they’re aggressive and when they’re not aggressive. How aggressive they are with runners in scoring position. At some point, I could get better at learning the baserunners, too. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is getting the batter out of the box. It’s about getting outs for your team.”
Laurila: I talked to Max Scherzer lately, and one of many issues he mentioned was that there’s a restrict to how a lot you’ll be able to deal with a hitter’s weaknesses with out taking away from your personal strengths. I obtained the impression that he depends on information, at the least sure information, lower than he did as a youthful pitcher.”
Miller: “For certain. I imply, I really feel like lots of guys take note of the info at a brilliant younger age, pitch metrics and all that. And you do have to know your self. Say a sure man hits lots of sliders. Well, not all people has the identical slider. You must belief yours and what the outcomes are telling you. So yeah, I fully perceive the place he’s coming from.
“Another thing is that you can’t just throw a slider on every pitch [just] because a guy isn’t good at hitting sliders. That includes your own slider. You’ve got to execute your pitch. In my last start [August 22 in Cleveland], I faced a guy who has swung and missed at a lot of sliders, but if you give someone the right slider, one with that in-zone spin, he’s going to crush it. He punished me, for sure.”
Laurila: What is the motion profile in your slider?
Miller: “That’s one thing I’ve been engaged on this 12 months, simply having consistency with my slider. I really feel like I’ve much more consistency on my curveball and my changeup, and my slider might be my greatest pitch if it had been extra constant. I imply, it’s exhausting to argue with the curveball being my greatest pitch, my greatest secondary. I actually imagine that it has been my greatest pitch this 12 months. Throughout my profession, it hasn’t at all times been my greatest pitch. But it has been an vital pitch for me to throw due to the large velocity distinction.
“So yeah, the slider is something I need to have dialed in, in my opinion. I just haven’t been super consistent with that. I mean, I need to be more consistent with all of my pitches, and with my fastball location. There’s so much to improve on.”
Laurila: What kind of motion would you like in your slider?
Miller: “There are a lot of guys trying to hit my fastball… on every pitch, almost, it feels like guys are staying on the fastball. They’re trying to be ready for 100 mph, because they know going into the game that they’re going to be getting high velocity. So my thing with the slider is that I want it to look like my fastball coming in. I want them to see hard velocity and then it ends up having a different break so they swing right over it. Basically, I want them to think it’s a fastball out of my hand. When I get into trouble is when I make it too depth-y and they can recognize that out of the hand. I don’t want my slider to pop out of my hand, is what I’m saying.”
Laurila: You’re not searching for it to brush.
Miller: “No. The way I throw doesn’t really fit the big sweep. My curveball already has some horizontal on it with a lot of depth, so I don’t need a super horizontal slider. I just want something hard that’s a different shape than my fastball. Everything plays off of my fastball.”
Content Source: blogs.fangraphs.com