The National League’s Most Balanced Pitcher
by Craig Edwards
July 12, 2018
When I think about control artists, I think about pitchers who consistently hit their spots, particularly on the edges of the strike zone. These thoughts are further associated in my mind with low walk totals. So when I look at the National League leaderboard in walk percentage and see Miles Mikolas at 3.9%, I assume, he is good at painting corners. Then I look at his heat maps, and I don’t see that at all.
When he gets to two strikes, he minimizes his sinker usage, but other than that, he keeps hitters guessing and off-balance. This isn’t to say Mikolas has solved some weak-contact riddle to give him a .260 BABIP, an 8.2% HR/FB rate, and a 2.65 ERA. His FIP is still a very good 3.20, that HR/FB rate isn’t as low as it appears considering Mikolas has a healthy 12.4% infield fly-ball rate, and if he can keep walking players just 4% of the time, his 18% strikeout rate is more than acceptable. There were a lot of free agent pitchers available this past offseason, but so far the Cardinals have gotten the best one as Mikolas has carried over what made him successful in Japan.