Miller on Sunday (predictions)

[inari]

With his stuff today, Wade wouldn't have been effective against the Memphis Redbirds.

[Sosa21MVP]

Miller's stuff wasn't fooling anyone. Maybe he'll be effective against a poor hitting team like the Cardinals, but a team with some serious bats like the Brewers are going to crush him.

 

:lol:

 

That 2nd inning looked like he was throwing BP.

[NCCubFan]

Mr. Guzman, please report to the Cubs' rotation ASAP.

[oldstyle81]

Did Wade look as bad as his game line?

 

was there and can say he looked dreadful

 

kept thinking to myself id rather see Guzman

[A New Era]

I doubt they'll pull him just yet. They'll give him atleast a couple more starts. However Miller struggling could mean Guzman could get his chance. Which might not be a bad thing at all.

[CUBZ99]

I doubt they'll pull him just yet. They'll give him atleast a couple more starts. However Miller struggling could mean Guzman could get his chance. Which might not be a bad thing at all.

 

Guzman has to get it together. He was not very good as a starter in Spring Training, and the games I saw him he was getting hit pretty hard. I would love for him to get it together, but I'm skeptical.

[RichHillIsABeast]

Did Wade look as bad as his game line?

 

Yes.

 

His curve looked fine. His fastball isn't good enough to get people out swinging when it's up and over the plate. I realize he used to be able to do that, but he needs to make the mental adjustment in a hurry. 88 mph heaters up in the zone get cranked over the fence.

 

The thing that really irks me about this game is Miller should have rocked. The ump was calling the low strike all game long. That's where Miller needs to be working his FB for the most part. He got hammered when he went up in the zone.

[RichHillIsABeast]

I doubt they'll pull him just yet. They'll give him atleast a couple more starts. However Miller struggling could mean Guzman could get his chance. Which might not be a bad thing at all.

 

Guzman has to get it together. He was not very good as a starter in Spring Training, and the games I saw him he was getting hit pretty hard. I would love for him to get it together, but I'm skeptical.

 

I'll take the guy with 3 potential plus pitches over the present day Miller, who doesn't seem to be gaining any velocity on his FB.

 

I wasn't big on post-injury Gooz until I saw his curve in ST. If he stays healthy, he's going to open some eyes.

[Soul]

Gooz needed to be the 5th starter out of camp, as he by all rights earned the job in ST over Miller & Prior.

 

Pray Lou realizes he already has a better pitcher ready to take the spot.

 

No more Miller plz.

[Chocolate Milk]

Miller doesn't have a lot of room for error, from what I saw. Mistakes are going to be hit and hit hard.

[Soul]

Miller doesn't have a lot of room for error, from what I saw. Mistakes are going to be hit and hit hard.

 

The stuff I saw from him today looked very much like a long reliever, not a starter. Fastball in the mid-to-high '80s, a loopy curve, location that leaves something to be desired at times.....that's a reliever at best. By contrast, Gooz has starter stuff. Dynamite fastball, killer off speed stuff. Only lack of experience counts against him, and the BP is a terrible place to gain starting experience. The 5th starter spot is the perfect place from which to develop a hot young arm who just needs some more starts to figure out how to use his stuff against major leaguers.

 

Any way I look at it, Gooz should be that 5th starter not Miller.

[radarluv1]

maybe i'm just used to dusty, but i dont see a change being made after 1 start. its not like gooz has been lights out out of the pen.

[CubColtPacer]

I saw that people said that Miller's fastball was very straight today-can anyone comment on that? The reason Miller was getting strikeouts last year and in the spring was a fastball that while still pretty slow had tons of movement on it. If it was straight today, it would be very, very hittable.

 

I don't think they are willing to give up on Miller after 1 start either. 1 or 2 more bad starts and they will be ready to pull him. I think they are trying to wait it out until Prior gets back so they don't have to push Guzman from bullpen to starter back to the bullpen in a month's time. Remember, Miller was effective against some major league lineups in the spring (I think he faced the entire Diamondbacks starting lineup, for example) so he's not a guarantee to be horrible every start. They might be able to ride him out for the rest of April, and they still have the option of skipping him once if they need to.

[sethuel1]

I saw that people said that Miller's fastball was very straight today-can anyone comment on that? The reason Miller was getting strikeouts last year and in the spring was a fastball that while still pretty slow had tons of movement on it. If it was straight today, it would be very, very hittable.

 

I don't think they are willing to give up on Miller after 1 start either. 1 or 2 more bad starts and they will be ready to pull him. I think they are trying to wait it out until Prior gets back so they don't have to push Guzman from bullpen to starter back to the bullpen in a month's time. Remember, Miller was effective against some major league lineups in the spring (I think he faced the entire Diamondbacks starting lineup, for example) so he's not a guarantee to be horrible every start. They might be able to ride him out for the rest of April, and they still have the option of skipping him once if they need to.

 

It was pretty straight and very slow. Fielder hit a tomahawk double on a fastball up around his neck.

[CUBZ99]

I saw that people said that Miller's fastball was very straight today-can anyone comment on that? The reason Miller was getting strikeouts last year and in the spring was a fastball that while still pretty slow had tons of movement on it. If it was straight today, it would be very, very hittable.

 

I don't think they are willing to give up on Miller after 1 start either. 1 or 2 more bad starts and they will be ready to pull him. I think they are trying to wait it out until Prior gets back so they don't have to push Guzman from bullpen to starter back to the bullpen in a month's time. Remember, Miller was effective against some major league lineups in the spring (I think he faced the entire Diamondbacks starting lineup, for example) so he's not a guarantee to be horrible every start. They might be able to ride him out for the rest of April, and they still have the option of skipping him once if they need to.

 

I don't think they expect Prior to come back. He hasn't even pitched in extended ST yet.

 

The bad thing about Miller's day today, was that even his outs were hit hard. He wasn't fooling anybody. Was I the only one who wished Lou would have had a quicker hook? In the 2nd inning is was obvious that Miller was horrible, Cotts could have been stretched out for a few innings.

[mdwilla]

I think Miller has at least 3 more starts before the Cubs think about a possible switch to Guzman. We can't even include Prior in the picture until he pitches again. Miller has not picked up any velocity like I had hoped he would as he piled on more innings through spring training.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

If we give Miller three more starts, that is bad decision. Unless he shows something in his next one, the plug on the Wade Miller experiment needs to be plugged.

[USSoccer]

There's no reason to waste 3 more games to see if the $1m investment in Wade Miller will pan out.

 

I'd give him one more start. If he's terrible again, I'd stick him in the bullpen, and DFA him the instant Prior is back. I honestly could care less about Wade Miller. If he can't throw harder than 88 with no movement, he shouldn't be on the team in any capacity.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

There's no reason to waste 3 more games to see if the $1m investment in Wade Miller will pan out.

 

I'd give him one more start. If he's terrible again, I'd stick him in the bullpen, and DFA him the instant Prior is back. I honestly could care less about Wade Miller. If he can't throw harder than 88 with no movement, he shouldn't be on the team in any capacity.

 

This is an important distinction. Terrible doesn't exactly mean x runs allowed or y hits allowed, it's more of what his stuff is like and what type of contact he's generating.

[USSoccer]

There's no reason to waste 3 more games to see if the $1m investment in Wade Miller will pan out.

 

I'd give him one more start. If he's terrible again, I'd stick him in the bullpen, and DFA him the instant Prior is back. I honestly could care less about Wade Miller. If he can't throw harder than 88 with no movement, he shouldn't be on the team in any capacity.

 

This is an important distinction. Terrible doesn't exactly mean x runs allowed or y hits allowed, it's more of what his stuff is like and what type of contact he's generating.

 

Well, yeah. Even if he'd had a quality start today, his stuff was terrible. He was getting hammered all over the place, and it wasn't like he was missing any bats. You can tell he's used to being able to get the high fastball past left handed hitters-except his fastball used to be like 10 mph faster than it is now. You can't sneak 86 mph pitches that stay stick straight past major league hitters.

 

There's seriously no reason to tolerate that kind of performance, either starting every fifth day or being a mop up guy. That's supposedly why you create depth. We have nothing serious invested in Wade Miller, and he needs to be treated like a placeholder, and nothing more. We can replace a place holder with no hesitation.

[RichHillIsABeast]

There's no reason to waste 3 more games to see if the $1m investment in Wade Miller will pan out.

 

I'd give him one more start. If he's terrible again, I'd stick him in the bullpen, and DFA him the instant Prior is back. I honestly could care less about Wade Miller. If he can't throw harder than 88 with no movement, he shouldn't be on the team in any capacity.

 

The thing that scared me most was he wasn't able to keep his FB low in the zone. The low strike was being called by blue today. He's not going to blow anyone away up in the zone with an 88 mph heater.

[Soul]

If we give Miller three more starts, that is bad decision. Unless he shows something in his next one, the plug on the Wade Miller experiment needs to be plugged.

 

I agree with you, but I acknowledge Lou will probably give Miller the starts. I don't think Lou is overly protective of veterans, but I still don't see him pulling the plug after 1 bad start. I'd like him to though.

 

Miller's velocity never came back, and that's the thing hardest to predict about shoulder injuries. I invite everyone to harken back to the early 2000's, when Miller's fastball was 95 MPH or higher. When he got into trouble he could rear back and blow pitches by hitters.

 

Wade got into trouble again today, and like 5 years ago, he tried to rear back and blow fastballs by hitters. Except now they rolled in at 88 and got pounded. Obviously that's not going to make it. If it isn't distressing enough to know Miller's lost nearly 10 MPH on his fastball, then it should be the clincher that he hasn't learned to adjust to his new, lower velocity.

Edited April 9, 2007 by Soul

[rynefan]

He had ZERO strikeouts. But at least his 13.50 ERA isn't as bad as Eyre's 22.50.

[oldstyle81]

He had ZERO strikeouts. But at least his 13.50 ERA isn't as bad as Eyre's 22.50.

 

only because the Brewers lineup isint what id call scary, if it were the reds, he wouldnt have lasted the first inning

[YearofDaCubs]

There's no reason to waste 3 more games to see if the $1m investment in Wade Miller will pan out.

 

I'd give him one more start. If he's terrible again, I'd stick him in the bullpen, and DFA him the instant Prior is back. I honestly could care less about Wade Miller. If he can't throw harder than 88 with no movement, he shouldn't be on the team in any capacity.

Why even stick him in the pen? I'd rather see Cherry there. Just DFA him and get on with it.