Dodgers: Bobby Miller ‘Knocking on the Door’ in 2023
Bobby Miller is one of the best pitching prospects the Dodgers have had in years, with prospect rankings approaching those of Walker Buehler before he became a big-league star. His stuff is nearly unrivaled in the minor league ranks, with a triple-digit fastball that Baseball Prospectus said might be his fourth-best pitch. The results haven’t always matched the stuff, with Keith Law of The Athletic identifying Miller’s struggles with runners on base as his main weakness.
Still, Miller’s time in Los Angeles is likely to start soon. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic recently talked with Los Angeles director of player development Will Rhymes, who acknowledged that Miller will be in the big leagues soon.
The premium stuff is there for Miller, who was hitting 101 mph in spring camp and maintained it throughout the season. But the reason Law’s No. 28 prospect in baseball took a leap last year once he arrived in Triple A came down to the finer things, such as sequencing and game-planning.
“It’s kind of shocking, the big adjustments he was able to make, which just speaks to the athleticism, the coordination,” Rhymes said of Miller.
Rather than having him just fire his four-pitch mix past hitters, Dodgers personnel had Miller focus on locations. He learned how to have his stuff play off each other in going north-south, east-west and the like.
Miller’s still young in terms of professional innings — at 168 2/3 frames, he’s still below his college total at Louisville (170 innings) — but it’s clear that Miller’s arrival this summer is a matter of when, not if.
“He’s obviously knocking on the door.”
Miller pitched quite a bit better in Triple-A than in Double-A last year — his 3.38 ERA with OKC was more than a run better than his 4.45 Tulsa mark — and Ardaya and Rhymes talk about the adjustments he made at that level. That bodes well for the future of the huge righty, the ability to adjust on the fly and make necessary improvements.
As Rhymes said, Miller is knocking on the door. At some point this season, the Dodgers will open that door and hopefully usher in the Bobby Miller Era in LA.
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