NEWSLETTER
As Brett touched on earlier, Game 2 today will mark the debut of Tyson Miller, our #18 preseason prospect. Brett got into the background history of Miller, who broke out with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in 2018 and followed it up with an even better start to 2019 with Tennessee. It was a second-half promotion to Iowa that posed the first real sustained slump Miller had faced in two years, which led to a complicated decision this winter about adding him to the 40-man roster. The Cubs did indeed protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, and Miller has recently been in South Bend working on his secondary offerings.
What you’re going to see more than anything tonight are two pitches: four-seam fastball and slider. The two are tied together because they exist in a tunnel that Miller has worked hard to perfect. His four-seam fastball always had a little cut to it, but in 2018 the Cubs helped encourage Miller to weaponize the cut on the pitch to his advantage. Miller’s mostly going to be in the 88-92 range, but that will be enough if he can play with the horizontal movement.
An extreme example of the movement Tyson Miller is getting with his 4-seam cut fastball (the same type of pitch you see with C.J. Edwards). This is a pitch that can be weaponized in short relief or be an important piece of the starting pitching puzzle. pic.twitter.com/TFXr2Z9u2Z
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) August 29, 2018
In doing so, the pitch looks like his slider coming out of his hand, which is the easiest way to explain his success in the Carolina and Southern Leagues. The slider is a tight one-plane offering, which he commands well and can use in deep counts. As a stand-alone pitch, it’s probably slightly above-average, but it plays as a plus pitch due to its tunnel off the four-seam. When all else fails, you’ll see Miller return to these two pitches more than anything. And it’s the command of these pitches in particular that will mostly determine if Miller can be successful tonight. In Iowa, too often Miller missed his target with the four-seam, making it cut back to the middle of the plate. He needs that glove-side corner tonight.
But during his development the Cubs and Miller worked hard to give him a complete starter’s arsenal. The first big addition was a new grip for his changeup, which he had a lot of success with early last season. We’re mostly going to see it used down-and-away to left-handed hitters, like he showed in March:
Nice pitch from Tyson Miller to get the strikeout. @Tyson_Miller07 pic.twitter.com/7NAzHlKm3v
— Cubs Zone ™️ (@CubsZone) March 3, 2020
Like with a large number of their prospects, Miller also learned a spike curveball, which he began throwing last season. This has been a huge point of emphasis for him, both in the offseason and during his time in South Bend. It’s generally an early-count offering, but it’s one of those pitches that could take a jump and become a big part of his arsenal in the years to come. I’m also anxious to see if we see more two-seam fastball this year, a pitch that he used early in his Cub career that wasn’t used a ton during his success the last two seasons. In the long run, more options to pitch arm-side will be helpful.
Miller has repeatedly said that it wasn’t the juiced ball that he blames for his struggles in Iowa last season, but instead command and mechanical inconsistencies. Miller allowed a .903 OPS with runners on base last year versus .641 when pitching out of his windup. The Cubs have worked to ensure there are no changes to his mechanics when pitching out of the stretch. Miller also had a statistical drop-off last year after 75 or 80 pitches, though that likely won’t come into play tonight. If the Cubs can get three or four solid innings, Miller will head back to South Bend having given the Cubs exactly what they were looking for.
