WaitingForNextYear

Adam Miller, the Indians top overall prospect four years running, has once again been placed on the Triple-A-Buffalo disabled list. He’s awaiting a decision following an examination from doctors to figure out how to handle a callus issue on the same finger that gave him issues last season. In six starts, Miller is 0-1 with a 1.88 era.

Potentially, Miller has the ability to be the Indians ace for the next decade, but just can’t stay off the disabled list for very long. Yes, I said ace. If he stays healthy, he will be better than Fausto Carmona. Now excuse me while I digress for a moment…

Is it me, or is the future path of Miller starting to resemble that of another talented, but injury prone hurler in Toronto’s A.J. Burnett? Think about it, both pitchers are lanky-types who throw hard, with good strikeout rates, but always seem to be battling all sorts of injuries ranging from elbow problems to blisters on their pitching hand.

Yes, those injuries do amount to unfulfilled potential. Toronto is on the books for over $13 million for Burnett this year and can’t wait for A.J. do opt out of his deal and hit the market this fall. Need I say more?

In all fairness to Miller, he is still only 23 years-old and still potentially has a lot of years ahead of him. He could even overcome his rash of injuries like another Blue Jays pitcher did in Roy Halladay. Today, Halladay is a top-5 AL pitcher and has pitched 12 complete games in the past year and a half. Halladay is arguably as good as any staff ace in the American League.

(In an unrelated note: Is there anything more aggravating than playing in a rotisserie format of fantasy baseball and not having Roy Halladay on your team? Whoever drafts that guy always wins out the complete games category on his own because in this day in age he literally ends up with more CG’s than just about every other team in everyone’s fantasy league. He has to be worth two or three spots in the overall standings alone…easy. It’ll be a long time before I get over the fact that I took Troy Tulowitzki before him this year.)

When you have a talent like Miller, I don’t think you can easily turn around and deal him or rush to convert him into a closer so soon. You have to sit on him and be patient. Considering he won’t be free agent eligible until he likely hits his 30’s, the Tribe will still have him for his prime years. Let’s just hope this works out for the Miller, as well as the Indians because with C.C. Sabathia and Paul Byrd heading for the door in the near future, there will be plenty of openings in the rotation.