The Red Sox and Marlins traded young pitchers:
The Red Sox have acquired underachieving former first-round draft pick Andrew Miller from the Florida Marlins in exchange for lefty reliever Dustin Richardson.
The Marlins hoped to replace Dontrelle Willis with Miller, but that never materialized. In parts of three seasons for Florida, Andrew posted a 5.89 ERA with a very high walk rate (something they could have gotten from Dontrelle). Miller actually had a low walk rate in the minors until 2009, which says to me something messed him up along the way. Maybe the Red Sox coaches can straighten him out.
Richardson, in two cups of coffee with the Red Sox walked more than he struck out. His minor league strikeout rate is very high, so there is upside there. Both, I suspect will be works in progress.
Doesn’t it seem like a lot of left handed pitchers have control problems? Mr. Pinto, you know a whole more than me about these things, but I have to wonder if left handers have a lot more trouble with control because they are almost always instructed by RIGHT handed instructors, since the majority of everyone is right handed.
Maybe my perception is wrong-but has anyone, to your knowledge ever looked into this? Thanks.
Oh, and on this deal, why not? Both pitchers seem to be spinning their wheels where they are. Maybe a change in coaching staffs helps with new ideas to correct whatever ails them helps both teams and players.
@jrs: There are plenty of left-handers with great control. I would guess that the control problems come from having to face right-handed batters almost exclusively. Right-handers tend to get a 50/50 mix of right and left handed batters, with LHP it’s almost 80% righties.