Andrew Miller told grip it and rip it

The Marlins are going to try a new strategy with Andrew Miller's pitching style.

The problem, manager Fredi Gonzalez said, is that Miller is compensating his velocity by trying to be careful to throw more strikes.

Miller's fastball was in the mid- to upper-90s March 28 when he allowed two runs in five innings against the Yankees in his final exhibition.

But it topped out at 89 mph on Monday when he allowed six runs in 31/3 innings in Washington. And it didn't hit 90 on April 3, when he allowed five runs in 41/3 innings.

"Against the Yankees, it was 92, 95, 97, and we haven't seen (that since). Not even close,'' Gonzalez said Wednesday.

"I don't want him to take away from his velocity to try to throw strikes. You want to see the zip, you want to see the life that (hitters) were missing.''

Depending on which version of this story you read it will have different gun numbers.  This could be because there are two guns at the new Nationals' stadium and they record pretty incongruent results.

Normally the idea of just chuck it wouldn't appeal to me with a pitcher who has a history of control problems, but given nothing else has worked so far this season: why not?  It can't be any worse.