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The 6’7” Texan earned his first career Major League Baseball win on Sunday, in the Braves’ 4-0 win over Cincinnati.
The Braves 5th-ranked prospect threw five innings of one-hit ball while striking out nine & only issuing two free passes. His 250-pound southpaw was touching 95 mph on the gun in Sunday afternoon in Ohio.
The other pitches he used were (in order of percentage thrown): a slider, curveball, sinker, & changeup. The velocity range from his fastball to his changeup was 5.7 mph, a very effective change of pace on what looks like the same pitch out of his hand. It’s slow enough to miss barrels & fast enough to not be easily recognizable en route to the plate. Even though he only threw his changeup twice, it was an effective show-me pitch.
What really is something to keep an eye on moving forward is his sinker. His sinker averages less than one mph difference in relation to his fastball. An effective sinker that he can continue to develop can preserve a pitcher’s arm like no other. The best sinkers do one of two things: 1) it’s a wipeout pitch, unhittable; or 2) it’s a ground ball machine, enabling pitchers to log outs while keeping pitch counts down.
In one of MLB’s best farm systems, Muller’s the number five prospect. You don’t climb that list by luck or good fortune. You’re ranked in the top five based on past success, tools that are translatable to the higher levels of professional baseball, as well as room to develop. If Sunday was any indication of where he currently is, as a rookie-type, he has the ability to grow into front end of the rotation talent for years to come.
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