And I don’t get how people say this doesn’t hurt his development. He went essentially from the University of North Carolina to the Detroit Tigers and trying to pitch in a playoff race. There’s no way (1) he was physically ready, (2) he was mentally ready, (3) he was pitching ready. And now he’s been shelled on the big league level.

Miller’s curve has decent break, its just the control that needs to improve.

The only argument for staying in the minors, and this applies even to JB, is to develop a 3rd pitch. In the minors you can work on it without the pressure of winning…or at least with much less pressure.

If we envision Maybin playing LF, he needs to PRACTICE in the minors, or winter ball.

I think he will be fine in time, and I agree with the stance that Bonderman vs Miller is not a fair comparison. I look for Miller to be a better pitcher than Bonderman. Maybe in 2009, we can look forward to a JV-JB-Jurrjens-Miller-Porcello rotation.

That said, it was time to shut him down. No sense in ruining his confidence even more at the present time–and losing games in the process.

Now people are starting to question whether this year has either damaged his growth as a pitcher or revealed perhaps fatal flaws that will keep him from being a top of the rotation starter. Personally, I have my concerns but I think some people, mostly on other blogs, are making too much out of Miller’s performance this year. Still, you know that other GMs are going to try and use Miller’s struggles to squeeze DD on any potential trades.

Leyland presumably looked at Durbin, Miner, Jurrjens and whoever else and figured he’d take his chances with the kid whose stuff could allow him to pitch lights out on any given night.

I think that’s the mistake the Tigers made as far as Miller’s future. I think they called him up, not because they thought it was best for his development, but because they thought they needed him on the team. All that “he can pick pitcher’s brains” and “learn from Kenny Rogers” stuff sure sounds like rationalization and afterthought to me.

I think this idea is further supported by a story I remember from the offseason where they reported Leyland asked what he had to do to get Miller on the team and Dombrowski told Leyland Miller would have to start. That implies Leyland was angling to get him on the roster even if it meant putting him in the bullpen. Do you think THAT would have been good for his development?

I admit I’m using hindsight here, but it seems their mistake was to look at Miller and other options, and opt for him for (perhaps) a small benefit now in favor of further development and a larger benefit later.

Also, a third pitch isn’t Miller’s only problem. He has struggled with his control for as far back as we have stats, and his final season of college was the only time it went from being problematic to just questionable. He can get by without a third pitch, but he can’t get by walking a batter every other inning for an entire season as a starter.

I’ve probably gone on too long already, but I just thought I’d chip in some thoughts on this topic.

I don’t know how to do the quote thing, but I wrote this down several months ago. So, here’s a quote by Tommy John:

“There is simply no such thing as a starting pitcher who has a long career with a low strikeout rate.”

– A lack of alternatives. The Tigers needed fresh arms to get through the season. And although I will always admire Mike Maroth for his survival of the 2003 debacle, he was not the answer anymore.

– The organization has had a lot of success with young pitchers on the major-league roster. It didn’t work as well with Miller, but he did pitch creditably, at least some of the time. He was better than Maroth, at the very least.

– I don’t see why 2007 will stunt Miller’s growth, unless: (a) he blew out his shoulder, which he didn’t, (b) he’s an idiot, and he decides that he who doesn’t have to be coached anymore, or (c) his coaches are too stupid to keep him on track. If he’s handled properly, 2007 should be a positive experience for Miller — just like 2003 was for Bonderman.

He needs time to try this stuff out against real batters in game situations. That means the minors. If we don’t have guys in the farm system that can teach a pitcher a new pitch, we’ve got bigger problems than what to do with Andrew Miller.

And this is the major leagues! We’re in a pennant race, we have tons of pitching injuries, you pitch the best possible guy you have and, for a while, Miller was the best #5 starter we had.

And I hate to say this, but the Bonderman comparisons don’t wash. The problem with Bonderman isn’t that he needed a third pitch, everyone could use a third pitch, but the fact is he’s just not very smart. I don’t think he has the intellect to adjust on the fly which means he will probably always be an above average starter with great stuff but never a great pitcher. There’s ton of guys like that, Jaret Wright, about five-six years ago, comes to mind. Pavano etc…

If they had sent him back to Eerie at the All Star break, he might have been able to develop that extra pitch and be primed to start ‘08 in the rotation.