Against the Yankees Wednesday, Shelby Miller stunk again, allowing seven runs on nine hits with two walks and only one strikeout in five innings. Same old, same old, right?
Except his comments after the game revealed something new:
"I gave up some big hits on curveballs, two of them were first-pitch," Miller said. "I don't know if I was tipping it or not."
Let's ignore for a minute the possibility of him tipping his pitches. What encourages me is the use of his curveball.
It's a pitch that helped distinguish Miller as a prospect coming up through the minors and a pitch he threw about a quarter of the time in his first 15 starts last year, when he had a 2.35 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings. But perhaps because the 15th of those starts wasn't his best, he's shied away from it since, resulting in a 3.90 ERA, 1.45 WHIP and 7.2 strikeouts per nine innings in 27 starts.
He's gotten back to throwing it close to 20 percent of the time in his last three starts, which had resulted in improved strikeout and walk rates until this latest start.
Maybe he's on the right track and we just don't know it because he is, in fact, tipping his pitches. Given his upside, he's worth stashing for a start or two more just to be sure.