Another year older, another year wiser. With each new Major League Baseball Entry Draft comes a new wave of talent to the prospect forefront. While scouts and fans alike have no problems picking favorites with regards to new amateurs making their way onto the radar, an untapped realm of prospect assessment is left untapped. In this new series, the amateur talents of those from different draft classes will be compared with and evaluated against one another in the Project Prospect Time Machine.
Pass One: Andrew Miller meets David Price
The University of North Carolina and Vanderbilt University are two of collegiate baseball’s finest programs. Products of the above programs, Andrew Miller and David Price are both lefthanded skyscrapers who feature overpowering arsenals – both were also the consensus top talents in their respective draft classes.
Thanks to the Scott Boras affect, 6-f00t-6, 210-pound Andrew Miller fell to the Detroit Tigers with no. 6 overall selection in the 2006 MLB Draft. Even with negotiations with Boras on the forefront, the Tigers’ brass was left doing back flips for the rights to the prized lefty.
Miller, who attended North Carolina by the way of Gainesville, Fla., simply brought every physical characteristic a scout could ask for: projectable frame, rocket launcher of a left arm, etc. Over the course of his junior campaign, Miller rode his high-90’s fastball-power slider combo to a 133:40 K to BB rate, 2.48 ERA, and 13-2 record.
Much like his counterpart, this year’s No. 1 overall selection carries the same superhero-esque qualities to the hill: a 6-foot-5, 215-pound frame, overpowering fastball, a wicked, biting slider, and so on. Leading the Commodores into battle, Price posted an eye-opening 194:31 K to BB clip to go along with a 2.63 ERA, and 11-1 record.
Sounds a lot like Miller – where’s the separation?
One word: changeup.
In his brief professional career, Andrew Miller has already gone back and forth from minor league bus lines to chartered big league flights. Until Miller can control his changeup – until he develops into a starter, not a reliever – a few more pit stops are to be made before his world of talent lands a fulltime gig with the Tigers.
In English, once Andrew Miller becomes David Price, he too can develop into a frontline, Major League-caliber starter.
Throughout his collegiate career, Miller simply overpowered his opponents. In contrast, Price out dueled and out pitched those opposing him. Miller was a thrower; Price a pitcher.
Advantage David Price.
Both have the pedigree. Both have the arsenal on the mound. Only one has harnessed his abilities. Because of his dominant stuff and an approach beyond his years, the minor league toils of David Price will be a short-lived chapter of a much bigger story.
Have a duo that you would like to see pass through the Project Prospect Time Machine? Email Adam Loberstein at adamloberstein@gmail.com.