Article: Justin Miller, Inked and Erratic Blue Jays Pitcher

[Mac]

The pitcher's body was a canvas for tattoos, but his inability to paint the corners hampered his Blue Jays' career.

Billy Koch was trying to crack the Blue Jays roster in 2005 when he looked at his new, tattoo-covered teammate and asked what was pressing on his mind.

How much money would it take to have “I Love Billy Koch” tattooed on your ass?

$1,000 later (with an extra $500 for Miller’s wife to sign off, plus $80 for the tat), and Miller added to his collection of ink. Whatever the context, it's somewhat symbolic that Koch was immortalized on Justin Miller’s body. Miller’s tattoos were so numerous that he said it was easier just to call it one giant tattoo, and his climb to the major leagues culminated when he became a Blue Jay in the trade that sent Koch to Oakland.

The money would help buy some much-needed Christmas presents in lieu of Santa gifts in the Crashmore-verse.

Once a Baseball America Top 100 prospect, Miller was called up by Toronto to fill a spot in the rotation a month into the 2002 season. Making his first big league start at Angel Stadium, Miller exhibited control problems and had the first of what Geoff Baker of the Toronto Star would later call the pitcher’s "hair-pulling, chaos-plagued first innings.” He walked the first three batters he faced, and while he allowed just one run, he needed 36 pitches to get out of the first inning. Miller would only make it into the fourth inning of an eventual Jays loss.

He would get another chance at the Angels in his next start. The Jays had lost nine in a row and trailed 1-0 early when a leadoff walk came around to score. Working off his two-seam fastball, Miller settled in to throw one of his finest starts of the year. He allowed only four hits across seven innings and recorded a staggering 14 groundball outs. Behind Miller’s performance, Toronto snapped their skid with a 4-1 win.

A costly walk derailed his next start in Oakland, but it wasn’t the result of Miller’s control. Down 2-0 in the third with two runners on, Miller readied on the mound for a full-count pitch to A’s hitter Jeremy Giambi. Before the pitch could be thrown, Giambi was awarded first base as umpire Gary Cederstrom called ball four when Miller brought his hand to his mouth before the pitcher came set. The Jays were upset at the sans-warning ump show, and they would be even more upset after the next batter, Eric Chavez, made it 6-0 A’s with one swing of the bat.

Miller would settle into the Jays rotation and continued to show, in moments, that he had the stuff to be a big league starter. Miller struck out six Devil Rays over seven innings in a 3-1 Toronto win on June 4. It was impressive that Miller did it on 97 pitches, 60 of which were strikes. Entering his start on June 14 in Montreal, Miller had allowed only nine hits over his previous three games, but his issues with pitch command were apparent early that night. Miller walked in a run in the first and was taken out in the fifth, having issued six walks on the night in an 8-2 Expos win.

Pictured: Justin Miller; not an inmate intake photo from San (Carlos) Quentin.

Things got worse for Miller in his next start. Miller could not complete the first inning in front of friends and family at Dodger Stadium. He gave up a three-run blast to ex-Blue Jay Shawn Green and was taken out after opposing pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii hit an RBI single to complete a Dodger bat-around. All five runs in the 5-2 loss were charged to Miller, who was sent back to the bullpen after the start and a week later, to Triple-A Syracuse.

Miller pitched well in Triple-A (3-1, 2.32 ERA in six starts) and returned in August. He had a run of strong starts when he was placed back in the rotation. He pitched seven innings in victorious starts over the Yankees and Red Sox, and Miller finished the year with a 9-5 record. Even with the Jays adding Cory Lidle and Tanyon Sturtze to the mix in the offseason, Miller was expected to log innings in the rotation in 2003.

In preparation for the upcoming season, Miller added something new to his offseason workouts: weightlifting. The aim for gains turned out to be costly when he suffered a shoulder injury during a lift prior to spring training. The injury kept Miller in Dunedin when the Blue Jays broke north for Opening Day, and the extra rehab did not help Miller get back on the mound. Finally, after contemplating recovery options, the pitcher underwent surgery at the end of May, ending his season.

The following spring, Miller was forced to adopt a different look on the mound. MLB umpire czar Jim McKean told Miller prior to the start of the season that another team had complained about his arm tattoos being a distraction and that Miller would need to wear long sleeves on days he pitched. At least Fanatics had not taken over manufacturing the uniforms, or McKean would have had a much worse problem in a few years.

Miller was not even the first major league reliever to have a teammate’s name tattooed on his derriere in the 2000s; unsurprisingly, the first was Rob Dibble (with Ichiro).

Miller didn’t pitch much in spring and was sent to Triple-A to start the season. In Syracuse, Miller made the most out of his situation, going 1-1 with a 2.16 ERA in three starts. Most impressively, he struck out 21 batters while only walking four. With fifth starter Josh Towers pitching like peak Josh Towers, Miller was called up to take his place in the Blue Jays' rotation on April 25.

It would take Miller three starts to earn his first major league win in 18 months. In a 5-2 win over the White Sox, Miller struck out seven over seven innings. However, his season was put on hold in June while he battled through a hamstring injury, and when he was healthy, Miller continued to struggle with his command. High pitch counts and added baserunners were not allowing Miller to work deep into games. Entering a September 8 start against the Angels, Miller had failed to reach the sixth inning in any of his five starts since returning from the injury.

With a second chance to make an impression in front of family and friends in SoCal, Miller delivered the start of his career. He threw eight innings of shutout baseball and managed to hold the Angels, batting .288 as a team entering the game, to only two singles. The Blue Jays scored on a Carlos Delgado RBI double in the first and rode Miller's performance to a 1-0 win in front of 36,905 at Angel Stadium. Unfortunately, the high attendance at seeing the pennant-contending Angels meant Miller was limited to only six tickets to give away to watch his dominating start.

That was pretty much the end of the line for Miller in Toronto. In his next start against Baltimore, Miller got Brian Roberts out twice - but only one other Oriole out. His five-run outing was his second last start before he was sent to the bullpen for the rest of the year. It was in the bullpen the following spring when Miller and Koch met, dared, and competed for one of the final roster spots, but neither would make the team. Miller went down to Triple-A, and Koch stayed in Florida to heckle the Blue Jays. Miller was called back in July and gave up three home runs in his lone relief appearance of the season against Texas before he was designated for assignment.

Miller spent his next two seasons with the Marlins, where he became a reliable bullpen arm in the National League. It was with Florida where teammate Scott Olsen asked him to get a tattoo of Olsen's DUI mugshot on his other cheek: that one was vetoed by Miller’s wife. He would finish out his major league career back home in California. Miller had his best year in 2009 with the Giants (3.18 ERA in 44 appearances) and finished his career with 19 games for the Dodgers the following season. Miller died in 2013 at the age of 35.

Mr. Marlin said it would take $100,000 to join the butt tattoo club. That's his quote.

No cause of death seems to have ever been determined. That leaves Rob Dibble, the last known surviving member of a group I am not sure I needed to know existed. Colourful by one definition but friendly and reserved by all others, today we remember Justin Miller as a Blue Jay,

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