Cardinals to Promote Shelby Miller

The St. Louis Cardinals are expected to promote top pitching prospect Shelby Miller later today, reports Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Motivated by a mounting need for arms as well as a young pitcher's metamorphosis, the Cardinals will include top pitching prospect Shelby Miller among those it promotes from Class AAA Memphis this week.

Rated the No. 8 prospect in baseball by Baseball America at the beginning of the season, Miller struggled the first several months of the year. Owner of a 6.14 ERA in seventeen starts through the middle of July, Miller dropped all the way to No. 20 on the mid-season prospect list.

The young left-hander has begun to turn things around of late, however. Miller has posted a 2.88 ERA in his last ten starts, striking out seventy and walking just seven in fifty-nine and a third innings. Twice named the PCL's pitcher of the week in the month of August, the Cardinals hope that Miller can carry his recent success into the St. Louis bullpen.

The Cardinals are likely to give Miller innings in mop-up relief situations to ease his way into the big leagues and have no plans of giving the left-hander a start this season. Overall, Miller owns a 4.74 ERA and 10.5 K/9 in twenty-seven starts on the year.