Cleveland Indians: The New Bullpen Plan with Andrew Miller

Cleveland Indians pitcher Andrew Miller has given the team a dominant relief pitcher to come in and hold leads.

The Cleveland Indians made an amazing deal by acquiring Andrew Miller from the New York Yankees before the trade deadline.

The Indians were in need of a dominant left-handed reliever, and Miller is that and more. In 8 2/3 innings of work in Cleveland, Miller has only allowed three hits and two earned runs, compared to 11 strikeouts.

His last two outings have been his most impressive, as he has gone two innings both times, without giving up a single hit or run in either appearance.

The lefty has pitched two complete innings in each of his last two appearances, the first being Sunday’s 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels and the second being last night’s 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

While this is still a rather small sample size, Miller have proved throughout his career that he is one of the league’s best relievers, and that this current streak is no fluke.

But the total dominance of opposing hitters is not the entire story here. The most notable aspect of his last two appearances has to do with him entering to begin the seventh inning and pitching two complete innings, setting up Cody Allen to close out the game in the ninth.

This two-inning setup work eliminates the need for the classic three relief pitcher situation most teams use, thus taking Bryan Shaw out of the equation for these last two games.

While Shaw has had his share of rough outings this season, he has not allowed a single earned run since July 18, when he surrendered four against the Kansas City Royals.

But Shaw has seen his playing time decrease with Miller in town, only playing in five games so far this month. The decrease is not any sort of punishment, but rather a well-deserved break for the reliever who can now sit back and watch Miller take care of opposing offenses with ease.

He is still ready to go when called upon, and the pressure taken off him by the arrival of Miller should only increase Shaw’s performance going forward.

Watching Miller go two innings each time he enters a game is nice, but it is going to be hard for him to maintain the low pitch count every time he pitches. That is where Shaw comes in, either in the eighth to relieve Miller, or before him in the seventh to get a few outs before a left-handed hitter comes to the plate.

This all obviously relies on the starting pitcher going a solid six innings, but that is happening more often than not with this current starting pitching staff that is finally peaking after several years of preparation.

But given the Indians can enter the seventh inning with a lead, opposing teams will have a tough time even getting on base with this current bullpen.