St. Louis Cardinals: Old Cards Faces in Brand New Places

Shelby Miller

Shelby Miller was the Cardinals’ 2009 first-round pick out of Brownwood High School in Brownwood, TX. Shelby elected to sign with the Cardinals as opposed to attending college, thanks to the $2.875 million signing bonus the Cardinals offered him.

Miller needed just 78 minor league starts before being called up in September of 2012 at 21-years-old. He threw 13 2/3 innings at the tail end of 2012, winning his only start to the tune of a 1.32 ERA.

Miller went 15-9 in his first full season starting with the Cardinals. He sported a 3.06 ERA in 2013 with 169 strikeouts in 173 innings pitched.

Despite the solid regular season performance by Miller in 2013, Mike Matheny left him out of the starting rotation for the Postseason. Miller threw just a single inning during the Cardinals’ National League Championship run.

Shelby was good again in 2014, logging a 10-9 record with a 3.74 ERA in 183 innings pitched. He picked up a no-decision in the clinching game four of the NLDS against the Dodgers, going 5 2/3 innings and allowing 2 earned runs. Miller picked up the loss in game four of the NLCS against the Giants after surrendering three earned runs over 3 2/3 innings.

While Miller had yet to experience a great deal of Postseason success in his brief Cardinal career, he certainly looked to be a centerpiece in the St. Louis rotation for years to come. The tragic passing of Oscar Taveras changed all of that.

With a sudden vacancy in right field, GM John Mozeliak sent Miller and pitching prospect Tyrell Jenkins to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for five-tool freak Jason Heyward and the very imposing setup man Jordan Walden.

In hindsight, knowing where Heyward is playing now and considering the uncertainty about Walden’s future, the trade looks like it could cost the Cardinals a lot more than they got out of it. The fact that Stephen Piscotty has arrived ahead of schedule as a very promising right field talent adds to that concern.

Still, I think that the trade was the absolute right move at the time that it was made. Mozeliak was absolutely correct in filling the right field void with the games best defensive outfielder. He was absolutely correct in filling that void with a 26-year-old freak of an athlete who (by stature, anyways) just seems destined to be a 30-homer man at some point in his career.

Had the Cubbies not done what they did in 2015, I’m pretty sure Heyward would have been a lock to re-sign with the Cards. As it stands, I am no longer too fond of the Cardinals’ 2015 right field rental. I cannot help but to notice the holes in that man’s swing, and I look forward to watching Cardinal pitching attack said holes in 2016.

Anyhow, back to Shelby Miller.

Shelby got absolutely hosed in 2015, at least from a win/loss standpoint, in his single season with Atlanta. Miller turned in a 3.02 ERA, struck out 171 batters and made the NL All-Star team. Yet, he finished the year with a 6-17 record.

I have to imagine that Miller would be lying if he said he didn’t feel some relief being out of Atlanta, no offense to the Braves. This year, he will pair up with solidified ace Zach Greinke in Arizona, who’s fresh off of a dominant 2015 season with LA.

Greinke went 19-3 with an NL-best 1.66 ERA last year. Greinke is 142-93 over his now 12-year MLB career. Since getting out of Kansas City in 2011, Greinke is 97-31 (.758 win pct) while pitching mostly in the National League.

Those two together have a chance to be one of the best 1-2 starting pitching combos in the National League. I’m not entirely sold on the rest of the D-Backs squad for 2016, but it would be really, really difficult to see Miller experiencing the same issues he faced last year.

I see Miller turning in a very strong 2016 campaign, and at just 25 years of age, I see a long and successful career ahead of him. I’d love it if he were still in St. Louis.