Dodgers Draft a Hard Throwing Righty in the First Round

It’s a weird year when the MLB draft is just five rounds long, but we’ll take what we can get. The first round of the draft was live last night, and the Dodgers went a familiar route with their first pick. 

The Dodgers are known to go after arms in the draft, stocking their farm system with pitching. And for the most part, that method has proven effective over the years. Walker Buehler was a first-round pick in 2015 out of Vanderbilt, and we all know how that went. 

This year, the Dodgers went with another hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, this time out Lousiville. Los Angeles selected Bobby Miller with the 29th overall pick in yesterday’s first round. 

So what do we know about this kid? We first things first, he’s happy to be playing with the Dodgers.

He[his dad] took me to a Dodgers game, so I was in the first row in right field, and I was thinking, ‘I would love to play here one day. This is my dream. I was like, it can’t get any better than this. This is my dream. If I could pick one team, if I had the choice, this would be the one.

Miller measures at 6-foot-5-inches and was ranked as the number 26 overall prospect in the draft, so the Dodgers getting him at 29 is a bit of a win. His fastball sits in the mid-nineties with the potential to reach triple digits. He has decent offspeed stuff as well that the coaching staff will no doubt be able to help him develop. 

A night I'll never forget. I'm beyond excited to join the @Dodgers!#MLBDraft pic.twitter.com/M9rH7zVQWw

— Bobby Miller (@BMilled15) June 11, 2020

Miller’s shortcomings are that he comes with a high effort delivery, which leads scouts to wonder if he would benefit in a relief role. Worst case scenario, the Dodgers get a really good member of their bullpen for the future, Best case scenario, they get another guy to slot in right behind Buehler and Dustin May for the future. 

Either way, the Dodgers will walk away from the first round with an excellent selection. 

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