Diamondbacks Nearing Deal Involving Wade Miley

[Matt L]

Wow that is a crazy haul for Miley

I think that's a pretty good haul for Miley too. Rubby had some good starts for Boston last year. Here's to hoping he builds on those!

 

[don7031]

Not happy with this trade. Miley was one of the few known quantities on the pitching staff. Now he is gone for a couple guys were given a chance in the majors and were deemed expendable.

At least the team is acquiring pitching prospects for middle of the rotation talent instead of reverse which was the case in the past. Let fans of other teams check the D'backs box scores to see how their former talent is doing.

 

[Zeno]

Miley, who turned 28 last month, was an All-Star and runner-up for the National League Rookie of the Year award in 2012, but has regressed since then due largely to a rising walk rate. Miley walked just 1.7 men per nine innings in 2012, but doubled that rate to 3.4 in 2014. That's not a disastrous figure, and it has been accompanied by an improved groundball rate and a spike in strikeouts (8.2 K/9 in 2014 compared to 6.6 the previous two seasons combined), but it has painted Miley as more of a league-average innings eater (he has averaged 200 innings a year over the last three seasons) than an All-Star. Indeed, his fielding independent pitching mark was 3.98 in each of the last two seasons, a good match for his actual 3.94 ERA over those two campaigns, which worked out to a 97 ERA+.

That's not an overwhelming return for the two pitching prospects acquired in the August 2012 blockbuster trade with the Dodgers, but it is a fair one given the uncertainty still surrounding those two. De La Rosa, who throws in the mid-90s, posted a 4.48 ERA (87 ERA+) in 18 starts for Boston in 2014. He has the potential to be a similarly-effective mid-rotation arm, but there's no guarantee he'll deliver the league-average seasons that can be safely expected from Miley. Webster, who has all six team-controlled years remaining, has even better stuff but is even further away from turning it into a sustainable career, posting a 5.03 ERA in 11 major league starts with awful peripherals this past season. Either of those two might deliver on their promise in Arizona, but they might also wind up as relievers or worse.

http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/12/11/boston-red-sox-wade-miley-rick-porcello-justin-masterson-rotation

So it sounds like a high upside type of gamble. Probably will have to wait a couple of seasons to see how it turns out.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

Did The D-Backs Trade Wade Miley Because He Wouldn't Give Up Gluten?

According to AZ Central, there were rumors swirling that the Diamondbacks were unhappy with Miley's physical preparations, and those rumors eventually reached Miley. But what exactly were the Diamondbacks unhappy with? Based on Miley's latest comments, it seems like they were mad at him for not going on a gluten-free diet:

http://deadspin.com/did-the-d-backs-trade-wade-miley-because-he-wouldnt-giv-1672345734