Remember last season when it would seem like Brooklyn Cyclones starting pitchers would turn in dominant outings every night? With Gabriel Yona, Rainy Lara, Hansel Robles, and Luis Mateo in the starting staff, it was almost expected that they would shut down opposing teams lineups.  While this year’s Brooklyn staff isn’t quite as impressive, they do have one pitcher that is worthy of your attention and is this week’s MMN pitcher of the week.

I’m talking about 21 year old right hander, Miller Diaz. In his first start last week against the Lowell Spinners, Diaz threw five shutout innings and struck out eight, but he earned the no decision.  In his following start on Saturday, Diaz had another brilliant performance against the Connecticut Tigers. Diaz yielded only one run and two hits through six innings, and picked up the win. Overall, Diaz pitched eleven innings, allowed only one run and stuck out fifteen batters.

With his mid-nineties fastball, and his two outstanding starts last week, Diaz is definitely a pitcher in the low minors to keep an eye on. Diaz has a very long road ahead of him before he gets on the major league radar, but he is a prospect that has a lot of potential.

Thoughts from Matt M.

This honor is well deserved for Diaz, as Vinny B. outlined the reasons above. He’s been in the organization since 2009, making his debut in American back in 2011. The right-hander has been used mostly as a starter in his time with the Mets, but hasn’t thrown more than 48.1 innings in a season, which he did in 2010 with the DSL Mets. At 25.1 innings this season, he’ll likely have a new career high in workload by this time next month. I’ll be interested to see how he progresses into this new threshold.