First impressions: Owen Miller
Owen Miller is the highest draft pick joining the Dust Devils from 2018’s class. After a couple hours of reading about him, you can call me a fan.
On a skim through interviews and articles, Owen seems like a terrific all-around talent who’s also hard working, determined, and a class act. I can’t wait to watch him play this summer.
I liked this anecdote from The Athletic’s post-draft writeup on him ($).
Before the shortstop’s junior season this year, [Houston Astros scout] Hoerner reached out to ask if he could watch Miller hit at an indoor facility in Racine, Wis.
Miller suggested an alternative: He would drive more than an hour to meet Hoerner near the scout’s home.
“In 20 years [of scouting,] that’s a first for me,” Hoerner said. “Like, my job is to come and meet him. He had absolutely no qualms about it. It blew me away.”
Kade Heather has a great Q&A with Owen after his draft selection. I particularly found this answer interesting:
I try to play the game really calm and relaxed. I’ve never been a guy who puts a lot of pressure on myself. I think that’s how everyone should play baseball, relaxed and they should have fun because in all, it’s a game and if you start putting too much pressure on yourself, that’s when you see guys starting to not produce. That’s how I think I play the game, just calm and relaxed, you can’t get too happy or too down on yourself. Play with a level head the whole time and I think that’s the best way to have success.
For a guy who plays calm and relaxed, Owen has a truly outrageous accomplishment under his belt.
I actually did a double-take when I read one of the bullet points about him hitting for the cycle while playing for the Lakeshore Chinooks (a summer team for top college players like our nearby Walla Walla Sweets).
For my baseball lite friends, “hitting for the cycle” means getting a single, double, triple, and home run in one game. It’s an impressive feat that makes a statement about a player’s all-around capability.
Generally, players have to be pretty fast to hit triples and they obviously need some power to hit home runs. But then consider that getting four hits of any kind in a game is an accomplishment on its own. Now add the difficulty of each of those things together and align them perfectly in one game.
The vast majority of players at all skill levels will never hit for the cycle in their lives. In the entire history of major league baseball statistics going back to 1876, only 319 players have ever hit for the cycle. Less than 3% of active major leaguers have done it in their careers. In their 50 year history, just two Padres players have hit for the cycle.
Yeah, yeah, so it’s an impressive feat. Okay, but here’s the thing.
Owen Miller didn’t just hit for the cycle once.
He didn’t just do it twice—he did it twice in one three-game series!
And here’s the prior cycle, just two games before:
Check the videos and his story holds up.
Owen Miller plays calm and relaxed.
