Mariners’ Bryce Miller gives close look at all 7 of his pitches

The Seattle Mariners’ starting rotation has developed a reputation for experimenting with and adding new pitches to their arsenal.

Bryce Miller is certainly no exception.

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During his college career at Texas A&M, Miller primarily relied on a fastball-slider combo. But after joining the Mariners’ organization as a 2021 fourth-round pick, that quickly changed.

“It was just mainly throw the fastball as hard as I can and throw the slider off of it (in college),” Miller said Wednesday on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “And it worked, (but) I progressed really quickly once I got to pro ball and really dug into the analytics.

“It was something that came pretty natural to me, just being able to understand the analytics and how I can use that to manipulate shapes and see a shape and figure out how to get to it.”

It’s led to great success.

Sporting a seven-pitch mix, Miller posted a 2.94 ERA over 180 1/3 innings last year during his first full MLB season. He finished fifth in the American League in ERA, third in WHIP (0.98) and third in opposing batting average (.200). And he was even more dominant over the back half of the season, recording a 1.84 ERA over 14 starts after July 1.

According to Baseball Savant, Miller’s arsenal last year consisted of a four-seam fastball (42.1% of the time), a sinker (17.3%), a splitter (17.1%), a sweeper (8.5%), slider (8.3%), a knuckle-curve (4.4%) and a cutter (2.3%).

What allows him to throw so many pitches effectively?

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“I think the way that certain guys throw makes it easier to manipulate the ball in certain ways,” Miller said. “… I’ve always had a little bit of cut on the heater and I’m behind the ball, (so) I’m able to make them move and manipulate the shape relatively easily.”

During his interview on Seattle Sports, Miller showed how he grips each of those pitches, which you can see in the video here (as well as near the 7:30 mark of the full video interview at the top of this post).

 

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Miller was then asked whether he applies pressure differently based on the pitch.

“It depends pitch by pitch,” Miller said. “Really everything is just grip except for the cutter. I try to squeeze more (with my) middle finger and try to keep the index finger out of the way. That kind of helps me. If I’m not thinking middle finger, then I get behind it too much and it’s just a bad fastball, so that’s not what we want.

“But (with) everything else, I don’t like to think mid-pitch or whatever to manipulate the ball. I like it to get a grip and just throw it as hard as I can.”

Listen to the full conversation with Bryce Miller at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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