The Los Angeles Dodgers have raised another monster rookie. Right-hander Bobby Miller (24), who throws a fast ball with a maximum speed of 100.4 miles per hour (about 161.6 km), is the main character.
On the 11th (Korean time), MLB.com, the official website of the major leagues, highlighted Miller’s recent performance, saying, “No pitcher has ever started a career like this.”메이저놀이터
Miller is a college graduate rookie selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the 29th overall pick in the first round of the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft. He quickly conquered the minor leagues and made his big league debut on May 24th in an away game against Atlanta. He secured a win from his debut with 5 innings, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts and 1 run against the strong team Atlanta, and since then he has been making a quick soft landing by pitching quality starts in 3 consecutive games. His season performance was 4 games, 3 wins, no losses, an earned run average of 0.78, and 23 strikeouts in 23 innings.
According to MLB.com, Miller has allowed one run in the first four games of his career since Cliff Markle (New York Yankees) in 1915-1916, Cody Anderson (then Cleveland) in 2015, and Kenta Maeda (then Los Angeles Dodgers) in 2016. He became the 4th pitcher in history who wasn’t weird.
According to Statcast, Miller throws a four-seam fastball, changeup, and curveball with an average speed of 98.6 mph (about 158.7 km), a sinker, and an 89.9 mph (about 144.7 km) slider as his main weapons. All pitches are of high quality, with a 99.2 mph (approximately 159.6 km) four-seam fastball with a hit rate of 0.400, which seems to be the weakest. Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith praised him, saying, “The slider has improved a lot. The changeup and curve are also excellent.”
Jack Greinke (left) and Ryu Hyun-jin during the Los Angeles Dodgers days./AFPBBNews=News 1
What is even more surprising is his excellent crisis management ability and rapid pace control, which is unlike a rookie. Miller’s scoring range batting average was 0.077 (1 hit in 13 at-bats), striking out 5 times and overcoming the crisis each time. The match against Philadelphia on the 10th was representative. On this day, Miller threw 49 pitches until the second inning, including the bases loaded crisis. However, Miller, who perfectly grasped the Yankees batters’ tendencies, finished the next four innings with 55 balls and finished the game with a quality start.
“When I see Miller, I think of Walker Buehler (29),” said Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. has the ability to control the tempo,” he praised.
After the appearance of Clayton Kershaw (35), it was no longer an issue for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the “kingdom of pitchers,” to see a monster rookie pitcher like Miller appear. Kershaw was like that in 2008, and Ryu Hyun-jin (36, Toronto), who came from Korea in 2013, was also a surprise rookie. Maeda, who came from Japan in 2016, made a smooth landing, and Julio Urias debuted that year. Buehler, who debuted in 2017, shone as he ranked third in the National League Rookie of the Year the following year, and in 2019, fastball prospect Dustin May debuted.
With such strong confidence that they can develop an ace-class pitcher every year, the LA Dodgers sent Jack Greinke (40, Kansas City), who finished second in the Cy Young Award in 2015, and Ryu Hyun-jin, who finished second in the Cy Young Award in 2019, as free agents.
This year, the Los Angeles Dodgers suffered a collapse in their starting lineup as Urias, May, and Noah Syndergaard left. However, the crisis was used as an opportunity to prove that it is a pitcher kingdom by sortieing another monster rookie. “Miller is the first pitcher in major league history to go 3-0 with an ERA of 1 or less while recording fewer than 15 hits and 23 strikeouts in his first 4 games,” MLB.com said. I’d say no other pitcher started his career like Miller.”