Now that rumors about the St. Louis Cardinals being open to trades involving Shelby Miller have hit the internet, any hope of following his trying year in AAA Memphis without overreacting to every start has vanished. So since we're stuck overreacting, Shelby Miller is all better! He threw five scoreless innings in Saturday night's Redbirds win.
↵It's the third time in his last 10 starts that he's finished a game with an ERA under seven, so I can't blame people for being psyched about it, but the fundamentals aren't quite perfect; he struck out four but walked three. Still: He's allowed 91 hits in 82 innings despite striking out 94 over that same period, so he's been due a little BAbip luck for a while.
↵Another solid start or two would make Miller easier to trade, but it might also remind Cardinals fans currently on the fence that they're thinking about dumping their top prospect entirely because of 18 bad starts in the Pacific Coast League at 21 years old. (Shelby Miller is almost a year younger than 2012 first-rounder James Ramsey.)
↵As for me, I'm glad the Cardinals are keeping every option open, but I don't think there's a trade involving Miller that makes sense for their current roster deficiencies; certainly I wouldn't want them to trade him for a reliever, even Huston Street.
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