Indians Top 100 Prospects: #37 Ryan Miller

37. Ryan Miller - Left-handed Pitcher
Born: 12/14/1986 - Height: 6'0" - Weight: 195 - Bats: Left - Throws: Left

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2007	20	GCL Indians	R	4	2	2.40	9	9	0	45.0	26	12	1	12	44	2.4	8.8	0.84
	20	Mahoning Vy	A-	0	2	18.69	3	3	0	4.1	9	9	1	8	3	16.6	6.2	3.93
2008	21	Lake County	A	8	7	3.72	26	24	0	125.2	123	52	13	74	113	5.3	8.1	1.57
		Career		12	11	3.75	38	36	0	175.0	158	73	15	94	160	4.8	8.2	1.44

History: The Indians selected Miller in the 36th round of the 2006 Draft out of Blinn College (TX).  He was a draft and follow player and had a commitment to pitch for and attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2007, but chose to sign with the Indians in May 2007.  As a freshman at Blinn College, Miller went 6-3 with a 3.01 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 68.2 innings in 2006, and as a sophomore in 2007 went 9-0 with a 2.05 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 85.1 innings (15 starts). 

Strengths & Opportunities: When Miller is locating his fastball to both sides of the plate and throwing his curveball for strikes, he displays some nasty stuff that often leaves opposing hitters reeling.  A medium frame performer, he throws a four pitch mix of a fastball, slider, curveball and changeup.  His solid-average 89-91 MPH fastball showed more life last year and he created good deception with it.  His power slider is quickly developing into a swing-and-miss pitch at the next level as while it has less break it is quicker and more of a pitch he uses to backdoor right-handers and to attack left-handers.  His curveball has good traditional 12-6 break and he commands it well to where the Indians feel that it will be a good serviceable major league pitch in the future.  He has a good feel for a changeup and it has the potential to develop into an average pitch.  The changeup showed a lot of improvement last season, and was a pitch he would even use with two strikes to punch hitters out. 

Scouts feel Miller's potential is as a depth major league starter, and that if he can refine his secondary stuff he could have greater major league value in a specialist role.  If he tightens up the slider he could throw several of them in a row consecutively and retire left-handed hitters.  He burst onto the prospect scene last year where after eight starts he was 7-0 with a 1.06 ERA, 10.6 K/9, and 3.6 BB/9.  The key to his early success and hot start was his ability to throw strikes and have good command of his fastball around the zone which helped set up and make his secondary stuff more effective.  After that hot start, however, his fastball command dropped considerably and his numbers took a serious nosedive as in his final 18 starts he was 1-7 with a 5.08 ERA, 6.8 K/9, and 6.2 BB/9. 

Miller has electric stuff, but often got a lot of hitters out on pitches that were not even close to the zone.  As a result of this, he did not earn a promotion to advanced Single-A Kinston as some expected may happen in late May because it is something he needed to hone in on because as he moves up the minor league ladder hitters will start to lay off those pitches.  Going forward, he needs to continue working ahead of hitters and consistently staying in the zone with his fastball so he can use his good secondary stuff to get batters out.  He needs to work on eliminating the big misses by consistently staying down in the zone and not missing so much up and away.  His changeup is a work in progress, and he will continue to get a lot of work in developing the pitch to see where it goes. 

Outlook:  Miller is part of some deep, talented starting pitching depth in the lower levels of the Indians system, and will need to show an improvement in his command to separate himself from a very crowded starting pitching situation at advanced Single-A Kinston.  He showed some good potential when he dominated the first two months of the season last year at Single-A Lake County, and it should be enough to keep him in the rotation in 2009 where he should open at advanced Single-A Kinston. 

Photo courtesy of Ken Carr 

Ryan Miller MinorLeagueBaseball.com stats page 

Ryan Miller Baseball-Reference page 

Ryan Miller MinorLeagueSplits.com page 

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