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Miller, on his first HR: “He threw one in there and it felt pretty good; it felt really good,’’ Miller said. “It felt pure. And I kind of blacked out there for a little bit."
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Miller Off the Hit It Here Cafe
... albeit Houston's cafe. By a neat coincidence, the family sitting in the second deck was a Mariners family. They cheerfully swapped Miller back his HR ball for, we hope, something good.
Spectator has been insisting, in his understated way, that the Mariners now have:
- 3B = Seager, v1.0
- SS = Seager, v2.0
When Miller got a 2-0 fastball from Bud Norris, in one delicious swing I finally understood what Spec was talking about.
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It was 415 feet, with an apex of 118 feet -- enough to clear the facing of an 11-story building. (Visualize, for a moment, a batted baseball doing that - clearing an 11-story building that was a football field away.)
In case we had any questions from the peanut gallery, Miller got another mistake pitch later in this same game. He planted the back leg and launched a home run to exactly the same 56-61 degree pull vector.
True, it was a "just enough" homer. But check the swing and you'll see it was no blinkin' accident that Miller pulled it hard in the air. As James says, pull a ball hard in the air and you like your chances. Hey, if you're going to be Seager v2.0 you'd better do some o' that.
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HIT Tool
As to Miller's HIT tool, his ability to square up a ball and hit for an AVG ... we have exhausted the subject. Well, we can tack on an example, if not an explanation. That being the line-drive single that preceded his two homers.
The first pitch thrown to him, after four days off, Bud Norris cracked off a real sharp fastball, knee-high and a few inches outside. Miller lowered his weight, unsnapped the bat, and lasered an Ichiro shot into the left-center gap. It was the kind of swing, and kind of timing, that you would see from Ichiro during his 262-game season. After the ASB layoff? Are you serious?
It's hard to see how Brad Miller is going to avoid hitting .300 in the big leagues. If he's got Kyle Seager power also, well ... it looks like Kyle Seager v1.0 may be unable to quite keep step with v2.0. Actually Seager does have one thing Miller doesn't -- a flyball ratio. With Miller's topspin, and grounder rate, he may have to settle for 15-20 homers per year, Jeter style. One of these years, Seager is liable to hit 35.
But as Seagers go, the second version is looking like it coule be an upgrade. It is fast and it plays shortstop.
Be Afraid,
Dr D
Comments
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...when a hitter is in the zone and back-legging the mistakes like that...now we know why. :)
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Yount was one of my favorite players ever. He was a fulltime MLB SS at age 18, of course. From ages 21-23 he OPS'ed 94-110-83. He had 42-41-39 XB hits in those seasons. Then he made the leap to seasons in the 80's!
Miller has 9 XB hits in 17 games, guys. That's in 66 PA's.
B. Ryan had 11 in 231 PA's this year. He averaged 26 over the previous 4 years...averaging 420+ AB's.
Even if you figure Miller is jsut hot right now, he's still 30 XB hits conservatively!!) better than Ryan. That's (conservatively) 70+ more bases than Ryan. Add the extra bases that baserunners gain as well...and you have a lot of runs.
How many singles is Ryan's glove taking away? Remind me again.
moe
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I don't know who to comp Franklin to. I've been calling him Jeter-like for a while, but Nick is a lefty (okay, switch) with a power-for-average tradeoff so it's different. Go ahead and look at second basemen who bat lefty or switch, with a career OPS of .750 or more. I picked 3000 PAs since that's only 5 years or so for a career, and Nick's gonna have well more than that.
There aren't twenty of them in HISTORY.
I've used Ray Durham before, but Nick has a HR swing that Ray didn't have. Chase Utley?
Not fair to comp our kids to HOFers after a month in the bigs, but Franklin doesn't look like a .710 OPS player. .250/.300/.410? That's basically his floor, right, so what's success look like? With Miller's walks and speed, he doesn't either. In the middle infield, .750 is a star, and .800 is a HOFer. I was afraid we'd have to trade one of em away simply because of the crush for space, but if we choose to keep both (as we've now been bold enough to make Ackley the odd man out) how good could they be?
It's kinda frightening.
Especially since Franklin considers himself on a HOF path (and has since he was drafted) and Miller's not shy about upside either. Scary.
~G
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Great!! stat Gordon. One of your signature calls, the "20 in history" call. IIRC you've done that on Franklin at various points... like his results in the MWL, wasn't it?
...........
Bet you it's not much different as it pertains to LH shortstops. And if not...
...........
There is likely only 1 team in history ;- ) that has had a SS-2B come up together, hit lefty* and hit well, taking over the 1-2 slots in the lineup. I dunno, it just seems so STYLISH to me :- )
My man Geoffy is over there complaining that Zduriencik's getting a pass on 2013. For me, these two kids are single-handedly ;- ) justifying the entire season.
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I've had a couple of friends actually go blind, for a very short period, due to info overload. Like their first hang glide.
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"They tell us this thing has 37 million horsepower. At what point is it time to stop COMPARING this thing to a HORSE?"
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I went skydiving ... Well I don't remember falling out of the plane, but I can see the bottom of the plane right now like I'm still falling. And that was 15 years ago.
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Ya, another guy who was one of my first baseball cards :- ) ... thanks for the echo... this one rat cheer:
3,000 hits is a lock for the HOF. But when you think of Yount, do you think of the two MVP seasons in his peak, or the guy who churned out 125 OPS+ seasons?
Looking back at Yount now, the skill set does seem like the target that Franklin would love to hit ... near-.300 AVG, around 40 doubles, 15 homers ... nice EYE, of course.
Interesting to me that in 1983, Yount was able to OPS+ 150 without doing anything spectacular. 17 homers, for example. But tons of walks. Maybe that's Franklin?
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To answer your question Doc (and I was gonna make it a thread, but maybe it's just a goggle-inducing stat that doesn't need a stat:
Left handed SS (3000+ career PAs), OPS over .600 (not .800 but just .600): Ten.
Total SS, same minimums: One Hundred Sixty Seven.
Just BEING a left-handed SS makes Miller a bizarre anomaly. A modern day Arky Vaughn if he's successful, Stephen Drew if he just hits his average projection.
BTW, Arky leads all LH shortstops who ever played in HRs with 96. Stephen Drew should be the first lefty SS to hit 100 HRs. Miller, with a similar career length to Drew, would be aiming to be the second.
Two non-righties, both in the same middle infield, both having plus career path potential with power? It doesn't happen.
It's never happened. And to have it happen now with both of em rookies in the SAME SEASON?
It will be a thing unseen before in baseball history to have Miller and Franklin put up those kinds All-Star careers together, should that be their path. It's a magical, mystical, imaginary creature thing going on. Like having a Luck Dragon or riding a hippogriff.
So put on your spurs and make a wish, I guess, because we're saddling the hippogriff as we speak.
~G