Prospect Profile

Erik Miller, a left-handed pitcher out of Stanford, is this week’s Prospect Profile from the Phillies minor league system.

Steve Potter, author of Phillies Minor League Digest and www.philliesbaseballfan.com, offers his views of young Phillies players. Between streaming of minor league games and seeing games firsthand at BayCare Ballpark and Carpenter complex, Steve has seen every Phillies minor league player who played in the states in 2021. He’s a former corporate executive who retired in Clearwater, FL, but he’s hardly retired. (Photo: Mark Wylie)

Erik Miller — Born: February 13, 1998, St. Louis, MO … Attended Stanford U. … Phillies 4th-round selection, 2019.

This Fan’s View

2021 was a frustrating year physically for the talented hurler, shoulder issues sidelined him from participating in big league spring training and lingered throughout the summer. He was limited to 5 games ( 12 2/3 IP ) with the FCL Phillies, Clearwater and Jersey Shore. When he’s healthy the fastball posts as high as 98 mph and generally sits between 93 to 95. He throws both a sinker and four seam fastball with a curve, slider and change up as secondaries. We saw him pitch in Fall Instructs in preparation for the Arizona Fall League where he performed well as a reliever.

2022 Projection

Erik has a starter’s repertoire and will be used as such this season, hopefully the shoulder issues are a thing in the past. He has the stuff and mental makeup to get to the show. We see a chance for him to break spring camp with AA Reading, at the least a Jersey Shore beginning with an eye for a quick bump up. He’s part of the mini-camp for Phillies minor leaguers at Carpenter Complex that begins on Feb. 14.

(“The Comeback Season”, Potter’s 6th annual Phillies Minor League Digest, is now available at www.amazon.com. He captures this year’s entire minor league season which didn’t exist in 2020 because covid).