San Diego Padres

MadFriars' Feature: Catcher Ryan Miller

Published Sep. 4, 2015 1:50 p.m. ET

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LAKE ELSINORE -- The life of a minor league catcher is tough. After a night of catching pitchers who aren't exactly sure where everything is going, you get to wake up for an hour-long gym workout in the morning.

This might be followed by some intense stretching or maybe some yoga for flexibility, and grabbing some lunch at the park. Then, it's off to the field to catch multiple bullpens. If you are lucky, the organization's roving catching instructor is in town and you'll spend a half hour doing pitch-blocking drills - which usually involve the instructor either throwing or hitting the ball in the dirt from about thirty feet. Next up is batting practice, and then it's time to catch nine more innings. Often, this is in wonderful climates where game time temperatures hover around 90 degrees or more.

Ryan Miller, the Lake Elsinore Storm's catcher for most of the year, wouldn't have it any other way.

"I love it," said Miller, 22, out of Hemet which is just east of the Diamond, where the Storm play their home games. "The best thing about catching is that you control so much of the game and you are in on every play."

Taken by the Padres in the 14th round of the 2013 draft out of San Bernardino Community College, the six-foot-three, 215 pound catcher was a "projection" pick based on what scouts thought he had the potential to become; as opposed to where he was in his development at the time.

Miller was always a good athlete, earning Junior College All-American honors even though he was relatively new to catching, a position he only started to play in high school.

"Our regular catcher quit my senior year," Miller said on how he began behind the plate. "Until that time I was mainly a pitcher, but I had done it a little bit in the past. I volunteered to take over and really got into it."

The Padres liked the athleticism and the hit tool but, as Randy Smith, who was then the team's Director of Player Development said after his first year in short-season Eugene, "We like what we see, he's a good player but right now he's kind of a raw piece of clay."

The following season in Fort Wayne is when Miller began to attract attention, finishing second on the team in home runs with 12 and making some big strides defensively behind the plate. This year in Lake Elsinore, despite having some early back issues that cost him six weeks, he hit .261 with 27 extra-base hits in 69 games.

But his biggest strides, according to Storm manager Michael Collins, who spent 10 years in the minor leagues as a catcher and has managed Miller for two straight years, has been behind the plate.

"He has really been focusing on the mental part of the game and on working with the pitchers," Collins said. "He has really focused on that since the beginning of spring training. It is still a learning process, but he is developing."

The biggest difference Miller can see in his game is one of the toughest for a fan to know; how he receives the ball with strong enough glove work to help his pitchers get strikes.

"When I first started I was just was not used to the velocity and movement pitchers at this level have," Miller said on his early struggles.

"I was constantly jamming my thumb and not only not getting strikes, but giving away a lot of ones that should have been. The key is you don't want your glove to carry you away from the zone, you want to stick it."

The other area where Collins has seen improvement is the ability to call a game. Miller has to know what all the pitchers throw and feel comfortable with and when they want to throw a certain pitch.

"So much of it is about communication and the relationships that you build on and off the field. I've even picked up some decent Spanish," laughed Miller.

The double-edged sword about catching is that, regardless of how much catchers talk about their first duty is defense and the organization preaches a defense-first philosophy, they also have to hit.

Miller has described his swing as the "ugliest" in the organization, but has shown some ability and regardless of the aesthetics, has gotten the job done. However, he is very well aware that he will have to make changes to succeed at the next levels.

"I've been working in batting practice at standing up taller with a little leg kick and more balance. I'm trying to use my whole body instead of just my hands."

Storm hitting coach Xavier Nady, a former member of the Lake Elsinore Storm and San Diego Padres in his playing days, likes the potential of Miller but has been working with him to refine his approach.

"He has some power in there; it's just a case of finding the consistency that he will stick with even through bad times."

"The key with guys at this level is finding a stance and a routine to get ready for the game and sticking with it, that is how you repeat what you do well. For too many of them, unless they are going great for a week or a month many players always want to alter something and that isn't always the solution."

Miller was recently promoted to Double-A San Antonio where he will finish the season and most likely start next year. His athleticism and ability to use coaching to improve is what makes him someone to watch in 2016.

You can follow all of the action in the Padres' minor league system @madfriars on Twitter

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