I've held out as long as I could knowing the upside and the weight of my investment, but enough is enough: Shelby Miller no longer has a place on my mixed-league rosters.
I thought he was making progress. I thought he had tweaked his arsenal enough that the improved control we saw during a five-start stretch from May 17 to June 7, culminating in a complete-game shutout at Toronto, would bring him back to his former dominance, short-lived as it was.
But in three starts since, he has issued 12 walks over 16 innings, striking out just 13.
Granted, the last one -- which was also the worst -- came at Colorado, and pitchers usually get a pass there, but five walks in 2 2/3 innings is unacceptable regardless of the environment. And it only validated the concerns I had about his previous two starts.
As always for posts like this one, I feel the need to clarify that giving up on Miller now isn't the same as giving up on him forever. He's still young and talented and blah, blah, blah. But with this latest start, I think we've finally reached the point where if you drop Miller, you either won't miss him or you'll have another shot at him later. If the point of a bench spot is to protect what you fear losing to someone else, he's undeserving of one.