Since I got so much good stuff from Miller alone (The interview only lasted a little more than 4 minutes, but I wanted to share pretty much all of it), I’ve decided to break up my piece into two stories: 1 will be more about the experience I had on Sunday, and the other will be the following interview with one of the Dodgers’ top prospects, Aaron Miller.
7 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts. Not a bad line, especially for a guy who’s only in his first full season of pro ball. All the more impressive is the fact that he had been struggling so much in Chattanooga that he returned to High A in order to straighten things out.
“Aaron,” I called half-heartedly. He turned his head, but immediately went back to what he was doing. “Aaron!” I said, this time with a little more authority. He spun around, saw me and walked over. I introduced myself and asked if he minded talking for a few minutes. He said no problem, and I grabbed my recorder. Or, wait, where was it?
As I fumbled around in my pockets, I asked if he was happy to be back in California. What a stupid question. Of course he wasn’t happy to be demoted from Double A to High A. Of course he wasn’t happy to be forced to return to a level which he’d already dominated. And as soon as the words left my lips, I regretted them. But he answered with class, not being stung by my unintended affront and brushed the matter aside. We then chatted for what seemed like an hour while I continued the search for the missing device until I finally located it, hiding behind my pass.
Sensing his sense of humor and easy-going nature, I decided to begin the interview with a mild jab. “You took a no-hitter into the 7th inning. Couldn’t get that second out in the 7th? I said, with a coy grin. He laughed. Thank God. “You know, I mean, it’s just how some things happen,” he responded. “I still felt like I threw a pretty good pitch and, you know, he just got around it and…put it in the right spot.”
After such a tremendous first half of the season, Miller’s decline with the Lookouts caught me off guard. He’d been pitching so well and then, like a certain prospect before him, developed an allergy to the strike zone. But over his past two outings, he not only kept himself in the game but thrived, not allowing a run while surrendering just 5 hits and 5 walks over 13 innings. What was the culprit? “It was probably just a little bit of everyting,” he explained. “Gettin’ back down here with Charlie (Hough), you know, Charlie’s been awesome.” He certainly has been, since I was delaying some side work Aaron was supposed to get in and Charlie didn’t come right over and wring my neck.
“Once I got up there, realized where I was, that narrow, tunnel focus kind of widened out a little bit. I started thinking about different things and at that kind of level, you can’t really do that. You have to worry about only what you can control. And once I got back here, I started narrowing my focus a little bit, you know, concentrating a little more on some little things that, eventually, I’m really going to have to work on if I want to be a big league pitcher.”
Well, the talent is certainly there, and so is the mindset. To go from outfield prospect to Double A in the course of a year is a feat not accomplished by many. How does someone define that journey? “It’s been a very exciting ride. I mean, it’s been a lot of run. I’ve been really blessed to be where I am, really blessed to have the opportunities I’ve gotten. To start out, working with Charlie, I owe Charlie a huge amount of my success, just in what he’s been able to do with me, turn me more into a pitcher instead of a thrower.”
Which led me back to the no-hit bid. Throwers don’t get no-hitters. Pitchers do. And even the best pitchers have to be on their game in order to prevent a single batter from bumping his average up a tick or two. Was it command? Was it velocity? What enabled the kid who couldn’t find the strike zone 2 weeks ago to go 6 innings without allowing a hit? “This last game was probably one of the best games I’ve ever had where I’ve had all 3 pitches and location. Usually, for a lot of guys, you might have two good pitches that day and one is kind of iffy. Then you have those special days where all three of them work and you’re throwing the ball where you want to. Those are the really fun days.”
Yes they are, for the fans as much as the pitchers. When Aaron was in college, he just threw hard and tried to blow guys away. In the pros, that doesn’t fly unless you’re Aroldis Chapman and throw 105. Being a pitcher is about sometimes trusting yourself enough to not throw as hard as possible, realizing that the trade off for speed is movement and location. “I was mainly just a reliever in college. I came in and tried to throw the ball as hard as I could. Now I’m worried a little bit more about location and some mechanical things. (The velocity) has taken a little bit of a dip, you know, it’s been fairly solid. Velocity is the one thing I try not to worry about too much because it’s either going to be there or it’s not.”
And when you’re going every 5th day for five months (or six months in the majors), you need to pace yourself. For someone who’s not used to the workload, it can be a burdensome task. Luckily, Aaron is a hard-worker and has a good head on his shoulders. “It’s been a long, probably last 18 to 20 months. To go from back when college first started to getting drafted, finishing up the season, then going to fall league. I had a few months off, then basically started back in January or February with our camps and things like that. So, it’s going to be nice to get a good offseason in to kind of relax and just lay in the bed at home, lay on the couch a little bit.”
And it will be rest well-deserved for the kid from Channelview, Texas. “I’ll probably be back at school a little bit, I got a trainer there I really like, works out really well with him and the facilities there, at Baylor, still are second to none, to help me staying in shape. So that’s probably where I’ll be.”
No matter where he is, Dodger fans will be rooting for him.
