Alternate routes

Pitchers go different ways to pros

No "By" Line
Fort Myers News Press

They took different roads to being drafted in the first round by Major League Baseball teams. Monday night at Hammond Stadium, those roads converged.

Andrew Miller, a left-handed pitcher who spent eight games in the big leagues with the Detroit Tigers at the end of last season, started for the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Detroit drafted him in the first round with the sixth overall pick in last year's draft out of the University of North Carolina.

Kyle Waldrop, a right-handed pitcher who has spent the past three seasons in the lower minor-league levels, started for the Fort Myers Miracle.

The Minnesota Twins drafted Waldrop with the 25th overall pick in the first round of the 2004 draft out of Farragut High School in Knoxville, Tenn.

"It's a great matchup," Twins minor-league pitching coordinator Rick Knapp said before the game.

Knapp was right.

With the two first-round picks facing each other, the Miracle prevailed with a 1-0 victory as Waldrop won the pitchers' duel.

"You have a little more adrenaline going, that's for sure," said Waldrop, who struck out six, walked two and gave up four hits but no runs in 5? innings of work.

Meanwhile, Miller struck out six and gave up just three hits and no earned runs in eight innings.

"Every time out there, my goal is to win," Miller said. "It's not just to strike out a bunch of guys. Sometimes you just have to credit the other pitcher."

Following two infield errors in the third inning, Miracle third baseman Toby Gardenhire scored on an RBI-single by right fielder Dwayne White.

"It's two No. 1 picks, and it's always good to see how two No. 1s do," Lakeland manager Kevin Bradshaw said of the pitching matchup. "Miller had a lot of success last year. He's on the fast track."

The 6-foot-6, 210-pound Miller, 21, posted a 10-3 record, a 1.79 ERA and 136 strikeouts as a senior at Gainesville Buchholz High in 2003. He decided not to sign with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, despite being a third-round draft pick.

"It's hard to turn down money, but going to the University of North Carolina just seemed like an opportunity I couldn't pass up," Miller said. "Hindsight is twenty-twenty, but looking back, I still think it's one of the best decisions I ever made."

At North Carolina last season, Miller won the Roger Clemens Award as college baseball's top pitcher, finishing with a 13-2 record and 2.48 ERA, with 133 strikeouts, in 20 games as a junior.

"There's lots of good things to say about him," said Lakeland pitching coach Joe Coleman, a Cape Coral resident during the offseason and the father of Mariner High graduate and Florida Gulf Coast University sophomore pitcher/shortstop Casey Coleman.

In 10? innings for Detroit last September, Miller struck out six batters and walked 10. He allowed opponents a .205 batting average.

Joe Coleman said there are many reasons for Miller to start in Class A-ball rather than Double-A or Triple-A, despite being on the major-league roster last season.

"This is his first full year," Coleman said. "They want him to go out and get his feet on the ground. Our Double-A team is in Erie, Pa., where there's snow and sleet, and everything else. Down here, he's guaranteed to get more innings.

"This is a competitive league. Once he gets some experience, that's when he can starting moving up through the system. He's coming from a very successful college program in a very successful conference."

The biggest adjustment for Miller, Coleman said, would be playing a 140-game schedule that requires working every day instead of the 50-game schedule in college.

Waldrop, 21, already has had three seasons to make that adjustment. He went 3-2, with a 3.57 ERA, in seven starts last season for the Miracle. Before that, he went 6-3, with a 3.85 ERA, in 18 starts for low-Class A Beloit, Wis.

"Waldrop throws 88 to 90 (mile per hour) a lot," Knapp said. "At some point, once he puts on that layer of maturity like most guys do, he'll be in the low-to-mid 90s range."

Waldrop credited the defense behind him for getting Monday's win.

Like Miller, Waldrop could have played at a high-level Division I school in Vanderbilt. Unlike Miller, Waldrop decided to sign with the Twins out of high school rather than attend college.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Waldrop called it one of the toughest decisions he has had to make.

"I personally didn't expect the first round to happen," Waldrop said. "On the day of the draft, I thought I was going to go to Vanderbilt."

The past three years in the minor leagues have prepared Waldrop for this one.

"I definitely feel prepared for what this season is going to bring," he said. "I've been through the grind before."

Miracle manager Kevin Boles said he enjoyed watching the two pitchers perform and had high praise for both of them. He added that both young men made the right decisions in high school regarding their futures. After all, they met on the same stage Monday.

"His experience may be different," Boles said of Miller. "But he's seen the pro lifestyle. He knows what he has to do. Miller is very impressive.

"Waldrop pitched great. He did outstanding. It was a well-played game by both sides."