Shelby Miller fell to 4-8 while laboring through his shortest outing of the season. He allowed three runs and four walks with four strikeouts in 2.1 innings of work.

kind of worried about shelby, even though he is young and working on his 2ndary stuff in AAA I just have a bad feeling of him flopping.

What do you do with Craig? When Beltran is done I'm assuming Tavares will slide into his spot in the outfield plus a veteran in case he struggles a bit.

I really like Adams but I don't see where he fits into the future with all these prospects. I do agree that it is a good problem to have but if you can use that position of strength to get a difference maker then you do it.

I think Adams will be traded. Craig at 1B. Beltran is a free agent after 2013. Tavares in AAA in 2013 and hopefully RF in 2014 if all goes well.

you could hope that OT sticks in CF and stick craig in RF ( i think he profiles better as a RF anyway) and then try adams at 1st base. Trade Jay or use him as very playable 4th outfielder. If adams dosen't work out then put craig at 1st and jay back in CF. I would rather use the 1st scenario though.

No way Taveras stays in CF. He hasn't even fully grown into his body and he's already out grown the position.

I think Craig's best position is probably actually 1B. His biggest weakness is his arm, and no position other than DH needs less arm strength.

His time spent playing 3B makes him fairly good at fielding grounders.

I cringe every time I see Craig in the outfield. He isn't running at full strength this year and I would rather see him stay at 1B to avoid injuries in the future.

This is not a disrespect to Adams. I think he is going to be a good player eventually but I just don't see where he fits in the future unless you move someone to an unnatural position.

i thought craig looked fine in the outfield last season and even passable the few games he played Centerfield

Obviously, the knee and hamstring is limiting him this season as he looks very tight and pained while running and is very limited in his ability to run and cover ground this season, but if he recovers in the offseason, i wouldnt mind seeing him in the outfield again next season IF hes fully healthy

While I agree he could play the outfield when fully healthy I would just rather keep him at 1B to minimize future injury possibilities.

Either way, the situation we are in is a great one to have. I'm glad the emphasis has been put on amateur talent so we can continue to sign great players but surround them with up-and-coming players.

I've read that a lot of people think that Shelby is just "bored" with AAA. I don't particularly understand that statement, but they felt like it would almost be better to call him up and let him pitch there (probably out of the bullpen) instead of letting him get beat up at AAA.

I've actually seen a lot of posts from people on other boards who want to give up on Miller already. The kid is only 21 years old and this is really his first bump in the road since being drafted.

Yeah that's a great point. To put it in perspective, he is the same age as our first round pick this year (Michael Wacha). In fact they took a recruiting trip together and would have been teammates at Texas A&M if we had not signed Shelby out of high school.

Let him work through his issues this year and then if the same problems persist then you go from there. I'm not giving up on someone with that much talent over a half year of bad starts. Also, Adam Wainwright struggled when he first got called up to AAA and I think he turned out well.

"Wong pretty much only hits singles..
my only beef also"

I looked at his stats, he has 7 home runs, 4 triples and 10 doubles with 94 hits total, so a little over 22 percent of his hits are for extra bases. I wouldn't call him a singles only hitter.

its not bad, but in a very hitter friendly league/ park.

it's nothing to worry about, more just nit picking one of the only little downsides so far in his pro career

I'm not completly giving up on miller but i am worried for sure.

yes he is 21 and in AAA having a lot of success before, but his velocity is down, his secondary stuff is not very good because he hasn't worked on it and used it much in game. His command is iffy this year (probably due to secondary pitches), he isn't being efficient, he is much more hittable and his FB is getting smoked for a bunch of HR's.

hopefully working A LOT on his off speed stuff, getting in better pitching condition to go deeper into games and gain a little velocity back, and better command will get him back to where he was.

@RobRains: Another good start for Shelby Miller tonight for Memphis: 7 ings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 0 bb, 8 k's. Streak without a walk now at 24 ings.

Looks like Miller has figured out AAA.

September call up here we come!

EDIT - he also had 8 strike outs.

I guess the reported attitude issues don't matter so much when he is actually getting guys out?