Texas Heat Times Two: Nolan Ryan Checks Out Brownwood Senior Right-Hander Shelby Miller

Brownwood RHP Shelby Miller takes two playoff shutouts into Saturday's Region II-3A semifinal against West.

BROWNWOOD, Texas - Shelby Miller got used to all the radar guns staring back at him from behind home plate late last year as a hard-throwing junior right-hander. When he first took the mound for the Brownwood Lions this spring, more than 40 major league scouts were aimed at him out on the mound like paparazzi. And that was for a scrimmage.

But when Miller and the Lions faced Seminole High last week in the area round of the Class 3A playoffs in Abilene, one visitor caused a particular stir without any extracurricular equipment. Though he tried to go incognito in a baseball cap, khaki shirt, blue jeans and boots.

“As incognito as Nolan Ryan can,” said Mitch Miller, Shelby’s father.

“I guess he was scouting me,” Shelby said. “I didn’t know he was there until my coach told me right before the game.”

That’ll happen when you’re a 6-4, 206 with a fastball that hits the high 90s. And it might happen again in Mineral Wells on Saturday afternoon, when Miller is scheduled to pitch against West High in the one-game Region II semifinal.

A couple of major league general managers have traveled to the “Big Country” to catch Miller’s performances this season, and his father said the scouting director for the Braves (picking seventh) has seen him pitch three times. According to Dad, Ryan is the only team president. Just a coincidence that Mitch grew up an Astros fan about 60 miles west of Houston and reveled when getting the opportunity to watch Ryan pitch.

Shelby doesn’t profess to have a favorite club. (Dad notes he has a Rangers team on his Xbox360.) He does have a baseball scholarship to Texas A&M. It’s debatable whether he’ll be available when the Rangers step forward with the 14^th pick in the June 9 draft.

Miller is considered one of the top right-handed high school pitchers available. The state also boasts one of the top lefties coming out of high school, Klein’s Matt Purke. “It’s hard to tell when and where I’ll be picked,” Miller said. “Whatever team drafts me, it’s going to be a blessing.”

Miller’s record is 9-1 with a 1.70 ERA, 129 strikeouts and 31 walks in 66 innings, and he has pitched two four-hit shutouts in the playoffs. In the win over Seminole, he struck out 14 and walked one – with two out in the seventh and final inning. Last weekend in the regional quarterfinals, he struck out nine and walked two in a win over Lubbock Cooper. He hit 96 mph, and coach Scotty Nichols mentioned Miller was focused on keeping the ball down for ground balls. The regional semifinal is being played in one game instead of best-of-three and on Saturday because both schools had graduation on Friday night. And because Nichols wanted just one game, with Miller on the mound, to determine if the Lions (17-9) will reach a region final for the first time since 1990.

Mitch Miller said Ryan didn’t talk to Shelby or his family after last week’s game against Seminole. But dozens of big-league representatives have dropped in this season at the Miller home, located just a few blocks from the high school campus.

The draft for so long seemed like something far off in the distance. Now it’s a week and a half away, and Shelby and his folks will have a decision to make.

“It’s kind of unbelievable that it’s your son doing it,” said Mitch, a member of Brownwood’s fire department. “We’ve mostly left it up to him. If it’s there and he wants to do it and it’s worth skipping college right now, then I think that’s what he’ll do.”

The family is being advised by Gavin Wright and Peter Vescovo from Select Sports Group in Houston. Wright was Miller’s summer league coach last year with a team called the Austin Slam. (Since December 2004, Select Sports Group has been affiliated with the Sanders Morris Harris Group of Houston. As in Don Sanders. As in Ryan Sanders Baseball. As in Nolan Ryan.)

Brownwood senior first baseman Parker Taylor has been Miller’s teammate since youth baseball days and has an opinion on what his longtime pal should do.

“I would tell him to just go to the pros ’cause you’re going to have enough money, if you get hurt you can go back to college,” said Taylor, who is headed to Arkansas-Pine Bluff on a football scholarship. “But he doesn’t need my advice.”

Taylor also said he doesn’t need those fancy radar guns to tell the speed of Miller’s fastball.

“I can tell how fast it is because I’ve been there for so long. It’s so much faster the last two years,” he said. “Ever since we were little, he’s been able to throw the ball faster than every other kid.

“But he still can’t strike me out.”

Miller has a 12-to-6 curveball that usually reaches the mid-70s. This season, he said he has tried to work on his mechanics and, at the suggestion of scouts, his change-up. He said he had control problems early this season, in part because of the scouts, at least a dozen of them at every game. “Now, I don’t even notice them,” he said.

Miller is one of only three seniors on this year’s Lions team, which dropped down from 4A in the most recent UIL realignment. Brownwood’s other two starting pitchers are sophomores in their first year of varsity play. After a rough start in non-district play, the Lions went unbeaten in District 2-3A and have won 15 straight.

Brownwood doesn’t have a fall ball program. Miller played football last fall as a senior and was named all-district receiver and all-state punter (averaging 41.3 yards). With that arm, a pass out of punt formation could be a post pattern.

Remember all that fuss a month so ago about Patrick Schuster, the high school pitcher in Florida who threw four straight no-hitters? Miller wasn’t too far from doing that as a junior, when Brownwood was in 4A. He threw three straight (the third was a perfect game) after pitching a one-hitter.

“Gave up a homer to the No. 9 man,” Miller said, shaking his head in disgust. “I think I threw a change-up, and he kind of got a hold of it.”