What’s ailing Shelby? Three issues for Miller to work through

What’s wrong with Shelby Miller? It’s the question of the moment in Arizona, as Miller has struggled so badly (an 8.59 ERA and just 11 batters retired in his past two outings) that his short starts have led to an overworked bullpen and caused the team to even consider having him skip a start in order to work out his issues.

Needless to say, it’s not exactly what the D-backs were expecting when they sent a huge talent package to Atlanta — rightfully ignoring Miller’s 6-17 record on a 95-loss Braves team in favor of a 3.02 ERA better than that of Chris Sale or Johnny Cueto — in what was last offseason’s most controversial move. Instead, he’ll face his old St. Louis mates on Tuesday night in Phoenix with a lot to prove, and possibly with his spot in the rotation on the line. Will the hard work he’s put in between starts pay off?

The good news: There are three easily identifiable issues. The bad news: If it were as easy as simply snapping your fingers, surely Miller would have already done so.

1. His mechanics are off We start here because it’s the obvious concern, given the fact that scraping his hand on the mound has been an issue in each of Miller’s past two starts. But while any injury Miller may have incurred from the bruising can’t be discounted, it hardly seems like the whole issue, either, since he told MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert that his issues were “more about poor mechanics” than anything.

That makes sense, because the data backs it up. After years of hitting the strike zone 53-54 percent of the time, Miller is doing so just 46 percent of the time this year. Just look at Miller’s horizontal release point of his fastball last year as compared to this:

The definition of horizontal release point has to do with the left/right location of the pitcher’s release point, but the specifics are less important …

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