Bill Mills - 16-7, 2.93 ERA, 4.9 WAR, 25 Quality Starts
The ace of the best rotation in baseball, RHP Bill Mills finished fifth in the AL Nebraska voting this year. Owner of some of the most gaudy peripherals in the game (2.93 ERA, 230 IP, 12 home-runs allowed, 4.9 WAR), Mills worked his way to a 16-7 record; voters understood the role that park effects might have had, but recognised the first-time All-Star as one of the league’s elite pitchers. Leaning on a 97mph cutter that makes him a bigger threat against righties, the humble 28-year old quietly got out after out as the Blazers made the playoffs. His playoff outing only last three innings: not only was that his shortest outing of the year, but also only the third time he hadn't completed 5!
Bill Mills came onto scouts’ radars at IBM Machines High School, and was originally drafted by another Canadian team, Vancouver, in the 2043 2nd round. He didn’t sign though, opting instead for three years of college ball at Apple – and although he had two electric seasons to begin his career, his final year wasn’t quite in the same league. He slipped slightly further, being picked in the 2nd supplementary round, this time by Hawaii for a signing bonus of around $1.2 million.
After a couple of years working through the system, Bill Mills joined the Blazers in a trade with Hawaii, for SS Thomas Kramer; Kramer himself had been acquired for a minor-league OF prospect the year previous, and was third infielder on the ballclub. A 2049 press release from the Tropics sums the deal up thus….
The BBA wasn’t exactly set alight in what looked like a deal consisting of a defensive backup middle-infielder for middling prospect. What happened, however, was that Kramer flourished, claiming the role as starter, winning his 2nd and 3rd Yogi Zimmer awards at SS, keeping his OPS on or above .600 and producing 10 WAR over the last four years. Hawaii had made an excellent acquisition.“ The Hawaii Tropics deal AAA SP Bill Mills to the Montreal Blazers for SS Thomas Kramer.
GM Jim Walker said, “Kramer brings us another infield glove and some leadership. The defense should help the pitching staff this season or at least that’s what we hope happens.”
…
Mills played 2048 in AA Carson City and AAA Death Valley and performed well. He was going to start the season in AAA before being called up later in the season.”
What wasn’t clear at that point was that Montreal had done the same. In 2049, however, Mills made the top #50 prospect list for the first time, and began to establish himself with two years solid years in AAA New Jersey. Mills lost a lot of games (he went 15-29 on bad teams), but threw over 300 innings and 7 complete games in his time there, averaging roughly 2 WAR each year and kept his place on the prospect list.
In 2051, at age 26, Mills joined the rotation and held his spot from Opening Day to the season’s end. He had an impressive rookie campaign, going 9-11 with a 4.35 ERA but showing some of the traits that would come to define his sophomore breakout – tough on lefties, pitched over 200 innings, stayed in games late. One little indicator of Mills future success (and how manager Bill Inkster uses his pitchers) – Mills led the league in batters faced.
The 2052 season represented on one level steady progress across the board for Mills, considering the relative success of his rookie campaign, but on the other it was a major leap forward. Mills led the league for the second year running in batters faced, first in Quality Starts, first in QS%, 2nd in ERA (2.93), HR/9 and H/9, and first in innings pitched, throwing a massive 230 IP over his 34 starts. In June, he started six games, kept his ERA under 1.5 and went 5-0 without giving up a single homer as the Blazers established themselves a playoff team.
Questions have been asked of this usage pattern – of course, the Blazers’ cavernous pitcher-friendly park plays into it, but can Mills continue to throw this often with this level of success. For the meantime, though, Montreal fans can enjoy watching that cut fastball nip into the hands of left-handed batters, pitch after pitch after pitch, deep into those long summer nights.
