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Mason Miller of the Oakland A’s has taken Main League Baseball by storm this season, popping out of the bullpen with an electrical fastball reaching 103.7 mph and whereas placing out 56.7% of batters he’s confronted to this point. He’s additionally but to permit a single barrelled ball in his first 285 pitches this season, which is a exceptional feat when you think about the truth that the common MLB pitcher permits 7 in each 100 pitches thrown. He’s saved 8 video games for the A’s, totaling practically half of the A’s present whole of 19 wins, and is rumored to be on the buying and selling block on the deadline in July. Nevertheless, the rationale Miller’s dominance comes as such a shock is as a result of he wasn’t practically this profitable in his rookie season for the A’s final 12 months, and, as a result of Miller has been in a position to develop inside an A’s group that’s well-known for having the worst amenities, the worst farm system, and the most affordable proprietor who has constantly refused to spend any cash to enhance the latter. Miller’s story is that of an underdog who has overcome his environment to develop into profitable in a spot the place few gamers are ready to take action. I do know everybody, together with myself, loves a very good underdog story, so I’m going to interrupt down how Mason Miller advanced into the monster he’s now, by means of pitch design, modifications in his arsenal and utilization profile, in addition to every other elements which have contributed to his meteoric and unprecedented rise to the highest of the reduction pitcher totem pole.
Let’s begin with pitch design and examine how Miller is throwing the baseball within the 2024 season vs. the 2023 season. In 2023, Miller threw a 4-Seam Fastball, a Slider, and a Cutter, in addition to a Changeup that he nearly solely threw to lefties. This season nonetheless, he’s solely thrown a 4-Seam and a Slider (he’s additionally thrown 2 changeups, each to lefties, however that’s not sufficient of a pattern measurement to go off of), so we’ll solely examine the 4-Seam and Slider since he threw them in each of his MLB seasons. Clearly, it’s a large deal that Miller stopped throwing his Cutter and Changeup, however we’ll save that for a bit later. Additionally, a fast notice to any readers not fluent in Baseball Savant terminology, I might be evaluating the vertical and horizontal motion of Mason Miller’s pitches to MLB common. How Baseball Savant does that is by taking the common variety of inches of drop (vertical motion vs. gravity) or break (horizontal motion) for all pitches inside 2 mph of velocity and 0.5 ft of extension of the pitch you’re looking at in an effort to take away any bias in direction of slower pitches or pitches launched farther from the plate which due to this fact have extra time to maneuver farther. Beginning with the 2023 season, Miller’s 4-Seam that 12 months averaged 11 inches of drop which was 1.2 inches greater than common, which is smart on condition that he launched it with 1-2 o’clock tilt. His 4-Seam surprisingly lacked a lot additional arm aspect run with simply 7.7 inches in comparison with a median of seven.6 inches, and due to this, the form itself doesn’t blow me away. Nevertheless, as all the time with Fastballs, velocity is king, and since Miller’s 4-Seam averaged 98.4 mph, it nonetheless was an excellent pitch for him, with a run worth of 0.8 per 100 thrown which is best than the league common. Miller’s Slider in 2023 had 39.2 inches of drop which is 3.6 greater than league common, and had 8.4 inches of break which is 3.8 inches larger than common. Miller launched his Slider at 8-9 o’clock tilt, making a Slurve form with related quantities of vertical and horizontal motion. Very like Miller’s 4-Seam, the form of his Slider isn’t very distinctive. Nevertheless, not like his 4-Seam, Miller’s Slider does have excellent quantities of break, making it an efficient pitch on the inside and outer thirds of the plate. That is mirrored by the pitch’s run worth, which is 1.4 per 100 thrown and can be above league common.
Now to check that to Miller’s 2024 season to this point, his 4-Seam has misplaced 1.1 inches of drop and gained 1.4 inches of break. That is peculiar as a result of usually we see a rise in journey (that means a lower in drop) or break, however not each on the similar time as a result of changes within the tilt of the ball at launch change the route of the spin of the ball from extra vertical to extra horizontal or vice versa. The change we see in MIller’s 4-Seam isn’t as a result of an adjustment in tilt, however moderately a rise within the spin effectivity of the pitch, resulting in extra motion total as a result of the gyro angle has been decreased at launch. Miller additionally vastly elevated the rate of his 4-Seam, from a median of 98.3 to 100.9 mph, which leads us to imagine that Miller may even have elevated the spin fee of the pitch, one more reason the entire motion of the pitch may have elevated as nicely. These modifications accrued to extend the worth of the pitch tremendously, from a run worth of 0.8 per 100 thrown in 2023 to a present run worth of two.0 in 2024 to this point. Miller’s Slider misplaced half an inch of each drop and break between 2023 and 2024. Nevertheless, the pitch gained nearly 2 mph in that span identical to his 4-Seam. This modification in form is sort of minuscule, however simply half an inch much less drop on the pitch made it an excessive outlier for its velocity vary, going from 3.6 to five.2 extra inches of drop than the common pitch inside 2 mph of its velocity. This precipitated an enormous enhance within the run worth of the pitch, going from 1.4 to 4.1. It’s clear that each Miller’s 4-Seam and Slider noticed main enhancements over the low season, each in velocity, and in form. So now let’s dive into how and when Miller is utilizing these pitches to achieve success.
In 2023 righties noticed Miller’s 4-Seam 59% of the time, his Slider 32% of the time, his Cutter 8% of the time, and his Changeup simply 1% of the time. Miller used his 4-Seam up within the zone to righties which is the place he received most of his whiffs with the pitch. He used the Slider to work down and away from the righties with an occasional entrance door breaker additionally getting combined in. He threw his Cutter up-and-in to righties primarily when he was forward within the rely, and threw it down and away the remainder of the time. I feel this was to play off the same look of the Slider and Cutter out of his hand in addition to each pitches breaking gloveside. This allowed him to get hitters to miss-time the pitch in the event that they had been in search of a Slider out of the hand. He solely threw the Changeup 3 instances to righties so there isn’t a lot to investigate there. To lefties, Miller dropped his 4-Seam utilization to 50%, and swapped the Cutter and Slider, utilizing them at 25% and 15% respectively. He additionally threw a Changeup 10% of the time. Miller used the Cutter closely on the within a part of the plate to lefties and stored the Slider on the outer portion. He additionally left the zone fairly a bit with the Slider to get some chases when he was forward within the rely. His technique was the identical with the 4-Seam because it was to righties, staying primarily up within the strike zone.
In 2024, Miller went from being a starter to being a more in-depth for the A’s, so he scrapped his Cutter and Changeup to start utilizing a 4-Seam and Slider combine. Miller has thrown his 4-Seam to lefties 71% of the time to this point, and his Slider 29%. He favors the Slider over the 4-Seam to righties, throwing it 55% vs. 45% for the 4-Seam. The attention-grabbing factor I seen is that he appears to throw 2 completely different Sliders, one to righties and one to lefties. His Slider to lefties has a lot much less glove-side break than the Slider he throws to righties, and due to this fact drops much more due to that. So possibly Miller didn’t fully do away with his Cutter, however as an alternative killed some vertical motion to fluctuate it extra from his 4-Seam in order that he principally has a third pitch he can use to lefties solely. Miller didn’t throw his Changeup a lot in 2023, however when he did throw it he threw it to lefties. His Changeup wasn’t a horrible pitch for him, and he received a 42.9% whiff fee with it which is sort of double the league common. The rationale he dropped the pitch is probably going as a result of he lacked the mandatory management of it to make it helpful, as he additionally solely threw the Changeup within the zone 23.3% of the time in 2023. A few of that is by design to generate chase, however he solely did this with 13% of the Changeups he threw, so ultimately these pitches out of the zone weren’t productive.
Now let’s go over Miller’s manufacturing and see if the modifications he made have paid off for him and the A’s. In 2023, Miller generated an above-average quantity of fly balls and line drives, however struggled to seek out success with the Cutter, which produced an xwOBA of .379 in opposition to it. I hate in charge the failure of his Cutter on its lack of motion fully, as many pitchers have discovered success with gyro sliders which don’t have any motion in any respect, however his Cutter fell proper between his Slider and 4-Seam on his motion plot, that means it didn’t differ sufficient from the two for my part, and it didn’t have sufficient glove-side break to offer lefties hassle on the inside a part of the plate. His 4-Seam additionally received hit exhausting typically, with a .298 xwOBA in opposition to it on the 12 months. I imagine that is due to the problem I discussed earlier than together with his Cutter form not differing sufficient, nevertheless it additionally might be due to the counts he was throwing the 4-Seam in. Miller favored the 4-Seam in each rely aside from 0-2 final season, and even in 0-2 counts he nonetheless threw it 35% of the time. I feel he relied on the 4-Seam an excessive amount of, particularly in counts the place he was forward when he didn’t want to offer the batter an amazing pitch to hit. These counts are the place I feel it could’ve been good to slot in extra Changeups which he actually didn’t present a lot as I stated earlier than. His Slider carried out fairly nicely final season, with a .207 xwOBA in opposition to it and a 47.1% whiff fee. His Changeup, whereas not used a lot, had a 92.6 mph common exit velocity on it.
This season, nonetheless, the script has fully flipped for Miller, whose 4-Seam is being whiffed on at a 47.4% fee and solely has a .197 xwOBA in opposition to it. Miller’s Slider has additionally gotten even higher, with a 46.9% whiff fee and a minuscule .076 xwOBA in opposition to it. I feel the principle think about Miller’s improved efficiency is being moved into the nearer position for the A’s. Miller is now in a position to do what he’s finest at over the course of only a few batters, which is holding the 4-Seam on the prime of the zone and the Slider breaking away from righties on the backside of the zone or falling out of the zone to lefties. As a starter, Miller was compelled so as to add pitches to his arsenal that he both couldn’t command or that weren’t efficient for him such because the Cutter and Changeup, however now, as a more in-depth, he doesn’t have to fret about going by means of a lineup a number of instances and having to determine alternative ways to get guys out, as a result of his 2 pitches are elite and they’re all he wants. It has additionally helped so as to add 2 mph to all of Miller’s pitches as a result of he now doesn’t have to fret about consuming innings, and as an alternative can simply empty the tank.
Mason Miller’s transformation from a struggling rookie starter to a dominant nearer is a testomony to his adaptability. By honing his craft with pitch design, and optimizing his productiveness by taking part in to his strengths, Miller has develop into a formidable power on the mound. As he continues to ship excellent performances, Miller’s journey serves as an inspiring underdog story, highlighting that success is usually hiding in plain sight. Because the commerce deadline approaches, his meteoric rise and impression on the A’s season will undoubtedly make him a sought-after asset.
