Sure there was the 20+ innings pitched in Triple-A before his callup and a few good starts for Andrew Miller, but there is a reason he has been passed around do often. Miller has control problems and no matter how hard he throws left handed he can’t compensate for the lack of control.
In his first month in June he even had a solid start and only walked 5 batters in 11.2 innings. Those are no where near great or even good numbers, but based on his past it was a start. Since then though the wheels have fallen off the wagon and Miller has
reverted to the wild thing he was labeled as.
In the last 49.2 innings after June that he has pitched he has thrown 5.99 walks every nine innings and shown why his career ERA stands at 5.79. His current ERA is 5.58 this season, but that is backed up by a FIP of 5.32 and a xFIP of 4.90. It can’t get much worse and I can’t see why the Red Sox would continue to throw him out there and hole Felix Doubront in the bullpen.
Doubront has some issues and his BB/9 stands at an even worse 8.53, but that is largely a factor of limited time and pitching from the pen. He has career history that shows that while he does not have great control he has enough to be a valuable starter. The same cannot be said for Miller who is currently a detriment to the Red Sox every time he starts.
With the Red Sox only 4.5 games ahead of the Rays and much of the staff facing some different health questions they have been forced to go to options they would prefer to avoid, but I can see no benefit to using Miller over the other options available. Just to prove my point here is two stat lines:
7 GS, 6.27 K/9, 5.54 BB/9, 4.95 FIP, 0.2 WAR
12 GS, 6.31 K/9, 5.83 BB/9, 5.32 FIP, 0.1 WAR
The second pitcher is Andrew Miller, but the first was the seven starts made by Daisuke Matsuzaka before having Tommy John this season. If that doesn’t put Miller on the bottom of the list of options I don’t know what does. When the Red Sox finally move on from Miller it will be interesting to see what team gives him another shot with a minor league deal, but he is not an option to help a team struggling to finish out the season and entering the playoffs.